Ella Enchanted by Robert Tonner

Deciding what I want to review each week is always an interesting process.  My decision is often based on a loosely-structured master plan that involves balancing newer releases, awesome suggestions from all of you, and an ongoing desire to document a wide range of dolls on this site.  But I occasionally allow myself to be guided by a whim.  This past week, it's been windy and rainy outside, and my husband was far away on business travel.  That's the recipe for me to feel nostalgic and emotional.  In that kind of mood, I get hung-up on a lot of things from my past, including Robert Tonner dolls--the first fashion dolls I ever collected as an adult.  And in moods like this, I also tend to crave the emotional release of cheesy romantic movies.  I mean, isn't that why those movies are made?

Anyway, I love Robert Tonner's work mostly because of his interpretations of my favorite princess, Cinderella.  Tonner's 16-inch fashion doll Cinderellas are among my favorite dolls of all time, and are what I think about when I imagine the Cinderella character.  The doll in today's review is not a typical Tonner Cinderella, but she's based on a Cinderella-like character from...wait for it...a cheesy romantic comedy called Ella Enchanted.  Sounds pretty perfect for my mood, right?

I've had this doll in my collection for a while, always assuming I would share her with you some day.  But for one reason or another she's never pushed her way to the front of the queue.  I suspect now you understand why this week, for a bunch of reasons, she was the perfect doll for me to spend some time with...and do some movie "research" on.  I hope she's just what some of you need, too:

Ella Enchanted by Robert Tonner, 2004.

Live Action The Little Mermaid Ariel by Disney

Okay, so I know that Disney live action remake movies are not everyone's cup of tea.  I have a few of the naysayers in my own family--and I agree with some of their points.  For example, I'll happily admit that some of the autotune singing in Beauty and the Beast is cringey.  Still, I can't help but get wrapped up in the excitement of seeing these beloved stories re-told.  I mean, there could be a new movie version of Cinderella every year and I would not object.  But because of my mixed feelings about re-makes, as the release date for the live action Little Mermaid came closer and closer, I wasn't sure how excited I would be.  Finally, last week, I took a minute to find a trailer online.  I watched it, riveted, with tears in my eyes.  When I heard the snippet from Halle Bailey's rendition of Part of Your World, I straight-up cried...and I knew exactly how excited I was about this movie: very excited.  Very.

I wasn't quite excited enough to head to the theaters on Friday night, release day, but I was there first thing Saturday morning.  The movie is incredible.  In fact, I think it's the best live action re-make so far (even considering my Cinderella bias).  Halle Bailey is luminous, Melissa McCarthy is brilliant as Ursula, and I love Daveed Diggs' take on Sebastian.  In addition, the hair animation is mind-boggling, and the underwater scenes are immersive...and breathtaking.  I think my husband will love this movie simply because of the diversity of sea life that's depicted during Under the Sea.  I feel like the end dragged on for too long and was a bit awkward, but that's a small complaint.  The movie as a whole was magical and I can't wait to see it again.

Unfortunately, even when Disney has a hit with these remake movies, the accompanying dolls aren't necessarily good.  The Disney Store's interpretations of Belle and Cinderella were strange, and ultimately disappointing.  This time around, both Mattel and Disney have released a collection of The Little Mermaid dolls, and the promotional photos look very promising.  So, today I'll review the Disney Store's version of Ariel, and next time I'll compare and contrast her to Mattel's deluxe Ariel doll.  And I'll tell you right up front: I am even more excited about these dolls than I was about the movie trailer:

Live Action The Little Mermaid Ariel doll by Disney, $34.99.

Fan Girl Black Panther and Black Widow by Madame Alexander

During my final shopping trips to Toys 'R' Us a few weeks ago, I purchased a few things to review in depth, including two of Madame Alexander's Marvel Fan Girl dolls: Black Panther and Black Widow.  The Black Panther character was sold out at my local store, but she was still in stock online (and even on sale!).  So, I purchased Black Widow in person and ordered Black Panther online.  Black Panther took forever to ship, but I feel fortunate to have ordered her before the Toys 'R' Us website shut down.  These dolls were Toys 'R' Us exclusives.

