Wednesday 20 August 2014

Ever After High's Holly and Poppy O'Hair

I am back today with another doll review, and if you watched my latest doll hunting video, you'll know what it is! Well, I guess you'll know what it is if you read the title of this post, but just go with me here.

Holly and Poppy O'Hair have been on my wish list since we first saw them, and I've been (im)patiently waiting for them to hit Canada. I even checked over in Buffalo when I went, but had no luck finding them. Luckily, my local Target did its fall reset, and after months of having nothing new, basically had EVERYTHING new, including Holly and Poppy! I also still had my voucher from Mattel from back when I got my Avea Trotter with the hole in her ear, and I was able to use that to get this set for a little less than half price. Definitely a win!

I've always loved the story of Rapunzel, one of my favourite colours is purple, and I'm a sucker for red hair, so basically, the O'Hair twins were practically designed with me in mind!




Click through to see lots of pictures of these gorgeous dolls, and to see me unbox them!





Here they are in their box! I really don't like photographing EAH boxes...they turn into mirrors with any lighting on them and my lightbox is too small. Oh well, you get the point, I think! Besides, it's really what's inside the box that counts.


Let me tell you, this was one of the trickier unboxings I've had to do! Heads up that these girls are tied into that box in every way you could possibly imagine and then some. I had to do battle with rubber bands, plastic ties and more, but in the end I was victorious!


 And here are Holly and Poppy out of their plastic prison! These next few photos aren't great because I took them late at night, but I really wanted to wash their hair and brush it out before getting too far into the review. They're the daughters of Rapunzel, I couldn't let them languish with box hair! As usual, they come with a purse and a diary each, and they each come with a stand and brush as well. I gave Holly the gold stand and Poppy the silver stand, because they match their accessories that way!



And now, let's talk about why I needed to wash their hair immediately. This is Holly's hair right out of the box. Pretty tangled and scraggly, and really dry looking. It's not terrible, but it definitely needed some TLC!


 Poppy's hair though...Girl has got major helmet head! It was completely rock hard with gunk, and just...ugh. Poor Poppy! She needed a good hot water rinse to get all that gunk out, but after that, she's basically good to go!


There, isn't that better? All washed up, Holly's hair is actually really beautiful, and I love Poppy's too. I may try and give her a bit of a trim just to give it some texture, but for now, it's considerably better! Now that we've gotten that out of the way, let's jump into the review! I've decided to start with Poppy because she MIGHT be my favourite, but it's a very close call!


And here's Poppy, all by her lonesome. At first glance she might not be as exciting or detailed looking as some of the other Ever After High dolls, but I really just love her look. She does look less "fairy tale" than some of the others, but I think that goes along with her story really well. The deal with these two is that of course, only one of them can be the next Rapunzel, and by virtue of being born first, that's Holly's destiny (though the webisodes are shaking some things up!). Poppy here didn't even think she'd be able to attend Ever After High, but Raven declaring that she was going to choose her own destiny opened up a whole new world. Anyway, that's a long way to go to explain that unlike the other characters who have known their whole life where their future is going, Poppy has had to forge her own path. And along that path, she's decided to become a hair stylist, a theme which we are about to see a lot of!


Poppy's face is very similar to the other EAH dolls, but at first glance, I can't be sure if she shares a mold with any of the others. I'm honestly pretty terrible at telling if they do or do not share them anyways, but I can say for sure that Holly and Poppy share a mold! They also share gorgeous light aqua eyes, and realistic ginger-red hair. Poppy has also dyed the front of her hair a bright, shocking purple which is an unexpected combination with the red, but I think it looks awesome. Her eyes are surrounded with quite a lot of light purple shadow, and she has deep berry lips. She's also wearing a pink "scarf" in her hair, though it's really made of molded plastic. It is really cute though!


She has two different earrings, but they both feature scissors. Her right ear has a simple scissor stud, and the left has a scissor stud in the lobe, connected with loops of chain to a cuff in her helix. These are just the first of many scissors that we're going to see as we look closer at Poppy's outfit!


