KPop Demon Hunters Dolls by Mattel

I'm so excited to be finally writing this review!  I've been waiting for the KPop Demon Hunters dolls to come out ever since I saw the movie.  Actually, I take that back.  I've been waiting for these dolls to come out ever since the What it Sounds Like limited edition trio was announced on Mattel's site way back in November of 2025.  I didn't actually watch the movie until a few months ago (and then I watched it again last week and the week before).  The movie certainly enhanced my anticipation for the dolls immensely.  It's so good.  I love almost everything about it, and (spoilers) I love almost everything about these dolls:

KPop Demon Hunters dolls by Mattel ($26.97 each).

The strange thing is, I'm still waiting for the trio of What it Sounds Like dolls to ship from Mattel.  Given that I pre-ordered them the moment they were announced back in November, it's been a nine month wait.  That's long enough to gestate a human.

I hope the dolls are worth the wait...and the $150 I paid for them.  They look pretty awesome from their promotional photos:

Limited What it Sounds Like dolls from Mattel.

The What it Sounds Like dolls are only about a third of what Mattel has released so far, so there's plenty of ground to cover today without having those dolls on hand.

For anyone who has not watched the movie yet, the concept is in the title: there's a group of demon hunters who are in a K-pop band together.  The band is called HUNTR/X (Huntrix), and it's basically a front for the demon-slaying operation.  The twist is that the band's singing, coupled with their fan's adoration, are secretly building a protective force field, or Honmoon, that will protect the world from demons forever.

In addition to the limited edition What it Sounds Like set, there are two other trios of dolls, each wearing the costumes from a specific Huntrix song.  This review will focus on the How It's Done group, but I'll briefly address the singing Golden dolls as well.  There's also a Saja Boys doll, Jinu, representing the Soda Pop song from the boy band.  So--shocker--this is gonna be another long review.

The How It's Done dolls were released as open editions last month.  They're readily available online and in stores right now, and cost $26.97 each.  

I'll look at Rumi first:

KPop Demon Hunters Rumi doll by Mattel, $26.97.

These dolls come in fairly small, reasonable-looking blister pack boxes.  That is to say, I don't feel like I'll have to wrestle with this box for thirty minutes just to get the doll out:

At the bottom of the box, there's a cardboard section with a picture of Rumi and all of the branding information:

The back of the box is all cardboard and has some cool action shots of each of the hunters:

It was, indeed, fairly easy to extract Rumi from her box.  The plastic front peeled off smoothly, leaving behind the cardboard backdrop with a plastic mount that held Rumi in place.

Rumi was attached to the plastic with mostly longer ties that were easy to snip, but she did have three tight, irritating plastic ties in her head...as usual.  Here's what was left behind:  

Fresh from the Mirror Mi doll review, it's hard not to notice the relative simplicity and ease-of-use of this packaging.  It's not perfect, but it's not the worst offender on the market right now.

It didn't make me depressed before I even looked at the doll, so that's a big plus.

Here's everything that was in the box:

Rumi doesn't come with a stand, nor does she need one.  Her only accessory is her trusty sword:

Regarding the sword, I have to start the review with one of my two main criticisms of these dolls: Rumi can't hold her sword very well.

I mean, come on.  For an action doll like this who's so anchored to her fighting and sword-wielding persona, why not give her a gripping hand for goodness sake?  It's so obvious.  Instead, we get a soft vinyl hand with splayed fingers:

Girl.

If Rumi's right hand had been a solid gripping hand (maybe with a replaceable relaxed hand included as an accessory?), she'd be nearly perfect in my eyes.  So it's not a huge deal, okay, but I hate things that interfere with perfection.

The sword itself does not interfere with perfection:

Rumi's sword is a Saingeom sword, which is a Korean ceremonial weapon.  She can conjure it at will because of her demon hunting powers, and it glows with a blue and pink light.  It has definite lightsaber vibes.  

The design of the toy sword looks faithful to the movie version, although it's hard to get a still shot of the movie sword because Rumi is always swinging it around like a badass:

An elegant weapon for a more civilized age.

The toy sword has a nice weight without being too heavy, and has molded and painted decorations on both sides.  The hilt is decorated with gold accents:

And the sword is all blue (with maybe a faint pink iridescence?) and is decorated with molded symbols:

It's hard to make a plastic model of a magical glowing sword that can appear out of nothing, but Mattel has done a respectable job here.

Rumi herself looked great right out of the box:

She's bright and colorful, with good balance, tons of personality, and an excellent resemblance to the movie character.

She even has the signature long purple braid, although it isn't quite long enough:

That thing should be hitting her ankles.

I also wish that the braid tapered more at the end, but that's got to be a hard thing to do with a thick-haired doll.

