Mini Sara from Ruby Red Fashion Friends

When I wrote my initial review of the Ruby Red Fashion Friends back in April of 2022, I figured I'd said everything I wanted to say on the subject.  I really enjoyed spending time with Jennifer and Scarlett, but didn't really have much desire to purchase any more of the Fashion Friends; a bit because their larger size is hard to accommodate, and also because the price of each doll is pretty high.  I didn't want to get sucked into another expensive corner of the doll collecting world.

But then, a few months ago, I got a promotional email from Ruby Red Fashion Friends announcing their "biggest clearance event ever!"  I get a lot of emails like this, most of them dismissible, but this one wasn't kidding.  The 15-inch Fashion Friends, who typically retail for $129, were all on sale for $49.  Insane, right?  I could basically get three dolls for the price of one...which I did (insane, right?).  I think there was a Ruby Red collector in me all of this time, just dying for an excuse to indulge.

Propelled by the exhilaration of welcoming three new Fashion Friends into my collection (Sara, Kayla, and Stella), I spent a fair amount of time online searching around to see what else the brand had produced over the last two years.  This research led me to the most exciting discovery of all: there are now miniature versions of a few of the Fashion Friend characters!  And you know how much I love miniature versions of things.

Mini Sara by Ruby Red Fashion Friends, $249.

One of the reasons that it can be hard to stay up-to-date on all of the Ruby Red Fashion Friend releases is that there are three different websites promoting and selling the dolls.

First, there's rubyredfashionfriends.com.  This is the United States website that's having the huge sale.  The problem with that site, though, is that they don't showcase all of the limited edition dolls that are available.

To see a more extensive selection, you have to go to rubyredtoys.com.  At this site, you can find and pre-order all of the Special Editions, and also a new group of Fan Edition dolls.

The Fan Edition dolls are all based on designs submitted by regular people.  I was really excited about this group, especially Eden:

Eden.

Here's the fan sketch that inspired Eden:

She's really lovely, and she reminds me of Fernanda, who I missed out on and is now too expensive on the secondary market:

Fernanda.

Anyway, there are also some budget dolls, called Create Your Dream Doll, that are designed by fans, and I'll talk a bit more about those at the end of the review:

Create Your Dream Doll budget line from Ruby Red Fashion Friends.

The mini dolls make an appearance on the Ruby Red Toys site, but they're more prominent at the third website, rubyredgalleria.com.  On that site, Mini Sara and Mini Hanna are sold out:

Mini Hana.

And Mini Bella's pre-order just ended:

Mini Bella.

From what I can tell, the pre-order price for these dolls is about $40 less than normal retail.  So if you really like a doll, it's best to pre-order and shave off some of that whopping $250 bill.  

I would have pre-ordered Mini Bella, who looks amazing, but I'm reminded of how green the big Bella's skin tone looked when I saw her at American Dream:

Hello, my pretties.

Also, Mini Bella has blue eyes, and the standard Bella has brown eyes, so the two dolls don't match perfectly.  You have to have been lucky enough to snag the Happily Ever After exclusive Bella with blue eyes in order to have a matching pair.

Anyway, the mini dolls use the same body as another Ruby Red Galleria doll, Ten Ping:

Ten Ping is 8.5 inches tall and highly articulated.  She's also hard to buy--at least in this country.  I was only able to find one Ten Ping for sale at Happily Ever After.  I'll have to keep an eye out for new releases, because the dolls look beautiful and I'd love to see one up close.

And speaking of availability, as of today, all three Fashion Friend mini dolls are still listed for sale at Happily Ever After.

I'm eager to show you Mini Sara, but I can't really evaluate a mini doll without at least briefly looking at the larger version, can I?  

Here's the 15-inch Sara that I got on sale for $49:

The box poses are so awkward.

The two Special Edition dolls that I reviewed in 2022 came in plain cardboard boxes that were compact and easy to deal with, but it seems that the standard girls come in large plastic window boxes--at least in this country.

The back of the box has a photo of seven characters:

Here's a better look:

From left: Maya, Hanna, Stella, Sara, Bella, Kayla, and Lila.

