Disney Haul, Tonner Cinderella and Disney Lego Castle

Hi everyone!
In today's post, I wanted to share with you some fun thrifty finds as well as my recent Disney haul from their "Twice Upon A Year" sale. I only make it to the thrift shop about once every month or two, so it was very exciting to find so many fun things in one trip!

Pictured above are close-ups of the 5 Disney Store Classic dolls that were there.  I can imagine that some little girl probably donated all of these together.
The first two are Anastasia and Drizella, aka The Ugly Stepsisters from Cinderella (both nude, unfortunately) and a clothed Lady Tremaine.  They need some makeovers but they look pretty good!  I also came across a Vanessa doll from The Little Mermaid which was quite a fun find as she appears to be pretty rare.  We also got a Merida doll from the movie Brave.

The entire loot. 

Pictured above are also 2 vintage Christmas vinyl albums (I looove listening to Christmas music on my record player during the holidays), 3 Care Bears DVDs (2 are from the 80s and one from early 2000s), a Lite Brite from the 90s (we have one from the 80s as well, which the girls always fight over, so now they each have their own), and then the 5 Disney Store Classic dolls, one basic Raven Ever After High doll, Making Waves Hayden-Liv nude doll and a Project MC2 basic Cameron doll.  The only one missing from our haul is the Genie doll from Aladdin. 

From the Twice Upon a Year Sale, I picked up a classic Cinderella doll to add to my small boxed princess collection.

I already had the 2015 version, but I felt like this one was different enough to get as well. 

Here are a few more of my Disney Store Cinderella dolls. The one on the left is a singing doll that also came with the pink dress and dress stand.

Just for fun, I set up my little Cinderella themed Tsum Tsums and figures. :) 

Here's another photo to show my up-to-date Cinderella collection which includes a Limited Edition Cinderella and Lady Tremaine doll set as well as my Disney Enesco Wedding Day Cinderella figurine.

Here's another group shot to show that I also got Classic Mulan (our first Mulan doll) and the Live Action Gaston and Belle 2 pack.  I originally wasn't going to get this 2 pack, but it was marked down to almost 50% off, so I decided to grab them. :)

Their outfits are so nice!!

And lastly, here's my FAVORITE purchase of the entire year so far...a Tonner Cinderella that I won on eBay! I know she's not really "Disney", but she goes with the theme of the post, so I wanted to include her. I had been hoping for this doll for a few years now ever since I saw Emily's post here about her.  She is so beautiful!  

Here's a video Little Button and I made showing our haul. :) 

Speaking of Tonner Cinderella...I did a quick fix on the other Tonner Cinderella doll I have which is essentially the same doll, but with strawberry blonde hair.

A few months ago, Pumpkin Pie had gotten her hands on her while I wasn't watching and started brushing her hair and accidentally pulled out a clump of hair from the original hair style.  I hastily put her back in her box high up on a shelf and figured I'd wait until another time to fix her. 

"Whoopsie, Mommy!"

Some of the shorter hair around her ear had loosened from the original style as well.

Luckily, it was an easy fix!  The hairstyle was pretty basic in the back, so I knew I just needed to thread the hair back through and under the threads holding the style together. 

I took a sewing needle and threaded each hair back through the twisted style in the back.

Now that the top was looking smooth, I moved on to the side pieces, and I found that simply using gel and patting the hair back into place worked pretty well. 

 
Not perfect, but much better!

Now I don't have to be mad at Pumpkin Pie every time I look at this doll, haha!  (Just kidding!) :)

Lastly, I just wanted to share an update on my Disney Lego Castle that I got for Christmas. 

I am SLOWLY working on this at night, while I'm watching TV.  (Usually it's episodes of Dr. Quinn or Dr. Who, but occasionally Outlander and now Game of Thrones!).  My castle building progress has been on a bit of a stand-still for a few months now as I'm doing a 90 day fitness challenge (it's online, so I do it at home).  I really love how much healthier and active I feel (I'm on day 75!) and I really love it, but it takes up a lot of my spare time in the evening.

Despite the slow progress, I'm really savoring this build.  I love seeing each little room come together and doing this while watching TV at night is so relaxing. 

Yes, I still have a fake Christmas tree up with white lights, lol. I love the ambience. ;)

So there's my updates for now!  Sorry if this post was a little lengthy...I guess I had a lot to talk about. :)

As for my doll room, I have an update coming shortly as well as some fun toy hunting I've done with the girls.  In my current personal project called "Stop Being a Doll Hoarder" I have made a resolution to open all of my boxed dolls by the end of August (there are A LOT) and right now I'm working my way through Ever After High.  If you watched my previous "Messy Doll Room" video, you'll know I have a closet full of them!  Yesterday we opened the Birthday Ball line and tonight I opened all of my boxed Apple Whites. So fun!

