Fairy Tale High "Teen Rapunzel" by S-K Victory

Fairy Tale High (known as "Fairy Tale Academy" at the 2013 Toy Fair launch) is yet another brand of 12-inch play doll that is using the fairy tale princess theme.  Fairy Tale High's angle is that all of the princesses are modern teenagers attending the same school of performing arts.  At least it's not fashion school.

The number of dolls that have something to do with princesses or fairy tales this year is shockingly high.  I can count about nine different doll lines: The current Disney Store and Mattel versions of the Disney Princesses, La Dee Da Fairy Tale Dance, Cutie Pops Crown Cuties, Ever After High, Monster High Scary Tales, Once Upon a Zombie and Fairy Tale High.  And I guess I could also include the Bratzillaz Witchy Princesses, but they don't really look much different from the normal Bratzillaz.  Anyway, it's out of control.  The question is, do we need all of these different princess characters?  I mean, which ones are offering something truly unique?

I have been reluctant to review this particular doll because when she arrived in the mail, her face was a disappointment.  I don't find anything appealing about her facial screening or her expression, and I tend not to review dolls that I know I won't like.  Some recent conversations in the comments section and pictures on Flickr inspired me to reconsider.  I decided that she was worth de-boxing, if only so that I could reference her as I review some of the princess dolls I am more excited about.  Rapunzel cost me $17.99 at Toys R Us:

Fairy Tale High "Teen Rapunzel," by S-K Victory.

Ok, right off the bat, I need to say that this "teen" Rapunzel looks about thirty, whereas Disney's version of Rapunzel (who is also a teen...) looks cute and youthful.  I don't feel like I'm getting a glimpse of Rapunzel's younger years here.  Quite the contrary.  It's like Rapunzel after the Prince left her and she's taken to the streets.

As a reference, for anyone who is curious, the original Grimm Brothers' Rapunzel was 12 years old when she was locked in the tower, and she met the Prince "a few years later." So, the character should never be more than about 16.

This doll's outfit makes her seem even older.  It's a very skimpy, provocative outfit.  Completely inappropriate for a princess--or for any 12-year-old if you ask me.

Now that I have those initial thoughts off my chest, let me show you the doll.  She comes in a narrow plastic box with a cardboard back:

I think Fairy Tale Academy was a more original name.  Fairy Tale High seems like a blatant imitation of Monster High and Ever After High.  I feel like someone's trying to trick me--or an unsuspecting grandparent.

There's a cartoon image of Rapunzel on the front of the box.  I like this picture.  This looks nothing like the doll, though:

There's yet another cartoon version of the character on the website.  This is my favorite rendition--she looks cute, modern and friendly:

On the Fairy Tale High website, there's a free e-book for each doll and two webisodes : 

I checked out both the webisodes and the free book.  The webisodes are very short (just over one minute each), and the book is not really a book, but rather a short diary--another feature reminiscent of Monster High and Ever After High.  

Here's a small excerpt from the diary:

The back of Rapunzel's box is packed with pictures text:

There's a list of Rapunzel's favorite things.  It's interesting that she likes hair ribbons and bows...but doesn't wear any.

The top of the box displays three screenshots from the Fairy Tale High webisodes. 

These pictures are actually what prompted me to visit the website.  The characters look strange--especially Cinderella with her bright blue lips and sour expressions.  Maybe she's just caught in an awkward position in this picture?

She looks like she's about to give someone a right hook.

I had to go see what the animation really looks like.  Here are some clearer screenshots:

There are only three princesses in these first webisodes.   

Cinderella:

Sleeping Beauty:

And Snow White:

The huge school seems deserted with only these three students.  

Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty have the exact same hair:

Clone princesses.

Just for fun, I wanted to try and get a clearer shot of this scene:

Here it is--Cinderella running (not punching), late to class because she lost her shoe:

The voice acting is pretty good in these little shows, but the animation is awkward and hard to watch.

Further down on the back of the box, there are cartoons of all the characters:

I like Belle and Tinker Bell the best.

