Welcome everyone, to this week's Show and Tell! If there was one toy drama that I actually found myself in the middle of this year it was the fiasco with the Disney Princess Designer Collection Dolls. While it started off successfully when I found the D23 Expo Exclusive Silver Cinderella doll, it ended up in a frenzy as I tried to grab up my favorites.
Take a look back with me, as I share some of my favorite details about these elusive dolls now that a few of my favorites are in my possession. Hit the jump to journey to a whole new world!
Now usually I'd start off by telling you all the places you can get these, but let's be honest; we all know the only real option anymore is eBay. These gorgeous dolls were sold at retail for US$59.50, but now most of them are going for roughly twice the price. Money aside, let's take a closer look at the series that gave me one heck of a drama to talk about.
We'll start off with Tiana, from The Princess and the Frog, who was the Princess I was looking the most forward to getting in my possession. She's my favorite of all time, and I immediately fell in love with her hairstyle, dress and pretty much everything else when I saw her.
Even the slip covers for these dolls are absolutely gorgeous. One of the major draws to this series was, I admit, not the dolls themselves, but the fashion sketches that they used as the artwork for them. I would buy nearly anything with with that artwork on it!
Upon removing her slip cover we see what is a truly beautiful doll of Tiana. I really believe that she is the best quality of all of the dolls. While I loved my original Cinderella, I think Tiana beats her in style and quality, with Cinderella coming in close second.
Look at that adorable face! She looks so lively! She has such a beautiful hairstyle that's topped off with a green flower, which you can see better in the gallery. I love that she has small green earrings in there, as well as her purple eyeshadow that pops a little contrast.
Tiana's outfit has to be my favorite as well. Her dress is layered up to somewhat resemble a lilypad, or petals, and there are a couple big light green flowers as well. The small green rhinestones add a remarkable look to it as well. You can also see that her clutch purse happens to be a frog with two rhinestone eyes. I can't say enough good things about this doll! She made all my dreams come true with this line!
Moving on to Jasmine, from Aladdin, you can see why I fell in love with her cover as well. I love the color they used for her dress, especially.
I love the details they always write on the back of the slip cover, going into why they chose certain parts of the design. They did a great job with taking her original outfit, and working it into a chic and classy dress.
Sliding that slip cover off, I'd say they did a great job representing her fashion sketch in doll form as well. Her hairstyle isn't my favorite of the dolls, but when you've got that long of hair, and so much of it, there's only so much you can do!
I love the gold medallion and chain that drapes over her skirt, but those earrings are huge and a little silly. I think I really like the small ones, like Tiana's, much better. You can also see her clutch purse, which happens to be a lamp! I love these little clutches. They're so adorable!
In this shot you can really see her rooted eyelashes, which I think adds something to these dolls. They really make them look more grown up and fashionable, same for the eyeshadow as well.
Moving on to the last of our three dolls for today, we come to Belle from Beauty and the Beast. This is actually my Mom's doll as Belle is her favorite of all the Disney Princesses. Since she's so nice and shares well, we get to see her today as well.
I think Belle is actually my second favorite fashion sketch-wise of the ones we have. There's just something about the way they did her dress, and since it was based on the beautiful one from the ballroom scene in Beauty and the Beast, you knew it was going to be awesome from the start.
Sliding the slip cover off and slowly revealing this dress, was amazing the first time I saw it. Granted, that doesn't mean it's not still amazing to this day, as those rose-shaped scrunches in her dress are just beautiful!
As you can see, she actually is different than my other dolls. In lieu of a purse, she actually just holds a rose, which is much more fitting for her character. This doll is also an anomaly in that we didn't stalk the website in the middle of the night waiting for her to go live. I woke up and ordered her around noon-time during lunch without a single problem. This was far different from the other two that I had to fight for the day they released the rest of the dolls all at once.
Poor Belle has a penchant for large earrings as well. While I do like that they gave her rose earrings, they're just so big! I do love her makeup though. She looks gorgeous!
Of course since she's holding a rose, I had to get photos of her with our roses we grow. Granted, I was glad that I got these photos snapped way back before winter hit so they were still pretty!
One last thing before we close is the limited availability of these dolls. Though I've ranted here and there while these releases were going on, I can say I'm glad I got them, and it was worth the stress of fighting to get them. For Tiana I got 1793 of 4000, for Jasmine I got 3170 of 6000, and for Belle I got 4839 of 8000. As you can tell, they were limited in different quantities for the different dolls, so some were far more difficult to get ahold of.
I could talk about these dolls for hours, but.. it's Friday! You have better things to do than read my bumbling about my love of fashion design! In short, I would definitely tell you these dolls mean a lot to me, and I'm glad to have a fun story to tell about them, even if it was stressful at the time. If you're interested in them at all, I would suggest taking a peek on eBay, as they've come down a lot, but you'll still be paying around US$100 each for them. Now if you'll excuse me, I feel a Disney movie marathon coming on!
