Kindness Club by Madame Alexander

I mentioned in my Gwynn Tan review that I've gotten a little obsessed with 14-inch dolls lately, and so I decided to write a series of short (for me) reviews featuring this appealing size.  The reviews will be cumulatively comparative...meaning that I'll compare each new doll to all of the ones that came before her.  So I suppose the reviews will get slightly longer as I go.  In any case, my intention is to review six dolls in this series (it was five, but I've already found another brand that looks great).  I might take a few breaks to review some other things, too, otherwise we could be talking about nothing but 14-inch dolls for months!

Today I'm going to review a 14-inch Kindness Club doll by Madame Alexander.  I'm especially excited about her because, as I've mentioned in some of my older reviews, I have a soft spot for the Madame Alexander company.  I didn't have a huge collection of dolls when I was growing up, but many of the ones that I did have were made by this company--including my most cherished childhood companion, Baby Victoria.

The funny thing is, despite my affection for Madame Alexander products, I didn't even realize that they have a line of 14-inch play dolls until about a month ago.  I stumbled upon the Kindness Club girls by chance during an online search for a completely different brand.  I thought the dolls looked lovely in their promotional photos, and this girl (who has a very similar name to mine!) was an early favorite:

Kindness Club Emmi by Madame Alexander, $59.95.

As with Gwynn, I didn't end up paying full price for Emmi.  I found her on sale at Amazon for $32.50, which is an excellent deal.

These dolls come in cardboard window boxes with a domed front and the traditional Madame Alexander blue and pink color palette:

The Kindness Club title and Emmi's name appear at the bottom of the box:

The back of the box has a photograph of the other dolls in this line:

Here's a better look at that photograph:

The girls' names are, starting on the top left, Rosa, Brooks (heart dress), Zola (raincoat), and Emmi.  Those four aren't the only available dolls, though. 

There's also Paisley:

Harper:

Avi:

And two deluxe sets that cost closer to $100.  One is this outdoor camping set:

And the other is a salon set:

I actually had a chance to see all of these dolls in person recently (after I'd purchased Emmi), and the one who stood out to me was Avi.  She's really beautiful, with a fun outfit, nearly-red hair, and lovely grey eyes.  Even though I was nearly done with this review at that point, I had a hard time not splurging on little Avi.  Rosa is also lovely, as is the girl in the camping set (she's a lot like Avi).  The only bad surprise was that I didn't like Zola's face mold in person as much as I liked the others.

Anyway, the bottom of the box has a little description about the Kindness Club:

That's hard to read.  It says: "Meet the Kindness Club, girls with big hearts and big dreams to make the world a better place!  They spread kindness through their community, teaching caring and respect for all people.  These 14" dolls come with fun, engaging outfits, beautiful hair with a colorful highlight, and plenty of opportunities for imaginative play.  Join the Kindness Club!"  And then it says the same thing in French.

The premise is pretty generic, but it's hard to argue with kindness.  We could always use more of that in the world.

Both the top and the bottom of the box are made out of hard plastic.  The top incudes a hinged handle.  Either end can be removed to open the box; I chose the bottom:

Once the plastic is gone, the cardboard backdrop slides right out of the box:

Emmi comes with an invitation to join the Madame Alexander Doll Club:

The club costs $55 per year...enough to buy another Kindness Club doll!  Or, you could join the Toy Box Philosopher Club (a.k.a. Patreon) for only $2 per month!

Like Gwynn, Emmi's de-boxing process was very easy.  She was held against the backdrop with a few clear bands that were easy to snip.

Here she is fresh out of the box--standing on her own very well:

Emmi's long black hair came tied into two ponytails that seemed more designed for taming the hair and stabilizing Emmi's position in the box than for fashion purposes:

Here she is from the back:

The hair has a rooted center part running all of the way down the back of the head, so styling this hair into braids or ponytails will be easy:

The hair feels lovely.  It's very similar to Gwynn's sleek, silky hair, except that the kinks from the ponytails stuck around for a little while before they relaxed:  

There's a rooted streak of blue hair along Emmi's right side, and this looks cool with the pure black of the rest of her hair:

The hair feels great overall, so I was surprised to see that the rooting is only okay.  The rows of hair are pretty far apart, and the density isn't very high within the rows:

I definitely feel like the hair could have been rooted better, especially towards the front:

That's a pretty big gap.

Also, the blue streak is rooted along a different line from the rest of the hair, so it looks off center and uneven in some areas:

Here's a better view:

You can also see a bit of black scalp peeking through in this photo...which was not uncommon.

I clipped Emmi's hair back so that we could get a good look at her face:

She has a serene expression and facial features that are more mature than Gwynn's.

