Disney Store Frozen Mini Anna and Elsa Wardrobe Sets Review

So much for my plans to get this post up first thing this week. ;)  Oh well, by now you guys are pretty used to my sporadic attempts at organization.  Let's get on to the review!

Before I forget, I do have one picture of mini Anna undressed in this post, so if this bothers you, you might want to skip this post.

Friday afternoon, this box of Disney-related happiness arrived on my doorstep. :)

Inside were my two wardrobe sets and my mom's DAC Elsa and Olaf bag (getting us to the free shipping after $75 that Disneystore.com offers). ;)

Here are the sets together!  We'll take a look at Anna's set first since she's my favorite sister of the two. ;)

Here she is in her package.  Feel free to click on any of the pictures if you'd like to see them closer.

Here is the box from some other angles:

Here's a closer look at some of the details from the front of the box:

And here are a few details from the back:

The box opens easily.  All of the items in the set are attached to a cardboard insert.

Here it is from the back.  Twist ties, thread, plastic, and tape hold everything in place.  It was not too difficult to remove everything.

Anna and her accessories.  I love the bright colors of her wardrobe and how it complements her clothing. :)

Anna is absolutely adorable, and stands at approximately 6 inches tall.  She looks great in her primary dress from the movie.  It is made of satiny material with glitter on the skirt.  Her bodice does not include its floral pattern.

The top, black bodice, and skirt are all one piece and open and close with Velcro in the back.

I love the detail on Anna's little boots. :)

Here's a view from the side.

Undressed pics up next, for those of you who have concerns in that department.

Here is Anna without her clothing.  Her body appears to be the same one used for the earlier mini dolls from the Disney Store.  Her arms and legs move back and forth and also move out to her sides.

A look at the back.

Sorry for the fuzzy pic, but I wanted to show that she had a TON of glitter on her legs from her skirt.  Her legs are the same rubber plastic used in "click-knee" Barbies, so the glitter really likes to stick.

Here Anna is in her coronation dress.  Again, as to be expected, the dress is a simplified version without the details on her skirt or bodice.  It is all one piece with Velcro closure in the back.

More fun glitter! ;)

I love the fact that the set includes her black flats.  Unfortunately, they have a hard time staying on and will probably be the first thing lost by the kiddos who play with her. ;)

After taking the pictures of Anna in her coronation dress, I decided to put her back in her regular outfit.  This is where I ran into major problems...to the point that I had to have Hubby get her dress back on (he's the more patient and methodical of the two of us).  No matter what I tried, I could NOT get her sleeves back on.

There are a couple of factors that contribute to this.  First, Anna's hands and arms are made of a flexible plastic, and her thumbs and fingers are all very flexible too.  This makes it easy for them to catch on the material in the sleeve.  The other problem, as you can see from the above picture, is that the material they used for Anna's sleeves has a lot of excess fuzz inside that catches on the fingers and thumb with every bit of movement.

Hubby worked for about twenty minutes before he was finally able to get her dressed.  The only way he could do it was to fold her sleeves all the way back (as pictured above) and use a toothpick to help move her hands through the sleeve.  After it was all the way through, we had to trim excess bits of threads and fiber that were sticking out of the hem of the sleeve.

Needless to say, this is going to cause a lot of frustration for both kiddos and parents, especially since the whole point of this set is the changing outfits aspect.  More on that in the conclusion, though. ;)

Here is Anna's hat.  

It fits over her head exactly like the Barbie-sized Disney Store version.  The clear plastic band shown above slides under her braids to hold the hat in place.  It was a little tricky to get it on without feeling like I was messing up her braids, but I figured it out. :)

Her cape goes around her neck and attaches in the front with Velcro.

Here she is, all ready to go to the North Mountain, minus her gloves.  In Disney's defense, gloves for a doll this size would have been next to impossible to make in a way that was satisfactory and practical.

Anna from the back.  The hat and cape appear to be made from the same felt-type of material that the 12" Anna's cape is made of. 

I'm very pleased with her sweet little face.  They did a great job with her paint and coloring. :)

Now that we've taken a look at Anna and her clothing, let's check out some of her other accessories.

Okay, he's not really an "accessory", but first off, Anna comes with her buddy Olaf.  He is made of plastic and appears to be the same Olaf from the plastic figurine set previously released by the Disney Store.  It's not on the Disney Store site right now, but you can see it on my Frozen Pinterest board HERE.

Olaf from the back.

She also comes with this dress form.  Here's the front...

