„Most indul a játék”
from The Count of Monte Cristo (originally Hungarian, meaning: The game starts now)
The new I love you forever doll line (ily4ever for short)is not that new anymore and there are many-many posts about the girls out there, but I’ll still do my review and share thoughts. It’s more like a personal opinion and my story with them.
If you’d like to see an informative review on what clothes fit them and joints and articulation, this is a great post: https://www.toyboxphilosopher.com/2023/01/ily-4ever-fashion-dolls-by-disney.html
I won't go into details, just mention stuff here and there, for details, please visit the blogpost on the link above - it's about the same doll.
When I first saw them, they didn’t struck me as must-have dolls, although I still tried to pick a favourite. In the end, I settled on the girl who is a fan of Tiana, with the Jasmine fan becoming a close second, occasionally surpassing the Tiana fan. When I got the opportunity to buy one doll, I picked the Tiana fan because she kind of “gave me her backstory”. Did it happen to you when thoughts just came so naturally to you in connection with a doll and her story and nature as if the doll told you? Same thing happened with a few names but more about that later.
Everybody knows the stereotypical Japanese person, hard-working overachiever, just like Tiana. And that is just the reason this girl is a fan of Tiana because she can relate to her journey and a big problem that exists not just in her life but on a bigger scale as well. That is why I decided to give her a Japanese name. I tried Violet first but she kind of “rejected” it. It wasn’t easy but I named all six.
So here are the names I gave them (since they do not come with their own names and are usually referred to by the name of the princess they like)
Fan of Snow White: she literally screamed at me that her name is Charlotte. Normally I avoid giving them names that are already used in a Disney movie (like Jane or Anna) but these are not princess dolls so I decided it should be fine. My dolls, my rules :)
Fan of Cinderella: she was the hardest to name and the last one to receive one, she settled for Dahlia. She is the only doll I may consider renaming.
Fan of Ariel: Kaori – she got a Japanese name because her parents are close friends with Tiana fan’s parents and they picked out the name. They are to blame not me. :)
Fan of Belle: Ilka – after a very good friend of mine who looks a lot like this doll and agreed to lend the doll her name. A perfect choice, I think.
Fan of Jasmine: Midori – he parents are researchers of Japanese culture and history, thus the name. It means green and green and teal are her favourite colours.
Fan of Tiana: last but not least, the object of this review. She accepted the name Yukiko
First I didn’t particularly like any, now I love all of them. A story adds so much to them in my eyes.
The boxes in this line are simple yet pretty.
Art of the princess in the front and one of the sides...
...doll photos on the other
side and the back. A group of Disney fans taking a picture at Disneyland.
The artwork of the princess is usually the same at the front and on the side but a different cutout. It also looks like the lineart and the colouring does not match, the lineart seems to have a lighter “shadow” lineart and the colouring matches that. It is surely intentional but to me, it looks odd. Still cute art of the princesses.
The box has one rounded edge and a handle at
the top that makes opening it from the bottom the easiest option. The first thing I'm greeted with is a tie that holds her right foot. By the way, those ties are great when you have a nicely rolled up cable and don't want to get it tangled. I usually give those to my dad and he makes good use of them.
I used the handle to help me hold the box while pulling out the inner part with the doll out.
The backside is ugly - everything a dollcollector hates when unboxing dolls - plastic T-ties, tape and more. T-ties in the head is what I hate the most when unboxing dolls.
Now let’s start with Yukiko herself.
She has long black hair styled in two ponytails, it is quite soft and long. She is the only one in the gang with fully straight hair and so with fairly little hairstyling product in her hair. The little short sections at the front are an exception, they are stiff and hard due to the amount used there.
She has black eyebrows with detailing, a slight blush on her cheeks and natural coloured lips with a closed mouth smile. She has brown inset eyes, pretty and shiny, also the eyelashes are painted to be more realistic and not as cartoonlike as the Disney princesses.
She came with green Tiana Mickey ears, a purple top with New Orleans on it, a skirt with straps with flower pattern and light purple sneakers. No idea why the purple, Tiana never wore purple.
She also brings a fluffy jacket, a beige backpack and a purple water bottle. The green buttons on the jacket are nice and I liked the explanation by a fan that this jacket refers to the white outfit Tiana wears during her Almost there fantasy and towards the end when she is briefly turned human again.
She also has the balloon with the surprise.
Mine had the pretzel in it. Yummy. I decided this will be her favourite treat ans this rule will apply tomall girls.
A closeup of the purple bottle. I saw in other people's reviews that the handle often comes crooked and the elastic tie distorted the bottle and the handle a bit, this one's quite decent.
Almost forgot, she also comes with a purple and green bead bracelet.
But these new hands have a nice shape, with not all fingers glued together. More chances for threads to be caught in them when dressing the dolls. But a pair of mittens solves the problem, at least for me.
Still wondering about the purple/violet color usage (one of the reasons I considered naming her Violet) and why so much of it. If not for the Mickey ears, I’d have had a hard time guessing whose fan she is, simply based on her colours. But I must admit, I like it on her so I don’t mind.
The dolls in this doll line in general look more like teenage girls than the Disney princess dolls, although many Disney princesses are said to be teens, too. The Disney princess dolls look more like adults than these dolls. Looking at these Disney fan dolls I’d guess them to be around 16-17 years old.
Their body is a new construction and I love the
double knee joints, now I only wish for double elbow joints. Careful, the legs easily pop off. But they can be just as easily put back but I wouldn't do that too often.
A very pretty line, with these dolls, anybody can create their own modern day princess. My guess something like that was the idea of leaving the girls without names of their own, encouraging the owners to name them themselves.
I have two more dolls and three fashion packs to review – maybe I’ll even do them. I plan to get the remaining three dolls and more fashion packs for Christmas. Until the next review, here is a little teaser:
If you're in Europe and wish to buy them, you can do so here: https://www.shopdisney.eu/disney-ily-4ever
