The City Girls by Tonner Toys

Of all the beautiful dolls being released this season, I have been most excited to see the new Tonner Toys City Girl line.  Ever since their unveiling at the 2012 Toy Fair, I have been checking the Tonner blog like an addict, waiting for the release day.  To give you a little background, Tonner Toys is Robert Tonner's play doll label and Robert Tonner (for those just tuning in) is the designer of my favorite doll of all time.  So far, Tonner Toys has produced the cartoonish Little MissMatched dolls with their contagiously happy faces and colorful mix-and-match outfits.  The City Girls are a line of more realistic-looking ~16" fashion dolls designed and priced for "beginner" collectors.  So, basically they're the younger, more durable cousins of my Cinderella dolls...selling for about half the price.  That's more than enough to get my attention.

I think there's a hole in the play doll market that is begging for a release like this.  We have a wide variety of $20 fashion dolls to choose from (Barbie, Monster High, Bratz, Disney Store princesses), and you can find plenty of collectable fashion dolls for $100 and over (Tonner, Pullip, Integrity, Sybarite, Momoko, etc), but the intermediate market is sparse.  As the holidays approach, what do you get for that careful young doll collector who is ready for something special?  Or what do you get for yourself when the budget is tight and a regular Tonner doll is out of reach?  Maybe these dolls are the answer.

On November 9th, the long-awaited email hit my inbox, telling me that not only were the dolls in stock, it was a Free Shipping Friday!  Twist my arm, Mr. Tonner.

City Girls "Houston" and "Astor" by Tonner Toys.

I was drawn to Astor first, mostly because of her short red hair.  I love red hair.  There are actually four characters to choose from; Astor (red hair), Houston (dark skin and hair), Billy (dark hair) and Brook-Lynn (blonde--she is only available at FAO Schwarz right now).  Brook-Lynn and Houston are basic dolls and sell for $39.99.  The others are fully dressed and sell for $49.99.  There are three outfit packs at the moment, and these cost $24.99.

Astor.

The dolls come in a plastic tube with a cardboard insert.  The front of the tube displays the doll and has a small cardboard decoration at the bottom.  I like the skyline cutout and the simple black and pink City Girl logo:

It says, "beginner collector" a lot on the box.  This is a big selling point.

The back of the tube has a picture of "Taxi!" Billy and smaller pictures of the other dolls and outfits in the series:

The bottom of the tube opens easily (maybe a bit too easily--two of my dolls came with the bottom of the tube falling off...) and the cardboard slides out smoothly:

The presentation of the doll is very nice.  Astor is arranged with her legs crossed and her sunglasses perched on the top of her head.  Each doll has her name and a small description to the right of her head. Astor's reads: "Color Block Fashion Astor, fitness model, age 23."  I found it interesting that she's a fitness model, and not just a model.  I looked up her full bio on the Tonner site and found this:

"Astor is a strong and determined survivor.  While in the hospital she made up her mind to beat her medical condition and start doing triathlons   She succeeded and is now a competitive triathlete and fitness model with major contracts.  She devotes a lot of time to training & friends but just as much to charity runs to help find a cure."

By not naming her medical condition, perhaps she can be meaningful to a lot of people.  The other girls' jobs are not quite as poignant.  Houston is a personal shopper, Billy is a bakery owner and Brook-Lynn is an event planner.  

Astor is held in place with four wire ties.  Because the ends of the ties aren't exposed on the back of the cardboard, I just snipped each wire with heavy-duty scissors.  Very easy.

Hi there.

Here's Astor out of the box.  She still has a wide plastic band around her bangs to hold those (and her glasses) in place:

The leopard print purse is attached to her shirt with a little plastic tie.  I understand the desire to attach the purse, it makes the displayed doll look more put together, but the plastic tie leaves holes in the outfit which detract from the quality of her overall appearance.

The purse is very basic.  It has some ribbon cording on one side, but the other side is plain fabric.  

The edges are hemmed, but it's a bit sloppy in places:

Here's a comparison between the City Girl purse and a Moxie Teenz purse:

All of the Moxie Teenz come with a large purse, and I am very impressed by the quality and design of these bags.  I consider them to be the best of the best in play doll purses.  The details are fantastic:

Moxie Teen Arizona's purse.

The City Girl purse is not really in the same league.

Here's Astor's face with the plastic band removed.  Her hair is plastered down around the top of her head and there's a modest amount of gel holding it in place.  It's not crispy, thank goodness.

The glasses are stitched to the top of her hair, but I just pulled them out--no scissors necessary.  

The glasses have white painted plastic frames with clear lenses. There's a long piece of shaded plastic  attached to the back of the lenses to make them dark:

Here she is with her glasses removed and her bangs relaxed:

The hair is a bit uneven (longer on her left).

