Doll-A-Day 264: A Review of Disney Store Exclusive Frozen Anna and a Comparison with Sparkle Anna

  First, before I forget, as I have the last couple of days, I have to welcome our latest follower. Welcome! You know who you are...and I don't! The last 3 followers got buried at the bottom of the list and I didn't see who they were. So consequently, I don't know which is the most recent! Now that I have found that the new ones are going on the bottom of the list, I'll be ok from now on though!
  A while ago I mentioned that I had ordered my Frozen dolls. Well they did indeed arrive, but I wanted to review them and reviews take time. I just haven't had enough of that lately to do one. Today I'm trying to squeeze it in.Just a note. The winter look of these pictures was a stroke of luck. It was an overcast day, and I posed Anna in front of my yew trees, which look all evergreeny, through which could be seen my neighbor's white house: instant snow!
  The Disney Store packs well. The dolls came in a big box with lots of pillow bubble thingies and wrapped in tissue paper. So it''s amazing that the boxes within weren't in the best condition. I've heard of people having this problem before, so it seems to be a Disney Store thing. Maybe they use the damaged boxes for mail orders, so their store goods always look pretty. It could be.
  It's a good thing I don't worry about the boxes, because a couple of the boxes had unstuck tape circles and the tissue paper had gotten stuck in the sticky. Anna's box was ok though.

Take a good look at the box. There are a lot of cheap copies from China being sold on the internet for amazing prices, but the dolls are not of this quality.

And the back of the box.

As usual with the Disney Store Classic dolls, Anna's box was sealed with tape circles.

 Like an idiot I thought I could just open the bottom and slide out the insert to remove Anna.No.

Not even untaping the sides was completely all I needed. The box back is folded over and also serves as the background for the doll. You have to open both sides and the bottom and take the back apart.

Then there are twist ties and plastic T ended ties, and thread...Ah! Do dolls really need this much securing? I promise: They are not going to escape!

Her hands are tied down.

Her cape is tied to the backing...

 ...and to her dress.

There were some holes left when the ties were removed too.

Finally she's free.

She's so pretty!

 
Well, not completely. Her braids are hooked to her cape. They are so tightly clamped down, with such tiny plastic thingies that I could barely get them loose without cutting the cape.

As it was I cut one of her elastic ponytailers! Kids are going to definitely need help with this one, or they are going to chop Anna's hair and clothes all to pieces. This step was absolutely not necessary, since it was obviously just to make her presentation appear nicer, and had nothing to do with holding the doll to the packaging.  

Here's the box backing without Anna. Not big enough to aid in play very much.Pretty though, isn't it?

Anna comes wearing her dress, cape,hat, and mittens.Oh, and those cute boots.

One of Anna's mittens sliped off while I was straightening her out. Underneath it she had plastic wrapped around her hand. Of course, now that it's off and the plastic is removed, I can't get the mitten to stay on! The other mitten that hasn't been messed around stays on perfectly. You know kids will lose those mittens. 

Note: On another day, when I was finishing the pictures, Anna's other glove started coming off. The plastic got all crammed down inside it and I couldn't even get it back on. Getting the plastic out was a trick too. Remove that plastic for your kids or there's going to be some frustration involved!

Her undies are painted on. Take my word for it.The cape is made of a thin, but fairly durable fabric. It has these snazzy silver toned plastic thingies that are meant to look like closures, but they are just decorative. It really closes with a hook and eye closure! In this day and age?! Kids won't even know what it is. It's nice though.

It's a little hard to unfasten though, because of the silver thingies.

The dress is actually a top and skirt. Both close in the back with Velcro.

The hat is hooked to her head, again with those plastic thingies, as well as having an elastic piece that goes under her braids to hold it on.

 The plastic ties holding the hat on break easily, but mine got tangled in her hair. It would be just like me to mess the hair up just getting the hat off. I made it without doing that though!

No hat!

You'll notice that ponytail thing I cut fell off!

It's good the hat has the plastic strap though.Nothing more frustrating than not being able to keep something on your doll. Unless it's the doll not being able to sit down or stand up without being held.Anna can no way stand up in those boots.