There have been some new characters added since that photo, including a boy named Alex:

And a girl, Jada, who's gorgeous.  She was sold out by the time I knew about the clearance sale:

There's also Ella, who looks worried:

Stella, Bella and Ella?? And only one fella.

The original characters were also re-released in different outfits.  This is Splash of Style Sara:

I originally thought that the clearance sale was to get rid of the older versions of the dolls to make room for the Splash of Style group, but all of the dolls--old and new--were on sale for $49, so I'm not actually sure what prompted the sale.  Too much inventory, perhaps?

In any case, here's big Sara out of her box:

She has the same face mold as Scarlett and Jennifer, but it's interesting to me how much of a difference coloring and paint can make:

Here's a reminder of Scarlett:

With fever.

And Jennifer:

Jennifer, in particular, looks distinct because of her full, dark lips.

Sara's long, blond (wigged) hair comes styled into a French braid that runs from her right side, up and over her head: 

She also has straight tendrils of hair hanging down in front of each ear:

Her bangs are thick and fall down over her eyebrows:

Sara's hair is silky-smooth and easy to brush.  I also think that the style is beautiful and youthful, although the braid has become messy in a few areas.  I worry that if I take it down to smooth things out, I won't be able to get it back to the way it was.  I'm not the best at French braiding.

Sara's outfit includes a denim jacket with lots of stitched details and working pockets:

Underneath the jacket, she's wearing a pale pink tee shirt with her signature phrase: "let your light shine."

Let your skin tone glow.

The tee shirt has lace patches along the shoulder seams, which is a nice touch:

Sara's jeans are highly detailed, with working belt loops, functional pockets, a velcro fly, and some intentionally ripped holes in the legs:

I like the shaping in the back:

Sara's floral Converse-style sneakers might be my favorite part of the outfit:

They're made out of a lightweight canvas, and have working laces and imitation leather patterns on the sides:

Under her clothing, Sara's body is made out of high-quality (extremely pale) vinyl.  She has nine points of elastic-strung articulation:

Sara has exactly the same body and articulation as Jennifer and Scarlett, and you can read all about those things in my older review, but Sara feels much more loosely-strung.  She can balance on her own, but only in a straight up-and-down standing position.  Even then, her knees buckle quite easily.  It feels like her elastic has started to loosen, which is a bummer since I don't know how to re-string a doll like this.  I might have to look into it.

At this point I wondered if the Ruby Red Fashion Friends clearance sale was in part due to the fact that the inventory is getting old at this point?  This version of Sara has been around since 2019.  On the other hand, newer dolls like Jada and Splash of Style Sara were also on huge clearance, so there goes that hypothesis.

Anyway, now that we've taken a quick look at the original Sara, let's check out her mini!  Small Sara came inside a plain brown cardboard box that wasn't worth photographing.  Inside that box, the doll and her clothing were stored inside a mint green imitation leather carrying case:

The carrying case is quite nice, with metal fittings and an embossed Ruby Red Galleria label:

As nice as this bag is, I wonder how much it adds to the overall price of the minis?  I'd rather a less-expensive doll with no bag.

The bag unzips along the top:

It reminds me of a bowling bag.

The first things I pulled out were the clothing, shoes, and a silicone wig cap: 

All of these items were carefully wrapped in plastic bags or tissue paper:

Mini Sara has all of the same outfit elements as her larger counterpart, and right off the bat, the quality and detail looked wonderful:

Sara herself was tied into the bottom of the carrying case with three white satin ribbons.  There's a long shoulder strap for the case stashed on Sara's right side:

She was very easy to extract from the case:

Look at all of those joints!!  I was so excited.  I was also pleased by how solid and sturdy Sara feels.  She can easily balance on her own.

There was a bit more packaging to be removed from underneath Sara's wig:

Some tissue paper around the hairline.

I replaced the tissue paper with the silicone wig cap:

This holds the hair in place nicely, without being visible at all:

Since Sara came undressed, I decided to take her wig back off and start by looking at all of those delicious joints:

Yum.