One interesting thing about the Fan Girl line is that each character has a variant that's harder to find than the standard-release version.  These variants are called Fan Girl Finds and have specially-marked boxes.  The Fan Girl Finds cost the same as the other versions of the same doll.  For reasons I don't completely understand (movie popularity?), both of the Black Panther variants cost considerably more than the other dolls.  Toys 'R' Us sent me the Fan Girl Find variant of Black Panther ($79.99) and I purchased the regular version of Black Widow ($49.99).

In this review, I will take a close look at my Black Panther doll and do a quick overview of Black Widow.

Black Panther Fan Girl, gold variant ($79.99).

Hermione Granger by Star Ace Toys

In my post about Mattel's 2001 Hermione Granger play doll, I mentioned that I had another Hermione to review.  Several of you guessed correctly that it was Star Ace's new sixth scale figure from the My Favorite Movie series.  Aside from the fact that both of these Hermione dolls portray Emma Watson's version of the beloved character from The Sorcerer's Stone, they have very little in common.  First of all, the Star Ace figure costs about ten times as much as the Mattel doll: a whopping $210, to be precise.  However, Sideshow Collectibles has a great payment plan, and so I was able to make this purchase slowly over a period of almost half a year.  There are other differences--in size, quality and articulation to name a few, and also the fact that Star Ace's Hermione is not yet discontinued and can still be found for sale in several online locations.

The biggest difference between the two dolls, however, is that Star Ace's Hermione is strikingly realistic:

Sixth scale Hermione Granger by Star Ace Toys, $209.99.

Sadness Figures from Pixar's Inside Out: A Comparison Review!

The Pixar movie Inside Out was released on DVD last week, and to celebrate I decided to review two different versions of Sadness--my favorite character from this show.  I absolutely love Inside Out, but when I watched it in the theater, I had to constantly battle with myself to suppress tears.  At one point I made a strange strangled noise to try and control an anguished sob, and the lady next to me shifted in her seat to increase the distance between us.  I don't blame her.  But there were other times during this movie--mostly when Sadness was talking--that I laughed until I was wiping away tears for the opposite reason.

As some of you might remember, my son is getting ready to leave home and go to college, which is hectic, exciting, scary, wonderful...and sad.  Frankly, I walk around most days feeling emotionally stunned.  So this is a good year for me to latch onto a movie that deals with emotions and kids growing up.  And a good year to appreciate the delicate balance between joy and sadness.

I wanted a memento of Sadness from the movie, preferably one that would repeat some of the lines that made me laugh so hard.  As far as I know, there are only two large (non-plush) talking Sadness figures, one by Tomy and the other from the Disney Store.  I bought both to see which one captures this melancholy blue heroine the best:

Tomy's Sadness ($24.99) and Deluxe Talking Sadness from the Disney Store ($19.95).

Disney Fairies Dolls by the Disney Store and Jakks Pacific, Part Two: Periwinkle

This post is a companion to Melissa's great comparison review of the Tinker Bell dolls.  Thank you for all of the helpful background information and for your careful evaluation of the dolls, Melissa!  I agree that the Disney Store's Tink seems more appealing overall.  Her face is so darn cute, and I kinda like her movie-accurate leaf dress...even with the excess of "pixie dust."  Of course, it's not shedding glitter all over my house.

In any case, now it's my turn to take a look at the Disney Store and Jakks Pacific interpretations of Tinker Bell's wintery sister, Periwinkle:

Periwinkle dolls by Jakks Pacific (left), $14.99 and the Disney Store (right), $14.95.

Disney Fairies Dolls by the Disney Store and Jakks Pacific, Part One: Tinker Bell

I'm struggling with the fact that school starts for my kids in one week.  One week!  How did that happen?  What's worse is that I know there are kids across the country who have already started their classes, which seems crazy.  I always have a hard time buckling down to write reviews (or do anything productive, for that matter) when I'm faced with the last few precious days of summer.  However, this year I'm fortunate to have the assistance of some wonderful guest reviewers.  Today, my Canadian friend Melissa is here to help me tackle a comparison review of Disney Fairies dolls made by the Disney Store and Jakks Pacific.  You might remember Melissa from her thorough BEGoth doll review.

