Tween Scene Kimani and Valencia by The One World Doll Project

I can't believe October is half over.  How did that happen?  In my house, that means a massive increase in activity leading up to the early college application deadline.  It's nuts.  It also means that we're getting closer to the holiday shopping season, which always signals some exciting new doll arrivals.  This is a good time to thank everyone who has sent me Photo Mission contributions so far.  I apologize for my even-slower-than-normal email responses, but I'm getting photos and they are fantastic.  I'd love to get even more!  I'll probably share this mission soon, after I gather a few of my own shots of the new goodies showing up here in Maine.

One of the new things I found very recently at Walmart is the 15.5-inch Tween Scene line by The One World Doll Project.  When I reviewed the Prettie Girls back in April, several of you expressed enthusiasm about these larger, pre-teen characters by the same company.  I'm especially interested in the Tween Scene dolls because they are made in collaboration with Robert Tonner--one of my favorite doll artists.

There are six characters in the Tween Scene line.  These include young versions of all the 12-inch Prettie Girls (Lena, Valencia, Kimani and Dhara) and two new characters (Alexie and Hana).  Incidentally, Dhara used to be called Dahlia, which is how I reference her in my last review.  The doll herself did not change at all--just the name.  On the first day I visited Walmart, there were only two Tween Scene characters in stock, so--indecisive person that I am--I bought both.  They are Kimani and Valencia:

Tween Scene Kimani (left) and Valencia (right) by The One World Doll Project, $23.94.

Because of the collaboration with Robert Tonner (and also from looking at promotional pictures of the dolls online) I guessed that the Tween Scene dolls would have the same body as Tonner's 15-inch LittleMissMatched dolls.  I had mixed feelings about this because even though I love the LittleMissMatched faces, the hair is coarse, the bodies are stiff, and some of the clothes are hard to use.  I actually gave away my LittleMissMatched Uptown Girl doll due to my lack of enthusiasm for her...which I began to regret as soon as I saw the Tween Scene dolls.

Part of the way into writing this review, I re-purchased Uptown Girl on eBay so that I could do some real-time comparisons.  I'll tell you right now that there are important differences between the two lines.

One difference between the LittleMissMatched dolls and the Tween Scene dolls is price.  Uptown Girl originally cost $26.99 and Kimani and Valencia are slightly less expensive at $23.94 each.  The packaging and presentation of the dolls is very similar, though.  The Tween Scene girls come in large cardboard boxes with full plastic windows: 

Valencia (left) and Kimani (right).

I will de-box Kimani first and then take a shorter look at Valencia later in the review.

The bottom of the box's plastic window has a cardboard overlay with the Prettie Girls and Tween Scene labels.  When I reviewed the 12-inch Dhalia/Dhara, I assumed that the Prettie Girls brand was always written with an exclamation point, but now I'm not so sure.

I'm not crazy about the Tween Scene title.  Do kids really like being called tweens?  I thought it had derogatory undertones--like someone who is trying to act older than they are.  That, or it refers to hobbits in their twenties.  But this is coming from the person who didn't know what a hipster was, so I could definitely be wrong.  I'd love to hear opinions from anyone who is 9-12 years old.

I do know that the word "tween" is often used in marketing, for identifying a targetable age bracket for advertising.  Let just say that if there's a marketing term for women my age, I do not want to know what it is.

Kimani's box is decorated primarily with pink and blue.  The colored cardboard extends along both of the box's sides, angling back towards the top:

The back of the box has a description of the Prettie Girls, but it doesn't remind me what the PRETTIE acronym is...I had to look that up.  It's "Pretty, Respectful, Enthusiastic, Talented, Truthful, Inspiring, and Excellent."

All of the characters in this line have their personalities outlined on the website.  Here's a summary from OneWorldDolls.com:

Lena--the "wiz kid," straight-A student cheerleader who likes video games and science.

Valencia--the fun-loving athlete who likes cooking healthy food but has a weakness for chocolate.

Kimani--the trustworthy, creative girl who loves fashion and reality shows...and can keep a secret.

Dhara--the quick-witted animal-lover who is passionate about the environment.  She also likes eating popcorn with pickles (ew).