Here she is from the back:

Rumi's face is easily recognizable, with intense eyes and a sly half smile:

Because of her lopsided smile, her right profile looks different from her left.  She's also wearing completely different earrings in each ear.  Here's the right side:

And here's the left:

There are faint indentations in the ears for other possible hole spots, I think because the other Rumi dolls have different earrings.

Rumi's left earring is a simple silver stud, but her right earring is more fancy:

I don't know what that is, but it's pretty.

Up close, Rumi's face paint is really well done.  There's no pixelation and the lines are crisp and clear:

And her expression is perfect.

For comparison, here's a screen shot of Rumi's face in the movie:

She has more earrings in the movie.

I like the shades of pink and purple in the eye makeup, especially the two silver dots at the corners of Rumi's eyes:

Her eyebrows are light brown, with faint hair line detail throughout:

The pink in Rumi's eye shadow matches elements of her outfit, and the purple eyeshadow matches her hair.

Rumi's hair is sleek and shiny, and the braid was tidy and smooth right out of the box...unlike poor Cinderella's ratty braid from the Descendants line.  As an aside, the newer Descendants Cinderella dolls appear to have much nicer braids.  Thank goodness.

Anyway, there's a yellow vinyl decoration at the bottom of Rumi's braid, which is a nice touch:

Like a necktie that needs adjusting.

The hairstyle is relatively simple, but it's actually composed of two different braids: a narrow one at the top that merges into a thicker one at the back of the head:

The thicker braid successfully conceals a clear ponytail holder that separates the two sections:

Nothing conceals the plastic tie remnants sticking out of Rumi's head.

There's no way I'll be able to recreate this style, so Rumi's hair is not coming down.  Sorry.  I believe the hair fiber is polypropylene, but it feels silky and looks good in this style.  It's hard to check the rooting pattern without taking the hair down, but I was able to peek in between some of the strands at the sides of Rumi's head, and I don't see any big bald spots.

Rumi's outfit is packed with detail and looks just like the costume in the movie:

The most impressive piece is the yellow jacket, which is covered with colorful designs and even has a spiked shoulder pad on Rumi's left side:

The jacket is made out of imitation leather with black trim and a decorative fabric zipper:

The construction looks solid, but the edges aren't reinforced:

No way that fabric is going to fray.

The fabric of the jacket is stiff.  So stiff, in fact, that it was hard for me to maneuver it on its own for photographs.  

Instead, I put the jacket back on Rumi.  This made it much easier to capture all of the printed details.  I love the patch that says "Rrrrrrrrumi" on the left:

One of my favorite areas is above the cuffs.  I love the rainbow designs and the little zippers:

The back of the jacket is relatively plain, like the side of a school bus.  It has a big white stripe and some printed tabs at the bottom:

The wheels on the bus go round and round...

But the left side is packed with detail, including the vinyl shoulder pad that's stitched into place:

The left front side of the jacket is also really pretty, with an intricate blue and red design right next to the zipper:

Underneath the jacket, Rumi is wearing a sleeveless cropped tank with a high collar to hide her demon patterns:

The sleeveless style of the shirt doesn't hide the patterns on her arms, though!  I was thrilled to see that the doll actually has these markings.  And they look great:

The necklace that Rumi is wearing over her shirt is made out of silver vinyl.  It has a molded double chain pattern and a fancy pendant:

Both the shirt and the shorts close in back with velcro:

Rumi's shorts are very short, but they pack a lot of punch into a small area:

The belt loops are functional, there's a fabric decorative zipper down the front, and while the pockets are printed. there's a three-dimensional decoration called a norigae on one side.

A norigae is a traditional Korean tassel-like ornament that's worn by women as a good luck charm, or merely as a fashion accessory.  Here's a picture of a real norigae:

Rumi's norigae is purple, with tons of molded and painted details, including dangling pink flower and heart embellishments in the tassel section:

I can't say I even noticed the norigae in the movie costumes.  There was too much other stuff going on.  I went back and looked at some of the How it's Done scenes, and sure enough, I see it now!  It's smaller here than on the doll:

Easy to miss.

Regardless of the size, it's a great detail to include on a play doll's outfit.  The designers could have easily added this as a printed design, but the three dimensional version is a treat, especially with all of the delicate paint work.

Rumi's shoes are black vinyl platform boots with a pink stripe down the front:

These are easy to get on and off thanks to the flexible material and a long slit in the back.

Underneath her outfit, Rumi has what is basically a Barbie Gigi body, but with different legs...and demon patterns:

The patterns are so cool.  They're painted in metallic purple, and extend across Rumi's shoulders, up her neck, and along her arms down to her elbows:

Unfortunately she has no markings on her back or on the back of her neck:

Her copyright mark, which would be on her lower back if she was a Barbie doll, is actually camouflaged amidst her molded underwear design:

I think this is a much better place for those markings than on the small of the back.

