REVIEW: American Girl Courtney (plus a Nanea outfit)

 

Look! It's Courtney!

Wait, gotta do something else first. 

I finally got Nanea her Holoku dress. I've been planning on getting this since I got her.

I love the colors and the print is lovely. The material is great, too. 

I didn't drape the special lei around her. I won't be displaying her with it. I think it blocks the dress too much. 

The train!

Two thumbs up for this. Nanea is happy. I love her Meet outfit, so it would take something special to get her out of it and this dress is it. 

Okay, back to Courtney. 

I read her first book on vacation in November and fell in love with the character. Then I just read her second book recently and actually ordered her. I picked up the doll, her cardigan, her splatter-print dress, and her Molly doll, as well as Nanea's dress. 

So here she is in the box. 

And out!

I'm an 80s kid (born in '78 but grew up in the 80s) so me getting the 80s character was always a strong likelihood. I'm not surprised she's blonde and blue-eyed, even if it is more of a dark honey blonde and a blue-green. I'm also not surprised she's a Classic mold, but honestly, it's a tribute to the trio that came out then. It fits. (Overdone and predictable or not.)

I think they could have done something more attractive and less Mary Ellen reminiscent than the bangs, but she's still plenty cute. 

Normally I would not go for an AG with hair like this. I like the ones where their hair isn't going to get easily messed up. Like I can do whatever with Roslin or Kit or Luciana and brush their hair and they're back to display-worthy. If Courtney's hair gets rumpled, it's over. Although on the plus side, who's really gonna notice? She's got one lazy curl that I keep trying to hide amongst the others. 

Her top is two separate tops. 

She's wearing pale blue panties under the tights.

Love those boots!

Ah, the splatter dress. I loved this thing from the pictures, but in person, it's even better. I never read about it so I didn't know until I opened it that it was nylon! (That's the fabric type my mom called it. I'm not good with fabric names.) But it elevates it so much. It looks awesome, but it also feels awesome. And it would rustle if she could walk in it.

A bit closer. 

Now I tend to prefer seeing as little of the AG fabric body as I can, so...

THE CARDIGAN.

I love this thing. 

This isn't the most coordinated look. I know she's supposed to wear the pink jacket with it, but I do not care. CARDIGAN.

It was the eighties. Just let it happen. 

This sweater reminds me of the old New Kids on the Block dolls. One of the Jonathan dolls had a cardigan in very similar colors. Ha. He's your favorite New Kid now, Courtney. Or he will be in 2 years. 

Here's the back. 

The Molly set! 

The tiny ribbon on the box!

THE TINY CATALOGUE! (Almost the entire reason I bought this. Not gonna lie.)

TINY CATALOGUE.

I love how it comes with a couple things circled by Courtney. She has very modest wants. 

Mini Molly with her tiny book.

I was glad to see Courtney was a Molly fan and the reason aside from the catalogue that I bought this was because Molly was my childhood AG so seeing a character with AG world loving Molly and getting her was quite nostalgic. 

And Courtney's happy. 

I've got her between Roslin and Luciana in my little AG display. Then Nanea is over on Luci's other side. The others are all together on a different shelf. Someday I'll have pics of everything. 

I'm very pleased with my first AG purchase in over 2 years. 

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.

REVIEW: Cave Club Ruly

Okay, I'm going to say right off the bat that my opinions on Ruly may be controversial. I have very mixed feelings on this doll. If you have to leave comments about my opinions, please keep it civil, because I tried to explain this as best I can. (Though I know there are plenty of people who always want to think the worst, so I know they will.)

Ruly is one of two new Cave Club characters that appeared in doll form recently. Lumina, who I posted about before, is sadly not out yet. (Can't wait!)

Ruly was on Amazon and I was lucky enough to grab one. She even arrived a day early. 

Now my issue with this doll is that her character was in the first Cave Club graphic novel. 

But, aside from the outfit, she looks nothing like this doll. 

This is the Ruly I've known for months. She was visible in the previews of the second (sadly unreleased) graphic novel, so I've known she looked like this for almost a solid year. 

You can imagine my surprise when I saw the doll then. 

My camera didn't capture the colors perfectly, but you can see that her skintone is much lighter than the doll's. It's a really pretty olive tone. Her hair is also at least half yellow (not shown best in this pic). And she's wearing shorts. 

Here's the art of her. 

So we're going to move on with the review and I'll give some comments on the changes as I go. 

Her accessories include her comb, a computer (how is this logical?), a cute green bag the computer can fit in, her glasses, and her pet, whose name is THESAURUS. (I'm dead.)

Now first off, I'm going to make it clear that I do really love this doll. She's gorgeous. I think she has the second best hair in the line and possibly the best outfit. 

She has pi on her cheek. ADORABLE.

I don't actually mind the changes to the hair except for the loss of the yellow. I didn't care for the giant hair bow from the comic, so the bigger bow with a pencil through it and the giant topknot of curls are a nice upgrade. 

I love these curls. Only Bashley has better hair so far. 

I just really wish they'd kept the yellow. We already have a dark-skinned girl with pink hair. This is kind of a peachy salmon pink, but it's still pink. 

Gah, I love the sundial watch and the bowtie and the suspenders! I have to say I'm not a fan of them changing her shorts to a skirt though. It's not awful, but I'm always in favor of more shorts and pants when skirts are so prevalent. 

With her glasses. I thought these were a little much at first, but they're growing on me by the second. 

Back to full-length, now with the bag. 

Her overall look is great. 

But herein lies my biggest problem. We already have a dark-skinned girl with pink hair. Ruly is actually darker than Fernessa and yes, she has different hair texture and eye color and lip shape, but the similarity is still very obvious. 

Here are the dolls together. 

