REVIEW: Kinra Girls Kumiko

 
I've had a photo saved in my Wanted album for years. It's a Snow White doll made by Corolle that I got outbid on a very long time ago. I used to keep a Corolle search on ebay to try to find another, but gave up when nothing ever appeared. I semi-recently had the urge to skim the Corolle search results and that's how I discovered the Kinra Girls. 

This line came out in 2012 and is in the vein of the Karito Kids, Hearts for Hearts Girls, and other lines where the characters are from different countries. Looking at the website, they seem to solve mysteries, so a lot of inspiration could be taken from the Thea Girls book series, where five anthropomorphic teen girl mice from around the world travel a lot and solve mysteries. The Karito girls also were mystery-solvers. 

There are five characters in the line. All of the text is French, so I know nothing. 

From the website, I learned that:

-Kumiko is a Japanese artist (painting, photography) who also loves fashion. 

-Idalina is from Spain and she plays guitar and sings. 

-Naima is black and from New York. Her passion is "the circus," which is a very unusual thing for a character to like in one of these doll lines. I wish I could read the books to see how she likes the circus. 

-Rajani is from India and loves dance.

-Alexa is an Australian equestrian. 

There is an extensive book series of mystery novels, choose your own adventure, and even comics. I wish these were in English! They look fun.

I was eyeing Idalina and Naima from a French shop a few months ago, but ended up forgetting about them because I had to do my vacation prep. While I was on vacation, I found Kumiko here in my ebay search emails and I had to have her. She and Rajani are my faves. 

She arrived from France quite quickly in under two weeks. (As did a package from Australia bought slightly after Kumiko. International shipping must be improving.) 

Kumiko is strapped in at the neck and ankles, like a lot of these taller dolls. 

Oh, she's so cute! 

I didn't want to undress her because I hate getting legwarmers back on and her gloves are stitched to her sleeves, but her pieces seem to be: red and purple layered top (one piece designed to look like two), slightly glittery black miniskirt, black pants, gray and black striped legwarmers, matching arm warmers, red and white sneakers with laces. 

The outfit is nicely detailed. Corolle isn't a cheap company really, so I expected good quality from them. 

She has a sweet expression. She's more cartoony than other similar lines, which tend to have inset eyes. But I think it's a nice difference. 

Cute little red hairties. 

I'm not taking her hair down. It looks like it's pretty set in this style. 

From the side. 

These dolls have a mostly fabric body with wires inside that allow you to bend their arms and legs. The vinyl arms are basically only forearms. The fabric starts right about where her purple sleeve ends. Her vinyl legs come up to about an inch below her "knee." This is a different type of quality to the fabric-bodied but vinyl-limbed larger dolls. The Kinra Girls feel more like a balance between one of the fancier AG-type and a playline doll. These feel more durable and kid-friendly. 

I'm glad I stumbled across this line! Kumiko is super cute and I ended up grabbing Idalina and Naima from the French shop I mentioned near the beginning of this review. I wouldn't mind having all five of these girls. I'm going to be on the hunt for Rajani next year. Might have to check ebay France and email some sellers to see if they'll ship to the US. 

PHOTO CREDIT: Mine.