Spirit Abigail by Just Play, Addendum: The Knee Breaking Is Common

I first noted the Spirit line in August of last year. Wow, these dolls have been on the shelf for a lot longer than I remembered! There were a variety of dolls and toy horses released for what was apparently a Netflix series sequel to the Spirit horse movie. There were three 11 1/2" dolls released of the three main human characters: Lucky, Prudence and Abigail. I was not the only doll collector who noted at the time that with the relatively nice-looking articulation, the dolls might provide good donor bodies. I'd been waiting for the dolls to go on sale, but that just wasn't happening, and finally I decided I'd pick up an Abigail doll to see if she'd make a good body donor.

I decided to take preliminary pictures of Abigail while she was still all in one piece. Little did I know that state of things would last for a shorter time than I expected....

This is how Abigail came, wearing a pink shirt, plaid leggings and some odd-looking boots. I'm surprised that none of the characters get helmets, except that the horses are sentient in the show and I guess would never throw their riders.

Here is Abigail with Petite Barbie, Teen Skipper and Made-to-Move Barbie. Without the giant head, Abigail's body is somewhat between Petite Barbie and Teen Skipper in height.

While in the process of getting Abigail's clothes off to get some pictures of just her body, I bent both of her knees, and when I bent the second one, I heard a crack, and suddenly Abigail's left calf was loose. She was still wearing her leggings at this time, so I didn't know exactly what had happened. I was afraid maybe her knees weren't meant to bend, but the right leg had bent just fine. When I got the leggings off, I saw what the problem was.

Abigail's leg *was* meant to bend, but the connecting post had just snapped. I did take some more pictures, for anyone who is still thinking about getting one of these dolls, but I got less and less enthusiastic the more I examined the doll, even after the leg snap. For one thing, the top of poor Abigail's loose lower leg looked rough and chewed on.

For another, the plastic of her legs made her look like she had burn scars and scratch marks. She also had staining on her leg. I'm presuming that came from the leggings, because the boots don't really touch her leg very much, plus the leggings covered her legs entirely.However, the staining is kind of angled, like her boots. Since the doll was already broken at this point, I don't think I cared very much how it happened.

Here is Abigail's right knee, with the intact knee joint. Sorry for blurry pictures. By this time, I was just taking pictures for posterity. I knew Abigail was going back to the store, and I just wasn't that interested.

Of course the other question when acquiring a new doll, especially for a rebody, is if the clothes will fit other dolls. Petite Barbie looked like the best option as far as size. I didn't want to try the leggings in case there was a staining issue, so I just stuck with the top. Unfortunately, Petite Barbie, while short, is still meant to be an adult female and therefore has a bosom, if small. Abigail is still supposed to be a girl, or a very young teen. Therefore, Abigail's top was super tight across the chest. Otherwise, the top would make a cute dress for our petite gal (who really should have a name this far into the post!)

There are also a couple of sewing mistakes on the back of the dress, which you can have with any doll, but which I wanted to point out.

Not even the feet were a good match for Barbie (or a similarly sized doll.) Abigail's feet are huge next to Made-to-Move Barbie, and they're also wedge shaped, being much wider by the toes. At least the broken leg made it easy to take comparison shots. XD

I suppose Abigail's big feet would be balanced out by her big head, if you were playing with the doll as is. And her boots are the same way, very large but balanced by her over-sized noggin. But they looked quite out of place on Barbie.

In the past, even if I've been iffy about a doll, I don't believe I've ever advised not to buy one. I don't think this doll is worth buying, even on sale. If you have a child who is really into Spirit, the dolls might be worth it, although I would still go with the smaller dolls because then you get all the horses too. If you were buying this doll as a possible body donor, on the other hand, I'd suggest you look elsewhere.

ETA: Based on a comment which somehow isn't showing up on this page (maybe the commenter deleted it?), I went and looked at reviews of the 11 1/2" dolls on Walmart's site. A full seventy-five percent of Lucky and Abigail's reviews said that the knees broke, and also mentioned the Prudence doll as having faulty joints. There were also mentions of little girl tears, which just makes me angry. The only super positive review was from a grandmother who *wanted* to buy them for her grandchildren, which wasn't helpful at all. I also discovered that Breyer made horse and girl rider sets from this series, so check those out if you want a set for a child.