Over her shoulders, Poppy wears a large, molded grey scarf. It has a pink poppy detail, as well as some purple thread painted onto it. I have mixed feelings about this piece. On one hand, I think that it's really quite striking visually, and an actual knit scarf would be difficult to keep in place nicely on her shoulders like this. On the other hand, it nearly completely stops the articulation in her shoulders, and I generally don't like things that limit a dolls mobility, especially in a line like EAH where the articulation is so good. I think that in the long run, I greatly prefer   Poppy's outfit with the scarf, so I'll deal with the lack of shoulder movement, but it's not ideal.


It unsnaps in the back, but even when it's open it is tricky to maneuver off. It's not the bendiest vinyl, so it takes some work and might be hard for little fingers.


Without it, we can get a clear look at Poppy's dress. It's an empire waist a-line dress, with a pink and black colour-blocked bodice. Most of the bodice is covered by the scarf when she's wearing it, and I really do prefer the look with the scarf.  There are sheer sleeves with a crisscross pattern, and the whole top sit just off the shoulders. The skirt of the dress is made of an ombred pink and purple fabric, with a graphic black and white braid pattern on top. There are also shiny silver scissors printed all over and a wide, braided black belt cinching her waist. It's a simple shape, but there's still a lot of detail going on in this dress, and I like it!


Underneath the dress, she's wearing black leggings with a weathered leather-like texture. On the outside of each leg there is a panel of black mesh with a crisscross pattern that echoes the one on her sleeves.


I shouldn't have to tell you that her shoes are awesome, but her shoes are awesome! They're hot pink lace up ankle boots with a slight texture, but the heel is where things get great. Look at the little scissors on the back! So cute! It's details like this that are easy to miss that I really love, because you can really see all the work that went into designing these dolls.


Jewellery-wise, Poppy is wearing a silver scissor ring on one hand, and a twisty-turny rope and chain bracelet on the other.


Her final accessory is her purse, which actually contains three even smaller accessories. The purse itself is black with a braided strap, and of little molded details, like the three safety pins across the top.


Inside the front pocket of the purse, you find a hot pink hair clip, a purple comb, and a little pair of scissors. I totally love this kind of accessory, and these in particular are so cute! They should make Poppy a salon playset, how cute would that be?


And best of all, she can hold the scissors! She can hold the comb too, with a little finagling, but the scissors fit nicely over her thumb and index finger.


And that's it for Poppy, the rebel sister, so let's move onto the royal!


And here's Holly! I can't get enough of her gorgeous hair now that it's all washed and brushed out. I mean, look at it!


But first, let's look at her face. Obviously, the basics of her face are identical to Poppy's, but her makeup is different. It's toned down compared to Poppy's, with soft pink eyeshadow going just about her crease, and lips in a berry tone similar to Poppy's, but with more shimmer. On her head, she's wearing a translucent purple crown covered in flowers. Each end of the crown has a comb to help it stay in her hair, but it stays pretty well.


Her hair, as I've said, is gorgeous! It is prone to tangling because it's so long, but it also brushes out really nicely. There's a slight wave at the very bottom, but other than that it's straight. It comes to just about her ankles, and while Rapunzel could definitely have longer hair, I think this is a good happy medium for a play doll, especially if her hair is going to be loose like this. She does have one braid just in front of her ear, as a tie-in to her bio where she says that her hair makes incredibly strong ropes when it's braided! I also really love the colour of her hair. It's a very realistic colour, and I feel like a real person could have hair this shade of red.


Her earrings are, appropriately enough, little gold hair brushes! They're positioned so one is facing with the bristles forward, and the other is positioned with the bristles facing back.


Her outfit is made up of a dress and a shrug with puffed sleeves, and though the dress looks like two pieces, it isn't. The top is a lavender knit fabric with a gold sparkle, and the skirt is a satin-y material in a a purple ombre. There are pink flowers drifting down from the top of the skirt to collect at the bottom, and I can only assume they're meant to be holly flowers. Over top of that is a shiny gold pattern that resembles braids. The shrug is mostly made of a sheer hot pink fabric, and the sleeves have the same crisscross pattern as Poppy's.  It also has gorgeous trim, which we will look at closer in a minute.


