Dolly distressed - A Dolly story

"One of us is crying/One of us is lying"

Song: One of us by ABBA. I guess it could be called a song from the musical Mamma Mia as well.(Stage version, this song vasn't included in the movie)

As you sure remember, Dolly learned to dance the waltz some time ago, when I deboxed my Hans doll. (See Hans review for details) And ever since then, the other girls (except for her sister, Victoria) teased her with her conquest. She reddened when they mentioned her teacher and that made them tease her more. She is here to share more about the whole affair:

Some of my friends, from left to right: Daphne, Kuei-Lan, Hannah, Valancy, Susanne and Sorghoktani. Mushu and Chip are in the second row, Flit is flying around somwhere

My friends are very kind and helpful but couldn't help noticing that newcomer Hans doll called Vester had a decided preference for me from the very first moment he saw me. The fact that I was trying to convince Meritre to leave him in the box the whole time and that I had something against him did not bother him at all. And my friends weren't jelaous a bit, just excited. They thought me very lucky and couldn't resist teasing me a little. I suspect they caught Meritres matchmaking fever.

'It is a great catch, really, Dolly.'
'You can start practicing your duett from the movie, Love is an open door.'
'He was smitten with you from the very first moment, despite the fact that you sat on his box.'
'That's a tradition, she sits on each box that is stable enough to sit on it.'
'When will be your next date?'
'Now, why don't you go and talk to him? You haven't spoken a word to him since dance class.'
I tried to explain that we are not a couple but I don't think they heard.

They all have have a soft spot for anything romantic or what they think is romantic. Me and that... villanious prince? No thank you, I watched the movie and I'm not stupid enough to fall for him. No, no, NO! I hate this pressure but I also felt sorry for him... a little...

He befriended an Eugen aka Flynn Rider doll Merire deboxed so he is not the only male doll on the shelf anymore. (not counting the minis) That must be tough, surrounded by more than a dozen girls. (And I'm not counting the minis here, either, they are too many to be counted) The others were curious how things would go on with the two of us but I tried to avoid him. Talking to him just didn't feel right, the very thought gave me an unconfortable feeling. And after a few attempts trying to talk to me he gave up as well so I thought I was safe. Not from my friends, they still tried to convince me.

'You two would make a perfect couple.' Sue said.
'Only a little time and everything will be fine, don't worry.' Valancy added.
Daphne smiled and nodded, agreeing with them. That was the last straw. They are very dear girls but this time, they were driving me crazy and I lost control.

'Can't you just leave me alone?' I shouted angrily. Without thinking I hopped off the shelf and run away to find a quiet nook somewhere in the room.

We have a lot of freedom and the room is practically completely ours during the day so I could do that without any risks.

I spent hours thinking but in the end I was more confused and unconfortable and unhappy than before. I shouldn't have shouted at my friends, that was the thought that came most often.
'I have to figure this out.' I muttered to myself.

'And could you use some help, by any chance?' a voice asked. My dear sister came looking for me and maybe she even had some good advice.

'Kiki! Oh, I'm so glad you came! I've been thinking the whole afternoon but I have no idea what to do.'
She sat  down next to me.

'Now, first things first, what is that bothers you? The others teasing you? Or that prince sitting next to us? Can you describe what's the matter? That's the first step solving it, thinking over and formulate what exactly is the problem.'
'Well... I was annoyed that Hannah and Susanne and the others kept commenting... but I shouldn't have shouted at them.'
'You can go and apologize. And if you talk it over they'll surely understand.'
I nodded and continued.
'And than Vester... I wish he hadn't tried talking to me, since that's why the others started to think... and it feels like my head is bursting with thoughts and pressure. Those expectations!'
'It's okay, sis. We can handle this as well just like then.'
I looked at her and my face must have been a big questionmark. I did not remember having done something like that before.
'You already posted once on Meritres blog' she said smiling 'when she did that review post and you added some thoughts of your own. Writing everything down could help get rid of the pressure.'
I have forgotten that, since it wasn't planned at all, it was just an impulse to talk Meritre over that deboxing him is the worst idea ever. (Right next to ordering him)
'Of course, what a splendid idea!' What would I do without my sister?
'There is one more thing we must talk about and you may not like it.'
My heart sank.
'And what would that be?'
My sister did not reply for some time, I saw she was thinking, thinking about how to formulate what she had to say.

'It was not nice of the girls to force you talking about something you obviously didn't want to talk about but... not listening is not nice, either. I think you should go and talk it over with him as well. Then you will be done with it and won't feel bad about it.'
'But... but... what if he won't listen? And...'
'If he turns out to be bad, I'll freeze off his nose. Honestly, I think Meritre will remove him if he turns out to be like his movie self. And I'll always be there to help you out.'
She stood up.

'I know you need now some more time for yourself, right?' And with that, she was gone.
She was right, I didn't like what she said but I reluctantly admitted that she spoke the truth. I had to go and talk to him. At least, I should apologize for beeing so rude.

That's going to be really hard. I wish he would come to me and start the conversation, it would be so much easier. But it has to be done, even if I don't like it.
I'll tell you what happened as soon as I had set things right. It may take a little time though.