She looks like a child of around twelve years old to me--not a seven-year old like Gwynn.

Emmi has medium brown inset eyes that do not open or close.  Both her eyebrows and her eyelashes are painted with simple lines:

Emmi's eyes are crisp and clear with nice iris detail.  They do not have the same out-of-focus appearance that bothered me with Gwynn's eyes.  However, you can see that this doll has some smudging in the paint of her right eyebrow:

Emmi's closed mouth is painted in a medium pink color with low gloss.  The color is a little bright for my taste, but the shape of the mouth is pretty:

Emmi has a beautiful profile with realistic proportions.  Her ears have a fair amount of detail, but this doll has some black staining along the top of her right ear:

Emmi's outfit consists of a dress, a sweatshirt, socks and vinyl shoes:

The sweatshirt jacket is made out of a very thin mint blue fabric, with white trim and a single embroidered pink star:

The construction of the jacket is not as robust as what we saw with Gwynn's clothing.  The seams are tidy, but all of the finishing is visible, and there's no extra serging on the edges:

Here's the jacket on its own:

The star is a cute detail, but it makes me think of American Girl!

The jacket is easy to take off, but it's hard to put back on over the puffy cap sleeves of Emmi's underlying dress.

The dress is pretty, with a tiered skirt and orange flower graphic:

I love the sleeves and the pink collar on this dress, but the ribbon-like waistband is strange.  It's attached to the dress on the bottom, but is free at the top, so there's a gap between the bodice and the waistband:

Room to grow?

I thought perhaps the waistband had gotten flipped up by accident, so I tried turning it down, but the inside edge is unfinished and isn't completely sewed into the seam, so that's definitely not how it's supposed to go:

Weird design.

The dress closes in back with velcro and is very easy to use:

This dress is made out of the same lightweight fabric as the jacket, but it has a lot of nice detail.  For example, each of the two tiers of the skirt has pink trim, and there's an extra tulle ruffle at the very bottom:

The construction of the dress seems a bit more careful than that of the jacket, with some serged edges around the arm holes and careful placement of pink trim around the neckline:

Under her dress, Emmi has a simple pair of white underpants:

These are a little crooked, but they get the job done:

Somewhat in contrast to her light summery outfit, Emmi is wearing thick, knee-high, rib knit socks:

These have an unusual seam at the ankle that doesn't look very good:

At first I figured that the socks had been put on backwards, since I think of socks as having seams at the heel--not in the front.  

However, the socks were positioned correctly, they just have ankle seams:

I suppose the seams were added to prevent the socks from bunching up too much in front, but I don't think the seams look any better than wrinkles would have!

The shoes are made out of vinyl and are very plain, with some molded bows at the front and a bit of stitching detail around the edges:

Emmi's body is made out of pale vinyl and has five simple points of articulation:

I like the molded detail she has on her back--especially the little creases at the elbows!

Does anyone else see a cat face in that picture?  I sure do:

But maybe I'm going slowly crazy.  It's possible.

In any case, I'm sad to say that Emmi has some light staining along the top of her back because of the dress's pink collar:

The stains are concerning, but mild.  I was more interested in seeing how Emmi's body size compares to Gwynn.

Emmi is a couple of inches taller than Gwynn, and her torso looks wider.  Gwynn also has a shorter, rounder head and much bigger eyes!

American Girl Gwynn Tan (left) and Kindness Club Emmi (right).

Both dolls are made entirely out of vinyl, but Emmi's vinyl is softer and more pliable.  Gwynn's body and limbs are very rigid.

Emmi's vinyl is also really bright.  It's not so much the color I'm talking about, although it's very pale, but the opaque intensity of it--for want of a better description.  It's not as realistic as Gwynn's vinyl, or, say, a doll like the Ruby Red Fashion Friends.  Scarlett from my review of that brand has very pale vinyl, but it's more luminous and translucent than Emmi's vinyl.

Here's a shot with both dolls next to my Barbie, Lina, for some size perspective:

Because so many play dolls are in the 18-inch American Girl scale these days, it's easy to forget when looking at photos of the 14-inch crew that they're quite a bit smaller and more petite.

Emmi has simple neck articlation, so she can't tip her head from side to side or glance up and down.  That's too bad.  However, unlike many of the dolls that I've looked at recently (notably Gwynn and the Las Amigas), Emmi doesn't look upwards all of the time when she's facing forward.  She has a nice, front-gazing posture. 