Rumi has eleven points of articulation, with rotating hinges at the shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, and knees:

Her articulation feels limited compared to a Made to Move doll.  For example, she can't touch her face or kneel very well, but she can still strike some fun poses.

As I mentioned before, her hands are made out of soft vinyl and are in an open position, with splayed fingers and long nails:

I wish the nails were painted.

The hands are simple to remove, which is helpful when putting on certain items of clothing (like Rumi's jacket):

It would have been so easy to include a gripping hand!  I'm still mad about that.

Here's Rumi next to one of my Barbie movie dolls, all of whom have the Gigi body:

Barbie Gigi body (left) and KPop Demon Hunters body (right).

You can see that the torso area is exactly the same, but the hip joints are different.

Despite the different shape of the hips, the flexibility of the two dolls is comparable.  Rumi might be able to slide into slightly more of a side split than Barbie:

But both dolls have equivalent front-to-back splits, even though the legs feel quite different when they're being moved:

And neither doll can kneel very well, on one knee or on both:

For fun, here's a comparison between Rumi and my Made to Move model, Petra:

Made to Move Barbie (left) and KPop Demon Hunters Rumi (right).

I honestly don't know why Mattel doesn't use the Made to Move body for every single doll they make.  I guess it's not as attractive as the Gigi body, but it moves so well.  For an action doll like Rumi, I'd have thought the Made to Move body would be a no brainer.  Guess not.

Let's see what Rumi can do with the body she has:

She certainly balances well, and her long braid almost acts like another limb!  It's very fun to pose:

And I love showing off those beautiful patterns:

Rumi does not like to show off the patterns, so she was eager to get her jacket back on:

I don't blame her, actually, because the jacket is so cool.  I love the contrast between the yellow and the purple:

I wanted to see how Rumi interacts with her sword, given her lack of a gripping hand:

She can certainly wield that thing, and even balance while doing it, but for goodness sake I wish she'd grab that hilt with some conviction.  It looks like she's never held a sword before:

Don't drop it, Rumi.

Okay so Rumi is pretty awesome.  Her face is fantastic, her outfit is highly detailed and movie-accurate, her hair looks sleek and full, and she has decent poseability.  I wish she had a Made to Move body, but more than that I wish she had a freakin' gripping hand.  Who knew I could make such a big fuss over such a small detail?  Seriously, though, I love Rumi even with her weakling floppy hands.

I mentioned at the beginning of the review that there's a singing trio of KPop Demon Hunters dolls that represent the Golden song.  I love that song (who doesn't?), but I didn't buy very many of the singing dolls for reasons that will become clear in a sec.  I did buy one, however, and this feels like the right time to give her a quick look.

Rumi was the obvious choice for a singing doll since she's the lead singer:

KPop Demon Hunters singing Golden Rumi doll, $32.99.

The packaging on these dolls is very similar to the How it's Done doll, just with different decorations.

Here's the back of the box:

At first glance, this doll looks a lot like the first Rumi, just with a different costume:

Her makeup isn't quite as detailed, and the color choices aren't as flattering, but she has the same face mold and an elaborate-looking outfit:

She also has the same style of hair...but that braid is feeling a little short:

Wop, wop.

Here are the two versions of Rumi side by side:

Golden Rumi (left) and How it's Done Rumi (right).

Golden Rumi's outfit has a lot of pieces, but the level of detail isn't the same as what we saw with How it's Done Rumi.  Also, Golden Rumi's yellow eyeshadow gives her a sleepy or bored expression that I don't like.

And, as I suspected, Golden Rumi's braid is quite a bit shorter and doesn't look as good:

Golden Rumi also doesn't balance as well, probably because she has no knee articulation and her boots are squishy.

Golden Rumi's body has only five joints, and there's a big speaker and an activation button covering most of her chest:

The speaker can almost pass as part of the demon patterns.

She has demon markings on her arms, but not on her chest and neck, which makes sense given the sound mechanism.

This doll feels very stiff and cheap compared to the first Rumi.  It's like this is fake Rumi and the other doll is real Rumi.

Since I wasn't connecting with fake Rumi very much, I figured I could take her hair down and get a peek at the rooting.

The hair has a rooted center part on top, so it looks fairly normal when it's down.  However, the rooting over the rest of the scalp isn't very good:

It's possible that How it's Done Rumi has better rooting than this.  There are many other things about her that are better, so it would track.  All I can say is that Golden Rumi's hair is pretty badly rooted for a $33 doll.  It also has that icky synthetic polypropylene feel which I don't notice at all in How it's Done Rumi's braided hair.

Golden Rumi's greatest asset, other than maybe her outfit, is that she can sing!  In fact, she sings three different clips from Golden:

The sound quality is surprisingly good!  It's not loud or obnoxious or anything.  I enjoy listening to it.  The clip is short, but I was delighted when I realized that pressing the button a second time resulted in a new segment:

And here's the last bit:

The three clips go together fairly well, but there are missing sections that can be filled in by the other two dolls.  It's tempting to get the whole trio and complete the song, and it'd also be nice to have all three outfits, but for $32.99 each, I think I'll pass.

