Junior High, Littles, and Basic Dolls from Rainbow High

I hope everyone is doing okay with the heat of summer so far.  Here in New Jersey, we've been facing excessive and unrelenting heat for weeks.  It's not a lot of fun, especially because my air conditioner decided to give up the ghost last weekend.  We've rigged a temporary solution (a few window units), and the cats seem to think this is fine, but the dogs and I are not happy.  The nice thing is that I've been uplifted throughout this unpleasantness by the bright and colorful company of a few Rainbow High dolls.

I haven't talked about Rainbow High in quite a while.  I actually figured that the couple of reviews I did over the last few years would cover the brand adequately, but MGA has come up with several new products that forced me to re-think.

I've known about the nine-inch Junior High dolls for a few years now, of course, and I've even bought a few of them, but I never quite found the motivation to do a full review.  Lately, the release of the low-cost Swim & Style line and the six-inch Littles got me curious enough that I made some space in my review queue for the Rainbow High kids once again:

Rainbow High Littles Indigo Bailey ($9.99) and Junior High Krystal Bailey ($24.99) by Rainbow High.

I knew I wanted to review a Junior High doll, a Littles doll, and a Swim& Style doll today, but I tend to make things harder than they need to be, so it took me ages to choose which exact dolls I should buy.  My hang-up was that I like things to match, so I wanted all of the dolls to be the same character--or the same color scheme.

However, because there are only six Littles dolls and four Swim & Style girls at the moment, it was hard to find overlap.

For example, let's say I decided to go with Amaya Raine's character.  There's a Junior High Amaya:

Junior High Amaya Raine.

And there's a Littles version, who's actually meant to be Amaya's younger sister, Opal:

Rainbow High Littles Opal Raine.

But there's no Swim & Style version of Amaya.

I like the look of the Swim & Style Ruby Anderson, with all of that shiny red hair:

Swim & Style Ruby Anderson.

But the Junior High version of Ruby is not my favorite, and also tends to cost over $35 these days:

Junior High Ruby Anderson.

And there's no Littles member of the Anderson family yet.

The only characters represented in all of the variations are Sunny Madison, Violet Willow, and Skyler Bradshaw.  So I wanted to go with one of those characters, but blue and yellow don't play well with my grey backdrop.  Also, I already had a Krystal Bailey Junior High doll and didn't want her to go to waste.

See?  Way harder than it needed to be.

I ended up deciding to review Junior High Krystal Bailey and Littles Indigo Bailey.  Since there's no Bailey in the Swim & Style line, I went with Ruby Anderson.  Case closed.

Even after making this choice, though, the collector in me is still obsessed with the fact that there are three different sizes of some character families now.  I love putting together little sets of matching dolls.

This is the dream:

From left: Fantastic Fashion Sunny Madison, Junior High Sunny Madison, and Littles Daisy Madison.

But that Junior High Sunny is expensive, as is the Fantastic Fashion doll.

There are four sizes of Raine family dolls:

From left: Special Edition 24" Amaya Raine, Fantastic Fashion Amaya, Junior High Amaya, and Littles Opal.

The scale in those pictures is probably not accurate, but I did my best.  In any case, it's really fun to go through all of the doll options and put together groups like this, even if I never buy any of the actual dolls.

Speaking of actual dolls, let's get things started by looking at Junior High Krystal Bailey.  She is from Wave 2 and came out in 2022:

The Junior High dolls come in window boxes that are essentially smaller versions of the standard Rainbow High boxes, but without the extra outfit section:

Krystal's box has a cute graphic of her in the lower right hand corner:

Those ponytails look very spherical.

The box has a wrap-around plastic window on the left side, and a flat cardboard panel on the right:

On the cardboard side, it states that Krystal has a journalism focus in school:

I don't think kids should have to focus their interests in junior high, but that's just me.  Krystal's journalism specialty is a bit unconventional, too, so it prompted me to look up a list of all the Rainbow High focus categories.  

