Doll-A-Day 2023 #168: Coraline

   Today's doll is Coraline.

This Coraline was made by NECA in 2009, the year the "Coraline" movie was released. There were three dolls in the series, this raincoat doll, a Coraline in a striped sweater, and one in pajamas. They all had different faces. 

  The movie was directed by Henry Selick, who also wrote the screenplay, based on the novel by Neil Gaiman. Selick directed the Tim Burton movie "The Nightmare Before Christmas", which, like 'Coraline", was a stop motion movie.

Coraline is 7 inches tall. I've been after this doll, or maybe not, for a while. I didn't like the movie that much. (Too creepy for me.), but I loved the puppet, and I wanted the doll. When I say, 'or maybe not;, what I'm referring to is that there is a 7 inch Neca doll in a box, who is described as 'bendy', and a 7 inch Neca doll on card, who looks exactly the same, and came in the same outfits, who is described as 'articulated'. But were they the same figure? I still have no idea.

                  

I got this doll for free, because I won a gift certificate at a doll show a while back, and Coraline is what I got with it. Here she is once her box was opened and the insert was slid out.

Once removed from the insert, her head was still tied to this plastic shell with very tight t-ended ties.

 

I finally got her out of her shell, (Ha.), and she figured that since she had a raincoat on, she would go out in the rain soaked outdoors. She brought her stand, which is just a black plastic circle with a little nub on it that fits into a hole in one of her boots.

She has a fat head, so she falls over if you don't get her balanced just right.

And yes, her hood can go up. Her coat closes with Velcro under her chin.

In this picture I hid her stand under the vegetation that had floated into a divot in the cement, 

 along with the rain. The lantern is one I got recently in a bunch of miniatures at a Bin store. It had no handle on it, so I had to make one.

  Her boots have fake mud on them.

Other than her raincoat, the only other thing she's wearing is a pair of jeans. In the front they have a fake fly and fake pockets.

Take note of that hand.

The back of her jeans has fake pockets too, and the Velcro closure.

  When I was posing her I noticed something. It felt at least, like she had some really nobby knees...

I was right.

I was, however, impressed that they had bothered to give her the nobby knees. They also made her super skinny because that makes her look right in the clothes. As with a lot of dolls, she has to be that skinny to be the right size with clothes on.

They also bothered to give her a...

  She has translucent blue hair, decorated with a dragonfly barrette.

You'll notice that her eyes look a bit like inset eyes.

You can see through her hair, but not all the way through it. I guess that is the definition of translucent.

  So is she articulated, or just 'bendy'? Well, she doesn't have joints. She is just bendy. But she is very posable, and she holds her poses.

And she can hold that lantern. Well, she could until HER HANDS FELL OFF! Yes! Her hands fell OFF. First, I tried to make her fold her arms and her right hand fell off. I put it back on, since the hand  has a post and the wrist has a hole. Should be okay, right? Well it's not. That hand just keeps falling off. I keep putting it back on, and it keeps falling off. Then, the next thing I know, the other hand falls off! It won't stay on either. You have no idea how many times the hand fell off without me realizing, and I was lucky enough to notice, and even more lucky to actually find it again.

But anyway, her feet didn't fall off, and her legs are very posable.

Had to lean her here.

Hid the stand with vegetation again.

She can't sit very well though. She doesn't bend at the waist, For this picture, she had to bend at the upper thigh, and put her hands behind her to prop herself up.

She's still barely sitting.

One thing she can do, is tilt her head. It can turn side to side, and tilt side to side.

She can also look up and down.

"See this hand? It's this close to falling off."

I had read one thing about the articulated Coraline that I was curious about, and I had read a review of this doll that said the other stuff I had read wasn't correct. But I see a seam under her chin, and I am willing to test a theory. Does this Coraline's face come off? (And yes, her mouth is very badly painted.)

 

Yes! It does! 

And why would you want it to? Because you can move her eyes and change her expression.

Of course, it takes a little practice to get it right...

You don't have to move the eyes as much as you would think. You can very easily move them too much.

The other thing about being able to remove the faces is that you can switch faces from one doll to another, so that your raincoat doll can change her expression by borrowing the face from pajama Coraline or sweater Coraline. Since you can't change her clothes, because you can't get her skinny jeans over those boots, it's nice to have the option.

So yay! She has the movable eyes and changeable face! The only thing I am disappointed about is that her hands won't stay on.

I'm still not sure if the articulated dolls are a different thing altogether, or the same doll in different packaging. (They also have a different stand. They have a clear one with a long arms that holds the doll up better than a disc with a peg.)

  And that's today's doll. See you tomorrow for another one.