Sara has a hard plastic body and a vinyl head.  The color of the vinyl and plastic match well, although the vinyl is slightly paler and more luminescent.

Sara's head mold is a wonderful miniature of the original:

She has tiny blue inset eyes and applied lashes:

I like that there are some hair line details in the eyebrows, and that even though Sara's complexion is extremely pale, the blushing is not overdone to the extent that it is on Scarlett:

She has a cute profile with simple ears:

Sara has a stunning 20 points of articulation.  The advertising says that she has 26 joints, but I have no idea how they got that number.  I see: neck (1), upper shoulders (2), lower shoulders (2), upper elbows (2), lower elbows (2), wrists (2), torso (1), hips (2), upper knee (2), lower knee (2), ankles (2).  That's 20, and 20 is enough.  No need to exaggerate.

Let's run through all of the joints one at a time.  

First of all, Sara's head can look up, down, and from side to side:

Here's a GIF showing the range of up-and-down movement:

She can also tip her head from side to side:

Sara's neck is elastic-strung, but all the rest of her joints are plastic.

Her shoulders have a hinged ball joint with points of rotation on either side.  The hinges allow her to lift her arms straight up:

The ball rotates in the shoulder socket, and the upper arm also rotates around the ball.  The rotation in the upper arm is less stiff and easier to use:

I guess this area could technically be called six points of articulation, since each shoulder has hinge motion and two rotating points, but my convention has been to call a rotating hinge a single joint.  So Sara's shoulders are just rotating hinges with an extra point of rotation in the upper arm.

The elbow is also double-jointed, and the upper joint allows the arm to bend past 90 degrees:

The lower elbow joint allows the arms to fold even more:

The wrists are rotating hinges, so the hands can bend forwards and backwards, and can also spin around:

As you might imagine, Sara can easily touch her head and face:

She also has a joint in her upper torso that allows her body to tip back and forth:

With a little effort, this joint can also spin:

And the upper body can lean backwards and forwards a bit:

Sara has hinged ball joints at her hips, with a point of rotation in the upper thigh.  The ball does not rotate in the hip socket, but the hinges allow Sara to do partial side-to-side splits:

I guess the hinge motion in the hips and the rotation in the upper thigh should be counted as two separate joints, so I'll correct what I said earlier: Sara has 22 joints.  Maybe 24 depending on how you want to count the shoulders.

The knees are double-jointed, and the upper joint allows the leg to bend to about 90 degrees:

With both joints engaged, Sara can kneel really well:

The joints are very large, and look funny when Sara is kneeling, but they move so well that I don't care.

Her ankles are rotating hinges, so her feet can spin around, point, and flex:

All of these joints make Sara an expert at sitting in a chair:

She sits on the floor nicely, too:

And she balances solidly, even if both of her feet aren't firmly planted on the ground:

The is one of the best-articulated dolls I've reviewed in a while.  She has Made to Move caliber joints on a solid body with wonderful balance.  She reminds me of a Makie.  She's so much fun to pose, and the size of her body makes her really easy to play with.  She also feels sturdy and durable in my hands, and I don't have to worry about her elastic joints loosening over time...except her neck, I guess.

I wanted to give Sara her hair back before I did size comparisons.  Her wig has the same hairstyle as the larger Sara, but the braid is messier because the strands of hair are shorter:

There are tendrils hanging over Sara's ears, just like on the big doll, and the hair fiber feels silky and smooth.

Incidentally, Mini Sara should be able to use other 5-6" wigs.  These are hard to find, but 5-6 happens to be the size of a Liv wig:

Mini Sara wearing a Liv wig.

Liv wigs aren't very high quality, though, and you have to cut the vinyl peg out of the cap to use them on a doll like Sara.  Ten Ping wigs also fit, presumably, so that might be a better option.

Here are the two versions of Sara together:

8.5 inch Fashion Friends Sara (left) and 15 inch Fashion Friends Sara (right).

The two have strikingly similar faces and hair, but of course Mini Sara's body is dramatically different.  Her balance and articulation are both vastly superior to the larger Sara.

For another size comparison, here's Mini Sara next to my clothes-stealing assistant, Lena:

Ruby Red Fashion Friends Mini Sara (left), and Signature Looks Barbie (right).

