Doll-A-Day 2019 #365: Review of Maru and Friends Mary Had a Little Lamb

  Can you believe it's the last day of the year?! I made it through the whole year without missing a day...except for the days where the internet was acting up. But I made those up! So 364 dolls have been presented here this year. Today we finish up the year with a review of a gorgeous little doll. She's Mary Had a Little Lamb.

Mary is a Maru and Friends doll.*** I was sent Mary for review,without charge,but this is an unbiased review. I am going to be completely honest about her.***
Mary is the second in the line of Fairy Tale characters,the first being a mermaid. She's a limited edition of 250,so I feel really lucky to have her. She's a Maru and Friends 'Mini Pal'. The regular line of Maru dolls are 20 inches tall. You may have seen Coy,whom I recently reviewed HERE,Maru,whom I reviewed HERE,or Jamie,which I showed you HERE. The Mini Pals are only 13 inches tall. You may have seen  the other Mini Pals I reviewed,Noah,and Chad. Mary is the first female Mini Pal I've reviewed,and she's a great place to start. She's beautiful!

Look at her cute face, with her realistic skin tone and lip colour.

Of course she's beautiful. Mary is sculpted by Dianna Effner. 
Mary arrived in the small version of the familiar Maru and Friends shipping box,white with colourful flowers.

I took the above picture in my car, since I had forgotten to do the unboxing photos before going out for Mary's photo shoot. I had a terrible time finding an appropriate place to photograph Mary. She's a Spring/Summer looking doll,and here we are in December. There were some sunny days way back before I did Coy's review,but not lately...except for Christmas day! I wasn't working on the review on Christmas. So here I was on a freezing cold, windy December day,trying to find somewhere to photograph Mary that didn't look bare and dark. In the end I did touch up some of her photos to make them look a little warmer. It didn't change Mary's appearance,but the grass looks a little greener!
  Inside the shipper was the citrusy orange Maru and Friends box that contained Mary.

Mary was attached to her insert,which easily slid out.
 

She came with a certificate of authenticity.
 

Mary comes with a straw hat, and an extra wig. We'll look at those in a minute.

She was held to the insert,like Coy,by some white ribbons. Unlike Coy's ribbons, Mary's were easily untied bows. She lifted right out of her box.

She was also protected by sheets of foam around her neck and on her legs.

And here she is out of her box.

Her green eyes are glass.

She has 'real lashes on the top,and painted lashes on the bottom,and nicely detailed eyebrows made up of separate lines.

Look at her cute chubby cheeks.

 

 Her dress and pinafore are separate pieces,so the pinafore can be removed for a whole different look. The white nylon pinafore snaps in the back. 

 

Her pinafore has a real pocket.

The dress is made of a nylon taffeta and closes in the back with Velcro.

Her dress has a built in tulle half slip,and has white cotton bloomers.

Her shoes are described on the website as 'leather',but they are actually leather looking vinyl. They do really tie and untie.

They have shiny, but textured soles.

The straw hat is pretty,and has blue satin ribbons. You'll have to excuse my bow. I'm not good at tying bows.

The hat was hard to push down on that hair and have it look natural. It kept popping back up too. It fit over the other wig much better. Maybe I just didn't have it sitting properly.

Her curly wig is a medium blonde, made up of several shades.

The wigs are held on her head by Velcro which is attached to her head.

There's no corresponding Velcro on the wigs. The texture of the rooting on the inside of the wig holds to the Velcro really well. In fact,maybe too well! The Velcro grabs the wig as soon as it's put on, so it needs to be lifted after placing it on the head, and pulled on tighter. It's not hard. The wigs hold on really well too.

The straight wig gives Mary a whole different look,and the removal of her pinafore makes even more of a change.

It's almost like having two different dolls.

This wig is a bit lighter than the other one, and also contains a mix of shades to get a realistic look.

Mary has the standard Maru articulation. She is strung,and jointed at the neck,shoulders,and hips.

Her legs can move out to the sides,as well as turn in their sockets a bit. 

This allows her to turn her feet out, or be pigeon toed.

Her arms can lift as well as move out to the sides a bit.

This is an example of how I warmed up some of the pictures. This looks much more sunny than real life! Below you'll see what it really looked like out there. In both though, you can see how realistic her skin tone is.

Her head can tilt up...

...and down,but not as far.

Her vinyl is so nice. The first Mini Pals were made with a soft vinyl that bent easily. Mary is made of a firm vinyl.The flesh tone is realistic, and the vinyl is very smooth. 

I was getting an Alice thing from the pictures with the fungi.

Maru and Friends sells a Mini Pals Jamie doll that comes in a plain blue version of this dress with a white collar. If I could only put that dress with this pinafore:Alice! 
I love Mary. She's a beautiful doll I love the option of the two wigs. I love her outfit too. The puffed sleeve little girl dress is vintagey, which is my thing. The clothes and the doll are all of great quality. If I have one complaint it would be that there isn't much variety of face sculpts in the line. Maru and Friends has a few different sculpts,and I know American Girl rode on the same face sculpt for ages.  I just fear that it limits Maru and Friends' sales,as people will start to feel that 'you've got one,you've got them all'.

  Mary retails for $125. She can be ordered from The Maru and Friends website. Next up for Maru and Friends are red haired boy and girl twins! I hope I get to review them!

  That concludes Doll-A-Day for this year. I will be sticking around, but we're going to be doing something different next year. Instead of a doll every day, we'll be looking at dolls, as well as play sets,finds,and lots of other things. The next post will find a new series beginning, called Doll Book of the Month Club,where I talk about books about dolls, as well as books with dolls as characters. See you then, and Happy New Year!