Mirror Mi Dolls by MGA Entertainment

With all of the big summer releases that I mentioned in my last review, I wasn't sure which ones to buy first, and then which ones to review first!  I guess I'm most excited about the KPop Demon Hunters dolls. I've been waiting for those like a predator ever since I saw the movie.  And I've pre-ordered everything associated with that franchise.  But I preordered a lot of other new releases, too.  And, as it happened, the Mirror Mi girls showed up on my doorstep first.

Even then, I was hesitant to review this brand right away.  The Mirror Mi doll who I'm the most excited about is Suki Goldpetal, and I haven't been able to get my hands on her yet.  She's a Walmart exclusive and has been slower to roll out than the other characters.  It feels competitive to buy Suki right now, but I know that feeling won't last.  MGA doesn't tend to limit their dolls, so for collectors, a little patience goes a long way.

As a reviewer, I don't have time to be patient.  There are so many new and exciting dolls that I want to look at this summer!  My schedule is full and I can't afford to wait around for one elusive character.  So, I decided to forge ahead with a review of the Mirror Mi dolls that I have right now.  One of whom, as you might have predicted, is the spicy redheaded rocker, Blaze Maxx:

Mirror Mi Blaze Maxx by MGA Entertainment, $29.99.

Before I talk about Blaze, I'll briefly introduce the other characters for anyone who isn't aware of this brand.

The Mirror Mi concept is not unlike Rainbow High.  All of the characters go to a music school, and they all have a dominant color in their appearance.  The difference is that the Mirror Mi characters are meant to represent different emotions, not different colors.  It's only by coincidence, I guess, that they each have such a strong color palette.

First up is Luna Skye, who is the dreamy character.  Or the purple character:

I like the designs on her skin, especially the cloud shapes on her face.  They're reminiscent of vitiligo and look lovely.

There's also a cat character, Akiko Kittyama, who represents the cozy trait.  She's very pink and fuzzy:

The other two main release dolls (Blaze Maxx and Amora Valentina) are the ones I'm reviewing today.

In addition to the four primary dolls, there are two exclusives that are only available at Walmart and Target.

Shai Meadows is the "sheepish" character, with a lemon yellow color palette:

Sheepish is a strange personality trait to highlight, but I suppose it was chosen for its design possibilities.  I love this doll's freckles and her record player!  Her hair looks hard to manage, though.  She reminds me of an Enchantimal:

The other exclusive is Suki Goldpetal, who represents a fragile personality:

She has a blue color palette and an outfit designed to look like a china plate.  She reminds me of the China Girl doll I reviewed way back in 2013:

Suki almost feels like she's from a completely different line.  The creativity in her design is excellent, with headphones that look like little teacups, ultra-pale skin, and even some little gold cracks in her leg.

I think the teacups are even removable, so they can blast music and hold a hot drink.  That's not something you see every day.  To my eye, Suki's design is much more original and clever than many of the other dolls.  And I love her hair and outfit.

Maybe someday I'll get Suki.  We'll see.  For today, I'm excited to unbox Blaze and Amora to get a sense for this brand and see if the other characters are worth tracking down.

Blaze comes in a large plastic window box with a cardboard back:

Mirror Mi Blaze Maxx, $29.99.

She costs about $30 and can be found at Amazon or the MGA shop.  I haven't seen her on the shelves of Target or other stores yet.

The $30 price tag is high.  I'm much more comfortable with play dolls in the $20 range.  Buying the entire Mirror Mi collection would cost the better part of $200, so for me that option was unavailable.  However, the newest Rainbow High dolls cost $28 and the Moonspell Magic Monster High dolls are $27, so I guess this is the price range we're in these days.

The upper left hand corner of the box has a cardboard section with a graphic interpretation of Blaze that's appealing:

She's got some attitude!

This is another case of the box art looking better than the actual doll:

Oh dear.

I mean, the box art is really nice, so that's not necessarily a huge criticism.  However, Blaze's head is smaller than I expected, her bangs are really stiff, her inset eyes are squinty, and she has a lopsided smile that looks off.

Blaze comes with some random accessories, which might make more sense to those who watch the YouTube show.  I couldn't find the YouTube show, so I haven't watched it:

She has a boxing glove purse, sunglasses, and what looks look an udon or ramen bowl with some chopsticks.

The box has an irregular shape, with an indent on each side and clear edges:

The back of the box has a large picture of Blaze and a bit of information about her:

At the top, it says feelings change and auras shift but with friendship that totally gets you, you can shine in every mood!

Can you have "friendship that totally gets you?"  I would have said "friends that totally get you" or "a friend group that totally gets you," But that's just me.

Blaze represents the "electric" emotion:

Her nickname is apparently "Xtra Electric." That is the longest nickname I've ever seen.  Why not something short like Volt or Zap?  But I'll be a good sport and try to use Xtra Electric as a nickname.  

Xtra Electric's aura is "fired up" and she likes rockin' guitar riffs and extra spicy everything.  Her favorite lyric is yeah I turn it up, this is how I show up.  I don't feel like I know Xtra Electric very well from this description.  And from what I do know, I'm not sure I'd like her very much.

