Paradise Horses for 18" Dolls

When I was a child, I was much more interested in toy horses than I was in dolls.  I had a massive collection of Breyer model horses, and my friends and I would play elaborate games with our plastic herds, developing little romances (between the horses) and power struggles (between the horses...mostly) that could rival most soap operas.  As an adult, I am more interested in collecting dolls, but horses still elicit a special kind of excitement in me.

I don't know if it's just my warped perspective, but it seems like there are a lot of new play horses on the market these days, and I find myself gravitating towards these toys when I am in the stores.  Many of the horses I've seen come with dolls, but I often feel like the dolls are completely out of scale with their equine companions (the Mattel Disney Princess and Horse sets are a perfect example of this).  I thought it would be fun to launch a series of reviews that examines some of the available horses, with an emphasis on which dolls fit them best.  I won't do these reviews all in a row like I did with the Cutie Pops, but I hope to review six or seven different steeds over the next month or two.

I am going to start by reviewing two of the large 19" Paradise horses.  I have been curious about these toys (and the whole Paradise line) for a while.  The fur-covered, articulated Paradise horses are sold for around $30 at Walmart as part of the Madame Alexander 18" "My Life As..." play doll series, but they are also available in the standard Paradise packaging with no mention of My Life at all.  I was interested to learn whether there's any difference between these separately-marketed versions of the horse.  These horses strike me as a nice alternative to the expensive American Girl horses, and will offer an interesting comparison for my upcoming review of the comparably-priced Our Generation articulated Morgan.

Paradise "Western Pinto"  horse.

A Review of BFC Ink Pen Pal Doll "Britt" by MGA Entertainment

I have paused in my shopping to look at the BFC (Best Friends Club) Ink dolls on a number of occasions.  I even bought one of the extra outfits to see if it would fit my Lorifina doll (it did...kind-of). It wasn't until I started thinking about the charitable doll series of posts (here and here) that I considered reviewing one of the BFC Ink dolls.  Pondering the questions surrounding how charitable donations might impact a doll's price and quality made me brainstorm a list of 14"-22" play dolls that don't have an association with a charity to use as an outgroup in my investigation.  BFC Ink dolls made this list and appeal to me in particular because of their high level of articulation. The original BFC Ink dolls cost about $30, which would have been comparable to the Hearts 4 Hearts dolls, but I was happy to discover a newer and less expensive version of these dolls to examine.

The Pen Pal line of BFC Ink dolls were released late last year.  These dolls retail for $19.99.  In theory, they can be found at Target, Walmart, K-Mart and Toys R Us, however, as far as I can tell all BFC Ink dolls have disappeared from Toys R Us.  I actually haven't seen any of the Pen Pal dolls at my local Target or Walmart, either, but they can be purchased at Target.com (where they are called "Moxie Pen Pals" for some reason).  *Update 8/26/13: these dolls have been discontinued.

The Pen Pal dolls each represent a different country.  These dolls are meant to be the pen pals of the original club dolls.  There are 5 Pen Pal dolls: Britt (England), Carmen (Mexico), Nicolette (France), Elsa (Sweden) and Lily (South Africa).  I like Britt's combination of dark hair and blue eyes, so I ordered her.

BFC Ink Pen Pal Britt.

MiM Dolls from Make it Mine, LLC

I heard about the brand-new Make it Mine ("MiM") company and their debut doll line back in December on Terri's blog.  The first thing I noticed about these dolls was that they have a centaur body option.  That's not something you see every day.  As a person who likes dolls and horses quite a lot, a centaur doll has always been near the top of my list of things to add to my collection.  There aren't a ton of centaur dolls out there, though.  SOOM of Korea made an exquisite unicorn centaur doll a while ago (gasp!), but if you pile all of the different options and extras for him into your shopping cart (because I would want everything in those pictures!) it gets really pricey.  And he's sold out.  SOOM also had some smaller wood centaur dolls that were less expensive, but also less impressive.  Domadoll has a cute centaur, too, but I am not sure if it is still available for order.  Jpop Dolls has a relatively inexpensive centaur BJD named Elise who has especially nice horse parts.  I think there was one other very well-done BJD centaur on my radar, but I've forgotten where I saw it.  The MiM doll with a centaur body can be yours for about $134, making it the least expensive articulated centaur doll I have seen to date.