Also, her head doesn't immediately turn upwards as she looks around:

When she's looking all of the way back, her head begins to tip upwards a little:

Emmi's arms have simple rotational movement, too, so she can only lift them up and down:

Because Emmi's vinyl has some flexibility in it, I can move her hands together in front of her body and hold them in that position with a rubber band.  I actually learned this later on in my photo session when I was trying to pose her holding a toy:

Her hands can meet and touch, like you see in that photo, although it puts a bit of strain on the arm joint:

In contrast, Gwynn's vinyl is very stiff so she can't move her arms enough to make her hands touch one another:

We're gonna need a bigger bear.

And putting Gwynn into that position made me pretty nervous.  There's a lot of stress on the joint and not much give, so it's probably not a good idea to pose her this way:

Emmi has simple rotation in her hips, so she can sit on the ground if her legs are angled apart:

Her sitting position is similar to Gwynn's.  Here's a reminder:

Emmi doesn't angle her legs apart quite as much as Gwynn does.

Emmi can also do very solid front-to-back splits:

Emmi has some nice definition in her hands, with knuckle dimples, nail beds, and even little wrinkles at the joints:

And her palms have a few creases, too:

Overall, Emmi has more detail in her hands than Gwynn.

Emmi's feet have slightly less detail than her hands, but the toes have nice definition, and there are little creases at the joints:

Because Emmi is taller and larger than Gwynn, I was surprised to see that she fits into Gwynn's outfit pretty well (including the shoes):

I pulled the skirt down a little lower on Emmi's waist it than I would with Gwynn, since Emmi is taller.  It's nice that the sweater has enough length to accommodate this shift; however, the lower positioning exposes the indented line across the middle of the sweater:

If I pull the skirt up to the line, then the length is really short on Emmi's longer body:

As you might have predicted, Emmi's clothing fits Gwynn, but is slightly loose:

I like seeing Gwynn in some more ordinary-looking play clothes.

There's no question that the American Girl outfit is higher quality and better-made than the Madame Alexander outfit.  Also, I feel like Gwynn's outfit has a more original mix of styles and textures than Emmi's lightweight and slightly generic ensemble.  

Because Emmi looks older than Gwynn, though, I feel like each doll is better suited to the the other one's outfit; Emmi's dress brings out Gwynn's youthfulness, and Gwynn's skirt and sweater suit Emmi's solemn maturity.

As I was putting Emmi back into her original outfit, I thought I might try using the shoes without those heavy, strangely-sewn socks.  However, the shoes are too loose to fit without the socks in place:

Bummer.

Here's Emmi back in her dress, socks, and shoes:

The socks are a really random addition to this outfit.  Not only do they look too heavy (and long), but they don't really match the dress; none of the pinks are the same.  I'd have preferred some short white socks with a much simpler design, and then maybe some orange shoes.

The other thing that bothers me slightly is that Emmi's blue hair streak doesn't match anything in her outfit.  It's not the same color as the blue jacket, and there's no blue in the dress.  I added in this pink hair clip to try and pull the look together:

If you go back and look through the entire Kindness Club collection, you'll see that some of the dolls have hair streaks that match their outfits really well, while others do not.  For example, Harper's pink hair matches her jacket:

But nothing matches those infernal socks.

But Paisley has the same problem as Emmi; electric blue hair and a mint blue jacket:

And the same freakin' socks.

The whole hair thing isn't a big deal.  I mean, I'm sure lots of people have colored hair that doesn't match all of their outfits.  But these are dolls, not humans, and I think some coordination between the outfit and the hair would have looked slightly more polished.

A bigger issue is that when I tried to pull Emmi's hair back into different styles, I often ran into trouble with the rooting.  In some cases, bald areas would appear, like this:

And another thing that's a little hard to describe is that the hair at Emmi's hairline was hard to pull back in a completely smooth way.  This is because the underlying hair plugs poke up and disrupt the surface.  You can kind-of see this happening here:

Or maybe not.  It's hard to photograph.

I think this is happening because the overall hair thickness is not enough to cushion the pokiness of the individual hair plugs.  I'm sure the effect is accentuated by the fact that Emmi has super-straight, sleek hair.  A doll with a bit of wave in her hair might have enough thickness to reduce this problem. 

The hairstyle I like best for Emmi is two braided pigtails:

The back part was disrupted when the hair was down, but it was easy to find again

As I was photographing Emmi, her jacket would often hang open in front, which exposes the rough inside edges:

That doesn't look great.

Because of this, I found myself preferring Emmi when she was wearing only her dress.  The jacket doesn't add much.

I put Gwynn back into her original outfit, too, so that I could snap a few photos of the girls side-by-side and gather some thoughts about the pros and cons of each doll:

Kindness Club Emmi (left) and American Girl Gwynn Tan (right).