Disney Store 2017 Classic Pocahontas doll review

"Hilf mir durch die Nacht/ Gib mir die Kraft /durch die Dunkelheit zu gehen"

Literally: Help me through the night, give me the strenght to go through the darkness

From the musical Rebecce by Sylvester Levay and Michael Kunze, it's the beginning of the song and the first line is also its title.

She does go through dark times in her movie, doesn't she?
One of my other Christmas dolls is Pocahontas, and she is the very first Pocahontas doll I own.

She has a nice, simple box with the name of the character and the movietitle on the front. The fancy one is the movietitle and the plain one is the characters name, if anyone is interested.
It is decorated like each one in 2017:

a picture of the character on one side,

another one, not showing the character but connected to a film, on the other side.

Closer look at the ship

In Pocahontas' case it's the ship but I've seen sidekicks as well on for example Belles box. On the backside there is one more portrait of the character.

It's the picture they always use for Pocahontas. I like the one on the side of the box better and would have put that one on the back.
Of corse Dolly has to welcome her by sitting on her box.

Naughty girl.

Pocahontas comes with Flit, like last years doll but this time the doll imitates a running pose and does not hold out her hand for Flit. I like the idea but the knee joints are not really fitted for it in my opinion. More on her feet and legs later. She has lots of threads holding her long hair in place but had no plasic ties in her dress. To make up for it, she had two in her head. But they were fairly loose and easy to cut so I won't complain.

She comes with a pretty forest background.

She has a nice face with a good likeness to the movie character in my opinion since she got the very much needed update. She looks like a dreamer. She has brown eyes, interesting eyeshadow combined of a goldish, a brownish and a bronzeish color. A little blush and thick, orange-pink lips complete her makeup. I wondered if she looked a bit like Mulan since both girls belong to the Mongolid race so here is a picture of my Mulan doll to compare:

 

I think while there are certainly a lot of similarities (thick lips, flat noses instead of the little turnup noses many other princesses have, the eyes), these are quite hard to catch because the base shape is very different, Pocahontas has a more angular face and Mulan has a round face. She also has an overall smaller head than Pocahontas. I think both girls are pretty.

Pocahontas profile is unique and quite different from most of the other princesses and I was curious how well they caught it.

Here she is as she looks in the movie and as she looks in doll form.

I think they catched her quite well but of course there is room for improvment. They could give her a bit more copperish and darker skincolor. And lipcolor also.

Her long black hair is quite soft and has only a little styling product around her face and in one section so it stays like it was in the box. Her necklace is missing the gem part, as always but I never knew it closes with velcro, like her dress. I wish they would make it plastic.

I think the dress is nice and movie accurate (although not as perfect as I thought before I saw a screenshot), she has the belt part that goes all around and of course her tattoo on her arm.

The fabric they used for it hid the hole for the waisttie as soon as I removed it. Usually it needs quite some time untill the fabric straightens out, Belles dress doesn't lay as beautifully on her lower back as Pocahontas'.
Now we come to her legs. She comes barefoot and she has flat feet and klick knees. She has of course articulated arms and can move her head. Head, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips and klick knees sum up her articulation.

You see, a little above her knee a tiny little hole is visible

I discovered a tiny hole on her leg and I know from one of the Toybox Philosophers posts that it is caused by the inner structure, the armature of her leg. (She has a post about the inner structure of those legs, a review ended up like this, it's really interesting, you can find  it here: http://www.toyboxphilosopher.com/2014/09/2013-and-2014-ariel-and-merida-from.html)
So I left her with one bent and one straight leg because I'm afraid it may break. I tried very gently but she refused to straigten her leg.

Flat feet actually work quite well for Pocahontas since she is barefoot and spends most of her time out in the forests. I compared her flat feet with the earlier (2015 to be precise) princess feet.
The new feet looked a bit bigger to me.

I looked at them from  different angles. The new feet seem broader.

Looks like the toes are a bit different, too.

The older feet look more elegant in my opinion, more fitting for elegant outfits while the new feet work best for the barefoot characters.
The Flit figure she comes with is cute though very small. He has a Disney sign on one of his wings.

This little bird has feet that are made so that he can sit  for example on Pocahontas hand or on the edge of the box. He could sit better on the later so he was photographed from different angles there but here is a picture Pocahontas holding him.

He is quite well made for such a small figure. He is already good friends with Chip and Mushu.
Overall, Pocahontas is a nice doll and I'm happy to have her in my collection but I think because of her pose in the box she needs extra attention and care so her leg won't snap. This could be an issue for younger children but even careful adult collectors can run into this problem. I wish the princesses would get a new knee design, the one they gave series Rapunzel seems nice. Now they only need to start using it for the classic dolls.
And last but not least, my Pocahontas is named Sorghoktani. My sister gave it to her and I think it suits her very well. She is the only Pocahontas here for now but that might change.


Update 29 01 2017: Added a new picture, Pocahontas holding Flit

Waiting

Once the waiting is over, I promise I'll tell more. Very first sketch after a long time, I did this one a few years ago.

Referce picture is from drj1828's huge collection.