Monster High Lagoona Blue by Mattel

So I have been OBSESSED with Monster High dolls lately! It happened quite unexpectedly when I ran across this great blog by Toy Box Philosopher. I had really brushed these dolls aside when they came out in 2010. Actually, my reaction was a little stronger and quite a bit more negative. My step-daughter liked these dolls and, to me, they seemed a little outlandish. I couldn't stand the tight, splashy print clothes my step-daughter was becoming fond of and I just thought these dolls were going too much in that direction. I really, really wish I had given them a chance, asked more questions, looked a little closer. I wish my step-daughter had tried to show me why she thought they were great. These dolls perhaps could have been the key to open the lock on a much better relationship. Ah, regrets.....

Reading about these dolls and their quirky stories has been quite an education! Each doll is the daughter of some sort of monster and each doll has their own bio, complete with their fashion style, favourite food, favourite subject in school, and such!

I normally am not terribly happy when the Christmas decorations go into stores in September but since that means my local BJ's Wholesale has an entire aisle of TOYS, I will let it slide! I wasn't 2 feet down the aisle when I spotted the Monster High dolls! They were only $15.99! I picked out my two favourites of the bunch that was offered, figuring by the end of shopping I would decide which I preferred. Needless to say, I walked out of the store with two dolls......

The first review will be Lagoona Blue! This particular Lagoona is from the Dot Dead Gorgeous line of dolls. The outfits are based on a webisode more commonly known as Night of a Thousand Dots.

I was so excited to open my very first Monster High doll! She was just beautifully displayed in the box!

The back has some great graphics and Lagoona's schedule for the day of the party!

It was frighteningly easy to open the flaps on the outer box and take out the cardboard insert holding the doll and her party accessories. No tape, no fuss....

I knew I would pay the price with all the elastics to snip and ties to unravel....

But, honestly, it could have been much, much worse! Tinker Belle, in my last review, was more complicated! Before I knew it, I had all the pieces out of the box and ready to play!

She was just beautiful!!! I have heard mixed reviews about the doll stands that come with Monster High dolls. I have heard that they muss up the clothes and break easily. But I still am happy that it is one of the accessories. I like stands for my dolls. It makes display easier, for me at least! I have a 140 pound Saint Bernard that is as clumsy as she is huge! She is always bumping into tables and things, knocking over dolls all along the way! These probably won't "stand" up to her bonking around but they are definitely better than nothing! The dolls are actually pretty solid and stable. Just added "insurance", I guess!

Plus, with a stand you can do this:

Lagoona's outfit is very pretty. A strapless bodice with a multi-layered, asymmetrical skirt and a belt with a starfish on it. Since Lagoona is the daughter of the Sea Monster, everything has an oceanic feel to it. Her shoes are shells with a pearl on the strap. She has a netting sleeve for one arm and "bubbly" jewelry.

If she had one fin at the waist instead of removable ones on her legs, she'd be a perfect mermaid!

 I love the "wave" that her bangs are in, even though they are very, very crunchy with product! Her eyes are gorgeous and the sprinkling of freckles is just too cute!!! She has rosy lips an just a touch of iridescence on her upper eye shadow. 

Her ears are fins! The details on this doll are terrific!

Her hair is super soft and styled in a side-ponytail, with a matching shell and pearl holder. Her skin tone is a lovely, watery blue and even her hands are webbed, with fins on her arms!!!

When I took off her ponytail holder, it resembles a little ring. I think it may be split like that so it can go back on easier, but it is a good enough size that I can see a little girl happily wearing it!

I wanted to see her hair down, it is so silky and long! But it was a scary mess!

My days working at American Girl served me well because a little spritz and a wire brush did the trick!

I took a look at her scalp and her hair was rather sparsely rooted and thicker on one side. I don't know if this was just my doll but her hair seemed to be more thickly rooted right where the ponytail originally was.

But Lagoona is a very peaceful looking doll. She really has a very distinct personality!

The straps on her little dress are a little tough to get over her webbed hands but the dress is well made for such a small piece of clothing! Also, her hands are removable, which you have to do to get her bracelets off anyway! I was very nervous about this! I felt like I was going to break her! But I was happily surprised when her hands came off easily and snapped right back on! 

To get her tight little dress on her, you have to remove her leg fins. I think this is a nice feature of these dolls. There may come a time when I want her to wear a pair of pants and the fins may get in the way! The notches on each leg are different so you can never put the fins on wrong!

She comes with some other accessories too. A phone, with a slide-out keyboard (wow!), a purse that doesn't open (huh?), a compact that snaps closed (but I can't see it lasting very long, the plastic joint was already wearing thin and white after a few snaps), and a Monster High skull brush. The brush really doesn't work well. It's cute but a wire brush is much better on the saran wig hairs.

These dolls are beautifully articulated with 9 joints. Lagoona can touch her hair and face!

The body is very solid and sturdy. The legs and arms are long and slim, making her easy to pose. I don't know how they do it (maybe the bigger head size?) but she can easily stand on her own!

With heels like that though, I know she is as happy as I am that she came with a stand!

All in all, I know that my Monster High obsession is going to be long and involved! These dolls are just amazing! They pose in such expressive ways that they convey all sorts of emotion very easily! I can see why my step-daughter enjoyed them! They are definitely NOT your average fashion doll!!! A very playable doll for an excellent price!

