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Rapunzel Doll Wardrobe Set
by sparkleychel
== Disney Deluxe Tangled Rapunzel Wardrobe Doll ==
My daughter received this set for Christmas 2011, from my mother who paid £29.99 from the Disney Store. The Disney film Tangled had been released that year and my daughter was very much a Rapunzel fan .
==The packaging ==
The box is not a bad size , and looked ... quite substantial wrapped as a gift. The front is see through and you can clearly see the doll, the 2 dresses and the small accessories . My daughter was thrilled when she opened it and was very excited to get it open. This took some time as once you pull off the plastic front and separate it from the cardboard backing everything is tied on with ties or plastic tags , and it takes a while to get everything out .
== The Doll ==
The Rapunzel doll is a typical Disney Princess doll , she stands 29 cms tall and is the same size and shape as girls dolls such as Barbie and Sindy . She has a very pretty face with big green eyes and cute little freckles across her nose . Her arms are fully movable with joints at the wrist and elbow for extra movement and her hands are properly formed with fingers and thumb. The legs are each 1 piece with pointed toe feet at the end , there is a joint inside the legs so that you can bend them from the knees but only to a small degree .
When undressed she has molded boobs and a pair of painted on purple pants .
Once bent at the waist she will sit up and stay sitting .
== The Dresses ==
Rapunzel comes wearing a lovely winter outfit , what looks like a dress and cape is actually a 1 piece the cape closes at the back with velcro , and once opened the dress slips down to take it all off together . This dress is nice and much better quality than the other 2 dresses .
The dress part has a glittery pink bodice with tie detail, the skirt part is in 2 layers , 1 of purple satin and 1 of purple net with pink glitter . The cloak part is a lighter more lilac colour and made of the same shiny satin fabric , it has a white fake fur collar with silver flecks. The dress comes with a matching fake fur hand muff in the same white with silver flecks .
The other 2 dresses are certainly not the same quality as the main dress, they are the same shiny material but are a lot plainer.
The pink bodice and purple skirt dress has a tiny gold trim around the neck and arms while the 2 tone green dress is totally plain with no trims.
Unfortunately due to the material the dresses are made from, they do seem to fray a lot especially around the bottom hems and the arm holes , because you , or a small child are trying to push the hands through the arm holes the fingers tend to get stuck on any stitching and pull it through , so they start to took tatty very quickly.
== Accessories ==
Also in the box comes 2 pairs of shoes in pink and purple. 2 tiaras, again in pink and purple and a silver hair brush . The accessories are ok , nothing special and the shoes don't stay on very well especially the purple pair . The tiaras stay in the hair fairly well but the brush is pretty useless .
== The Hair ==
Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair.
This is where it all goes wrong the only good thing to stay about the hair is that it is long , and does just reach past Rapunzel's feet . Now I am not a huge fan of dolls hair I find it gets matted and tangles very quickly with some princesses being worse than others , but Rapunzel is the worst of them all .
Literally within days she was starting to look like a throw back to the 80's , the hair had become so knotted and messy it looked like someone had been backcombing the life out of her . This wasn't due to my budding Vidal Sassoon daughter ,as all she had done by that point was put the tiara on her head and sit her up at a tea party .
Now I tried brushing with the brush that come with the set , it was useless. Then i tried with a normal brush , and i even had a go with the Tangle Teaser brush we have , but it just doesn't brush ,all you end up doing is pulling out the knotted hair . In the end we didn't want a bald Rapunzel so I plaited it best I could. It still looks a mess , but not the huge birds nest that it did .
== My Thoughts ==
As soon as i saw this on Dooyoo I thought I must review this to warn people not to waste their money.
The set is no way worth the R.R.P of £30 . To be honest it isn't worth £15 , the only redeeming feature is the winter outfit is nice , the other 2 dresses and accessories are nothing special and nothing to make them worth of the Disney Princess price tag, and could be from any cheaper dolls set . And the awful, awful hair did i mention how awful it is ? it will have you wanting to cut it off !
a generous 2 out of 5 .
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Disney Princess Belle Classic Doll
by sparkymarky1973
This is an official doll of Disney Princess Belle from the popular movie, Beauty And The Beast that we bought recently during a stay at Disneyland Paris. Our version differs from the one shown above only in that it comes in a box marked with the official Disneyland Paris logo.
Belle is beautifully and realistically rendered ... and looks exactly as she does in the movie. This then is a distinct advantage straight off as some of the dolls we have seen and considered buying before have had only a cursory resemblance at best, despite also supposedly being official Disney versions. This particular doll is called the Classic version and comes with no other accessories so perhaps might be considered a bit too basic for some. Still, my daughter had some Euros left after buying everything else she wanted and this was the only thing left that she said she wanted so it was what we bought her.
This is a nice doll, like I said, and very pretty but I do have some concerns. The hair is tied back in Belle's trademark style but is a little complicated. This essentially means that should her hair come untied, I imagine it would be a nightmare to get back in place. Therefore my daughter has been put under strict instructions not to take her hair out as I don't fancy trying to replicate her hair style should it come undone. My other issue I have is that her pair of yellow heels don't quite fit on her feet as tightly as I might have liked. Originally they were fixed on with see through plastic ties but, since we have come back, my daughter has broken these off so that she could change her shoes with that of a similar sized doll. My problem with this is that I fear it could be all too easy to lose one or both of these shoes as they have a habit of falling off where they don't quite fit!
