Disney Store Classic Rapunzel 2015 Doll Review

Hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July weekend with your families! :)

I've shared reviews of Belle and the Beast. Now it's time to take a look at Rapunzel. :)

Just a reminder, on this post I probably won't be as wordy since we've been taking a look at Belle and Rapunzel dolls for five years now and you guys know the routine. ;) I'll include a link to last year's review post at the end of this one, just in case you want a bit more info. :)

Here she is in her box. :)

Box views and details:

Her box was the only one that got a little crunched during shipping.

Like Belle, she was attached in the back with twist ties, thread, and plastic.

She had the same plastic attachments to her hands...

...and tissue in her skirt.

She also had the same twist tie around her waist.

And here she is, all free from her packaging. I can't get over how gorgeous she is! :D

Her face is beautifully painted with amazing detail. I'm thrilled to see that the Disney Store finally figured out a nice way to do her freckles delicately. I can still remember getting my first Rapunzel doll and being disappointed in her dark, overdone freckles. Not that I'm against freckles. I just felt that they didn't portray her accurately. This paint job is much closer to the original character.

I also love the depth and detail of her eyes. I'll share a few more close-ups of her face in a bit so you can really see them. :)

Her bodice is extremely movie-accurate and does not appear to have any major issues. The parts by the shoulders are perhaps a bit uneven, but nothing overly noticeable like some of my past Rapunzel dolls.

Her skirt has some nice detail and, like all the other Princess dresses this year, jewels for added sparkle. That appears to be the dress theme this time around. ;)

Her dress from the back. It has Velcro closure, as usual.

Her hair is the same honey-golden color as last year's Rapunzel, and about the same length. 

Sadly, that's not the only similarity. This year's doll once again has very thinly-rooted hair, so it looks like that's going to be the new norm for Rapunzel dolls from the Disney Store. I'm sure it saves the Disney Store money and perhaps makes her easier for younger fans to handle, but I can't help but think of the beautiful, thick hair the older Rapunzel dolls had. I went into this in great detail in last year's post, so I won't do the same thing this time around. ;)

The other thing I noticed about her hair was how badly it shed. When I first opened her, strands of hair like the ones pictured above would come out every time I gently ran my fingers through her hair to smooth it. Thankfully, she seems to have lost all of her loose hair now and it is no longer shedding.

She also had some hair stuck in her neck, which is the first time I've seen this in these dolls. I was able to get it out, but it was wedged pretty tightly in there. I wonder if it happened during the rooting process.

As I was photographing her and setting her up next to the other dolls, I noticed that she didn't seem to be able to stand up straight. I kept having to stick her left leg out to the side to get her to stay upright. So after a while I undressed her to see what was going on. Here's what I found:

See how her hip joint is crooked on the right side? Her hip comes down farther over her leg on her right side than on her left. This made her keep toppling over when I tried to set her up.

To compensate for this, I had to stick her left leg out at this sassy little angle. Then she balanced just fine.

I didn't take a picture of it, but she also had a similar wrist joint problem to Belle's, though not as severe. Since we're on the subject of flaws. :}

But really, even with all of these little things, I'm so pleased with this doll. I can't get over what a great job they did on her face and how accurate her dress is compared to some of the other past versions. 

Like Belle, she's got some incredible detail in her face. The closer you look, the more you notice:

In keeping with tradition, I thought I'd share some movie stills of Rapunzel to compare to 2015's face. Once again, these photos were found on disneyscreencaps.com. I tried to look for stills in which Rapunzel had a similar expression. This was what I could find:

You can't really see her freckles in these shots, but I liked the expressions in them. I think the Disney Store did a pretty great job capturing her look. It would be fun if they tried making an especially round face for her sometime, kind of like they did for Merida. But I still think this year's doll gives the idea of Rapunzel's round face, and at least the basic shape is the same. If they changed her face mold, they'd probably have to change Eugene's too. He already has a lot smaller head than hers in doll form as it is. ;) (He had a thinner face than hers in the movie, too, though, so it's kind of accurate.)

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Time to move on to the year-by-year comparisons, one of my favorite parts. ;)

Here are all six Disney Store dolls, from 2010 through 2015.