I'm content to have a costume change for my How it's Done Rumi:

How it's Done Rumi wearing the Golden costume.

She looks good, but the Golden earrings don't fit the holes that she has in her ears:

She needs a second hole in the top part of her ear for this to work.

So Golden Rumi is okay, and the quality and length of her sound feature exceeded my expectations, but the simpler outfit, shorter hair, and lack of articulation all make her feel like a cheaper doll than How it's Done Rumi.

How it's Done is far and away my favorite version of the character, and the fact that she's six dollars less expensive than the singing doll only strengthens my case:

The next doll that I'm going to look at is Mira.  If I had to choose a favorite character from the movie, it'd be Mira.  I love her.  She's tall, she has a great voice, she makes me laugh, she's tough as nails, and she has an amazing weapon:

KPop Demon Hunters Mira doll, $26.97.

I don't think the picture at the bottom of Mira's box captures her essence very well: 

The snapshot on the back of the box is much better, with that intense stare and battle-ready pose:

The back of this box is similar to the back of Rumi's box, it's just that the order of the pictures has been shifted so that Mira is on top.

I really struggled with the plastic ties in the back of Mira's head.  I struggled physically, and also conceptually.  Why on earth are these necessary?  There was one that was so stubborn I felt the need to take a picture of it:

To commemorate the battle.

I eventually won the battle without cutting Mira's hair.  But it was a nail-biter.  

Here's everything that was in the box:

Mira has a pole weapon called a glaive.  It can be summoned from thin air just like Rumi's sword.  The toy weapon has a lot of gold detailing along the pole, and a blue curved blade at the top:

In the movie, the pole is mostly black.

It kinda reminds me of a 19th century executioner's sword or something.  And it looks heavy.  But Mira swings it around like nobody's business.

Mira herself looks awesome.  The designers nailed her appearance with that long face, slight pout, and flowing pink hair.  And her outfit is another excellent replica of the movie costume:

From the side you can see that there are some long layers in the hair, but most of it is the same length:

In profile, Mira has a high forehead, a skinny nose, and an abrupt chin:

The hair has a bit of a wave to the fibers, which I don't love.  I wish it was poker straight:

But I have to say that the fiber feels better than I expected from polypropylene.  I think it feels nice.  It certainly feels a lot better to me than Golden Rumi's hair.  I would have sworn that the two dolls have different hair fiber, but the internet tells me it's all poly.

The rooting is certainly much better than what we saw with Golden Rumi, with dense, evenly-spaced plugs:

Two big sections of Mira's hair are pulled back and away from her face with elastic bands, but there are also smaller sections of hair that are slicked down around her hairline and secured just above her ears:

These sections of hair are tied in place with pink thread:

The loose ends of the tendrils look a bit scraggly; I wish they were wispier.  The hair is also stiff, so it often moves in an unnatural way.  But the style is certainly a faithful copy of the movie hair.

Lost among those side tendrils of hair are Mira's long silver earrings.  I removed these and left them out for most of the review:

They look good, but I literally couldn't see them behind the hair.

Mira is also wearing a black choker necklace with a silver gemstone accent:

The painting is a bit sloppy here, but the overall effect is good:

Rumi has a great face, but I think Mira's face is even better.  Her identity is unmistakable and she looks so fierce:

And also judgey.

She has pink eyebrows that are a touch darker than her hair--as they should be.  Her lip color also goes extremely well with her hair:

Her eye shadow is bold, with bands of pink, purple, and silver.  And the three quirky dots at the upper edge of each eye add some extra whimsy to that serious expression:

I have my formulaic order for shooting review photos, as many of you surely know, but with Mira I had to stop and pose her for no reason whatsoever.  She's so much fun and she looks so good:

Yeah I do.

For some reason Mira reminds me of Honey Lemon from Big Hero 6.  Does anyone remember that doll?  She was really obscure and is now impossible to find.  I had a lot of fun with her, too:

Honey Lemon from Big Hero 6.

The connection in my brain is probably just that she's another tall character from an animated action movie.  And she's good at fighting.  Anyway, I haven't thought about Honey Lemon for ages and Mira made me think of her.

Mira's outfit doesn't have as many pieces as Rumi's but it's still chock full of detail:

...in the front, at least.  The back is relatively plain:

The words on this shirt confuse me, but that doesn't have anything to do with the doll's design.  It's a great replica of the movie shirt.  The lettering says "won't miss," but the scrolling accents on the "w" (and maybe the fact that the word falls into the armpit crease) make it hard to read:

Still, I love the bright colors and how the pink matches Mira's hair.