Here are the main categories, alphabetically, with sub-specialties in parentheses:

Animation

Art Direction (Set Design)

Accessory Design

Audio and Visual Effects

Computer Animation

Cosmetology (Makeup, Hairstyles, Special Effects Makeup)

Cosmetic Chemistry

Digital Media

Fashion Design (Fashion Technology, Couture Fashion Design)

Film

Graphic Design

Installation Art

Journalism (Creative Writing)

Lighting Design

Music (Vocals, Music Engineering, Songwriting, and Instrumental)

Mixed Media

Performing Arts (Acting, Singing, Dancing)

Photography

Special Effects

Styling

Textiles

Visual Arts

I think it's interesting how some of the categories are so specific (special effects makeup) while others are really vague (mixed media).  But I was surprised overall by how many focuses there are!  Now I want to be fifteen again and attend Rainbow High.

I had to look up who at Rainbow High does installation art, because that's really cool.  Here's an example of some installation art.  It's giant hand-painted balloons in California:

In the Rainbow High world, it's Nicole Steel who does this kind of thing.  I love it.  I actually have her doll!

I knew I liked her, but didn't realize how cool her focus is.  I tried to find some of her art in the animated show, but this is all I came up with:

That seems more like graffiti art than installation art, from my limited knowledge.  I think installation art tends to be three-dimensional.

Wow.  My tangents are getting bad.  But the Rainbow High world is surprisingly interesting.  It's expanded a lot since my earlier reviews.

On the back of Krystal's box, there's a picture of her and two other characters from Wave 2:

The full group includes six dolls:

From left: Stella Monroe, Bella Parker, Amaya Raine, Karma Nichols, River Kendall, and Krystal Bailey.

The blurb on the right of that image and at the bottom of Krystal's box describes the Junior High concept:

We're going back in time to meet our favorite characters when they were younger.  

I like this concept, and I wish that the Littles took it even further, by making the dolls the same well-known characters but in first grade or something.  The idea of little sisters is cute, too, but I'd be pretty interested to know what Krystal Bailey was like as a little kid.  Did she write or tell stories all of the time? Tattle on her friends?  Eat Play-Doh?

As is typical for Rainbow High packaging, Krystal was difficult to get out of the box.  I ripped away the outer part of the packaging and managed to salvage the backdrop for a quick photo:

I had to cut a bunch of plastic ties to get Krystal out, including three in her head.

Here's everything that was in the box:

There's no stand included with these dolls, which is too bad.  Krystal can stand on her own, but I found it hard to get her balanced at first.  The problem is that her right leg is warped and crooked at the knee:

That joint relaxed over time, but was difficult to manage at first.

Krystal herself is pretty cute, and her curly ponytails are not as spherical as they look in the box art:

In profile, her long, flat head and high ponytails make her look a little strange:

It's like an orange slice with hair and a nose.

And in back you can see the chunky mechanism in her double-jointed knees:

That right arm came in a weird position, and I couldn't fix it right away.

The Junior High faces are similar in proportion to regular Rainbow High faces, but Krystal strikes me as having bigger eyes that appear more wide-set:

Here's a photo of the regular-sized Krystal Bailey so that you can see her face:

And here's a GIF, which I always find helpful for comparisons like this:

I like how Little Krystal's lip paint is simpler, even though my doll has some coloring outside the lines around her mouth:

The eyes on these Junior High dolls feel a bit too big and wide-set to me, but they're inset plastic with rooted lashes, just like the big dolls, and have a lovely mix of colors.  The face paint overall is quite good, and I like that the makeup is restrained.

I also like the molded tendrils of hair on Krystal's forehead:

The larger Krystal has a pretty face, but I actually prefer the smaller version.

Krystal's outfit consists of a jean jacket top, a pleather skirt, and matching boots:

There's a small white snag on the front of my doll's skirt, which is too bad:

The jacket has decorative silver buttons on the front, but it actually opens in back with a long strip of velcro:

Here's the jacket on its own:

The silver buttons on this jacket are crooked.  It looks like one of them came loose and then re-stuck itself a little further down than it should be.  But otherwise everything looks fine.

The purplish denim has a silver and black print with lots of symbols and words like "sparkle" and "rainbow" that are a bit hard to read:

I like the careful tailoring details, like the cuffs:

And the fact that even though the pockets don't open, the little flaps lift up and are hemmed all around:

On the inside, the sewing looks neat and careful, but none of the seam edges are reinforced

Under her long jacket, Krystal is wearing a bright purple pleather mini skirt with a zipper accent:

Now I see why her right arm was stuck in a weird position.

The stitching here is a little messy, with lots of thread ends sticking out, but I like that the belt loops are functional and the zipper looks functional, too (it's not):

The inside of the skirt has a mesh band to keep it from riding up:

My favorite part of Krystal's outfit is her boots:

I want those in my size.