Incidentally, Melissa is also the person who got me hooked on Disney Fairies movies.  I was reluctant to watch The Legend of the NeverBeast because many online reviews say it's really scary and kinda sad...which it is.  But Melissa assured me that it's also great...which it is.  I loved it.  I cried a lot, but oh, how I loved it!  Fawn is awesome.  I also watched The Secret of the Wings, which isn't quite as good in my eyes, but is especially relevant to this pair of reviews.

In this post Melissa will compare the Disney Store and Jakks Pacific Tinker Bell dolls, and then I will waltz in for Part Two and compare the equivalent Periwinkle dolls.  I figured this would be a good way to have both fairy sisters represented...and also to provide two separate opinions about these very different brands of doll.

Tinker Bell by Jakks Pacific (left) and the Disney Store (right).

A Disney Descendants Doll Update Review

I have already reviewed the Disney Descendants Mal doll by Hasbro, but before I found her--unexpectedly--at Toys R Us in early July, I had pre-ordered several of the other Descendants characters.  In this update post, I will quickly share some of those other dolls with you.

Oh, and coincidentally, the Descendants movie premiered yesterday on the Disney Channel (I haven't seen it yet).

With many dolls lines, looking at one of the characters is sufficient because all of the dolls share certain basic features.  One of the things I like best about the Descendants dolls is that each character has his or her own unique head mold and coloring.  For that reason, my experiences with Jane, Audrey and Lonnie were all a little bit different...and resulted in me liking one of these dolls much more than the other two:

Coronation Jane, Coronation Lonnie and Signature Audrey from Disney's Descendants movie.

Disney Descendants "Signature Mal" Doll by Hasbro

The Disney Channel is releasing a movie at the end of the month called Descendants.  This show is set in a modern-day imaginary kingdom and focuses on the offspring of famous Disney characters.  Re-imagining fairy tales has been an extremely popular theme these past few years--both in the movie/television world (Maleficent, Cinderella, Snow White and the Huntsman, Once Upon a Time, etc.) and in the doll world (Ever After High, Once Upon a Zombie, Fairy Tale High, Tonner's Re-Imagination line...and probably a few that I'm forgetting).  It's especially noteworthy how similar the Descendants premise is to the the inspiration behind Ever After High.

The Descendants movie plot centers around Ben, who is the son of Belle and the Beast.  The teenaged prince decides to invite several of the villain's kids (who have grown up banished on the Isle of the Lost) to attend his fancy prep school...and then--if I am judging from the trailer correctly--promptly falls in love with one of them.  The villain kids feel torn between the wishes of their evil parents and a growing fondness for Ben and his royal friends.  Several things about this whole set-up are confusing to me (do all of the fairy tale characters live in the same kingdom?  Are they all the same age?  Why does Ben get to be the leader?  Didn't most of the villains die before they got to reproduce?) but I'm willing to wait and see if everything is explained in the actual movie.

I thought that the 11-inch Descendants fashion dolls were being released just before the movie (on July 20th), so I pre-ordered a few of them and was eagerly anticipating their arrival.  However, last weekend I was visiting a Toys R Us store up north and found four of the dolls already in stock!  This was a nice surprise, so I jumped on the chance to do a review of one of the characters I didn't pre-order--who actually seems like she might be the star of the whole movie: Mal, the daughter of Maleficent.

Disney Descendants "Signature Mal" doll, $19.99.

"Frozen Fever" Anna and Elsa Dolls--A Comparison Review!

After limping along for a few months, my valiant six-year-old computer finally reached the Point of No Return.  It might have--just a thought--had something to do with the 28,000 photographs stored on its hard drive.  Anyway, I have been transitioning to a newer computer over the past few weeks.  I knew this would be a challenge (let's just say I'm not someone who thrives on change...) but it was trickier than I expected.  The biggest hurdle was to move from my ancient iPhoto software to a fancy modern photo processing program.  You might notice a few changes and quirks as I continue to get used to all of these new-fangled things.