Alexie--the feisty, charismatic singer.  She's fiercely protective of her friends and loves adventure.

Hana--the unique, quirky girl who collects unicorns and dreams of being a pediatrician.

I find it interesting to compare these personalities to those in the Project Mc² and iBestie lines.  Even though the Tween Scene collection has similarly impressive and carefully-balanced character profiles, this feature is not over-advertised.  It comes across as natural and understated.

Kimani is attached to a cardboard backdrop that slides out of the main box.  The backdrop is taped to the top of the box, so I had to pull pretty hard to get it out.  Kimani comes with a small poster:

I like the cartoon depiction of the character on the poster.  I think it's Lena (judging by her outfit):

The poster advertises the new Tween Scene website (which is not functional yet):

I'm excited to see what kinds of accessories will be available for these dolls!  It's not a very common scale, so anything that the company releases will be valuable.

Kimani's backdrop is decorated with pop-out cardboard messages (a lot like the LittleMissMatched boxes):

Kimani's messages reveal her name and a one-word description of why she's Prettie:

The last message says "extra fashion included," which I assume is referring to the shirt at the bottom of the box.  She also comes with a purse accessory:

The attachments on Kimani's backdrop are almost identical to those on the LittleMissMatched boxes, but the wire ties on the older dolls have been upgraded to brown twine (which is much easier to cut):

Kimani is easy to separate from her backdrop (the plastic band in her hair is the hardest part to detach) but her accessories were secured with lots of tiny, irritating plastic ties.  These left holes in the shirt and the purse.

The purse is made out of soft yellow fabric and has a red heart decoration:

There are tiny metal rings on the straps.  The purse is stitched together (no glue) and can actually hold a few small items.

Kimani stands very well on her own, although my doll leans a little bit to her right side:

Kimani has a scuff on her belly which I think is from the twine that was positioned across this part of her body:

I got Kimani out of the box without removing the plastic strip in her hair.  I figured this would be easier to tackle with Kimani loose.  Sometimes these strips zip right out, but I had some trouble with this one.  One half of the strip ripped off leaving the thread behind:

I snipped a few of the stitches and then the other half of the plastic came off.

Kimani has long, full, wavy, dark brown hair with a modest amount of styling product in it.  The hair is pulled back from Kimani's face with a small ponytail off to the left side:

I liked the well-defined curls in Kimani's hair when it was fresh out of the packaging, but I still wanted to brush it to test the texture.  This hair is softer than I thought it would be.  There were a few tangles and rough spots at the ends, but I managed to fix those.

The hair is extremely full and thick when it's brushed out:

The rooting is a little sparse at the back, but I'd never guess this from the volume and feel of the hair.  It's more than thick enough: 

My Little MissMatched doll has bright red hair with very coarse ends.  When I was shopping for a used doll on eBay, I noticed that a lot of the dolls from this line have hair that is not aging well.  It's wonderful to see that the Tween Scene hair is different.

Kimani's hair is so thick that I decided to tie it back into a braid while I looked at the rest of the doll.  It was hard to make a nice, smooth braid, but I think Kimani looks good like this:

Kimani has simplified facial features and large, bright lips:

She has a rounded nose with no nostril detail, although her ears have realistic contours.

The shape of Kimani's face is very symmetric, and so she looks the same from both sides:

She has oval-shaped eyes with light brown pupils and two large reflective dots--one white and one silver.  Her eyeshadow is bright turquoise and is confined to a thin band just above the tops of her eyes.  Her painted eyelashes are short and are only at the outside edges of her eyes:

I thought that the shiny area under Kimani's eyebrow was hair product residue, but it's actually a small rub and does not wash off.

Kimani's lips are her most distinctive feature.  She has a bow-shaped upper lip and a thick lower lip--both painted bright orange-ish red.

Here's my Uptown Girl LittleMissMatched doll from eBay.  She was used, but in very good condition (the new-in-box dolls have gotten expensive since the line was discontinued).

Tonner Toys' LittleMissMatched Uptown Girl.

