W.I.T.C.H. Dolls "Taranee" and "Will" by Giochi Preziosi--A Joint Review!

My next guest reviewer, Emma, emailed me over a year ago to ask if I had ever considered reviewing any of the large range of dolls made by Giochi Preziosi.  I didn't know much about this Italian toy-making giant at the time, so I thought it was an excellent idea--and a great learning opportunity.  Emma recommended several of the Giochi Preziosi doll lines, including the Winx Club dolls, the Sailor Moon series, and (most enthusiastically) the girls from the W.I.T.C.H. comic books.  I took Emma's advice and ordered several of these dolls for review.  I messed up with the first doll I ordered, though.  I ordered a Winx Bloom doll with a Giochi Preziosi label, but learned that I had actually chosen a Witty Toys Boom doll that is merely distributed by Giochi Preziosi.

Six months later, I am trying again--this time with the invaluable help of Emma herself.  This review will focus on the 13" Giochi Preziosi W.I.T.C.H. dolls.  Emma is a huge fan of the W.I.T.C.H. comic book series, and so she is the perfect person to introduce this line.  Emma will share her new "Taranee" doll, and then I will end the review by showing you my redheaded W.I.T.C.H. character, "Will."  It has been fascinating for me to learn more about the magical world of these Witches, and I owe this experience to Emma's persistence, patience, and enthusiasm.  Many thanks, Emma!  This review never would have happened without you.

W.I.T.C.H. doll "Will" by Giochi Preziosi.

Hello everybody! My name's Emma and I've been reading this blog almost since the very beginning. Ever since then, I've wanted to do a review on my favorite dolls.  Thanks to Emily, I finally got my chance! 

The doll I'll be reviewing today is Taranee from the W.I.T.C.H. comic book series.  Taranee is made by the Italian doll company, Giochi Preziosi. For a little back story on W.I.T.C.H., it is my ultimate favorite magical girl story about 5 girls named Will, Irma, Taranee, Cornelia and Hay Lin.  These girls are given power over the elements and the task of being the Guardians of the Veil. They protect the worlds of the universe from the evil prince Phobos on the alien world of Meridian. Along with being a long-running comic that started in 2003 and ended just a year or so ago, it's been made into a TV show that aired on Disney's Jetix channel back in 2005. It's extremely popular in its home country of Italy, but in the USA it's never gotten much recognition beyond the TV show, some McDonald's toys, and Disney Store dolls to go along with the TV series' 2005 release. I discovered the series myself that fateful date at McDonald's years ago, and my curiosity grew when I discovered the books at my local library soon after. Years later, I'm still a complete die hard W.I.T.C.H. fan and I am also an artist because the beautifully drawn comics inspired me to start drawing. So...you could say I owe a lot to this series. 

If anyone is interested after reading this review, the entire comic series is available here.

And the entire two-season TV series is available on YouTube.

But enough about me! You came here to read a doll review. So here we go. This is Taranee, the Guardian of Fire. She's my favorite character for her bravery, the way she cares for her friends, and the fact that she loves school!

Like Emily, I love deciphering or translating the words on doll boxes:

 

On the pink stripe: "Press for 5 seconds"

Inner purple stripe: "Changes Color!"

I couldn't get a shot of all the words in the last picture, so here's a close-up:

Green circle: "Lights up and changes color also symbolizes the body of Witch!"

That's supposed to mean that the symbol on her chest is the symbol for her power, a triangle to represent fire. I'll have better pictures of that later in the review. 

White text: "Magic Pendant!" I love how everything has an exclamation point at the end. 

Here's Taranee's pretty face. It came pushed to the side like that.

Don't worry, that's just dust from being in the box for almost 10 years.

Try Me!

This is the Heart of Candracar (spelled "Kandrakar" everywhere outside the U.S.), which is the pendant that gives the girls their powers and the ability to transform (all of the W.I.T.C.H. girls can transform into a different form that has wings).  I totally didn't buy this doll just so I could wear this thing around in public. *cough* 

More text to translate!

Interactive!  Magic Kandrakar!  Exclamation points!

Here's the W.I.T.C.H. logo itself. It's an acronym for all of the girls' names, next to their symbol of power:

I bet the girls are all named this way just to get this acronym.

Along the bottom of the box it shows each of the girls from the comic in the color of their element.

