Our Generation Mini Dolls by Battat

Yesterday was one of those magical summer days.  The weather was perfect, and my husband took a rare day off of work so we could all have a mini vacation at our favorite ocean beach.  I usually like to bring a doll or two along whenever I go to the beach, so that I can embarrass my children take some photos for the blog.  However, the doll I am reviewing right now is not exactly dressed for the ocean, so I didn't have any obvious doll companions for this adventure.  However, as luck would have it, my kids needed a large tub for their own beach project (don't ask) and so they asked to stop at Target on the way.  Of course I am always happy to stop at Target because it gives me a chance to take a quick run past the dolls.

As I rushed through the toy aisles, I noticed that there were mini dolls in the Our Generation section.  Mini dolls!  I was so surprised to see them, I had to stop and do a double-take. I realize now that there's been some buzz about these dolls for a little while, but I have simply been too busy to notice.  I'm actually glad I didn't know about them ahead of time, because I adore surprises and this was a really great surprise.  In the doll world, there's very little I get more excited about than miniature replicas of larger dolls.  Better yet, one of the minis is Kendra--a redheaded Our Generation doll that I already have in 18" scale.  I scooped up mini Kendra and also Sienna (because she looked really cute) and headed off to the beach...with the perfect doll companions:

Our Generation mini dolls "Sienna" and "Kendra," $9.99 each.

The organization of this review will be a little different since I actually de-boxed these dolls at the beach, took photographs of them, and then brought them home for closer inspection.

First, here's Sienna in her box:

The dolls come in open-faced cardboard boxes.  The design of the boxes is very similar to that of the 18" dolls.  On the back of the box, there's a short paragraph about the Our Generation girls, and then a photograph of the doll:

It's a good thing that the front of the box is open, because Sienna's picture is not as cute as the actual doll:

The sand I got all over the box doesn't help.

One of the neat things about these mini dolls is that they have inset eyes.  American Girl miniatures have painted eyes, and so this is a nice distinction.  The details in Sienna's light brown eyes were easy to see in the bright sun:

Here's Kendra in her box:

The paragraph on the back of Kendra's box is the same as the one on Sienna's box, but Kendra's photograph is even less flattering:

She looks  downright mad!

Like her 18" counterpart, Kendra has pale turquoise blue eyes and freckles:

Fortunately, the dolls were held in their boxes with only three clear rubber bands (one around each ankle, and one around the neck).  Since I didn't have any scissors with me at the beach, I was relieved that the packaging was so simple.  I was able to slide each doll out of her box without even breaking the rubber bands.  The entire box can be easily recycled.

Kendra's outfit is very similar to the 18" Kendra's outfit.  She is wearing a blue and white striped shirt, a ruffled blue polka dot skirt, blue tights, boots, and a blue bow headband.  The only difference between this Kendra and the larger version (other than size) is that the mini doll's boots are made out of vinyl with a molded knit pattern while the larger doll's boots are actually knitted.

All of the mini dolls seem to come with their hair in two side ponytails, accented with a headband of some kind:

The headbands are held on with one (or sometimes two) plastic ties.  I wanted to photograph the dolls without their headbands, so I actually had to bite the plastic ties off with my teeth.

Here's Kendra with her headband chewed off removed:

Kendra had a wonderful time exploring the beach, pointing out the little tidal rivers...

...and admiring the vast areas of newly-exposed sand::

Sienna is also dressed like her 18" version, with a pink corduroy skirt, a pink and white striped shirt, a belted brown fur vest, sheer pink tights, flowered dress shoes, and a white flower headband:

The flower on Sienna's headband is pretty large, and her brown fur vest was way too hot for an 80 degree day, so I quickly removed those two pieces:

I think this doll is absolutely adorable.  Even though she doesn't have red hair, she might be my favorite of the two minis I bought:

Once I got back to my house, I dusted the sand off the dolls and took a few more pictures of them.

The first thing I was curious about was how their size compared to American Girl mini dolls.  I would have guessed that the Our Generation boxes are smaller, but in fact it's the American Girl boxes that are slightly more compact:

The dolls themselves are almost exactly the same size (about seven inches tall).  The Our Generation minis are just the slightest bit taller.  This similarity came as no surprise given how alike the 18" dolls from these two companies are.  Here's Kendra with my Mini Rebecca and mini Kit:

American Girl mini "Rebecca," Our Generation mini "Kendra," American Girl mini "Kit."