I love her hairstyle and the vibrant, comic book color of her hair.  The hair is soft and nicely rooted.  The bangs are especially well-done.  I don't normally like bangs on a rooted doll, but these look good:

She has a sweet, slightly vacant face.  Her open mouth reminds me of a Bratzillaz face, but her wide, innocent eyes are more like a Winx Club doll or a Disney Princess.

Her eyes are lovely and look hand painted.  They have a lot of detail.  The irises are several shades of blue ranging from baby blue to teal.  Her eyeshadow is very pale pink and goes well with her blocky ginger eyebrows.  She has painted upper and lower lashes.  I am not crazy about the partially open mouth.  The white painted teeth don't run the full length of the opened mouth and the lip paint doesn't match up very well with the sculpted features of the mouth (this is hard to see in the pictures):

Overall, the face is refreshing.  It is missing the unnecessary seductiveness that is cropping up in so many play dolls.  If I could change something about the face, I would give her a bit more of a focused look.  She doesn't really look at the camera--she's always staring off into space.  For a line of dolls meant to represent successful city women, the face is a bit too dreamy.  Maybe she hasn't had her coffee yet?

The outfit is fantastic.  I love the mix of fall colors and the simple, practical style.  I never would have thought to pair a bright red shirt with a plum skirt, especially with that orange hair...but it works:

She's wearing a modest tank top and a tight two-toned tube skirt.  On her left wrist, she has three thick bangles in white, pink and gold:

The skirt is made out of a stretch cotton knit and has an elastic waistband:

The red fabric of the shirt has some drape to it and behaves a bit more like silk or rayon.

The construction is solid, and both pieces held up well to all of my frantic changing sessions.

The tank top closes in back with a single strip of velcro.  The velcro doesn't run the full length of the back, so there's a little slit at the bottom of the shirt.  The only problem with the outfit is that the plastic ties from the packaging leave permanent holes in the fabric.  These are especially visible in the red shirt.

Astor is wearing red high-heeled sandals.  The shoes have plastic soles and flexible vinyl on the sides. They are a little hard to get on and off, but I love them.  They look great:

The shoes are painted and some of the red paint came off on the bottom of the doll's feet, although there are no areas of missing paint on the shoes themselves.

Astor has 12 points of articulation.  Her neck can turn from side to side, but she can't look up and down at all.  This limited neck articulation combined with the upward-glancing position of her painted eyes makes it difficult for her to look straight ahead.

Ok, you out there, let's do some poses together.  You can keep your clothes on.

She has a torso joint with great side-to-side mobility.  This joint adds a lot to her posing repertoire:

Lean to the side.  Wasn't that easy?  Now, let's try something more advanced...

Her arms are articulated almost exactly like the regular Tonner dolls.  She has excellent range of motion in all of her arm joints, and her wrists can bend and rotate.

Now, pat your head and pretend you're holding a small pig.

Seriously, haven't you ever carried a small pig?

She has ball and socket hip joints that allow for almost full side-to-side splits:

See how long you can hold this pose....

...and full front-to-back splits:

If you get tired, this is a good way to relax.

Here's the hip joint up close:

Back off, Emily!

Astor's arms and lower legs are made out of a different material than her torso and upper legs.  There's a noticeable color difference in between these two areas. The plastic torso and upper legs have a yellowish tone to them and the slightly bendable arms and lower legs have a pink tinge.  You can see this difference pretty clearly in the pictures.  Also notice how she is always looking up and away from the camera.

She sits nicely, both on the ground and in a chair:

Of the dolls I own, the play doll that comes closest in size and quality to Astor is a Moxie Teenz doll.  Here's Astor next to Tristen:

These two have very similar articulation.  The Moxie Teenz have ankle joints (which I love--their feet can be flat or fit into high-heeled shoes).  The Moxie Teenz torso is much shorter, and while this is probably more realistic, it looks funny next to the willowy Astor.  Moxie Teenz can also look up and down.  For Astor, things are always looking up.

Clothes sharing is not going to be reliable with these two dolls.  In particular, some Moxie Teenz pants won't quite fit Astor's longer frame. However, Tristen can wear Astor's clothes and the two dolls can trade most shirts.

Astor wearing Moxie Teenz Melrose's top and jeans

The jeans don't quite pull up high enough, but it's close!

Tristen's skirt (attached to the pink lace tights) doesn't quite pull up high enough:

Dude.  You are really tall.

Playing with these two dolls together, it's the faces of the Moxie Teenz dolls that really stand out as being special.  They have so much expression in their huge inset eyes and sweet features:

Moxie Teenz Melrose

Moxie Teenz are selling for $14.50 right now at Toys R Us, which makes it harder for me to swallow the $50 price tag on the City Girls.  Part of the price difference is because the City Girls are higher quality dolls.  Also, I have to keep in mind that the Moxie Teenz originally sold for $26, and, as I understand it, are now discontinued.  I hope the City Girl vision is more sustainable.