Again, the cartoons seem to have gone through some changes since the packaging was made.  The group picture on the website has different versions of the girls.  I like the improvements:

Where's Teen Wolf?

All of the different versions of these characters is confusing.  There's no consistency.  The webisode princesses look completely different from the pictures on the website, and those look different from the pictures on the box...and none of the pictures look anything like the dolls.  Many elements of this line give the impression that it was completed in haste.

The branding at the bottom of the box acknowledges S-K Victory, Toon Studio, and the Brothers Grimm (rolling in their graves?).  I think S-K Victory is a new company that has partnered with Toon Studio on this project.  Incidentally, S-K Victory and Toon Studio are also responsible for the new Once Upon a Zombie line--in conjunction with WowWee.  More on that later.

The plastic part of the box is attached to the cardboard with taped tabs.  It was pretty easy to pull the tape off and quickly remove the front of the box.  The doll is attached to the purple cardboard with several stretchy clear rubber bands, a few tougher plastic strings and one little plastic tie inserted into the back of the doll's head.

Here she is:

Her golden hair is longer than I expected.  It's very impressive to look at, but it has lots of crispy curls at the ends.  It's hard to tell what the texture is like because there's so much styling product.  I decided to leave the curls intact until the very end of the review.

Rapunzel has purple eyes, purple lips and heavy pink eye makeup.  I think the combination of dark lips, upturned eyes and heavy eyeshadow makes her look ill. 

Need...oxygen...

The pattern in her irises doesn't look right to me--I think it's partly that it's unusual for painted doll eyes to attempt this level of detail.  The scale of those lines is wrong:

Here's a real eye for comparison:

She has a small white strip of teeth visible between her purple lips:

She has a profile that is very similar to the Winx Club dolls, with concave eyes and a nose, mouth and chin region that protrudes forward:

Here's an old picture of Bloom's profile for comparison:

The problem with this eye shape is that the surface of the eye reflects light and makes it very hard to photograph the doll's eyes.  Her eyes always look washed out and unfocused.

The back of Rapunzel's hair got flattened in the box and so it's easy to see the rooting pattern:

The rooting pattern looks good:

Rapunzel is wearing purple hoochie shorts, a cropped purple blouse, a fuzzy vest, fishnet stockings and brown boots:

The vest is made out of a cream-colored velour.  

The vest is unlined, but the collar folds over, creating an area of doubled fabric:

The folded part of the vest's collar won't lay flat, so I prefer this outfit without the vest.  

The purple blouse, aside form being very short, is nice.  The fabric has a subtle sheen similar to silk shantung.  I like the gathered sleeves and the modest v-neck.

Here are the shorts--the gold button decorations are glued on:

The tiny purple shorts come off to reveal full fishnet stockings, complete with an elasticized waist:

The stockings have caused some staining on the lower legs:

Rapunzel has brown high-heeled boots with molded laces.  The heels are painted light brown and the eyelets for threading the laces are painted gold.  It's too bad that the laces themselves aren't painted in a contrasting color.  These boots have a very large, rounded, Micky-Mouse toe.

I agree with those who have commented on the similarity between the Fairy Tale High body and the Winx Club body.  Both dolls have long skinny arms and legs, and very similar joints.  Ken Price from S-K Victory used to work for Jakks Pacific, so I guess the parallels between the two dolls are understandable?

Rapunzel has eleven points of articulation:

She has painted underpants with "FTH" molded into them. When I see that "FTH" I always think, "FTW."

Blue undies For The Win!

Rapunzel's back has a large "S-K" indent:

One of the good things about this doll's articulation is her legs.  She has hinged and rotational movement in both her hips and her knees.  Rotational knees are not super-common, and they add a lot to the posing potential of a doll:

Two bad things about this doll's articulation are her neck and her arms.  Her head cannot move up and down, and it's set at an angle so that whenever she turns her head, she also starts to look up...

If her head is turned all of the way back 180 degrees, she's looking at the ceiling: 

Her arms have several joints, but they don't flex nearly enough.  She can't bend her elbows even close to 90 degrees, so she has real trouble touching her head or putting her hand on her hip--poses that should be simple for a doll with eleven points of articulation.