Accessory-wise, she's wearing a large gold necklace with white flowers to one side, and a braided, antique gold belt.



She's also wearing a hot pink braided multi-strand bracelet and a gold braided bracelet on one hand, and a gold ring in the shape of a castle turret or tower on the other.


 Her shoes are, all together now, AWESOME. As much as I liked Poppy's shoes, these are definitely the stars for me. They're gold with a raised leaf and vine pattern swirling around them, with antiquing in the crevices to bring out the details. There are white holly flowers on the front, and the ankle straps are simple braids. But where these shoes get really cool, is on the heels. Echoing Holly's ring, the heels of these shoes are quite clearly towers! I like how in Ever After High so many of the characters readily embrace the negative aspects of their stories because it's just a part of their lives, and for Holly, spending many years in the tower is definitely a negative. I don't really know how she can spend her childhood trapped in a tower when she's already in high school, but hey, I try not to poke too hard at these stories.


Holly's last accessory is her purse. It's hot pink with fringe detailing, and a large quilted oval on top, with a purple designed printed on it. It's simpler than Poppy's and has no pocket, but it goes really well with her outfit.


And that's really what matters, isn't it? :P


Now it's time for that detailed shot of Holly's shrug that I promised. You can see here that the trim isn't simply braided, but the gold is actually teeny tiny beads! It's so nice that it feels almost too nice for a play doll!


Without the shrug, I think Holly's dress is a bit plain, honestly. It needs that pop of bright pink!


Sisters, back together again! As gorgeous as both of these dolls are separately, I think they're even more beautiful together. Their outfits work really well together, with the colours and textures, and I can't wait to put them out on my shelf together!



And of course, I had to have a little bit of fun with these two and Poppy's accessories! If you wedge one of Poppy's fingers between the teeth of the comb, she can hold it pretty well, and I think this is just delightful.


 I know that if I had a sister with hair as long and gorgeous as Holly's, I would want to play with it all the time! And with Poppy being a hair stylist, I'm sure she's always coming up with new ways to do Holly's hair.


Holly's hair is so long, Poppy has to come at it from a whole different angle to give it a trim! And since their hair grows incredibly fast, I bet Poppy has to trim it every day to keep it from getting totally out of control.


I kind of have a thing for making it look like dolls are taking selfies right now...I just think it looks so cute! I need to do it more often, maybe put them on my Instagram haha...

Anyways, that's it for Poppy and Holly O'Hair! I have to say, Ever After High just keeps impressing me with these signature dolls. The details in the outfits are just incredible, and the webisodes are delightful, and maybe are even telling a better story than the Monster High webisodes (but don't tell anyone I said that!). Holly and Poppy here are definitely some of my favourites in the EAH line, up there with Cerise and Cedar, and I can't wait to put them out on my shelf!

Who are you favourite Ever After High dolls so far? Let me know in the comments!

4 comments:

  1. These pictures are awesome! I still don't have them but plan on it. ;)

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    1. Thanks! These two are totally worth having, I hope you get your hands on them soon!

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  2. Oh wow, Holly's shoes are amazing. It's funny because when I saw Poppy's boots I thought they would obviously be the best pair of the two...! They look a bit art nouveau-ish to me. Overall I think Holly's braid motif works really well.

    Poppy's plastic scarf is just odd - thought it was meant to be a mass of chains or something. Also for some reason I thought she would have a more Venus McFlytrap-like haircut. The accessories are neat, though.

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    1. They really never disappoint with the shoes on these dolls, but both of these knock it out of the park! I love that you say they're nouveau-ish too, that could explain why I like them so much! Anything nouveau inspired really grabs me.

      It is odd. It looks cool, but if I was a kid trying to play with the doll, I would be hella annoyed by how it doesn't let her arms move. I would love if she had a shaved side like Venus! I love Venus' hair and that style would fit Poppy really well, I think. Her accessories are definitely awesome though!

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