Dream Ella Extra Iconic Mini Dolls by MGA Entertainment

Well!  This has been an interesting few weeks.  Unfortunately, when life gets interesting around here, there are longer breaks between posts--sorry.  The biggest thing that happened was that I had to move my youngest to the opposite coast (I'm trying not to take it personally that Washington is about the farthest you can get from New Jersey while still being in the same country).  That was both physically and emotionally exhausting, as you might imagine.  But then when I got home, I was so tired that my brain stopped functioning and I managed to get conned by an online scam (the kind of thing I thought I'd never in a million years fall for), and so I had to cancel all of my credit cards, shut down PayPal, and do ten other things that I don't even remember.  All I can say is that if anyone tells you to download software onto your computer in order to fix a PayPal problem (or any other problem)...don't do it.  Duh.  Big mistake.

What wasn't a big mistake was deciding to investigate a new mini doll that I found during one of my random online searches about a month ago.  The dolls are from MGA Entertainment's Dream Ella line and are called Extra Iconic Minis.  Despite the fact that MGA dolls take up about 20% of the toy aisle space at stores like my local Target, I have yet to see the Iconic Minis anywhere in person--only online.  But they've only been out since October.

I've been meaning to review Mattel's new Barbie Extra mini dolls, and so my grand plan here is to look at the Iconic Minis today, and then compare them to Mattel's minis in a future review.  I love mini dolls, so I'm pretty excited about this little series!

Dream Ella Extra Iconic Mini doll by MGA Entertainment, $14.99.

I should mention that there's also a selection of 11.5 inch Dream Ella dolls by MGA...and I've never seen any of these in brick-and-mortar stores, either.  The dolls look a lot like Barbie, and seem designed to directly compete with the Barbie Extra line.

Here's an example of one of the newer 11.5 inch dolls.  This is Dream Ella:

Compare her to a similar Barbie Extra doll:

Both the faces and the fashions were clearly inspired by Barbie.  

Dream Ella also has a line of color change dolls that are extremely similar to Mattel's version:

MGA's color change dolls.

This is what the Barbie equivalent looks like:

Barbie Color Reveal.

The cyborg-like pre-transformation dolls look identical to me.  So weird.

Anyway, there are also some Chelsea-like 5.5 inch dolls in the Dream Ella collection, and these are called Dream Bella.  Here's an example:

These little ones cost about $8 and are cute, but I don't like their faces as much as the Chelsea faces, and I'm not crazy about the molded shirts (which Chelsea has more and more of these days, too).

The 11 and 5 inch dolls are such blatant copies of Mattel's work that it makes me cringe.  The name that MGA chose for their dolls isn't even original: Extra Iconic instead of Extra?  Please.  MGA is good at coming up with new doll ideas.  Why bother copying something that's already widely available?

But the Extra Iconic Mini dolls, which are about 6 inches tall, are not obvious knockoffs of any Mattel product.  These dolls actually do feel like something new, at least to me, and so I was much more interested in them.  Hence this review.

There are only three dolls in the Extra Iconic Mini collection, and while I ended up buying all three eventually (shocker), the one I bought first was Dream Ella herself.  She looks nothing like the pink-haired 11.5 inch version of the character that I just showed you:

I love the name Ella.

Ella came in small rectangular plastic box with a cardboard back.

One thing that stood out to me when I saw the packaging for the first time is that the box colors are mostly muted pinks and blues, but the doll herself is very bright and bold.  It almost seems like Ella found her way into somebody else's box.

This is clearly Ella's box, though, as evidenced by a large portrait of the character on a cardboard cutout at the bottom:

The back of the box has the same picture of Ella and a small snapshot of Aria and Yasmin, who are the two other characters in this series:

It's funny to me that MGA chose the name Yasmin here.  There are a lot of great names in the world, and I feel like Yasmin is taken--by MGA's very own Bratz line.

Anyway, here's a closer look at the picture of Aria and Yasmin:

The slogan for this line, which is printed on the side of the box, is #BeWhateverYouDream.  That fits with the Dream Ella concept, which takes the idea of being whatever you want when you grow up and adding a little magic to it.  

Here's a snippet from the Dream Ella website: "MGA's Dream Ella™ is a fashion doll brand that lets you #BeWhatever YouDream. Whether it is in the Land of Magic or the Human World, DreamElla and her friends Yasmin and Aria make their dreams come to life - like when they're magical fairies flying through the sky, princesses in a candy world, or a doctor, baker and vet. All you need is a little imagination to be whoever and whatever you want to be!