...and the back.

We've already seen her extra pair of shoes.  In addition to that, she comes with a tiara, two hangers for her wardrobe, and a little stool.

The stool is burgundy with gold accents.

Another thing she comes with is this little trunk.

It has some fun details, like the silver accents around the edges.

I was a little disappointed to discover that the "painted" details were just stickers.  If other houses are anything like ours, these stickers won't last long.  My kiddos have this insatiable desire to peel stickers off of things (which, admittedly, they kind of got from me...but I just do price tags). ;)  Even without that issue, stickers just don't last.  The edges start to peel back, and then they get lint and other gunk on them, and then the whole thing ends up looking kind of tacky...plus it's REALLY hard to resist pulling them off when they get gunky like that.  And yes, I speak from experience. ;)

The trunk opens and has space for storage inside.  It can be a little tricky to open, so you'll probably want to show your kiddos how to do it if you're getting this set for them.

It's the perfect spot to store Anna's shoes and tiara. :)

Here is Anna's pretty wardrobe.

Back view

It has this odd little hole in the front between the doors.  I'm not really sure why it was designed this way...perhaps to make it easier for little fingers to open it?

Just like the trunk, the decals on the wardrobe are stickers as well.  Again, I find this a bit disappointing.

The doors open all to reveal the inside of the wardrobe.  Bummer, no Narnia. ;)

The bottom of the wardrobe has a nice little pattern.

The wardrobe has two short poles on the inside with flower shapes on the end.

The hangers fit nicely on these poles...

...and Anna's extra dress hangs nicely...although it's a little long for the wardrobe.

Thankfully, the dress can be carefully tucked in...

...and then the door can close without shutting on the hem of Anna's dress.

Anna's spare dress also fits nicely on the dress dummy.

Back view.

I think we'll move on to Elsa's set and some comparisons between the two before I share my overall thoughts. :)

Here is Elsa's set in the box.

As I did with Anna, I'll share the different views of the box:

Um...somehow I missed the other side of the box.  I think you have the idea, though. ;)

Box details from the front:

And the back:

Elsa in her cardboard insert.

And a view from the back of this box, too. ;)

A closer look at her (she's so pretty!)...

...and her accessories.

I took a picture of the empty cardboard this time to show the possibility of reusing it for play.  If you're careful getting everything out, you can salvage this pretty castle scene. :)

Here is Elsa with all of her extras. :)

I think the Disney Store did a great job on mini Elsa, too.

Back view.  My Elsa's dress was a bit gappy in the back just below the Velcro.

Great face paint...although up close, her eyes seem to be looking in slightly different directions.  My 12" Classic Elsa from the Disney Store is the same, though.  She still has a sweet, pleasing face.

Her dress is made of a satiny blue material.  The bodice is coated with glitter, while the skirt is just plain satin, but has a glittery, sheer overlay.

The overlay comes connected to the lower blue layer.

I decide to remove it so her overlay could hang freely.  Unfortunately, there was a little hole left in the blue skirt from the plastic thread holding the overlay in place.  It's not that noticeable when the overlay hangs down, though.

The slit in Elsa's dress is not hemmed, so it may fray with a lot of playtime.  Overall though, I like the look of the dress.

Here is Elsa's coronation dress.  It is all one piece...

...and has Velcro closure in the back.  I had learned my lesson after redressing Anna, so I didn't try this dress on Elsa, especially after looking at the extremely thin wrist openings on her ice dress. :}

She also came with her purple cape, once again made from a satiny material and not hemmed on the edges.

Here's a view from the back.  I'll have pictures of this cape on my other mini Elsa doll in the next post. ;)

The Olaf that comes with Elsa is exactly the same as the Olaf that comes with Anna.

Back view.

Here is Elsa's dress form.  Unfortunately, mine is really tilted.

Back view.

Like Anna, Elsa comes with extra shoes, two hangers, a tiara, and a stool.  I was thrilled to get the tiara and cape with this set so I could put it on my other mini Elsa. ;)

Instead of a trunk, Elsa has a privacy/dressing screen (I'm not really sure what these things are officially called). ;)  Like the wardrobes and the trunk, the decals are all stickers.  The screen is hinged so it can be bent in different ways.  It does not fold all the way closed.

The back of the screen is blank.  

Here is Elsa's wardrobe.  I love how the wardrobes reflect the two sisters' color palettes. :)

A look at the sticker decals on the doors.  At least these ones are one big sticker on each door.  Hopefully that will keep them on there longer.

