Disney Store Flynn Rider/Eugene Fitzherbert Comparison

Okay, school is officially over for the year (Yay!!), so it's time to clear some of the backlog!! ;)  I have several review posts that I'll be putting up about gifts that Oldest Gal received for her party, and this is the first of them.  

As I mentioned before, I got her a Disney Store Flynn Rider doll.  I'd heard there were some differences between the current Flynn Rider and the original version, which is the one I have, so I thought it would be interesting to compare the two.

Here's the new Flynn in his package.  If you'd like to compare it to the packaging on my original Flynn, you can see my original review post HERE.

The back of the box.

New Flynn de-boxed.

And a close up of that handsome face. 

Now we get into the comparisons.

First off, the satchel.  The above picture is the satchel that came with my original Flynn doll, released when the movie came to theaters.  As you can see, it is an actual pouch with Velcro closure.

Here it is open.

It also has very nice detail on the belt part, with two loops on the belt and a buckle on one side.

Here is the new, very disappointing satchel.  It is just a flat piece of material, not an actual pouch.  It does not open at all.

It has a messy stitch sewn across the top, I'm assuming to make it look more like a satchel.

This belt has only one piece of leather, and the buckle is in the middle instead of off to one side.  Come to think of it, the belt buckle in the middle might be more movie accurate, but I don't really remember.

Now on to the vest:

I loved the detail on my original Flynn's vest (shown in the picture above), down to the little metal pieces on his shoulders.

New Flynn does not have these (I apologize for the horribly blurry picture!  Still, you get the idea).

My original Flynn also has these strap-looking things across his chest...

...while the new Flynn does not.  This isn't particularly a life-changing element of his attire, but it's just one more detail that's lost.

It was also interesting to me to see the subtle changes in color.  The first leg pictured is Original Flynn's, and the second is New Flynn's.  I noticed that the material used for New Flynn's pants was much flimsier.

Here's a profile comparison.  The only major difference I noticed in their heads was the New Flynn had a slightly darker shade of hair.  It was almost impossible to pick up on camera, though.  Also, as you can see from this picture, their vests are a slightly different shade (New Flynn's is darker).

I really dislike flash photography, but I decided to include one flash picture to hopefully capture the true color differences between the two dolls.  Original Flynn is on the left, and New Flynn on the right.

And here they are without the flash.

You can sort of see the difference in hair color here.

So, final thoughts?  I definitely prefer the original Flynn doll (as you probably guessed).  I mean the new doll is fine.  My daughter loves him, and if I didn't have the original doll to compare him to, I might not even notice anything was amiss.  But when you see the lack of detail and quality compared to the original movie release doll, the choice between the two is a no-brainer, at least for me!  I can understand that the Disney Store probably wishes to cut their costs a bit, and I'm thankful that they've improved their face molds so much (the Disney Store dolls used to be my least favorite of all of the Disney dolls made!).  However, I wish they would keep the quality of their product as nice as when they first released it.  By the way, this is not isolated to this doll alone.  I've also seen a difference in the Rapunzel dolls and the Prince Naveen dolls (and yes, a review on that guy is coming too!). ;)  

The moral of the story?  Buy your Disney Store dolls when the movie (and the dolls) are first released, because that's when their quality will be the best.  You can be sure that as soon as I save up enough, I will be purchasing a Disney Store Merida doll while she still has all of the lovely detail to her dress and accessories! ;)

Hope you all enjoyed this review/comparison.  More to come! :)