Endless Hair Kingdom Barbie by Mattel

I've been going to Toys R Us every week for the past month, trying to find something new and exciting to review.  This is often a slow time of year (after the holidays but before summer) for new doll releases.  In fact, I've been noticing absences from the shelves more than additions: Bratz dolls have been discontinued and are gradually disappearing, the Journey Girls have been replaced by American Girl, Winx Club dolls--and their Make it Pop imitators--are gone, and although Cabbage Patch Kids are still around, they look really different under the Wicked Cool Toys label.

Amidst all of these changes, evidence suggests that Mattel might be doing well--recovering from their multi-year financial slump.  I don't have a lot of data to support this, but the Toys R Us doll section in South Portland is certainly dominated by Mattel these days: there's Barbie, Ever After High, Monster High, My Mini MixieQ, DC Super Hero Girls, Loving Family...and of course the whole American Girl mini-store.  The only chink in Mattel's armor seems to be the fact that Hasbro scored the Disney Princess license.

Mattel's dominance doesn't bother me the way it used to.  I think this company is starting to make a lot of great changes.  While I've all but lost interest in Monster High and Ever After High, I'm very excited about some of American Girl's new releases: the WellieWishers, Melody, Gabriella, Logan, Z and Nanea.  The Barbie aisle is more exciting to me now than it's ever been, too, with the brilliantly-articulated Made to Move characters and the diversity of body types and skin tones in the Fashionista line.  In fact, the most interesting doll I found at Toys R Us last week is a Barbie doll.  This doll is from Mattel's Endless Hair Kingdom collection.  She caught my eye because of her size (about 17 inches), her great articulation, and her very long hair:

Endless Hair Kingdom Barbie, $24.99.

This doll isn't super-new.  I know this because I actually bought the blonde version several months ago...and then never got around to de-boxing or reviewing her.  I found the blonde Barbie at Target.  She's packaged in a squat rectangular box...and looks like she's in the process of falling over backwards:

Bad Balance Barbie.

I'm all for compact packaging, but Barbie looks ridiculous in that box.  One nice thing about the box is that it allowed me to look up Barbie's dress (sorry, Barbie!) and see that she has articulated knees.  That's a big selling point for me.

I saw the brunette version of this doll at Toys R Us just last week...and instantly liked her more than the blonde.  Not only is she packaged in a dignified position, but I think she has a nicer face and dress:

Both dolls are smiling, but the brunette's smile strikes me as more natural than the blonde's:

Incidentally, Toys R Us had the blonde doll packaged in this upright position, too--Mattel must have quickly fixed their earlier box design.

The back of the box has a large photograph of the full doll and some smaller snapshots of possible hairstyles:

Somewhat randomly, the large photo of the doll is labeled "Princess Doll:"

Good to know, Mattel.  Thanks.

The set comes with several hair accessories, all of which apparently store inside of a large brush:

For anyone who's curious, all of this exact same information is on the back of the blonde doll's shorter box:

While we're looking at the blonde doll, I should explain why I don't like her dress as much as the brunette doll's dress.  Both dresses have a solid-colored bodice that transitions (through an ombre-style printed overskirt) into a differently-colored tulle skirt.  The brunette doll's dress transitions from dark purple into light pink while the blonde doll's dress transitions from dark pink into light blue.  Pink and purple are in the same color family and so they transition naturally.  Pink and blue?  Not so much:

Floral bouquet versus...cotton candy explosion.

This doll did not come with a name, nor is there any information about the Endless Hair Kingdom on the box.  I'm not a Barbie expert, so I had to do some research.  Here's a summary of what I learned:

These dolls are based on characters from the 2016 Barbie movie called Dreamtopia.  The movie's plot jumps back and forth between a realistic life scenario and a fantastical adventure that takes place in Chelsea's creative, multi-realm dream world.  Dreamtopia has already spawned four follow-up episodes, a hair play app (called Magical Hair...formerly Endless Hair?), and an upcoming television series.  I wasn't able to watch the entire Dreamtopia movie on YouTube, but I gather that the blonde doll is Barbie herself and the brunette is Nikki--or one of Nikki's dream world alter egos.  Hair is the central theme of Chelsea's imaginary Wispy Forest realm, and in that world Nikki is a princess named Juniper.  Because of all that--and because Juniper is a spunky, unique name--I'll refer to this doll as Juniper.

Here's everything that came in the box with Juniper:

She comes with three headbands, two combs and one barrette--all in shades of purple or pink:

The accessories do, indeed, fit inside of the large brush:

The brush is not hard-core enough to handle Juniper's long hair, but it's a neat idea.

Juniper comes with a fourth headband attached to her head:

Clearly a Princess Doll.