Back view of the wardrobe.

Elsa's has the nice design on the bottom too.

The wardrobe opens nicely.

Elsa's little poles have snowflake shapes on the end.

Her hangers fit there nicely, too.

I thought it might be nice to do some side-by-side comparisons of the different accessories.   Elsa's are always on the left, Anna's on the right.

Wardrobes

Hangers

Tiaras and shoes

Screen and trunk

Stools

Elsa's

Anna's

Dress forms

Olafs (I just noticed that Elsa's Olaf is looking up a little more than Anna's, but I doubt that will be consistent with each set). ;)

Elsa and Anna themselves.  Sorry, I'm not sure why they decided to stand all tilty like that.  No matter what I tried, I couldn't get them to cooperate. ;)

Pleasing Qualities: 4 out of 5

   I'd like to start off by saying that even though I have some issues with these sets, I do not regret getting them and am thrilled to have them in my collection.  These sets both have lots of pieces and little details that will make them fun to collect and display.  The dolls outfits, while simplified, capture the look of the movie outfits.  Elsa and Anna's faces are painted nicely, and their hair looks just as nice as the 12" dolls'.  The main problem I see is the fact that they are next to impossible to redress, which is one of the main features of a "Wardrobe Set" with more than one outfit.  For a collector like me, who isn't planning on dressing and redressing them, this isn't an issue.  For a kiddo wanting to play with this set (and the parent of said kiddo), it will be.  The fact that this falls more into the "Playability" category is why I didn't deduct more than one point.  I still find the dolls quite pleasing even with their costuming problems.

   I also wish the flower motifs and other designs would have been painted or printed on the furniture.  The stickers are not nearly as permanent and, in my opinion, don't look quite as nice when observed closely.  

   Overall, though, I'm pleased to have these dolls and their extras in my Frozen collection.  

Posability: 5 out of 5

   The dolls have a pretty good range of motion considering their size.  I think it would be difficult to add much more articulation with this style and size of a doll without taking away stability.  I appreciate that their arms and legs move out as well as just back and forth, which should add to their playability.  They also are not made for the purpose of being super articulated, so as I've done in the past, I'm judging them according to their design and purpose.   

Playability: 3 out of 5

   I had to really dock on this category just because, unfortunately, I really think Disney missed a good opportunity to make a great playset.  To have a mini doll set that includes extra clothing, and then have those dolls almost impossible to dress is a huge negative.  I will say that Anna's coronation dress is easy to put on and take off because it is sleeveless, so Anna's set would be the better option of the two for a child.  The other dresses are a nightmare, though (I didn't personally deal with Elsa's ice dress, but I can imagine it would be the same).

   My girls all love these sets, but when we discovered how hard they were to dress, I told the girls, "If you get these sets, you won't be able to undress them."  My husband, who is the most mild-mannered and non-ruffled person I've ever met, added a gentle but emphatic, "Ever!"  In his defense, this was after I'd foolishly decided to swap coronation dresses on my other mini Elsa (the original dress had a crooked bodice), so he'd spent a second twenty minute chunk redressing a tiny doll.  Not his idea of a good time. ;)  He also told me that if I wanted his two cents for the blog, he was "not impressed" by these sets.

   The dolls themselves would be great for playtime.  They're nice and small, so they're the perfect size to take along on an adventure to the grocery store or something.  They're sturdy enough for small, non-destructive hands.  Their accessories are fun and colorful (though some of the smallest ones will be easily lost...I wouldn't recommend taking the tiara or black flats on your errands).  Just take my advice and don't let your kids undress these dolls!  You will regret it when you're hunched over a little doll with a toothpick, tweezers, or whatever else you can find to get those silly sleeves over those tiny, flexible fingers. :}

Price: 5 out of 5

   The Wardrobe sets are $24.95.  As I've shared before, I think opinions on what is a fair price can be relative from person to person.  In my opinion, though, it's a fairly good price for all of the items you get.  I also find it pretty consistent with Disney Store pricing.  I'd love to see a few slight changes in quality to make the price even more worth it (such as replacing the sticker decals with painted or printed ones and hemming some of the unhemmed edges of the clothing).  That being said, I know that most of the time an increase in quality leads to an increase in price.  I wouldn't want to pay more than $25 for one of these sets.

