It’s been a while since I’ve reviewed a contemporary doll here on the blog. Today, though, I’m going to talk about not one, but two dolls I know you’ll want to hear about! Introducing The Prince/Nutcracker and The Snow Queen from My Ballerina Dolls. A year ago or so, I reviewed the first doll in the My Ballerina Dolls series, Clara Marie. I expected we’d see the Prince this year, but the Snow Queen was a happy surprise.
Let’s start off with The Snow Queen. The Snow Queen is 22″ tall and made of a vinyl/hard plastic mix. She has a unique face mold when compared to Clara. The Snow Queen has a more regal, adult expression with expressive dark brown eyes and thin pink lips on her heart shaped face.
Unlike Clara, whose expression and face mold gave off a very anime like appearance, The Snow Queen’s look is more realistic. The face paint is delicately placed with dark brows and painted lashes. Her cheeks have a light blushing of pink on them and, as I mentioned, she has thin pearly pink lips.
The Snow Queen wears a light blue tutu with a velcro back. Her ballet shoes are identical to Clara Marie’s, pink and knee high. The Snow Queen’s sleeves are a little loose, as is the outfits fit around her torso. It’s not a deal breaker for me, though, because the loose nature of it allows her many points of articulation to work well. Speaking of which, like the original doll in the line, The Snow Queen is ball jointed. Her neck moves fluidly in all directions. Her shoulders do, as well. Under her shoulder is twist and turn sort of joint, a double jointed elbow and a wrist joint.
Her hips allow for great extension forward and sideways. Her leg doesn’t extend back unless you move her torso forward. Like her arms, she has a twist and turn joint right below her hip for turn out, double jointed knees and an ankle joint.
Now, onto the most interesting part of this review and something that I think will make many of you quite happy! As expected, The Snow Queen is wigged. Under her wig are five pieces of velcro that surround her (get ready) head cap! Yep. She has a removable head cap. (Clara Marie did not.)
Now, going back to the wig for a moment. The quality is fine, but you may want to consider re-wigging her with a softer wig one day. Also, you probably don’t need five pieces of velcro to hold her wig on. It stays on fine with one well placed piece.
The picture above and below are of the Prince’s head, but The Snow Queen has a very similar design. It’s just missing the writing under the heart.
So, her head cap. I was surprised to see one, knowing that Clara Marie did not have one. To remove her head cap, you will have to align the heart and lift up. Before you get too excited, if you want to be adventurous and customize your doll’s eyes, you’ll still need to do a bit of jury rigging. The Snow Queen’s eyes are glued in. (If you do customize her eyes, I’d love to know how they turned out!)
Changing topics a bit, it’s time to talk about the Prince/Nutcracker! The Prince’s face is very anime inspired. I like it a lot! He has wide blue eyes, painted brown lashes and thick eyebrows.
My Prince’s face arrived a little scuffed due to him being packaged with his Nutcracker helmet on in the box. Speaking of the box, both of these boxes are worth saving. They’re packaged in a soft cardboard box with artistic renderings of ballerina’s. The color scheme and design are great and I definitely see them being useful for storing outfits, accessories or whatever else you might think up! (You can see the box in the video reviews.)
The Prince is packaged with his Nutcracker helmet on. Because of this, there is a heavy vinyl scent when you release him from his cardboard prison. He seems more vinyl’y than the girls. The helmet itself is pretty cool. I wouldn’t keep it on him all the time, but for active play or photos, it’s neat and surprisingly well made.
Like the girls, the Prince is wigged. His wig is fine for the price point. It’s not the softest wig, but it doesn’t have any bald spots, so for me, it is okay for now. The Prince’s wig was also held on with multiple pieces of velcro.
For ease of use, I decided to just keep one on the top of his head. Also like The Snow Queen, The prince has a removable head cap. You can’t do much with the inside of his head since the eyes are glued in, but it’s a start. As I mentioned, there is writing on the back of his head mold (and not The Snow Queen’s) that says ‘Fairy Lily’. I tried to dig up more information on that, but couldn’t find anything.
The Prince has a very velour like outfit. It doesn’t exactly make it easy to move his heavily articulated body. What I noticed immediately was that the blue used in the outfit had already started staining (lightly) his wrist joint. Keep an eye on the outfit.
It’s heavy with reds and blues, which are prone to leaving their mark unintentionally on dolls. The outfit is well thought out, though, with details that they definitely didn’t need to include. I like the idea of it, but just wish it was a different fabric. The Prince’s faux leather boots, though, I love! They’re simple, but chic.
The articulation on this male doll is the same as it is on the female dolls. All his points of articulation move fluidly. His torso joint is a little troublesome. My doll leans forward on the joint, so without clothing, it looks a little weird. However, it does seem to move decently enough for play. It just doesn’t like holding poses as well as the other joints.
Overall, I’m impressed with these two dolls from My Ballerina Dolls. Both the Snow Queen and the Prince are quality dolls for their price. Their size, face molds, points of articulation and the ease of customization (to an extent) make them definitely worth looking into!
What do you think of The Snow Queen and the Prince? Share your thoughts in the comment area!
September 11, 2016. Tags: my ballerina dolls, review, video review. Introductions & Reviews, Uncategorized.