Hope you all have a great rest of your week and are finding joy in your doll hobbies.
Until next time!

xoxo Farrah

Elsa Couture de Force Figurine by Enesco

This past December, we took a trip to Florida to visit my brother and sister-in-law and while we were there, we took the girls to the Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom.  I've always been a huge Disney fan, but going to Disney World sort of sparked my interested in collecting more Disney stuff!

Being able to take snowy photos was the only good thing about the freak snowstorm we got a few weeks ago. :)

The first of a new collection I've started are the Couture de Force line of figures by Enesco.
This particular figure is inspired by the character of Elsa from the movie Frozen. 

The first time I saw this figure was on the Disney Store online and she was (and still is) listed at $74.95.
I looked right past her because I did not want to pay that much money for a figurine I knew nothing about, no matter how pretty she was.

Then found her on Amazon for $37.50 which she is still listed at and I scooped her right up!

This Elsa figure is about 8 inches tall and made of stone resin. She has a pretty good weight to her and feels very well made.  She is so detailed and lovely that I don't even feel as though the photos do her justice.

She has beautiful carved details in her hair and lots of encrusted jewels and faux gems throughout her hair and dress.  She is not completely "movie accurate", but it's nice to see fancier interpretations of her classic, signature look. 

She is holding a large single snowflake in one hand.  Her other hand has a beautiful ring and both delicate wrists are decorated in shiny pearls.

She also wears a snowflake necklace and has 2 strands of dainty pearl straps draped over each shoulder. Here you can also see a bit more detail of her hair. 

The movement and textures of her dress are gorgeous! 

The cape section of her dress, I think, is made from some sort of hard acrylic.  Each shimmery snowflake is hand-painted on. I love that the cape looks like a shell of ice.

Her face looks a bit different from her animated character, but I like it even more. 

I didn't even notice the slight defect in her lip paint until I zoomed into this photo!

Overall, she is a lovely collectible figure and I'm really glad to have gotten her at that nice discounted price.  For now she sits on our bookshelf next to Cinderella who I hope to review as well.

Enesco.com has the newest figures out, which are GORGEOUS.  They are Disney princesses dressed in Art Deco inspired couture.  Here is a link to check them out!  How cute is Snow White??  It also looks like they have a few other versions of Elsa as well.

So far, I have seen these Disney Couture de Force figures in person at both Barnes and Noble as well as Hallmark.
Amazon.com had her listed at the best price (nearly 50% less) and they have many of the other characters listed at less than retail price as well.
Just as a disclosure, links leading to Amazon.com are affiliate links, but I wouldn't recommend them if they didn't have such a good price! :)

Thanks, as always for reading and have a nice weekend!
xo Farrah

Disney's Rapunzel Deluxe Feature Doll- 16 inches

Disney Deluxe Rapunzel Doll 

There's been a lot of hub-bub online regarding the new Disney Villain Limited Edition Dolls that have been released this Autumn.  I did not end up getting any of them as I couldn't completely justify spending the money on any particular set that I didn't totally LOVE.  I'm a huge Disney fan and really love all of the characters, but I didn't want to get one "just to get one".  Normally I don't collect the limited edition dolls as they are a bit out of my budget and they always get released in clusters. There is usually a scramble to get them and then they are always so much more expensive on the secondary market if you miss out.

The only Disney Limited Edition dolls I currently own are the Anna and Kristoff Frozen Fever dolls as well as my favorite Disney Fairy, Fawn.  I have yet to do reviews on them, but they are on the list!

Anyway, as I was browsing the Disney store website, a little bummed that I didn't end up getting the Ariel and Ursula LE dolls, I happened to notice two new Deluxe dolls that I hadn't heard about and was amazed to see Rapunzel and Ariel!

I was especially impressed by Rapunzel as I think her promo photos looked absolutely stunning.
I ended purchasing her and here is my quick mini-review in case you were interested in purchasing her for yourself!
(I also caved and got Ariel, but I'll do a separate post on her another day.)

So here she is:

My first impression as I took her out of the package, was amazement at the size of her.  I knew she was going to be 16 inches tall, but I guess I didn't really expect how big that would actually look.  Her packaging was much nicer than I expected.

This Deluxe Feature doll retails at $49.99 and can be found here at the Disney Store website as well as in-store, I'm guessing.
This version of Rapunzel is from the village scene where she is able to dance and interact with people for the first time.  Some of the little village girls transform her long locks into an elaborate braid and decorate it with lots of flowers.