She can manage some nice, normal walking poses (note how she tends to look upwards, though):

Both of her splits:

Some disco:

And this--whatever this is:

I wanted to compare this doll to a Winx Club doll, and I thought I had a fully-articulated Flora that would work well for that purpose.  I mean, the picture on Flora's box makes it look like she has bendy wrists and elbows, right?

Wrong.  Actually, my Flora doesn't have articulated elbows or wrists, but she will at least serve as a good model for general body shape comparisons:

Here are the two dolls with their hair pulled out of the way:

Their torso molds are not identical, but they have very, very similar proportions:

Perhaps the most notable differences are that Flora has skinnier legs and a narrower waist:

In profile, you can also see that Flora has a more distinct arch in her back:

They have very similar posing abilities (or they would, if Flora's arms were jointed...):

Here are their hands up-close.  Again, they are similar, but certainly not identical:

Not surprisingly, Rapunzel's clothes fit Flora very well:

Including the shoes:

As you might expect, Flora's dress also fits Rapunzel, although because Flora's waist is thinner, this dress is tight:

Flora's shoes fit well, though:

Here's Rapunzel in a lineup with some of my 10-11" dolls.  At a full 12 inches,  Rapunzel is quite a bit taller than most of them:

Bratzillaz Meygana, Liv Hayden, Fairy Tale High Rapunzel, Ever After High Apple White, Monster High Clawdeen.

I liked Rapunzel's outfit more and more as I started trying it on my other dolls.  It seems to magically fit everyone (except for Hayden).  Apple's shorter torso actually makes the blouse appear more modest and classy:

Rapunzel's boots are a bit tight on Apple, though:

The shorts are loose on Clawdeen...

But she could wear this outfit, too:

The ensemble even fits Meygana--no belly showing here at all.  I think these clothes fit Meygana better than they fit Rapunzel!

Unfortunately, other dolls' clothes do not fit Rapunzel quite as easily.  Her wider toro and taller height make most outfits unacceptable:

I also want to do a quick comparison between the Fairy Tale High Rapunzel and a few of my Disney Store Rapunzel dolls:

The hinge-kneed doll from last year (L) and the newest click-knee doll (R).

To compare Rapunzel dolls, it is necessary to examine the hair.  So, I decided to brush out Teen Rapunzel's crispy curls:

The hair styling product made it very difficult to brush this doll's hair.  The brush would get stuck in clumps of hardened gel.  It took me quite a while, with my human-sized wire brush, to get this hair completely brushed out.  

As I was brushing, the doll's hair released lots of tiny white particles:

The worst thing about this residue is that it sticks to the table and is hard to clean off.  That made me upset because I was reviewing this doll on a brand-new clean surface...and now it already has to be replaced.

I made the mistake of leaving my Disney Rapunzel on the table while I was brushing Teen Rapunzel's hair....

Yucko.

When it's all brushed out, this hair looks frizzy and puffy at the ends:

There is absolutely no comparison between the Fairy Tale High doll's hair and the Disney Store Rapunzel's hair.  The Disney Store doll has fabulous hair that is silky and wonderful to the touch.  The Fairy Tale High doll has hair that is hard to brush and prone to tangles and frizz.  It is not fun to play with and does not feel very nice.

Also, while the Teen Rapunzel's hair looks golden blond on its own, it looks melon-colored next to Disney Rapunzel's more natural color:

I braided both dolls' hair.  Again, the Disney Rapunzel's hair is a dream to braid.  It is silky and smooth and you can make a braid in haste and it still looks nice.  The Fairy Tale High doll's hair braids well for a while, but about half way through, the hair gets really frizzy and is hard to tame.