They have black plastic heels and flexible imitation leather tops:

Because of the flexibility of the fabric, there's no need for a slit or any other kind of closure in the back.  The boots slide on and off easily:

I've seen some evidence that fabric like this doesn't last (the paint peels off in flakes over time) but for now they look great.

Underneath the boots, Krystal has fashion feet, so she can't stand on her own:

I used her boots for balance so that we could take a quick look at her articulation.  It looks like she has all of the same joints as the larger Rainbow High dolls, which is pretty great!

Count 'em up, Emily!

She has a whopping fifteen points of articulation, and painted underwear that matches her color scheme.

I wanted to go through all of the joints carefully, to see how they stack up to a standard Rainbow High doll.

Krystals' head can spin around:

And tip back and forth quite a lot:

But there's not much up and down movement.

Her shoulders are rotating hinges, so she can lift her arms straight up and away from her body:

And spin them around:

Her elbows and wrists are also rotating hinges.  Her elbows can bend to about ninety degrees, but her wrists are not as flexible: 

So she can rest a hand on her hip, but can't quite touch her mouth:

Krystal has hinged rotation at the hips, and can slide into partial side-to-side splits:

Her front-to-back splits are better, but still not complete:

Just below the hip joints, Krystal has a point of rotation.  This is really nice because the whole lower leg can rotate in and out:

The best part is Krystal's double-jointed knees.  The top joint allows for about ninety degrees of movement:

And both joints together allow Krystal to kneel extremely well:

She can kneel on one knee nicely, too:

And she sits in a chair like a champ:

At nine inches tall, the Junior High kids are only about two inches shorter than standard Rainbow High dolls:

Junior High Krystal Bailey (left) and regular Krystal Bailey (right).

I played around with both dolls for a while to see what differences in articulation might exist.

First of all, the larger dolls can lift their heads up and down quite a bit, which the Juniors can't do:

What's interesting is that my Series 1 Junior High Skyler can look up and down, but Krystal cannot.  So it's possible that my Krystal is defective, or that the articulation changed from Series 1 to Series 2.  Maybe somebody has more data on this?

Also, the larger Krystal has better arm mobility.  She can actually touch her fingers to her mouth:

Which Junior High Krystal can't quite do:

The larger dolls can also slide into more of a side-to-side split:

Almost there!

And when both dolls rotate their legs, the larger Krystal can do near-perfect splits, which the smaller doll has a slightly harder time with:

Junior Krystal's front-to-back splits are a little bit better, though:

And Junior Krystal can collapse her knee joints a bit more:

Those differences are all very minor.  With the exception of the arms feeling noticeably more flexible on the larger doll, these two are extremely similar in how they move.

There's a small construction difference between the two dolls as well.  Both have plastic torsos with vinyl limbs, but the larger Krystal also has plastic thighs.  The color match between plastic and vinyl is not perfect, so the bigger doll's legs are not as uniform:

While I had the larger Krystal out, I took a few more photos of her.  Her outfit and hair have a lot of the same shades of purple that we saw on the Junior High doll, but this Krystal has long wavy hair, not tight curls:

The hair--like most Rainbow High hair--feels great and is satisfying to brush and finger-comb.

Krystal's outfit has an imitation leather skirt with a zipper theme, just like the smaller doll:

But her shoes are nowhere near as interesting, and I couldn't get them to come off at all.  The vinyl is too stiff:

She also has a purple jean jacket that's pretty cool:

The jacket is much more elaborate than Junior Krystal's, with "Sparkle" written across the front, working pockets, and laced details on the sleeves (that tend to get caught on Krystal's hands):

Despite all the amazing detail on the larger Krystal's outfit, I find myself preferring the smaller doll.  She's easier to dress and undress, and as I mentioned before, I like her simpler, more youthful face.

I had a bit of trouble getting the smaller Krystal's jacket back on over her hands, though:

But her hands pop off, which makes dressing much easier:

Here she is, back in her full outfit:

The last thing I did was take down one of Krystal's ponytails, to check the density and feel of the hair:

The hair along Krystals hairline and center part is light purple, but the underlying areas are bright blue and navy, which looks really cool:

It was hard to separate the tight curls, but the rooting pattern looks really good, and the hair feels dense and thick:

This hair sheds a lot, though.  I was constantly having to wipe away little bits of broken curl, a few of which you can see in that last photo.