What I do like is the small watercolor-esque drawing of the other five dolls at the bottom of the box.  It's beautiful:

I think Luna and Amora look especially pretty in this picture.

The plastic front of the box can be removed by cutting the plastic tabs and tape that surround all four sides:

This reveals Xtra Electric, mounted against a huge plastic flame-shaped base.

The base is thick and opaque and sticks out several inches around Xtra Electric:

I find the base incredibly depressing.  Sure, it looks flashy.  And yes, I know that many dolls (especially MGA dolls...) are mounted on plastic pieces like this.  But those pieces are usually utilitarian and small.  This is a huge, ostentatious plastic base that celebrates plastic bases.

I feel like nobody is even trying to make sustainable packaging.  It makes me so sad.

All of this is waste:

Is one doll worth all of that garbage?

If the doll is really good, she shouldn't need showy packaging.  And the showy packaging is a pain in the neck to deal with, regardless of how you feel about the planet.

Maybe the doll isn't good, though, and the packaging is compensation.  Let's find out.

Here's everything that was in the box:

Xtra Electric doesn't come with a stand, and she doesn't really need one.  That said, she's a little hard to balance--especially for a doll with such large, clunky shoes.  I expected her to stand like a rock.

And Xtra Electric has...okay, stop.  Maybe at this point we can all agree that Xtra Electric is a bad nickname?  Like, if her full name was Xtra Electric I might call her Blaze for short and that would make some sense.  So let's stick with Blaze.

Blaze's boxing glove purse is a cute idea, but it doesn't work for me in reality.  The only indication that it's supposed to be a purse is the chain-like black strap on one end:

The thumb section is a separate piece of vinyl, so it look stuck on like an afterthought:

Or a red potato.

And the purse doesn't open, which is always a huge bummer in my book.

The sunglasses are more useful, and have a jagged lightning or flame-like shape around the rims:

I love that the lenses are transparent, but these glasses have a defect in the top section of the left lens.

The ramen bowl is the most unique of the accessories, and it comes with a red spoon and a matching pair of chopsticks:

The food inside the bowl is stylized, but it looks like a bunch of noodles, two sliced eggs, and two...?

Chicken chashu, maybe?

I'm not sure what that second type of food is, but I'm guessing it's something spicy, based on Blaze's personality.

The shape of the bowl is fun, with ringed ridges all around:

Blaze's last accessory is her red guitar, which comes attached to her in several different places:

Blaze comes packaged to look like she's playing the guitar, but the position looks uncomfortable.  Her left hand is tied to the headstock so her fingers aren't touching the strings at all.  Her right hand is sticking out to the side doing nothing:

Awk-ward.

Her whole chest area is very cluttered and hard to process.

Here she is from the side, where her short torso and long legs are particularly noticeable:

From the back, you can see how long and bright her hair is:

The hair came out of the box looking messy, but I could already tell that the fiber is a lovely high-quality nylon.  Thank you, MGA.

I removed the bands from around Blaze's guitar hand and was surprised to see how long her fingernails are!  It'd be hard to play the guitar with nails like that:

Unless she uses them like picks??

The guitar has a vinyl strap, and this came stitched with thread to Blaze's shirt:

I snipped the thread and freed the guitar.  It's made out of hard plastic and has molded strings and an orange painted flame design in two areas: 

The back side is blank:

Without the guitar in the way, I was able to relax Blaze's arms and get a better look at her:

She has inset side-glancing eyes, which is impressive.  In fact, I can't think of another doll with inset eyes that are side-glancing.  It's certainly rare:

Her outfit is funny, though.  The pleather bubble skirt is really puffy.  The bottom part is actually stuffed with Poly-fil or something.  This voluminous style doesn't work very well with such a short torso.  Also, Blaze has to hold her arms out to the side or they get in the way of the skirt:

I ran a brush through Blaze's hair, which helped tame some of the scraggly parts:

The hair feels amazing.  It's wonderfully silky and smooth, much like Rainbow High hair:

I don't really like the front part of the hair, though.  The bangs are stiff and hard and are cut so that they angle down into a point over Blaze's nose:

She also has two shorter strands of hair on either side of her face, and these come with lots of styling gel in them.

I tried to pry the bangs up so that I could get a good look at Blaze's whole face.  It wasn't easy:

Her eyebrows are made up of a series of about five parallel lines that bend upwards towards the middle into a worried or questioning expression:

She has long, exaggerated applied eyelashes that curl up to the level of her eyebrows.  The lashes frame inset eyes that are a combination of red, brown, and maybe a touch of purple (?), with a small flame low down on one side:

There are only three small painted lower lashes, and a hint of beige eye shadow.

Blaze has a small mouth with full lips and a tiny glimpse of exposed teeth.  Her mouth looks like it's molded into a neutral, pouty expression, but the edges have been painted to make it seem like she's smiling:

Make up your mind, Xtra Electric.

This expression doesn't look natural to me.  And there's some missing paint on the lower lip.  Also, you might notice that the shine on her lips looks a lot like fangs in some pictures.

I was able to get the stiff bangs to go back down over Blaze's forehead, but they're not crisp and even anymore...nor are they deep.  I actually like this softer look better.  And I like being able to see the eyebrows clearly:

I'm still confused about her expression, though.  Is she smiling?  Worried?  Grimacing?  Electrocuted??