This tiara is my favorite of the hair accessories.  It has painted purple gems and a small comb in back to help it stay in place.

Of course it stays in place in the box because of a big rubber band and plastic ties on either side of Juniper's head:

Ouch!

The section of hair that was under the tiara looks a little messy.  There are several short strands of hair at the very top of Juniper's head, too. These might have been caused by me cutting the tiara's plastic ties...but I was really, really careful, so I suspect that the hair was like this all along:

The hair brushes out beautifully (I used my big wire brush) and is dramatically long:

I had to work on the ends a bit more than the rest of the hair, but there's no gungy styling product, and the hair fiber is great.

There are streaks of bright purple hair concentrated on the right side of Juniper's head:

She has a side part on the left, so the purple streaks curve over the top of her head and cascade down her shoulder.  It looks cool:

The hair is thick and soft and feels wonderful when it's brushed out.  The rooting density is very good:

There's a lot of hair, though, so I decided to put it into a braid while I looked at the rest of the doll.  It was easy to braid Juniper's freshly-brushed hair--no tangles cropped up during the process.

The braid looks good, too, and is very sleek and smooth...

...except for the section at the very bottom.  The hair fiber in this area feels a little coarse, and the ends are bristly and uneven.

Juniper's face looks quite different with all of that hair pulled back:

She has an oversized head with huge eyes and a smiling mouth:

The eyes are a warm medium brown color and are accented with simple pink eyeshadow.  The eyebrows are arched wedges of dark brown with no hair detail:

The paint application on the eyes is good, but not perfect.  My doll has some brown smudging in the white of her eye on one side:

And a splotchy reflective mark in the other eye:

Overall, though, I'd say that the eyes look bright and clear with some nice detail in the iris.  I also like how the upper lashes are darker and thicker than the lower lashes.

Juniper's mouth has thick pink lips and a band of exposed white teeth:

She has very symmetric features and looks pretty much the same from both profiles...although her side-parted hair creates a bit of contrast:

I really like Juniper in half-profile, but her full profile is not my favorite angle.  She has a blunted nose, and this exacerbates the enormous size of her eyes and mouth.  The profile reminds me too much of a Bratz doll:

Juniper's dress looks ok, but I really dislike this piece of clothing in person.

The bodice is actually quite nice.  It's made out of a stretchy purple fabric that looks good and fits the doll beautifully.  The bodice is trimmed with delicate silver braid and has cute capped sleeves made out of a purple tulle that perfectly matches the bodice:  

But the rest of the dress is bad.  The waistline is poorly-stitched, lopsided and bulky:

The overskirt is gathered clumsily at the waistline and then hangs in an asymmetrical shape over the tulle underskirt.

The overskirt feels like it's made out of paper.  It's probably the stiffest, least appealing fabric I've ever encountered in a doll's outfit.  To be fair, I bet the material is actually similar in texture to other fabrics that I've seen, but the large size of this skirt amplifies the unpleasantness.

The tulle underskirt is fine--the tulle itself is soft and pretty.  The two layers of fabric are not enough to completely conceal Juniper's legs, but this might have been intentional:

The tulle layers are connected to the bodice with a band of pink satin--which, to me, looks much better than the papery overskirt: 

I actually contemplated cutting the overskirt off, but it's sewn to the tulle layers in the back:

After I took the pictures, above, I straighten the overskirt out and discovered that it was already unraveling around the unfinished edges:

It became clear at this stage that one of my primary goals would be to find Juniper something else to wear.  The dress she comes with doesn't even begin to do her justice.  Mattel doesn't sell any extra clothing for these larger dolls, either.

The dress is, at least, easy to take off and put back on again.  The bodice opens with a velcro seam:

And the whole dress slides off as one piece.

Under the dress, Juniper is wearing pink plastic sandals:

The sandals do not have any painted detail.  They have molded bows in front and textured wedge heels:

The shoes are fine (and they're easy to put on and take off) but they seem too casual for a princess outfit.

Not a Princess Shoe.

I actually left Juniper's shoes on for most of the review because she can't stand on her own without them.  She doesn't have fantastic balance with her shoes on, either, but she certainly surpasses the expectations set by the box text:

Juniper has a hard plastic body with an impressive twelve points of articulation (neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, torso, hips and knees):

Thanks to my skirt peeping I knew she had knee joints, but the torso joint was a great surprise!

Juniper does not have a Barbie hourglass figure, that's for sure.  She has very little waist definition and a small chest:

Those high-waisted underpants look uncomfortable to me.  They're decorated with little hearts and Barbie's long-lashed profile.

Juniper has a short torso and very long, skinny legs.

