Moxie Teenz 2nd Wave Arizona Doll Review (Including a Comparison with Liv Dolls and Fully Poseable Disney Store Princess Dolls)

Here's a review that's been in the works for a long time. :}  Back in the summer of this year, while browsing on Flickr, I came across some stunning pictures of the Moxie Teenz dolls from MGA Entertainment.  This is yet another line of dolls that I got interested in after they were discontinued, so they were harder to find.  I have a habit of doing that, it seems. :}

Anyway, shortly after my Flickr browsing, I found one of the Moxie Teenz dolls in Ross at a good price, so I thought I'd give her a try. :)

NOTE: Towards the bottom of the post, there will be several pictures of naked dolls which will show the differences in articulation between 3 different doll lines.  If this is offensive to you, please skip this post.

Here she is in her package.  This particular doll is Arizona, as you can see from the label.  She was marked down because her wig had come off in the box.

The back of the box.

A closer look at her loose wig. 

I thought it was interesting that they completely enclosed her hands in plastic. 

Am I the only one who HATES the current trend in doll packaging of putting these plastic ties through the doll's head?  >:(   Disney Store does this with their dolls too, and it drives me CRAZY!!!   

Here's a comparison of Arizona to her "photo shopped" self on her package. ;)  The doll itself is still pretty, but you can see that there is a definite glammed-up difference in her picture. 

Arizona comes with this pink boom box thing.

It's hollow on the other side.

She also comes with this big silver purse.

It has Velcro on one side...

...so the purse can fold over and attach there.

She also has some serious bling. ;)

Her outfit is rather interesting.  It consists of a white bodysuit, a quilted lavender shrug, a pink mini skirt, a black leather belt with silver studs, silver leggings...

...and high heeled tennies.

I thought it was interesting that her leggings were not actual pants, but just long tubes of material on her legs, like over-sized metallic leg warmers.

Each Moxie Teenz doll comes with an online code to be used on their website.  The dolls have been discontinued, but their website is still there, so I'm assuming the code would still work.

As you already know, the Moxie Teenz dolls come with wigs, much like the LIV dolls.  Here's what Arizona looks like without her wig.  This also gives you a closer look at her large silver earrings and silver necklace (which come apart very easily, by the way!).  

A side view of her head.

The Moxie Teenz have "real" lashes that are very long.  She must use one of those fancy mascaras they're always advertising on TV. ;)

The inside of her wig.  As you can see, the Moxie Teenz doll wigs do not have the little plastic knob in the middle like the LIV doll wigs.  This is the main issue I have with these dolls, especially when it comes to recommending them for younger kiddos.  The wigs do NOT stay on well at all.  If I were a mom getting this for my daughter, I think I would probably just glue the wig on the doll's head.  Which is a shame, because one of the fun things about having a wigged doll is that you can switch wigs and change her look.

Here she is with her wig.  I love the pretty blue of Arizona's eyes.

The Moxie Teenz dolls come with an instruction pamphlet as well.

Their suggestions on the placement of the wig.

The Moxie Teenz dolls have really long legs, as you can see from this picture.  

There were 3 series, or "waves", of Moxie Teenz dolls that I am aware of.  The first wave was the most detailed.  They had jewelry, outfits with several layers for mix n' match options, and wigs.  Arizona is from the second wave.  Their clothing was not quite as detailed, and their quality was not quite as high as the first wave.  The third and, to my knowledge, final wave of dolls had rooted hair and a very slight variation on their face molds.  This wave also introduced the only boy doll, Gavin (review coming soon!) and a new girl doll, Leigh, who was only produced this one time (review of Leigh coming soon, too).  For more information on the differences between the waves of  Moxie Teenz dolls (along with some fabulous photography), you can check out Emily's review at "The Toy Box Philosopher" HERE.  This post contains a comparison between 1st and 3rd wave Tristens.

They are very poseable, too (though not as poseable as the LIV dolls...more to come on that).  They are articulated at the head, shoulders, elbows, wrists, chest, hips, knees, and ankles.  

Chillaxin'.  ;)

I had heard (from the above link) that the LIV doll wigs fit on the Moxie Teenz, so since I had this extra LIV wig lying around, I thought I'd try it.

While the wig technically fits and looks okay, I had to bend the plastic knob in the middle a bit to get the wig down far enough on her head.  For this reason, I wouldn't put these wigs on the Moxie Teenz very often, and I wouldn't keep them on them for long periods of time.  I can't imagine that having the knob bent over for that long is good for the LIV wig, and I would prefer to avoid cutting the knob off.

A side view of Arizona in the LIV wig.  

And here's my LIV Daniela wearing Arizona's wig.  It fits and is very pretty, but without anything to hold it on, it slides off very easily.  It's super long, too.