She has a different face mold from the Tween Scene dolls, although the simplified style of her facial features is very similar:

Here are Kimani and Uptown Girl side-by-side:

Uptown Girl has simpler ears, but a more angular profile than Kimani:

Here's another side-by-side comparison:

LittleMissMatched (left) and Tween Scene (right).

Because I like the smiling LittleMissMatched faces so much, I was initially a little disappointed in Kimani's somber expression.  However, this face grew on me significantly throughout the review, and by the end I found myself preferring its more subtle features.  Kimani is able to convey a lot of emotions with her versatile face--from a shy smile to a serious, focused stare.

Kimani is wearing a very colorful outfit with a cropped pink top, floral-print jeans and bright yellow boots:

The jersey knit shirt is cut like a tank top, but has off-the-shoulder half sleeves:

The front of the shirt is decorated with a band of white fabric and two turquoise ribbon accents:

The construction of the shirt is very good, although a few of the edges in the sleeves have small seam allowances that tend to curl outwards.

Kimani's pants are made out of a lightweight floral woven fabric.  They are not heavy like denim jeans.  They are accented with a pink satin ribbon belt that fits through real belt loops:

The details here are fabulous.  The belt has a plastic buckle decoration, but it's not actually necessary to thread the belt through this buckle.  Thank goodness.  The pants also have large working pockets and an attractive waistband:

The belt is sewn to the pants in back, where everything opens with a simple velcro seam:

The pants disappear into the large yellow boots:

These boots are very easy to get on and off, which is a nice improvement from the LittleMissMatched boots (which are hard to get off).

The boots have bright pink treads and painted turquoise laces running down the front:

The Tween Scene boots are the exact same mold as the LittleMissMatched boots:

LittleMissMatched boot (left) and Tween Scene boot (right).

However the slit in the back is cut a lot lower on these new boots, which is what makes them noticeably easier to manage.

LittleMissMatched boot (left) and Tween Scene boot (right).

Kimani's pants are tight-fitting through the leg and end at ankle length:

These clothes are much easier to use than my LittleMissMatched's tight-sleeved coat and dress.  The only slight challenge is to get the pants off over Kimani's flat feet, and this isn't too bad.

The pants looks great from the outside, but they are a mess of loose threads on the inside:

The threads are a combination of actual thread that was used to stitch the pants, and also some unraveling strings from the edges of the fabric.

While most of the threads are confined to the interior of the pants, one stitching defect is visible from the outside:

I think it will be safe to just snip that thread right off.  Not a big deal.

There are some threads peeking out at the bottom of the pants, too:

The extra shirt that came with Kimani is a white jersey tank top with a heart-shaped appliqué in the same fabric as the pants:

The cut of this shirt is very simple, but it has ruched seams on the sides that give it a little something special:

The seam allowance along the neck is too thin, though, and so it rolls out:

This shirt looks great with the pants:

Here's a look at the gathered seam along one side:

The purse doesn't match Kimani's outfit in an obvious way (other than being almost the same color as the boots) but it does have a heart-shaped design that coordinates with the tank top:

Kimani's torso and upper legs are made out of hollow plastic.  Her head, arms and lower legs are made out of hard vinyl.  She has ten points of articulation:

She balances just as well in her bare feet as she did in her large boots.

My doll tips to one side because of a slight defect in her right hip joint.  You can see, below, that the top of the leg sticks out on the right side, causing the doll's body to tip to the left:

Kimani has exactly the same body design as my LittleMissMatched doll:

Tween Scen (left) and LittleMissMatched (right).

The strange thing is that while Uptown Girl's joints are stiff and a little hard to move (especially her arms), Kimani's body moves very nicely.

The dolls have different number identifiers on their backs.  Kimani also has a 2015 Tonner Toys copyright while Uptown Girl has a 2011 Tonner Toys copyright:

Kimani's head can spin all of the way around, and it can look up and down a tiny bit: 

She has rotating hinge shoulder joints that allow her to lift her arms up and away from her body:

She also has hinged rotation in her elbows, and these joints can bend just past a 90 degree angle:

These arm joints allow Kimani to easily touch her head, rest her hand on her hip...

...cross her arms over her chest...