I probably should have written a few shorter reviews as I got accustomed to my new set-up, but a side-effect of my aversion to change is that I pretend everything is going to stay the same...and I don't plan ahead.  I just stubbornly do what I would have done in a never-changing world.  Basically, I was really looking forward to writing this Frozen Fever comparison review and didn't want to compromise.  So...it took me a while to finish.

Both Mattel and the Disney Store made Anna and Elsa dolls for the Frozen Fever short film that accompanied the recent Cinderella movie.  I loved this short film--especially when I was watching it in a movie theater full of little kids.  The giggling was contagious.  I really wanted to have a doll souvenir from this cute film--like I do for most Disney movies.  I typically prefer the Disney Store versions of movie-themed dolls, but when I saw that Mattel had changed their Frozen dolls for this release (Anna has a really different face mold) I thought it would be fun to do another comparison.

Mattel's Frozen Fever Elsa (left) and Anna (right), $14.99 each.

Cinderella and the Prince set from the Disney Store, and Mattel's Cinderella Wedding Day

I'm back!  For those of you not on Facebook, I'll fill you in: I was in a bad car accident right after the Phicen review, and I broke my leg.  Everything is going really well, but I am about the slowest person on the planet right now, so it's just taken a really long time to get back on track.  The other thing is, this review is super-long and involves three dolls, so it would have taken me a while to create even with two fully-functioning legs.  I could have just chosen to review a simpler doll, I suppose, but this review involves Cinderella, and when Cinderella is on the scene, I find it difficult to think rationally.

Have I mentioned that I'm ridiculously excited about Disney's Cinderella live action movie that is coming out in 18 days on March 13th??  I've read comments around the internet suggesting that Disney really blew it by making another Cinderella movie, and that everyone has seen the story enough times already.  I respectfully disagree.  For me, this movie is (in true Disney fashion) a dream come true.  I never dared to even hope that there would be another Cinderella movie...but here it comes.  Premiering in less than a month.  I have watched the trailer for Cinderella about thirty times now (no exaggeration...) and it makes me weep every time--especially the part when Ella's mother says, Where there is kindness, there is goodness, and where there is goodness...there is magic!  Ahh!  Goosebumps!  It's going to be an amazing movie.  It has to be.

Of course I have also been anticipating the new Cinderella doll lines with significant enthusiasm.  Both the Disney Store and Mattel have produced versions of the main characters, and I thought it would be fun to do a comparison of the first pair of dolls I was able to get my hands on: "Cinderella and the Prince" ($69.95 from the Disney Store) and "Cinderella Wedding Day" ($29.99 from Mattel).

Cinderella from the Disney Store's "Cinderella and the Prince" set.

The "Honey Lemon" doll from Big Hero 6

I stumbled on the Honey Lemon doll one day while I was casually browsing through the Disney Store's online collections.  At that time, I didn't know anything about the Big Hero 6 movie--I just noticed that there was a new redheaded Disney doll who looked really fun and full of character.

A few weeks ago, Christina recommended Honey Lemon to me over on Facebook, and I figured it would be a good time to actually see the movie and think about doing a review of the doll.  I still didn't know the story of Big Hero 6 when I went to the theater last week (the title doesn't give much away).  I knew the movie was loosely based on a Marvel comic book series by the same name, but that's about it.  I don't want to give away too much about the movie to any of you, but it's really a delightful, action-filled film with tons of heart.  I thoroughly enjoyed it and was even laughing out loud (and crying a little, too) on several occasions...even though I was the only one in the theater.

I think the Disney Store has only made articulated dolls out of two characters from this movie so far: Honey Lemon and Go Go Tomago.  Neither of these girls are the star of Big Hero 6, though.  The movie is carried by an engaging 13-year-old genius, Hiro, and his huggable robot companion, Baymax.  Still, Honey Lemon is a kind, brilliant, zany addition to the story and it's a treat every time she is on screen.  Although I'd really love to have a Hiro doll in my collection some day, for now I am happy to have the cheery, redheaded Honey:

The Disney Store's "Honey Lemon" from the Big Hero 6 movie.

