Wow, November was a tough month. Despite my light box and Vitamin D, I'm having a hard time coping with the gloomy weather. I'm trying to get back on track for December.
On the Ever After High (Monster High) message board that I read, I saw that the EAH Tri-Castle-On set was on sale at Target. This was a three-doll Target exclusive set, based on the webisode where EAH students compete in the Tri-Castle-On competition. The Apple White/Raven Queen School Spirit two-doll set is related to this set; Apple and Raven cheer on fellow students at the Tri-Castle-On events. I
blogged about Apple and Raven back in May. I wasn't really interested in getting the Tri-Castle-on doll set originally; however, with the sale, each doll ended up costing just over $7 each. At that price, I decided to buy it.
I was going to blog about the whole set at once, but there will be close to 30 pictures, considering there are three dolls and accessories, so I decided to blog about each doll individually. I'll try to get all three doll reviews up reasonably close in time. Today I'm going to start with Lizzie Hearts.
In keeping with her lineage, being the daughter of Wonderland's Queen of Hearts, Lizzie is the winner in Hextreme Croquet. Lizzie comes dressed in her croquet outfit, which she also wears in a different webisode where she encourages Apple and Raven to settle their differences with a croquet match. The doll also comes with her croquet mallet, which resembles the flamingo from the Alice's Adventures in Wonderland story, but is gold, with a black beak. Unlike any other EAH dolls (that I'm aware of), Lizzie has unusual eyes in that there is a white heart highlight in each pupil. Fellow Wonderlandian Kitty Cheshire does have eyes that look like cat eyes, but that is because of her cat lineage.
Lizzie comes with earrings, but they're not very impressive. A little paint would probably perk them up. She also has a large gold ruff around her neck, and ruffs around her wrists, with her hands painted black to resemble black gloves.
Her shoes are the usual mile-high heels, but they do resemble tennis shoes. These could also use some paint to bring out some of the details. The heel appears to be a heart, if it was really squashed.
I never planned on getting a Lizzie Hearts doll, because for me, she never measured up to her webisode character. On screen, the heart around Lizzie's left eye is a scarlet red, which contrasts beautifully with pale skin and what look like bright green eyes.
On the doll, both the heart and her eyes are more subdued colors, and she just doesn't look as pretty. I'd be tempted to try to paint that heart a darker red, except I'm not sure I could manage to successfully paint around (or repaint over) her eyebrow and eyelashes. Still, I'm not sorry to inexpensively add her to my collection.
I realize that I haven't mentioned her hair. She has a large piece of red hair coming from the middle front of her head, which is twisted around her face, and joined into a rubber band in back with the rest of her hair. I plan on removing the croquet visor and redoing her hair a little, now that I've reviewed her.
This is a good place to review Lizzie's pet hedgehog, Shuffle. Shuffle is for sale individually, along with a few other EAH pets, like Apple's pet fox, Gala, and Maddie's mouse, Earl Gray. The packaging for the Tri-Castle-On set shows a hedgehog being used as a croquet ball, as in the Alice book, although the hedgehog just looks like it's taking a fun slide on its back.
Rest assured that real hedgehogs are not used in the Ever After High webisodes, nor are real flamingos used. Lizzie's mallet does look like the one her doll comes with, but regular hard croquet balls are used for all the matches.
For Dragon Games, Mattel came out with a small line of baby dragons that matched up with several of the girls. Unlike those dragons, the various pets that were produced next are bobbleheads, including Shuffle. They're still cute, if not exactly all true to size (Earl Gray is as big as the other pets.)
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| Aren't I sweet? |
I managed to pose Lizzie holding Shuffle in her arms.
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| A girl and her hedgehog |
The Tri-Castle-On dolls are a weird mix. The outfits are not very elaborate, since they're for participating in sport. Lizzie's dress does have two prints, and faux princess style seams. Her plastic accessories all have a nice amount of detail, even if they could use some paint to bring out some of those details. Lastly, the three dolls all came with stands! I believe the three-doll set originally cost $50, and though the dolls may have been worth it from the point of view of how much they cost to produce, their outfits aren't exciting. I found it hard to get good lighting on the big box that the set came in, but would you have paid $50 for this? Not meaning any sarcasm here.
As a comparison, Disney Descendants currently has a
four pack of dolls out that retails for $60, and is on sale right now for $50. They don't look anywhere as detailed as our EAH trio. I'd love to see sales figures on the four-pack, and a previously released DD four-pack. I personally prefer EAH. :) Do you have any thoughts on Lizzie, multiple packs of dolls, or Disney Descendants versus EAH?
For a little perspective, SINGLE EAH dolls cost upwards of 50$ in my country. No sales, ever. If they were MH, I would totally pay 50$ (because I don't like EAH).
ReplyDeleteI think Lizzie is pretty cute, but I hate how none of the dolls look as delicate as their cartoon versions. If you want to make the heart redder, I'd try coating the eye and eyebrow with either white glue or a thick bar soap solution, and then peel or wash after the paint is dry.
I suppose in your case $50 would be a good deal. Here, the signatures are around $22, but they are more elaborate than the dolls in this set.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good way of putting it; cartoon Lizzie does look a lot more delicate than the doll. Thank you for the suggestion on how to paint that heart. I really haven't done much with crafts or painting.
The crown/visor is possibly the weirdest accessory I've ever seen!
ReplyDeleteIf you really wanted to darken the heart I'd probably suggest tinting some clear sealant red the painting over the heart in sheer coats. That way if it started affecting the look of the eyebrows/lashes you could make that the last coat but keep adding coats if it wasn't. . . but I would also suggest that'd be a lot more effort than it'd be worth.
Well, if you're the future Queen of Hearts, you can't just wear a plain old visor, can you? :) I don't think I'll be using it at all, but I wanted to show it for the review.
DeleteI'll keep your suggestion in mind if I decide I really want to make her heart darker. It might be worth it to just repaint both of her eyes, if I thought I'd be any good at it. I'd have to have a LOT of experience to try something like that, though.
No, I wouldn't have paid that much but then I'm super cheap. I really like Shuffle. He (or she?) seems ridiculously ostentatious and yet adorable.
ReplyDeleteThat is the problem with doll multi-packs, is that price can seem pretty big, even if you are getting three or four dolls for the money. It's a lot of money to pay at once.
DeleteI'm not sure if Shuffle is a boy or a girl. :) Some of these pets are only mentioned in the books, which I haven't read. I think part of the reason for that giant collar is to hide the bobblehead, but Shuffle does kind of match what Lizzie wears.
Oh, I wanted this Hunter so much. I didn't know that he cames in the treepack :( Lizzie and Cerise are not on my list so probably i won't get him :( Of the Lizzie I mostly like her pet:)
ReplyDeletePoor Hunter has never gotten an individual doll. His other doll came with Ashlynn.
ReplyDeleteThe good news for you is that Lizzie's pet is sold individually, so you don't have to buy a doll to get it.