Then, of course, I saw Frozen like everyone else in America, and spent the movie thinking “Curses. I bought the wrong doll.” Because yes, Anna was the cute, spunky heroine, but Elsa was the awesome one with a strong character arc and the showstopping ballad and yes, sweet icebending powers. Again, like everyone else in America, I promptly ran back to the Disney Store to pick up the Elsa doll (and let’s be real, just about any other Elsa merch I could find).
And, like everyone else in America, I sat there staring at empty shelves and a bare website. For three months, I stalked the Disney Store website, checking every morning to see if there’d been a restock. Spurred on by Facebook chatter, I doubled my stalking as the DVD/Blu-ray release date drew near, and my patience finally paid off. On the Monday morning before the release date, Disney Store finally restocked their Frozen section, and I was able to get the Elsa doll for my daughter (the pre-Christmas Anna had already found its way to her), and an additional Anna & Elsa for myself.
And a good thing, too, because they were sold back out of nearly everything by Tuesday evening.
(For this review, boxed!Anna and Elsa will be played by my set, and unboxed!Anna and Elsa will be played by my daughter’s set.)
My sisters, in their boxes. I do like how their side-glancing eyes make them look at each other when side by side.
The backs of their boxes are identical, and may I just reiterate how awful that picture of Elsa really is.
Pieface’s Anna and Elsa, free from their boxes.
Elsa’s face. It’s definitely the lesser of the two faces – her expression is rather bland. I wish they’d used a similar style to the 17” Singing Elsa, who has an impish grin on her face and gets to keep her freckles. (Yes, Elsa has freckles. They’re faint, but they exist. And I am a downright sucker for freckles – I spent one recent evening adding miniscule freckles to my Disney Infinity Rapunzel, because I hate it when toy designers skimp on the adorable.)
Her eyes are a little wonky-looking when seen dead-on. At least she doesn’t look downright spacey, like the Mattel version. Yeesh.
Elsa’s skin is noticeably paler than Anna’s, with a slight blue cast. You can see the difference between Elsa’s hand and Anna’s face. I like that Disney Store put that detail in – it would have been far easier to just use the same color vinyl for both.
Elsa’s pale blond hair hangs down in a simple braid, tied off with two clear elastic bands.
Her bangs are heavily styled into their movie appearance with lots and LOTS of product. While the braid is soft and silky to the touch, the bangs are very stiff.
Another little detail I liked – the tufts of sideburn at the temples.
Her dress is fairly pared down from the movie version – a glittery bodice with sheer under-bodice, attached to a plain satin skirt. The skirt has a slit up the right side, and is rather wrinkled from its time in the box.
Easily the best part of the dress is the cape, attached from the underarms to the center back. It’s liberally decorated with blue glittery snowflake designs.
Elsa keeps the Disney Store Classic tradition of being a great doll from the waist up, and disappointing from the waist down. Over the last few years, DS has waffled back and forth between rubbery legs with click joints (as seen on 2011 Rapunzel and Mother Gothel) and hard plastic legs with hinge-jointed knees (as seen on 2012 Rapunzel, 2012 Belle, and Merida). I’m not a fan of rubbery legs – I had them on a lot of my childhood Barbies, and when I first saw 2011 Rapunzel, I was honestly astonished that anyone was still manufacturing them. I don’t like the disparity in texture between the legs and the rest of the body, the wobbly ankles make them incredibly difficult to pose (even with the assistance of a stand), and they attract dirt like crazy. (When I opened up 2011 Rapunzel, I thought at first that someone had freckled her legs – there was that much glitter stuck to them.)
But Disney Store’s hard legs aren’t much better. I love having jointed ankles, but the joints are weak, and half the time I pose a doll to find that her foot has turned completely backwards. The knees bend to a 90-degree angle, but the way they’re attached to the hip means that the doll sits with splayed knees. I can forgive this when they’re all wearing long gowns, but shorter skirts make for some terrible wardrobe malfunctions. (Related note: Does anyone know how it works if you try to make a hard-jointed Ariel sit in her mermaid tail? Surely the wide-legged sitting stance doesn’t play well within the confines of the tail.)
And then Elsa here shows off one of the biggest flaws in the hard-jointed legs – they just aren’t made well.
Her lower leg is jointed to her thigh at a crooked angle. While Elsa the character is poised and elegant, Elsa the doll is bowlegged and awkward.
Her shoes are pretty disappointing, too – plain blue flats, as opposed to the delicate icy heels Elsa wears in the film.
As for Anna, she has a perfectly charming face – very true to her character, with a cheerful grin and a face full of freckles.
Her clothing is impressively detailed, with lots of accessories. I’m glad they kept the rosemaling on her skirt and bodice – that would have been an easy detail to cut.
Her cape is plain, unhemmed felt, with a hook-and-eye closure and decorative buttons. It’s nicely detailed for a playline doll – I especially like that they kept the layered capelet.
