The Goldie Blox "Zipline Action Figure" Set

I first noticed the Goldie Blox toys last holiday season at our local high-end toy store (Rainbow Toys).  This line offers themed building sets that are designed to teach young girls about basic engineering principles.  The sets typically include a small storybook featuring a spunky yellow-haired heroine named Goldie Blox.  Goldie's story will relate somehow to the theme of the construction set.  For example, in the "Goldie Blox and the Movie Machine" set, Goldie's book is about how the local movie theater has to deal with a broken projector--right before a big film festival event.  Goldie and her friends engineer an innovative solution to this crisis, and the accompanying building set allows real kids to construct a cardboard zoetrope movie machine.  My boys grew up with every kind of building set we could get our hands on, and so this is exactly the type of toy I would have bought when they were younger.

Although most of the Goldie Blox sets come with a building kit and a storybook, there's one set--"Zipline Action Figure"--that comes with a building set and a 6.5-inch articulated doll.  I figured that this gave me the perfect excuse to review a Goldie Blox toy here on the blog.  Sadly, though, when I inspected the sets up close at Rainbow Toys, the dolls looked poorly constructed for their $25 price, and the building pieces seemed scant.  So I walked away empty-handed.

However, the combination of building set and doll got the attention of a few other people in my life, too.  My father-in-law emailed me his first-ever suggestion for the blog by sending a picture of the Goldie Blox zip-line set.  Perhaps he was remembering the train track/Lego/paper cutout landscapes that used to take over entire rooms at our house, or the beloved K'Nex robot friends that hung from our ceiling because we ran out of room to store them elsewhere.  This recommendation meant a lot to me, and so I immediately bought the set (which was only $15.99 online).  However, for some reason I kept putting off the review.  I think maybe I was afraid that I wouldn't like the toy as much as I like the concept.  However, just a week ago, my friend Emma (who regularly sends me some of my best review tips) emailed me about this set, too, and so I put it at the top of my to-do list.  I want to thank Emma and John for motivating me to finally review this little rascal:

The Goldie Blox Zipline Action Figure, $15.99.

I should mention right off the bat that Goldie Blox is a Kickstarter-funded project that was started in 2012 by Debbie Sterling.  Ms. Sterling's mission was to "get girls building."  This mission was in response to the startling statistics detailing the low number of women in engineering (the Goldie Blox web page cites an 86-14% male-to-female split in this field).

Personally, I have never understood why young girls can't (don't?) play with the same toys that my sons played with--Legos, K'Nex, Mega Bloks, Quadrilla, etc.  I had such a blast building things with them: pinball machines, houses, stables, towns, ferris wheels, roller coasters, restaurants...you name it.  It never felt particularly gender-biased to me.  But the thing is, I didn't raise daughters and I don't watch current television commercials, so I'm probably missing big parts of the issue.  And anyway, the statistics speak for themselves: girls are avoiding science and math in a way that boys are not.  Cheers to Ms. Sterling for trying to do something about that.

Goldie's zip-line set comes in a very colorful cardboard box with a plastic window.  The decorations on this box remind me of the Lottie doll boxes:

The presentation is really cute, but you can see that the number of building pieces doesn't look very impressive.  I only see about ten things displayed next to Goldie.

There's a graphic of Goldie on the front of the box, and she's holding a sign that describes the engineering concept behind this set ("suspension").  The sign also says that the set comes with 30 pieces, so I think maybe there's more in this box than meet the eye.

At first glance, the Goldie doll looks very cute and definitely resembles her cartoon self.  She has a mischievous half-smile, bright green eyes, and neon yellow hair (which reminds me of a certain giant Monster High doll I know...).  She also has at least eight points of articulation that I can see:

In the upper right hand corner of the box, there's the Goldie Blox logo, which is a silhouette of a girl's head.  Underneath the logo, there's a crazy-looking flying squirrel...who looks like he's just smashed into the front of the box:

Build.  Play.  Fly!  Splat.

The back of the box has a different picture of Goldie (that's refreshing!) and an introduction to the zip-line toy--written in Goldie's words:

Here's a close-up of the text:

There's an effort in this introduction to emphasize words like "pulley," "suspension" and "angle."  This gave me hope that Goldie's building instructions would include some neat learning moments.

Here's a closer look at the picture of Goldie using her zip-line.  I love the gap in between her two front teeth.  I had one of those, too:

There are two smaller pictures at the bottom of the box--one of a little girl playing with the Goldie doll, and another of the Goldie cartoon enjoying some waffles with her dog:

Goldie's dog is named Nacho, by the way, and it says online that he "farts and drools, but knows his tools!"  That's just like my dogs...except they don't know anything about tools.  Or rules.