This doll is also available over here but I can't comment on the price as we paid for this in Euros. I think, if I recall that it came to about Twenty Euros in Disneyland so imagine it would be similarly priced over here in the equivalent sterling.
Overall, this is a very nice doll but am not sure exactly how practical it is for everyday play. Still, if you are looking for a good representation of Belle then this is definitely it!
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ELC Cup Cake Complete Collection
by Mrb84
We bought this cupcake complete collection when Little B was about 2. Mrs B chose it saying that it was not only good value but that the collection was fun so Little B would enjoy playing with it. Me, being me, just handed over my credit card and let her order it. Now Little B is nearly 4 and this is still played with today so I have to ... hand it to her and say it was a good purchase.
When we bought this the retail price was £50 and we managed to get it on offer for £25 which is a brilliant price to pay, I think it is well worth the £50. Now, 20 months later, it is retailing at £60 so I think that confirms what a big success this set still is.
But what do you get? What is it?
The Early Learning Centre have a very girlie doll range called Cup Cake. This is a set which will keep your cupcake doll very happy and cared for. In the set you get a highchair, a pushchair, a little rocker chair, a change bag and even a feeding set. It all has the same pattern on it so that it's easily recognisable as this collection and it's very appealing to little girls because it's so pink and has little cupcakes all over it!
The pushchair
The pushchair isn't a tacky one at all. You can buy a cupcake collection stroller which is quite tacky and looks like it won't last a long time with a rough toddler but the one that comes in this set is very good quality. It has a basket underneath which is useful to carry 'shopping' although Little B tends to use it to collect stones or leaves when we go on walks which is quite cute! The seat itself has a strap so Little B can be taught the importance of safety and always ensure that her dolly is carefully strapped in so that she doesn't fall. It is a very modern pushchair as it's a three-wheeler! It's very light so it's easy for Little B to push around and steer well. She has been playing with this since she was 2 and now nearly 2 years later she still plays with it fine so it is a good height, it will last a good while, she isn't leaning over to try and push it. It has a little hood that pulls over to protect dolly from the sun or rain. It is very good quality, trust me! This pushchair has been played with so regularly and comes on walks with us all the time, it has big wheels and it has really withstood all the hundreds of walks it's been on. It does look played with and loved but it doesn't look battered at all and still works just as it did on day one. The basket underneath is a little grubby from all the stones and leaves and as far as I can see this can't be cleaned. It isn't a large pushchair, unlike this huge pram we bought for her which she barely plays with, so it's easy to store.
The rocker
This is a seat which is a bit like a baby's rocker. It has the cupcake material which is the seat and is on a metal frame just like a rocker would be. Again this teaches children about safety as it has straps on it too to make sure that baby is safe whilst in here. The seat does rock, not a lot, but nice and gently when you move it. Little B likes to put her teddies in here at night time and read them a bed time story. I would say out of all the elements of this set this is probably played with the least but it is still a good toy.
The Highchair
The highchair is pink with the cupcake material on the seat. It has a blue tray which can be lifted up so that dolly can easily be placed in it and again it has a strap to keep dolly safe. The feeding set that comes with this sits on the tray nicely; a bowl, spoon, fork and bottle. Little B loves playing with this, she sits her dolly in it and spends hours feeding her and then telling her off if she plays with her food instead of eating it properly. I think it's great to see her using her imagination and acting out a role like this!
What it teaches
This set teaches children an awful lot about the world as well as helps them to develop various skills. Children can learn through role-play about various events. We have sometimes used this set to explain to Little B why it's important not to take your seat belt off- we have shown how if dolly isn't strapped in she can fall out of the pushchair. She has also taken various elements of our days and acted them out but taking on our roles such as telling dolly off for not eating her dinner nicely and I think this helps her to have empathy and understanding. Little B has learnt how to fasten dolly in so it's improved her fine motor skills and she has also learnt to navigate with the pushchair and steer it well. I think it's also taught her to be gentle and kind to her little baby brother as she has been so used to tucking her little teddies up at night in the rocker and reading them a bed time story, she now loves doing this with her baby brother too!
Entertainment factor
This is definitely high on the entertainment factor! Little B has played endlessly with this, especially the pushchair. When her friends come to play they enjoy playing with it too, even slightly older children who are 6 and 7. I think it can last us another few years yet so definitey think it is aimed at children from 2 to about 6 or 7, maybe even a bit older depending. It is good because there are several elements to it which can be played with right away. There was no fiddling around setting this up, it only took a matter of minutes to lift it out of the box it came in, take off the wrapping and snap on a wheel on the pushchair and hey-presto it was ready to be played with! We have never had any problems with it, nothing has ever broken or become a bit dodgy. Little B will play with this in various ways whether it's tucking a teddy up in the rocker, taking dolly for a walk, using the pushchair shopping basket to collect items, feeding a dolly in the highchair or using the changing bag to go 'shopping' with.
Recommendation
Yes I recommend this. I think it is worth the retail price but if you can find it on offer then definitely go for it! It is geared towards girls as it is very pink, I don't think a little boy would really appreciate it. It is very durable, it can be played with for hours, it can teach children skills and understanding as well as providing them with lots of fun.
It's available from The Early Learning Centre both in store and on-line.
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