In keeping with that theme, the cardboard backdrop has wings printed on it, and these line up with Ella to make her look like a fairy:

 

Nothing about the outfit or accessories suggests a fairy, though, so it's a little confusing--especially to Dream Ella newbies like me.

Here's everything that was in the box:

You can see that Ella is able to stand on her own.  It took a bit of maneuvering to get her to balance, but at least it's possible!  I'll say right now that Ella is the hardest to balance of the three Iconic Minis.  The other two have shoes that are more stable.

Ella's purple hair has a little bit of wave and falls almost to the floor: 

The hair was pushed to the sides in the box and so you can see a bit of scalp poking out:

And this gave me an early opportunity to inspect the rooting pattern, which is pretty good for a small doll!

Ella has a very sweet face, with large eyes, full lips, and heart-shaped blushing:

Here she is in half-profile:

Her face is fairly flat from the sides, with a tiny nose and shallow eye sockets:

Her facial screening is good, with just a bit of sloppiness around her mouth.  She has plain brown block eyebrows with no hair detail, and a layer of shimmering white eyeshadow:

Her eyes remind me a lot of Monster High eyes.

When the lighting is right, you can see that the heart-shaped blush also has some shimmer to it:

Ella's smaller accessories are pink lightning bolt earrings and a pair of blue sunglasses:

The sunglasses come tied into the hair with purple thread:

The thread was well camouflaged, and a little hard to find, but at least there were no plastic ties!

The glasses were tied at the top and at both sides.

Here are the glasses on their own:

They have triangular lenses with little silver studs on the frame:

I found it difficult to position the glasses on Ella's head.  I couldn't get them straight and they kept falling off:

I finally got them to stay on for a minute, and they look good:

If you look at Ella's ear, you can see why I struggled with the glasses.  The ears are small and they don't stick out much from Ella's head.  In addition, the hairline gets very close to the top of the ear, so there's not much room to maneuver the glasses:

The glasses look groovy, but I found them frustrating.

Ella's lightning bolt earrings are removable:

And they leave behind fairly large holes in her earlobes:

I didn't have any trouble with the earrings falling out, although I didn't play with Ella for an extended period of time.

The largest accessory is this pink vinyl purse.  It has some painted decorations, but it does not open:

The back is quite plain:

After I'd inspected Ella's accessories, I brushed her long hair with my wire brush.  It's shiny and full and the fiber feels pretty good, but it's a little rough at the very ends.  I like the braids on either side:

Here's the hair from the back:

The hair is really full, so I pulled it into a ponytail so that we could see the outfit better:

The ponytail hairstyle gives us a cleaner look at Ella's face, too:

The heart-shaped blush is fun, and I was excited about it at first, but I don't really like it after some thought.  The hearts are crooked, for one, and I also wish that they were spaced further apart and set lower down.  I'm not even sure they're supposed to be blush, although I feel like that would have been a good idea.

Much like the Barbie Extra dolls, Ella is wearing a fun mix of brightly-colored items, none of which matches anything else in the outfit.

Here's the outfit from the back:

Ella's most intricate piece of clothing is her fuzzy neon-green jacket.  This ties in front with adorable little pom-pom strings:

Muppet fur coat.

The strings came anchored together with green thread though, and it was really hard to find the thread!  I was afraid I was going to cut the strings by accident:

They were too good at color matching here.

I finally got the jacket untied...with the strings in tact:

Fishing for cats?

The jacket has simple construction--as you might expect for something this small.  The top edge is folded over to make a furry collar, but the bottom edge is raw, with no finishing:

What manner of creature is this???

The cuffs of the sleeves are nicely done, though, and even have a little stretch, which makes dressing and undressing easier:

Dr. Seuss's dog?

Underneath the jacket, Ella is wearing a blue polka-dotted sheath dress that is strapless on one side:

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

The stitching on the dress is neat, and looks secure, although none of the edges are reinforced:

The last item in Ella's outfit is this pair of chunky-heeled gogo boots:

They are mostly white, but have hot pink accents and a (barely visible) light pink tongue in front.

They also have large slits in the back that make them quite easy to get on and off:

Underneath her clothing, Ella has a plastic body with nine points of articulation!  Yay!

Unfortunately, Ella's fashion feet don't allow her to balance on her own without the boots, and I don't have any doll stands that even come close to fitting her!  I wish she had come with her own stand.

I had to use a FailFix stand with the waist grip moved waaay down.

Ella has unpainted, molded underwear and a lot of pink writing on her back:

Worst tattoos ever.

The neck joint is simple, and only allows rotation:

But it's nice because Ella can look all of the way behind her without tipping her head upwards:

That's rare.