I put the hair back into a ponytail, but wasn't quite able to pull the elastic as tight as it used to be:

I can't make a blanket statement about the Junior High hair quality using Krystal as an example, since her hair fiber is not the norm.  But I can assure you based on my other purchases that these dolls have the same lovely nylon hair as their larger counterparts:

Skyler Bradshaw with her very silky hair.

Krystal came with one accessory: a purple backpack.

This backpack is really well made.  It has a stitched pattern on the front, with a little "RH" charm that hangs off the flap.

There are delicate ribbon shoulder straps on the back, with a chain section on top so that the pack can be carried like a purse:

The flap opens with a velcro seam:

And there's a storage area inside that came packed with tissue paper, but could hold any number of small items:

The shoulder straps on the backpack are adjustable, and fit nicely over Krystal's arms:

I come across so many cheap vinyl purses with no opening and nothing interesting about their design.  It's refreshing to see such a gorgeous little bag!  Now I'm curious about what the other Junior High accessories look like.

Overall, I'm very happy with little Krystal Bailey, and am glad that she's finally out of her box and having some fun:

The Littles are significantly smaller than the Junior High dolls and come in even simpler packaging:

Junior High Krystal Bailey (left) and Littles Indigo Bailey (right).

At six inches tall, the dolls are about two-thrieds the size of their Junior High siblings, and just under half the price.

Junior High Krystal Bailey ($24.99) and Littles Indigo Bailey ($9.99).

The Littles box is all plastic, with straight sides.  There's no curved edge:

The box is bright and appealing, with a glittery rainbow backdrop and clear sides that offer a good view of everything that's inside:

Indigo's name appears on the upper left hand corner of the box:

And there's a cute picture of her on the bottom:

The back of the box has drawings of all six dolls in the first wave of Littles:

Top, from left: Daisy Madison, Amethyst Willow, and Indigo Bailey
Bottom: Magenta Monroe, Sapphire Bradshaw, and Opal Raine

On the bottom, it says "there's no best friend like a little sister!"

There's a perforated section on the back of the box that I figured was to help with extracting the doll, but it just exposes the backdrop...which is not perforated:

Maybe that panel is to expose the plastic tabs so I can un-tape or cut them?  I didn't find that very useful; I'd still have to cut the front of the box open.

I hacked away at the plastic sides of the box and managed to pull the backdrop out:

Indigo and her accessories were held against the backdrop with the help of a plastic shell...and a lot of plastic ties and plastic bands.

So, basically, even though the box is small, MGA made sure it was just as hard to deal with as the larger Rainbow High boxes.

Indigo's braided hair came tied in two ponytails, and these made it easy to see right away that the rooting pattern is not great.  That's a lot of exposed scalp:

I tried to ignore the hair for a minute so that I could gather up everything that was in the box:

But the hair was hard to ignore:

Yikes.

I took out the rubber bands and tried to smooth the braids down, but there's still a lot of exposed scalp:

It was hard to tell which direction the braids were supposed to be going in.

I parted some of the strands to get a look at the rooting pattern, and this is what I found: 

Oh, for goodness sake.

The braids are rooted in big clumps of two or even four at a time, which makes it hard to tame the hair and leaves a lot of exposed scalp.

The only organized area of hair is around the rooted part.  This looks decent, but it's still a bit chaotic, with some bare patches on either side:

I tied the hair back into a single ponytail with the hopes that the braids would relax and lay a bit flatter and more evenly after a while:

For some reason Indigo came barefoot with her shoes packaged alongside the accessories.  Perhaps to make the box look more full?

Her shoes are purple vinyl sneakers with lots of intricate molded detail:

The molded stitches are so tiny, and I love the butterfly design on the sides:

Very cute.

There are even butterflies on the treads:

These shoes would look even more amazing if some of the details were painted different colors.

The shoes are easy to put on Indigo's feet, and they help with her balance:

Indigo also comes with a purse:

This has a slit at the top, but it's hard to pry open:

Vengeful scallop purse.

Indigo can only hold the purse if she balances it on her raised right hand:

The more interesting accessory is the pet, which I think is meant to be a fox:

Or a horny bunny.