I have some more comparisons to make with the American Girl minis, but first let me show you the details of Kendra and Sienna.

Here's Kendra:

Once the plastic ties are gone, the headband relies on a small section of white elastic to keep it in place:

All of the elements of Kendra's outfit are separate pieces.  Both the skirt and the shirt open all of the way down the back with velcro, and the vinyl boots have slits to help them slide off easily:

Here's a larger front-view of Kendra:

This doll has a hard time standing on her own.  She tips over very, very easily.

Her outfit has all of the little details that the larger doll's outfit has, including a tie in the front of the shirt and a blue bow at the side of the skirt:

In fact, the tailoring of the skirt seems better on the mini doll.  The dropped waist on the small skirt ends up looking like a nicely-sewn waist band:

7" Kendra's skirt.

The 18" doll's skirt has a ribbon lining the inside of the waist, and this is always flipping out:

18" Kendra's skirt.

I think all of the Our Generation mini dolls have the same face, but it's a very cute face with no visible teeth:

Nothing to chew headbands off with.

The only strange thing is that in profile, the doll's pupils aren't visible, so the eyes take on a homogenous alien green glow:

Eeeek!

Here are the eyes up close from the front again.  The color seems on the unnatural side (especially after seeing that last picture...), but I like the asymmetric detail in the irises and the natural shape of the freckles (although they're pretty large):

Kendra's clothes are very easy to manage--especially for such a small doll.  Because her skirt and top open all of the way down the back, dressing and undressing is super-easy.  Her tights are also surprisingly simple to put on--they're not very tight, and yet they don't look baggy.

The boots (slippers?) are really cute and are also easy to get on and off:

Kendra's body construction is just like the 18" Our Generation dolls.  She has a canvas torso and full vinyl arms and legs.  

Kendra has two huge tags sewn into her midline seam in the back.  These tags make it hard to see the construction of the body, but it has three seams in the back: a (hand-sewn?) midline seam, and two seams along her bottom:

She also has seams along each side, and a thin body profile compared to many other cloth-torso dolls:

Capsule body.

Her arms and legs are strung with fairly thin string and are seated in vinyl sockets that are sewn to her torso:

One thing I noticed while browsing all of the different mini dolls at Target was that there's pretty wide variability in the thickness of the neck seam.  My Kendra has a relatively nice neck seam.  It doesn't stick up too far past the collar of her shirt, and it looks fine when she's undressed:

Some of the other dolls have really thick neck seams that stick up above the clothing, though, and I think these look strange:

Poor Lana has a mild case of giraffe neck.

Kendra has movement very much like an 18" Our Generation doll or any of the American Girl dolls.  She can sit, do the splits, and spin her arms all of the way around.  She can even lift her arms away from her body.  

Her leg mobility feels more limited than the larger dolls.  When Kendra is standing upright, it's very hard to find a position for her feet that will support her weight.  This could also just be because her feet are really small.

Here's Kendra next to my American Girl mini doll, Kit, so that you can see the differences in their bodies:

Kit's torso is made out of a softer, lighter weight (and lighter colored) canvas, and her neck seam looks more relaxed:

Also, while Kit has the telltale white strings hanging down her back that reveal she has a strung neck joint, Kendra's neck construction is more of a mystery.

I cut the huge tags off of Kendra's back (with scissors, this time) so that you can get a better look at her torso:

One other notable difference between the American Girl mini dolls and the Our Generation minis is in the shape of the hands.  The American Girl minis have more detailed hands with splayed fingers.

Our Generation (left) and American Girl (right)

This makes it hard for American Girl hands to fit through some of the Our Generation clothing:

I'm stuck!

I eventually did get Kit's hands through Kendra's shirt sleeves, but it wasn't much fun and it took quite a while.  This chore was made more difficult by the fact that Kendra's sleeves are lined with a netted white fabric that kept catching on Kit's thumbs.

Other than the difficulty with sleeves, these two dolls can share clothes very well...right down to the shoes.  It was striking to me how much easier the Our Generation clothes are to get on and off, though.  Kit's sweater, in particular, is a pain to manage since it has no opening seams anywhere.  

The clothes-swapping effort was worth it, though, because I think Kit and Kendra look great in each others outfits!

