Mooshka "Fairy Tales" Mini Doll by MGA Entertainment

I have admired the Mooshka cloth dolls ever since I first saw them at Target last summer.  They have a wholesome, sweet appearance that sets them apart from most of the other dolls found at big-box stores.  Mooshka dolls would fit nicely in a smaller, locally owned toy shop.  Surprisingly, these cloth girls are credited to the toy goliath, MGA Entertainment--through their partnership with Zapf Creation.

I always stop to check in on the Mooshka dolls when I am at Target, and during my last visit I was delighted to see a few newcomers to the collection.  The new wave of dolls is called Fairy Tales (a common theme these days...) and features four of the larger cloth girls (Ina, Casia, Sonia and Palia) dressed up in princess, fairy, or mermaid outfits.  The Fairy Tales collection also includes six mini figures, and these are the dolls that I found the most tempting.  The mini dolls have a lot of features in common with Lalaloopsy minis, but they are not made out of bright plastic.  In fact, at first glance, I assumed they were made out of wood.  Also, each mini Mooshka doll has a piece of her wardrobe that is made out of fabric.  At $7.99 each, I couldn't resist buying a few of these newcomers to see what they look like up close.

Here's Fairy Tales Ina and her owl companion:

Mooshka Fairy Tales mini doll, "Ina."

There's no official information about these mini dolls online at this point, so I've had to do some guessing in this review.  I will be sure to update the post with corrections as I learn more.

The Fairy Tales mini dolls are 3.5 inches tall and come in bright, colorful cardboard window boxes.  The boxes have castle-themed decorations:

All of the mini dolls come with a little pet.  Fairy Ina has a cute pink owl with a bell around her neck.  I wish the pets had names, because I enjoy the unusual names of the Mooshka dolls.

The front of the box advertises a free eBook, but I haven't taken advantage of this offer yet.

These Mooshka boxes strongly remind me of Lottie doll boxes

The back of Fairy Ina's box has a large drawing of her face and a very short description of this character's creative, artistic personality: 

The other mini dolls in the series are Palia, Casia, Sonia, Taria and Jaya.  These girls are drawn along the bottom edge of the box:

The bottom of the box credits the Mooshka trademark to MGA Entertainment, but also lists Zapf Creation.  I was happy to see this association.  I don't love all of MGA's products (and they tend to have bad packaging), but Zapf is a company that has made some beautiful dolls over the years, so I tend to pay attention to what they're up to.  They made the Little Princess Cinderella doll that I love.

The side of the box explains the premise of the series: the Mooshka girls are throwing a party and inviting their fairy tale friends:

This doesn't make perfect sense to me. It seems like the Mooshka girls are, themselves, dressed up to look like princesses, fairies and mermaids.  Who, exactly are they inviting to the party, then?  Probably the eBook would explain this more clearly to me.

Before I de-box Ina, let me show you the other Mooshka mini I bought: the mermaid Sonia:

Sonia enjoys throwing parties, so she's probably the one responsible for this fairy tale bash:

Sonia is really cute, with bright pink hair and blue-grey eyes.  She does not have a very fancy piece of fabric clothing, but she has a solid fish tail:

My Sonia is missing an eyelash on her left eye:

These dolls usually have two lashes on each side.

Sonia's pet is my favorite of the whole group--a tiny smiling seahorse!  I am very fond of seahorses, and MGA makes really cute ones.

Best mini pet ever.

I won't de-box Sonia in this review.  

Opening Ina's box looked like it would be as simple as pulling a plastic insert out of a cardboard sleeve:

It was pretty simple, but all of the edges of the cardboard box were glued closed, so I had to rip open one edge in order the slide the plastic out.

Ina and her owl are tied to the plastic backing with small clear plastic twist ties.  I don't think I've ever seen these in doll packaging before:

The ties are all taped down to the plastic, but once the tape is removed, they can very easily be cut with regular scissors.

Here's Ina with her owl:

The first thing I noticed about Ina is that she's not made out of wood.  Her arms and legs are a hard material (vinyl?) with flecks of color in it.  These parts of the doll remind me of recycled composite.  They also remind me of Rochelle Goyle's granite-colored body.  The head and torso are hard and smooth and definitely feel like wood, but appear to be resin of some kind.

The owl is solid and made out of the same flecked material as Ina's arms and legs.  I love her slightly tilted head with its two little tufts of feathers:

Apparently, she's number 2:

She has a little purple collar with a gold molded bell on it.  

Here's a close-up of the colored flecks:

Ina comes wearing thick pink wings made out of a slightly flexible vinyl:

The wings don't have any flecks of color--they're solid pink.

The wings dramatically restrict Ina's head movement, and make it hard for her to sit, so the first thing I did is pull the wings off:

This allowed me to get a peek at the inside of Ina's torso, which I hoped would reveal what material she is made out of:

She's a uniform brown color inside.

I'm still not positive what that brown material is, but I did notice some dried glue in the wing hole, suggesting that the wings might not be intended for removal. 

Oops.

It's easy to put the wings back on, though, and they even stay in place well, so I guess it's possible that they are meant to be removed.  

The vinyl wings seem a little out of place on Ina since they do not have a natural look or feel at all.  I think lightweight, gauzy fabric wings would have been a better fit for this little doll.

Ina must be doll number 2.

Ina's head has rotational movement, and her face has a hand-painted look with simple features.  