Here is Astor next to "Far East Stella," a Tonner fashion doll with the Tyler Wentworth body:

The City Girl body has more childlike proportions, with much narrower hips and a smaller chest.  I find the color difference in the plastic pretty striking.  Stella looks almost grey in comparison to Astor's peach complexion.  These two aren't likely to share many clothes.

Here is a comparison between Astor and Cami, who has the slimmer Tonner Antoinette body:

These two have much more similar proportions, although Astor is still narrower overall.  The color difference in the plastic is still noticeable, but what catches my eye here is how much more detailed and realistic the Cami body sculpture is.  Cami and Astor can trade clothes, although Astor's skirt is pretty tight on Cami and Cami's shorts bag a little bit on Astor:

I was impatient to have some more clothing options for Astor, so I opened one of the fashion packs.  This set is called "Cape Town" and includes a shirt, a cape, a pair of jeans, two bracelets and a pair of shoes:

The shirt is a long fitted burgundy knit tee that almost looks like a dress:

Again, the fabric is riddled with small holes made by plastic ties used in the packaging.  Also, notice the hemline of this shirt--it won't lay flat:

The jeans are made out of a very slinky stretchy black fabric.  They're incredibly soft--not at all like regular jean material.

The cape is the most detailed item of clothing in this set.  It is made out of an olive colored cotton knit and decorated with pink satin trim and two rows of fake gold buttons.

The cape closes in front with two pieces of velcro.

While the cape is stitched, hemmed and finished very nicely, you can see several holes in the fabric from those darn plastic ties.

The purple clogs don't have as much detail as the red sandals, but they're pretty cute:

It's not immediately clear how the two plastic bangles are going to fit over the doll's hands:

In fact, the bracelets don't fit over the hands at all...the hands come off:

While all of the clothes I have fit over Astor's hands with no problem, it's certainly easier to get her dressed without her hands in the way:

The burgundy shirt has real trouble at all of the seams (they flip inside out) but I just adore the overall look of these clothes.  They are casual, modest, nicely made items that I can picture a real woman wearing.  I also love the color palette and am surprised by how well it compliments Astor's red hair.  There is clearly a lot of thought behind the fabric selection and design of these clothes.

The cape has somewhat of a straightjacket effect (there are no arm holes) but it looks great:

One thing I started to notice with Astor at this point is that all of her poses involve bent knees.  It's actually very hard to get this doll to stand up straight.  Her knee joints buckle way too easily.  This is incredibly frustrating for someone like me who is trying to pose a doll for pictures, but it's hard for me  to gauge what kind of impact this would have on a child who is playing a game.  As a kid, I don't think I ever cared that much whether my dolls could stand up straight or not.

With the two outfits I've opened so far, the mix-and-match options are great. The red shirt and sandals work well with the black jeans:

And the purple clogs perfectly match the skirt that came with Astor:

I want to quickly show you a basic doll, Houston.  I was curious about the basic outfit and also about how many of the minor paint and articulation defects are common features to this line and how many are just flukes.  Here's Houston:

Right out of the tube, this doll is striking.  I love her darker coloring and long hair.  She comes in a pink satin robe and has pink sandals that are the exact same mold as Astor's red shoes:

Her bright green eyes look wonderful against her complexion, but I am noticing some of the same facial screening problems that I described with Astor.  Her tooth paint is not quite complete and the eyebrows are set slightly lopsided (both eyebrows are shifted to the doll's left).  The painted detail in and around the eyes is great, but look at the bottoms of her eyes--doesn't it look like she's been crying?  There are little spots of white paint under each eye that look to me like pooled tears:

Houston's hair is long and soft and looks fantastic.  It's tied back in a simple ponytail, and the ponytail holder is covered with a loop of hair.  It's youthful and elegant:

The pink robe has a synthetic feel to it--it's not as smooth and silky as it looks.  Under the robe, Houston is wearing a see-through cropped lace tank top and lace shorts:

Some minor flaws: the robe and the back of the doll's leg each have small stains on them.

While Houston looks fine wearing her lace sleepwear...

...I think she looks best in Astor's red shirt and the black jeans that came in the Cape Town set:

The green cape from Cape Town brings out the beautiful color of her eyes:

Houston has the same floppy knee problem as Astor.  These dolls just do not want to stand up straight. If I wait too long to take a picture, one or the other of them will start buckling:

It is possible to get everyone standing up straight and looking at the camera, but I have to say, if I were a real photographer and these were real models...I'd fire them.  They stare off into space and slouch way too much.