Sara's body style also reminds me of my Monst doll, Artie, so here are those two together:

Ruby Red Fashion Friends Mini Sara (left), and Monst doll (right).

And here's Sara alongside another well-articulated fellow, Penny's Box Adou:

Ruby Red Fashion Friends Mini Sara (left), and Penny's Box Street Series Adou (right).

Last, here's Sara with an American Girl mini:

Ruby Red Fashion Friends Mini Sara (left), and American Girl mini doll (right).

I really feel like Sara's size is perfect.  She's big enough so that dressing and undressing aren't a huge pain, and yet she fits easily into the palm of my hand.

Before I get Sara dressed, let's take a closer look at her outfit.

Here's the miniature jean jacket, complete with lots of stitched embellishments and functional pockets:

Here it is from the back:

The construction of this jacket is excellent.  The stitching is neat and all of the edges are serged:

It's a good replica of the larger jacket, although the color of the denim is lighter:

Both jackets have the same slit cuff design that's great for rolling up the sleeves:

Two rolls of the sleeve on the big jacket and one roll of the sleeve on the little jacket achieve approximately the same effect: 

Here are the two tee shirts side-by-side:

I think these are made out of the same soft pink fabric, although the smaller shirt has slightly different colors in the printed flowers.

And the small shirt is missing the lace accents on the shoulders:

The mini jeans are my favorite part of the smaller outfit:

They have working belt loops and pockets, and a little decorative button at the top of the velcro fly:

And, once again, the construction is excellent:

The mini jeans are very similar to the original, although the ripped areas are proportionally larger on the small jeans, and once again the denim is a different color and texture:

The shaping is the same in back, too:

Last of all, here are the two sneakers:

The larger shoes have a molded tread on the bottom while the mini shoes are smooth:

Other than that, the mini shoes are an excellent replica of the original, complete with a little tongue and working laces:

Here's Sara wearing the tee shirt, jeans, and shoes:

Her wig has a curve in it so that the fibers on the right side of her head tend to curve to the right, but overall I think she looks extremely cute.

I can use that curved hair to my advantage, so that it looks like Sara is standing in the wind!

She's super-fun to pose:

And her clothing doesn't restrict her movement very much.  She can even sit down without the fly on her jeans popping open.

The denim jacket is a bit more restrictive, and doesn't feel like it fits quite right.

The bottom of the jacket rides up in the middle when Sara puts her arms down:

I wish the jacket was slightly longer, and maybe darker, but it's still very cute:

Here are the two Saras together:

I really wish that the larger Sara had better articulation and balance.  In that last picture, I was able to get little Sara balanced in her running pose in about 30 seconds, but it took forever to get big Sara to balance in even a simple standing pose.  I'd intended for her to be walking ahead of Mini Sara, but she's completely unable to hold a walking pose.

The two are still really cute together:

Qué Será, Sara.

But little Sara has spoiled me already.  I have to say that as much as I like the 15-inch Fashion Friends, I like the smaller version ever more.

Little Sara steals the show.

I hope that the Ruby Red Galleria makes minis of all the characters.  I would love to have a mini Stella and Kayla!

I mentioned at the beginning of the review that Ruby Red Toys also has a line of basic dolls that were designed by fans.  From what I understand, this is basically an overflow outlet for all of the fun artwork that's being submitted for the Fan Edition doll series.  

The budget group is called Create Your Dream Doll and includes nine different characters:

These dolls only cost $31.99, down from an original $39.99 price.  That's significantly lower than the cost of a regular Fashion Friend ($129.99) but not that different from the clearance sale cost of the Fashion Friends ($49.99).

So it's a bit hard to justify buying one of these dolls with the clearance sale going on, but I was curious to see one in person.  

