My Twinn 18" Custom Doll, "Annie"

I have mentioned before how the expectations and anticipation surrounding a doll purchase can play a large role in my overall assessment.  Because of this, ordering a custom doll like a Makie or a My Twinn can be quite risky.  In the days or weeks that it takes for the doll to be made, a very clear vision of that doll will form in my mind, making it difficult for the actual doll to be what I was hoping for.  On the other hand, the process of customizing a doll is very fun, and the excitement of waiting to see that special doll adds significantly to the purchasing experience.

If you read my earlier post, Waiting for Annie, you know about my previous experience with ordering a custom My Twinn doll--how I was hoping for a redhead and got a doll with dirty blonde hair.  If you read that other post, you might also have had some time to form your own ideas and opinions about how my new custom 18" My Twinn doll, Annie, should look.  My own wishes for this doll were that she would have bright red hair, beautiful green eyes and a huge number of realistic freckles.

I'll show you right away that Annie is gloriously, unapologetically redheaded:

My Twinn 18" custom doll, "Annie."

Annie arrived late last week and I have to admit that I was nervous to open the box.  I guess I assumed that she would not live up to my lofty expectations.  It didn't help that the doll came minimally packed, with one edge of the doll box crushed and dented.  There was also a smashed tube of Tom's of Maine toothpaste wedged into one corner of the shipping box.  I still can't figure out if that was some kind of "free gift with purchase," or just an incredibly bizarre mistake.  Thankfully, the toothpaste didn't leak onto the doll box.

I cautiously opened the box, and there was little Annie, grinning happily out at me:

My first thoughts were that her hair is a great reddish orange color and her freckles are underwhelming.

I also thought that her hair seemed much shorter than what I ordered:

I chose "high back" for the length, and I think I ended up with something in between shoulder and high back:

After my experience with Kidz 'n' Cats Evita, I wanted to avoid super-long hair.  Annie's hair length might have been perfect on one of the larger 23" My Twinn dolls, but in this smaller scale, it's not a lot of hair to play with. 

Annie has a very cute face, but I'm not 100% positive it's the face I ordered:

I have to appeal to those of you who know the My Twinn faces really well.  Annie looks like she has the same face as the larger My BFF doll I custom ordered, not the wider, thinner-lipped smile of the doll I chose from the website:

Or don't, no worries.

The faces don't look the same to me, even if I try to block out all of the superficial differences:

Here's the 23" My BFF doll I ordered, as a reminder:

I was actually thinking that I should have tried to order the smaller version of that My BFF face, so even if this is a mistake, I'm ok with the doll I got.  I am more troubled, in principle, by the fact that I contacted customer service about face selection, did what they said, found a face online and then even added bold text to avoid confusion...and I still (maybe?) got the wrong face.  Oh, well.  It's a cute face:

I took the white ribbon out of Annie's hair.  I think she looks better without the ribbon:

Now, let's take an up-close look at how the freckle pattern came out:

She has a lot of freckles, but the artisans seem to have just drawn in the larger spots from my diagram--not the smaller ones that I worked so hard to create:

I am not at all surprised by this.  My guess is that the artists have limitations on the number of freckles they're allowed to paint, or something like that.  It could be that on average, customers are more likely to be unhappy when they get a doll with too many freckles rather than one with not enough.  That's fine.  This doll essentially has the same freckle pattern as the My BFF doll I ordered with a few extra freckles on her forehead and chin.

After my initial let-down, I realized that this is a pretty heavy freckle pattern for a play doll, and I am happy with it.  I love her delicately painted red eyebrows, too:

Her right eye is set quite a bit lower than her left eye.

I chose green eyes for this doll because the green/brown color I picked for the My BFF doll was beautiful, but was more brown than I wanted.  Annie's eyes are green, but they're very dark and flat, and the green color isn't realistic:

This color is similar to Carpatina Erin's eyes, but they work better on Erin because her face is not trying to be realistic.  

I really wish that there were nice, big, clear pictures of the eye choices on the My Twinn site so that I knew exactly what I was ordering.  Eye quality is really important to me and I know that My Twinn has some gorgeous eyes--or at least they did in the larger scale.

The eyes are fixed in place--not sleep eyes.

Annie has upper and lower applied lashes.  They are thick and have the same dark maroon color as Kidz 'n' Cats Evita.  I think this color looks much more appropriate on a redheaded doll.  There is some messy glue reside on Annie's left eye:

I find all of the new 18" My Twinn clothing to be unimpressive.  It's not terrible, but I don't feel inspired by any of it.  For Annie, I chose a simple outfit with blue cotton leggings and a pink long sleeved tee shirt with a flower pattern:

The pink imitation leather flats are the best part of the outfit.  These are sturdy and nicely made and will go with a lot of different outfits that I already own:

Underneath her clothes, Annie has a pair of very plain white cotton underpants:

Her body is similar to the American Girl body in that it has elastic-strung full vinyl limbs attached to a canvas torso.  The elastic is black in these dolls, but the stringing mechanism is the same, with vinyl joint capsules sewn into the torso and elastic connecting opposite limbs to one another.