All of the surfaces of this creature are faceted like a gemstone:

It has black and white decal eyes and a glittery gold horn:

The pet reminds me of MGA's Poopsie Cutie Tooties.  

Cutie Tooties Surprise.

There's also group of full-size Rainbow High World dolls that come with pets like this:

I like Amaya from this group a lot, but it looks like these girls lack wrist articulation.  Also, there's a slime feature.  I've had my fill of slime, thanks.  The cutesy pets, slime, and glitter all feel geared towards a much younger audience than the original Rainbow High releases.

The pets don't make a lot of sense to me aesthetically, so I had to watch some of the Rainbow High World animated show to understand what's going on.  Apparently the Rainbow High storyline has gone full sci-fi fantasy, with new worlds, rainbow portals, and crystals that, if you bond with them, turn into little unicorn creatures.  So it's either a crossover gimmick with Poopsie Cuties or maybe a defensive response to Unicorn Academy.

Anyway, sorry.  Tangent.

Let's get back to looking at little Indigo:

 

One of the hallmarks of the Rainbow High brand is the bright, colorful, inset eyes.  Unfortunately, Indigo has painted eyes:

The paint is clear and un-pixelated, with a nice glossy finish, and the Rainbow High style is there, but it still would have been fun to have inset eyes on a doll this small.

I really like the color and shape of Indigo's lips, and appreciate her minimal makeup.

Her outfit is made from a mix of vinyl and fabric, and has a butterfly theme:

Here's the dress from the back:

The dress has a flexible vinyl bodice attached to a fabric skirt.  The skirt is quite lovely, with a pretty butterfly design and a delicate gauze ruffle at the hem:

It opens in back with a small rectangle of velcro:

If I turn the dress inside-out, you can see that the skirt is lined, and the fabric section is sewn into the vinyl, not glued:

The design of the dress is interesting.  I'm not sure why MGA went with a vinyl/fabric hybrid, but it looks fine, and the stiffness of the bodice helps the dress hold its shape, and makes dressing and undressing really easy.

Underneath her dress, Indigo has painted underpants and five joints:

Her head can spin around, but can't look up or down.

Her ams can only spin, too, but she has a bend in her right elbow that improves her posing options.

The Littles have a variety of arm and hand molds.  It's possible that each doll has her own unique arm design, but Opal and Magenta look similar to me, so I can't say for sure:

Indigo's wrist is straight on her left arm:

And slightly bent on her right arm:

She has simple articulation in her hips that allows her to sit flat on the ground:

But she can't do front-to-back splits very well:

Another hallmark of Rainbow High dolls is their outstanding articulation, so even though I don't tend to expect much from a six-inch doll, I was bummed by how minimally articulated this girl is.

I put Indigo back into her dress and let her hair down for a few more pictures:

Her posing options are limited, but she can balance in a walking position...although it looks like her hip is acting up:

Old lady walking pose.

She can also sit on the ground and hang out with her pet:

Indigo seems very small when standing next to the two versions of her big sister:

From left: Littles Indigo Bailey, Rainbow High Krystal Bailey, and Junior High Krystal Bailey.

Size-wise, she looks like the height of a four-year-old when she's standing next to the larger Krystal.

For a different size comparison, here's Indigo alongside another of MGA's mini dolls, Na Na Na Mini Roxie Foxy:

Rainbow High Littles Indigo (left) and Na Na Na Mini Surprise Roxie Foxy (right).

Both mini dolls are cute, but seeing these two side-by-side makes me appreciate Indigo more.  Her face is much sweeter, and I like the fabric in her outfit.

Here are a few more shots of Junior High Krystal and Littles Indigo:

I really like mini dolls, and so despite some disappointments with Indigo, I still think it's a lot of fun to see a Rainbow High character this small.  Kids could have some great games with this duo:

My biggest disappointment with Indigo is her hair.  I tend to like dolls with micro braids a lot, and so the chunky rooting and exposed scalp were a real bummer.

In order to write a more thorough review, I decided to look at one of the Littles characters who does not have micro-braided hair.

For this, I chose Daisy Madison because I think she's really sweet:

Her coloring is not complimented by my backdrop, but I'll do the best I can with pictures.

Here's everything that came with Daisy:

Her sneakers have a completely different design from Indigo's.  They're not as detailed or interesting:

She also has a vinyl purse and a pet...bear?