And here's a picture of the whole team as they look regularly:

I like how this looks like a friendship snapshot they took themselves.

And the cute little Giochi Preziosi logo on the bottom corner:

Here's the full back of the box description in multiple languages. English is the second after Italian:

I can recognize French, German and Spanish on the back too, but the last two are a mystery. One looks like Russian, but I don't think it is.  *Update: the last two languages are Greek and Portuguese (thank you, Holly!).

Back to the doll herself! This is a side view of the box showing some cool looking wings furled up inside.

I can't wait to see those out of the box.

Here's the mini doll-sized Heart of Candracar.

I also didn't totally buy this doll so my Will could have her own little Heart *cough*

After some examination on how to open the box, I found this little thing sticking out and sat there like an idiot trying to figure out what it was.

But then I found out it was just a little plastic tab that came out when I pulled the rest of the tabs to release Taranee.

The top opens easily by just pulling it out, it doesn't have any tape that refuses to come off.

Here's Taranee with the plastic cover removed from the cardboard backing.

The wings look pretty with a purple outline and sparkles scattered throughout.

There are a few tabs to cut off and a single wire holding her waist.

It was at this point that I discovered the wings were just a box decoration and not some kind of extra awesome toy.

Well poop.

Two small wires were keeping Taranee's purple high tops attached.

The little "W" on the top of each shoe is a nice touch.

Here's the background of the box after Taranee's been completely removed. It's the same picture on the outside but more muted and with swirling pink.

The first thing I dove into was the Heart of Candracar, but since the instructions were completely in Italian and I didn't want to bother translating the whole little booklet, I left the thing alone.  Those wires are intimidating.

What if I break the wires and it stops glowing? What then?!
AGHGGHHH!

Don't worry, I'll get back to this later, it's totally the best part of this doll's accessories. It sure is pretty, too:

The little kid in me is screaming at finally owning this thing.

Next was Taranee herself. She was suffering from a serious case of smooshed box hair when I first pulled her out.

You can fix this, right?

On her back she has glittery blue and green laminated wings that attach with velcro to the back of her top.

The doll-sized Heart of Candracar is tied on the back and sewn onto her shirt in the front. I was able to untie the back and pull it through the sewn loop to get it off, but I can see so many little girls accidentally cutting the doll's shirt in half or ripping it to try and get the necklace off.

Silly Giochi Preziosi, there's no way that thing's staying on the doll even if you sew it on.

The tights have a vibrant blue and green striped look showing the Halloween Witch inspiration in the outfit's design.

These tights make me want to let out a witch's cackle.

Then we have Taranee's awesome purple high tops, showing off a little of Taranee's sporty personality.

Moving on to Taranee's odd hair, besides the purple tendrils and tinsel everywhere, Taranee's got purple flocking covering the rest of her head.

This is very scratchy.

It's an odd choice of hair material, but I think it's the best option for looking the most like her original style. Unlike the old Disney Store version.

Here's a close-up of Taranee's pretty eye design. I love her cartoon eye shape along with the purple eyebrows and dark colored lips with their coating of glitter.

Here's the doll sized Heart freed from Taranee's shirt.

And here's the shirt itself. It's a mulberry color with swirl designs on the neck like her comic design, but coated in a fine layer of glitter that reminds me of the special kind of glittery sprinkles you see on cupcakes.

Now I'm getting hungry looking at this thing.

The sleeves are slightly pointed and the fabric goes down further in the back.

Next is Taranee's diaper *cough* short-shorts with the same cupcake glitter. Good thing she's wearing tights I guess, because those would ride up all the time during the intense battles haha.

Not battle-ready.

Here's Taranee's body. It's pretty much exactly the same height and size of a Barbie but with tiny differences. Her head just makes her look bigger overall.

She's got 6 points of articulation including her head, shoulders, hips, legs and her knees are clickable like Barbie, too. I would've taken a comparison shot but I forgot at the time of this photo shoot to bring some other dolls along for comparison shots. Sorry 'bout that. 

Taranee's hands have a cute basic shape on her palm:

And little fingernails on the top of her hand.

Here's the battery compartment on her back so her chest symbol can light up (more on that later).

Underneath the tights she has a low strip of purple paint for underwear. I think it's oddly unnecessary since she has tights and short shorts on already.

