Two Summers

While I'm waiting for my birthday gift doll to arrive in the mail, hubby decided I deserve more and one day he brought home what he deemed the prettiest doll in the store - a Fashionista Summer. Since I have another one from a previous wave, I had a little fun comparing the two and soon all my other Fashionistas were drawn into this sort-of review.

What all the new Fashionistas have in common is an abundance of glitter. There is glitter on their dresses, tinsel hair and some shiny plastic accessory. I talked a little about this when I got Raquelle. This time I did take a picture of Summer's tinsel hair before getting carried on with the tweezers.

Phone photo, sorry

The tinsel is red and doesn't style. I yanked it all out and I could admire Summer in all her glory:

Here is the plastic piece on the dress, which doesn't do anything for me:

For comparison, here's my first Summer before I messed with the face paint. 

One eye was very wonky and it wasn't long before I redid the face. I'm still not happy with it, but at least it's symmetrical now.

Old Summer has strawberry blonde hair with blonde highlights, while New Summer doesn't have noticeable highlights, just the tinsel.

Old Fashionistas had earrings, while new ones's ears aren't pierced. They have a ring that somehow sits between fingers instead.

Overall, I like the old dolls best. They seem richer in details and better made. With the new ones, I get the impression they are cutting costs and trying to cover it with glitter. I'm sad they are doing away with the torso joint. Combined with a stiffer neck, it makes a huge difference when trying to pose the dolls.

Old dolls versus new dolls:

Barbie, Summer 1, Summer 2, Raquelle

My Summer also has a weird left leg, I checked if it's a different construction but no, Raquelle's legs are fine.

Raquelle, Summer 2, Summer 1

I finally realised why I'm put off by many of the new dolls' faces. Their eyes are significantly smaller!

I appreciate that they strive for more realism, but dolls aren't realistic in body proportions and I prefer them with huge dreamy eyes. This isn't a big deal for me because eventually they will be repainted but still, it's worth noting.

At this point in the photo shoot I went away to make tea leaving hubby unattended with the dolls and came back to this horrific scene.

Someone please tell hubby it's not cool to reenact Kamasutra with my collection!

My Barbie shelf is otherwise very neat when I'm the only one posing the dolls. The Summers took well to the ginger kitty. They are natural cat ladies, which I like. The bright red dress makes my display very festive.

There are four dolls missing. Ken, who had a tooth operation and is getting auburn plugs; a flat-footed doll which I left at mom's for some experiments; a tiny doll for whom I haven't sewn fitting clothes yet and my marker stained Barbie, now marker-free and standing in line for a makeover. I'm working to get those four back on the shelf, who do you think should be the first?

You may have noticed a missing earring in the very first picture. I made them sloppily from a pair of mine because I needed something to plug the holes and I couldn't find my homemade earrings (which I was sure had been eaten by the cat). They turned up after I took all my photos for the post. Yay! I can close with a picture with proper earrings. What are your thoughts on Fashionista dolls? If you have both the old and the new ones, which do you prefer?

The Black Kitty (^^)~