Even the sides of the box are decorated--with foliage, pictures of Goldie, and the web address for where more information about this toy line can be found:

I'm not sure whether or not I should take issue with the slogan "more than just a doll."  Goldie's zip-line set includes, literally, more than a doll...but to say more than just a doll?  Really?  Dolls are awesome.

The GoldieBlox.com website is informative and interesting, with a shop, a background information page and a really nice blog.  The Bloxtown website does not have a ton of content yet, though.  It has a description of all the toys and some background information about Goldie, but that's about it.  However, there is a free App available and I took a few moments to check it out.

Here's the title screen (which doesn't quite fit the screen of my iPad for some reason...):

The App is based on the Goldie Blox Movie Machine set and story that I mentioned at the beginning of the review.  

There are three different sections to the App.  There's a "Watch" section that has a video about the day when the projector broke in Goldie's hometown.  There's also an "Awards" section that's available only through Game Center (which I don't have).  These two areas were disappointing, but the last feature, the "Make" section, is fantastic.  I had so much fun with this!

This game provides simple, self-explanatory tools that kids can use to construct their own zoetrope-style animation.  I made one with a blue egg cracking open:

The animations are limited to 12 screens, and each new screen shows a shadow of what was on the screen before it so that the pictures flow nicely from one to the next.  It reminds me of iStop Motion software.  

I used my finger to draw my pictures, but a stylus would make the process a lot more accurate.

Along the right side of the screen there are six different tools that can be used to make the movie extra fun.  These include brush style and size selection, color selection, and an assortment of pre-drawn pictures that can be "stamped" onto the screen:

Including several different views of Nacho the farting dog.

There also an eraser, a tool that repeats whatever was on the previous screen, and a way of adding personal photographs to the mix.

I just used the brush stroke and color tools to make my little movie.  Once all 12 screens are complete, the App plays them all together really fast to make a movie, like this:

I'll probably go back later today and make another movie.  It's a great little activity for people of all ages.

Inside Goldie's box was a cardboard backdrop, an instruction booklet...and a bag with many extra building pieces.  Hurrah!

Goldie was attached to a plastic support with several twisty metal wires.  The assortment of building pieces was actually sealed behind the plastic:

Goldie comes holding two small sections of pink cord--the handles for the zip-line.  She also comes with a plastic wrench and a tool belt.

The instructions for this set are all contained within a trifold pamphlet that is made out of high-quality card stock:

The instructions are set against a graph paper background and include a series of simple-looking and well-illustrated steps.

The back side of the pamphlet has the last page of the instructions and a list of pieces:

I like that the individual pieces are all given their correct names--like elbow joint, axle and washer.  That's a good approach.

Here's the bag of extra pieces:

The piece count still isn't super-impressive with this set, but it's certainly better than what I expected:

I'll build the zip-line a little bit later, but first let's take a look at the star of the show--Goldie Blox:

Goldie came out of her packaging still grabbing onto the zip-line handles:

The zip-line handles are held in place simply by the gripping shape of Goldie's hands--not by six plastic ties.  For once.  

Goldie's hands can also hold her little plastic wrench accessory:

Even though Goldie seems to hang on to the zip-line ties pretty well, they're also easy to slip out of her soft vinyl grasp.  

Here's Goldie on her own:

Goldie's clothes are all molded to her body--with the exception of the tool belt, which is a separate piece.

Goldie has yellow rooted hair with platinum highlights.  The texture of the hair is similar to the texture of Gooliope Jellinton's hair.  It's not silky-smooth or shiny, but feels more like mohair...and can look a little messy.

Goldie's wonky bright green eyes remind me a little of Disney Store doll eyes--especially Merida and Rapunzel's eyes.  They are very large and have a lot of white showing around the un-rimmed irises.  The eyes have a simple olive green iris pattern and a small round reflective dot:

My doll's right eye has a red paint defect just outside the pupil (it's barely noticeable in real life):

I really like Goldie's lopsided smile, cute freckles and raised eyebrow.  She is packed with personality for such a little doll--and especially for a doll that is basically an accessory for a line of building toys.

Goldie's yellow hair doesn't feel great, and brushing does not help a lot.  I've mentioned before that this poofy hair fiber is not my favorite, but I will admit that its impressive volume adds to Goldie's zany personality:

Here's a little peek at the rooting job on the back of Goldie's head:

The hair is rooted densely along the side part, but the rows get pretty wide in back.