Screenshot of Tangled.  Image found on Pinterest

Although she is not advertized as a "singing doll" she has an interactive feature where she sings the "Healing Song" from the movie and her hair and lantern subsequently light up.

Here are the back and sides of the box.  The box is really nice for collectors that want to keep their dolls safe inside.  The colors are really pleasing and she is posed very nicely.

Here she is next to my Limited Edition Anna doll, just to give you an idea of how big she is. 

On the outside of the box is a button you could press to test out her singing and light feature.  Rapunzel sings a line from her "healing" song and it is the original voice of Mandy Moore who did Rapunzel's voice from the movie Tangled.
My lantern didn't appear to light up, but I'm not really sure I have figured it out yet.  I have only been using the tester button so far!

UPDATE:  It does light up as long as the lantern is positioned over the bulb in the palm of her hand.  She also sang the whole song!

Rapunzel's hair was definitely the biggest feature about this doll that drew me in.  It's rooted hair and a gorgeous golden color, very nicely styled with strands of gold tinsel to give it the appearance of extra shine.

It's arranged in one long braid with two smaller braids woven into the hairstyle.  She has a cluster of plastic colorful flowers intertwined with larger red flowers which are the actual light bulbs that light up when activated.

Her dress is extremely detailed and well made in my opinion.  It's close to the movie version, but much fancier.

Here's a look at the movie verison:

Image found here

Here are two other version of her dress we have from the 12 inch Disney Classic 2014 Rapunzel and the Disney Palace Pets Rapunzel (review of them coming shortly!)

Tonner Nu Mood Jess modeling another version of the dress. 

There were  two previous 17 inch singing doll versions of Rapunzel (2011 and 2012) and here is the dress from the 2012 version we have.  I have no idea where our actual doll is. We may have donated it OR it's somewhere buried in the girls room. :)

The inside of the box shows an image of Rapunzel's tower.

Classic Rapunzel decided to show up and see this beautiful version of herself. :)

Here she is out of the box.  That long cord to the left is the button you press to make her sing and light up. It was attached to the front of the box as a "tester" button. I haven't had time yet to figure out the exact mechanism of how it all works, although I would assume it has to do with the little button on her hand.

One thing I wanted to point out is that she has less articulation than I expected.  She can only move her head from side to side, and has movement in her hips and knees (hinged).  She can not twist at the waist.  She can move at the shoulders, elbows and wrist of one hand. She has no articulation in her ankles or the wrist of her "singing" hand.

When you put Rapunzel's braid to the back of her, you can see the braid in more detail.  There are only flowers on the front of the braid, unfortunately.

Rapunzel shares a similar face mold as the 2015 Classic Rapunzel.  Hannah did a great review of her here on her blog Never Grow Up.

She has big two-toned green eyes with brown highlights.  Her eyes are forward facing and she has more eyelashes then previous versions.  Her eyebrows are thinner and darker and her freckles appear softer and more realistic to the animated version.  She has a touch of pink eye shadow and nicely done pink lips.  Although her make up is heavier than her animated character, it is still nicely done and I prefer this natural look over her overly done Limited Edition versions.

Her expression is sweet, but to me, they still haven't been able to capture Rapunzel's incredibly sweet and charming personality:

Image found here

A look at the 2011 and 2012 singing dolls faces can be found here  (great Flickr page if you love Disney!)

The previous Rapunzel face ups.  Here's the 12 inch 2014 Classic and Palace Pets Rapunzel. 

Here's a look at her from a few different angles.  I'm not quite sure I like the forward facing eyes as much as the side glancing ones.

Be careful when you cut the plastic ties out of her head...as you can see I snipped a few hairs!  I will have to figure out how to smooth them back into place- gel or hairspray?

Rapunzel's singing and lighting up features do require batteries.  (5 button cell batteries are already in the doll.) 

16 inch and 12 inch Rapunzel just to show a size comparison. :) 

And here's a few more details.  

Overall, I am really pleased with her and so happy to add her to my expanding Disney collection.  The only other version that I own is the 2014 Classic doll (Pumpkin Pie got the Palace Pets one for Christmas.)

Well, I hope you guys enjoyed my mini-review of the newest Rapunzel!  Sorry, it's not as thorough...I feel a bit rushed as hubby and I are leaving this morning for a 2 night stay in Mystic Connecticut.
I'm sure someone else will do a much more detailed review in the days to come!
I shot a video of her singing, which I will upload later when we get back.  Hubby is literally prying me out of this chair so we can get moving! ;)

UPDATE:  Here's the video review we made where you can see her singing :)

I'll see you all soon and hope everyone has a Happy Halloween!
xoxo Farrah