2011 Belle & Mattel Beast/Adam doll review

Hey, guys!  I'm so sorry, I completely forgot about the Belle and Beast review until now -- so without further ado, here it is. 

This is a Mattel Beast/Adam doll.  I'm not sure what year or anything, but he comes with a removable plastic Beast head and jacket. 

I love the detailing on his shirt!

To show you how different his joints are, I pulled out the JC Penney's Hans and Disney Store 2013 Flynn dolls for comparisons. 
His elbow joints can go straight forward like Flynn and Hans', but they can also swivel in towards him, which is pretty awesome. 

May I just say?  Ow.  This is as far as his arm will bend the wrong direction. 

His legs can't split at all, so there will be no horseback riding in his future.

This is how he sits...

It's bad when he sits in a more ladylike manner than the 2013 Disney Store Anna can.

Going back to his costume...his fabric boots are not connected to his blue pants, which is superb.  I don't know how many Ken dolls have their boots sewn onto their pants, and I don't know about anyone else, but when I was little, once those things were off, I could never get them back on.  Soo I was really happy to see that the boots weren't sewn to his pants -- makes life easier for little ones as well as the parents!

His shirt is also not attached to his pants, and has Velcro in the back.

Now for this horrendous thing.
The head and paws are made out of plastic and attached to the jacket/suit/whatever-you-wanna-call-it.  I kind of wish that it wasn't, because then you could use the jacket without the Beast attachment, but I can also understand why it needed to be made that way. 

Putting this sucker on is no easy task, and I could see little ones easily getting frustrated.  First, you gotta squeeze him into the head, and not mash HIS head in the process.  His head is made out of really, really soft, squishy plastic, so it mashes easily. 

Once you have that on and the arms wormed into the sleeves, there are these two little plastic pegs sewn into the inside of the jacket: one on either side.  These will have to be wedged into the holes on the Beast attachment's shoulders, and those things are incredibly challenging, both to get them in and then back out! 

Once he's all put together, Beast looks like this: 

Buuuut it makes him top heavy.  Very, very top heavy.  So if you have quick reflexes and a quicker camera, you can get shots like this

Or this. 
It's quite amusing, actually!  :P

Moving on......

I now interrupt this review with a random Chip. 
This came with the lot as well.  I don't know where he's from, but he's cute!  :P

And now we have Belle.  She is a 2011 Disney Store Belle, but her dress is either from the Wardrobe set or from the 2010 Disney Store Belle--I'm not entirely sure which. 

At first, I was a little concerned about buying the 2011 Belle doll, because her face looks worried.  I didn't think I would really like her face, but she's actually very, very pretty and a lot of fun to photograph! 

Her hair is VERY long, and definitely not realistic to the movie, but it's nice.  It tends to get frizzy at the bottom, but it's nothing a good fabric softener spritz and a little bit of brushing won't fix!

Back of her dress

Front of her dress

And she came with these cute little shoes, but I don't know what or who they're from, if the 2011 Belle doesn't normally come with these style shoes.

As far as her body and articulation, it's just the same as the 2011 or 2010 Rapunzel model - Rubber legs, articulation at the shoulder, elbow, and wrist.  Belle's head can bend to the side a little more than the 2010 or 2011 Rapunzel, though, which is interesting.

She's very photogenic, but I think Chip's a wee bit too big for her.

Annnd that's about it!
I would give Belle a 5 out of 5, despite the inaccurate hair, and would definitely recommend her!
I would give Beast/Adam a 4/5, docking a point because of the tricky Beast attachment and the top heaviness - though the top heaviness is completely understandable.  

Do any of you have a Beast or Belle doll?  If so, what year/brand, and what do you think of them?  Or are you planning on starting a Beauty and the Beast collection sometime? 

Coming up will be a 2014 Rapunzel and 2014 Ariel review, and various movie/book reviews. 

I'm still alive!!

Hey, everyone!  I am SO sorry I haven't posted anything lately!  I am a despicable human being...  this entire month has seriously been so insane.  That's why I haven't been posting -- I'm looking at the calendar on the wall beside me right now and there's been something almost every single day, between end-of-the-summer picnics, church events, meetings, and horse-related appointments...yeah.  It's been crazy.
Anyway, I'm hoping to soon have some posts up, which include a review for the 2014 Disney Store Rapunzel, the 2014 Disney Store Ariel, some photoshoots, and...probably whatever other random posts I have planned and just can't think of right now xD  I am soooo so sorry, guys...!!  I'll have posts up soon, I promise!

I've been nominated!