This purse is much better than Indigo's bag.  It has a little snap closure under the bow:

And you could actually put something small inside the opening:

Daisy's eyes look a lot like Indigo's, with a bright mix of colors and minimal graininess, but she has some smudged lip paint:

In fact, I had to return the first Daisy that I bought because her lip paint was much worse than this.

One of the reasons I wanted Daisy is that she has the best hand mold:

I'm not a crook!

The fingers on her right hand are warped, but her left hand looks great:

Peaceful vibes.

Another fun thing about Daisy is that her yellow sundress has a little tulle underskirt.  I didn't expect that:

Of course I only really bought Daisy so that we could look at her hair, so let's do that.

The hair comes in a ponytail with a pretty French braid on the left side:

I took the ponytail down so that I could check the rooting, which looks much, much better than Indigo's rooting!

However, the quality of this hair fiber is not good.  It's not like the gorgeous nylon that you see on standard Rainbow High dolls.  It feels like crappy nylon or bad saran.  When I brushed it, it got poofy.  It's not at all sleek:

Bad hair.

I don't enjoy touching or playing with Daisy's hair, which diminishes her appeal quite a lot.

It was hard to justify buying a third Littles doll just to see if any of the characters have nice hair, but I did it anyway.  Some of the characters have hair that looks so glossy and shiny in promotional photos, I felt like it must feel good, too:

Right?

And I fell for it.  Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice and I'm someone who just lost another ten bucks:

It's really bad hair.

Amethyst's hair looked promisingly shiny in the box, too, but in reality it's even worse than Daisy's hair.  It's so bad.  I tried to brush the stiff hair product out of the right ponytail, and even washed it in hot water, but remains frizzy, coarse, dry, and hard to brush.  I like Amethyst's outfit, though.  Those shorts are especially cute.

Needless to say, I'm disappointed by the hair on these dolls.  Really disappointed.  It kind of makes me want to cry, actually, because they would be so great if they had nice hair. 

Of the three dolls I own, I actually like Indigo the best.  Her braids are poorly rooted and messy, but at least they feel nice to the touch.

The last doll that I want to look at today is Ruby Anderson from Rainbow High's basic Swim & Style line:

Swim & Style Ruby Anderson, $14.99.

The retail price on these dolls is about $10 less than a standard Rainbow High doll, and about $5 more than a Littles doll.  I kept this price difference in mind as I looked at Ruby.

Ruby's most advertised feature is that she has a sarong that can be styled in multiple different ways:

It's hard for me to get too excited about a sarong, but we'll see.

The back of the box shows all four characters in this wave:

From left: Ruby Anderson, Sunny Madison, Skyler Bradshaw, and Violet Willow.

The box is rectangular, with a thin window on the right side and Ruby's name on the left:

Pulling the backdrop out of this box was relatively easy.  Thank you, MGA.

However, Ruby was attached to her plastic mount by about fifty million plastic ties, three of which were in her head:

Thanks a lot, MGA.

Here's everything that was in the box:

As you can see, there's no stand included, so I grabbed Ruby's slip-on vinyl sandals first, to see if they would allow her to balance on her own:

They do!

Here she is from the back:

The hair looked and felt pretty bad right out of the box, so I brushed it with my wire brush:

Hm.

The more I brushed and finger-combed the hair, the better it got, but it still feels rough at the ends:

This isn't terrible hair, but it's definitely not typical Rainbow High hair.  It's slightly better than Daisy's hair, I guess, but something isn't right.  It's lightweight, there's a lot of friction between the strands, and the ends tend to catch on my fingers and are prone to frizziness.  The top parts of the hair feel better than the ends, but nothing feels like Krystal's hair.  

The contrast isn't an easy thing to capture in photos, but I tried:

You can see that Krystal's hair has more of a sheen to it, and if you look around the edges of the hair, there's less frizziness on Krystal's side, especially near the curls.  I can also finger-comb Krystal's hair without anything catching.

I'm not a hair expert so I can't say for sure what kind of hair fiber this is.  Lower quality nylon, perhaps?

Anyway, I managed to get the hair to look okay, but it was hard to tame the frizzies:

The rooting is nice and dense, which is good:

Since wavy hair can often be problematic despite the hair fiber, I bought a second Swim & Style doll as I was finishing this review, to be extra-sure about my assessment of the hair fiber.