On her right shoulder, there's a vinyl epaulette accent that hangs down to elbow length:

The epaulette is sewn to the tee shirt with black thread.  I don't know how durable these vinyl-to-shirt connections will be over time, but they work for now

Mira is also wearing black gloves on each hand:

These can be taken on and off without removing the hands, which is nice.  They have a lot of molded detail, but no color contrast, which is notably unlike the fancy movie gloves:

The skirt is my favorite outfit piece.  It's made out of yellow imitation leather, like Rumi's jacket, but this material is shiny, not matte.  There are a lot of stitched details and some attached vinyl pieces:

Shiny pleather like this can crack over time, which would be heart-breaking.

The silver vinyl chain is fine, but I wish it was metal and had some drape.  That's okay, because the bright pink norigae makes up for it!

Mira's norigae is especially great because it has two little cartoon heads hanging down on the tassel section.  The level of detail is fantastic!

The skirt has decent construction, and there's a ribbon to keep it from riding up on Mira's torso:

Mira's boots are another highlight of the outfit.  They're thigh-high and skin-tight, made out of imitation leather:

The boots have sewn-on pink patches at the knee, and printed pink and white stripes at the top.

  

They also have realistic-looking printed zippers on one side:

The treads on these boots even have a cool molded design:

Aside from being highly-detailed, this outfit (and Rumi's outfit) are very easy to use.  I didn't mind the wardrobe changes with this review at all.

Underneath her outfit, Mira has basically the same body as Rumi.  The only difference is that her legs are longer...and she doesn't have demon patterns:

KPop Demon Hunters Mira (left) and Rumi (right).

Even though Mira is taller than Rumi, she's not quite as tall as a Tall Made to Move Barbie:

KPop Demon Hunters Mira (left) and a Tall Made to Move Barbie (right).

The Made to Move body has a longer torso.  Despite this, Mira's outfit can fit...if you don't mind a really short skirt:

Mira's KPop Demon Hunters outfit on a Tall Made to Move body.

This is nice because it means that a body upgrade is an option for Mira in the future, provided that I can find a tall body with the right shade of pale.  I'm thinking maybe Barbie Looks #19 would work.

It's great that Mira can clothes-swap withe the Made to Move dolls, not to mention Rumi and all of the Gigi Barbies.  That said, I can't imagine her in anything but her demon hunting costume:

I was so ready to play around with Mira at this point, I can't even tell you.  She's a dream to pose and photograph:

I love the color of her hair, and her skirt and boots are great.

I could tell she was uncomfortable without her weapon, though.

Manifest my glaive for me, Emily.

This is better:

As impressive as the glaive is, it's also really long!  I found it challenging to photograph Mira with this weapon.

And of course she can't grip it very well, but I'm done complaining about that for now.

Get a grip, Emily.

Mira was constantly on the hunt for demons:

I heard a noise!

But I think the Honmoon must be holding up really well, because there was nothing of concern in my basement.

I guess it was nothing.

Mira was about to go take a break...

Couch, couch, couch...

But then she heard one of my demonic dogs barking and was on high alert!

Gotcha!

I could play with Mira all day.  She looks cool, she balances well, her outfit is fabulous, her weapon is unique, I like the look and feel of her hair (despite it being polypropylene), and her face is an excellent likeness of the movie character.  As with Rumi, I wish she had a Made to Move body and a gripping hand, and I might try to remedy those things with a body swap someday, but for now I'm very happy with her just as she is.

Last but not least is Zoey.  She's the goofball and the rapper of the group, and she loves turtles.  She's also super-cute and is a fan favorite for obvious reasons:

Again, I'm not sure that the picture on the front of the box shows Zoey at her best:

But the picture on the back is great:

Here's everything that was in the box:

Zoey wields shin-kal knives when she's fighting demons:

At first I assumed that this type of weapon had three attached blades, probably because the knives often appear in sets of three in Zoey's hands:

But Zoey can be seen with fewer knives in each hand during some scenes:

And she throws the knives one at a time:

So the toy makes it seem like she has two three-bladed weapons, but it's actually six separate knives.  Or that's what I think is going on, anyway.

Frankly, of all the KPop Demon Hunters weapons, these are the least impressive to me.  They look like little fans.  If I was up against a hoard of demons, I'd rather be carrying a glaive or a sword.  However, because of their small size, Zoey can hold onto these knives pretty firmly...even without gripping hands:

Zoey herself is very cute.  She's meant to be the youngest member of the group, and this comes through with her design.  She's the smallest doll of the trio, and she has a wide-eyed face with youthful bangs.  Her costume is a hip streetwear ensemble:

From the side, you can see the teal vinyl suspenders that hang down around Zoey's hips:

Zoey has a cute facial profile, with more traditional features than Mira:

Here she is from the back:

Zoey's hair is tied up into two braided buns, with tendrils of hair loose on either side of her face.  The buns look slightly messy in back, and all of the cut plastic ties are still visible:

I'll trim those carefully later.