I decided to tie Goldie's hair back into a ponytail, and...wait, what the...

Hello, ears!!

Look at her ears!

This girl has some serious clam shell ears.  I mean, the designers did not just stick a pair of bland little shrinking violet ears on this doll.  Her ears are fully capable of keeping up with the personality of the rest of the doll...and hearing conversations from across the room.

The ears paired with the wide-'n'-wonky green eyes are hysterically endearing to me:

Goldie is wearing molded lilac overalls and a gold striped tee shirt:

The overalls have some gold painted details, including buttons, stitching, and what looks like a lowercase "l" on the front pocket:

What does that stand for, though??

The tool belt is made out of vinyl and has a painted gold buckle that is in the shape of a capital "G:"

That letter makes a lot more sense.

The tool belt does not detach, but has to be slid off over Goldie's feet:

With the belt gone, it's easier to see the painted stitch detail along the sides of Goldie's overalls:

In addition to the golden buckle, the belt has some decorative pouches and two loops of vinyl for holding tools:

The belt looks like it should come apart at the front--right behind the buckle--but this seam is actually glued firmly in place:

I assumed that Goldie's wrench would fit into the loops of vinyl...

...and it does, but it's a pretty tight fit:

There we go.

So Goldie can carry her trusty wrench with her wherever she goes:

Goldie's red sneakers are also molded to her feet.  I didn't photograph this, but Goldie has holes in the bottoms of her shoes that apparently allow her to interact with some of the the other Goldie Blox building sets.

This doll's molded clothing makes her articulation visible all of time, but let's take a quick look at what she can do.  

Her body is made out of vinyl and she has nine points of articulation.  Her head spins around but she cannot look up or down at all:

Her soft vinyl arms are articulated at the shoulders and at the elbows.  Her shoulder joints have hinged rotation and so they can lift up and away from her body...

And also spin all of the way around:

The shoulder joints are quite difficult to rotate on my doll.  The vinyl in the arms is bendable, and so even though the torso is relatively firm, the softer arms stick and don't move smoothly.  The hinged movement at this joint is fine, though.

The elbows have simple hinged movement and can bend to about a 90 degree angle:

Something that struck me when I first saw these dolls in the store was how warped and unstable the elbow joints look:

Again, because the arms are made out of bendable vinyl, the stability of the hinge seems precarious.  Goldie's arms did not fall off during my review or while I was playing with her, but at the very end of the review, I pulled the vinyl around the hinge pin apart and was able to very easily detach the lower arm.  I was also able to (somewhat less easily) put the arm back on.

This would be a definite area of concern for me if I was buying this toy for a younger child...but I do love articulated elbows.

Another issue with my doll's arms is that the pink zip-line cords stained her wrists and hands pretty badly:

Rope burn.

Goldie has very solid hinged hip joints that allow her to sit on the ground:

But she can't quite do full front-to-back splits:

She also has simple hinged movement in her knees:

Goldie's lower legs are also made out of bendable vinyl, but because these limbs are thicker than her arms, the joint does not seem quite as unstable.

Both sides of the knee joint are vinyl, but the joint pin itself is hard plastic (this is true in the arms as well).

My doll has some pale paint markings on the lower part of her leg--presumably from the lighter purple paint of the pant cuffs:

Goldie's hinged knees allow her to sit in a chair:

But her legs don't bend upwards enough at the hip for her to flex her knees while she's sitting on the ground:

She can strike (and balance in) a few simple natural walking poses, though:

Goldie is 6.5 inches tall.  To put that in some context, here she is next to a few of my other small dolls:

Left to right: Barbie Chelsea, American Girl Kit, Goldie Blox, Travel Friends India (back), LPS mini Blythe (front), Disney Store mini Elsa and Moxie Girlz Friends mini.

She pairs reasonably well with the new mini Disney Store dolls and could make a cute (though skinny) older sister for them.

I was really excited to get a closer look at the construction and engineering element of Goldie's Zipline Action Figure set.  Because this review happened to coincide with a gorgeous warm weekend here in Maine, I decided to do the building and zipping outdoors.

I spread out a white towel and spilled all of the zip-line building pieces onto a plate.  

Goldie got straight to work sorting through the pieces...although it looks more like she's getting ready for a huge picnic feast:

On top of my zip-line, all covered with t-joints....