Let's forget about her expression and take a closer look at those outfit pieces:

On the top, she's wearing a choker necklace and a green and red striped knit crop top.  The top has an embroidered safety pin and chain design on the front.

Merry steampunk Christmas.

Underneath she has the pleather bubble skirt, which is maroon at the top and fades into black at the bottom.  It's decorated with two draped black metal chains and has pockets on each side:

Everything closes in back with velcro:

I find it hard to wrap my head around this outfit.  Here's a look at the whole thing in partial profile:

Nothing goes with anything else.

That pose didn't last long:

Thunk.

I took off all of the pieces for closer inspection, starting with the necklace.  It has a molded flame pendant:

The red parts left marks on either side of Blaze's neck:

Maybe she has a cat?

Or she scratched herself with her own nails.

I tried taking the shirt off next, and Blaze's left hand came off with it!

Um...

Needless to say, the hands come off easily.  Perhaps too easily.  They have a nice shape, with separated fingers, but those nails are so long:

The hands are made out of soft flexible vinyl.

I finally got the shirt off.  There's not much to it.  It has long sleeves and a very short body.  The embroidered design looks incomplete--maybe because it has to fit into such a small space:

The construction is standard, with fairly neat stitching and some edges that aren't reinforced:

I had a hard time getting the skirt off over Blaze's huge shoes:

But I finally managed:

The two pockets are functional, and can hold small items...like chopsticks!

The belt loops really work, too, and I like all of the stitched detail around the waistband.

The skirt has an inner black liner that holds the bubble shape in place.  And, as I mentioned before, the skirt is stuffed, so it's stiff and full:

This skirt has a shiny line underneath one of the chains:

My best guess is that the chains are coated with something, and whatever it is rubbed off on the skirt before it dried:

Or maybe some hair gel dripped down from above?  Who knows.

I left Blaze's shoes on for so long mostly because I couldn't immediately see how to get them off.  The shoes themselves are red boots, but they're covered with orange, web-like vinyl pieces that run all of the way up to Blaze's thighs.  Are they supposed to look like lightning, maybe?

Is that the Xtra Electric?

The web thingies can't come off over Blaze's boots:

So I had to scootch the webs up, and then pull the boots off.  The boots are difficult to get off, too.  I had to pull really hard:

The boots are red with a black painted area at the top.  They have huge treads and raised heels:

The black paint is scuffed away in some areas, like at the top:

And in the back:

The webs are made out of semi-soft vinyl, but they're still difficult to use.  I don't think I'll ever be putting them back on:

Underneath her boots, Blaze's feet aren't as big as I thought they'd be.  They have a nice shape with high arches:

This doll has a faint black scuff on her left foot:

And cute toes that are all the same size.

There are some truly impressive things about this outfit.  The mix of fabrics and textures feels decadent.  Little details like the working pockets, embroidered designs, and real metal chains are not things we see in most playline dolls.  The construction is good, too, especially in the skirt, with its stuffed bubble, working belt loops, and stitched details.

However--for me--the outfit isn't appealing aesthetically.  The bubble skirt isn't very flattering on this body style, and the cropped top feels like it's trying to pack too much into a very small space.  I think the maroon in the skirt clashes with the red in Blaze's shirt.  The whole thing might have looked better if there was no red in the outfit at all--only maroon.  Like this, perhaps:

That makes sense to me.

More egregious than the color of the shirt is that the webbed vinyl leg decorations are excessive and make the shoes prohibitively hard to use.  On top of all that, the outfit gives me no sense of Blaze's personality or assigned emotion.  This assortment of clothing doesn't read "electric" to me the way that Suki Goldpetal's outfit is clearly a manifestation of "fragile."

I was excited to see Blaze's body, though, because I'm always excited to see a new doll body!  I wanted to tie Blaze's long hair back, to show off the body better, but first I took a quick peek at the rooting:

The rooting is good.  The plugs of hair are small and the spacing is dense.  Overall, it's exceptionally good hair.  Except for those silly bangs and side tendrils.

The body is made out of a mix of hard vinyl (head, arms, lower legs), soft vinyl (hands), and plastic (torso and upper legs):

The shape is extremely stylized, with a short torso, a small chest, narrow shoulders, large hips, and really long legs.

From the side,  Blaze's bottom sticks out quite a lot, and she has an exaggerated sway in her back:

While she's in this position, I should show you her facial profile, which I forgot to do earlier:

I think she has a cute profile.  Her lip shape is nice, and I like her adorable nose.  She also has earring holes, but no earrings to put in them.

I don't like her left profile as much. I think because the drawn-in smile line is more noticeable from this side and her teeth are visible:

Like she's about to spit.

Here's Blaze from the back.  She doesn't have any copyright marks in this area:

I very much like the look of her knees, though!  They're smooth in front, but in the back I can see a double-jointed mechanism!

Yippee!

There are some red pinpoint stains on Blaze's body.  I would have guessed they're from the clothing, but Blaze doesn't have any red in her skirt:

The spots are dismissively small, but I figured I'd mention them.