Overall, these are great for collectors and okay for kiddos as long as they realize they either can't undress the dolls or will have to be content with naked dolls once they're undressed.  Or to realize the doll they did undress must now and forevermore wear Anna's coronation dress because it's the only one Mommy and Daddy can get back on their doll. ;)

I didn't get a chance to gather thoughts from the gals this time around.  Little Gal wants the Elsa set and assures us that she can be okay with keeping her dressed (I'm a bit skeptical on that point myself).  Middle Gal is thinking about the Anna set and keeping her dressed (this one I see as a bit more of a possibility).  Oldest Gal likes both sets but hope they will come out with a Mulan Wardrobe set soon. ;)

I hope you all found this review helpful.  At this point in time, both of these sets are still available at Disneystore.com.  You can see Anna's set HERE and Elsa's set HERE.

Stay tuned for my next post, where we'll take a look at the set of four mini Frozen dolls.  I was originally going to review it in this post too, but there were waaayyy too many pictures for one post. ;)  Talk to you guys soon!

Fun Finds Around Town

I'm not sure how things are looking in your own towns and cities, but things are definitely gearing up towards Christmas in my neck of the woods.  Here are a few goodies I've found locally that might interest some of you. :)  By the way, some of the photos in this post are not as high in quality, as they were taken with my cell phone (which is NOT a smartphone). ;)

My first recent find was at Walgreen's, of all places.  (Incidentally, it can also be a great place to find older mini Lalaloopsies.) ;)  My mom and I popped in to find some "Lice Shield" lice prevention shampoo after the whole head lice ordeal, and of course I walked through the toy aisle. ;)  I was so excited to find this ginormous Fluttershy brushable for just $9.99! :D

So cute! :) 

Here she is out of her box.  Hmm, I need to work on that mane a bit. ;) 

She stands at approximately 8 1/2" tall, which is a lot bigger than the standard Fashion Style ponies (like the Fluttershy in front on the left).  She towers over the regular brushable-sized ponies (like the little Fluttershy in front on the right).

She also looks ADORABLE on my Fluttershy shelf with my other Fluttershys:

Another great My Little Pony find this week was at Walmart.  They finally got in the Wave 11 blind bags! :D

I was so excited to see this overflowing box! :D  There was another box next to it, too.

Armed with my codes from the Strawberry Reef Blind Bag index, I started sorting through to find the ones I wanted.  I was even able to help another mom with a little pony fan of her own.  She saw me studying each bag carefully and asked if they were numbered or something.  We had a great visit, and she went home with three Breezies and Royal Pin. :)  I went home with Flash Sentry, Cheese Sandwich, Royal Pin, Cloud Chaser, and one Breezie (I'd found most of them before she approached me). :)

Here's a look at this series' packaging.

Here they are!  Sorry, I couldn't find Royal Pin and Cheese's collector cards. :}

I was really looking forward to adding Cheese Sandwich to my collection.  They did a great job capturing him in figurine form. :)  I would love to find one of these to give to my brother as a gag gift for Christmas.  (He's a big Weird Al fan, and was not that thrilled when he heard that Weird Al voiced Cheese Sandwich.) ;)

Here is Lilac Breezie.  I have to say, I'm not that impressed with the G4 renditions of the Breezies.  Especially when you compare them to G3's versions (which you can see HERE).  I don't care for the way these new Breezies' eyes are painted or the way they're designed.  It took me quite a while to get her to stand.  She's very top-heavy, and her legs are rather weak and flimsy.  I can't see the wings lasting very long with kiddos playing with them, either. ;)

Here's her collector card.

Flash Sentry in pony form.  Unlike a lot of MLP fans, I actually enjoyed Flash in the first Equestria Girls movie, so I was looking forward to adding him to my blind bag ponies.

His collector card.

Cloud Chaser shares a mold with Flash Sentry and the previously released Thunderlane.

Cloud Chaser's card.

Here's Royal Pin, who shares Shining Armor's mold.  I really like the way they painted his eyes.

Little Gal asked me to take a picture of Royal Pin and Rarity together.  She's decided they make a good couple, since they're both unicorns and his card talked about how he liked making fashions for his friends. ;) 

For those of you into American Girl and other 18" dolls, Costco is the place for you. ;)  They have some great things in stock.

The first item I saw was their AG pet display:

The pet sets are $29.99 each, and include a food and water dish for the dogs as well as an activity book.  The three options are the "Funky Terrier", the "Fancy Pomeranian", and the "Preppy Sheepdog".  I'm not 100% sold on the names, but I do like the pets themselves. ;)

The Sheepdog and the Pomeranian are my favorites.