...and even relax with both of her hands behind her head:

There's a little scuffing on the arm side of her shoulder joints, though.  I think this is from the sharp edges of the hard plastic torso:

Kimani has a very graceful hand shape, with tiny little molded fingernails:

Kimani has a torso joint in her chest that allows her body to move from side to side:

And back and forth:

Kimani's hip joints do not allow her legs to move very much from side to side.  This is as far as they will go:

She can sit on the ground with both of her feet straight out in front of her, though:

And she can do full front-to-back splits:

She has hinged rotation in her knees, and this joint bends to about 90 degrees:

The bend in her knees is not quite enough for her to kneel well, though.  She tips forwards and has to compensate with her hips and torso:

I love knee joints that have rotation in them.   It really increases the variety of standing and sitting poses.

Kimani sits in a chair (or on a box) very well:

She can even sit in a semi-cross-legged pose on the ground:

The LittleMissMatched dolls appear to have the exact same articulation as the Tween Scene dolls, but again, I have a harder time manipulating the joints on the older dolls.

Because the body shapes are identical, LittleMissMatched clothing can be shared perfectly with the Tween Scene dolls.  This is especially great because LittleMissMatched clothing packs went on enormous clearance sales back when the line was being discontinued, and I know many of you gathered some nice wardrobes from these sales.

Both Kimani and Uptown Girl have trouble getting their hands through Uptown Girl's dress sleeves (and I had this same problem with my previous Uptown Girl dress, too):

But once it's on, this red dress looks great with Kimani's dark skin and almost-red lipstick:

This scale is a little rare, as I mentioned, so I had trouble finding other dolls that are the same size.  One doll that I wanted to compare to Kimani but couldn't find is my Tonner Rapunzel (who has an Ellowyne Wilde body).  My guess is that these two would be reasonably compatible.

Here's Kimani with a 16-inch Singing Disney Store Cinderella:

Singing Cinderella and Tween Scene Kimani.

Cinderella' dress is baggy on Kimani, and there's no way Kimani's clothes will fit the much larger Cinderella:

Kimani in Cinderella's dress.

Here's Kimani with China Girl from Oz, The Great and Powerful:

China Girl and Tween Scene Kimani.

China's torso is significantly wider than Kimani's, so these two can't share clothes.

Kimani is a lot taller than the Moxie Teenz, but that's mostly because of her large head.  The two dolls actually have torso proportions that are similar:

Moxie Teenz Bijou and Tween Scene Kimani.

Kimani's clothes look pretty good on Moxie Teenz Bijou, but Kimani can only wear sleeveless Moxie Teenz tops and dresses because of the size of her hands.  Moxie Teenz pants will not fit over Kimani's feet, either.

I have heard that LittleMissMatched dolls can share clothes with Wilde Imagination's Patience, so I was eager to compare these two:

Wilde Imagination Patience and Tween Scene Kimani.

Indeed, Patience can wear Kimani's outfit (including boots--although they're really big):

Patience wearing Tween Scene clothes.

And she looks wonderful in Uptown Girl's red dress!

I was not able to try Patience's dress on Kimani, though, because Kimani's hands are too big for the sleeves.  Other styles of Patience clothing would probably fit.

Here's Kimani with another one of the Tonner Toys dolls, the City Girls character named Taxi! Billy:

City Girls Billy and Tween Scene Kimani.

Once again, the slim-limbed Billy can fit into Kimani's outfit, but Kimani's wide hands and feet prohibit her from getting into Billy's long-sleeved tops and pants.

City Girls Billy wearing Tween Scene clothing.

Kimani can wear Billy's grey tank top as a dress, though:

Kimani wearing City Girls top.

For those who are curious, here's a picture of Kimani with the 12-inch Prettie Girls doll from my last review, Dahlia (aka Dhara):

Pretty Girls Dhara and Tween Scene Kimani.

The smaller Prettie Girl dolls are nice, but I have to say that I prefer the larger pre-teen versions of the characters.  Kimani has better movement and personality than her 1:6 friend.  I like her clothes better, too.

