May is Disney Month--Barbie Dolls VS Disney Princess!

 Hey Gang!

When Mattel first started making Disney Princess(and Prince) the dolls shared the Mattel Barbie(Ken) body with a date on the back but used a head made for Disney that said Disney at the the back of the neck. Those of us that are used to Barbie dolls noted that the head never had the year like Barbie to identify the different head sculpts.  

At first, the biggest different from the Disney Princess and Barbie was was the eyes.  Since the Disney characters were based on an animated movie, the eyes reflect the larger more animation type style of eyes ie, they looked more cartoonish than barbie because of this. In some dolls, this wasn't as pronounced as in others. The size of the eyes of Snow White-round with the star twinkle painted in them are more cartoonish than the eyes of Pocahontas.

Snow White

Pocahontas

As time went on, there seemed to be more of an effort to distinguish the Barbie from the princess.

I am not sure if this was Disney's idea or Mattel's.  The size of the head of the Disney dolls (which always seemed a bit larger) became larger. Blowing up like a balloon! This was also about the time 

that the Disney stores started carrying their own line of Disney Princess with larger heads and larger eyes than the ones done by Mattel.

Bratz dolls, which had becoming wildly popular at the time. For a while Bratz dolls had nudged 

Barbie out as the top selling doll slot. They had a large head with large eyes and a small body. The 

popularity of this doll seemed to catch the doll market off guard. 

Mattel and Disney seem to react to the increase in sales of the Bratz doll. The heads on both doll lines became even larger.  While the princess keep their gowns, Disney seemed to think that adding even more glitter would make the gown some how better! Tons of glitter was annoyingly add to Disney gowns.

I really wanted this doll and it took many washings to remove most of the glitter off the dress!

Mattel drastically changed (a bad move) to compete the size of doll heads, faces and the style of clothes to look more Bratz doll's crop tops, short skirts and dresses. Fashion Avenue, which is till very popular, was replace with  Fashion Fever (more of a hit or miss) which had few Ken outfits (Ken being phased out for Blaine). 

Mattel even add a new line, My Scene to compete with Brats!

My Scene Photo courtesy of Mattel

As with many of these types of line of dolls that Mattel with put out.  That didn't last for long and Mattel finally sued MGA Entertainment over the Bratz doll and won so the Bratz doll was discontinued. 

With Barbie and My Scene along with Bratz dolls have more provocative fashions, many mothers weren't happy to have their child playing with and maybe requesting these types of fashions.  I think it was just those types of fashions that got more mothers and other people sewing for dolls to have the kind of clothes they wanted to see.

Fashions I purchase from eBay because they were a more conservative length!

When Disney move the prince line to Hasbro, Hasbro seem to make the heads even larger and the body smaller.

Photos courtesy Bloomsburg.com

Hasbro Princess vs Mattel Princess

Mulan

Jasmine

Set of the princess!

As Disney seems to add more dolls to their line, Hasbro has said that it wants to highlight the 

Princess like Mattel didn't! So let's see where they go with them!

OK, Thanks For Looking!

May is Disney Month! Can You Have to Many Adams!

Hey Gang!

It wasn't until I started writing this post that I realized how many Adam dolls I have and how many there?

Adam form Beauty and the Beast!

My first Adam that I owned I got from a thrift store.  He was like the one below and had most of his accessories.  He is by Mattel. His hair wasn't the best but not as bad as many!

The bangs on my guy aren't as nice as the one in of the doll in this picture. What was nice about him was his out and the beast costume. I really need to use it for a Halloween post.

The "X" or twinkle and the eye color are different. Not seen on other princes.

 To use him as one of my guys around here, I first gave him a new body Many of the older Ken/Prince dolls are a bit pinky- orange.  The best bodies for them our the older articulated elbow and knees Hot Skatin' Ken bodies give him good enough movement.

This is a closeup of my Adam! Note that his hair isn't as nice as the one above. It lacks                        the shine.  I still might give his hair a deep condition.

Next up is this version! Purchase my first one at Toys R Us on sale!

I got him because his face was different...a bit aristocratic! Unlike the earlier issue. The 

beast costume's head and jack are different and he doesn't come with beast pants/feet either.

I got him because his face was different...a bit sad and aristocratic! Unlike the earlier issue, he didn't have a ponytail. The good thing about him was his body.  It  has articulated elbows but not knees. (Similar to Mattel Flynn Rider but without the knees) He was popular enough to find him often in thrift stores too!

 

 I was able to use his body for a few dolls! Joseph from Home Depot and Prince Philip. They are  some of  the men that I have used his body for.

Next up is The first Disney Store Adam.

There probably were some others but this is the first one I saw.

He is more of a strawberry blonde that some of the other Adam dolls and his complexion is lighter.

That made finding an articulated body for him hard.

Oddly enough, his face looks closer to the Mattel first issue doll without the stars in his eyes.

Being this pale, he is hard to find a body for him.  I use an Dumbledore body for him

and he is not Reliegh!

Mattel stop producing dolls for Disney about 2012 and the Disney princess, princes and other dolls  by Disney are now  being produced by other companies.  