Since I have no self restraint, I can show you some pictures of the other girls in this line, although I'm not going to remove them from their boxes at this point.  Here's Billy:

I love her hazel eyes!  

She has a yellow and black taxi-themed outfit and is carrying sunglasses and a purse that looks a bit more interesting than Astor's purse:

She has black clogs that are the same mold as the clogs in the Cape Town set:

Brook-Lynn is a basic doll (again, found only at FAO Schwarz right now) and she is wearing the same outfit and hairstyle as basic Houston.

I also bought this special edition Astor, who is dressed in a yellow ball gown.  This doll sells for $59.99

My doll came with both of her hands missing and the bottom of the tube loose.  Fortunately, the hands were still in the box and I could snap them back on.  The doll must have been jostled around in the box pretty significantly in order for those wire ties to pry off both hands.  

The face paint is similar to that of Color Block Astor, but this doll has a more royal blue tone to her eyes and has an additional line of gold eyeliner.  This doll also has a more elaborate hairstyle, no bangs, and big hoop earrings:

She's wearing the high-heeled sandals in gold:

Here she is all put back together and straightened up.  This doll's dress reminds me of Moxie Teenz Leigh's yellow dress, although I can tell that this dress is of a much higher quality.  I'd love to do a side-by-side comparison of Leigh and Astor, but I have never found a Leigh with straight eyes.

Here are some final pictures of Astor and Houston in various outfits:

Bottom line?  My expectations were so high for these dolls, there was no way they were going to completely live up to their hype.  Details like the loose knee joints, the inflexible necks, the mismatched colors in the body and the slightly blank facial expressions made me feel disappointed, at least initially.

The thing is, these dolls have something interesting and unique to offer.  The longer I played with mine, the more I could start to see them for what they are and not for what I assumed they would be.  They are a wonderful size and weight and have nicely sculpted, highly articulated bodies.  The faces, while a bit spacey, have lovely hand-painted eyes and an innocent expression that is a refreshing break from the unrealistic glam that tends to pervade the play doll scene.  The clothes have some minor flaws here and there, but my overwhelming impression is that they are tasteful, well made and realistic.  These are clothes I would wear.  I love the color palette, and I enjoy the mix-and-match potential of the separate pieces.  While the collapsing knees drove me nuts, the dolls move really well.  They behave a lot like Tonner's more expensive dolls when you manipulate them--falling almost effortlessly into neat poses.  The arms, in particular, are very much like the arms on the Tonner Cami and Antoinette dolls.  I would love to have a City Girl doll to give to every child who has ever admired my Tonner collection.  

So, yeah, I really wish the head could look up and down, I wish the face had a bit more personality in it (side-glancing eyes would be super cute), and I wish the knees would stay put.  However, I can see past these flaws when I get caught up in posing one of these dolls or trying out a new attractive outfit combination.  Also, I have enough experience with Tonner products to feel pretty confident that the little flaws will get worked out over time.  

This is a line I will watch with great interest.  In particular, I'll be coveting all of the outfit packs that are released, and looking for new dolls with different face molds or expressions.  I can't wait to see what the repaint artists will do with these girls.  There is great potential here.  In the meantime, I have a young fashion-forward niece who might enjoy a City Girl for Christmas....

Summary:

Age Level	5 and up per the box, although I think slightly older children will get the most out of these dolls.
Value	The dressed dolls are the best deal at $50.  They're worth this price for the overall quality and design of the product.  Watch for free shipping specials.
Quality	The quality overall is very good.  The doll is highly articulated and larger than most play dolls.  She has hand painted features and nicely rooted soft hair.  The clothes are made of quality fabrics and are well sewn. The design of the clothes is fashionable and tasteful.  Some small facial screening flaws can occur.
Packaging	Very good.  It is easy to remove these dolls from their plastic tubes and cardboard backdrops.
Collectable?	Not really....but right on the edge.  These are play dolls and are not limited in production, but they will surely attract the attention of adult collectors.
Versatility	The generic face and high level of articulation make this a versatile doll.  She comes with a compelling backstory, but it doesn’t need to dictate how she is played with.  There are three separate outfit packs available now and some clothes sharing potential with Moxie Teenz and Tonner’s Cami and Antoinette lines.
Overall	This doll has some frustrating flaws that I would love to see fixed.  However, she fills a niche in the doll market and her good qualities outweigh her bad.  I’ll be back for more.  Recommended.

***

As requested: Cami in the Cape Town outfit.  The top is tight, but still looks good.  The pants are really tight--I didn't think they'd make it over her hips.  They look fine, but the fabric is pretty stretched.

The fabric is really stretched across her hips.

The shirt is very form-fitting!

The part under the velcro bulges out unless the shirt is pulled all of the way down around her hips.