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

There's great diversity in the Tween Scene lineup.  All of the characters have a different ethnic background.  Here's a summary:

Lena: African American

Valencia: Hispanic

Kimani: African

Dhara: South Asian

Alexie: Caucasian

Hana: Asian

The other character who was available at my Walmart is Valencia, the fair-haired Hispanic athlete:

Tween Scene Valencia.

Valencia's reason for being Prettie was concealed by her hair at first...

...but after reading her character description on the website, it was no surprise:

She's athletic!

Valencia's extra fashion is a sparkly graphic tank top.  She also comes with a red backpack.

Valencia comes in a blue track suit with her blonde hair tied up into two ponytails:

Her ponytails were also tied near the bottom with extra rubber bands.  These extra bands were used to anchor the hair to the backdrop of the box.  The extra rubber bands left some kinks in Valencia's hair...

...but these kinks brushed out pretty well:

Valencia's hair is even softer and smoother than Kimani's.  She has wonderful hair.

The two ponytails arrived a little lopsided, though.  The one on the left is much higher:

I let down the higher of the two ponytails and checked the rooting pattern.  

Valencia's hair is rooted differently than Kimani's.  She has a center part down the back, and this area is very dense with hair, but the sides of the head have large bald patches:

The tight rubber band at the top of the ponytail also left a deep kink in the hair:

For the time being, I decided to just replace the original ponytail and try to make it slightly more even:

Valencia has rich, dark brown eyes with natural eye makeup:

Here's Kimani's brown eye again for comparison:

Kimani's eye.

Valencia has bright pink lips, and my doll has a small paint defect on one side:

Valencia's outfit suits her athletic personality:

The jogging pants are simple, with a single white line down each leg:

The top has a bit more detail, with yellow trim and silver ribbon to suggest a zipper:

The top opens all of the way down in back and is easy to get on and off.

The pants are also super-easy to use, and do not even require any velcro to slide on and off.

Valencia is not wearing boots.  She has red sneakers tucked under her jogging pants:

These shoes have white treads and painted white laces.

Here's Valencia wearing her extra top:

I like the unexpected combination of comic book graphics and red bows on the shoulders:

The silver dots in the fabric are also reminiscent of the halftone dot style of comic book drawings.  I wonder if this was intentional?  It's very clever.

Valencia also has a red backpack:

The pack has white ribbon stripes on the flap and a small yellow, jersey knit pocket on the front:

The flap of the backpack is held closed with a small rectangle of velcro:

The straps of the pack are made out of the same thin white ribbon as the decorative stripes:

The pack fits well onto Valencia's back...

...and she can even hold the little handle on the top:

The Tween Scene bags are ok accessories, but I was having so much fun with the clothes on these dolls, I wish they'd come with an extra skirt or pair of shorts instead.

Valencia's body is the same as Kimani's, although Valencia does not have a defect in her hip and her skin tone is lighter:

The Lena doll came into stock at my Walmart this week, and you can see that she has a third skin tone that is lighter than Kimani but darker than Valencia:

I love Lena's dress with its tulle underskirt!

Lena's Prettie quality is to be smart.  I object to that title because it suggests that the other Prettie Girls are not smart--or that there's only a limited way in which someone can be smart (in this case, by getting straight As and liking science).  All of the Prettie Girl personalities seem wonderfully smart to me.

Lena has some olive green in her eyes, but she appears to have the same shade of eyeshadow as Kimani:

Tween Scene Lena.

Lena comes with a denim messenger bag and a long-sleeved shirt:

Back to Valencia: my doll came with a small defect in her left knee.  She was not able to rotate this foot inwards:

The trouble was caused by some scraps of vinyl at the edges of the joint:

After I trimmed these edges, Valencia was able to pose beautifully:

I took Valencia's hair down, tied it back into a single ponytail and left it overnight.  I was hoping to smooth out the kinks from the side ponytails without having to do a boil wash:

The next day, I tried Kimani's clothes on Valencia:

Valencia in Kimani's outfit.

I think she looks great in the white tank top and floral pants:

But I like her even more in Kimani's pink top.  It really brings out the color in her face, and matches her lipstick almost perfectly:

Valencia in Kimani's outfit.

I also took Kimani's hair down at this point, and you can see that it's virtually kink-free and smooth:

She has absolutely gorgeous hair.

