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Welcome a new doll to Chez Insanity - the lovely Princess Fiona ! For a full deboxed
doll review,
let's go !
| The best birthday present - Princess Fiona ! |
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| Thanks, Beloved Hubby and Dearest Son !! xoxoXOXO !! |
While Beloved Hubby and Dearest Son shopped for Transformers, I sneaked off for a quick peek at the doll aisle. Since
this was a different Mal-Wart than our usual one, I was hoping to see the Birthstone Barbies. Nope. Instead, I saw the full
line of 'Shrek Princesses' !
I'd first heard of them during a search of TRU.com for dolls. Without photos to go by, I assumed the 'Shrek Princess'
dolls were actually the same fairy tale dolls MGA already has on M-W shelves. Maybe rebranded, possibly not. However, once
I dug through and found a Fiona, I knew these may resemble the other MGAs, but they weren't the same at all.
MGA is also responsible for Bratz dolls, which may explain why the facial screening (aka, face paint) is somewhat familiar.
While Cinderella and Snow White may not be as...(ahem) tarty in their wardrobe choices as Yasmin and Cloe, their faces
do bear some similarity.
I decided against getting Fiona, thinking the doll would look odd with white hands and feet while wearing the 'real Fiona'
ogre face, and $20. seemed a bit high, even if she could kick butt. Much as I loved the idea of another green doll in Chez
Insanity, I put her back.
However, she 'magically' showed up in the cart at check-out. Hubby and Son grinned at me, saying she was a birthday present.
(happy sigh) Today isn't my birthday (it's close though), but I'm not gonna tell you if it's an early gift or a late one -
just that this is a cooler doll than I thought !
| Notice anything odd here ? |
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Here's the box back. I thought you might like to see the other dolls and their description of Fiona. Notice anything
odd ? While 'change her into an Ogre' is a major feature, nowhere does it show the doll wearing the ogre mask. When I
mentioned it to Hubby, he said it's probably because it doesn't look very good, and it's mostly for folks who want a Princess
Fiona doll, not an Ogre Fiona doll.
That's mostly why I put her back. I figured the cape shown on the ogre mask was only about shoulder length - that's all
that was visible - and the hands thing was a big issue to me. I was thinking of making her green gloves when I put her back.
Here's a quick tip if you decide you want this doll, too. To debox her, arm yourself with scissors, a seam ripper, and
a pair of hedge trimmers. About the only way to do it is to shear through the plastic and tear the lining from the back. Then
you get to fight through an entire roll of tape, plastic twist-ties, soft plastic tie-downs, two plastic tags anchoring her
head to the box liner, along with several threads. It took me nearly 20 minutes to free her, but I was trying to save the
box liner for photos.
The seam ripper is to get her crown off. I snipped through a lock of her hair trying to get her crown off - the thread
matches that well. Instead, I dumbly pried tape off the numerous tabs anchored by tape at the back of the box, peeled
more tape holding the liner to the back plastic, then pushed and pulled at the same time. Then I had tape, tags, twist
ties, and other delights to fight. I should have just taken hedge trimmers to the plastic.
If you manage to get it open, you're rewarded with a Fiona doll, an ogre mask, the princess dress, Kung-Fu pants,
green shoes, an instruction sheet, and a survey disguised as a warranty and sweepstakes entry postcard.
| Out-of-Box Princess Fiona |
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And here she is, out of box. She does resemble the other MGA fairy tale dolls. While she's not exactly a precise doll
rendition of the animated Fiona, most people seeing her out-of-box would recognize her by the costume, if nothing else.
The dress is quite nice, the skirt is hemmed and splits at the sides for the karate action. It's actually three layers,
a partial front skirt, a wider skirt that covers the sides of the front, but allows for motion, and a tulle overlay. It opens
with soft Velcro in the back. Oddly, the gold rope belt is attached, but only at the front. You have to be careful with it
so it doesn't catch in the Velcro - it slides over her waist.
The bodice's floral design is film-accurate, if a bit larger than scale. The pointed sleeves meet well-sculpted
hands, with the right sleeve split slightly at the shoulder, to show the tattoo...I mean, 'body art'. You'll get to see that
up-close a bit later.
| Fiona Fu ! Or would that be Kung-Fuiona ? |
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Here's her second outfit. Yes, her 'sports bra' top is painted on. That's why you get 'kung-fu' pants, but not a 'kung-fu'
shirt. It's made of inexpensive shiny nylon, the stuff you see moms use to make kid costumes at Halloween. Not as cheap
as Ben Cooper or Collegeville costumes (remember those ?), but not top-grade satin either. Still, it's well-made, with good
elastic.