Zoey is wearing silver earrings that are meant to look like a single hoop in the middle of the pinna, and then a chain of two linked hoops below that: 

The design of the toy earrings is not as clear as it is in the movie:

I assume there were some structural constraints in making the whole thing one piece.

Here are the earrings on their own:

Zoey has a wider, shorter face than the other two girls, with big oval eyes...and freckles!

Her expression is a bit bland, though.

Her eyebrows are dark brown.  This looks fine but I wish they were black to match her hair:

She has a mix of purple and silver eyeshadow, with little silver dots underneath each eye.  The eye paint on my doll is a bit messy.  For example, it's hard to distinguish the dot underneath the right eye, and there are some silver paint smudges here and there:

The freckles also seem darker and more numerous on the right side of Zoey's face (the left side of the photo).

Zoey is great, but she has my least favorite face-up and least favorite hair of the group.  I love her freckles and smile, but I wish her eyebrows were darker and her eye makeup was more crisp.  I like Zoey's jet-black hair, and the style is accurate to the movie, but the tendrils at the side of her face are thick and stiff, and there's a lot of gel holding everything together.

I like Zoey's outfit for how different it is from the other two characters:

She's wearing a halter top with a black neck strap paired with baggy parachute pants.  Both pieces close in back with velcro:

On her right arm she has a small black pouch:

It looks like a mini backpack.

And on her left wrist she's wearing a gold bracelet with geometric patterns molded into it:

Here are the two arm decorations on their own:

The halter top is my favorite piece.  It's basically an imitation leather tube top with a black vinyl neck strap.  The strap has painted silver buckles and the top has printed zippers and a trim of gold and black along the top: 

There's a pink printed lotus flower on the right side of the top:

The vinyl neck strap is sewn to the rest of the top with black thread:

The parachute pants are made out of a lightweight woven fabric and have a lot of printed designs.  The three dimensional decorations include the teal suspenders and Zoey's norigae:

the suspenders are sewn onto the pants with teal thread:

The norigae is mostly yellow, with some painted beads and a little turtle at the bottom!

So cute.

The suspenders have a peg-and-hole attachment in the back that can be undone to make undressing easier:

The pants themselves have very little in the way of stitched detail, but I like the little ankle cinch area:

And the suspenders are a nice touch.  They can even flip upwards, which made me wonder if they could be positioned like functional suspenders?

I put them back on Zoey and flipped them up, but I managed to get the straps crossed in front:

That kind of works?

If the crossed straps are moved to the back, they look more like normal suspenders...but they don't stay up:

She needs suspenders for her suspenders.

Zoey's shoes are bright blue and yellow high-top sneakers:

These have thick treads and a small slit in back to make them easier to get on and off:

Underneath all of her clothing, Zoey has a body that's slightly shorter than the other two dolls:

KPop Demon Hunters dolls, from left: Zoey, Rumi, and Mira.

Once again, her torso is the same as Rumi and Mira's, but her legs are shorter.  In fact, there's more of a difference between Zoey and Rumi's leg length than there is between Rumi and Mira's leg length.

Zoey has the same flexibility as Rumi and Mira, but I noticed the limitations in her posing more than I did with the other dolls.  I think it's because I wanted her to get down and dirty like a rapper, and instead all of her poses were relatively tame:

Strolling in the park.

Resting her arms on her suspenders.

Looking for birds...or maybe demons??

I added in her knives to see if I could inspire some more action:

Strolling in the park with knives.

Zoey!  Get ready!  There's a demon coming!

I'm ready.

Seriously? You look like you're doing a fan dance.

I'M READY!!

Okay, that's better.  But your smile isn't scaring anyone away.

One thing I can say about posing Zoey is that she holds on to her knives really well, and her sneakers give her sturdy balance:

Knives out.

Zoey is delightful.  The fact that she's my least favorite of the group doesn't mean that I don't like her.  I definitely like her.  And I think she's a wonderful representation of the movie character.  She simply doesn't have as much to offer as the other dolls.  Her hair is not spectacular in its color or length, her knives are diminutive and not as ferocious-looking as the other weapons, and her outfit, while detailed, doesn't have any real "wow" factors for me.  Although I really like the design of her halter top, and I adore the tiny turtle on her norigae.  And her sweet, freckled face is hard to resist, despite a few paint smudges.

The last doll on my agenda is Jinu.  He's the lead singer of Huntrix's rival band, Saja Boys:

KPop Demon Hunters Jinu doll, $26.97.

Jinu's packaging is just like what we saw with the girls, except that he didn't have *any* plastic ties in his head.  I think that means that they're not necessary.