They're both nice dolls, but they're quite different!  Looking at them together is jarring because even though they're the same height, they are not in the same scale.  Gwynn's scale seems more practical, since her head proportions allow her to fit into the American Girl world as a younger sibling, but Emmi's scale has its own merit.  For example, she could be an older sibling to dolls like the Las Amigas:

Las Amigas Dasha (left) and Kindness Club Emmi (right).

Las Amigas Liu (left) and Kindness Club Emmi (right).

Another thing that stands out to me when I look at Gwynn and Emmi together is that Gwynn never looks straight ahead!  Probably kids don't care too much about this when they play, but it bugs me.  Even if Gwynn was looking straight at the camera, her eyes are not as clear or realistic as Emmi's.  Gwynn's gaze looks almost alien when seen right next to Emmi.

The articulation on these two dolls is virtually identical, however, something that can't be appreciated in photos is that Gwynn's body is very hard and solid, while Emmi's vinyl has some flexibility.

Another thing I think about when I'm looking at Gwynn and Emmi together is that their clothing is clearly of different quality.  Gwynn's outfit, as much as I'm uninspired by the style, is cohesive, detailed, and made out of interesting and diverse fabrics.  Emmi's outfit seems generic in comparison, with all of the pieces made out of the same lightweight material.

Another thing that I want to factor into my comparisons is cost, of course, and these two dolls have similar suggested retail prices at $65 (Gwynn) and $59.95 (Emmi).  However, since I was able to buy Emmi for about half price ($32.50), and that seems to be an ongoing deal,  I want to consider discounts, too.  If the dolls were being compared at their retail value, I'd say Gwynn is the better deal.  Her clothing is nicer, her vinyl feels high-quality, her hair is lovely, and she fits into the vast and appealing American Girl world.  However, Emmi is a very nice doll, too, and it doesn't take much of a price drop for me to feel that she's the better choice.  Adding the $32.50 price into the equation, it's a no-brainer; I'd choose the Madame Alexander doll every time.

But there's a more nuanced comparison here, which is that because these dolls are so different, one of the two of them might not fit what you, personally, are looking for.  For example, if you have little interest in 18-inch play dolls, then perhaps some of Gwynn's little sibling charm will be lost on you.  On the other hand, if you love the 18-inch doll world, then you might have no use for Emmi's mature features in this size.  Or maybe, regardless of the other dolls you collect, you simply prefer Gwynn's wide-eyed youth to Emmi's sophistication...or vice versa.

From my own perspective, I'm much more likely to purchase another Kindness Club doll (Avi!) for under $50 than I am to purchase a WellieWisher doll like Gwynn.  But I might purchase some American Girl clothing for Emmi and Avi to wear!

I want to make sure I photograph all of the 14-inch girls outside, to keep each comparison fair, so this time I took Emmi into my garden to see if I could find some interesting new backdrops for her.  

I really love this maple tree, and she seemed to like it, too!

It had just rained when we went walking through the garden, and Emmi took a few spills on the slippery stones, but I wasn't worried about her at all.  She's a durable girl and was easy to clean up.

Emmi liked the spindly hanging branches of this weeping cherry tree, but those stripped branches make me sad (but offer yummy snacks for the rabbits, I bet!):

I think Emmi's favorite thing was this single bright red rose.  I wouldn't let her pick it, though:

That didn't seem to dampen her mood:

After we toured the garden, I took Emmi to the backyard for some more standard pictures.

I love how her eyes sparkle in the daylight!

And it might just be me, but I swear her smile is brighter and more pronounced when she's outside:

I took her hair down for a few photos, too:

This gives her a more dramatic appearance:

She needs a goth outfit.

I think this next photo is my favorite shot of Emmi.  She looks so calm and happy, and her hair is falling nicely around her shoulders without blocking her face: 

Bottom line?  When I first started investigating the world of 14-inch play dolls, I assumed that most of the options would be mimics of the WellieWishers--much in the same way that so many 18-inch brands copy the exact body style and proportions of American Girl dolls.  I'm happy that I found Emmi and the rest of the Kindness Club girls, because they have their own look and feel and don't come across as copycats at all.  I've already gone over the biggest differences between Gwynn and Emmi, so I'll spend this last section simply talking about the pros and cons of Emmi herself.

I am charmed by Emmi overall, but--as usual--there are things about her that I wish were different.  First of all, she came with some factory flaws in her face paint and some mild staining.  The smudged paint in her right eyebrow is hard to notice, as is the dark stain on her right ear, but the red marks on her body are disappointing because they make me feel like it's unwise to leave her stored or displayed in her outfit.  It's possible that washing the dress would slow the color transfer, but that brings me to another issue: the design of the dress waistband is odd, with an edge that isn't fully sewn into the seam, and I'm not sure how it would hold up to washing (or vigorous play, for that matter).  