Her arm is raised because I was trying to do a photo of her 'kung-fu' action. Nope. Basically, you raise her right arm,
and bring it down in a 'karate chop' (MGA's exact words, from her leaflet), and her right leg kicks out. Not as far up as
the box shows, it's more like a 45-degree angle than the near-90-degree boot to the head she's shown administering. Her arm
then clicks, and her leg falls back down. It reminded me of the 1976 Ballerina Barbie, she had a simple mechanism that caused
one leg to kick out if the other was pulled back. Ballerina, though, kicked high. Fiona seems to be going more for the
classic Nutcracker kick instead.
| That Fiona ! She's ready for *anything* ! |
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You can imagine my surprise when I removed the black pants and found painted-on underwear ! Her right 'kicking' leg seemed
so loose, I wanted to check it out, maybe take a photo of the leg joint. It's firmly in the socket, all right, and I found
that I liked her cute little 'bikini'. And now looking at the leg joint doesn't compromise our demure Fiona's modesty.
Her knees click and hold twice, at a rather typical Barbie angle. The joint enables her to assume nearly any pose - she
can do a to-the-floor side-split and a more traditional ballet-like split with ease. Ballerina Barbie certainly couldn't !
Her feet are absolutely flat, and kind of thick. As far as shoes go, she can wear Ken's - even the sandals, although they're
a bit big, and ya gotta push her feet forward in 'em. Surprisingly, Leia and Jem can wear her green almost-flats. They just
look a bit awkward on those dolls because they don't follow either dolls' foot shape very well. Heels too high for Leia, too
low for Jem. They'd do for a quick photo, though.
If you get one, I'd remove the black pants. From her hips to her knees, her legs were covered in several layers of white
tissue paper. That normally protects against staining, something that inexpensive satin is known for. MGA evidently advises
keeping the workout wear on for long periods.
| Here's the closeup of that 'body art' you wanted.. |
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And here's the 'body art' - I guess 'tattoo' is taboo. It is rather cute. A Shrek-eared 'S' in green, with a tiny gold
crown above it. It's a witch to photograph, I can tell ya. With her slightly mischevous look, it seems to echo some attitude
on Fiona's part !
| Here's some alternate views of the 'Ogre' mask. |
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Now we're getting closer to the part you may be more interested in. The ogre mask was the other reason I put the doll
back initially. I could see from the box side that the mask lacked a good part of the head. Without a 'look, here the doll
is wearing the mask !' photo, I thought it'd look weird, if not outright bad.
Once I had it out of the box, though, the cloak fabric and tulle rolled down to knee-length, and the long hair anchored
to the mask was revealed. Interesting. The mask hair was maybe an inch and a half shorter than the doll's braid. It's completely
open in the back, so possibly the youngest Shrek fan would have no trouble putting it on.
The mask itself has a sweet, more mature expression that intrigued me, and was quite pretty. I wished the ogre ears were
better defined, but they had that 'spoon' shape, so I couldn't whine too much.
In order to put the ogre mask on, Fiona's film-accurate crown has to be removed. This is where the seam ripper comes
in handy. The crown fits the ogre head as well, I just forgot it during the photo shoot.
Speaking of which...
| Our lovely Princess Fiona - the REAL one... |
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| ...if you ask me ! |
Here she is, the Ogress we all know and love - the real Fiona, in my book ! The hair arranges
easily, and the mask is easy to take off and put on, even if it isn't very easy on the doll's hair beneath. The long attached
cloak covers her hands, and makes them appear green, an effective solution, and quite a creative one. Wish you could see them
better, it really is cool.
The cloak also conceals her size. An ogre sized head on a Barbie-scale body would look unbalanced. With the concealing
cloak, Fiona appears bigger, and in better proportion. It really is amazing, and I don't know why MGA wants to hide this
under a bushel. I think the doll'd sell heckuva lot better if more doll fans knew how well-done she really is.
The dress is long enough to conceal most of her feet, and heck, I can always make green socks. I think I'll be making
some green dresses really soon !
Now if I could just find a Shrek doll to go with her...
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