Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Disney Store Singing Rapunzel Doll


I am so excited!!  I've been wanting to see one of the Disney Store 17" Singing Princess dolls in person for  a while now, and my mom just found a Rapunzel at Goodwill last week! :D  My mom is amazing! ;)

When Mom found her, she still had the original plastic packaging attached underneath her skirt, and her dress was in excellent shape except for a small stain, but her hair was a huge mess:


Her skirt stain

The hair didn't appear to be dirty, just tangled (hee hee...no pun intended!), so I opted for brushing it out instead of doing a downy dunk.  We covered her speaker in the back with scotch tape and then I spritzed and brushed out her hair.  I used a wire brush like I use for my AG dolls, figuring this would do the least amount of damage.

It was a long process!!  In the end, even though I brushed as carefully as I could, she still lost a LOT of hair.  But thankfully she had enough to spare. ;)


She looked a lot better after her hair was all combed out and nice. :)


After I finished brushing her hair, I put it in a braid right away.  Here she is in all of her braided glory:


(Note:  I've updated this portion of the post thanks to some helpful information from MulanFan_95.  Thanks so much!) :)  There were two different versions of the Singing Princess dolls that were made.  The first ones came out in 2010.  The original versions had hair that was more accurate to their movie characters and had the same face molds as the 2010 12" princess dolls.  Then in late 2011, a second wave of Singing Princess dolls were released.  These ones had the newer face molds of the 2011 12" princess dolls, and most of them had long, straight hair, even if their movie character did not.  Apparently this change happened because the dolls with longer hair were selling better than the short-haired dolls like Tiana and Snow White.  I understand their reasoning, but it was still a bit weird to see the regularly short-haired dolls with long hair!

It sounds like this particular singing doll was called "Tangled's Rapunzel", so she was set apart from the other Singing Princess dolls, although she was also released in 2010.  She has the more detailed dress that matches my 12" Rapunzel and does not have eyelashes, matching the original 12" Rapunzel face paint.  

By the way, I tried to remove this Rapunzel's freckles like I removed my other Rapunzel dolls' freckles, but I couldn't get them to come off!  Thankfully, Singing Rapunzel's freckles are lighter brown and more subtle, making them closer to her freckles in the movie.

As I mentioned, her dress is incredibly detailed, and matches my 12" Rapunzel's dress exactly.  I love how beautiful the bodice is!

Here's a close-up of one of her sleeves.


Her right hand has two silver metal bumps on its palm.  You push these to make her sing.  She sings the chorus of "When Will My Life Begin" in about 4 segments.  I've heard reports that some of the Singing Princess dolls don't work very well, but Rapunzel's had no problems so far, in spite of being a used doll.

Some of the lovely detail on her skirt.

The skirt has a removable netting underskirt that helps the dress poof out.

Back view of Rapunzel.


Here is the speaker where the sound comes out.  It's actually really loud.  In fact, it's almost physically painful to listen to the song if the speaker is facing you.

Rapunzel takes 3 button cell batteries.  Sigh.  I wish it was AA or AAA...they're much cheaper!

Rapunzel is articulated at her elbows and can move her arms up, down, and around.  I found that her range of motion was more limited than the 12" Rapunzel's, though.  Her wrists are not articulated and her elbows don't bend as easily.

She has hard plastic legs that are jointed at the knees.

So here are all of my regular Rapunzel dolls in their various sizes:  17" Singing Rapunzel (Disney Store), 12" Rapunzel (Disney Store), 5 1/2" Mini Rapunzel  (Disney Store), and 3 1/2" Rapunzel (Mattel).

Singing Rapunzel


Fashion Doll Rapunzel


Mini Rapunzel


Really Mini Rapunzel ;)

It's amazing how small my 12" Rapunzel looks next to my Singing Rapunzel!  It makes her seem a lot smaller than 12" tall!

A few parting shots of my newest girl:




This was truly an amazing find on my mom's part.  Not only are the 1st wave of Singing Princess dolls no longer being made, but even the second wave has been phased out.  The only one left on the Disney Store website is Singing Tiana (on sale for $12.99).  These dolls originally retailed for $29.99 each.  Mom got my Singing Rapunzel for $3.99.  (Yay Goodwill!) :D

If you get a chance to snag one of these dolls on the secondary market, I would definitely recommend them. They are lovely, and most of them have their original movie voices (there's nothing worse than a singing doll with someone besides the original voice artist doing the singing!).  It's also fun displaying them with other Disney dolls. :)  

15 comments:

Claire said...

I was reading this post when I saw that you said a wire brush worked well (even if it was a long process) in getting Rapunzel's hair looking back to normal. Thank you so much for saying this - my little sister has a 1st wave 12-inch Rapunzel whose hair is in great condition, except for the very bottom and I didn't realize that wire brushes would work on her hair. So kudos to you! :D

And lastly, I must say that seeing the height difference between all your Rapunzels humored me - it's interesting to see all the different sizes that she comes in! ;)

Hannah Prewett (beastsbelle) said...

Thanks, Claire. :) Glad I could help. I've found that the plastic brushes these dolls normally come with just tend to add static to their hair or make it frizzy. I especially found the wire brush helpful on Singing Rapunzel's hair because she was so much bigger and there was so much hair to work with! ;)

Oh, and I wouldn't recommend brushing a curly or wavy-haired Disney doll's hair unless it's a last resort. I tried it with my 12" Belle doll and her hair ended up being pretty frizzy! I try to just spritz her hair and finger curl it, or just braid it. It's definitely wearing out from all of her adventures, though. ;)

I really had fun seeing all of the Rapunzels together, too, by the way. :)

MulanFan_95 said...