Aside from the waistband, Emmi's outfit is nice--if a bit generic.  There are some cute details, like the tiers in the skirt, the tulle trim, and the adorable pink cap sleeves.  The dress is very easy to put on and take off, too, but the jacket is a little hard to get on over the puffy sleeves of the dress.  For both the dress and the jacket, the fabric is all the same lightweight knit, and many of the seam edges are un-serged.  This is particularly noticeable on the jacket, which can hang open to reveal all of the finishing.  I also think the socks have some issues: they're too bulky for the outfit, they don't quite match the other shades of pink, and they have a funny seam along the ankle.  Unfortunately, the shoes can't be worn without the extra bulk of the socks, so the socks are a necessity.  And one last nit-picky complaint is that I wish something about Emmi's outfit matched her prominent streak of blue hair.  So basically, the clothing could have been given more thought, both in terms of design and durability, and also in terms of how the bright colors react to the soft vinyl. 

For the most part, Emmi has gorgeous hair.  It's sleek and shiny, feels amazing, is fun to play with, and does not seem prone to tangles.  The rooted part down the back also makes it easy to style the hair into great-looking ponytails or braids.  The streak of blue color on Emmi's right side is modern and pretty, but it's rooted slightly off-center.  Furthermore, the overall rooting is not as good as I'd expect on a $60 doll. The hair feels thick and full in most situations, but the rooted rows are widely-spaced in certain places, and this can cause trouble, especially towards the front of Emmi's head.  In that area, bits of scalp are often visible, and the rows of hair plugs can poke up through any hair that's swept back away from Emmi's face.  I suspect a lot of this is due to the fact that Emmi's hair is so straight.  Perhaps the Kindness Club characters with wavy hair can avoid this issue.

Emmi's articulation is equivalent to other dolls of this style, and I love that her head isn't always tilted upwards!  She looks straight at me most of the time.  I also like that there's a bit of softness in her vinyl.  I especially like that her arms aren't rigid; this makes her easy to dress and allows her to stretch her arms across her body to hold things.  She also feels more cuddly than a doll like Gwynn, even though both are made entirely out of vinyl.  Emmi's body proportions are nice, too.  I like that her head and eyes are a normal size and that her features are fairly realistic.  And, because I haven't squeezed this fact in anywhere else: she has clear acrylic eyes.  The color of Emmi's vinyl is very pale and opaque, with no translucence whatsoever.  This isn't something that bothers me too much when I'm looking at Emmi on her own, but it can be glaring if she's standing next to Gwynn, one of the Las Amigas, or certainly dolls like the Ruby Red Fashion Friends.

I'm actually surprised by the number of critical comments that I made in this summary.  Maybe it's just that I found it hard to be concise (imagine that).  Despite all of my little complaints, I had a wonderful time with Emmi.  She's fun to play with, and her size would make her a lovely companion for a wide age range of children.  The $60 price is daunting to me, though.  For that amount of money, if you're looking for a play doll in Emmi's scale and with her more realistic features, I'd be inclined to recommend one of the Las Amigas instead.  However, at the sale price of $32, Emmi is a great deal and would make an amazing gift, or an affordable addition to an adult collection.  Make no mistake, when Avi's price drops below $40, she's coming here to live with me!  

Update: as promised, when Avi's price dropped down to $32, I bought her.  And I'm really glad I did!

First of all, I like her outfit better than Emmi's.  It's made out of a mix of fabrics, including a translucent vinyl raincoat with pink lining, and purple rain boots that cover the strange socks!

I also like the color of her vinyl.  It doesn't have the same harsh brightness that Emmi's vinyl has--it looks very natural.

Her eyes have some purple in them, and I don't usually like purple eyes, but these are pretty, and they look blue in most lighting.  Also, notice that Avi's lip color is subtle, not the overly-bright pink of Emmi's lips:

I'm still not crazy about the streak of color in the hair (I feel like it reduces the doll's versatility), but at least Avi's purple streak matches some of the colors in her bodice:

And I really like her dress--especially that bodice.  It's colorful and modern, with a gorgeous little collar.  Overall, the style suits Avi's implied age much better than Emmi's outfit suited her.

Anyway, I wish I had featured Avi in this review.  I feel a lot of affection for her, and I think she'll be one of my rare keepers.

I'll end with my favorite picture of Avi--the one I shared in the Toys R Us post: