The Limited Edition Merida Doll from the Disney Store

I posted these pictures of the 18" limited edition Merida doll from Brave over on facebook and on my Flickr photostream, but some of you asked me to show them here, too.  I'm leaving this doll in her box for now, so I can't really do a full review yet, but I did snap a few quick pictures of her.  The pictures aren't that great, since the box casts some weird shadows, but just in case you are interested, here she is:

18" Limited Edition Merida.

This doll is limited to 7000 pieces, but is still available at the Disney Store website for $99.  It's a lot of money to spend on one doll, but after these limited dolls sell out, the price tends to skyrocket over on eBay.  A 7000 edition size seems huge to me (especially when I compare to Tonner, JAMIEshow or Intergrity edition sizes...) but I guess the scope of Disney fans is so broad, 7000 is relatively small.

The outfit is intricate with lots of textured materials.  All of the accessories are plastic.  This doll is clearly Merida from the movie, but there are some immediately noticeable contrasts between her and the 12" Merida (see my review of the 12" doll here).  Here's a list of the most obvious differences:

1. The LE doll has a different, more serious facial expression.
2. The LE doll has a black velvety dress with a textured hem design, not the simple teal dress from the movie.
3. The LE doll has a black fake fur cape with a silky green lining and gold piping along the edges.
4. The LE doll has three arrows, not one (yay!).
5. The LE doll has a sword.
6. In addition to the bear clasp on her cloak, the LE doll has an amulet and an ornamented belt on her quiver.
7. The LE doll has a tartan pouch (?) hanging under her quiver.
8. The LE dress has armpit vents (double yay!).

Here you can see the elaborate quiver belt with the bear emblem clasp.  Also notice the beautiful sage green lining on the cloak:

This doll also has an archer's sleeve, but it is made of leather, with a gold embroidered design.

This doll's plastic bow has molded engravings, just like the smaller doll's bow, but these engravings are colored with a brown paint, which makes them much more noticeable:

Here's the flocked design on the hem of the black velvet dress:

The texture of the dress is almost more like fur than velvet.  

The facial expression is much different on this doll than on the small play doll.  She has a side-glancing, slightly skeptical look about her:

Her eyes are a bit wonky.

Her features are nicely painted, but her eyes have less yellow than the smaller doll's eyes, and this makes them seem less bright and less three dimensional somehow:

I LOVE that she has one raised eyebrow!

She has a very faint spattering of freckles.

Here's a comparison of the two dolls--there's quite a difference in size!  18 inches doesn't sound that much bigger than 12 inches, but it is...

Here's a reminder picture of the 12" Classic Merida all by herself:

I love both dolls quite a lot.  I wish the larger doll also had a teal dress.  It's a beautiful color and it really brings out the red of Merida's hair and the blue of her eyes.  The black dress is dramatic and detailed...but it's not teal.  That might be my only real complaint with this doll.

I love how Big Merida looks at Little Merida with bemusement:

Um...you are a bit goofy, there, short stuff.

The large Merida's hair looks wonderful--there are definitely different sizes of curl in there and it's all I can do to keep myself from freeing it from the box!  

I adore little Merida and her goofy, appealing expression, but I prefer the larger doll's face for its subtlety and complexity.  She can look either serious or amused, skeptical or curious, depending on the angle of your view.  

I'll post more pictures when I finally get this doll out of her box, but for now maybe that will help some of you who are on the fence about whether or not to buy her.

This is my serious side.