Her irises are silver grey with green lines, giving them a teal green look from a distance.  The edges of her eyes are defined by single light brown lines.  She has both of her painted upper lashes on each side.

Ina has a rosebud mouth and a small pink jellybean nose.  Her cheeks are lightly blushed:

Ina's hair is made out of a separate piece of yellow plastic (or whatever it is).  The hair is decorated with gold zig-zags and a stamped tiara pattern.  The tiara is a little crooked--perhaps on purpose to give the doll a handmade look...or perhaps because it was actually applied by hand:

Many things about Ina, like the material she's made out of and the painted details of her body, are clearly meant to evoke a vintage, handmade wooden doll.  I don't know which (if any) parts of her are actually manufactured by hand.  I am hoping that the Mooshka website will update with some of this information.

Ina has two little plastic bowling pin-shaped pigtails that are inserted into either side of her head:

Ina's arms can move back and forth.  She has very simple mitten hands.

The shoulder area of her arm has a painted purple cap sleeve. The pink and purple striped top of her dress is painted onto her body:

 Ina is wearing a separate, three-layered tulle fairy skirt:

The skirt has thin lilac tulle on top, a coarser dark blue tulle layer in the middle, and glittery pink tulle underneath:

The skirt is sewn to Ina's body with thread that is strung through two small holes.

Ina's legs have simple, independent pendulum articulation and can swing forwards.  They are not loose like Lalaloopsy mini doll legs, but rather have stiff joints that can hold a pose.

She has little nubbin feet with painted slippers:

MGA Entertainment makes Lalaloopsy dolls, and there are many parallels between Lalaloopsy and Mooshka.  Lalaloopsy dolls are meant to be cloth dolls (but are actually plastic) that come to life with the placement of magical stitches.  Mooshka dolls are described as paper dolls (but are actually cloth) that come to life through the power of friendship.

The mini Mooshka dolls and the mini Lalaloopsy dolls are quite similar.  However, the cloth Mooshka dolls do not look as much like the full-sized Lalaloopsy plastic dolls.  I bought the first cloth Mooshka Ina a while ago, and have been meaning to review her.  The poor thing is still in her box:

I won't de-box this doll now, but I slid the plastic sleeve away from the box so that you can see her without the glare, and so that I can quickly compare her to Fairy Ina:

She comes with real paper dolls and a little finger puppet.

This Ina has blue side-glancing eyes:

Ina is my favorite Mooshka doll because I love her creative personality and her paint-themed dress:

Big Ina comes with a bag that Fairy Ina can fit right into:

It's neat how similar the two dolls look, even with one made out of cloth and the other made out of hard materials.

The pink thread that holds Ina's skirt in place can be seen in the ribbon trim at the top of the skirt.

Even though I was fairly sure that this thread was not meant to be cut, I snipped it to see what would happen.  The skirt slides off very easily:

Underneath, Ina has a cute little painted body...with two holes in it:

I'm actually glad I removed the skirt, because it's easier to see the design of Ina's body this way, and to appreciate her range of motion.

The skirt slides back on easily, but it doesn't stay in place as nicely as it did when it was stitched.  It tends to ride up onto Ina's chest, and the pink ribbon waistline gets folded and twisted very easily.

These mini dolls are 3.5 inches tall, which makes them shorter than Lala-Oopsie ponies:

And bigger than Lalaloopsy mini dolls:

Here's a comparison shot with a Calico Critter adult, the Disney Store China Girl mini, and a Cabbage Patch mini doll:

Ina is a small doll, but she's larger than some of the other minis out there.

Here are a few more pictures of Ina:

Bottom line?  I find Ina very charming.  She has a sweet face and a wholesome theme.  While I'm not exactly sure what she's made out of (perhaps resin and vinyl?), she looks and feels like a hand-painted wooden doll.  She comes in an attractive package and has an adorable animal companion.  Her $7.99 price tag is a little steep for such a small figure, but this doll feels like she's higher quality than many similarly-priced miniatures.  I can see the Fairy Tales line of mini dolls being quite popular, and inspiring some wonderful, imaginative fairyland games.

There are a few things about Ina that might make her difficult to play with.  She cannot stand on her own with her skinny legs and nubbin feet, however her stiff leg joints make her much easier to pose than a Lalaloopsy mini.  The vinyl wings seem like they were meant to be permanent, but unless they're pulled off (which is pretty easy to do), Ina's head can barely move and it's hard for her to sit.  Last, the clothing on this doll is stitched into holes in the hard body.  The thread can be cut and the skirt removed, but I am not positive that this was the intent.  I think mixing and matching skirts between the various mini dolls in this series would be fun, but the clothing isn't clearly designed for this purpose.

There is a lot of repetitiveness between the Lalaloopsy line and the Mooshka line.  The dolls have very similar magical coming-to-life stories, and there's a physical resemblance between the two brands--especially in the mini dolls.  It's almost as if the Mooshka line is a re-make of the Lalaloopsy line...using materials that seem more natural.  Given that my biggest complaint about Lalaloopsy is how hard and plastic the dolls are, it's probably no surprise that I really like the look and feel of the Mooshka line.  I appreciate the soft, huggability of the larger dolls, and I enjoy the muted colors and natural feel of the minis...even though I have no idea how natural they actually are.  Overall, I think Zapf Creation did a wonderful job of re-imagining the Lalaloopsy idea into a sweet little mini doll with a vintage, handmade feel.