After glimpsing those first pictures, I took a look at the MiM website to learn more.   MiM dolls are advertised as 16" plastic ball-jointed dolls.  I guess the term "ball-jointed doll" applies to any doll with ball-and-socket joints.  I agree with Wikipedia, though, when they say that "BJD" usually means a resin doll strung with elastic and made in Asia, which MiM is not.  Oh, well.  The MiM doll has several customizable parts, which definitely fits with my idea of what a BJD should be.  Not only is there a centaur body, but MiM dolls can be mermaids, too.  Cool!  The Make it Mine website is very fun.  I've visited there many times since December, recreationally filling and un-filling my cart.  You can choose between different skin colors, faces, wigs, eye colors and outfit options and the site will show you a picture of approximately what your doll will look like.  It reminds me a lot of the Hasbro Lorifina dolls and their website.  Here what the MiM face looks like:

MiM doll.

Quick Lorifina Update: BFC Ink. Outfits Show Promise

One of the problems with a discontinued doll like Lorifina is that it is difficult to find a wardrobe for her.  Occasionally, there are single items of Lorifina's original wardrobe on eBay, but it gets tiresome to seek out pieces of clothing one at a time, and the shipping costs can really add up.  So, I have been searching for a current line of dolls that can share clothes with this tall beauty.  I've scoured the doll aisles of several stores looking at all of the dolls in the 20" range and, of all the dolls I've seen, the BFC, Ink. girls are the closest match.  Although their heads are larger than Lorifina's, the BFCs have bodies that are slim and tall like hers.  BFC Ink dolls are 18" articulated dolls made by MGA Entertainment.  They remind me a bit of American Girl dolls, but are slightly shorter and have slimmer bodies.  BFC stands for "Best Friends Club," but I have no idea why they spell "Ink" that way, assuming it is short for "incorporated."

Anyway, I've come close to buying a BFC outfit pack several times, feeling pretty sure at least some of the pieces would fit, but haven't really loved any of the clothes enough to spend $14.99.   Today I found a nice outfit that looked like it would coordinate well with my Lorifina's other clothes, and so I decided it was time to put this idea to the test.  Here's the outfit, it's called "Icy Cute:"

A Review of Lorifina (Discontinued) by Hasbro

Lorifina is a 20" articulated plastic and vinyl fashion doll line that was made by Hasbro a few years ago and is now discontinued.  These dolls have inset acrylic eyes and long changeable wigs.  When it was first introduced, the Lorifina line was special because you could design the appearance of your doll online and then she'd be shipped to your house from the factory.  There were at least two skin tones, three eye colors and many wigs to choose from.  The dolls came in two-piece sleepwear, but you could select additional outfits from three city-themed collections: London, New York and Tokyo.

When Hasbro unveiled this line in 2009, I got caught up in the excitement for a little while.  I spent some time on the website, designing various dolls and seeing how they looked in all of the outfits.  I don't know why I never hit the checkout button.  Perhaps it was the $98 price tag, or the fact that together with all of the cool clothes and shoes I had also added to my cart, the price was discouragingly higher than $98.  I can't remember exactly.

Last year, I saw a picture of a Lorifina doll's beautiful face on Flickr and went in search of these girls on the secondary market.  Nothing.  Maybe there was one on Amazon for close to $200, but again, I can't remember the specifics.  What I do remember is seeing another picture of these dolls on Flickr just recently and feeling compelled to start the search again.  This time, I was well-rewarded.  There is a bounty of these dolls on eBay right now, and (with some patience) they can be won for around $50...often with many accessories included.  I figured this was a good time to do a review.  Here's the one I got (this combination of hair and skin color was the most common on eBay during my hunt):

Lorifina: light skin tone, green eyes and a blonde wig.