Dollar Store Knock-Offs: Pippa and Alice Review
Inspired by Limbe Dolls, I've been giving dollar store dolls a try. In Washington, we seem to only have Dollar Tree, but on vacation I spent some time at Family Dollar and Dollar General. They sell two knock-off dolls, Alice of "Fairy Tale High" and Pippa of "Midnight Magic," imitating Ever After High and Monster High respectively. Their prices are shown boldly on their boxes, $10 and $5. (Update: I have since learned that Fairy Tale high did not originally sell for this price, and is still available for inflated prices on Amazon. Don't do it!)
Midnight Magic
Midnight Magic doesn't seem to have much in common, storyline wise, with Monster High. The back of the box tells a confusing tale. Pippa and her three friends are dimension-hopping, zombie-hunting superhero princesses attending high school. Pippa has telepathic powers to control animals. I'm not sure why they didn't pick one storyline instead of five.
Pippa has gray skin, black hair, and green and red makeup. She wears a long dress which I found pretty, but the material is stiff and unpleasant to touch. The long gray boots are light weight plastic.
Naked, Pippa is startling. Her breasts seem a little intense for a kid's toy. (In later comparison, I realized she's shaped more like the big sister body in the Monster High line than the ghouls still in high school.) Also, she only has click joints in her knees, a big disappointment. Pippa's wrists can spin, but not bend. If there were only one option, I'd prefer bending.
Pippa with Cleo and Lagoona. She's noticeabley taller, but has copied their basic shape with the swayback and hip shape. Pippa's forehead protrudes for a different head shape than the ghouls. This comparison also highlighted the problems with her skin tone. I'm not a fan of inhuman skin tones, but Lagoona looks much nicer than Pippa. She has a little sparkle, a little bit of warmth to the cool gray blue. But Pippa's gray skin just looks dead. (Perhaps she has been infected by the zombies she was fighting?) Overall, I regret the $5 and would not recommend.
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| Goodbye, Pippa! |
Fairy Tale High
Alice was a better choice. She represents her Wonderland story with deck of cards symbols on her vest (which I tossed fairly quickly). I have some ideas to modify her outfit- a sweater dress? Just a long sleeved shirt would be better. Alice also comes with a nice red bracelet and fantastic red shoes, which are the highlight of the ensemble.
Alice has long, pale blond hair. The rooting seem iffy from the packaging, but a boil wash will help. My biggest immedient problem with Alice is her terrifying makeup. Blue lipstick implies suffocation, maybe drowning. When you add blue eyes and blue eyeshadow, it's too much. She's a bit smirky, so perhaps she's a teen rebel.
For comparison, I've paired Alice with the beautiful Duchess. Although Alice has generally the same articulation, her overall body shape is dissimilar. Narrower hips, wider shoulders, overall less curve and form. Her chest reminds me of a Liv doll. The naked comparison revealed one distressing aspect: her shines tend to curve outward. Ouch! No wonder she won't stand on her own.
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| Do I know you? |
Later, when I bought a Winx Club Bloom doll, I realized where the FTH body came from. Even the head!
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| Any suggestion for shin splints? |
I bought some vintage Barbie clothes from Joyce's Dolls that day, and gave Alice a change of clothes. Although the fit was not good, it relaxed her prickly attitude. She even was willing to go exploring and have a picnic. (I recommend Joyce's for a fun time of unexpected hunting, although Stephen says that people who own shops like that just want a place to store their own collections.)
I decided to purchase more Fairy Tale High dolls. Because they are less perfect, they would be less intimidating to modify. Still, $10 may be overpriced. EAH and MH dolls occasionally go on sale for $10 - $15, and their body, clothes and accessories quality is much higher.
The only other doll I could find was Tinkerbell. Again, she has distressing makeup choices (green lipstick?) and I dislike the green streaks in her hair. I wondered if I could re-body her and replace it with a Barbie head. However, she grew on me after we spent a day sight-seeing together.
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| a gator of my own! |
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| sorry I stole your baby! |
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| relaxing in the flowers |
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| completely angelic |
I like Tinkerbell's thick and sassy bob. Also, Stephen's comment made me lol. I like how you talk about the doll's personalities, like they jump out to you through the process :D
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