I thought you might be interested in seeing a size comparison of the Moxie Teenz doll with some others.  As you can see, she is much taller than a regular-sized fashion doll.  From left to right are a Moxie Teenz, a LIV doll, a Disney Store 12" doll, and a Barbie Generation Girl Lara.  I'm not sure what the official measurement is, but according to my measurements, the Moxie Teenz dolls are between 14 and 14.5 inches tall.

Arizona and Daniela.

Arizona and Belle.

Arizona and Lara.

And here she is with an 18" BFC Ink doll (also made by MGA Entertainment), just to give you a size reference with the bigger dolls.  

Since I'm a huge fan of articulated dolls, I thought it would be fun to do a comparison between these three and see which doll has the best articulation. :)  Especially since the Disney Store just released their fully articulated dolls this past summer.

For starters, as you can see from the above picture, the dolls have almost identical points of articulation.  The only differences are that the Moxie Teenz doll has an articulated chest and the LIV doll has a waist that turns.  Other than that, they all move in the same places.

Here's a closer look at the Moxie Teenz arm...

...and the LIV arm...

...and the Disney doll arm.

A comparison of elbow and wrist articulation.  In all fairness to Belle, I realized shortly after this photo shoot that I had Belle's elbow turned the wrong way, so she can actually bend her elbow just as much as the LIV doll can.

Moxie Teenz

LIV

Disney Store Doll (ouch...that makes my elbow hurt!)

And side view.  I think that the LIV doll, aside from the obvious fact that she is the most flexible, has the most natural looking pose.  Although I like the way the Moxie Teenz wrist flexes, too.

Here are the knee and ankle joints on the Moxie Teenz...

...the LIV doll...

...and...um...the Disney Store doll. :}

The most obvious difference between the three (aside from Belle's obvious bow legged issues) is that the LIV doll has joints that look like actual knee caps at her knees, allowing for a better range of motion.  But more on that later.  

I wanted to find out how well they sat and held a pose compared to one another.

The Moxie Teenz doll sits in a fairly natural fashion.  She does lean back just a bit (which you can't see because I was trying to limit the amount of naked doll pics as much as possible, so I covered her with her hair). :}

Another shot from the side...

...and the front view.

Here is the LIV doll in her sitting position.  I love how natural she looks when seated.

A closer look at her leg articulation...

...and the front view.

And here's Belle in her sitting position.

A closer look at her legs.

And the front view, very obviously displaying the rather unladylike way she has to sit, which I already discussed in Belle's review post.

And here's their "sun bathing" pose. ;)  Moxie Teenz...

...LIV doll...

...and Disney Store doll.  Belle seemed to have a bit of trouble propping herself up on her elbow. ;)

Here's a kneeling position.  Moxie Teenz...

...LIV...

...and Disney.

So who wins?  In my humble opinion, the LIV doll takes first prize.

Not only is she extremely flexible, but her poses look the most natural out of the three dolls.  Her joints also seem to be the sturdiest of the three and should hold up to playtime the best.  

The LIV dolls are dolls that grew on me.  I didn't care for their oversized heads and intense stares at first.  I have found that I prefer the brown eyed LIVs to the others, and Daniela is my favorite out of the bunch. :)

Second place goes to Moxie Teenz.  I was actually rather disappointed by Arizona's articulation.  Since I found the LIV dolls first, I assumed that the Moxie Teenz would have similar or identical poseability.  And while she is fun to pose and photograph, there's a level of natural range of motion that is lacking in these dolls when compared to the LIV dolls.  Still, I like their stunning eyes and pretty faces, and there's enough poseability there to make them enjoyable.  

And 3rd place, I hate to say, has to go to my lovely Belle doll.  While she is my favorite princess and I love her, I think that the Disney Store could have done a much better job on their dolls' articulation.  Belle is limited in her upper poseability compared to the other dolls, and her bow legged, weak knee joints are unimpressive to say the least.  She also has a hard time standing unassisted.  My daughters ended up with dolls that had slightly better leg joints, but I still hope that Disney will continue to improve their doll articulation.

I must confess, I wasn't really a fan of Arizona's outfit, so I decided to make her a different outfit using My Froggy Stuff's YouTube dress tutorial.  I'm super pleased with how it turned out. :)

Overall, I'd give this doll a 4 out of 5.  While Arizona is pretty, I was disappointed by some of the limits to her articulation and frustrated by how easily her wig came off and her jewelry came apart.  Shortly after I purchased her, I found a 1st wave Bijou at my local Walmart.  I noticed a definite difference in quality between the first and second waves!  So, stay tuned for a review of my 1st Wave Bijou, coming soon. :)