OH MY! I really want to go shopping thrift stores with you! I've wanted that doll for a while. You should put flowers in her hair. And, actually, this generation of singing dolls was released in 2010, and this doll wasn't actually "Princess Rapunzel", but "Tangled's Rapunzel" which makes her more original. The 2011 dolls got longer hair because the manufacturers noticed that dolls like Aurora, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine and Rapunzel were more sold than Snow White, Cinderella or Tiana. Hope you continue to share your goodies with us!

Hannah Prewett (beastsbelle) said...

That would be so fun, MulanFan_95! :) The next time you're in Northern California, shoot me an email. ;)

I'm hoping to put flowers in her hair eventually...I just haven't found any the right size yet. :)

Thanks so much for all of the information! I'll be sure to update things in my post.

I have lots more goodies to share...I just have to get through this week and next week (Open House, Ladies Spring Event, Mother's Day/My Dad's Birthday, the last week of school, Kindergarten Graduation, Oldest Gal's end of the year party...) and then I can get some more fun posts on here for you guys! ;)

MulanFan_95 said...

Yes, that info's actually on "The Buzz", the Disney Store's blog. Here's a picture of Rapunzel with the flower braid! http://www.flickr.com/photos/dollstore/5248575878/in/set-72157625636739668 check out all of this user's pictures. They are pretty cool!

Hannah Prewett (beastsbelle) said...

Thanks again for sharing! I've found "The Buzz" before, but I keep forgetting to check back. :}

I'm off to check out the flickr pics! :)

Mickey's Girl said...

Wow I didn't relize she was that big! I have the 12" too, but the singing Rapunzel is an inch under being an AG doll! I sure wish the 12" had jointed knees. That would be easier to pose. Plus I don't like the sound it makes when her leg pops! :)

Mickey's Girl

Hannah Prewett (beastsbelle) said...

Hi Mickey's Girl! :) I was also surprised by Singing Rapunzel's size. I knew she was bigger, but it was only when I put her next to 12" Rapunzel that I realized just how big she was! (Even when I know measurements ahead of time, I'm not really great at visualizing the size of something!)

I agree with you on the jointed knees, by the way. Apparently the Disney Store 12" Merida doll has jointed knees like the Singing Princess dolls and jointed ankles as well, so maybe they'll switch over eventually? Of course, I'm sure Merida has jointed knees and ankles because she's so active, but maybe if she sells well enough they'll start using the same articulated knees and ankles for the rest of the princesses, too! :) A girl can dream, at least! ;)

MulanFan_95 said...

I hope they use the articulated knees for the other princesses, but not the ankles :s, we would have to be careful not to break their feet when we remove tight shoes or high-heels, don't you think?

Hannah Prewett (beastsbelle) said...

Very true...the articulated ankles can be a pain, and they tend to be the first joint that wears out on the BFC Ink dolls. So maybe just articulated knees would be better. ;)

Jen said...

Yeah, the lack of leg joints was what turned me off Disney Store dolls (of course, I found out afterward that the LE wedding Rapunzel had jointed legs, go figure). It's a pity, because they're otherwise so pretty! I know it's probably a cost-cutting measure (along with how the princess dresses have become less detailed).

Rant aside, your Singing Rapunzel is adorable! And it's interesting to note that teensy tiny 3 1/2-inch Rapunzel actually has the most accurate amount of hair. :D

Hannah Prewett (beastsbelle) said...

Hi Jen! Nice to hear from you. :)

Hopefully, they'll add leg joints to their classic princess dolls soon! :) Sorry that you found out about LE Rapunzel's legs after the fact, but I love your custom Rapunzel! :)

Thanks, I'm really enjoying Singing Rapunzel (especially at that price!). :D

It is interesting that the smallest Rapunzel doll has the most accurate hair. At that size, it was probably easier to use the correct amount, financially and otherwise! ;) Although, I don't know about you, but I'm finding that long-haired princesses are very inconvenient for moms!! I am constantly untangling Oldest Gal's Mattel Rapunzel's hair! If it's not put away just right or kept in a braid, it's a real mess! My kiddos keep telling me they want hair like Rapunzel's, and I keep telling them that they can try that when they're old enough to take care of their OWN hair! Working on a Barbie-sized Rapunzel is bad enough! ;)

Jen said...

Yeah, I vanished from doll stuff for a while, the process of buying a house (!) has taken over my brain. :D

I both want and don't want the Classic line to get jointed legs - while they'd obviously be higher quality, they'd also be likelier to tempt away my money!

Regarding the hair, I did the math once! Assuming Rapunzel is roughly 5 feet tall, with 70 feet of hair...a 12" version should have about 14 feet of hair! (There's a small part of me that would love to find a 14-foot blond wig to put on my Pullip-Rapunzel, out of pure curiosity, lol.)

I have the same issues with Pie's Rapunzel dolls - and Pie's actual hair. Just tell your girls they can have hair just like Rapunzel does...at the END of the movie!

Hannah Prewett (beastsbelle) said...

Lol...yeah, that sounds more manageable! ;)

Congrats on getting a house! I know how involved that can be, but it's nice once you get through all of the paperwork and endless processes. :)

Yikes! I can't imaging having a doll with 14 feet of hair! That would be insane. I think I'm glad the dolls aren't 100% movie accurate...

Unknown said...

Hi! What size stand do you recommend for this doll? I bought one for an 18 inch doll but it turned out too big and meant for an American Girl doll! Would a stand meant for a 12 inch doll work? I appreciate your feedback! Thank you!