Here is Teen Rapunzel in the Disney dress (it's slightly loose).  She can't really pull off the traditional princess look.  Also, notice how her braid gets messy towards the bottom:

Her purple lips and eyes, rather than making her look coordinated and modern, make this doll look like she's been drowned or suffocated.  This isn't supposed to be the zombie Rapunzel--that review will be next.  :)

Here are the two Rapunzels together:

The things is, if what you want is a modern, stylish version of the Rapunzel character, why not just take Disney's doll (often on sale for under $10) and dress her in something different?  I don't have the best wardrobe for concocting skimpy modern Rapunzel outfits, but an Only Hearts Club top and some Liv shorts are enough, I think, to make the point that Disney manufactured a much more versatile, personable doll:

So, occasionally when I review a new type of doll, I choose a character that might not be the best representation of the line.  In this case, I wondered if Rapunzel's long hair and weird makeup might make her less desirable than some of the other dolls.  Here's a quick peek at Snow White, just to see if a doll with different coloring and short hair is a better option.

Her hair is streaked with red, which is neat, but the bobbed style does not look promising at first glance:

The doll's outfit is very different from the outfit pictured in the webisodes:

I was excited about this outfit in the promotional pictures because it seemed like a funky, modern interpretation of Disney's Snow White dress.  In reality, the outfit is a bit cheesy--and also leans way too much towards the slutty end of the spectrum for my taste:

Here's the doll out of her box:

Given that Rapunzel had a two-piece top, I was hoping that Snow's outfit was nicely layered.  In fact, the top is all one piece, with a fake undershirt sewn in under the sweater:

I think this top is made out of a yellow version of the velour fabric that makes up Rapunzel's vest.

Here's the pleated plaid skirt:

Here's Apple in Teen Snow's outfit--which was Toy Town's suggestion:

I never realized just how round Apple's face is!  Wow.

Last, here is Snow's face.  She has nice green eyes and her eyeshadow is not as heavy-handed as Rapunzel's.  I also like her natural-colored lips:

Her hair was messy in the box, but brushing it didn't help at all:

Snow is wearing a red headband that was attached to her head with two small plastic ties.  The plastic ties can be cut, and the headband has a small square of velcro in the back so that it can easily be removed and re-used.  I tried to re-position the headband so that it would pull Snow's hair away from her face:

I like Snow's face more than I like Rapunzel's face, but her hair is messy and hard to play with, and her outfit does not have many useful pieces.  I have to say that I'm not very interested in pursuing this line any further.  I wish the dolls looked more like the cartoons on the website.

Here are a few more pictures of Rapunzel--I didn't get very many nice shots.  The glare on on her eyes, along with her flawed arm and head mobility make her a tricky subject to photograph:

She does sit nicely, though:

This is what she looked like most of the time during my photo shoot: messy hair, head looking skyward, and limbs akimbo:

Get your act together, girl:

Bottom line?  This doll is not quite as bad as I thought she would be.  For starters, her outfit (while skimpy) is nicely made and has pieces that work remarkably well for some of my other dolls.  I think the blouse and shorts actually look better on many of my shorter-torso dolls like Bratzillaz and Ever After High.

Rapunzel's hair was fairly promising right out of the box, with its styled curls and impressive length.  I wish I had left it alone.  Unfortunately, brushing out the copious, sticky styling product transformed the hair into a frizzy, tangle-prone mess that makes the doll hard to play with.  The hair doesn't add any drama or personality to this character.  Teen Rapunzel's hair can't even come close to competing with the Disney Store Rapunzel doll's hair.

This doll's face and careless articulation are the deal-breakers for me.  I can't identify with her aloof expression and sick-looking color palette.  Her face doesn't have much personality, which is especially disappointing given the nice graphic versions of the character on the box and on the website.  Also, while I love getting a doll with so many joints, if the joints can't perform well, they end up being a liability.  Despite excellent leg articulation, the inflexible arms, limiting neck movement and upturned face are all I can think about.

So, the question I asked at the beginning of this review is, "do we really need all of these fairy tale princess characters?"  I can safely say that I, personally, don't need this particular version.  She doesn't offer anything new.  She tries to provide a contemporary, teenaged version of a beloved character, and instead delivers a mediocre copycat.  She's the Ever After High theme on a Winx doll body.  The reality is that the Disney Store has already made an inexpensive, adorable, highly-articulated, youthful Rapunzel.  With some modern clothes, that Rapunzel doll can fill the trendy teen niche much better than the Fairy Tale High girls ever could.