He does have an ill-chosen picture at the bottom of the box:

And a collage of better pictures on the back:

Some of the other Saja Boys are shown in one of the shots, but there have been no dolls made of these characters so far:

If Mattel wanted to go all-in on a deluxe, limited edition Saja Boys group set, I think it'd be extremely popular (and no doubt extremely expensive).  I'd buy it.  But I can understand why they didn't want to market individual dolls for each Saja Boy.  Jinu is the only one who has a real presence in the movie as an individual.

And Mattel did a great job with the doll:

His attractive face combined with a specialized heart hand make him eye-catching right out of the box:

Jinu doesn't come with a weapon, but rather three small accessories:

Do you see what specific accessory Jinu comes with?  Right there in the middle?  It's an extra hand.  Apparently it's easy to include an extra hand with these dolls, so why not include an extra gripping hand for the girls??

In addition to the hand, Jinu comes with pink sunglasses:

And a little can of soda pop:

The soda isn't quite as detailed as something like a Miniverse Real Brands item, but it has some tiny print on the back, including a little nutrition label (that I can't read):

I can read the part where it says "1000% you."  I'm not sure what that means.  Ten of me, perhaps?

Jinu bears a good resemblance to the character in the movie.  Or he does from certain angles, at least.  I think his face looks great from the front, but I wish his body was more stylized, with an overly broad chest and skinny legs:

Instead he has a Ken body.

From the side I don't think his head mold looks as convincing, but the skinny lines of his body work well:

Here's a closer look at his facial profile:

I like the shape of his molded black hair, and his smile is good from this side, but that chin contour is bizarre.

From the left, the hair obscures some of his eye and there's not much of a smile on his face.  The chin contour is no less bizarre:

Incidentally, both of Jinu's small hoop earrings are removable.

Here he is from he back:

I like how the designers re-created the half-tucked style of the shirt.

Let's get a closer look at Jinu's handsome face:

I'm really glad that Jinu has vinyl hair.  I don't think rooted hair would have worked well with this doll.  That being said, the vinyl hair hangs down over Jinu's eyes and interferes a bit with his smolder:

Watch yourself, Emily.

His half smile isn't obscured by the hair at all, though, and I like how this expression mirrors Rumi's face.

Jinu has dark eyebrows with some hairline detail.  The eyebrows aren't completely black, but they're darker than Zoey's:

Jinu's eyes are light brown, and they're surrounded by even lighter brown eyeshadow or eye shading:

Jinu's outfit perfectly reflects the costume from the movie, with a checkered collared shirt, a tank top, ripped blue jeans, and a pink belt:

Straight outta the 80s.

The shirt has only decorative buttons in front, and opens down the back with velcro:

The construction is fine, and the velcro in back makes it easy to put on and take off:

Underneath the shirt, there's a bright pink tank top, a thin vinyl chain necklace...and some impressive abs:

🍿🍿🍿🍿

The tank top opens in the back with velcro:

I'm impressed with how this shirt has finished edges all around the neck and arm holes:

The pink belt is made out of vinyl and is threaded through functional belt loops in the jeans.  The front pockets are functional, too:

Why do guys always get real pockets?

The belt closes in back with a simple peg and hole connection.

Jinu's shoes are white high-top sneakers with pink hearts painted on the sides:

They have detailed treads and a long slit in back for ease of use:

The shoes look good, but they're hard to get on and off.

Underneath his outfit, Jinu has a muscular Ken body with modified legs:

His back muscles are especially impressive!

And he has copyright information molded onto his underwear, just like the girls:

I did a fairly thorough review of the Ken body when I looked at the Barbie movie dolls, so I won't go into huge detail here, but Jinu has eleven points of articulation.

This includes a neck joint that allows the head to look up and down:

And tip from side to side:

He has rotating hinges in his shoulders, elbows, and wrists:

But he can't quite touch his mouth--even with his special hand:

He rubs his eye really well, though.

He can do almost-full front-to-back splits:

But not side-to-side splits.  

Despite hinged rotation in his knees, he can't kneel on two knees:

Okay, he can kneel on two knees, but only if he leans way back.  It's not an easy pose for him.

With some effort, he can also kneel on one knee:

And he can sit in a chair:

The biggest differences I noticed between Jinu and Ken are that Ken can kneel on two knees more easily, and Jinu has slightly more side-to-side movement in his hips.

Here's a picture of Ken and Jinu together:

Barbie Ken (left) and KPop Demon Hunters Jinu (right).

They have the same torso mold, but different hip joints and different knee shapes:

They can share clothes perfectly:

Taking Beach to the next level.

I put Jinu back into his own outfit so that I could test out his accessories.

The alternate hand slides in easily, but I struggle to think why I would ever want to swap out that unique heart hand:

Maybe because the left hand can hold the soda can:

I'll never get this up to my mouth.

But the glasses are the silliest accessory of all.  They look fine on their own, with a fun shape and pink lenses, but they don't fit on Jinu's head very well:

Oh dear.