The other exciting Costco find has to do with BeForever.  I'm really bummed, because I took a picture of the BeForever display with my phone as well, but I forgot to save the photo before I put my phone back in my pocket. :}  Thankfully, my mom picked up one of the sets for herself, so I'm still able to share a few pictures.

This is what Costco has in stock: sets of all three BeForever books, a cloth and metal bookmark, and the coordinating mini doll with a plastic doll stand.  They are selling for $39.99.  If you're looking for both a new mini doll and the new books, this is a great deal.  The books sell for $10 each, and the mini dolls are $25 each, so you're getting a discount of around $15.  The only downside is you don't get the little mini book the mini dolls normally come with.

Here's a better look at adorable mini Sam (who happens to be on backorder until November on the AG website).

She came with her two regular books and her Journey book (the "choose your own adventure" story).

Here's a closer look at the bookmark...

...and the metal rose charm at the end.

My Costco had all of the current BeForever mini dolls with their books:  Caroline, Samantha, Rebecca, Addy, Kit, Kaya, and Julie.  If you're in the market for these dolls and the new BeForever books and you have a Costco in town, you might want to swing by and check it out. ;)

I was thrilled to see the return of Madame Alexander dolls with nice faces at Costco this year. :)  As many of you may already know, the "My Life As" dolls from Walmart recently changed their face molds.  For an excellent review on the new dolls, be sure to check out Emily's post on The Toy Box Philosopher HERE.  The two most interesting things I learned from Emily were that the My Life As doll heads now only turn from right to left instead of tilting at different angles, and that the Madame Alexander Company is no longer producing the My Life As line. :{

While the new My Life As faces are cute in their own way, I really prefer their previous molds...which just happen to be the molds used for the Alexander Girlz dolls at Costco this year:

So adorable!

Here's a closer look at this doll's sweet face.  My favorite Madame Alexander 18" doll face mold is still the previous Alexander Girlz mold (the same face mold as Maggie's), but this one is a close second.  I'm not surprised the former mold is not being used at Costco anymore since the MA company has now started using it for their Favorite Friends dolls.

The back of the box shows all four dolls available.  The six pieces mentioned under the picture include the doll herself, a raincoat, a dress (which is completely hidden under the coat), tights (or they  might be stockings...I'm not 100% sure), boots, and an umbrella (which seems slightly small for the dolls but looks great when folded up).

Each of the dolls have at least a slight wave to their hair, which means it will be harder to keep nice and maintain (these dolls are not known for their hair).  That being said, their outfits are adorable and they are priced quite reasonably at $24.99.  The other thing I see as an advantage is it looks like they do not have the odd, rubbery flexible legs and arms of the My Life As dolls.  This makes them easier to pose and less smelly. ;)  Usually when the dolls have this posable feature, it is advertised on the box, and the box said nothing about bendable arms and legs.  Yay! :) 

I hope I've helped you with some shopping spree ideas, either for yourselves or for some early Christmas shopping for others. ;)  

Next week and throughout the coming month I'll be plugging away at my draft posts.  Here are a few things you have to look forward to:

Mini BeForever Addy review! :D

Lalaloopsy Tinies Walmart Exclusive Set review.

A look at the three outfits my mom bought at AG Place.

Um, so I kinda caved when I saw these sets on Disneystore.com and went ahead and spent my Disney gift cards. :}  They just came in the mail today, and I can't wait to open them and take lots of pics! :D

Funny thing is, one of the reasons I got the wardrobe sets is that I missed this set.  Well, the day after I placed my order, my aunt happened to be at our closest Disney Store and they had ONE SET of these original mini dolls!  She agreed to pick one up for me, and my mom was a sweetheart and paid for them. :D 

So, reviews galore coming your way!!  Which one are you the most interested in reading about?  Which of my fun finds around town has you the most excited?  I look forward to hearing from you! :)

Another Frozen Restock

Hey guys!  Sorry things have been so quiet here this week.  All three girls were finally able to go back to school, so we've been getting back into the school/soccer schedule. :}

Just wanted to let all of you know that there's been another Frozen restock on Disneystore.com.  The Classic Dolls are back (except Hans is already sold out), as well as Singing Anna and the little Elsa Wardrobe Set.  Sadly, the Elsa and Anna Sketchbook Ornaments are already sold out (that sure was fast...I think they restocked at midnight!), but the singing Elsa ornament is currently available.  You can see all of the Frozen items HERE.

Happy shopping everyone! :)  I'll have some "real" posts for you later...today I'm off to my doll club meeting. :)