I especially love Kit's sweater with Kendra's red hair:

I took Kendra's hair down so that I could get a better sense of the texture (and also so that I could brush out the sand...).  The hair feels wonderful and is the same rich, flame-red color of the larger Kendra's hair.

Now, here's Sienna with her removed vest and flower headband:

The headband is a circle of brown elastic with a white fabric flower decoration.  The flower has a small clear rhinestone in the center:

The vest is nicely made, I just didn't like how it looked on Sienna at the beach.  I am also not crazy about the ribbon belt detail.  The vest is made out of imitation fur and has a satiny brown lining.  The attached belt is made out of a shiny brown ribbon:

Under the vest, Sienna's outfit is very cute and versatile.  The long-sleeved striped tee shirt is vaguely nautical, and the pink corduroy skirt would be good for any season.  Sienna is also wearing pink netted stockings and little molded dress shoes.  Kendra's shirt opens down the back with velcro, but her skirt does not open all of the way down--it has a small stitched area at the bottom.  It's still easy to get the skirt on and off, just not quite as easy as Kendra's skirt.

The collar of Sienna's shirt has a very narrow hem, and unfortunately the frayed inside edges of the hem want to stick out like this:

Also, the back seams on the stockings are quite visible, and tend to migrate towards the front of Sienna's legs:

Here are her little white shoes:

Sienna's face is the same mold as Kendra's, but she has brown eyes, brown eyebrows, and no freckles:

The placement of these eyes is great (in fact, none of the dolls I saw at Target had wonky eyes) and I really like the shade of brown.  They look very warm and friendly:

Here's Sienna with her vest back on, but this time I tied the ribbon in the back instead of cinching it around her waist.  I prefer it like this:

I like the faces on these mini dolls better than I like the faces on the full-sized Our Generation dolls.  They're very calm and sweet, and the inset eyes add a nice realism.  Here are a few pictures of Sienna and Kendra with the American Girl minis so that you can see the contrast between painted eyes and inset eyes...and also the variation in these dolls' faces.

I have to say, I like both the painted eyes and the inset eyes, but I like Sienna's inset brown eyes more than Rebecca's painted green, and I slightly prefer Kit's painted blue eyes to Kendra's turquoise eyes:

Kit has more realistic freckles than Kendra, and I like Kit's lip color better, too.  The Our Generation dolls tend to have very opaque lip paint.  I like the expression on Kendra's face best, though:

I'll finish this review by showing you my 18" Kendra with her mini me.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find Kendra's headband or boots for this photo shoot, but you'll see that this pair still share plenty of other fun similarities:

Our Generation 7" and 18" Kendra dolls.

I really like the big Kendra, but I have to say that this small newcomer is my favorite of the two:

Here are two final portraits from the beach:

Bottom line?  These mini dolls are a great addition to the Our Generation lineup.  They are affordable, portable, and versatile.  They have nice hair, realistic inset eyes, and multi-piece outfits that are cute and easy to use.  Their clothes also fit American Girl mini dolls perfectly.  Their faces have a serene charm that I find even more appealing than the faces on the larger Our Generation dolls.

Some of the clothes have edges that curl out or don't lay flat, and some of the dolls have neck seams that stick up unnaturally high.  I also had a lot of trouble getting my Kendra doll to stand on her own, but overall I found the quality of these dolls to be very good.  I was particularly impressed with the silky texture of the hair and the even placement of the eyes.

Compared to American Girl mini dolls, I would say that these new Our Generation minis are more affordable (less than half the price) but they do not come with a book.  Also (at least from what I've seen), the American Girl clothes seem more carefully made and have higher quality fabrics, but they are harder to get on and off.  Our Generation minis do not have the face mold diversity of American Girl minis, but I prefer the Our Generation face.  Our Generation dolls all seem to have the same hair quality, but the American Girl minis are a mix: my Kit has nice hair, but Rebecca's hair is a mess.  Last, American Girl mini dolls have painted eyes, and Our Generation minis have inset eyes.  I like both of these options, and prefer one over the other on a case-by-case basis.

I feel fortunate to have chanced upon these mini dolls when I did.  They are a wonderful little treat for $10 and I suspect they will sell fast.  I can only hope that they will stay in stock more consistently than some of the more sought-after Our Generation accessories.