They have to slide over all of the molded vinyl hair:

And they can't rest on the top of Jinu's head because the hair is too wide:

That's fine.  I don't need any accessories.  Jinu looks great on his own.

I put the white shirt back on and tested out how it would look untucked in the front:

It looks much better with the front tucked in:

Just as Jinu was relaxing with a swig of soda...

Yeah, not gonna happen.

Look who showed up!

It's Derpy Tiger!  Or that's what the tag says.  I didn't realize that the tiger had a name:

I was told, years ago, during a My Little Pony review, that the word "derpy" might make some people feel bad.  So I haven't used it since.  And I won't use it now, even though I'm not exactly sure why it's offensive.  It doesn't matter: if a word is offensive to someone, I don't need to use it.

Besides, he should be called Magical Sweetheart Amazing Tiger because he absolutely stole the show for me.  The scene where he's trying to right the potted plant that he knocked over?  Absolute gold.  I laugh out loud every single time I see that:

As soon as I saw the plush tiger, I knew I had to have him, and I adore him, but I wish he was in scale with the dolls.  He's a tad big:

That doesn't stop Jinu from hanging around with his furry friend!

Now I just need a plushie of the six-eyed bird (Sussy?), and I'll be good.

Of course Tiger and Rumi are also good friends:

So she wanted to hang around with him too:

Maybe one of the reasons that Jinu and Rumi like each other is because of their shared friendship with Tiger?

Or perhaps it's the shared demon blood.

I wanted Rumi and Jinu to hang out a bit, to see if the spark is still alive:

Maybe you can drink this soda.

They look good together, although Jinu should be much taller:

He's a good head taller than Rumi in the movie:

If Mattel had given Jinu longer, spindly legs it would have made him more movie-accurate in several ways.

But it's rare to get a unique male doll, and I love having these two together:

Well, at this point it's probably taken you longer to read my review than to watch the actual KPop Demon Hunters movie, so I should wrap things up.

I gathered all of the hunters together for a few final shots.

That's a pretty chaotic scene.  Let's see if I can get them to be more organized.

Girls!  Get in closer together, please.

Yeah, that's much better.  Of course it's easiest to photograph them without their weapons, but not quite as exciting:

Bottom line?  I often have conflicting emotions running through my head at the end of a review, such as: is there something nice to say?  Were the legs really that bad?  What would kids think of this?  Am I being too critical?  Am I being too generous??  This review is calming for me because I know exactly where I stand.

If I'm talking only about the How it's Done dolls, there are two, maybe three problems.  First, they should have gripping hands for their weaponry.  Second, they should have Made to Move bodies so that they can fight.  Third, for this price point, they should have saran hair.  I waffle a bit on that last proclamation, though, mostly because the only hair I actively dislike is singing Rumi's hair.

Those three things aside, the How it's Done dolls are amazing.  They look just like the movie characters, with unique, well-painted face molds that have a ton of personality.  The hair may be polypropylene, but it's well-rooted and I think it looks great.  I even think Mira's loose hair feels silky and pleasant.  The outfits are all highly-detailed and movie-accurate.  I especially like Rumi's jacket, Mira's skirt and boots, Zoey's top, and all of the norigae.  The weaponry is also impressive and detailed, with Mira's glaive topping the charts and Zoey's knives being less remarkable.  The dolls all have decent articulation, with a modified Barbie Gigi body.  I appreciate that their different leg lengths give them varied overall heights.  And it was such a treat to discover Rumi's shimmering hidden demon patterns.  Jinu fits in well with the How it's Done girls and is of similar quality.  He doesn't come with a weapon and his outfit is not as interesting, but he's movie-accurate and well made.  It's a treat to have him in the mix.

From my experience with just one purchase, the singing Golden dolls are not as good as the How it's Done crew.  They have only five points of articulation, and the outfit detail is not as impressive.  Also, Rumi's braid is pretty short, and the rooting on her hair is sparse.  I did enjoy the sound feature, though.  The clarity and volume are excellent, and it's fun to get three different clips of a fantastic song.  It's also fun to have the Golden costume on hand for my other Rumi to wear.

I didn't expect too much from the KPop Demon Hunters movie when I first heard about it.  I figured it would be more geared towards kids than a person like me, and I watched it mostly so that I could review the dolls.  But the movie quickly became a new favorite.  It's the kind of thing I'll undoubtedly re-watch every year or so.  Or maybe even one more time today.  The movie is so good that by the time I got my hands on the dolls, my hopes and expectations had grown significantly.  I was concerned that the dolls wouldn't be worthy of the movie.  But I needn't have worried.  The dolls are fantastic.  Sure, there are a few little things that--in a perfect world--would be different, but overall I think Mattel knocked it out of the park.  This is how it's done.

Done, done.