Moana 2 Matangi Doll!

 Hey Gang!

I saw the Moana 2 Matangi doll in Target! I thought, WOW! She is pretty! 

There are people of color all over the world.  There are darker members of those people but they aren't often seen or represented in images of those countries.  One of the things I liked about Encantos was the range of complexion of the characters in the movie.

Promo Photo!

My Doll!

Plastic removed

Close-up!

She looks like the balloon-head version of Pohantas!

I saw a video in which someone put the head on an Encantos Isabela's body. I knew

I had an extra body hanging around. Let's try it! There is a complexion difference! 

Matangi is more red.

Matangi is thinner and taller too!

Matangi's feet are larger.

The Matangi outfit is stretchy so it will work on the Isabela body.  It isn't a 

perfect match but it will do!

OK, Thanks For Looking!

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! Head Swaps-The Girls!

Hey Gang!

I got this idea from Jeanie of Adventures In Barbieville . She is a fount of
inspiration for me! She mention to me that she recently got disney dolls
for body swap but had a mishap in removing one of the heads. So let's talk
about Disney doll heads, bodies and buying them aftermarket or used!

The upside and downside of Disney dolls.

The upside!
For me, while articulated Barbie bodies are harder for me to find in thrift
stores (and boy do I miss thrift stores) articulated Disney bodies were not!
There are alway articulated Disney dolls on Facebook too. For me, the neck
knobs are a little more tricky and maybe... a little thinner too!  Because of this,
you have to be careful when removing the head of and when purchasing Disney
dolls aftermarket (used doll).

Warning you are about to see nude dolls!

The body! 

This one of the basic bodies. There is another with a different kind of knees and feet!

The two knees and feet!

Compared Disney body to Mattel body.

 Shoulder to knee!

Disney articulated --Mattel Fashionista

 Disney neck knob to Mattel neck knob

Mattel is a longer neck but the neck on the Disney body is long enough to not look 

too short with a Mattle head.

 The Disney knee has a click knee and Mattel has a fashionista knee.

Here is the most important part to know the dics of the neck knob is larger on the
Disney doll than on the Mattel doll. Making the head a little harder to get off
and on the neck than a Mattel!

Note you can't see the hole in the neck.

Now there are several manufacturers that make dolls for Disney.  Removing
the head of Disney or any doll to me is a heat the head with a hair dryer move!
You really want to heat the head before attempting to remove it.  By this I mean
I use the dryer to heat the base of the head until it is slightly soft and will make
it easier to remove. If you can feel it soften you are doing good.

You may need to heat it more that once if it starts to cool.  I like to use my pointy
scissors in this process too. I like to cover the hair (will talk about the hair in
another post) and move the opening of the head over the top of the head knob
carefully. Then I may use my pointy scissors to pry the head to above the round
top of round disc. Running it around the edge.

It is much easier to get the heard off the two hooks at the of the knob than a
Mattel head where the hook and stem are longer. Like with Mattel neck knobs
I remove the hooks to make it easier if a want to do another swap.

 Before!

After!

Many of the newer Mattel dolls are a light complexion.
Glinda the Good Witch has bendable elbows and click knees but she could go
on a Disney articulated body.

Made to move purple top is kinda scarce.  Many of the articulated Disney doll
bodies are the right complexion to fill the gap! I first used Mulan's body for a

few dolls!

Mulan

Mulan and Top Model Summer

 Summer on Mulan body!

 Stars Doll on Mulan

 Asian Barbie on Mulan

Asian Bacis Barbie on Mulan

Several different bodies can work!  I think the yellow is Bell, 

purple is Rapunzel and blue is Cinderella.

The Birds Barbie and Fashionista #30

Other dolls on Disney bodies!

 Mattel Pocahontas head on Disney Pocahontas body!

Mattel Nakima head on a Disney Jasmine body.  She was move to a Pocahontas
body so that she too she has the arm tattoo also.

Curvy fashionista Ric Rac on Tiana body.

Petite Fashionista crazy for coral head and Fashion Fever Tia head

After market purchases

When I purchase a Disney doll or any doll online, I ask about
the head, hair, neck, body, hands and feet! A picture taken is a certain way
may hide what will obviously be a flaw in person. Am I saying the seller
is trying to pawn off a flawed doll on you?  No, there is a chance that they
might not have noticed. Your asking will make them look and if there is
an issue when the doll arrives, you have a leg to stand on! If in checking
they say "oh wow, there is a problem, you can if you still want it,  negotiate
a better price. Sometimes you only want the head so it is still OK!


When purchasing from a thrift store, my school of thought is the same with
any thrift store purchases. Anything I see I even kinda like goes in the cart!
There is nothing worse than seeing something you thought about in some else's
cart. Put it in the cart and review it before checkout.

Until I have looked all over the store I don't thin out my cart! After I am sure I
have seen everything, I now go thought the cart and check for issues with
everything in the cart.  Problem that can't be fixes are in the top little area of
the cart to go back.  "Sure shots" are put in the front of the cart and "iffy in the
back. I then put back the issues items, access again the iffy" and total my cost.
Hopefully I am not over! If I am, then what do I really want or need?

So the Disney neck on the left is cracked and the knob is missing. The neck on
the right is Mattel and the knob is missing.

 Crack neck that wasn't notice until I got home and tried to do a head swap.

 Side view!

You can glue a neck knob of Mattel and Disney dolls. I can do some repairs but
it is better to know that you have to do it that to discover it.
BTW, on articulated Disney bodies the forearm with hand can be removed with a
little work!

Will post for the boys later! Stay tuned.

OK, Thanks For Looking!

May Is Disney Month! Simba Toys!

Hey Gang!

May is Disney month and besides Mattel, one of the biggest makers of
Disney toys and dolls is Simba Toys!

For a long time Simba produced the Disney dolls in Disney Stores while the
Disney dolls found in big box stores and toy stores were produced by Mattel.
When I was thrift store shopping, I would find Disney dolls from both!
Simba dolls many not be spot on with the look of the movie.  They do give
a different representation of the movie character.  Also, if you were expecting
the quality that Mattel used to have, you won't find that in Simba.  The body
and the quality of the hair isn't as good! The quality of the fashions isn't as
good sometimes but it isn't that bad either.

 Face A

Face B

If you have seen my three Pocahontas dolls,

the dolls on the end are Simba Pocahontas dolls and the one in the middle is
Mattle!  By the way, the reason the one in the middle looks shorter is that the
others have on heeled boot and the one in the middle is barefoot!

So if you are saying you are not familiar with Simba, Simba makes the

Steffi Love doll and Family

Simba also does a large variety of off brand dolls sold in the USA and around the world.

Scary Couple--Steffi Love --Mystic Girls Set

Evi and classmate

Evi Love--Skate Timmy

You may have seen many of these dolls at places like Ross Dress for Less, Marshalls.

Dress Barn and similar stores.

As you can tell from photos of face A. and face B. like with many Disney dolls, 

there are many releases to be had! So not only are there a lot more girls, there 

are a lot more guys because every princess need a prince! Disney has done as 

many release of the guys as they have done the girls!

So while only in the past 8 years have we seen many release of Ken dolls, Disney

is always pumping out Princes with different face, hair color and ethnicities ! 

Princes Eric, Phillip, Charming, Aladdin and the Beast!

So  check them out online, in thrift stores and flea markets when they open.  There 

are some great Disney doll out there! 

If you are looking for a price guide check out Disney Dolls Guide of Facebook!

Or you might be able to find Disney Dolls-Identification and Price Guide.

OK, Thanks For Looking!