Doll-A-Day 155: Tommy Who? Review of Chelsie Friend Darrin

  Well, It's a bit late, but better late than never, as I seem to say  a lot lately! I was very late getting up today,since I haven't been sleeping very well lately and I was just pooped. I seem to have fibermyalgia,or something very similar, and so much of me hurts when I lay down that it makes it hard to sleep. After a couple of weeks of new pains on my good hip that have left me without a pain free side to sleep on, and then getting up about 6 to go to the Barbie auction with Emma yesterday, when I kept managing to drift back off to sleep this morning I went with it! So I got up VERY late, and then had lots to do before going to see my sister tomorrow. Tomorrow would have been Dad's 91st birthday, so we are getting together. Father's Day was hard for me, and I had all of my crew to be with, but my sister is all alone.I imagine tomorrow will be difficult too.
  So I am only just doing today's doll. While I was out getting some pictures copied to take to my sister I checked out the toy aisle (of course...), and was excited to see today's doll on his peg. It's Chelsie's friend, Darrin.

 My first reaction was "A Tommy!" But then I saw his name. Darrin? What happened to Tommy?!
Darrin's box was easily opened, and then the insert just slid out.

He was connected to his backing with some rubber bands and some of those plastic thingies with the T shaped ends.He was pretty easy to get free.

He's a cute little guy. I love the hat.

He has  alot of stray hairs and some shiny stuff,probably hair spray, on his forehead and under his nose.

There's no name for the theme of the series of dolls printed on the box, but all the dolls come with some kind of plaything, including a hula hoop, a jump rope, etc.. Darrin comes with a soccer ball.

But he can't hold it. If his arms extended out to the sides, and not just up and down, he could at least tuck it under his arm. 

 

But his arms and legs only have the usual articulation.

His shirt closes in the back with velcro, but his shorts just slide on and off. They don't seem to have elastic though. It's better than the velcro I guess, because you don't have that giant velcro lump you then have to stretch his shirt over.

His shoes have the slit in the back so that they are easier to get on and off. Here are his cute shoes, with molded socks. 

Darrin has the tall skinny body that Chelsie has. The feet are huge on this body. I think I prefer the original Kelly proportions.
Darrin's hat is great.

  They have modernized the baseball hat mold to look like the kind people wear these days, with the hole in the back and the adjustable snap thingy.

 As you can see, his hat was hooked on with two of those T ended plastic things.The one was only actually in his head, not his hat. The other was through his hat, and so tight I couldn't get scissors under it to cut it. So, at the risk of tearing the hat, I PULLED.

 The plastic thing pulled out of his head, but not his hat. I was left with this. His hat looked like a propellor beanie.

But, it did make it easier to cut the thing out.

So here he is without his hat. There are, as I said, alot of loose hairs, and his hair is a little choppy. This one is better than the other Darrin the store had. His bangs were very uneven.

 The cut is a slight departure from the old Tommy bowl cut. Darrin has his ears showing and sideburns. My complaint about Tommy was that he always had the same hair cut, and it was always blonde.Kelly and Chelsie get different hairdos. Why couldn't Tommy? And I REALLY wanted a red haired Tommy. When I made Fuzzy's Fuzzy the Doll out of a Tommy, I had to colour the hair with a marker. And it kept wearing off so I had to keep recolouring it. That is, until the hair became so fuzzy (no pun intended!) that it couldn't be coloured any more.

 The hat itself is sort of head shaped,which makes it hard for Darrin to wear it this way...

 But he can easily do this...

Looking cool.

There are pictures from Life in the Dreamhouse down the one side of the box, so I'm assuming Darrin appears on the show. Emma showed me several episodes, but I didn't see one with Darrin.

Sorry about the sideways thing. It's the computer, not me. Just turn your head slightly to the left...

There are two Chelsies in the series of dolls, and 3 other girls, Tamika, Madison, and Kira.
  Darrin is a cute fellow. It's a shame he's blonde, because there are so many blondes in the Barbie/Chelsie world. It would have been nice if he had had at least a little more articulation, but these smaller dolls are more popular with little kids and this style of articulation makes him less breakable. But here's a point: that soccer ball is smaller than the standard for choking hazards.If this doll is being purchased for little kids who might put things in their mouths they should definitely not be given the ball.
  So there you are. See you tomorrow for Skipper Saturday.