ILY4ever doll review - Tiana fan doll

„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. 

Mine’s a bit crooked.

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

Isabella hairplay doll quick review 

 

I manage to squeeze in at least one post a year, don't I? As usual, very late but here is my review of the Isabela doll from the movie Encanto, just as promised (almost a year ago).

I wasn't a big fan of the movie but I liked Isabella's design so into my shopping cart  she went.

Here she is in her boxed glory. I didn't unbox her completely for  this review since  I needed to transport her so I thought it's a better idea to  leave her in her box. She is still trapped in her box rirht now. (As are Megara, Esmeralda Alce and Wendy. I'm horrible to my freedom loving dolls)

The box itself is colorful, with a picture of Mirabel from the movie and another photo of the doll's face.

Her accessories are just as colorful as the box, lots of hair decorations as this is supposed to be a hairplay doll.

The back of the box has the movie logo, some flower decoration and a photo of the doll with all her accessories. Also lots of warnings and a price tag.

Left side of a box - you get to see the doll.

Right side of the box - a glimpse at the family house.

Top of the box - the movie logo and the doll from the top. the bottom of the boyx is just all blue.

Now let's get started with the partial unboxing.

My enthusiastic little helper Dolly is here, ready to cut up the box.

Don't worry, it won't hurt.

Ugh, that was hard, need to rest before continuing.

Now we can see her face without the plastic cover and her collection of hariflowers. Also notice she has her earrings which is fairly rare.

Let's  compare her to her movie counterpart. I think they captured her well although the dress colors does not match perfectly.

The hair lenght is aso about movie accurate but this is supposed to be a hairplay doll and hairplay dolls usually have floorlength hair as long as Rapunzel's. But she has those lovely shoes peeking out from under her dress.

Her skirt is kind of layered as in the movie. It is made of the usual material used for princess dresses with a bit of sheer materiel used for the sleeves. Also besides the regular flowers she has an accessory that looks like a lock of Rapunzel's shiny hair was tied to it.

It was caught up in the plastic cover so it was quite hard to remove.

A good look at the accessories she brings.

Now the interesting part. Enter Moana. Isabela has obviously thicker limbs and has a sturdier build than the regular princesses. I wondered if she used Moana's body and limbs.

 

It's not the same, Moana has thicker arms...

...and bigger feet, too. It would be like the stepsisters trying on Cinderella's glass slipper if Moana tried to put on Isabela's shoes. Notice the moulded details at the bottom of the shoe. It is a lovly details and one of those that usually disappear when ther is a new release of the doll.

And that's it about Isabella for now. As I already mentioned, she is still in her box as I had to store her away and move her around so it was a better option to not completely remove her from the box. I'm happy I added her to my collection as she is a unique new doll :)

If you have any questions related to the doll, let me know in the comments.

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.