Her hat is made from the same felt, with a fuzzy trim at the forehead, and an elastic strap to hold it on under her braids. Her mittens are a nice, fuzzy faux suede.
The mittens were attached with clear elastic in the box, and did leave some faint blue staining.
Her dress is two pieces – a top and skirt. The top is faux-layered – the mint-green top underneath is just a dickey and sleeves. I deduct points for the unfinished edge left on the dickey hem. The skirt is costume satin, and has already started to fray at the back closure. This is going to need some Fray-Check before Pieface destroys it.
Her boots are wonderful – I love the rosemaling detail, and the little heels. (Her legs, like Elsa’s, are crooked and bowlegged.) They are, however, a pain to get on and off. I was worried that I would snap her ankle joint when putting them back on.
I love that they put the white streak in her hair. It’s, again, one of those details they could have easily cut.
However, that’s the only nice detail to her hair. This doll, which is Pieface’s, has had her hair taken down and then rebraided. Because as soon as I took her hair down, I saw this:
She is completely bald under there. Her hair is only rooted at the hairline and part, and then styled in a comb-over that would make any middle-aged man of the 1970’s swoon with envy.
So, if you get this doll: Don’t take out the factory braids. Just don’t. Not only do you reveal the bald spots, but her hair is a frizzy mess from extended braiding and is hard to wrangle back into braids.
(It was hard to see Elsa’s scalp under her gelled-up bangs and tight braid, but she seems to have a better rooting pattern that covers more of her head.)
So, the Disney Store Frozen Classic dolls are definitely a mixed bag. They have cute faces, and their torsos and arms are posable but sturdy. Their legs, however, are a crooked mess that makes them look awkward. They show impressive detail in some places, but slapdash construction and cost-cutting in others. Elsa’s hair is silky and well-rooted, and I love Anna's white streak, but Anna’s hair is also sparsely rooted and hard to control after it’s been taken down. Anna's boots are lovely, Elsa's shoes are disappointingly plain.
When Disney did their restock and I made my order, I spent some time waffling on whether I wanted the Classic dolls or the Deluxe set, which has Anna and Elsa in their coronation gowns and hairstyles, with the winter dresses, dress forms, trunk, and screen. I love Elsa’s coronation design – her teal and black dress is my favorite outfit in the movie – and this made the set pretty tempting. It sold out before I could decide, but I’m glad I went with the Classic set. The Deluxe set has a hefty $69.95 price tag, and I don’t think it would have been worth it. The winter dresses in the coronation set are stripped-down versions of the Classic outfits – Elsa’s cape has no glittery snowflakes, and Anna just gets her dress, without cape, mittens, and hood. (I don’t know if she comes with her boots, or if she gets flats to go with her gown. Brrr.) The dress forms, trunk, and screen are cute, but nonessential, and I think I can be forgiven for thinking of them as “padding”. Now that I’ve seen the sparsely rooted hair, the bowlegged bodies, and the cut corners, I’m glad I didn’t throw down $70.
I know, as I level all the criticisms at these dolls, that they are low-end dolls meant for play. They are not meant to be intricate collector’s pieces. But I also know that there are doll lines out there, like Monster High, that deliver a far superior product at a similar price point. These Classic dolls were $16.95 each; a standard Monster High doll goes for $19.99 - $24.99, depending on the amount of accessories, and some of the more basic MH dolls are $12.99. Monster High have far better articulation, multi-piece outfits with accessories, and a level of detail in their design that I have yet to see rivaled by any other doll line. So, when I snipe at Elsa’ plain blue flats, it’s because I remember getting Honey Swamp’s alligator shoes, or Robecca Steam’s knee-high rocket boots, for only a few dollars more. I would gladly pony up an extra $4, or forgo some of the $8-if-you-buy-2 sales that Disney runs throughout the year, to bring Monster High’s level of costume detail, or the now-defunct Liv line’s nicely-articulated bodies, to this line.
While I’m on my soapbox, can I just take a moment to shake my head at how they are handling the demand for Frozen merch? I can understand that the Disney Store wasn't prepared for it to take off like it did - the last animated movies they did big merchandising campaigns for were Monsters University and Planes. Monsters U, while a fun movie, just wasn’t a big draw for merchandising – did anyone really want dolls of the “cheerleading” sorority characters that maybe had two speaking lines and no importance to the plot? And Planes, well – it was widely panned by critics and didn’t even hit $100M in domestic box office take. So I can see Disney being conservative in their stock estimates. But to let shelves sit empty for three months while the movie is winning Oscars and making a mint? If there were manufacturing issues, I’d understand – but there’s no explanation, just “keep checking back” replies from customer service reps. I have the items I wanted and I’m fine with being patient, but I also work in marketing and this just looks like a huge pants-down moment for Disney’s merchandising division.
And now that I'm done being Debbie Downer, Pieface's dolls are set to go back to the Disney Dollhouse in her room. As for mine...poor dears, they get to stay in their boxes until I make their Pullip counterparts! If the stores don't give you what you want...make it yourself!
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