The shoulder joints have hinged rotation, which is awesome.  They can lift straight up to be level with the shoulders:

And they can spin around for all sorts of other poses:

The elbows also have hinged rotation, and can bend to just shy of 90 degrees:

Ella does not have wrist joints, but she has a detailed hand mold:

The hips have a ball and socket attachment that allows Ella to slide into marginally impressive side-to-side splits:

Anything better than what I can do is "impressive."

But with her hip joints rotated upwards, she can do epic side-to-side splits:

That's unequivocally impressive.

She can also do perfect front-to back splits:

And beyond:

Over-achiever.

Ella's knee joints are rotating hinges, but she can only barely stay balanced on both knees:

She can sit nicely in a chair, though:

If only the chair was her size.

And of course she can sit on the ground:

Her rotating knees allow her to sit on the ground in some elegant ways!

Ella has unjointed ankles and simplified feet with no toe definition:

She's a very well-articulated doll, and with the help of a stand, she can even achieve some action poses:

Ella is very fun to pose, and I don't miss wrist and ankle articulation on a doll this petite--those joints could easily be too fragile.

Speaking of petite: at six inches tall, Ella is about half the size of my statuesque assistant, Lina.

Dream Ella Iconic Mini and Barbie Signature Look Lina.

And she's about a half inch taller than a 5.5 inch Barbie Chelsea doll:

Dream Ella Iconic Mini and Barbie Chelsea.

She's a really cute, manageable size, and I like that her body doesn't have completely wacky proportions.

I also think she has a super-cute outfit for a doll this small!  Here she is showing it off for you again:

The dress looks nice with her hair:

I dream I am my own Muppet!

But the green jacket is my favorite piece.

Since I had some difficulty balancing Ella at the beginning, I was surprised to see that she can hold quite a few poses on her own.  I only had to use the stand when she was running:

I like this doll.  She's a very fun size.  She's larger and easier to handle than tiny fashion dolls like Polly Pocket, but small enough to fit into a (big) pocket or (small) purse.  I think she has a sweet face, and her bright outfit and hair make me happy.  I'm not crazy about the heart-shaped "blush," but it makes less of an impression in real life than it does in photography.

After getting an up-close look at Ella, I knew I wanted to buy the other two dolls in this series.  I was fortunate to find Yasmin for 9.99, which I think is a good deal...and might actually be the real MSRP.  Most of the dolls I found were on Amazon (for around $15), but those prices can be funny.

Yasmin's box has the same color scheme and design as Ella's, but with a picture of Yasmin at the bottom:

Yasmin's coloring and clothing is complimented by the box design more than Ella's was.

Here's the back of the box:

Yasmin's shoes allow her to balance on her own a little better than Ella.  Her short hair probably helps to even out her weight distribution, too:

Here she is from the back:

I wasn't sure I would like Yasmin's bright pink hair, but it's not as clown-like in person.  I still wish that it was a slightly darker color--like the pink on her pants, maybe?  But the curls that frame her forehead are a nice touch:

The curls are held in place with bits of pink thread that sit just above Yasmin's ears:

Yasmin has the same face mold as Ella, which was a bit of a disappointment, but some of her makeup is different.  

For example, instead of heart-shaped blush, she has regular blush and then a line of three pink stars underneath her left eye.

Her eyes have the same shimmering white eye shadow as Ella's, but there's also a fine line of pink on the eyelid area.

Yasmin's lips are painted a deep pink color, and you can see that there's a bit of misplaced paint above her upper lip:

Here's a closer look at the eyeshadow and the stars under her eyes:

Yasmin comes with the same number of accessories as Ella.  She has a purse and earrings, but instead of sunglasses, she has a necklace.

The purse does not have the same mold as Ella's.  It's more of a messenger bag:

I want to call it a banana bag, because of the color, but that has a whole other meaning in the health care industry, so I'll refrain.

There's not a lot of detail on this bag, and it does not open.  It has a clunky detachable strap with a highly-visible seam:

The strap allows Yasmin to sling the bag across her body:

The bag fits well over Yasmin's shoulder, but the color is really bright and is not broken up by any painted details.  Yasmin's pants and blouse are more muted than Ella's clothing, so the bright bag and hair don't make quite as much sense.

Yasmin's earrings are also bright, but they're a chartreuse green color:

More lime than banana.

Yasmin's last accessory is this simple black choker necklace.  It has a heart design that's difficult to see:

Yasmin's accessories are not very impressive to me, but I really like her outfit.  It consists of an off-the-shoulder blouse and a pair of silky harem pants:

The bodice of the blouse is half white and half black, with contrasting hearts on each side.  The gauzy off-the-shoulder sleeves are nicely done:

The cuffs of the sleeves are elastic, which helps with dressing and undressing.