Juniper's head can turn from side to side, but it doesn't move up and down much at all.

Her shoulders, elbows and wrists have hinged rotation:

Her elbows just barely bent to 90 degrees and her wrists fall short of 90 degrees, but she still has good upper body flexibility.

She can rest her hand on her hip, almost touch her face...

...and she can touch her head easily:

The shape of Juniper's arms is a little odd, though.  Notice how she has muscular-looking lower arms, but very straight, stick-like upper arms.

Her torso joint allows her chest to move from side to side and back and forth:

This joint can even twist!

Juniper's hands are made out of soft vinyl.  Both hands have the same finger positions, and the fingers are elegant and detailed:

Here's a better look:

Juniper's hips move from side-to-side a little bit, but not enough to do splits:

She can't do full front-to-back splits, either, but she gets pretty close:

She can also sit on the ground with her legs straight out in front of her:

I discovered about half way through the review that Juniper's knees have rotational movement. These joints are extremely stiff at first, but they do twist! 

This movement helps Juniper balance on her own:

(Although the knee caps look a little funny when the leg is rotated!)

Juniper's knees also have hinged movement, and she can bend her legs to a 90 degree angle:

This allows her to sit on a box with her legs out in front of her:

Or even with her lower legs partially crossed:

I don't have a chair that's the right scale for Juniper, but if I did, it looks like she'd be able to sit with her legs straight down, too:

Here's a quick peek at what Juniper's feet look like under those shoes:

She has a bit of an arch in her foot and simplified toes: 

Kneeling is one of very few poses that's easier for Juniper to achieve with her shoes off:

My doll's plastic body has a few small molding defects.  For example, there's a rough patch on her left arm:

Her legs also have areas where the surface changes from shiny to matte all of a sudden:

Of all the dolls I own, my 17-inch Disney Princesses are the closest in size and scale to Juniper.  Here's Juniper with my Talking Merida:

Endless Hair Kingdom Barbie, Disney Store Talking Merida.

As I recall, the larger Disney play dolls used to cost around $30, so they're in the same general price range as Juniper.  To put a comparison between these two dolls in a nutshell: Disney's faces are way better than the Barbie face, but the Barbie body articulation runs circles around Disney.

Disney's clothes are also better, so I was relieved to see that they fit Juniper:

Endless Hair Kingdom Barbie in Talking Merida's outfit.

This fit isn't perfect, but the dress closes in back and looks nice.  Unfortunately Merida's dress is coming apart at the shoulder seam and is very wrinkled.

I like this outfit even better with the black cape:

Just for fun, here's Juniper in Cinderella's dress:

Endless Hair Kingdom Barbie in Singing Cinderella's dress.

These dresses are wrinkled because the Disney crew has been in storage ever since that branch came through my studio ceiling.

Because of the similarities between Juniper and the talking/singing Disney Princesses, I also wanted to compare her to one of the 17-inch Disney Limited Edition dolls.  I'll confess that while I've owned four Disney Limited Edition dolls in my life (Merida, Cinderella, Rapunzel, and Belle), I've never taken any of them out of their boxes.  I sold Merida and have just never gotten up the nerve to de-box the others.  They cost around $100 and can become very difficult to find.

For this review, though, Miss Cinderella finally came out of hiding:

Disney Store Limited Edition Cinderella (17 inches).

She's gorgeous (those side-gancing eyes are so coy!) but her eyelashes are ridiculous:

Now that's a Princess Doll.

The Limited Edition dolls have different articulation than the regular 17-inch Princesses--articulation that's more similar to Juniper's:

Disney Store's Limited Edition Cinderella and Mattel's Endless Hair Kingdom Barbie.

Cinderella has a torso joint, wrist articulation and ankle articulation.  It probably took me five minutes to get her to stand up in those glass slippers.  Her hinged knees collapse really easily and her ankle joints are loose.

She has flat feet, though, and stands much better without her shoes:

Here's a quick pose-off between Cindy and Juniper:

They both kneel well, but Juniper can sit on the ground with her knees a little closer together:

Cinderella does a slightly better front-to-back split:

But the flexibility in Juniper's torso joint is a lot better:

I'd say that the biggest differences are that Juniper has better arm flexibility, better torso movement, and the added benefits of knee rotation (Cinderella's rotating ankles can't compensate for her lack of knee rotation).  Juniper also holds her poses really well--none of her joints are loose or floppy.

Juniper comes out ahead in the articulation comparison, but Cinderella's diamond-encrusted gown is glorious--far superior to Juniper's stiff dress.  The difference in outfits is the biggest reason I can see for the vast price discrepancy between these two dolls.  Well, that and the fact that the Disney Store doll has a more unique face and elaborate hair.