"Oh yeah?!"

Ok, I was wrong.

"That's right! Now say you're sor...."

"Ahhh!" Well, it was a little windy out...

The boots are really cool. They have some very nice detailing.Emily at The Toy Box Philosopher says the boots are almost impossible to put back on once they're removed, so forget it. I'm not even taking them off.

Anna is jointed at the neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists,hips, knees, and ankles. She's very posable.

Not only can she look left and right, she can tilt her head, and look up or down.

She can sit, but not very lady like. It looks ok with the skirt...

 but if she were to wear a shorter dress, or pants...

She has a beautiful face. I very much prefer her to the Sparkle Anna I got recently at a garage sale.

Disney Store Anna on the right, Sparkle Anna on the left. Sparkle Anna just looks weird in comparison. Sort of like an alien...

Let's compare the two.
Disney Store Classic Anna has a prettier face, with smaller, lighter freckles, more detailed eyes, and a smaller, less cartoonish mouth. Disney Store Anna has the pale complexion from the movie, not the pinkish tone of Sparkle Anna.

Sparkle Anna's hair isn't nearly bright enough. She has a lighter orange colour than Disney Store Anna.

It's like the difference between my two red haired kids. That would be Fuzz's hair on the left and Ivy's on the right.

They both have Anna's white streak. Here's Disney Store Anna's.

Disney Store Anna has thinner eyebrows, but they have a bit more detail to them.

Sparkle Anna has a crown instead of the cozy hat.

She also has a fine line of faint blue eye shadow that Sparkle Anna doesn't have.
I am not taking my Anna's hair down, since I am hair-do challenged, but other reviews have shown that Disney Store Anna's hair isn't fully rooted. In other words, there's a gigantic bald spot in the middle when you take her hair down out of the braids. Sparkle Anna at least doesn't have that problem. However, Sparkle Anna's hair is all pulled back unless you cut that thread holding her piece of bangs. That looks dangerous to me. Haircut alert!
Now let's look at the clothes.Sparkle Anna has a molded, painted bodice and sleeves. This is the thing about her that I dislike the most. I can imagine kids would too. It gives her a lot less options with clothes play.She can never be wearing short sleeves!

Disney Store Anna's bodice is more movie accurate, not just because it's fabric. The design on the front is better, for one thing. 

I don't see any pink sparkly thing.

It would have been great if the Disney Store cape had trim on it to make it look more like the movie cape. It could have at least been printed onto the fabric at the least. Even Sparkle Anna's cape has a little trim.
 

Disney Store Anna's cape has the little capelet. Sparkle Anna's is shaped in front to give you the impression of the capelet, without actually having it.

Their capes are very similar. They're made of the same fabric, but Disney Store Anna's is much longer

Sparkle Anna's cape has a Velcro closure, as opposed to Disney Store Anna's hook and eye closure.

Which, admittedly, is easier to get off than the hook and eye.

They have similar molded plastic fake closures, but Sparkle Anna's are a less realistic looking gold.They look plastic. Disney Store Anna's look like metal.Plus Sparkle Anna's fake closures are huge. DS Anna's are more realistic.

The skirt part of DS Anna's dress is very similar to Sparkle Anna's skirt.

DS Anna on the left, Sparkle Anna on the right.

Disney Store Anna.I'm not sure which one is closer to the real thing.

The boots are way different on each doll. DS Anna's boots are not only taller on the leg, but way bigger in the foot.They also have painted heels, and molded and painted gold designs, whereas Sparkle Anna's only have unpainted molded designs.

Disney on left, Sparkle on the right.

WHY does it load this sideways?!

 Here are some more pictures of Anna just because she's so fun to pose.

I am definitely glad I got Disney Store Anna and didn't have to settle for Sparkle Anna.In comparison Sparkle Anna is just weird looking. Disney Store Anna was even cheaper than I could have bought Sparkle Anna for in the stores here too. 
  See you tomorrow. More dolls are waiting.