Princess Malucia from "Barbie and the Secret Door"

Like my previous reviews of the Kitty Surprise toys, this is a post that I didn't plan on writing.  During one of my "research" outings a few days ago, I saw a doll in the Barbie section that stopped me in my tracks.  I'd never seen this particular doll before, and she intrigued me to the point that I put everything else on hold so that I could take a closer look at her.  Judging by other pictures that are cropping up on places like Flickr, I am not alone in my reaction to this character.

Let me back up, though.  The doll I'm talking about is "Princess Malucia," the antagonist in the recently-released Barbie movie, Barbie and the Secret Door.  Why is this doll so interesting?  Well, she's a relatively new Barbie character with a new face, which is newsworthy enough, but the reason I had to buy her is that her face bears a striking resemblance to the Ever After High characters:

Barbie's "Princess Malucia" flanked by Madeline Hatter (left) and Poppy O'Hair (right).

A Maleficent Doll Comparison Review

I have been eagerly anticipating next week's release of the new Disney live-action movie, Maleficent.  First of all, Maleficent is brilliantly named, and perhaps the best Disney villain of all time.  I mean, she turns into a dragon at the end of Sleeping Beauty, which is pretty hard to beat for diabolical awesomeness.  Second, the trailer looks great and I love the idea of a fairy tale being told from a different, darker perspective.  I expect something similar to Wicked, the book-turned-musical that tells the story of The Wizard of Oz from the Wicked Witch's point of view.

Unlike Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return, this movie seems to be geared towards older children and adults.  It has a PG rating, but seems darker than most Disney movies.  Angelina Jolie's creepy-eyed portrayal of Maleficent might be too much for young viewers--her chilling laugh and eery smile are enough to make me jumpy.  The dolls for this movie also seem to be designed for an older crowd, too, which offers a nice contrast to my last review.

Both the Disney Store and Jakks Pacific have recently released 12" dolls based on characters from the Maleficent movie.  The Disney Store currently only has Aurora and Maleficent ($34.95 each).  Jakks Pacific has basic Aurora and Maleficent ($19.99 each), Coronation Aurora and Maleficent ($39.99 each), and also a Diaval figure that is available in a two-doll set with Coronation Maleficent.  In this review, I will contrast the Jakks Pacific basic Maleficent with the Disney Store's version.

The Disney's Store's new 12" Maleficent ($34.95).

Dorothy & Toto from "Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return"

The animated movie, Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return premiered on May 9th and is getting perplexingly polarized reviews--people either love it or hate it.  I watched the trailer, but probably won't see this movie myself since it seems to be intended for a pretty young crowd.  I do have a general fondness for the original Wizard of Oz movie, though, based on our family's tradition of watching this classic every year when it aired on television.  I always forgot from year to year that the movie starts in black and white and then bursts into color once Dorothy gets to Oz.  For some reason, that effect was perpetually magical to me.  Anyway--because of this fondness, I always stop to look at Wizard of Oz merchandise at the toy stores.  A few weeks ago at Toys R Us, I noticed a brand new group of attractive-looking Dorothy dolls and stopped to investigate.  Seeing these dolls is actually how I first learned about Legends of Oz.  The new dolls are made by Bandai, and are designed to resemble the animated Dorothy from the movie.

Bandai's initial release of Legends of Oz toys includes three different 11" Dorothy dolls ($16.99-$24.99), a larger scale 15" child Dorothy ($19.99), and two sets of small secondary character figurines ($11.99 per set).  I was drawn to these toys not just because of their association with the Wizard of Oz, but because all of the dolls have very sweet faces.  I decided to review the 11" Dorothy that comes with a Toto companion, since this particular doll is in the middle of the price range and I am a fan of Cairn terriers (note: Dorothy can't actually hold Toto on her own):

"Dorothy & Toto" by Bandai, $19.99.