Tink by Jakks Pacific

I was faced with so many fashion doll choices on my first trip to Toys R Us that I just had to go with an old stand-by and my favourite character, Tinker Bell! If I hadn't, I would have broken my $50 rule on my second trip out by buying them all!!! Like I have said, I have never been a big fan of fashion dolls but there are so many wonderful, fun, new things out there! I see many fashion doll reviews in my future! I will find good baby but I honestly (and sadly) think that will be harder! 

First let me say that this "Tink" is a Disney doll made by Jakks Pacific and their website is the worst that I have ever come across! They make so many toys with so many big names, you'd think they would have a more comprehensive and easy to use website! I couldn't even find the doll I had bought on their page. When I went to Disney fairies, it showed me about 9 or so toys (not all dolls, just fairy related) but there was no way to find more! I am not very computer savvy but they are selling TOYS! Maybe children are better at browsing on a webpage than I am (no doubt!) but I have tried many times and still cannot find the doll I bought!

Enough of my rant about websites not being easy enough! At the top of this box it says "Disney Fairies", at the bottom it says "Tink", and across the box it said "Celebrating Pixie Party". I don't know if this is from a movie or show but I liked the outfit so I bought the doll. She is 9 inches tall and cost me $16.99.

There was cute graphics on the back and pictures of her fairy friends dressed in their finery.

I cut some tape and opened the outer box easily and this cardboard sleeve pulled out with Tink still very much attached!

She was tied down but good! Even her hands were attached with clear plastic bands! I understand wanting to keep her in her pose and make them all look the same but how hard are they throwing around these boxes that they need to hog-tie Tinker Bell to the backing in such a severe manner? Will she fly away perhaps? I don't think so, because her wings had wide clear bands of plastic holding them in!!!

They even put a tie through her HEAD!

I really hope that any child who gets this doll has a patient adult handy! I used to be the "designated doll freedom Queen" for my daughters and then for my friends' daughters! I would be the patient soul snipping all the ties and peeling all the clothes off the two-sided tape! I will never understand why they do this, especially to fashion dolls, but it is a very frustrating thing for everyone under the age of 12! (And most people OVER that age also!) It does feed my tendency toward OCD though........everything in its place!

Finally! FREEEEEEEEE-DOM! (And I don't think Tink is even Scottish!)

She can't stand on her own, with or without her wings, but she sure is cute! Her wings attach with a Velcro tab to the back of her shrug-style jacket. But that means she can't wear her wings without her jacket. Boo!

She has a cute up-do that is really just a short ponytail curled under at the edges. Her hair is very crunchy, with a lot of product keeping that do in place! She has one cute curl hanging down! I absolutely love the triangular cut of her bangs! It is a really nice touch and looks great with her face!

When I went to take the shrug off, I found that it was attached by two (yes TWO!) more plastic ties! I almost ripped a hole in the thing before I realized it and I had to be very careful not to snip the fluffy fabric! Tinker Bell's outfit consists of a blue-green sleeveless shrug and a multi-layered, multi-coloured halter dress, and shoes that match the colour of the shrug.

The halter closes with Velcro around the neck and down the back. The stitching is pretty neat! (I do wish they had put a little Velcro piece on the back of the dress for the wings! It would have been nice.)

There's a gold belt with gold sparkly wide ties hanging to one side. This fabric is not finished or edged and is already fraying. There are three layers to the skirt: an aqua blue with sparkles that is finished and two different coloured green layers that are not finished. But the inner seams look very nice. The skirt material is a little heavier than the belt ties and doesn't look like it will fray.

Miss Bell has 9 points of articulation (neck, elbows, wrists, legs, and knees) but not a wide range of sideways movement.

She has the sway-back type of body that I have heard the Monster High ghouls are famous for and I love her painted on panties!

She can easily do the splits! But my doll's right elbow was not doing much of anything. It was very stiff and it felt like if I forced it, it was going to break. This was disappointing because I love the wrist articulation but it isn't as easy to get a wide range of expressive hand movement if you can't move the elbow.

When I dressed Tink up again, I noticed the top to her halter was a little baggy and a little too revealing. I didn't understand why, since the fabric wasn't stiff. It just wasn't a good fit. Maybe a tighter pattern...

Her shoes were nice though. Pretty and much easier to take on and off than they looked! They stayed on nicely! Now if they could have helped her stand on her own, that would have been wonderful!!

Tinker Bell is very pretty but her eye painting made her look a little wonky when you looked at her straight in the face. Her eyes seem to be looking to the side but at two different points to the side....

She looks sly but sweet in profile.

And I love that her head swivels, so she can look up!

I was never able to get her right arm to loosen so she could bend it though.

Poor Tink doesn't sit terribly lady-like either.

I'd love to find a suitably sized threal spool to make her a seat! I have always wanted a bird cage style doll house for a Tinker Bell doll!

Despite her bending flaws, Tink is a pretty doll. Not worth the $16.99 however.

 I think this doll is worth about $9.99, tops. There are many fully articulated dolls out there for less than what she cost that come with some accessories, like a brush and/or stand. I think a stand would be very nice to have with this doll, since she doesn't sit well and has wings! She is very pretty, despite her wonky eyes and my granddaughter will likely have hours of fun with her. She is for ages 4+. I wouldn't purchase her pixie party friends, even though the one with the white hair and the button on her dress is super cute! She was my first choice but she wasn't available of the shelf. If I found her on 40% or 50% off sale, I might pick her up but there are so many others out there that are different and more exciting, she would have some competition!

Meanwhile, Tink will hang out in the "little doll" basket until my granddaughter comes to visit!

She has lots of good company!