My pick was, of course, the redheaded Erin:

These dolls come in bright, cheerful, open-faced cardboard boxes.  The sides of each box are decorated with the drawings that inspired each of the dolls' designs:

Here's a closer look at Summer, Erik, and Clara:

And here are Erin and Marina:

I feel like some of the dolls are more true to the drawings than others.  For example, poor Marina didn't get the mass of ringlet curls that her designer intended:

 

Mila was also supposed to have tight curls:

And while the Mila doll is cute, she looks nothing like her picture:

Vicky's short, wispy hair didn't translate very well from the drawing, either:

And she looks sad about that.

The last two drawings on the box are of Tanya and Jeanette:

Tanya is the most interesting of these two, with her red hair, feathery dress, and unicorn horn.  Her doll came out well, too:

The unicorn theme seems to have gotten a little lost along the way, though.  I would have purchased Tanya, but she's completely sold out.

The back of the box has pictures of all nine dolls, and the implication that more might be coming:

Here's a closer look:

Will there be more of these dolls?

Indeed, Erin came with two sheets of paper, one with a light sketch of a doll for me to decorate, and another with space for me to tell that doll's story:

It would be fun to design a doll, but I didn't have time to do that this week.  And since somebody else had already dreamed up a green-eyed, freckled redhead, what else is there for me to do?

Erin came attached to a cardboard backdrop that pulled out of the main box:

She was held in place by five plastic bands that were easy to cut.

Here's everything that was in the box:

The little booklet has Erin's concept drawing featured on the front:

And inside, there's the story that Erin's designer wrote about her:

The story is original and cute.  Erin likes to garden with her grandparents, who sound like lovely, generous people.  But the blocking on the text is very awkward, and "grandparents" shouldn't be capitalized.

The back of the booklet describes the idea behind this series, and invites new designs:

It seems like submissions are still open for the Fan Edition and Create Your Dream Doll groups, which is great.  I can't imagine how excited I would have been as a kid if my drawing had been turned into an actual doll!  

Well, I can imagine it, sort-of, because my mom used to do amazing things like turn my drawings of birds into stuffed Christmas tree ornaments:

She also copied one of my drawings of a horse onto a birthday cake.  I still have no idea how she did that.

Anyway, here's Erin:

Her face is adorable, but she has a ghostly pale skin tone.  She's almost Emily the Strange pale.  But her face looks way better in photographs than I thought it would:

Her curly red hair was a little messy right out of the box, but brushing it did not help:

Even messier.

The hair is wigged, with decent density:

But the hair fiber doesn't feel as nice as Sara's hair.  It could be that Erin's hair is curly and Sara's hair is straight, but I'm pretty sure that this is a lower-quality fiber.

I tied the hair back so that I could get a better look at Erin's face:

She has a sweetly somber expression, with cute freckles and angled eyebrows that have hair line detail:

Her bright green eyes are inset, and surrounded by painted upper and lower lashes.

Erin is wearing a two-piece outfit, knee-high socks, and shoes:

From her design drawing, I think she's meant to be wearing overalls, but this has been translated into a tee shirt and shorts with an overall pattern printed on the front of the shirt.

The back of the shirt is plain blue:

The tee opens all of the way down the back with velcro, and is super easy to use:

The construction is fine, but it's not as robust as what we saw with Sara's clothing.

The best part of the outfit is the socks and shoes:

The shoes are made out of an imitation suede and have working laces:

The pale lining looks a little cheap, but it's not visible when the shoes are on Erin's feet:

Underneath her clothing, Erin has a high-quality, super-pale vinyl body with five points of articulation:

Her feet are molded to accommodate thong sandals, but none of the Create Your Dream Doll characters are wearing thong sandals:

I was relieved to see that while Erin's limbs only have rotational movement, her head is able to look up and down:

And tip from side to side:

She's able to sit on the ground if her legs are apart:

And she can do front-to-back splits:

Erin is 11 inches tall, so about an inch shorter than a Siblie doll like Sunny:

Create Your Dream Doll Erin (left) and Siblie Sunny (right), by Ruby Red Fashion Friends.

I find it interesting that Sunny is only available to purchase on the Ruby Red Toys website.  I didn't even know she existed when I was shopping only at rubyredfashionfriends.com.  Minnie and Abby don't appear on the US site, either.

Also, Sunny came in an all-cardboard box, which is not how the Siblies are packaged in this country:

This packaging is much easier to deal with.

