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.

Star Darling Sage, with EAH Raven and Farrah

First off, let me say that I blame my latest doll purchase on Doll Dimensions, although I was already feeling a bit of a twinge for not picking up any of the Disney Star Darling dolls when they went on clearance at my Target. But her recent review of Wishworld Scarlet pushed me into taking a special trip to my local Wal-Mart to see what they had left of the line. They didn't have any Scarlets, but I did end up coming home with Sage. She was marked down to $11.00, but when I got to the register, she rang up at $9.00. Woo hoo! Minus the stand, this is the same doll that the Toy Box Philospher reviewed, so you can go there if you want to see all the nitty gritty details. This doll has already been out for awhile, so I didn't plan an in-depth review. I really love Star Darling dolls for their inset eyes, and their fashions, anyway. Let me get out of the way here, that these dolls were produced by Jakks Pacific for Disney.

I've already said that I love her inset eyes. They look kind of freaky from the side, but who cares? She's adorable to look at straight on! Her hair is very silky, except for the curls at the ends of tresses, which are crunchy with gel. Also, I can see now why the eyebrows on the more basic dolls seem to be trying to creep up into the hairline. On these "fancy" dolls, the eyebrow placement makes more sense, because they're placed above the sparkly eyeshadow that she's wearing. I wish they would have done the basic dolls' facial screening differently.

She had already lost her star necklace by the time I took this picture. It really doesn't stay on very well. Her star headband is still attached with a rubber band, so I don't know how well it would stay in. Oddly enough, that rubber band curls down and around her neck/chin joint. I think that would have been very difficult to get a picture of.

This Sage does not have a normal human skin tone, because she is in the form she has when she lives with the other Star Darlings on their planet or wherever. I took a picture of Sage with Farrah Goodfairy from Ever After High, because Farrah also has slightly odd colored skin, being a fairy, I guess. In the comparison picture, I think Sage just makes Farrah's skin look almost normal. Maybe that's because Farrah's skin is not as shiny and translucent looking as Sage's. (By the way, what kind of a name is Farrah Goodfairy? Yeah, The Fairy Godmother does not really give one a base for good name matches, but I need to find a better name than Farrah.)

I knew Sage wouldn't fit into Ever After High clothes, but I wanted to see how Sage's clothes fit Ever After High! I chose Raven as being the best model, based on her coloring.

This also gives me a chance to show Raven's new boots. I read on an Ever After High bulletin board, that Bratzillaz shoes fit Ever After High. I bought a fashion pack to try from Amazon, which had the shoes that I wanted. From the front, they look like granny boots, but I don't think grannies wore stiletto heels. :) They still suit Raven wonderfully. As usual, the stilettos are a thin plastic which bends easily.

I tried Raven's top and pants/leggings on Star Darling Sage just to see what the fit was like. The leggings fit just barely, although I'm afraid Sage would stretch out the waist if she wore them for very long. Raven's top came nowhere near closing on Sage.

However, Raven rocks Sage's outfit! The waistline of the leggings is a bit loose, but they stay up. Raven's boots were a tight fit over Sage's leggings, so I left them off.

As on Sage, the sleeves are just a bit long for Raven's arms. Also, the sleeves still have a good bit of the seam allowance left on the inside of the sleeve, which makes the fit awkward. I'm not sure the picture I took shows this well. I wonder if the prototype Sage outfit was gathered tighter on the sleeves than the gathers on the actual top she wears. That would have pulled up the sleeves a little. You can also see that a lot of the edge finishings are large serger seams. I would care more if Sage wasn't just a play doll to me. Although it makes her original price ($19.99, I think) seem a bit iffy.

Sage's boots are darling, but far too small for Raven. A little silver paint on the buckles would probably look great. Like I don't have enough things I want to paint.

I forgot that Doll Dimensions wondered if Liv high heeled shoes would fit the Star Darlings. I have a pair, so I'll check, and post about it. I have some doll shoes that just came today, that I want to blog about, so I'll throw the Liv shoes in that post.

Two more things:
1. My backdrop was a room scene for Barbie made by Mattel during the Fashion Fever era. I threw some scrapbook paper down on the floor. The only problem is the walls are glossy and tend to reflect light.
2. I still want that Scarlet doll! She's still at Toys 'R Us, for full price. However, she is only $14.99, being a more basic doll, so hopefully I'll pick her up soon. I don't want to wait too long, in case she disappears completely.

Makie Doll with 3-D Printed Body

Honestly, when the Makie dolls were first debuted, they were ugly to me. I also had no desire for an alien, elf, or troll doll, which is what Makies looked like to me. Since then, the doll has gotten a new face mold, and I've seen a lot of pictures who looked more like Blythe or Pullip dolls: big heads, big eyes, a stylized look for certain, but also cute and human. Since each Makie doll is custom made on a 3-D printer, based on the look you design online, my doll didn't have to have pointy elf ears that stuck out, or an over-sized mouth. I could get something more aesthetically pleasing to me.

At the same time, recently I've been looking for a travel doll, one who would pose nicely on trips and outdoors, not too large, and also one who wouldn't demand a lot of furniture and clothes and room for herself indoors. (Do you know how demanding some dolls can be?) A Makie doll was on the possibilities list, but it was a post from Ghouliette at Dollsville, USA, that made me decide. Makie doll bodies are no longer 3-D printed, but instead are injection-molded plastic, which is sturdier and less expensive. So they were selling out the 3-D bodies, within the space of a couple of weeks. Even better, if I ordered in time, I could try a 3-D printed body for the new, lower price. I can always order a Makie on the new body, but I decided to give the 3-D body a try before they were gone. I designed my doll on the Makie website, and placed my order. I haven't been as excited to get a package in a while as when I got the FedEx envelope and realized that it was holding a tube, and that my Makie doll must be inside. So now, meet Meg.

She came packaged in a sturdy tube.

Hi! I have the feeling I'm not in England anymore.

Just hangin' around...

A mane of soft red hair

More pictures, include nekkid dolly ones, below the fold.