Unlike American Girl dolls, whose heads are attached with cotton string, Annie's head is attached with a plastic cable tie:

The thing is, in all significant ways, the 18" My Twinn body is exactly like the American Girl body.  Here's Annie with My American Girl #29, Keira:

Some elements of the My Twinn body are different, but it's a short list.  For example, Annie stands with her arms sticking out further away from her sides, and the space between her legs is wider.  

What surprised me is how many things about these two dolls are identical:

The arm molds are the same.  I put together this animated file so you can see the similarities--right down to the dimples in the back of the elbow joint:

The leg molds seem to be slightly different, and not in a way that serves My Twinn very well.  They look the same initially:

But if you examine this side-by-side picture, I think it's clear that the My Twinn legs are a bit thinner, and also slightly longer in the calf area.  Also (and you have to look really carefully for this), Annie's toes slant downwards a bit while Keira's are perfectly flat:

Annie's legs are further away from each other, which is (at least in my doll) partly because the right leg is not as fully seated into the joint as the left leg:

The toes are identical:

The reason I pointed out the differences in the legs in such gory detail is because Annie does not stand on her own very well.  Keira is rock solid on her feet, even when she's in a walking pose.  Annie is extremely difficult to balance, even when both of her feet are right underneath her body.  While Keira can stand up straight with no problem, Annie has to tilt forward in order to stay upright:

Her toes aren't even touching the ground.

Aside from Annie's balancing issues, the two doll pose in exactly the same way:

These two dolls also share clothes almost perfectly, although Annie's torso has a bit more stuffing, and so Keira's clothes are slightly tight on her.  These new My Twinn dolls will be able to share clothes with any doll that can share clothes with American Girl.

Annie in the American Girl "Sweet Spring" dress.

Annie's hair is a bright orange-red color and the fibers are very straight, smooth and silky.  The hair is like the straight shiny hair on a Karito Kid or on my American Girl.  It has a very slight synthetic squeakiness to it, but it feels great and is easy to manage.  Some of Annie's hairs were permanently kinked and had to be pulled out.  It's probably a good idea to treat this hair with extra care and not use rubber bands or plastic brushes.

The overall length I chose is limiting because of how short the hairs at the bottom of the wig are.  This area of hair doesn't have much movement.

The wig also sheds quite a lot.  This is from the first brush-through:

The hair has been shedding two or three strands every now and then pretty continuously.

Annie had some uneven areas in her haircut:

Those areas were very easy to trim and are now nice and even.

The My Twinn wigs are neat because they have a rooted portion at the top of the head that looks like a real scalp:

So, I can pull Annie's hair into two pigtails (although it's a little short for this hairstyle):

And the part at the top of her head looks very natural:

The part at the back of her head, however, does not look so natural:

The spacing between the rows of hair is very wide and there are no shorter strands of hair to conceal the wig cap.  Kidz 'n' Cats Evita has a much better wig in this regard.  Overall, I am a little bummed about the quality of the wig.  I hope the shedding stops and I wish the "bald" patches weren't so obvious.

I assume that if you order a My Twinn doll with pigtails, she will come with a wig that has a rooted back part.  I don't know this for a fact, though, and would love to hear if anyone has experience with this.  

One thing that struck me about Annie's hair is that the color of red is different from all of my other redheaded dolls.  Here's a cluster of hair strands from various other 18" dolls:

Girl for All Time Clementine, Carpatina Erin, Our Generation Kendra, My Twinn Annie.

My camera doesn't capture the exact colors perfectly, but you can see the differences.  Erin's hair is probably the most natural color, Kendra's color is the least natural, Clementine's hair is the prettiest, and Annie's is very orange--but believable.

Kendra, Annie, Erin.

Annie, Clementine.

I love Our Generation Kendra's outfit (I was using the shirt during my Evita review):

She's a cutie for $18.99:

These two have similar bodies and will be able to share clothes nicely.  Again, all of the Our Generation clothes are just a little tight on Annie's wider torso.

I like Kendra, and I actually prefer her clothes to the ones that came with Annie.  However, seeing these two dolls together makes it clear what the higher price ($100) of a My Twinn is buying.  I think Annie's hand-painted face has a ton of character and realism when compared to Kendra.  

Annie in Kendra's outfit:

While I haven't reviewed a Journey Girl doll yet, I do have one of the outfits, and it fits Annie perfectly.  Again, I find this clothing more impressive than the new 18" My Twinn clothing.

I like Annie with her hair pulled back from her face like this (in a Journey Girl shirt):

I thought Annie would look cute in glasses, but Keira's American Girl glasses actually don't fit her.  They don't slide over her ears, but end up getting caught crookedly in her wig:

 Our Generation glasses have the same problem:

If you look at Keira's wig, you can see that there's a very slight space between the back of the ear and the edge of the wig.  Annie does not have this space, and so there's nowhere for the glasses to perch:

In fact, Annie's wig seems just a bit too big for her.  There's no room for the glasses on either side of her head, and a small flap of extra wig cap fabric actually sticks out over her ear on the right side:

At this point, I decided that, while I like Annie's freckles, it would be really easy to add in a few more smaller freckles with a brown watercolor pencil.  This took about three minutes and I can wash the added dots off if I change my mind before too much time passes.

