Doll Review: Disney Fairies – Celebrate Pixie Party Tinkerbell

Clochette = “little bell” (also a type of goat cheese)

I came across the Disney Fairies “Celebrate Pixie Party” dolls about a month ago when I was in Walmart browsing the Monster High aisle.  I often eyeball Disney Fairies dolls for their clothes, but I’ve never been really tempted to buy one because the dolls themselves are just so basic and unappealing.  But these new ones caught my eye, mainly because holy crap, they’re fully articulated!  And such cute outfits!  And hey, decent sculpts!  Even K-mart agrees:

New, 9″ Deluxe Fashion Dolls with new, expressive head sculpts, 11 points of articulation for more posability and highly detailed, trendy fashions with a chic pixie twist. Features 4 of the most popular fairies – Tink, Silvermist, Rosetta and Vidia. (from kmart.com)

This is the first time I’ve seen this level of articulation on Disney Fairies dolls, and all the sculpts are new and pretty adorable. These are probably the best Disney Fairies dolls made so far (though admittedly I’m not a Disney aficionado); at first glance, Jakks even seems to have put their own Winx dolls to shame.

There are five dolls in this line, including two versions of Tinkerbell (they seem to do that a lot) that each have a different head mold.  I prefer the closed-mouth smirk of the other Tinkerbell, but I don’t care for the outfit she’s in and don’t want to spend $20 just for the nude doll.

The packaging is pretty simple and easy to open.  The doll is attached to a molded plastic piece that pops right off of the cardboard backing, and then it’s just a matter of a few quick scissor snips to free her.

So here she is right out of the box.  She has a pretty cute face, though the wide-open eyes and toothy grin are kinda aggressively cheerful.  Her little pointed ears are adorable though.  The hairstyle looks like a fat bun, but it’s really just a short ponytail that’s curled down on itself.  If you want to undress her, you’ll need some small, sharp scissors handy, because the clothes are all secured to each other, and to the doll, with thread and plastic tabs.  My doll’s legs are warped from her position inside the box – her ankles perpetually want to cross, and she’s rather bowlegged.

The wings are cut out of a sheet of thin, flat plastic that’s an iridescent, sparkly silver with clear designs, and they seem really chintzy for this highly articulated doll.  They velcro onto the back of her hoodie, and that is the only way to attach the wings to the doll.  The velcro attachment is disappointing, since Tinkerbell really ought to be able to be redressed and still have wings; she is a freaking fairy after all; I could forgive it if the wings were part of a costume, but they’re supposed to be an integral part of the character.  For fuck’s sake, how hard would it have been to put a little slot in her back with a corresponding tab on the wings?  Did Jakks deliberately do that to give their Winx dolls an advantage?

Anyway, Tink’s outfit is pretty wonderful.  She’s wearing a three-tiered green dress made to look as if it’s crafted from leaves and flowers, a fuzzy green short-sleeved hoodie with pink tulle trim, a purple rubber belt with an attached “purse,” green & white striped leg warmers, and green leafy-looking shoes.  All the pieces are really cute and seem well-made, and the molded items are decently sculpted with plenty of detail.

The dress is probably the best thing about this doll.  It’s a great design and well executed.  My only issue with it is that there is glitter in the tulle underlayer that does kinda get everywhere; there’s a bunch of it stuck to her thighs, even.

Under her clothes, Tinkerbell has molded green panties with little leaf designs.  That was the first thing I noticed upon undressing the doll, but my delight soon turned to dismay when I saw that there are scratches in the plastic of my doll’s chest.  I didn’t get near her body with anything sharp, so it’s some kind of factory defect.  I guess Tinkerbell will have to stay away from crop tops.

This is the most her knees will bend. Pathetic.

The articulation on this doll is a fucking joke.  She has points of articulation at neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, and knees much like a Monster High doll, but none of the joints move nearly as much as they ought to. She’s actually an odd mix of flexible and not; her hip joint rotates to an almost ridiculous degree and her shoulders have a wide range of movement, but she doesn’t sit well and her knees and elbows leave a lot to be desired.  The funny thing is that the knee and elbow joints rotate a full 180 degrees, but they don’t bend enough, though the elbows are mostly ok. Her knees can’t even achieve a 30 degree angle; a dollar store Barbie with rubber knees can do more than that.  The most realistic joint is her wrists, which bend 90 degrees in either direction.  Head movement is ok – she can tilt her head to some degree in every direction, but she doesn’t look down very well; that’s pretty similar to most fashion dolls though.

Sure wish they’d put some of that flexibility into her other joints.

She has to spread her legs this wide in order to sit.

In order for her to sit, she has to spread her legs really wide; but I guess Tink was never a very ladylike fairy anyway. I just really wish her knees would bend more.. that lack of movement is kind of ruining this doll for me.

Her hands are nicely expressive, but what is up with the ball-looking yet not ball-functioning elbow joint?  And that carved-out hip joint is an eyesore.

Otherwise, her body sculpt is pretty cute, with a semi-realistic teenage looking figure – quite a contrast to the limp-noodle look of the Equestria Girls doll bodies.  Tinkerbell’s body type is kind of a cross between Monster High and La Dee Da.

Tinkerbell can swap clothes with Monster High dolls, though her hips are wider which will make some things too tight for her.  Howleen’s shoes fit her just fine, but Tink’s feet are too small for most of the regular Monster High shoes; she can really only wear their closed-toe ankle boots, like Operetta’s signature footwear.  Winx shoes are a perfect fit for Tinkerbell, though her calves are a little thicker and the tall boots gape a bit in the back because of it.  Bratz clothes fit remarkably well.

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I wish I’d waited until a sale to buy this doll.  Her stock is all really cute and I’m digging the new head molds for this line and all the redressing possibilities, but the shitty articulation and warped legs don’t exactly encourage lots of fun playtime or photo shoots.

I plan on getting out the x-acto to see if I can free up her joints a bit, and I’ll probably re-root her in a more interesting hair color down the road.  The doll definitely has possibilities, and if I can achieve that extra movement I’ll be really happy with her.

“Celebrate Pixie Party” dolls are still probably the best Disney Fairies dolls to date, even despite the disappointing flaws; even though the articulation is bad, the sculpts are so much better than previous versions of these characters, and the outfits are all quite adorable and well-made.  At only $2 more than the basic, non-articulated Disney Fairies dolls, I guess I really shouldn’t complain.  Monster High has totally spoiled me for fashion dolls though!