Blaze has eleven to fifteen joints, depending on how you count: neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips (x2), and knees (x2).  Her neck articulation is pretty good.  She can spin her head around:

At first I thought that she couldn't look up and down, and I was incredibly frustrated by this.  As it turns out, my doll has a stiff neck, and it took some gentle manipulation to get her head to free up and start moving.

She doesn't look up very much, but she can look down, thank goodness:

She can also tip her head from side to side a tiny little bit.  Not enough for me to capture it well in a photograph.

Blaze's shoulders are rotating hinges that allow her to lift her arms straight up and away from her body to about a 120 degree angle:

Her elbows and wrists are also rotating hinges.  She can bend her elbows to about 90 degrees and her wrists to 90 degrees backwards (back of hand towards arm) but not forwards:

Blaze's elbows only bend one way (much like a human elbow) so it can be hard to pose her when she's wearing a shirt and her joints aren't visible.

Overall, the arm movement is good, but not as impressive as it is on dolls like Made to Move or Rainbow High.  Blaze can touch her forehead, but not her mouth:

Her limited wrist movement is the reason she can't touch her mouth in a conventional way.  But in fact, if her wrist is bent backwards, she can touch her mouth:

Nobody does that.

Part of this is thanks to the bendable vinyl in her hands.

She can cross her arms in front of her:

And do this, which looks elegant:

Blaze has a rotational joint at the top of her thigh and also a hinge in her hip.

The hinges allow her to slide into partial side-to-side splits:

The rotational joint allows her legs to spin all of the way around:

And if the rotational joint is engaged, Blaze's knees can turn upwards and then she can do full side-to-side splits:

Here's a closer look at the design of the joint...and some faint staining in that area:

She can also do full front-to-back splits:

And she can sit on the ground with her legs out in front of her, but her short upper body leans back in this pose:

Blaze has beautifully concealed double-jointed knees.  She can bend her leg at the knee so that the back of her calf is touching the back of her thigh.  It's glorious:

This means that she can use both knee joints to kneel on two knees:

Or just use one of the joints to kneel on both knees!

She can sit in a chair, but again, her body leans back quite a bit in this position:

Overall, Blaze has an unconventional body shape, but her articulation is great and she has a nice solid body that feels good and balances well enough.  I particularly love her leg joints--especially those wonderful double-jointed knees.  And I'm glad that her ankles aren't articulated, because I would absolutely have broken those joints trying to get the boots off!

I played around with Blaze for a few minutes, seeing what fun poses I could get her to strike:

She is balancing in both of these standing poses on her own, which is impressive.

And of course she has some nice sitting poses, too, thanks to those rotating legs and flexible knees:

Although her lower legs are so long that they can interfere with some poses:

I'll admit to giving Blaze a bit of balance assistance for this last shot:

If she could do that on her own, she'd be my doll of the year.

At just shy of 10.5 inches tall, Blaze is shorter than a standard Made to Move Barbie like Petra:

Made to Move Barbie (left) and Mirror Mi doll (right).

Blaze's body looks very weird standing next to Petra, but I also notice that Petra's hips look really narrow in comparison to Blaze!

In the abstract, Blaze definitely reminds me a lot of a Rainbow High doll, but when I look at her next to Jett, the differences are stark:

Rainbow High doll (left) and Mirror Mi doll (right).

I would have said that I vastly prefer Rainbow High, but looking at the two dolls side by side...I don't know.  I'm not really in love with Blaze's face, but I like it better than Jett's.  Jet has a bit of a blank stare in comparison.  Another funny thing is that I used to think that Rainbow High dolls had highly exaggerated bodies, but not in comparison to the Mirror Mi body!

Jett and Blaze have similarly-sized hips, and very different waist and torso sizes.  This means that Blaze can wear Jett's outfit quite well:

The skirt is loose around the waist.

But Blaze's clothing is too tight on Jett:

The skirt can almost close in back, but the shirt doesn't even come close:

The Rainbow High character that I should be using as a comparison here is Ruby Anderson.  She's the red character and in that sense has things in common with Blaze.  However, I only have this cheap version of Ruby, who isn't a good candidate for clothes-swapping:

Rainbow High Ruby Anderson (left) and Mirror Mi Blaze Maxx (right).

Again, I surprise myself by liking Blaze a lot more than Ruby.

I thought some elements of Blaze's body might be more similar in measurement to a Junior High doll like Krystal Bailey, but these two are quite different:

Rainbow High Junior High doll (left) and Mirror Mi doll (right).

Krystal can wear Blaze's skirt pretty well, and the shirt just barely closes in back.  Like a few strands of velcro can desperately cling to one another.  But it's basically too small.  Blaze can wear Krystal's outfit, but the skirt is very tight and very short, and the top is loose:

Junior High and Mirror Mi dolls with swapped outfits.

Blaze's body shape is more like an OMG doll than it is like a Rainbow High doll, with that very short torso and wide hips:

OMG doll (left) and Mirror Mi doll (right).

The OMG doll makes Blaze look very normal!

There's maybe a bit of Bratz DNA in Blaze, too:

Bratz doll (left) and Mirror Mi doll (right).

