Disney Store Doll Articulation Update

I wasn't as thorough as I should have been with my Disney Store Rapunzel review yesterday, or with my 12" Merida review, for that matter.  Fortunately, I had time this morning to de-box Cinderella, and she made some of the flaws and potential problems with the new articulation pretty glaringly obvious.

Cinderella enchanted me from within her box, mostly because of her coy side-glancing eyes:

Charming, right?

She looks so sweet in her box, with the beautiful rich blue of her dress and the lovely matching background.  

I am such a sucker for Cinderella.

Gorgeous.

But...look at her without her dress:

Cute blue underpants and some serious bowed legs.

Bendy, bandy-legged babe.

Nothing against bow legs, but with this doll, the leg shape is a symptom of some significantly warped joints.  She has trouble bending at the knees and at the hips.  There is very poor joint mobility.  To make things worse, one of the ankle joints swivels around freely.  The joint is nowhere near tight enough for there to be any control over the placement of the foot.  

Because the lower legs are flexible plastic, I can bend them back into a normal-looking position, but they go right back to being bowed within minutes.  I can't figure out what is wrong with the hip joints.

While I am showing you her legs, I should mention the shoes.  I like the transparent "glass" slippers, and it's great how the new dolls can wear flat footed shoes or heels.  These heels aren't quite sturdy enough to support the doll, though.

Not so much glass slippers and rubber slippers.

Here's the shoe against a black background so you can see the bendy heel:

The other big problem with the new body is something I should have tested with Rapunzel and Merida.  Look at how nicely the old Rapunzel (the one with the rubber legs and the click knee joints) sits in this lawn chair:

Mother Gothel would be proud.

In comparison, when the new body bends at the hips to sit, the knees splay waaay apart.  This, in combination with warped joints and a swiveling ankle, makes Cinderella look like a complete and total spazz when she sits:

Is there a chapter to the Cinderella story that I don't know about?

Quite a contrast.

Here's the newer Rapunzel--even with her dress on, it's clear she's not, uh, sitting like a lady:

Here's a lineup of some of the 12" play dolls I have laying around.  All of them can sit gracefully except the new Rapunzel:

Old Rapunzel, Barbie Fashionista Artsy, Liv Katie, Monster High Clawdeen, new Rapunzel

You can play a fun game called "Crazy Legs" with Cinderella.  It goes like this: you examine a normal-looking picture, and guess if she has crazy legs underneath her skirt or not.  If you guess correctly, you win.  Let's try it with this picture:

Hint: always guess crazy legs.

Then, without moving her at all, you lift up her skirt and....

Ah! You win.

There are certainly still plenty of charming things about this doll.  I love the royal blue color and the style of the dress, and it has the nice low-shed glitter application:

It looks like there's only one pleat in the front along the pale blue panel,
but the other side was just stuck together.

Her up-do hair is nice (nowhere near as nice as Rapunzel's hair, though...), and the upper body articulation is great.

Crazy legs?

You win!

Above all, I absolutely love Cinderella's new face paint.  This feature makes up for many of her articulation issues.  I still like the new body quite a bit, but really wish the joints could handle a sitting position more gracefully.  I am pretty disappointed overall with this particular doll.  I know I only paid $11 for her with the big sale, but there's no excuse for such poor quality control.  Buying a doll should not feel like a gamble...and yet so often it is exactly that.  This doll looked perfect in her box, so even if I had chosen her in person, I'd have had no idea of her underlying flaws.  This princess could have been a major disappointment to a child, and that thought always makes me upset.