Doll-A-Day 208: Review of Legends of Oz: Dorothy Returns Dorothy Doll and How My Garden Grows

  Today I'm finally getting around to that review I mentioned.
  My kids all went through their Wizard of Oz phase. Emma was the most into Oz of the three, and we read several of the L. Frank Baum books. We also watched quite a few Oz movies and the short lived HBO TV series. Emma had a couple of different Dorothy dolls, and Hamilton's great Tin Man, Scarecrow, and Lion. When the new animated movie "Legends of Oz, Dorothy's Return" came out recently I noticed the new Dorothy dolls in the stores. I thought they were pretty cute. Emma asked me if I had seen them, because she liked them too.Last week I stopped in Walmart to check on some lawn chairs for my sister. They didn't have the chairs she wanted, but in the clearance section, which was conveniently located in the back of the Lawn and Garden department, I found this Dorothy marked down to $5.

She's 11" tall and made by Bandai.

I thought I could squeeze $5 out for this one.
She only comes with a cardboard cutout of Toto.

And the back of the box:

The doll on the back of the box looks a bit older than the doll.

The box edges were covered with tape.I peeled it all off and I still had to peel the box back off to get in. Besides the tape there was also brown glue.

Once I had the box back off I still had to strip the tape off the inner back to get to the plastic tabs holding Dorothy in.

THEN I had to pull out the tabs, and Dorothy was still held in by clear rubber bands holding her to the clear plastic that was molded to her shape.

She had plastic on both upper arms and her left wrist.

Straight out of the box she has some loose hairs, a shine spot on her forehead, and a spot on her lip.

She has a sweet expression. Her eyes are somewhat simply painted. I'd like to see a repaint of one of these dolls.

 

Her hair was an absolute mess, with lots of long straggly hairs. I trimmed them off later.

Her dress closes in back with Velcro.It's a nice, simple one piece outfit that is made to be easy to put on and take off. Her belt was the problem. It was sewn to her dress in one place and hooked with one of those tiny plastic T ended things in another. 

To get her dress off I really needed to untie the belt and remove it, but I knew I'd never get it back the same way. I tried to scoot the dress out from under it. It was pretty difficult. 

Finally made it though.She has molded on undies.

Her legs and feet have a nice realistic sculpt.She's also realistically proportioned except for her big head.

Kids are going to get the belt off, and maybe tear the dress trying to do so unless they have adult help.And then they are going to promptly lose the belt.

Even though I'm not much for cowboy stuff, her boots are pretty cool.

They have a split up the back t make them easy to get on and off. Dorothy has some pretty big feet compared to other dolls her size. More realistically proportioned, but it also means she can't share shoes.

They had plastic on them fresh out of the box.

Since they didn't produce any other clothes for Dorothy (Besides the outfit that came on the other Dorothy this size: a denim dress.), I was curious to see who she might be able to share clothes with. I was pretty sure she was going to be able to share with a Moxie Girl. This skirt with attached leggings was ok, if a little puckered at the waist. It did Velcro closed ok.

...but the shirt was a definite no. I couldn't even close it in back and it was way too short.

This Barbie dress fit fairly well, but was a bit hard to snap at the waist. I didn't even try the belt.

 Here she is back in her own dress. After all the trouble I went to not to undo the belt it fell off while I was putting her dress back on! Figures! And I was right. I couldn't get it back the same way. I think I did what I always do with ties, and tied it backwards!
She can lift her arms out to the sides, as well as up and down.No elbow bends though.

The whole idea of the blue and white gingham dress comes from the 1939 classic "Wizard of Oz" film. Dorothy didn't wear a checked dress in the books or in the earlier movies. (There were several silent versions and some animated things before 1939.)

Her legs can spread out to the sides just a bit.

 Her legs can bend this far forward...

...but only this far back.

Her knees don't bend at all, so when she sits down, she has to stick her legs straight out in front of her.

Her head does tilt a bit, so she can look up a little.

 But she doesn't look down as well.

She seems to be a fairly sturdy play doll. I think kids might be disappointed her legs don't bend, especially since everybody is expecting so much more poseability now days. But I think she'll hold up well to play. I didn't dare take her hair down to see how it would be that way, since I'm so lousy at hair-dos.
Since she's Dorothy she ventured outside. It's a shame she didn't come with a Toto, so I loaned her one. I think he goes to a McDonald's Madame Alexander Dorothy doll.

As you can see, the tomatoes are getting bigger.

Whoo Hoo! They're getting ripe!

 I hope they have time to get big enough and ripe before the weather turns cold.

The cucumbers are still just blooms though. Well, I got a late start this year.

She needed a helping hand to stand bent like this.

See how badly I tied that belt?

And by the way the corn is getting big too.

  That's it for today. I think Dorothy is a nice doll that will stand up to play.She has a simple dress that's easy to manipulate, and cool boots that go on and off easily.And I need to see that movie...