Mini Review: Pullip Nostalgia Isul Lir

   I have been so busy lately that I'm getting way behind in posts I wanted to do. I've been meaning to do this post for ages.
  A couple of months ago (or has it been longer?!) I had heard that Tuesday morning had gotten more Pullip dolls. Shortly after I heard we went to the Big City, where I planned to hit two Tuesday Mornings. I only had time for one, but it's the biggest one in Ohio, and supposedly one of the top 10 in the country. It did indeed have some Pullips: two minis, (Two of the same one.), and two larger ones, both Isul Lir. I really liked Isul  Lir, but I do have a Pullip. I have an  Erenfreid.

Erenfried is from an anime series called Neo Angelique... I think?

I really like his coat and glasses, but I could do without the pink hair and alien head.

This is the illustration from the back of the box.

When I saw Lir I was very tempted, but he was $40, and it wasn't my birthday or anything. When I got home I kept thinking how much I liked Lir, and wondering what I could do to afford him. Finally it occurred to me that I could sell Erenfried in exchange for buying Lir. I hadn't opened Erenfried because I still felt guilty about spending the money and thought I should keep him NRFB in case I might need to give in and sell him. Of course, I figured in the intervening week or two that had elapsed since I saw Lir, that both would be sold. But when we went to the Big City to go to dinner, (Olive Garden), and the movies (Captain America Civil War.Yes, we were a little late on this one.),I made a very quick stop at Tuesday Morning. All the Pullips were gone except one Lir!So  was dancing a jig. I had sold my idea to Ken before we got to the store, so I snatched Lir up.

See how much cuter Lir is?!

This doll is actually  the Nostalgia version Isul Lir.

This is the card that comes with the doll.

I learned that from looking up Pullip Isul, because it doesn't actually say that on the box,not in English anyway!

The back of the box.

And the back of the card.


  There's also a sister, with a matching outfit to Lir's. There was also some special edition or such with the exact same outfits, only in blue.

I like Erenfreid's uniform type coat, but Lir is wearing a sailor suit!

 And if you read the blog you'll know I love sailor suits, in all sorts of forms.

Actually. I wasn't sure at first if Lir was a boy or a girl. He does have ruffly bloomers and sort of a camisole thing on under his coat.

He has red hair and brown eyes,a combination that is kind of uncommon,but which both I, and my son Fuzz have.

You can't tell how red his hair is in this picture.

  His complexion looks very pale, but it's actually quite peachy. (That's where my son and I differ from Lir and most red haired people. We're definitely pinkish instead of peachy.)

Lir also has super long eye lashes.

 His sailor suit comes with  a huge hat (To fit his huge head....

 ...decorated with four different bows.

  This picture really shows a flaw in my Lir's jacket. The front and the sleeves look faded compared to the rest of the jacket.It's not sun fading, or the back of the sleeves wouldn't be faded and the front flap with the buttons would be.
   He also has a sash, which is decorated with bows and metals.

Unfortunately his metals only want to hang backwards.

 I kept trying to twist them around, but they wouldn't stay.

He also has a belt with a key hanging from it. Gotta love keys.

His sash kept slipping down.

I love the striped socks and boots.

They really lace and tie. If you read my review of Tonner/Wilde Imagination's Bashful Burt you'll know how his real lacing/tying boots impressed me.

  Lir has another cool feature: His eyes can move side to side and close, thanks to three switches in the back of his head. 

The switches are very well hidden under his hair. They're actually hard to find even when you know they're there. I had to dig through his hair. I was beginning to think he didn't have any switches.

His hair isn't especially thickly rooted, but it's very puffy, which helps to hide the switches. I like the colour of the hair. It's not super silky: sort of course really. But at least I can't mess up this style!

He also comes with a stand.

The stand has some pretty decoration on it.

So does the box.

  It took a while for Lir to loosen up and get posing. I had a terrible time trying to get his elbows to turn around and bend.His wrists didn't want to bend at first either. (By the way, Lir had the usual plastic on his hands and up his arms. And as usual, it was hard to cut off. It was so tight I could hardly cut it off without digging scrapes in Lir's hands.) Eventually his wrists bent enough for him to be able to salute and look out to 'sea',which I wanted him to do since he's wearing a sailor suit.

Looking out to 'sea'.

And trying to salute. His elbows were still not cooperating at this point.

   Lir doesn't have the type 4 Pullip body with the really unattractive wrists that break very easily. He also doesn't have the type 3 body either, with the upper body joint and huge clavicle. I didn't think there was a more recent Pullip body, but Lir's is different from either of those. He has an upper arm joint,elbow joint, jointed wrists and ankles,and  a waist joint that allows him to lean from side to side at the waist, but not turn on the joint.His head only turns from side to side, and can't tilt at all.Does anybody know what body this is?

Of course his boots keep his ankles from staying bent, even though the boots are soft enough to flex his ankle somewhat. I haven't taken them off to see how easily they go on and off.

  A little more looking out to sea.

.

I 'm really pleased with Lir. He's mostly what I would have chosen if given a list of features for a Pullip: red hair, brown eyes, and a sailor suit. And I love boy dolls. They're few and far between. I would have preferred his head tilt and his body twist a bit, but at least he has the wrists that don't break when you look at them. The opening and closing eyes that can also look to either side or straight ahead are a bonus I might not even have thought of.I'm happy with him.I don't think I'll miss Erenfried at all.

Doll-A-Day 84: J Doll Marche by Jun Planning

   First of all, thanks to our new follower. Welcome Teresa!
  I had to take Ken to work again today, and since he works in the same center where the Goodwill is I stopped in. I found a fully jointed Ken with the jointy wrists. Yay! I have been wishing I had bought one of those when the Fashionistas were on sale at Meijer for $5 before Christmas. This guy was naked, but only a dollar, so good for me. I also found one of the Monster High guys. I'm kicking myself now because this guy is missing one foot and I found the exact same guy there about a month ago who was missing one fore arm. If I had bought him I'd have one complete guy now.