They both have really large feet, at least.  And they both have long legs, but the torso shapes are reversed: Bratz dolls have narrow hips and broad shoulders and Mirror Mi is the opposite.

There's a fair bit of facial similarity between the Mirror Mi dolls and the short-lived Mermaze Mermaidz.  They both have inset eyes and pouty mouths with full lips:

There's maybe a bit of a resemblance to My Scene dolls here, too?  It's not overt, but something about the eye shape and the small pouty mouth feels familiar:

Despite a few little similarities to other brands here and there, Blaze feels very much like something new and different.

I put Blaze back into her outfit...minus the irritating vinyl leg wraps:

Less Electric.

I noticed a lot of hair shedding at this stage.  It's not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things, but it's pretty messy and looks bad in pictures:

This is off the beaten path, but I had the Wild Hearts Crew doll, Rallee, sitting nearby while I was reviewing Blaze, and a few comparisons jumped out at me that I want to share:

Wild Hearts Crew Rallee (left) and Mirror Mi Blaze (right).

Both dolls have a similar theme.  They're both guitar players and wear slightly edgy clothing with red accents.  But they're very different dolls, and I feel like each one's strengths brings out the other one's weaknesses.

First of all, Rallee comes with a great background and personality.  I feel like she's a real character that I got to know and appreciate.  In contrast, Blaze's bio is minimal and generic.  I don't feel like I know who she is at all.  Rallee's face backs up her personality.  She is engaging and distinct.  Blaze's expression feels bland by comparison, with confusing (or confused?) eyebrows and a smile that's literally drawn onto her face.  I also love how cohesive Rallee's outfit is.  All of the pieces go well together and make sense.  Blaze's outfit does not feel cohesive to me, nor does it compliment her flame-red hair.  Both dolls have good bodies, but Rallee is more versatile and conventional, and therefore will be able to share clothing with other dolls more easily.  And Rallee cost $13 compared to Blaze's $30.

However, Blaze's outfit is higher quality than Rallee's.  Rallee's pieces are made out of thin fabric with printed designs, and many of the edges are unfinished.  Blaze's outfit is more three dimensional, with real metal chain accents, embroidered designs, and a puffy skirt that's stuffed with filling.  Another thing is that Blaze has hair that feels fabulous.  It's really fun to brush and touch, and the rooting is great.  Rallee's hair looks good, with its partly shaven style, but the fiber is polypropylene and the rooting has thick plugs and some bare patches.  Both dolls have good articulation, but Blaze's double-jointed knees are hard to beat.

I'm not sure what all of this adds to the review, but I find it fascinating how certain dolls can shine or diminish depending on the company they keep.

I took a few minutes to pose Blaze in her outfit:

It's difficult to find arm positions that work well with her big skirt!

But it's fun to show off that lovely hair:

Next I had Blaze test out some of her accessories.  The boxing glove purse is very heavy, and tends to collapse her wrist joints.  I had to work hard to get this picture:

I can't hold on for long!

The same is true of the ramen bowl:

Help, it's spilling!

The sunglasses look really cool though:

The guitar is by far the best accessory.  When Blaze holds it on her own, without any rubber bands or pieces of thread, it works really well:

In fact, playing around with the guitar made this doll come alive for me:

Her balance and articulation were working really well.  This girl can wail!

Xtra Electric, baby!

For some reason, she reminds me of Taylor Swift in this picture:

There's something about her mouth and bangs that make me think of Ms. Swift.  And the guitar, of course.  

Gives us one last high note, Blaze!

You got it!

Even after I put the guitar aside, I felt more affection for Blaze at this point than I did when I first got her out of the box:

I love her hair, and just wish she didn't have those silly bangs:

This particular doll isn't gong to be a keeper for me.  I don't really like her outfit or her expression, and the angled bangs obscure her face.  I also don't see a ton of creativity in her design--or maybe I'm missing little things that make sense to other people.

That said, there's enough here to pique my interest about the rest of the line.  The hair is great, the articulation is satisfying, the quality of the clothing is good, and I like that the new body has an unusual shape that we haven't seen before.  And I certainly had some fun with this electric redhead:

The other doll that I'm going to look at today is Amora Valentina.  She was actually my first choice doll from looking at the promotional photos, but the second doll to arrive at my house:

Mirror Mi Amora Valentina, $29.99.

I have to preface this part of the review by saying that I almost gave up half way through Amora's photo session.  Not because of anything about Amora herself, but because of my iPhone.

My iPhone is very keen on adding exposure to pictures that it perceives as dark.  Somehow this translates into lightening the dark skin tone of a doll like Amora.  It's incredibly frustrating, and I haven't been able to find a way to turn it off.  All I can do is lower the exposure setting on my camera, and this doesn't even always work.  And it makes for some dark photos.

I did my best here, but some of the photos are dark, and not all of them capture Amora's coloring accurately.

The back of Amora's box has a beautiful large picture of her, with the same areas of text that we saw on Blaze's box:

In case you didn't guess it from her painfully on-the-nose name, Amora's signature emotion is love:

Her nickname is "Blush BBY."  This another uncomfortably long nickname.  And how am I supposed to say the "BBY" part?  It makes sense written down, but when it's spoken wouldn't it just be "baby?"  So why can't her nickname be Baby?  Or Blush?  Am I the problem here?  Maybe I don't understand modern nicknames.  My name is Emily and my nickname is Em.  That's my reality.

