The Rainbow Magic fairies have been around since 2003 and have over 200 titles to date. Most of them are grouped into sets by the type of fairy the story centers around. The initial seven books feature the Rainbow fairies, each representing a color of the rainbow. Other lines include weather fairies, jewel fairies, night fairies, day of the week fairies. If you can think of it, it probably has a fairy.
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| Ruby the Red Fairy |
I never got into the books, because there are just so many of them and they're written for a younger age group than I typically read books for, though I'm definitely not above reading chapter books!
I did start picking them up in Savers though, whenever I got lucky enough to see them and I amassed a teeny collection. I believe I sold them a couple years ago, but a few months ago, I found three at Goodwill, so I have a few again. I actually haven't read them yet though!
I'm a sucker for fairies and ragdolls and themed things, so when you put all of them together, I'm ready to hand over my money.
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| Amber the Orange Fairy |
Well, Rainbow Magic never made dolls available in the US. I remember searching for them on ebay once and learning that lucky, lucky Australia got boxed sets of the different series that came with a ragdoll included! I never imported any of them, because shipping from Australia is pretty expensive.
A few nights ago, I did an ebay search for fairy plush dolls, which is something I do fairly often.
And what did I see but some Rainbow Magic dolls!
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| Saffron the Yellow Fairy |
I can't remember which character I noticed first, but I know it wasn't Ruby. Ruby was the doll that came with the Australian boxed set of the first seven books. I remember it being one of the others, because I thought "When did they make dolls of any rainbow fairies other than Ruby?"
Then I noticed the seller: Toys R Us! If you didn't know, TRU has their own ebay account and they sell lots of stuff on there, sometimes even things no longer on their main site.
Well, I decided to go check Amazon and see if they carried the girls, since I have Prime and that would get them to me the fastest.
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| Fern the Green Fairy |
Amazon did come through. Mostly. Before long, I had an order of Ruby, Sky and Izzy all paid for. Fern was sold out, so I went to the TRU website and got her there, picking up Saffron, the other one sold out on Amazon, to get me up to the needed amount for free shipping. I used my $5 rewards coupon, too. Then I caved and went back to Amazon to order Amber, Heather and The Ultimate Fairy Guide, which shows a lot of the fairies.
The girls started arriving on Friday. Sky and Amber came in the regular mail along with the book, followed by Izzy and Ruby via UPS around 7PM. Fern and Saffron, coming from TRU via FedEx, were on my doorstep this morning, which was a surprise, because the tracking had said Tuesday before I went to bed! And finally, Heather got here in the regular mail today.
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| Sky the Blue Fairy |
Each fairy doll is about 12" tall.
Their hair is made from a variety of materials. Ruby, Amber, Fern and Heather have yarn hair, while Sky and Saffron have shorter hair that's more of a fur texture. Izzy's bob was done out of plush material. I love Izzy's design, but I think they should have done her hair differently. It looks decidedly odd.
They all have the same expression, but their head shapes vary. I imagine this is from doll to doll and not by character.
The materials vary a lot for their clothing, which is quite nicely-detailed. Some of them have removable clothing, but I wouldn't recommend taking it off. I think it would be hard to get back on.
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| Izzy the Indigo Fairy |
Some of the girls have really nice extra details. Ruby is loaded with tiny roses. Amber and Heather have flowers stitched in their hair. Sky and Fern have large earrings. Sky's got a little silver tiara. Several of the girls have embroidered jewelry.
The wing shapes vary, but all of them are made of crinkly iridescent material.
I think they're a good quality for the price of $14.99 each.
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| Heather the Violet Fairy |
I have a hard time picking a favorite. Izzy (called Inky in the US, but I tend to use the UK names) has one of my fave designs in the art, but her doll didn't capture that very well. I feel like her skin should be a few shades darker and I don't like how they did her hair. Ruby is spectacular and I think the best translation of art to doll. Amber I like, but I wish she was a little more orange. Fern is adorable. I think she's probably my second fave head to toe after Ruby and then Sky is in third place. Saffron (Sunny in the US) is the one I thought I'd like least. She's got the simple top and shorts and looks like the athletic type, but I watched the Rainbow Magic anime episode and Saffron had my favorite personality of the seven fairies. She's the bookworm! So while her design isn't my fave, I love her character.
If you're a Rainbow Magic fan or know someone who is, I definitely recommend these dolls. Even if you just like fairy dolls, they're a really cute buy.
PHOTO CREDITS: All mine, except the art image, which came from here:
These dolls were just released in November, I believe, so I think this is part of the agreement with Mattel discussed in the article. The laundry tags don't list a manufacturer and I threw out all the hang tags, so I can't check those either, but Mattel would explain the high quality of these.
