Doll-A-Day 22: A Review of Ai Doll Leptospermum

  Yesterday I reviewed my Ai ball jointed doll Bee Balm, which I got at Tuesday Morning recently. Today I'm reviewing the other doll I bought, which is from the same series, Leptospermum.As I mentioned in the Bee Balm review, all the dolls in this series are named after flowers. I had never heard of Bee Balm or Leptospermum. They look like this:

Bee Balm

Leptospermum

  The dolls are made by Jun Planning.I detailed the different aspects of the box yesterday, so I'll do an abbreviated version today. For more detail, see yesterday's post.
  Here's the front of his book style box.It also has magnets to hold it firmly closed.

 And the back.

"The code for flowers:spiritual beauty,intellectual strength with simplicity and honesty". All Bee Balm's said was 'comfort'!

I'm calling it 'him', but I found out that, like Bee Balm, Leptospermum is actually a girl.
  Here is what you see when you first open the box.

  Again, like Bee Balm the box isn't sealed. It just has this clear plastic that lifts up easily.

  All the accessories lift out of the soft box insert: and the insert lifts out too if you're not careful!

  Leptospermum comes with a soft toy,a hat, a pair of cool shoes, and a box of eye putty, for holding his...excuse me, her eyes in.There's nothing under the picture except the doll.
The doll is tied into the box insert with two ribbons. The one around the legs removes easily, but as with Bee Balm, the one around the neck required some digging out.

Once out of the box she needs the plastic removed from her arms.

I suppose this was to hold them together so she fit in the box better.
Her hair needed a little fluffing when she was taken out of the box.

Here she is in her outfit, complete with hat and shoes.

 She comes with a vest with a pretend zipper,a long shirt,leggings, her buckle shoes,the hat, and studded cuffs for her arm and leg.The cuffs aren't attached to the clothing.If you remove the clothing it's easier to put the cuff on the sleeve and legging before redressing the doll, so that they slide on easily. The clothes are well made of good quality fabric, and the details are nice.
  The shirt is decorated with a bar code.

 

 The vest is removable. The shirt closes in the back with velcro.I'm a bit worried about the unfinished bottom. I think it will start to unravel after she's been dressed and undressed a few times and played around with a while.The leggings don't have elastic in the waist.They just rely on their good fit to stay up.

She can stand alone pretty well.

Her shoes are so cool!

  I love the shoes! They really unbuckle. In fact, you have to unbuckle them to get them on and off.(Well, I had to unbuckle one of them.) Like Bee Balm's, the shoes have nicely detailed tread on the bottoms.

The hat has studs and safety pins on it.It doesn't really fit onto her head. It just has to sit there. So you can't move her around with it on because it will fall off.

Here's the back of the hat.

The little doll is soft and squashy, but really too big for her to hold. Her arms won't close on it enough to keep her from dropping it.

Her hair is a wig, held on by strips of velcro on the head and wig.After Bee Balm's head flew apart when I was checking her wig I was more careful this time!Like Bee Balm there was a thin piece of plastic, easily removed, covering the joint where the halves of the head come together.

The construction is the same:The head is held together by a single magnet at the top, but the piece that holds the eyes in is slightly different.

Bee Balm on the left and Lepty on the right.This picture illustrates the difference in their colouring too.

I don't know that it makes any difference to how it works though.I still had quite a time dealing with the eyes!

  Her eyes are a gray/lavender colour, but she decided to try out Bee Balm's green eyes. Again, I used the pointed wooden stick to position them...

This is Bee Balm, but you get the idea.

...although I went straight for the no holder/eye putty only this time.

She has the same somewhat limited posability as Bee Balm. Again, I'm hoping that it's just because her stringing is still so tight, although I suspect it might have to do with her arms and legs being so stubby as well.She can still do loads of cute poses though.

The same detailed little feet,finger and toe nails,nipples,belly button, and...uh, parts as Bee Balm.

 I had debated on selling both of these little guys and exchanging  them for a different Ai doll I liked better.I liked Leptospermum's open eyes,(Apparently these dolls came with open eyes, sleepy eyes, or asleep eyes.) but would have preferred brown eyes and reddish hair.I preferred Bee Balm's peachy skin tone to Lept's more grayish skin.I would really have preferred Lobelia's outfit.

I know those curls would be ruined in no time though. I'm not good with hair, as I've said.Same face as Leptospermum anyway.

I'm glad I ended up keeping them though. I couldn't have replaced them for what I paid for them,unless I found different dolls at Tuesday Morning.(Some of the prices on 'that auction site' were actually lower than Tuesday Morning's before Christmas, but now they are at least $5 higher.)Besides, having these two means I can switch their eyes and hair around for a few different looks.

Leptospermum with her own eyes and Bee Balm's wig.

She looks like a very stubborn little girl.

Leptospermum with her own hair and Bee Balm's eyes...

...and with Bee Balm's eyes AND hair.I think I'm afraid to take them back.

And with just the eyes.

Bee Balm: "You stole my eyes!" Lepty: "Who? Me?"

That'll teach her!"

And of course, the Kelly coats I showed on Bee Balm fit Leptospermum too.

It's not so funny now, is it Lepty?

I might try making my own wigs. I'm not much of a beautician, but I have plenty of hair from making dolls.
So I'm really glad I found these guys, AND that I bought both of them. (Although, as usual, I feel guilty I spent the money!)