Eventually, Goldie got everything organized and we were ready to begin!

Here's a look at all of the small plastic pieces:

There were four yellow wheels:

Two super-strong suction cups:

Four each of the elbow connectors and t-joints:

And a bunch of washers and purple axels:

All pieces accounted for.

Here's the first page of the directions:

This step involves building the main part of the zip-line chassis. Chassis is a good word to introduce (this is analogous to a human skeleton, and is defined as the internal framework of a manmade structure).  However, Goldie's additional commentary only says that at first she didn't make the chassis strong enough to hold her weight.  That's not a super-interesting fact.

Anyway, I quickly built the first step and found the pieces very sturdy and easy to put together:

It's neat that the Goldie Blox logo is stamped onto some of the tiny pieces:

The second step involved attaching the chassis crossbeams and washers.  This step pretty much had to be combined with the third step, which was to attach the wheels.

Goldie adds here that washers act to reduce the friction in this system so that the wheels can spin faster.  That's a great fact.

The part I skimmed over was that the "two pieces of the wheel ends" have to be attached.  I was wondering why there were four wheels when I only needed two.  RTFM, Emily.

And two become one.

Here's the completed structure after step 3:

The fourth step involved building the handles of the zip-line:

Goldie's commentary here is that "pulleys are basically wheels and axles.  They'll help the cable to slide smoothly."  What?  I mean, I get what she is saying, but now I'm confused about pulleys in general.  They're just wheels and axles?

I did some quick reading and here's what I came up with: a pulley is a simple machine that consists of a rope and a grooved wheel.  The rope gets pulled to move over the wheel--hence, I suppose, the name pull-ey.  However it seems that the wheel by itself can also be called a pulley, in which case the simple machine would be called a "rope and pulley system" or a "block and tackle."

A rope and pulley system.

Pulley systems are defined as simple machines because they change the direction or strength of a force and make work easier for humans.  For example, in the picture above, the pulley is being used to change the direction of the force necessary to lift the weight.  You can pull down to get the weight to lift up.

The way I understand it, Goldie's zip-line is not a pulley system because the rope doesn't move.  This toy deals more with the physics of wheels, inclined planes, and potential and kinetic energy.  Sadly, the booklet doesn't get into any of this--nor do I see how suspension (mentioned on the front of the box) is a big idea here.  What does that even mean?  Like suspended in mid air?  Or like the suspension of a car?  Sigh.  I realize that the main purpose of this toy is to "get girls to build," but throwing in a little introductory physics is never wrong.

In any case, I quickly assembled Goldie's zip-line handles.  I like the design of the cord on these handles.  One end of the cord has a plastic bead to stop Goldie's hands from slipping off, but the other end of the cord has this little plastic fitting:

This thing is magical.  It stops the end of the cord from fraying, makes it easy to string the cord through small openings (like the ones on t-joints...) and it has a flange that prevents the cord from slipping back through wherever it was strung:

This gadget made the assembly of the handles extremely simple.  All I had to do was string the cord through the t-joints...and that was it.

Done.

And those handles stay in place, too.

The last page of the directions says to attach a suction cup to one end of the long cord and then tie the other end of the cord to something at a lower height:

I ended up just tying both ends of the cord to something and not using the suction cups at all.  If I had been indoors, I probably would have used at least one of the suction cups.  They seem really strong.

Here's my crude set-up:

The wheels have rims that rest on either side of the cord to keep the chassis in place, and Goldie's hands grip the ends of the handles to keep her in place:

She doesn't look at all scared.

Here's the first run--watch closely to see that one of the wheels jumps off the cord track almost immediately...but the zip-line continues on without a glitch.  Also, Goldie manages to hang on (if only with one hand) even after she smashes into the picket fence:

I'm fine!  I'm fine!

During the second run, both wheels stayed in place on the cord, but this reduced the friction on the cord and sent Goldie plowing into the fence with extra gusto...so much so that she couldn't hang on:

Impact: the action of one object coming forcibly into contact with another.

Huge tangent, but I thought about our friend Kayleigh a lot during this review (and not just because she was a guest reviewer almost exactly a year ago today...).  Look at the visitors we have staying in our yard this summer:

We're babysitting this hive for a friend because apparently the other hives were attacking this group of bees and killing them off.  They're like the underdog bees.  

It's fun to have bees around, and we're learning a lot.  For example, if you move a hive, it has to be moved less than two inches or more than two miles.  More than two inches disrupts the animals' navigation memory, and less than two miles keeps them in their previous foraging territory (which was hostile territory in the case of these underdog bees).  