And here they are from the back. Once again, I apologize for not unbraiding the other dolls' hair, but it takes a really long time to redo all of those braids, and that did not sound like a fun project to add to this week. ;)

Here are the close-ups of all of the different faces:

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

And here are all of the dresses year-by-year:

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

Since I had so much fun taking pictures of each of my Belle dolls together, I thought I'd do the same with Rapunzel. :)

2010 and 2015

The 2010 doll was my very first Rapunzel doll. I loved her long, tinsel hair and her incredibly detailed dress. :)  She also came with fun accessories, like a little Pascal and a paintbrush. This was the year I realized that the most detailed dolls were always the ones released when the movie came out. It was also around this time that Disney revamped their Princess dolls yet again, and started releasing new Princess dolls every year. This was also the year I first started blogging and really getting into the new Disney dolls. Little did I know what I would start with that first Rapunzel doll purchase. ;)

2011 and 2015

2011 Rapunzel was also a victim of the "year of tulle". I didn't really care for her dress or the coloring they chose for her face. I remember being excited that she got to have eyelashes this year, though. ;) This was the first of the yearly summer re-releases of the Classic Princess dolls. The rest is history. ;)

2012 and 2015

I always think of 2012 Rapunzel as the Barbie version of Rapunzel. Her coloring was gorgeous but glammed up and not really close to the movie. This was the year that all of the Disney Princesses had major makeovers to their images, with fancier dresses and hairdos. The Classic dolls this year all reflected those changes.

2013 and 2015

I was really excited about 2013 Rapunzel's face. It was wonderful seeing her go back to a more natural look. Her dress, even without the longer sleeves, looked a lot more like her movie dress than 2012's dress had. 

2014 and 2015

Hmm, I guess I should have moved 2014's braid over a bit so you could see both dresses a little better. Like the 2014 and 2015 Belle dolls, these two have basically identical dresses aside from the added jewels on 2015 Rapunzel's dress. 

I loved 2014 Rapunzel's sweet face and hair color, but was very disappointed in her thinner hair. I find it interesting that while 2015 Belle looks younger and more innocent than her earlier dolls, 2015 Rapunzel looks older and more sophisticated. It's all in the tilt of the eyebrows and the widening of the eyes. ;)

If I had to pick a favorite from the dolls released, it would be between these three girls. I love the dress and the hair from 2010 Rapunzel. She's also special because she had a very important role in Belle's Bulletins: Belle's steady, soft-spoken best friend. The particular doll shown above is not that Rapunzel. I don't use her for these posts anymore because I had to rebody her. But I was thrilled to find the doll above at Goodwill. :)

2013 Rapunzel has one of my very favorite faces. As much as I love 2015's face, 2013's is lovely as well. She was also the last doll to have thickly-rooted hair. 

And 2015 is just stunning. The only thing I would change about her is the thickness of her hair. Everything else is perfect. :)

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Before we get to Rapunzel's ratings, I thought I'd share a few pics of Rapunzel and Eugene together. :)

I'm still figuring out the best way to get both of these guys to look in the same place. It's funny, all of those years with side-glancing Rapunzels, I wished for one looking straight ahead. Now I've gotten so used to taking pics of the side-glancers, I'm having a hard time figuring out how to photograph the very doll I was wishing for. ;) I'll get there, though. 

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Okay, it's time to share my overall thoughts of this year's doll. :)

Pleasing Qualities: 4.5 out of 5

  I'm so happy with this year's version of Rapunzel. From the detail of her sweet face, to her accurate dress, she's a great depiction of the movie character. I'm docking half a point because, as I've said, I personally miss the thicker hair of the older dolls. However, I think I know why they chose to make this change, between the cost of making the doll to its playability for younger kiddos.

Posability: 4 out of 5

   The posability of this doll is pretty much the same as most of the other years. I'm docking a full point because of my doll's wrist and hip issues. I hate to judge an entire line of dolls by one doll's defects, but the fact that both Belle and Rapunzel had minor issues makes me think that these are probably going to be more common with these dolls, which is a shame.

Playability: 5 out of 5

   Dolls with straight hair and simple dresses make for the best playability. This makes Rapunzel an ideal doll for kiddos. I would suggest braiding her hair to keep it nice, but part of the fun is being able to play with her hair. ;) At least the straighter-haired dolls from the Disney Store hold up to budding stylists better than the curly-haired dolls.

Price: 5 out of 5

   As I've mentioned in Belle and the Beast's reviews, $10 for a Disney doll is a good price, especially with the detail put into this year's doll's faces. :)

Thoughts from the Gals:

(Typed exactly as dictated with no changes; italicized clarifications written by me.)