Here are all four sizes of Ruby Red Fashion Friend together:

From left: Mini Sara, Create Your Dream Doll Erin, Siblie Sunny, and Let Your Light Shine Sara.

They're all really sweet, and are all clearly from the same company, but Mini Sara kinda steals the show.

I was getting ready to take a few last shots of Erin in my studio...

But then decided that she'd probably look better in natural light, so I took her outside:

Her posing options are limited, but she balances well.

And I think she has a really sweet face.

This girl has potential, but the messy hair and simplified clothing make her more obviously a play doll than the standard Ruby Red Fashion Friends.  I'm tempted to buy her a nicer wig and maybe find her some more interesting clothes.  If I ever get around to doing that, I'll update on Patreon.

Mini Sara was miffed at me for taking Erin outside and leaving her behind, but I assured her that I had always intended to take her out, I was just saving the best for last.

This made Sara feel very happy, which buoyed her already exuberant personality. 

She was eager to climb on anything she could find in the garden.  This started with some large edging stones:

But quickly progressed to the fence in back:

Be careful, Sara!

She liked the view she got from climbing this old stump:

And after that, she only wanted to go higher and higher!

I love this little monkey.  She's fun to have around, and ready for any kind of adventure.

Bottom line?  I feel really happy to have stumbled upon the Ruby Red Fashion Friends clearance sale, because without it, I'm not sure I would have revisited this brand, and then I never would have met Mini Sara.  I also wouldn't have three new traditional Fashion Friends in my collection, nor would I have discovered the Fan Edition and Create Your Dream Doll lines.  Turns out there's a lot more going on with this brand than I initially realized.

Create Your Dream Doll Erin is very cute (especially that sweet freckled face!) and I love the concept, but the printed clothing, limited articulation, and lower hair quality make it hard to justify choosing one of these basic dolls over the Fashion Friends or Siblies, especially with the clearance pricing.

But the star of this review is Mini Sara, and she is a gem.  First and foremost, Sara's 22 (24?) points of articulation are amazing.  With double-jointed shoulders, elbows, and knees, she can fold herself into almost any position I can imagine.  Her joints also feel sturdy and move smoothly, and her body has excellent balance.  The only possible downside is that her neck is elastic-strung.  While this offers great flexibility in the short term, there's always the risk of that elastic loosening over time--something that I noticed is happening to the joints of the full-sized Sara that I bought on clearance.

Mini Sara's outfit is also fantastic.  It's a near-perfect replica of the original Sara's clothing, save for a few changes in fabric color and texture.  The clothing is also extremely well made, with tiny details like working pockets, meticulous seams, and serged edges.  The fit of the jean jacket is a bit awkward, but it's hard to layer clothing on a doll this small.  And while it's not technically clothing, I should also mention that Sara's tote bag is well-made and functional, and offers a convenient way to bring this cutie along on a trip or outdoor adventure.

I'm also in awe of how well Sara's facial features have been replicated on such a small doll.  Her expression and inset eyes look just like the 15-inch Sara, and the hairstyle has been scaled down nicely, too, although the braid is a bit messier in the small size.  The hair fiber feels great and the wig stays put with the help of the included silicone wig cap.

The $250 price tag on these dolls is staggering.  It's almost double the cost of a traditional Ruby Red Fashion Friend, which I already thought was on the high side.  On the other hand, maintaining the same standard of quality in the clothing can't be easy when shifting from a 15-inch doll to one that's only 8.5 inches.  Also, packing 13 more joints into such a tiny body is worth a lot--at least to me.  And none of the charm and charisma of the Fashion Friend faces was sacrificed to the smaller scale, either.  An under $200 price would feel more fair to me, even if it meant leaving out the tote bag.  

I find myself liking Mini Sara more than any of the full-sized Fashion Friends I've owned.  She takes some of the best things about the brand and mixes them with qualities like small size and articulation that I value a great deal.  So, despite the high price, I have no regrets about adding little Sara to my doll family.  In fact, I hope miniature versions are eventually made for all of the different Fashion Friend characters.  I'll start saving now.