Cinderella's gown fits Juniper well and looks lovely on her:

Endless Hair Kingdom Barbie wearing Limited Edition Cinderella's dress.

I searched around for other dolls that might be able to share clothes with Juniper, but came up with nothing.  

Juniper is dwarfed by Hasbro's Ivanka Lorifina:

Endless Hair Kingdom Barbie and Hasbro's Lorifina.

And taller than Tonner's City Girls:

Tonner's City Girls Billy and Endless Hair Kingdom Barbie.

The comparison between Juniper and City Girl Billy is especially interesting, I think.  Juniper has better color-matching in her body, better balance, and better hair than the Tonner doll.  I also like Juniper's face better--although not necessarily the oversized style of her head.  When the City Girls first came out, even the basic dolls (in their underwear) cost more than Juniper.

I think Juniper's hair looks great in a long braid, but I wanted to try out a few of the hair accessories that came with her.

First, let's look at the brightest of the accessories--this pink bow with a white pearl-string headband:

The headband fits pretty well and the bow perches adorably on the top of Juniper's head:

This headband has light purple flowers with turquoise leaves:

It lays flat against Juniper's head and is hard to see from the front:

Here's a bird's-eye view:

The purple colors in this headband clash with Juniper's hair, so it's not my favorite.

This purple tiara is very simple, with no painted details:

It has a gripping comb in back, but the molded decorations do not extend to the back surface of the tiara:

I like the way this tiara sits up high on Juniper's head, but again, it does not match any of the shades of purple in her hair or dress:

Juniper also comes with two decorative hair combs:

These stay in place reasonably well and look nice:

The combs certainly stay in the hair better than this barrette, anyway:

The barrette is hard to fasten and slides out of the hair really easily.

I tried mixing and matching some small braids with the headbands...

...but quickly decided that I prefer the simple look of a small, plain hair clip.  I wish all dolls came with these tiny, multi-purpose clips!

I tried using a braid to flip the purple streaks onto the left side of Juniper's face.  I like how this style looks:

Next, I dressed Juniper in Cinderella's fancy gown and decorated her hair with the little clip flowers that came with one of my 12-inch Disney Store Rapunzel dolls:

Dressed this way, Juniper is like an amalgam of Cinderella, Rapunzel and Tiana (or maybe Jasmine?).  Three princesses for the price of one!

Triple Princess Doll!

I love Cinderella's dress on Juniper, but the purple streaks in her hair don't coordinate very well. A lighter purple might have worked, but this combination hurts my eyes:

So, I (reluctantly) changed Juniper back into her original dress so that I could show off the purple streaks in her hair for a few pictures.  This doll truly has an impressive amount of hair:

I had fun playing with the largest of the purple streaks, using it to frame Juniper's face in different ways: 

The purple hair is rooted in such a way that I can either show it off (like in the pictures above) or keep it almost completely hidden--as I did in these last few shots:

Of all the hair accessories that came with this set, the grey and purple tiara clashes the least with Cinderella's blue dress.

My favorite outfit for Juniper is Cinderella's gown with Merida's cape:

Four Princesses for the price of one!

Bottom line?  My reaction to this doll is very simple: she's lovely, but her dress cheapens her--both literally and figuratively.  By this I mean that her stiff, ill-made dress is probably why her price is so reasonable, but the dress also detracts from the underlying quality and beauty of the doll.

First and foremost, Juniper has gorgeous hair.  It's thick and long and has vibrant streaks of purple that are fun to style.  The hair will certainly require maintenance (I had to brush it out every single time I re-dressed the doll), but the maintenance is satisfying.  The hair feels soft and nice in my hands...with the possible exception of the ends, which can get bristly.  I'd recommend a permanent braid for really young kids, but older children will probably relish the fun of frequent brushing.

Juniper also has surprisingly good articulation, especially in her arms and torso.  She's not in the same league as a Made to Move Barbie, sure, but she can move better than the 17-inch Disney Store dolls...even the $100 Limited Editions.  Some of her joints are stiff (those knees!) but the tradeoff is that she holds poses well and does not flop around.

Mattel's Endless Hair Kingdom Barbie is a solid play doll option.  She's special simply because of her size, but her articulation, hair, and sweet face could easily make her a favorite.  In her economy dress (and with a sturdy braid), she could be a durable play companion for a wide range of kids.  But she can hold her own in a more elegant outfit, too; able to rub shoulders with the Disney Store's expensive collectibles.  I understand why Mattel didn't invest in costume design to make a higher-end interpretation of this doll (that wouldn't fit with their Dreamtopia market) but I'd be first in line to buy one if they did.