Aurora 2021 classic doll review

 "Fény és tiszta ünnep árad minden lélekből"

literally: Light and pure fesivity emerges from all souls

 from a musical adaptation of A Christmas Carol

 

It's been a while I guess... And I could say that I was busy. I was. But I didn't feel like making time for preparing a blogpost. I'll try and we shall see how it goes.

I wanted this new Aurora doll because I just love her new facemold. She looks calm, elegant, regal - just like princess Aurora. Since I have an earlier edition of Aurora as well, I'll compare the two dolls. But if you'd like to see more details of my older Aurora doll, you can check out my review of her.

The dolls come in completely new boxes this year - no plastic in the packaging. This also means no annoying  plastic tags in the head or the dress, yay! Since there is no plastic, there is no see through part of the box, so you can't take a look at the doll before buying it if you get the doll at a shop but I can only order online so it' not an issue for me. 

 The front of the box has the stock photo of the princess. 

The sides have artwork of the princess and the movie, top and bottom both has Disney Princess on it, the bottom has Aurora and Classic Doll next to that, the later in a few different languages.

The backside has a scene from the movie - Philip and Briar Rose - and additional artwork that looks like their shadows. It's a new and quite nice decoration idea in my opinion. All the usual warnings and the pricetag can be found as well. There is a Plastic free package sign as well.

When the box is opened, the princess appears and she looks like she is standing at a window of her castle. Aurora looks perfect this way. Unfortunately I forgot to take photos when I first deboxed her so these are all from after opening her but I hope you still get an idea what it was like and how it works.

The lower part that covers up her skirt can be opened up, it's some paper hooks. Interesting and smart solution and easy to open.

This also means you can put her back in the box easily for transportation or whatever reason. After opening that up, Aurora was ready to be taken out of the box. 

She wass only held in place at the feet with a paper hook so she was really easy to debox, ideal for kids.

Her hair and that elastics didn't like each other and from the back it needs some adjusting. But from the front, I think she looks perfect.

Here she is in he full glory. 

She comes with her crown and necklace, both securely tied to her with thread and elastics.

 
The top part of her dress changes very little over the years but more on that in the comparing section.

The top layer of her skirt is decorated with glitter patterns

They still do the tull overlayer (covered in glitter) thin underlayer type of skirt. I'm not particularly fond of that construction but I plan to redress her anyway. She has simple pink slippers matching her dress and she has flat feet. They are too small to balance her to stand on her own. So far Moana is the only doll capable of standing on her own, but I have high hopes for Isabela, the eldest sister from the new movie Encanto.

Just love her new face, so pretty and elegant.

The articulation is the usual, neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips and the hated click knees. Yep, I still hate them with a passion. But I heard the articulation in the arm was refined so she can move in a wider range. Yay for that!

The princesses come with a brush this year, here is Aurora's:

It is also held in place with just paper that's part of the box. It is decorated with a castle at the back. The mold is the same for all princesses (based on stock photos, Aurora's the only princess I got this year) but the colors vary. Many girls have a shade of yellow or gold (Snow White, Pocahontas, Merida, Anna, Moana), different shades of blue are also popular (Cinderella, Jamine, Mulan, Elsa).

Now let's compare her to my other Aurora classic doll, Aurenna.

Both the facemold and the facepaint changed a lot. The left Aurora was ordered in 2017 October from the UK online store, the right one came this year not so long ago.

The older doll, named Aurenna (that's her personal name I gave her)  has a sideglance, bright pink lips and matt gold crown and necklace. I prefer these to the shiny ones the new girl brought. But I was foolish enough to cur the elastic that held the necklace in place, now it dangles around as it pleases. I won't make the same mistake this time. The new doll (she still needs a name) has a forward glance, maybe that's why she looks so calm while the other girl looks livelier. The older doll's open mouth smile may add to that effect. The new Aurora comes with shiny jewelry and darker, more natural colored lips. No it's not a natural color but it fits nicely, better then the brighter color but that's my personal preference. She smiles with a closed mouth. Both have nice violet eyes.of abou the same shade.

The camera doesn't pick it up but her skintone changed, too. New girl has a faint orange tint to her skin, Aurenna is a bit more yellowish, I think. The difference is very small, both work well for Aurora.

The old doll's face reminds me of this screenshot:

While the new face reminds me of how she looked at the end:

 

Aurenna looks like she has more hair since she came with her hair in two bigger chunks while the new doll had her heir in one chunk. Aurora's signature curl in the bangs used to be lower, now it's high up on her forhead.

The bodice part of the  dress doesn't look that much different. except the older one has it covered in glitter. This made the fabric very stiff and I assume hard to work with. The glitterfree bodice follows the shape of Aurora better and so looks more elegant and it fits her more - doesn't look like a hand down from a (non-existent) older sister. The new dress definitely looks better in the bodice part. I'm not completely sure but the fabric of the sleeves feels a bit different. Oh and a pleasant surprise. Aurenna was very easy to redress, although long tigh sleeves are usually a nighmare. 

The sash around the waist is definitely a different fabric, for the old dress, the same fabric was used as for the sleeves, the new dress has a sash from rougher, stiffer material. Probably holds up with children playing with it better but I'm not sure.

The skirt is very different, the dolls I got in 2018 had a very similar skirt structure (Cinderella, Tiana) to the new doll's skirt. Itt hasn't changed much over the past few years, a see-through layer with glitter decoration and a thin second layer. I prefer the older skirt that is made up of lighter and darker pink panels - not completely movie accurate but very nice and still closer than that poofy new skirt.

The shoes are very similar, simple slippers all the princesses wear. The color is exactly the same. Left is old, right is new.

The shape is a bit more refined for the new doll, the sole is a bit flatter but the differences are very slight and only noticable when you have both of them right in front of you.

Overall she is a really nice doll especially if you like Aurora and Sleeping Beauty but I wouldn't have gotten her if it weren't for the new facemold. Aurora usually doesn't get  that many changes so it was great to see something new for her. I only wish she came in the blue version of her dress, blue is my favourite color and I already own a pink version of the dress. I'm still very happy she joined my little(?) doll family. As soon as she gets a name, she'll go up in the My Classic Dolls section as well.

I know I always say this and then never get the other reviews done (I still owe you Snow White, Anna comparison post and more) but please look forward to my Isabla review. I plan to compare her body to Moana, since I have not yet seen such a comparison.