REVIEW: Lalaloopsy Jewel Sparkles

I went into the farther away Target store after work tonight and was shocked to see the new style Lalaloopsy dolls on the shelves! Unfortunately, they didn't have the one I wanted most, Storm E Sky, but I did bring home Jewel Sparkles. (The other one there was Spot Splatter Splash.)

The most obvious difference between the originals and reboots is that they now sport rooted hair. Also, they're smaller, they have flat feet, and their blush circles are now just blush with no sculpting detail.

The first assortment is Jewel, Spot, Crumbs Sugar Cookie and Storm E Sky. They're $19.99 each at Target, and the DPCI is 086-02-4910.

Jewel comes with a golden brush and her pet cat. Her dress is typical simple Lalaloopsy style, fastened in back with one long strip of velcro, so it's easy to remove. Or pretty easy anyway. Her permanently bent arm causes a little problem, but not much. I had a harder time getting Toffee's dress over her hands than I did getting Jewel's off. Her tiara is sewn to her hair and her shoes come off fairly easily. Not quite as easy as the original style, but still not bad.

She's still got blush!

Jewel wears a hairnet in her box. She's tied down with several plastic ties, including two through the back of her head.

Deboxing was mostly easy, although the back of the head ties weren't the easiest to reach. My biggest problem was getting the hairnet off. They sewed the stupid thing on, and if you clip the threads on top of her head, I think her tiara will fall off, so don't do that! I clipped the thread where it was sewn on at the bottom, but gently ripped the hairnet away from the sewn-on bits near the tiara, then pulled the little bits of hairnet fluff out of the threads.

I was expecting her curls to be a lot less tight, so I was very pleasantly surprised when I took the hairnet off and they were still nice and short. Her hair basically looks like it does in the net and just fluffs out a little bit. It's nice quality. The bangs are gelled, but I'm leaving mine that way.

I love how her posed arm is clearly fluffing her curls. It makes me think of Frieda from Peanuts and her "naturally curly hair" comments.

Her hair needed minimal fingercombing to get rid of the flat boxed hair look. Really, the only problem place is at the bottom where her hairnet was tied on and it wouldn't come off easily at all, so some of her curls got stretched out.

The new style girls fall in between the original Lalaloopsys, represented by Toffee Cocoa Cuddles on the left, and the Lalaloopsy Girls, represented by that version of Jewel.

The body has the same basic look, but the limbs are no longer floppy. If you loved that plastic rag doll thing, these aren't going to be for you. I like the changes, because it's impossible to get the original girls to stand well enough for photos most of the time and now Jewel has no problem with that. She can even stand on her own!

Clothes-sharing is possible, but it doesn't go both ways. Toffee could wear Jewel's dress and be photographed from the front, but it didn't even come close to closing in the back. Jewel can wear Toffee's dress, but the neck gaps a bit and you can see her arm joints. They cannot share shoes, having completely different foot shapes. And of course, the Lala Girls are too small for any sharing.

Overall, I really love my new Jewel. I like her smaller size and her ability to stand. I like the posed arm, because it gives her even more personality. The clothing and hair quality are both good. I'm definitely looking forward to finding Storm E Sky even more now!

PHOTO CREDITS: Mine.