Violet has the smoothest, shiniest-looking hair in promotional photos, so I went with her:

And while Violet's hair certainly looks better than Ruby's in photos, it actually feels worse to me.

With super-straight hair like this, I expect wonderful silkiness and great movement.  But Violet's hair is coarse at the ends, feels lightweight and synthetic, and does not move well.

If the hair on these dolls had been normal Rainbow High quality, it would have been easier to overlook the other shortcuts.

I tied Ruby's pesky hair back so that we could get a good look at her face, which is really pretty:

I think she's a lot prettier than the other Ruby I have:

Cheerleader Ruby Anderson in Jett Dawson dress.

But my favorite Ruby face to date is probably Fantastic Fashion.  I love her bright red shiny lips:

Ruby's outfit is a simple one-piece red bathing suit with a metallic gold "RH" print.  It's made out of what feels like real swimsuit fabric, which is nice because these dolls are advertised as being good for water play.  The suit closes in the back with velcro and is easy to get on and off:

The suit is practical, but it's so simple.  I get that this is a budget doll, but if we're skimping on the hair quality, do we have to skimp on the outfit, too?  Maybe throw in a tailored cover-up?

I imagine most kids would want a normal outfit for Ruby, so she can change out of her swimsuit at some point, and while there are separate outfit packs available now, they cost $8 and don't look like they have the same quality as standard Rainbow High outfits.  Here's an example:

The roller skates look fun, but the clothing is very simple.

Adding an outfit pack brings Ruby's price up to $23, which is about the cost of a non-budget Rainbow High doll.

Underneath the suit, Ruby has red painted underwear and very little articulation:

I'll admit that the body looks nice and smooth without all of the joints, but it's nowhere near as much fun to play with.

Ruby has the same number of joints as a Littles doll (neck, shoulders, hips), but all of her joints are better than what we saw on Indigo.

For example, her head can look up and down:

And spin around:

Her arms have hinged movement, so they can lift up and away from her body:

And also spin around:

Her hips were so stiff at first that I thought they couldn't move from side to side, but they can:

And Ruby can do front-to-back splits, too:

And sit on the ground:

Sort of.

Sigh.  The joints that Ruby has aren't terrible, and the vinyl has a nice weight and quality, but she's not very inspiring.  I guess budget dolls have to skimp on hair, clothing, and articulation.

One positive thing I can say is that Ruby fits into other Rainbow High clothing.  So she can wear Krystal's outfit:

Which actually looks awesome with her purple eyes!

I wish it wasn't so hard to make the hair look good.

Ruby came with sunglasses and a tote bag, which are fine:

But her most lauded accessory is that fancy sarong.  There's a whole instruction pamphlet on how to use it:

Sarong Tying 101.

The sarong itself is a square of fabric with a shiny metallic orange and red color that's very pretty:

I thought I'd try out a few of the tying options, and started with this one:

That's pretty fancy.

I got it to work on Ruby...sort of.  It looks okay from the front:

But there was no way I could tie it in back.  The fabric is too small and square.  I had to use a metal clip:

I tried a few of the simpler suggestions:

I could tie this variation in the front once, but didn't have enough fabric or stretch to make a knot:

That won't stay in place for long.

Same with this:

And you can see that they couldn't even manage a knot for the promotional photos:

I actually got the sarong tied around Ruby's neck:

But I couldn't push it up over her head to make a headband.  It's way too tight.

So, Ruby does not have the joints or hair that make Rainbow High dolls so great, nor does she have a stylish, intricate outfit.  She has the distinctive Ruby Anderson face, with lovely inset eyes and nice makeup, but that's about it.  And with deals like this on the internet right now:

Or this--with full articulation and two outfits:

I struggle to find a reason why I should buy one of the Swim & Style dolls instead.

Sorry, Ruby.

The star of this review, for me, is Junior High Krystal Bailey.  I think she's a fun variation on standard Rainbow High dolls, and a variation that I might actually prefer to the original:

Bottom line?  That was a lot to tackle for one review, but I felt like it was past time for me to get up-to-speed with these dolls.  I'll summarize my thoughts about each of the dolls I looked at, and then talk for a minute about some trends that I find a little disturbing.