In any case, our Blushing Baby is forever crushin' and blushin'.  She likes Paris and anything chocolate, and her favorite lyric is I know my heart and it knows me!  Again, this is all very generic.  She's a stereotype.  Oh, oh, wait a sec--I have a band name for the Mirror Mi girls: Xtra Electric and the Stereotypes!  Nailed it.

Amora came mounted against a plastic shell that is, if anything, even bigger and more ostentatious than Blaze's backdrop:

Sigh.

This one is glittery pink and has a heart design.

What would have been clever is if MGA has made these backdrop shells substantial enough that they could be removed from the box and used as display stands.  I would enjoy something like that.  In fact, it's such an obvious idea that I had to go back and check the boxes to see if these pieces are designed to be easily removable.

They are fairly easy to remove, but the plastic is thin and won't stand up without heavy support from behind.  Also, the molded shape is so specific, it's hard to get the doll to fit back into it:

Not great.

Also, the plastic is full of holes.  So I guess it wasn't such a good idea after all.  Moving on.

Here's everything that was in Amora's box:

Her accessories include a pink, heart-shaped box of chocolates:

The lid of the box comes off, and there are some simple, unremovable chocolates inside:

Here's a better look at the inside of the box:

Amora's purse looks like a heart-shaped cake with white frosting:

It has a pink strap made out of a chain of small bows.  There are also larger white vinyl bows at the base of the strap:

The back has a molded decorative zipper and a small orange stain:

It looks like the purse should open at the top, but it doesn't:

Boo.

Amora's sunglasses are translucent pink with little white heart designs on the earpieces:

Here's Amora on her own:

I think this doll makes a great first impression.  The contrast between her blonde hair and dark skin is striking, and I really like her lip coloring.  There's also something interesting going on with her legs.  Her outfit is messy, with ribbons hanging down everywhere and some elements that are askew, but I like those brown bell sleeves.

I also like Amora's factory hairstyle, with that section of pink-streaked hair swept across her forehead (and no bangs):

The hair is very long in back:

There's a section of hair in back that was flattened in the box, and this exposes a lot of the rooting:

The rooting looks about the same as what we saw with Blaze, and the scalp is painted a light yellow color to make it less noticeable:

Still, that patch of hair looked really bad, so the first thing I did was get out my wire brush and tidy things up:

Okay, so the hair actually looks a lot less tidy now, but the bald patch has been successfully covered:

Amora's face is very pretty.  Her eyes are wider than Blaze's, so the design in her irises is easier to appreciate.  And she doesn't have a fake smile painted into the corners of her mouth:

I tied her hair back so that I could get a closer look:

Her eyes are a bright teal color with a slightly darker ring around the pupil, and she has a red heart reflective mark in each eye:

The reflective marks aren't in the same place in both eyes, which might be a small error in placement.

The eyes are surrounded by several layers of makeup.  There's a teal band of eyeshadow that matches the color of the eyes, and above that there are layers of red, pink, and even a strip of green glitter.  The green glitter is falling off in several places, so it doesn't look very good:

Amora's mouth is beautifully painted in a shade of deep rose pink.  There's a darker liner around her lips and a little glimpse of her white teeth:

Here's a quick GIF to compare Amora's face to Blaze's:

I appreciate Blaze's face for its quirkiness and originality, but Amora's face is more traditionally attractive.  I also think her face mold is more reminiscent of the Mermaze Mermaidz than Blaze's.  Here's a reminder of that face for comparison:

Mermaze Mermaidz Orra.

I find it fun to see the evolution of MGA's doll designs.

Amora's profile is very similar to Blaze's, and she also has ear holes that don't have any earrings:

Amora's outfit is an explosion of hot pink:

She's wearing a pink camisole top with a ruffled neckline and a pink lacy mini skirt with ribbon accents.  In contrast to all of the pink, she has separate bell sleeves that are made out of brown imitation leather.  I like the sleeves, but the rest of the outfit looks cluttered to me.  I think this is a result of the very short torso: there's not a lot of room for the fashion to shine.

The top and skirt both close in back with velcro:

Lost amidst the ruffled neckline of the top, Amora has a vinyl locket necklace:

The necklace is molded and painted to look like a chain with a ribbon woven through it.  The paint is messy in some places but the overall effect is good.

My camera also tends to overexpose the pink in Amora's outfit, so apologies for that, but let's take a closer look at each of the pieces:

The brown bell sleeves can be removed without taking Amoras hands off, but I had to remove her hands in order to get the sleeves back on.  Here they are on their own:

The sleeves have criss-crossed pink ribbons on one side, and a big ribbon bow at the cuff.

The rest of the outfit is all pink:

The top is made out of hot pink imitation leather.  It has a folded-down collar-like accent, with ruffles sticking up:

I like all of the stitched detail, and the leather part of the neckline is cool.  I could do without the ruffles.  They obscure the rest of the design.