This one of the Adam dolls that I don't own. He is a Disney store male and has the classic Disney Store body of bend and click knee and articulated elbow that the Disney store male have.  

I didn't like the face on this one. If he is on sale at a thrift store... maybe but for now 

I am OK without him.

Finally, I don't own the Live Action Adam.  I did see him in the stores but he looked short than Ken. 

His legs are painted white to imitate hose for his outfit which seem detailed. So I am surprised that 

they painted the legs instead of just giving him hose. The painted legs makes putting him in a 

swimsuit funny! Without his clothes, you can see he has the same body as Chief Benja and Jafar. I am guessing this might be the new Disney playline/big box store male body.

If you want to know how Hasbro got the contract to produce Disney dolls,

  I shared a cute video that explains how it happened!

OK, Thanks For Looking!

Disney Flynn Ryder-May is Disney Month!

 Hey Gang!

So a while back I told you I purchase a Flynn Rider doll. He is the first Disney Store version of the doll

I purchased him from Maureen Busa  on FaceBook of Maureen Dolls to buy, sell or trade! Maureen and others sell on this Facebook page. 

What a like about him is his outfit and...

his smirk!

He looks like he is a real character!

In my dolliverse he is Gavin and he is one of my 20 something dolls.

Who is Flynn Rider and where is he from? Here is my post of information on him.  

So here we go! 

Flynn is one of the two main character dolls from Tangled. 

Flynn Rider and Rapunzel 

About the movie:

Tangled is a 2010 American 3D computer-animated musical adventure film produced 

by Walt Disney Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. Loosely 

based on the German fairy tale "Rapunzel" in the collection of folk tales published 

by the Brothers Grimm, it is the 50th Disney animated feature film. Featuring the 

voices of Mandy Moore, Zachary Levi and Donna Murphy, the film tells the story 

of a lost, young princess with magical long blonde hair who yearns to leave her 

secluded tower. Against her mother's wishes, she accepts the aid of an intruder to 

take her out into the world which she has never seen. Before the film's release, its 

title was changed from Rapunzel to Tangled, reportedly to market the film gender-

neutrally. Tangled spent six years in production at a cost that has been estimated at 

$260 million, which, if accurate, would make it the most expensive animated film 

ever made and one of the most expensive films of all time. The film employed a 

unique artistic style by blending together features of computer-generated imagery 

(CGI) and traditional animation while using non-photorealistic rendering to create

 the impression of a painting. Composer Alan Menken, who had worked on prior 

Disney animated features, returned to score Tangled. Tangled premiered at the 

El Capitan Theatre on November 14, 2010, and went into general release on 

November 24. The film earned $592 million in worldwide box office revenue, 

$200 million of which was earned in the United States and Canada, making it the 

eighth highest-grossing film of 2010, and was praised by critics and audiences 

for its animation, writing, characters, and musical score. The film was nominated 

for a number of awards, including Best Original Song at the 83rd Academy Awards. 

The film was released on Blu-ray and DVD on March 29, 2011; a short film, Tangled 

Ever After, was released later in 2012 and a television series premiered in 2017. To read 

more about the move click here

Now I thought it was called Tangled because of the condition of the hair found one of the Rapunzel 

doll in a thrift store. If you have seen one there, you know that their hair is a tangled mess! One of my finds at the thrift store. I am not brave enough to tackle her hair yet.

There may be nude dolls below!

Rapunzel

Mattel version of the doll.

I never liked his face. I always thought the brow was too pronounced. 

I have used his body for dolls as a donor. It isn't the best of articulation but it is a 

match for dolls that are a little tanish/pink in hue. Not all have this type of body so you have to look closely. 

I used the body for my Chen which is a head swapped Vitriol

This is the second release of Flynn from the Disney Store

They made his brow more pronounced here too! I don't know if I'll keep him I still like the outfit.

What I plan to do with the first Flynn doll is I should you is add him as a character to

the blog! He will be Gavin, the love interest of Emily-Ann. I will work out the rest of his 

story shortly.

I am thinking about doing with Pseudanoymous from Flickr did with a new body. 

I found the carving tools that he used to give the hair texture and am thinking about doing 

that too! They are pretty sharp so I will have to be careful. If you would like to see the different headsculpts, I recommend this post from Toysiste

OK, Thanks For Looking

May is Disney Month! Latest Purchase-Disney Frozen II And Tangled!

 Hey Gang!

So you  might remember me mentioning that I like the dad in the Disney Frozen 2 Arendelle Royal family set but that I didn't want to pay the price for him. I've looked at him every time I'm in Target.

Frozen II Arendelle Royal Family set!

Well waiting pays off! I found the dad, mom, Kristoff, Anna and Flynn Ryder all at a great price! Just in time for Disney Month!

First, about the characters from Frozen 2:

Ana

Queen Iduna

Kristoff

King Agnarr

You got to love this face and I'm a sucker for red hair!

Finally there is Flynn Ryder!

This doll were a great find!Each doll will get its' own review later but I wanted to show you them.  They need a body swap and restyling and then they will make a great addition to the blog!

OK, Thanks For Looking!