Junior High Krystal Bailey is essentially a scaled-down version of a standard Rainbow High doll.  She has the same distinctive inset eyes, fifteen points of impressive articulation (with just a few tiny differences), and a stylish outfit that's easy to use and well-constructed.  Krystal's curly ponytails look good and are easy to manage, and the hair is densely-rooted and thick.  Krystal's hair type isn't the norm for this line, but I can confirm that other Junior High dolls have the same high-quality nylon fiber as their larger counterparts.  I love Krystal's size, and find her outfit easier to manage than the larger doll's ensemble.  I also like Junior Krystal's youthful features and more subtle makeup.  I feel like her eyes could be closer together and smaller, but the colors are pretty.  Krystal doesn't come with a stand, but she can balance on her own.  Her one accessory, a backpack, is detailed, functional, and very well made.  The only overt flaws I can point to are a snag on the front of Krystal's skirt, some messiness with the stitching on that skirt, and some misplaced paint around her mouth.  Other than the buggy eyes, I'm very happy with this girl and have a new, heightened interest in all of the other Junior High dolls because of her.

I'm also charmed by the Rainbow High Littles, but I have to set aside some disappointments in order to appreciate them.  It would have been nice if these small girls had inset eyes like their sisters.  However, given that the Junior High heads struggle to accommodate large inset eyes, perhaps the painted eyes on the Littles was a wise choice.  I like that the eyes are not pixelated, and that they have a glossy sheen to make them look more three dimensional.  Another disappointment is that I wish these dolls had more joints.  I associate Rainbow High with great articulation, and the Littles do not have great articulation.  Even simple elbow and knee joints would have been nice--like the Extra Minis or Iconic Minis.  It's not asking too much.  Most disappointing is the hair.  It's so bad.  Indigo's micro braids are sparsely-rooted with lots of visible scalp, and they tend to look messy.  Daisy's hair is rooted well, but it's coarse and dry and nothing like the glossy locks on larger Rainbow High dolls.  With better hair, I would excuse all of the other shortcomings on these dolls.  They have so much potential, but it's tarnished by the hair.

On the positive side, I thought I would dislike the hybrid vinyl and fabric clothing on the Littles, but I actually think it's clever.  The vinyl tops allow for some intricate molded details, and the fabric parts make the outfits seem fancier than a plain vinyl outfit--certainly better than Barbie Chelsea's painted-on clothing.  The stiffness of the vinyl also helps the clothing keep its shape, and makes it easy to manipulate.  My favorite thing about the Littles, though, is that they're basically miniatures of the larger characters.  I love miniatures.  And I find myself, despite the bad hair and underwhelming articulation, a bit obsessed with putting together family groups of Rainbow High dolls in all of the available sizes.  Even for people not obsessed with collections like this, the addition of younger siblings to the world of Rainbow High is a fun idea, and opens up a lot of gameplay possibilities.

I won't spend much time talking about Swim & Style Ruby, because my mom taught me that if you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything.  I can say a few nice things about Ruby: first, she has a classic, well-painted Rainbow High face with colorful inset eyes.  Her face is the best thing about her.  She also has a satisfying weight, and can balance on her own in her shoes.  Also, despite her different body, she can share other Rainbow High clothing.  And the joints that she has are pretty good.  However, her hair, outfit, and level of articulation do not live up to Rainbow High standards.  I wish we didn't have to sacrifice all three of these qualities for a budget doll that still costs $15.  Ruby's hair is okay, I guess, but it's not silky or fun to comb, and the ends are dry and look prone to tangles.  Her outfit is incredibly simple--just a bathing suit and sarong--and the sarong gimmick doesn't even work as advertised.  And, worst of all, she has only a third the number of joints as a non-budget doll.  Ruby feels more like a knockoff to me than anything Rainbow High has released in the past.

The disturbing trend here is that originally we could get a Rainbow High doll with great hair, inset eyes, fantastic articulation, and not one but two really detailed, highly fashionable outfits.  All for about $28.  The nearly $30 price tag was high, and so I understood when MGA eliminated the second outfit and lowered the price a bit.  Fine.  But now we're seeing more cuts in quality.  Suddenly the hair and articulation aren't things that can be counted on.  I had to look closely to realize that the new Rainbow High World dolls don't have wrist articulation, and I never would have dreamed that the hair would take a hit for the Swim & Style and Littles lines.  Without being sure of what kind of quality my money is buying with the newer releases, I might stick to tracking down some old favorites before they disappear.  Well, that and dreaming about family sets in all three sizes, of course.