The stitching is decent, too, with teensy-tiny seams that all look good:

The pants are made out of a shiny silk-like fabric, and have a splotchy design that reminds me of an animal print:

The decorative draw strings at the waist of the pants are off-center on this doll, but the pant legs have elastic cuffs that look great:

Yasmin's outfit is rounded out by a pair of black Converse-like sneakers with white toes and white laces:

As I mentioned earlier, Yasmin's shoes and hair make her easier to balance than Ella, so we had some fun!

My camera tried to overexpose Yasmin every now and then, so this next photo isn't color-accurate, but the pose required no support or camera magic!

Neither did this pose:

This is my favorite portrait of Yasmin:

But I think she likes this pose better!

Once I'd taken my fill of pictures, I did the inevitable: I took Yasmin's hair down.  This involved removing the clear rubber bands that held her two ponytails in place, and also snipping the threads that held her forehead curls down.

The results were...not great:

I did my best to finger-comb the curls into a new position, but they were stubborn:

Perma-part.

This gave me a good opportunity to check the rooting pattern, though, and I would have to say that the rooting on Yasmin is worse than it is on Ella--probably because the hair was designed to be left in ponytails:

Also, why is the scalp purple??

Fortunately, the hair can easily be out back into ponytails--or into a top knot!

I like how Yasmin looks with this hairdo, and it's nice that the forehead curls stayed in-tact and mostly in place, even without the thread:

I really love Yasmin's outfit, and I like her face paint better than Ella's.  Her hair is complicated, because of the bright color and the stubborn curls, but when it's in a single ponytail, I think it looks great.  I feel like Yasmin deserves better accessories than what she got, but maybe her awesome blouse and pants make up for that.

The last doll in the series is this pink-haired cutie named Aria:

Aria's hair isn't a true pink, though, so it clashes with the backdrop.

The cartoon version of Aria has a different color of hair that goes better with the box art:

In fact, I think this is my favorite box art out of the three dolls.  Maybe it's just that I love Aria's freckles?

For some reason, Aria comes with more accessories than any of the other dolls.  Not only does she have earrings, a necklace, and a purse, but she also has a big black butterfly barrette:

Her purse is also the most intricate of the three, with black and white patterns that suggest a violin, a cello, or another related instrument:

I like all of the tiny molded stitches, and how even the back of the bag has some realistic detail:

Aria definitely has the best purse.  I mean, look at it next to Yasmin's simple, monochromatic banana bag:

But let's see how Aria herself measures up to the other dolls:

I love the color of her hair.  It's not as neon-bright as Ella or Yasmin's hair--it's more of a salmon shade of pink.  However, the hair has a lot more gel in it than I noticed in the other two dolls' hair:

Aria has some shorter strands of hair around her face, too--like long bangs--and these were so heavily gelled that they stuck up in the air like tentacles!

There's something about Aria...

Aria has the same face mold as the other two dolls, but she has pink eyeshadow, delightful freckles, and a heart-shaped birth mark:

She has the worst paint defect of the trio, though.  Notice how there's a whole line of misplaced paint over her upper lip:

The paint defect is not super-obvious from a distance, but I still might see if I can remove it with a very carefully-placed bit of Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.

I was eager to see if I could soften Aria's ultra-crispy hair by brushing it, so I removed her necklace and barrette:

The necklace is black and molded into the shape of a double strand of beads.  There's a blue painted heart pendant on the shorter chain and a plain black sphere pendant on the longer chain.  The barrette is all black, with a bit of molded detail.  I didn't bother to photograph the earrings (I was worried I'd lose them if I took them out), but they are plain black heart-shaped studs.

Once the accessories were gone, I brushed Aria's hair with my wire brush, and the results were...bad:

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

The hair rained down tons of flaky, sticky gel dandruff.  It got all over my pants and was stuck throughout all of Aria's hair and all over her face:

I realized that I would have to wash Aria's hair before I went any further with the review, so I removed her clothes to get her ready for a head-dunking.

Her shirt has the same black and white palette as Yasmin's shirt, but it has a more conventional style, with long striped sleeves and a cropped length:

The fabric has some stretch to it, and the bottom seam tends to curl up:

Aria's pleated skirt has a plaid pattern and an attached vinyl belt:

The belt is sewn to the back of the skirt can cannot be removed:

The skirt's hem is completely unfinished, but it does have a strip of fabric to keep the waist from riding up:

Aria also has black boots with silver stud accents.  It's hard to see with all of the black, but there are also molded stitches and laces:

Once Aria's hair was clean and dry, I redressed her...