Does anybody know who the girl is? She's marked MGA. The feet look familiar to me, but nothing else.

  Today is the second of my J Dolls reviews. Before I start, let me say that I was in  a bit of a rush when I reviewed Diamante and I forgot to mention that the plastic strip that held her head in place left a shiny  stripe on her forehead. Just wiping it with a damp cloth doesn't seem to do any good, so if anybody has any ideas, I'd love to hear them.And now...
  Today's girl is Marche by Jun Planning.Here she is in her box.

Her outfit consists of flimsy undies, (that were unintentionally showing in the box. Maybe she's into the 'sagging' look. I could never understand the logic of that look. Why wear your pants so low you have to walk funny to keep them up, plus wear shorts under your pants so your underwear----or worse!--- don't show? Just pull your pants up!) , pants, a blouse, jacket, some cool socks, shoes, a beret, a heart necklace, and a matching bag.

And the back.

And once the tape circle is peeled back and the flap is opened, here's the back of the insert.

Same sort of situation as with Diamante, except they made the parts of the stand harder to get out.Here she is with all of her stuff...

Her hair looked blonde to me, but it's actually a sort of strawberry blonde.It's in the same type of plastic 'tube' as Diamante's was, plus she has a thread loop on it.Both scooted right off.

As I said before, the J Dolls are named after famous streets and the clothing is supposed to be representative of clothing from that area. Maybe Marche is near the water, because this girl looks a bit sailory.Once again, her shoes are boring and look alot like Barbie shoes.Luckily she isn't wearing her socks. I also forgot to mention in my Diamante review that the plastic on her legs was on so tight that it was hard to cut off without cutting her socks too.(Or pulling off part of her legs, which I actually did do!) But without the socks on and the stains on the plastic there is no warning that her socks will stain her legs. If these socks are anything like Diamante's, they definitely will. The clothing seems a very good quality. (In fact Ivy was looking at the jacket and said, "This is better than a lot of my clothes." Sheesh.) There are more sloppy stitches inside the jacket though, (like Diamante's dress.)

I love the jacket, but it didn't fit well at all over the shirt. The jacket was too tight and wouldn't pull up properly in the back. It also made her arms so stiff she couldn't pose them.

 If you're very observant you'll notice a little problem here. Read on...

The bag has a tiny zipper. I really don't like that wrist.

Her eyes are blue, and she has a streak of blue eye shadow. I could do without the eye shadow.

I like Marche, but I'd like her better without the blue eye shadow. I know that look is back, but I didn't like the look of it when it was in before.

Cute little red hat.And of course, the dreaded One Hair makes it's appearance.

Diamante had my favourite skin tone and lips of the three J Dolls I bought. Marche has my favourite clothes of the three.I like sailory clothes.She also has my favourite eyes of the three. They're a nice brown.Brown eyes are my favourites, on dolls or people.
Her joints were very stiff and squeaky.After a few movements though, it seemed that her joints didn't hold a pose very well. They got too lose, very quickly.There was another problem too.  

 Her hand just came off! This happened straight out of the box, with hardly any posing! It's not broken. As you can see in the picture, the pin in the wrist fits into a hole in the hand. The halves of the arm must have pulled apart enough for the hand to fall off. I'll have to pry the arm apart a bit to get the hand back on the pin. I just hope I don't break it.


I was going to show her without her clothes so we could see her jointing.But I could NOT get her shirt off! The sleeves are so tight I couldn't scoot them down off her arms! In the end I was afraid I was going to break her arms off or tear her sleeve where the different fabrics join, so I gave up. I might try again another time, when I can take a lot of time and care over it.So she's going to have to pose with her shirt sort of on.

Big ugly back screws.

Here she is compared with Diamante.

Marche has a waist joint and a different upper torso joint.The knees are different, and the upper arm joint is in a different place.

The screws are a bit unattractive.At least they don't show with clothes on.

Here's that difference in the clavical I was talking about.

Marche has a larger, flatter dip in her neck, while Diamante has a small indentation where her clavical should be. This will help determine the different body types on dolls in their box.

 Marche has the type 3 Pullip body, and Diamante has a type 4. For those of you considering getting a J Doll for the body, as a replacement for a Pullip body, I understand that it won't work. The disc on the neck stem is a different size and the neck stem is a different length. So, sorry.So much for that idea. Barb the Evil Genius at My Little Doll Corner did a good comparison of the two bodies, so I  suggest you have a look at her blog for that.

Diamante has bigger hands, but a much nicer wrist joint.I think the placement of the upper arm joint works better too, and Diamante has more poseable wrists, slimmer arms,and a much more attractive wrist joint.

Marche can cross her legs better than Diamante, who can't really cross hers at all.

Marche on the left, Diamante on the right.

Diamante can kneel without falling over, but Marche has to hold on or she falls on her face.

I prefer Diamante's slimmer wrists and more attractive knee and elbow joints.Marche isn't as slim as Diamante, having slightly plumper hips, a bigger rib cage area, and a bigger bottom.She'll probably fit the Barbie dress better than Diamante though.

They actually have a more similar skin tone than I thought.

Since she's wearing sailory clothes, it makes sense she can do this.She's either saluting, or looking out to sea.

This would look so much more impressive with two hands.

Tomorrow we'll look at my third J Doll, Magnificent Mile. (You can see that review HERE.)Since I have covered both body types and the boxes pretty thoroughly with Diamante and Marche, it will be a shorter post.