Doll-A-Day 76: Review Week: Disney Store Ever After Tangled Rapunzel

Shew! That's a title and a half! Today's doll is, well, you know... But first,

  Happy St. Patrick's Day. (I've been waiting to use this hat!)
And now, on to the review.
Here's Rapunzel in her box.

I remember seeing some short haired Rapunzel dolls when the movie first came out. I haven't seen any in regular stores for ages.When I found this one at the Disney Store last week I got excited and decided to nab her while I could.There were only two and they were shoved in behind the Flynn dolls.

   And the back of the box.

.

I thought I was going to just pull up this sticky tab at the top and slide the insert out.Noo...

                                                          

 There are more sticky tabs at the bottom.

  So then I think I can open these sticky tabs and pull the insert out.Nooo...

 Because then I see that there are sticky tabs allllll along both sides of the box.NOOOOOOO!!!!

Why are they making this box so hard to open! These are kids' dolls for Pete's sake! A kid could hit puberty before they get this box open! And I'm way past puberty! I might die before I get it open!

  Finally!! After unsticking all the sticky tabs along the bottom, top, and one side, and then slipping the plastic tabs out of the slot, I can do this!
  But then there is still this to deal with:

...two twisty wires, elastics on her hands, those plastic things in her head and tiny versions in her skirt bottom.

Plus, what you can't see here, more plastic thingies hooking her veil down.

  They were kind of hard to cut out without snagging the veil.

 Once she was out there was still a big plastic coated wire to take out of her dress, where it was wrapped around her waist.

I like her short hair look.I can't remember why it's brown though. It's been a while since I saw the movie.I may have to watch it again. I also like that this doll has the BIG eyes and freckles.

Just the very front sweep of hair is slightly stiff from hair spray. The rest of her hair is super soft. There is a gap in her rooting in the front.Ivy pointed out that the tiara part of her veil is slipped back and not standing up. I tried to fix that, but when I did it scooted the hair up in back. It was not easy to get in position without scooping a gap in the hair.

 There. That's better.

The Tangled dolls that are being sold in regular stores like Walmart, Kmart, Target,and Meijers,have lost all Rapunzel's personality. She has a tiny head, almost realistically sized eyes, and no freckles. She's been transformed into a typically pretty princess, with none of the things that made her unique, or even like the animated version from the movie. It's just one more thing to send the message that you have to look and be like everybody else, and be pretty to be accepted. Rapunzel was pretty in the movie, but she was her own unique looking self.

Darn that one hair!

She wasn't perfect. She had those freckles and some personality in her face. I can understand they want to use the same head mold for multiple characters because it makes it easier, but they could still give Rapunzel her freckles. If kids don't like Rapunzel with freckles, they can buy a different doll. If they like the character, it shouldn't matter if she has freckles. 'Accept people like they are' is a message kids need to learn. But it's all about the money, and if a test market group says they don't like the freckles then out the freckles go, I guess. "But she has freckles dear."  "I don't like em! Take 'em off!"

I swear they must have made her with the full length hair and then trimmed it. She shed tiny hair bits the whole time I was photographing her.

Her veil was full of hair bits.

Her hair is layered in the back.

Her dress is stuffed with paper, which is actually looped around one leg, to pluff up her dress.(And as you can see---sorry Rapunzel!---she has painted on undies.

Her dress has a stitch at the side of each pleat in the front to hold the pleats closed...

...and the dress closes in back with velcro, as usual.

 
The fabric has a printed pattern that you can't feel. The fabric is very smooth and satiny.

She can tilt her head, and her arms swivel at the shoulders and elbows. She doesn't have a waist joint, so she can only turn her head sideways, not her whole top half.
She has very soft vinyl legs that bend easily. They can actually bend quite far if you go past the first click, but they don't hold it very well.

 She can cross her ankles too.

Unfortunately, they bend the other way too if you're not careful!

Ow!

And of course, there's no way she can stand on her own with those tiny feet and soft rubber legs.
She has little rubber slip on shoes.

Her legs move apart from the hip too, so she can do this.

 And she wonders why she would need to, (Hasn't she ever been to gym class?!), but she can do this too.

She has a painted on wedding ring, so I guess this is post ceremony Rapunzel.

 

Also, somehow, her dress came out of the box with a brownish stain on each side.

The weather was pretty nice today, so she decided to pose outside.

 

She's such a pretty doll, and with lots of personality. There aren't very many short haired dolls of this type, and even fewer Disney girls with short hair. I love her articulated arms, but I'd be a little worried that those soft bendy legs would break with a lot of play. Her dress is well made, but as with most play doll dresses in the satiny fabric, it would snag easily, and might start to fray on the seams after being played with for a period of time. That veil would definitely get caught in the dress Velcro and get torn. It's quite a delicate tulle for a play doll. One plus is the hair do can't have too much damage done to it in play. Of course, once the stitching holding the veil to her head is cut (or broken!) there would be no keeping the thing on. I think she has a lot of play potential with her poseability though. I wish there were separate clothes for her though, so she didn't have to be a bride all the time. I think kids would like to be able to have the option of other clothes. I'm sure she could wear regular Barbie clothes, but it would be nice if there were some period clothes for her so she could stay as the character.
  Tomorrow we'll have a look at another Rapunzel character.