Here are a few more pictures of Valencia in Kimani's outfit:

Now, here are some pictures of Valencia back in her original outfit:

She decided to put her hair back up into a ponytail so that she could exercise:

Speed walking?

To be fair, I also want to show Kimani in Valencia's outfit, starting with the extra shirt:

Kimani in Valencia's outfit.

I like how the red in this shirt highlights Kimani's lips, and I think the dark glittery fabric of the tank top compliments her dark hair:

With the full track suit on, Kimani felt like she had to do some exercise, too!

After her workout, I put Kimani back into the tank top and let her hair down.  I love how she looks like this:

I think my favorite outfit for Kimani is actually the red LittleMissMatched dress (paired with Valencia's red sneakers):

Kimani in a LittleMissMatched outfit.

She also looks fantastic with the coat from the LittleMissMatched outfit:

My favorite outfit for Valencia is Kimani's pink shirt and flower pants.  She might have to steal this for herself:

It's really fun to try different clothes on these dolls.  I love how the Tween Scene pieces are so easy to use in comparison to the LittleMissMatched clothes, and I hope that The One World Doll Project will release a large assortment of outfits in the future.

Here are the girls back in the clothes they came with:

The more time I spend with these dolls, the more emotions I imagine I can see in their faces.  They can seem confident and happy:

Or sweet and shy:

These Tween Scene characters will easily fit into any collection or game that already has LittleMissMatched dolls, and they offer a wonderful upgrade to the Tonner Toys line that was so quickly discontinued.

Tween Scene Kimani, LittleMissMatched Uptown Girl, Tween Scene Valencia.

Bottom line?  I didn't expect to like the Tween Scene dolls any more than I like the LittleMissMatched dolls.  In fact, I assumed I would like them less because they are lacking the endearingly joyful face of LittleMissMatched.  But I actually adore these new dolls, and prefer them to the LittleMissMatched characters for a number of reasons.

This may be too cynical, but I feel like (as a generalization) doll brands tend to either stay the same or get worse--despite collector feedback.  Reviewing the Tween Scene dolls was such a refreshing contradiction to this, though.  The One World Doll Project, in collaboration with Robert Tonner, seems to have fixed every single complaint I had about the LittleMissMatched dolls.  First of all, the hair on the Tween Scene dolls is superior to the LittleMissMatched hair.  Both Valencia and Kimani have soft, beautiful doll hair.  Each doll has minor pros and cons with their hair that are worth nothing: Kimani's rooting pattern is regular, but her hair is slightly harder to manage because of its full-bodied wave.  Valencia's rooting gets very sparse in some areas, but her hair fiber is gorgeous and wonderful to play with.  The Tween Scene dolls also having clothing that is well-designed for easy dressing and undressing.  The Little MissMatched outfit I own has tight sleeves that are a hassle to manage and boots that are difficult to get off.  Kimani and Valencia have attractive, well-made outfits that are really easy to use.  Last, even though the bodies on these two groups of dolls appear identical, I find the Tween Scene bodies easier to manipulate than the stiff-jointed LittleMissMatched bodies.  Kimani and Valencia move smoothly and have enough articulation to make posing them really fun and inviting.

My favorite feature of LittleMissMatched is her beaming face.  I felt sure that this (and Uptown Girl's red hair) would be impossible for the Tween Scene dolls to beat.  I was wrong.  I find myself preferring the more versatile, understated features of the Tween Scene characters.  Their faces are better able to portray a variety of emotions, making them ideal catalysts for children's imaginations.  Red hair--as much as I love it--is inconsequential in this comparison because Kimani and Valencia have better hair than Uptown Girl overall...and Tween Scene Alexie will be coming along soon to fill any redheaded void I might have.

I love it when I am surprised.  I have very strong feelings about dolls, and I often pass over certain brands or new releases because of the pre-conceived notions I have about them.  I might easily have overlooked the Tween Scene dolls: I don't care for the name of the line and I was worried that the dolls would have all of the bad features of Tonner's LittleMissMatched and none of the good.  In this case, I was almost completely incorrect with my assumptions, and it makes my enjoyment of these new girls all the more wondrous.