That paint's not fooling anyone.

With her tights removed, her legs have permanent yellowish stains on them. I suppose they're yellow because Taranee's been in her box for a while, but if there was going to be staining I'd expect it to be green or blue from the dye in the clothing instead.

Now are you ready for the best part of Taranee's weird body shape?

Pffffffffftttttttt....

That's Taranee's tiny foot compared to her massive shoe. The shoes work like My Scene shoes in that the feet are regular Barbie-size and the shoes are big. Seriously though, these things are HUGE and they add about an inch to Taranee's height when she's wearing them. Sadly she couldn't share shoes with Barbie, but My Scene shoes fit W.I.T.C.H. dolls perfectly! 

Next up, I want to show you my other W.I.T.C.H. dolls that I got back in 2011. They all came used, but I've fixed them all up to the best of my ability. The Taranee I've reviewed is actually my second Taranee doll, but I still wanted to buy her because I wanted to see her glowing Heart of Candracar action, Hay Lin needed to steal her wings after being wingless for years, and Will needed her own Heart of Candracar.

First here's my original Taranee who is wearing the glasses I stole off of another doll to make her more accurate.

Weird that the doll doesn't originally come with glasses like the comic character.

Next We have Irma, the "I" in W.I.T.C.H. and Guardian of Water. She's the jokester of the group and always has to be the first to get a wisecrack in during a fight against monsters.

Next is Cornelia, the "C" in W.I.T.C.H. and Guardian of Earth. She's the pretty blonde girl who always wants to go shopping and is bossy to everyone, but she's still a caring person and can be hurt easily.

Then there's Hay Lin, the "H" in W.I.T.C.H. and Guardian of Air. She's the artsy one of the group and the one who came up with the name W.I.T.C.H. in the first place. She and her grandma (who introduced their powers to them) always have some oriental wisdom to pass on to the others whenever the Guardians are in a tight spot.

My Hay Lin's hair has, uh, seen better days though:

I seriously can't get a brush through this mess.

No worries though, I'll re-root her one of these days. 

Lastly we have Will, the "W" in W.I.T.C.H. and Keeper of the Heart of Candracar. Her powers are the 5th element of Quintessence or life-giving substance. She's the feisty redhead leader of the group and can get fired-up easily in battle or just by everyday annoyances.

The Heart rightfully belongs to her, so Taranee was willing to hand it over.

I think this belongs to you.

At this point I decided to pull the bigger Heart of Candracar out again and try to get it to work. Turns out that the wires attached to it were just for the "try me" feature. I sat there for a while figuring this out, and eventually concluded that the ends just need to come together to complete the circuit (duh). It does indeed light up, but you can't really see it in broad daylight.

Barely visible in this picture, but it switches from red to green to blue
 and then it repeats.

There's a little "W" for W.I.T.C.H. symbol on it where you turn on the Heart's glowing feature then stick it onto Taranee's chest symbol.

I have a video I took of the glowing chest symbol too. It's kind of weird looking for her to have a glowing symbol on her chest, but I also think it looks cool because it sort of represents an "inner fire" within her.

Bottom line? Taranee's an odd doll for people unfamiliar with W.I.T.C.H.'s story. Even amongst W.I.T.C.H. fans, Taranee in particular is the least favorite because of her purple spider hair. I think her great personality in the comics makes up for her odd appearance. As a stand-alone doll, she wouldn't be that great for play because of her tiny feet, odd hair, and extra large head, but she can definitely share clothes with Barbie. Even if you don't like Taranee, there's still Will, Irma, Cornelia and Hay Lin to choose from, and all 5 are also available in different clothing, in a 13 inch doll size, and in a mini 7 inch size. The dolls are usually available online from European countries only, and the shipping added to their already expensive price makes them only worth it if you love the character. At least with my newer Taranee doll, my personal collection is finally complete, and I got to share her with everyone on Emily's blog. This is my very first doll review, so if I left anything out or if you have questions let me know. Thanks for reading, everyone!