They're super-cute, but I don't get too close:

Anyway, I tied Goldie's zip-line in another location, trying to make the incline on the cord a little less steep so that she wouldn't have a crash landing:

She's all ready to try again--this girl is fearless!

The new set-up definitely had a better result, with Goldie slowing down until she stopped gracefully at the end of the line:

I was pleasantly surprised by how easy to build and fun to use this set was.  I had a great time outside trying Goldie's zip-line in a bunch of different locations.  I can picture kids spending an entire afternoon testing out different set-ups, or even building forts and other tall structures from which Goldie could catapult herself.

I have read some reviews online suggesting that some Goldie doll's hands do not grip the cord handles well enough to survive a zip-line ride, but I did not encounter this problem with my Goldie at all.  I will say, though, that if my Goldie hadn't gripped the handles as well as she did, it would have been really, really frustrating.

Here are a few more pictures of Goldie, back indoors after her big adventure:

The zip-line structure stayed together all through the review and seems very sturdy:

Goldie's hair is best kept up in a ponytail for her zip-line runs, but I took it down for the last few pictures:

Bottom line?  I adored the idea behind the Goldie Blox line from the very first moment I saw the toys in the store.  Building sets designed to encourage young girls to feel at home with engineering and science?  That's all good.  However, the high price, low building piece count, and dubious doll quality in this particular set made it hard for me to jump in and take a closer look.

Fortunately, a few of my initial concerns were eliminated at the very beginning of the review.  First of all, I paid only $16 for this set, so the price has come down considerably since last year.  Second, there are more building pieces in the box than you can see in the display.  This set has thirty pieces...which is admittedly small for a construction set, but larger than the ten pieces I thought it had.  My last concern was about the stability of Goldie's construction.  Her elbow joints, in particular, looked very warped and unstable in the box.  While I still have concerns about the long-term durability of this part of the doll (and her shoulder joints are really hard to move...) I actually had no trouble with the arms staying together during my review--and you saw some of the crash landings Goldie suffered on her zip-line.

In addition to my complaints about Goldie's arms, I have a few other small criticisms of this toy.  Goldie's hair is not my favorite texture.  It puffs out all of the time, feels a little rough at the ends, and tends to shed when I brush it.  On the other hand, the unkempt drama of this hair certainly adds to Goldie's unique personality.  The other issue I have with this toy is that it falls short of offering a really nice summary of some basic physics and engineering concepts.  I don't think that's an essential element--getting kids to build is the primary goal of the toy--but because there's an instruction booklet that is well-suited to delivering little educational tidbits, I wish it had been done more thoroughly and effectively.  Even if kids don't have the ability or patience to read through this kind of text, it would be a great resource for parents who want to inform themselves in order to answer their child's inevitable questions.  The last criticism I have is that you can only really build one thing with this set.  The zip-line is fun, but if the purpose of a toy is to get kids to build, the building should continue past the first afternoon that the toy comes home.

Aside from her hair texture and arm issues, the little Goldie doll is great.  Her goofy eyes, huge ears, sly grin and wild yellow hair combine to make an endearing little rascal of a character.  I can totally picture finding her on the kitchen floor some early morning with coffee maker or toaster parts strewn all around her...that wrench in her hand and that smile on her face.  And there's no way I could ever be mad.  She's original, for sure, and that's a great example for kids.  I also like her zip-line kit.  The parts are sturdy and easy to put together.  Once assembled, the zip-line structure stays together and does what it should.  The zip-line cord is long and tough and could be set up in a variety of different ways.  Everything about building and playing with this toy was easier than I anticipated.  I also want to re-iterate that the Goldie Blox movie-making App was really fun and definitely worth a visit.  My kids would have spent hours on this when they were a little younger...and I might spend a few more hours on it even at my age.

I actually think that what this toy does best is something that it doesn't advertise or mention at all.  Because the zip-line assembly is so quick and because the results vary from set-up to set-up, the whole toy invites experimentation.  How does Goldie slide differently if the rope is arranged on a steep incline?  On a shallow incline?  If the cord is flat?  How about if the cord is tied tightly versus being left a little droopy?  Investigation and curiosity are at the heart of scientific thinking, and this toy does a great job of encouraging both.  For that reason above all, I really love Goldie Blox and her zip-line building kit.  Well...that and the fact that she's the only female doll I know who comes with a wrench as her only accessory:

You go, girl!