This is more how I imagined Annie:

Here she is back in the Journey Girl outfit:

The old freckle pattern is on the left, the new one is on the right.  There's not a huge difference, but the small change makes her look slightly more realistic to me:

Here's Annie with my 23" My Twinn Adopt a Friend doll, Hazel:

Hazel moves so nicely that Annie's tendency to stand tilted forward with her arms splayed apart is glaring in comparison.

Hazels' eye color and hair color are much more realistic than Annie's.  I also like Hazel's skin tone better.  Annie can look a little too pale some of the time.  I think the 23" My Twinn dolls have freakishly long arms, but the articulation offered by their internal armature is great.  I wish that this feature had been included in the 18" dolls.

I took Annie and Hazel on an outing to a nearby pond so that you can see their features in natural light.  Annie almost face-planted into the mud on several occasions, but I did manage to get her balanced for a few quick shots.  She is wearing her own tee shirt, the Journey Girl coat and leggings, and American Girl boots:

Her eyes are prettier and less flat outside when they catch the light:

Hazel's photogenic face, realistic green eyes and delicate eyelashes kept stealing my attention away from Annie.  With the discontinuation of these larger 23" dolls, I find myself more interested in  purchasing an older My Twinn doll from eBay than customizing another 18" doll.

But Annie has a spirited personality and a wonderfully lively face:

Both dolls were very fun to photograph.  They seem like sisters to me, with a family resemblance that is clear.  Annie is bright and full of spunk, while Hazel is older and more serene.

Bottom line?  Annie didn't quite match my expectations, but I don't want to send her back.  Specifically, I wish that her hair had been a little longer and that the wig was thicker, more versatile, and didn't shed so much.  I also imagined that Annie's eyes would have the same realism and depth as other My Twinn eyes I have seen.  I like Annie's cute hand-painted face and abundant freckles, and I love the fiery orange color of her silky hair.  I feel like the perfect combination of My Twinn features probably exists, but I wish that the website had presented the options more clearly so that I could get my dream doll on the first (or second) try.  

The bigger question here is how successfully My Twinn has engineered their entry into the 18" play doll market.  What My Twinn has offered to collectors over the last decade or so is a realistic, customizable doll with beautiful eyes, several distinct face molds, and a large articulated body with a unique internal armature.  My Twinn's shortcomings, in my limited experience, have been a strangely-proportioned body and some inaccuracies in the customization process.  It seems to me that the decision to branch out into a new scale gave the company a valuable opportunity to re-design the dolls in a way that captured their special qualities and reduced their flaws.  I had hoped that the 18" My Twinn dolls would have the internal armature of their 23" predecessors while switching to the more practical dimensions of an 18" play doll.  This would have been an exciting new addition to the market--basically offering a Kidz 'n' Cats level of articulation in the standard 18" scale.  Instead, My Twinn simply took some of their beloved face molds and put them on an American Girl body.  Literally.  I don't know exactly how these things work, but it always strikes me as odd when I see features being directly copied in the doll world.  My first thought was that Mattel must have purchased My Twinn (which wouldn't surprise me...), but My Twinn clearly states on their website that they are completely unaffiliated with American Girl.  The upside for collectors is that the American Girl face repertoire has essentially just been expanded.  This could be good news for collectors who already have one of each American Girl face and are looking for some new personalities.

So, My Twinn has become yet another version of the American Girl archetype.  What, then, are the biggest differences between these two lines?  The biggest marketing difference is probably that My Twinn does not have the club mentality or the popularity of American Girl.  It's unclear to me whether or not the new My Twinn dolls will be accepted into the American Girl club.  I suspect that loyalists will stay largely true to their brand, and I wouldn't blame American Girl fans for being turned off by My Twinn's blatant copying of the body mold.  Another big difference is the purchasing experience.  American Girl offers an overwhelming in-store extravaganza of choices.  There's the compelling option of the historical characters with their richly-detailed backgrounds, and also the modern My American Girls with their wonderland of accessories.  My Twinn offers the fun of thinking about and designing a doll, and then waiting and dreaming about her arrival, wondering what her unique hand-painted features will look like in real life.  Despite the uncertainty of this process, the end result will be a doll that isn't exactly like any other doll in the world.  The last difference is that American Girl and My Twinn have very different face styles, and many people will simply find one style more appealing than the other.

The challenge for me with these new dolls is seeing past what could have been.  I think My Twinn had the ingredients to make a truly exceptional new doll line.  These 18" girls could have been uniquely articulated, well-proportioned dolls with realistic, one-of-a-kind custom faces and gorgeous eyes.  They aren't.  They are, however, an interesting expansion of the American Girl idea, offering a wide range of new, realistic faces that can seamlessly share American Girl's superior clothing and accessories.  I also have to look past what could have been with my Annie.  I want to go back in time and order longer hair, a different eye color and maybe a darker skin tone.  If I put all of these "what ifs" aside, though, I find that Annie herself is not a disappointment.  She has a wonderful, impish face and an unanticipated, spirited personality that is rapidly eclipsing my unmet expectations.