Back to you Emily. ;)

Thank you, Emma!  It's great to see your full set of all five dolls!  My Will is from a different series, but she is also one of the larger 13" dolls.  There's not a lot of information about her out there on the internet, but I think she is "Trendy" Will from 2004:

Will came in a plastic box with a cardboard back:

The back of her box has a pink and purple swirled design with a lined drawing of Will's head.  There's a small text section repeated in several languages, and this describes how the larger Witch dolls have finally arrived, and that they come wearing trendy fashions.  Apparently, alternate versions of the dolls were also available in their transformed Witch outfits.  Emma's dolls are all wearing their special Witch outfits, but I am not sure if they're the exact counterparts mentioned on my doll's box.

There's a bright cartoon graphic that wraps around the lower corner of the box.  This shows Will holding the Heart of Kandrakar:

The bottom of the box has the title graphic with the names of all of the dolls--just like on Taranee's box:

Here's Will out of her box:

She stands very nicely on her own with those thick, red boots.

I chose this particular character for a few reasons. First of all, she's a redhead and has a wonderful bobbed hairstyle.  Second, she was the easiest doll in the series to find (a bit like Winx Bloom, maybe?) and third, as Emma said, she is the leader of the W.I.T.C.H. group.

This version of Will is wearing an interesting combination of modern clothes.  She has a very short jean skirt, a white graphic tank top, and an olive green (military-inspired?) jacket:

The jacket is the most elaborate piece of clothing in the mix.  It has an imitation leather body, stretch knit sleeves, and buckled details along the arms and on the shoulders:

The jacket doesn't close in front, but it has tiny silver beaded trim on either side that makes it look like there's a zipper:

The details in the jacket are wonderful, and the construction seems solid.  I love the upright collar and the tiny gold epaulettes on the shoulders:

Underneath the jacket, Will is wearing a plain white knit tank top with a small logo:

I love the little frog on this shirt:

Will's bright red boots dominate the lower half of her outfit:

The boots have a molded stitching pattern, and a few areas with a darker red color to provide some contrast:

The boots have long slits up the back and are very easy to get on and off.

I took these photographs before I read Emma's review, and so I had my own moment of shock when I saw how tiny Will's feet are in comparison to her shoes!

Wha--??

Without the boots, this doll has no hope of standing on her own.  Her feet are not just tiny, but also quite rubbery and bendable.  She really needs those huge shoes.

Her feet look the same size as Barbie feet, but Barbie shoes are too big.  They slip on nicely...but slip off a little too easily:

Will's last item of clothing is a jean mini skirt with a shiny red belt:

The skirt has a faded, dirty wash, and is accented with red stitching.  It has a small slit on the left side, which makes it easier for Will to sit down while she's dressed:

Will has a large head with a cartoon-like face featuring huge, slanted doe eyes:

I think this face resembles the TV series version of Will slightly more than the comic version.  You can see the comic version here, and I've grabbed some screenshots of the TV version to show you here:

With Taranee.

But she also reminds me of Disney Ariel and Winx Club Bloom:

Will's bright red hair is silky and smooth and is nicely rooted.  It has no apparent styling product and only minor trouble with flyaways.  With her hair pulled back, you can see Will's oval head shape and cute pixie-nosed profile:

Her eyes are very stylized, with a lot of shading and reflective detail in the irises:

Will's body reminded me immediately of my Bleeding Edge Goth doll, Leda Swanson.  These two both have large heads, tiny feet, and a very severe shoulder-to-hip angle. They also have similar styles of articulation, with bendy but unarticulated arms, rotating waist joints, and internal click knees:

BEGoth Leda Swanson, W.I.T.C.H. Will.

 Leda's dress fits Will perfectly:

Beautiful!

And while I didn't get a picture, Will's clothes fit Leda, too (including the shoes), although Leda is larger in the chest and so the tops are pretty tight.  Leda's shoes are ridiculously tight (even on Leda...) and I couldn't get them on Will.

Here's Will with a Fashionista Barbie and a Disney Store doll (Mother Gothel):

Fashionista Barbie, Will, Mother Gothel Disney Store doll.

Mother Gothel fits nicely into Will's clothes, but Disney Store clothes are too tight for Will and can't fasten in back:

Ok, so at this point in my photo shoot, I had taken pictures of Will alongside all of my other dolls, and had done the clothes-sharing shots with Leda Swanson and Mother Gothel.  I had to go somewhere, so I set Will on my table (undressed...not close to anything) and left the house for the afternoon.  When I returned several hours later, her legs looked like this:

No joke.