Side Note: Since the thinner hair was such a big deal for me, I decided to ask the girls about it after their reviews. I was curious to see if it was a view they shared as well, or just something I was more picky about as a collector. ;)

Oldest Gal (age 11):

   This year's Rapunzel doll is amazing. She has a beautiful face and an amazingly accurate dress. She is definitely on my wishlist. Her face this year is gorgeous and really accurate. Not quite as beautiful as the movie, though. Her dress is beautiful and pretty much completely accurate except that the sleeves are a bit more sheer than they were in the movie and they don't have any lace or designs on the end. Bummer. It isn't quite as tight-fitting as it was in the movie, but you can't really get that on dolls. Her freckles are awesome. Her lips are just the right color, and her eyes are captivating. Plus they're accurate.

This Rapunzel doll's hair is a lot thinner than the older Rapunzel dolls. Does that bother you or not?

   It's a bit sad and doesn't look as impressive, but I'm fine because her face makes up for it. It's also really sad that it isn't quite as long as the 2010 one was. I love how long it was and that it was pretty much as movie accurate as they're ever gonna go.    

Middle Gal (age 9):

   I really like the changes they made in her face. She looks more like herself. I like how they made her lips a little darker like they were in the movie. I think she looks really pretty. I really don't like how thin her hair is, though. It's not very thick at all. And you would think that she would have really thick hair, because it would take a really long time for hair to grow 70 feet long, and her hair would probably be really thick, and it's not very thick at all. I like how she doesn't have shoes, because the past few Rapunzels have had shoes, and that's sort of like, "No, she didn't have any shoes!" (I chose not to correct her here, but only one Disney Store Rapunzel doll has had shoes: the 2012 version.) Her dress is really pretty, but it sheds glitter, and I do not like glitter that comes off. I don't know why. I just wish that they did her legs like they did them in 2012, because I like the plastic bendy knees and ankles better. The only other fashion dolls that have ankles that bend are LIV dolls and a few Barbies. Overall, I think she's really cool. Her face is really, well it's closer to what it looked like in the movie, and I'm just really impressed. And I like her freckles. But I really don't like how the dress sheds glitter. I'm just not a big fan of glitter that sheds. 

This Rapunzel doll's hair is a lot thinner than the older Rapunzel dolls. Does that bother you or not?

   Not really. I mean, it's pretty and it still works like hair. :) I just don't really mind. 

Little Gal (age 7): 

   This year's Rapunzel is a bit better than the last few Rapunzels, because the last few had shoes and she was barefoot for all of the movie. (Again, I decided not to correct here, but I found it interesting that both Middle Gal and Little Gal had the impression that more than one of the past Rapunzels had shoes.) And this time, they actually did make her barefoot. I'm not sure if it was just one doll, but the doll that Mommy got, she said her hair was shedding, so if that is on all of the dolls, I wouldn't recommend her for that much playing, but still I kinda like her. But Mommy said that it stopped shedding but she also said before she put it in a braid before it stopped shedding, that it was worst when she was taking her out of her box. I really like her face, but I don't really like how they made her have makeup and eyeshadow because she's been living in a tower for all these years. She wouldn't have any makeup. Her dress is kind of accurate, but I don't really like how they do all these glittery designs on the princesses that didn't have them in the movie. And I like how they made her freckles really stand out like they do in the movie. Her hair is really good quality. It's really soft, really shiny, really silky. But I liked it better when they didn't do the click legs. I liked it when they were more flexible: arms, wrists, legs, and ankles. 

This Rapunzel doll's hair is a lot thinner than the older Rapunzel dolls. Does that bother you or not?

   Nope! It doesn't. It's still really good quality. 

I hope you enjoyed getting a closer look at lovely Rapunzel. She's a beautiful doll and I'm sure she'll be loved by many doll collectors and kiddos alike. :) 

What do you guys think? Will she be joining your collections?

If you'd like to purchase your own Rapunzel, you can get her on the Disney Store website HERE. 

Also, I just received the news that the Disney Store website has the new miniature DAC Rapunzel in stock, too! She's so adorable. :D If you'd like to see her, you can check her out HERE. And while we're on the subject, there are several new releases that might interest you there. Lots of new dolls and toys for Aladdin (probably in preparation for the release of the movie on Blu-ray), a mini DAC Snow White, and more. Plus, all four of the Frozen dolls have officially been released as Classic dolls now, with less detailed clothing. You can see all of the new toy releases HERE.   

To see my previous year's review of the Disney Store Rapunzel dolls, click HERE. 

Also, if you go to my Doll and Toy Reviews page, you'll be able to find all of my past Disney Store doll reviews under the section labeled "Disney Dolls". :)

Stay tuned for Eugene's review, coming up in the next post! :)