The construction is neat and tidy and looks secure:

The skirt is made out of hot pink lace over a lighter pink underlay.  There are white ribbons that hang down in the front, and a cluster of ruffles at the waistline that matches those on the top:

What's with all of the hanging ribbons in these clothes?

The skirt has a white ribbon inside to keep it from riding up:

Amora's shoes are strappy high heeled sandals with a mix of pinks and golds:

Ever since I saw Amora's promotional photos, I've been curious about what was happening with her legs.  I thought she had stationary molded hearts as a transition between the opaque part of her legs and the clear part at the bottom.  As it turns out, the hearts are individual and loose inside the leg.  So they shake around like maracas.

I'll look at the legs more closely in just a second, but for now I should stay focused on the shoes:

The shoes are mostly made out of hot pink vinyl, but the edges are painted gold and the heels are semi-translucent pink hearts.

The back of each shoe is shaped like a rose petal and there are little molded leaves along the pink straps.

Overall, the outfit is fine, but it's not a beacon of creativity or anything.  Amora is the love doll and her outfit is pink, lacy, and ruffly.  Ho hum.

The legs are much more interesting to me!

Blaze's lower legs are made out of hard vinyl, but these legs are clear, hard plastic.  There's a faint pink tinge to the plastic.  The legs are painted brown at the top to match the rest of the body, and the color match is good.

Rattling around inside of each leg is a collection of small red plastic hearts.  These tend to get stuck in the foot, because of the narrow ankle opening, but they can be jostled around until they fall back into the calf area:

The sides seams on these legs are unattractive.  I wish there was a way around that.

But I think the little translucent pink toes are cute:

I don't tend to like gimmicky legs like this.  For example, I'm not a fan of the Sparkle & Shine Rainbow High dolls that all have fixed legs that are filled with stuff:

Liquid goo instead of knee articulation?  No thank you.

But for some reason I like the hearts in Amora's legs.  They look interesting and are fun to play with.  Also, there's no liquid in there, so I don't have to worry about leaking or evaporation over time.

The rest of Amora's body is the same as Blaze's.  Except that she has pink underwear to match her theme:

I put Amora back into her pink ensemble for a few more pictures:

I might have to try and remove those ruffles.  I think the outfit would look more polished without them.

I also wish that there was something to break up the sea of pink.  Like maybe a darker skirt?  I tried Blaze's skirt on Amora to see how it would look:

The maroon looks bad with pink, but in theory I like the addition of a darker color.

I tested out Amora's accessories, starting with the pink sunglasses:

All I can focus on in that picture is the gravity-defying stiffness of the sleeve ribbons!  Amora could poke somebody's eye out with those things.

This pose is better:

The sunglasses fit well, but the eyelashes stick out on top.  Can you imagine having eyelashes that are so long they stick out above your sunglasses?  Yikes.

Amora's cake purse is really heavy, so it was hard for her to hold it without her wrist collapsing:

She can hold the box of chocolates more easily, but I think she's frustrated that they can't be removed and eaten!

This is a cruel trick.

None of Amora's accessories are as fun as Blaze's guitar.  In fact, there's some inequality here.  Both dolls have sunglasses, a snack, and a purse, but Amora doesn't have anything that's equivalent to the guitar.  Maybe her leg design is supposed to compensate for the lack of a guitar?

Anyway, this is a very photogenic doll...or she would be if I had a camera that didn't betray me.  Her sleeve ribbons are problematic:

But they can be fun if the pose makes sense:

I also really like Amora's dramatic hair:

Even when the curly texture causes a bunch of renegade strands.

I took some time with a brush and smoothed out the curls:

I wish Amora didn't have the green glitter over her eyes.  It's really patchy, which can make it look like yet another piece of lint or dust in some areas.  Her face is still lovely, though:

Here's Amora next to Blaze:

Mirror Mi Amora Valentina (left) and Blaze Maxx (right).

The presence of Blaze's pale skin deterred my camera from trying to lighten the frame, so this is actually a decent representation of Amora's true coloring:

Blaze's animated facial features stand out in this comparison, but I still like Amora quite a bit better.  I don't like either of their outfits very much, but I love Amora's face and hair.

As much as I like the hair, the frizz-prone curls were a pain to manage.  So I decided to take the ponytail down and do a boil wash:

What did you do to me??

Um, yeah.  The hair did not look very good when it first came down.  However, there's a rooted center part hidden in there, so I had confidence that I'd be able to get things sorted out:

Nylon fiber washes beautifully, so Amora's hair came out sleek and smooth with just a bit of curl left at the ends:

Here it is from the back:

I liked how the hair looked before, and I like it this way, too.  The difference is that the straightened hair is much easier to manage, and it's versatile in a way that could accommodate a lot of styles.

A side bonus of washing the hair is that the water washed away most of that pesky green glitter eyeshadow!  I'm very happy with that result, but be careful if you like the glitter and decide to wash your doll's hair.

If anything, letting the hair down made the exposure problem on my camera even worse, but at least you can see what the hair looks like this way.

Amora's balance in her strappy sandals is better than Blaze's balance in those big boots!

I'm pretty obsessed with this doll, actually, and wish that my photos did her justice.