They're horribly stained.  Almost like someone had taken a ball point pen to her legs and just gone to town.  I have never seen anything like this before.  I mean, I have seen stained legs before--especially these rubbery legs with internal knee joints.  They're the worst.  But I have never seen legs go from fine to bad in such a short time....while nothing was touching them.  My only explanation (and I have scratched my head for a while on this...) is that the pitch black bodice of Leda's dress did this as it briefly passed over her legs.  I am more inclined to blame BEGoth here if that's what happened, since Leda herself is also horribly stained, and none of the other doll clothes that I tried on Will made her legs any worse.  Still...I'd bet that hard plastic or hard vinyl wouldn't have stained under these circumstances.

Beautiful...but deadly.

Will is quite a bit slimmer in the waist than Barbie, but these two can still share clothes pretty well.  

Will's giant boots almost fit Barbie, but she can't quite get her heels all of the way into the shoes:

The rest of the outfit is great on her:

And here's Will wearing Barbie's mini dress:

Will is a bit shorter than most of my other dolls in this scale (as Emma said...mostly because of her head) so I also wanted to see her next to Yana (since Zeenie Dollz are also a bit tall).  And of course I always like to add Liv into the comparisons, too:

Zeenie and Will can share clothes with some small imperfections:

The shorts are loose around the waist and the shirt is a little tight.

And Will's clothes are fine on Evee, the skirt just rides up a bit in back:

It's a similar story with Will and Liv Hayden: Will's clothes are great on Hayden, but the Liv dress is slightly tight on Will.

As Emma mentioned, the 13" W.I.T.C.H. doll body has eight points of articulation.  The elbows are not articulated, but the arms are made out of a flexible vinyl, and so they can bend a little.

The shoulders have hinges that can also rotate, but the movement in these joints is stiff, and the arms are difficult to manipulate--especially when the doll is fully dressed.  The torso joint has nice rotational movement and adds a lot of fun poses:

Will can't move her legs from side-to-side at all, but she can do the front-to-back splits:

The internal knee joints aren't great.  They don't move much, and the rubbery material of the leg makes the doll floppy and incapable of standing on her own.  And of course this material stains if you look at it funny...apparently.

The bendable knees do allow Will to sit on the floor and in a chair, though:

Here are a few more pictures of Will back in her original outfit:

Bottom line?  I can see why Emma suggested that I investigate some of the Giochi Preziosi dolls.  If Will's construction is typical, there's a nice standard of quality in this company.  

Will's facial style is unusual, but her cartoon features have a nice touch of realism and are very well painted.  These things come together to give Will a sweet, charismatic countenance.  Her face is framed by lovely, bright red hair that feels good, is easy to manage, and looks cute and modern.

Will's outfit is great--particularly her military-style jacket and huge, substantial boots.  The jacket is nicely stitched and has some stylish buckled details.  This jacket looked great on every doll who wore it--and it fit almost every doll I tried it on.  The boots are insanely big next to Will's feet, but they're easy to put on and they allow the doll to stand solidly on her own.  They also add a nice splash of color to the outfit.  The denim skirt is a little skimpy and the knit tank top is plain, but the other elements of the outfit balance this adequately.

My biggest complaint with Will is her body style.  Her proportions are odd, with a large head and tiny feet, but I could easily get past this if her articulation was better.  She has stiff shoulder joints, no elbow joints, and flimsy, rubber legs with internal knee joints (not my favorite).  Not only that, but her legs were bizarrely prone to stains from one of the dresses I tried on her.  This could be more the fault of the dress than the doll, but I am still left with a very badly stained doll that will be difficult or impossible to fix.

I agree with Emma's assessment that some of the characters and accessories in the W.I.T.C.H. franchise might not be very appealing to those who are unfamiliar with the comic books or the television show.  However, I had very little knowledge of the W.I.T.C.H. story when I purchased Will, and I find her to be quite an appealing doll.  She actually makes me even more interested in watching the television show and reading the books.  It helps that this particular doll has fairly normal hair (just a little on the bright side...) and a versatile, modern-day outfit.  I can picture kids embracing Will as a regular play doll, but I suspect that her appeal is greatly increased if she's an extension of the magical world that has been built through the W.I.T.C.H. storylines.