But I had some trouble getting that rolled shirt hem to lay flat!

Embarrassing.

Aria's hair feels much better now, although--like we saw with Ella--the hair fibers are slightly coarse at the ends.

She's not quite as bright and colorful as the other two dolls, but I think she looks great:

The butterfly barrette is huge and a little awkward to use, but it does a nice job of holding down the shorter strands of hair at the sides of Aria's head:

It also works well to pull the hair away from Aria's face to clip at the back of her head:

I love this look:

I like Yasmin's pants and blouse a lot, and Ella's jacket is really fun, but Aria is my favorite of the three dolls.  There's a lot of detail in her outfit and accessories, her face paint is great (barring any random defects), and I like that the purse gives a hint at her personality.  I could do without the shorter strands of hair around Aria's face (they still want to stick up), but the hair is certainly better after a quick wash.

Here are all three of the Iconic Minis together (Ella had to tip backwards in order to balance, and so I couldn't get her to look at he camera):

Dream Ella Extra Iconic Mini dolls, from left: Ella, Yasmin, and Aria.

Bottom line?  There were not a lot of surprises with these dolls.  They looked promising in their promotional photos, the actual dolls were appealing in their boxes, and then the de-boxed dolls delivered on ease of use, articulation, and overall charm.

I don't tend to expect detailed outfits on inexpensive, 6-inch dolls like this, but the Iconic Minis have a fun, eclectic mix of garments and accessories that look cute and are surprisingly easy to use.  I was particularly impressed by how the shirt sleeves were designed to have some stretch so that they could easily slip over the dolls' hands.  These little ones were easier to dress than many dolls twice their size.  I also appreciate the diversity of styles.  All of the dolls have their own aesthetic, although Aria and Yasmin's clothes are more similar to each other than they are to Ella's over-the-top neon and polka dot ensemble.  The stand-out pieces are Ella's green jacket and Yasmin's blouse and pants.  I didn't find any flaws in the clothing, although the unfinished hems on Aria's skirt and Ella's jacket make me nervous.  Also, I wish that Ella's jacket strings hadn't come tied together with camouflaged thread.

The dolls have basically the same allotment of accessories, but Aria somehow managed to get an extra item, a special vinyl detail on her skirt, and the most detailed, interesting purse.  The only disappointing accessories to me were Ella's sunglasses and Yasmin's bag.  The sunglasses are hard to use and the bag is plain and doesn't coordinate with Yasmin's outfit.

The dolls themselves have nicely-designed bodies with great articulation.  They can balance on their own if they are wearing their shoes, although I doubt they'd stay upright if they were left on display like this.  It's unfortunate that stands aren't included, because I've never actually seen a stand that would be the right size for these girls.  All of the characters share the same face mold, which is too bad, but each is painted quite differently, from Ella's heart-shaped blush to Aria's abundant freckles.  Unfortunately all of my dolls have defects in their lip paint--some more noticeable than others.  The hair on all three dolls is nice, although Aria's hair comes with an overabundance of gel, and Yasmin's hair is sparsely rooted and hard to re-style.  Both Ella and Aria have lovely long hair that feels fine, although the ends are a bit coarse.

I'm tempted to criticize the $15 price I paid for Ella and Aria; it's pretty high.  But I think that $9.99 might actually be the MSRP, because Toys R Us has the full set of three for $29.99.  $10 each is very reasonable for these dolls, so I won't complain.

One general (and nit-picky) critique that I have with this line is that, given the theme of magic and imagination that's suggested in the advertising, I wish the dolls had a few fantasy elements.  There are wings printed on the cardboard backdrops, but the dolls themselves are all wearing very normal-looking, mature clothing that, while creative and colorful, isn't at all fantastical.  I guess the colorful hair could be seen as mystical or unusual, but so many dolls (and people) have colored hair these days, it's easy to dismiss.  Perhaps there could have been some imaginative accessories, like detachable wings, a crown, a wizard hat, or perhaps some animal ears?  As it is, I find it hard to imagine these three fashionable characters playing any kind of imaginary game.

But if I'd never read the advertising, I would not have cared about the lack of fantasy.  These dolls are fine as the colorful little fashionistas that they are.  They're a bit addictive, too, as mini dolls often are.  I'd criticize the fact that there are only three characters in the Extra Iconic Mini collection, but I should just thank my lucky stars.  If there had been more dolls to choose from, I probably would have bought all of those, too.  

Dream Ella Extra Iconic Mini dolls, from left: Ella, Yasmin, and Aria.