Here she is next to Blaze again, so that you can see the more accurate skin tone:

The make a cute pair, but I have a clear favorite:

The last thing I did with Amora (and I swear it's the last thing and the review is almost over...) is cut the ruffles off her clothing and take her outside into the natural light to see if I'd have better luck with the camera in that setting.

Natural light is always better, but the camera was still brightening everything a little bit, especially against a neutral background:

I tried a more varied background, to see if it would make a difference:

Slightly better, maybe?

But the magic sauce ended up being this small evergreen bush.  It brings out Amora's coloring really well without any editing required:

Maybe I should do all of my reviews outside?  That would be great...provided it stays summer all of the time.

Evergreen BBY.

Bottom line?  It's really fun to get a completely new kind of doll, isn't it?  I love exploring a new background concept, a new face style, a new design aesthetic, and especially a new highly-articulated body.  I even sometimes enjoy the hunt: the frantic trips to Target when an "in stock" notice pops up, or the daily scrolling of websites and the thrill of that elusive "add to cart" option.

I felt quite a bit of excitement when the Mirror Mi girls were released, and I don't feel deflated by the realities of the brand.  But, it was a rocky path getting to this point, and there are some things I wish were different.

An issue that hit me right away was the packaging.  I'm so tired of impenetrable plastic boxes, and the Mirror Mi boxes are even worse than normal because of their huge decorative plastic mounting shells.  This will sound hypocritical, because I often praise a doll for how it looks in the box, but I'm actually weary of the expectation that dolls have to look perfect on the shelf.  Especially because in order to achieve that goal, excessive amounts of plastic packaging materials have to be used.  Each of these dolls generates a lot of waste.  I would have hoped (even assumed) that over the course of my 14 year blogging career things would get better...but they've gotten worse.  It's depressing.

In terms of the dolls themselves, I had different reactions to Blaze and Amora.  I'm less impressed with Blaze.  Her face seems odd to me, with an expression that I can't place.  It doesn't help that her mouth is somehow both pouting and smiling at the same time.  I also don't like Blaze's bangs.  They overshadow her facial features and have to be rock hard in order to keep their sharp, angled shape.  The quality of the hair fiber is excellent, though, and I love the bright red color.  I'm also not very impressed with Blaze's outfit.  I can appreciate things like the mixture of fabrics, the working pockets, and the real metal chain accents, but the style of the clothing doesn't flatter the short-torso body style, and there's no cohesive feel to it all.  Also, the stiff bubble skirt limits the arm posing options.  I especially don't like the vinyl web (lightning?) decorations that cover Blaze's legs.  These are hard to deal with and make the boots (which are hard to take off) even harder to take off.  Blaze's accessories are a mixed bag.  The boxing glove purse doesn't look like a purse and doesn't open.  It's also too heavy for Blaze to hold.  The ramen bowl and sunglasses are more appealing.  The guitar is the best accessory of all, though.  This was really fun to play with and helped bring out Blaze's personality.  She's meant to represent the "electric" emotion or personality trait, and I just don't see that in very many elements of her design other than her guitar.

Amora was much more appealing to me even before I got her out of the box.  She has a pretty face with hypnotic eyes, a neutral expression, and beautiful lips.  Her silky-smooth hair looks good in its factory style and also when it's taken down.  Her outfit has too much pink for my taste, and the ruffled accents and dangling ribbons clutter the overall look and--again--don't flatter the style of the body.  I like the concept of the bell sleeves, though, and the addition of a non-pink color.  One thing that separates Amora from the other dolls is that she has transparent plastic legs with little hearts inside.  The hearts rattle around and the side seams of the plastic legs don't look great, but for the most part I think this gimmick is a fun addition that strengthens Amora's theme.  Amora's manifestation of the "love" emotion is not very unique or creative, but at least it's clear what she's meant to represent.  Amora's accessories are mostly forgettable.  Her cake purse is heavy and doesn't open, her sunglasses don't cover her eyelashes, and she doesn't have a guitar (or anything equivalent).  The box of chocolates is probably the best of the bunch, mostly because it opens to reveal some simple candies inside.  But who cares about the accessories.  I wish I didn't have to pay extra for them.  What I care about is that Amora is an attractive, photogenic, well-articulated doll and I'm happy to have her in my collection.

What both dolls have in common is a new body.  I have mostly positive feelings about this body.  The shape is not something we've seen before, and the articulation is great.  I wish that the wrists had a bit more flexibility, but the hip and knee joints are excellent.  One flaw that I can see, at least with the two dolls I own, is that this body is hard to dress.  I don't think Blaze or Amora have clothing that flatters their short torso and long legs.

I'll end with the obvious comparison to Rainbow High.  The two lines have conceptual similarities, like the arts school backdrop and characters who are defined by a specific color palette.  They have physical similarities too, like the inset eyes, luxurious nylon hair, detailed outfits, and well-articulated bodies.  But the look and feel of these two types of doll is quite different.  And, if you'd asked me a week ago which brand I prefer, I'd have said Rainbow High, no question.  But after spending some time with Blaze and Amora (especially Amora) and seeing them side-by-side with my Rainbow High dolls, I'm not so sure.  Give me a well-dressed Mirror Mi doll, and she'll probably come out on top.