And here are the girls together in the comic. Every one of them has a different skintone. I love Ruly's skintone. Like a lot. It's not one you see often in doll lines, which is why I was very much looking forward to her getting a doll. 

I think they could have easily done the curly hair with the yellow in it and the olive skintone. She would have looked fine and added more diversity  to the line. Or they should have at least left the yellow in her hair to avoid this resemblance to Fernessa. Or, even better, they could have made Ruly look like the design we knew and given us another new character with this darker skintone (and not pink hair). The dark tone is absolutely lovely and in any other case, I wouldn't even consider criticizing it. I want to make that crystal clear if it isn't. But in this particular case, I don't think these changes were their best idea.

Again, don't think I dislike the doll. I like her more every second I look at her. She's just not the Ruly I knew and I don't think the changes were for the better. 

I do wonder if the changes to her are why the graphic novels never made it. The first one is out of stock everywhere and the second never made it out. Could they have decided to change Ruly and pulled the books so they could change the art? It's a possibility. There were obvious delays in Rainbow High while they retooled the character who would eventually become Krystal. 

I want to end on the most positive note I can think of and that is LOOK AT THESAURUS. JUST LOOK AT HIM. THAT HAIR. 

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.

REVIEW: FailFix Series 1

Now this review has been a while coming! I kept planning on putting it up and then I'd find another doll on sale and add her, then take more pics, find another doll on sale, etc. But I finally have all five from the first series, so we're going to do this all at once. 

I didn't take any boxed pics or pics of things like the stands and brushes. I'm just showing off the dolls themselves. If you're new to FailFix and want all the details, check out my Pretty Artee review for that. 

So FailFix don't have names but Instagram-style @ identities. I can't type that sort of thing. It makes me cringe. I get that it's appealing to the target market and I'm all for going that, but I'm 42. I'm not referring to a doll by her online ID or misspelling stuff. (Seriously, even the Z endings on things still make me shudder. I'm old.)

So first up is Preppy Posh. I am always a sucker for a brown-eyed blonde. Like always. And she's curvy? Extra sold. Oh, what, she has glasses, too? Come on! Perfection. 

I love her shoes! 

I really love the faces on these girls. The lips especially are painted like nothing else on the market. They're gorgeous. 

This is the Day version.

So yeah, she's the preppy, fancy girl. Two things I do not normally go for, but combined with the aspects I do like, she comes out as one of my faves. 

 

"Oh, there are my glasses!"

(Mine speaks in an English accent in my head.)

I love her expression. She's wistful, hopeful, maybe a teeny tiny bit sad. Very unique.

Now I love her hair and I wanted it to be free, but I also love that dark blue butterfly clip, so on it went. 

Pretty! 

One more look at her before we move on. 

This one is Loves Glam. I just call her Glam. 

I won't be doing anything with those curler things. 

Accessories. 

Gorgeous!

This is the Day version. 

I really love her lipstick colors.

And the green eyes are a nice touch. 

Earring shot. 

These two are besties on my shelf. And both curvy!

Shoes.

And now we've got Kawaii Qtee. Kawaii it is. 

I got the Sparkle version.

Accessories, some of which vanish into the carpet. I should have laid them out in a box lid or something. Ah, well.

Adorable! 

Of course her necklace is twisted. Sigh. 

Again, I love the lip colors.

Hair thingamabobs. 

Seriously, necklace. I kept picking her up to adjust things and then just forgetting to fix the necklace.

I lined the barrettes all up. I didn't like them scattered all over her hair. 

But this still feels like too much for simple me.

Another angle on that. 

Her necklace is completely backwards now. 

Oh, hey, there we go! Simpler hair AND I finally fixed the necklace.

Kawaii is so cute and delicate.

My only complaint is that her hair was the least nice. It's still pretty spectacular, but the others had amazing hair after the gel was washed out. Hers feels a teeny bit dry. 

So I got Posh, Kawaii and Glam all at the same time. Then I ordered Slay It DJ from Amazon. When she got here, it was the super busy time of my week, so she just got opened with no pre-makeover picture taken. But here are her makeovery accessories. 

I also never took a photo with her hair down, because I played around with her hairclip and then got it just where I wanted and now I don't want to touch it again!

I neglected to take a close shot of her boots, but they are awesome. They and Posh's heels are my fave shoes from the line. Both pink, which is unusual for me, but they're that awesome.

She's my sleeper for the line. I honestly expected to like her about least, but she's my second favorite after Artee. I love her sassy expression. 

I also love that she clearly has eye wonk, which none of my others had to this point, but I didn't even notice until today. It's  not nearly as bad as when other lines have wonk. 

This is the Day version. She's the only one where I think I want to hunt down another version on ebay or Mercari. I want the Sparkle one. Actually, no, I lied. I want the Evening version of Glam, too.

Earring shot. 

I love her profile.

Even cooler earring shot. 

Her badass hair. 

Love that detail.

Moving on, here are the accessories for Dance Stylz. Agh, that hurt to type. She just came today!

Actually took a photo pre-hair wash for her. 

And thanks to her amazing hairstyle, I could take my review photos for her even though her hair was still wet.

I love her hair. 

And her eyeshadow. 

And her skintone. 

Not so big on the dress that looks like a sports jersey. Some teeny little shorts would have been nice under there. She pulls it off somehow, but yeah, she kinda looks like this is what she sleeps in. 

So pretty. 

A shot of the cool earring.

And finally, a picture of all THREE...count them...THREE different body types. 

Take notes, MGAE. You may have detail and the ability to copy fashion brand names, but man, your diversity sucks compared to this. 

These dolls have stunning faces in unique molds plus body type and skintone diversity. I really wish people would stop sleeping on this line and appreciate it more. They're stunningly beautiful! 

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.