                                    
Lydia Therese at American Girls and Books nominated me for the Daisy Chain Award - thank you so much!
For the award, you answer the questions the nominator asks, nominate 5 people, and then make up 8 questions to ask of your own!
The questions:
1. Do you like to write?
YES.  Writing is practically my life!!!  I'm always writing or daydreaming of story ideas! 
2. Are your dolls modern and dress up in modern clothes, or do they dress up in clothes from their historical time period to?
Hmm....My Historical AG dolls are normally in period-correct clothing, but my JLY AGs are normally either in modern clothes or historical clothes...so whatever goes, I guess :P 
3. What do you think of BeForever?
Hmmmh...that's a tough one.  I'm not really a fan, but it's just because I grew up with the current lines and now they're changing it, so it feels like I'm losing a bit of my childhood xD 
4. Which best friend is your favorite? Why?
That's another toughie.  I like ALL the best friends (except Cecile and Marie-Grace, I'm not sure because I don't know much about them), but my favorites would probably be Nellie, Elizabeth, and Ruthie. 
5. What do you like better to blog about, AG news or your own stories/photostories?
Um....stories and photostories, I guess -- seeing as I don't put much AG stuff on here.  I probably should keep more up to date on AG stuff, though...hmm. 
6. How many dolls do you have?
Oh boy. 
This...can I opt out of this quiz?? 
I have 6 American Girl dolls (2 JLY, 1 GotY, and 3 Historical), 2 Bitty Babies, and 3 mini dolls.  Since this quiz seems to be more American Girl-centric, I'll leave it at that, I guess?  My Disney collection...uh...yeah.  xD 
7. TOTURE QUESTION!! If you had to give away ALL of your dolls except 1, which one would you keep?
Now I REALLY want to opt out of this quiz.  Ummm....The two that I would probably give up the quickest is my blond/blue-eyed JLY and Josefina.  And then....I don't know.
I guess my blond/brown-eyed/freckles JLY or my Kailey (GotY 2003) would be the hardest to give up.  But this question was SO HARD....yikes!   
8. How is your day going? It's good! Is it sad that all I could think of when I read this question was "I know not who you are, nor how I came to find you, but may I just say...Hi.  The name's Flynn Rider.  How's your day going, huh?"  :P 


And let's see....
I nominate:
Amaya at Fun With AG Fan
Meghan at Girly Doll Type
Um....I'm not sure if I can do three other nominees -- I'm not sure how many of my followers have blogs!  So if you're following me (or even if you aren't), feel free to nominate yourself for the award!!  (Lydia, if I could re-nominate you, I would -  but I'm not sure if that's allowed?  Hey, if you want to be re-nominated, here ya go :D)

The questions:
1) Do you prefer American Girl dolls or Disney Store dolls?
2) Do you enjoy reading?
3) What do you prefer - taking photos for your blog or writing for your blog?   (Or do you just enjoy every aspect about blogging?)
4) What do you think about the BeForever changes?
5) Which is your favorite historical American Girl doll? (Retired or current, doesn't matter!)
6) Favorite Disney princess?
7) The number one doll on your wishlist, if any?
8) Do you take your dolls outside for photoshoots, or do you keep them safe and sound inside? 

On my trip with the church!

 

Hey, guys!  I'm sorry it's taken all week long to get this post up.  I've been busy catching up on stuff and helping around the house, etc., plus Blogger has been stupid and not wanting to upload all these pictures.  Anyway, without further ado...this picture was as we were in Illinois, crossing over the Mississippi River.  I took so many pictures of that....I've always wanted to see the Mississippi.  I don't know why, but I have.

When we got to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, my Sunday school teacher/youth adviser took three other kids from our church and I and we went for a 6AM walk from the hotel we stayed at to Sioux Falls.  It was sooo pretty, and I took a LOT of pictures there as well.

Ruins of some sort, I read the sign on the rock but I can't remember it xD

A combination of an amazing landscape and an amazing camera equaled a very camera-shot-happy me.  xD

And there were a bunch of geese there, too.

And this is the Badlands.  (Ignore the time stamps on the pictures, they're a day or two off for some reason..gah.)  It was fun trying to take pictures of the kids from my church climbing on the rocks and then zooming out to show how tiny the kids looked on the rocks...especially when the braver, "mountain goat" ones would climb to the top of some of the rocks.  You wouldn't catch me dead climbing that high...yikes.

Because of some books I read as a little kid, I have allllways wanted to see cracked, parched ground, so I was sure to take pictures when the opportunity arose.  I really like this picture, for some reason. 

And I bet you don't know what this is...Mount Rushmore.  I took plenty of pictures there, too, but I just found the best one and left it at that for the blog.  There are only so many pictures of Mount Rushmore that you can look at before you get tired of practically looking up George or Lincoln's nose just to see the two hiding behind xD

Ahhh, the buffalo.  We drove through Custer State Park in South Dakota, and encountered this MASSIVE herd of bison.  One guy from our church lost count at five hundred head of them.  It was insane!  And we were stuck on that road for probably around an hour, if not longer, because they were crossing the road.  One even tried a mock-charge at the bus, which was really cool.  It came within INCHES of hitting the bus! (rather, I thought it was cool.  Most of the girls were scared and screaming, though...)

And this is just one picture from Wyoming.  I took a bunch, but they were mostly at a ranch and mostly had people in them.  Soo this is one of the best people-free pictures I took from Wyoming. (:

And these are from our hike in Colorado, which was along the Rocky Mountains.  It was really, really pretty, but I was TERRIFIED up there.
I started up at almost the beginning of our group, knowing that I had to be with at least two other people (they wouldn't allow any less, in case of an emergency) and also knowing that the kids I knew would be mostly up at the top of the group.  Wellll....I started out fine, but the adviser that was leading the entire group of kids was BOOKING it up that mountain, and the more I tried to keep up, the more out of breath I got because the elevation was more than twice what we're used to, and I ended up almost throwing up and passing out and...yeah...so I made myself stop.  By the time I could sort of breathe, I was completely separated from the group.  Soo I tried to catch up, and I finally found some girls from our district.  Well, let's just say that you sure feel like a nobody when they see you; one girl makes eye contact with you, and they literally jog off and won't let you keep up with them. 
So I ended up alone on the two mile hike up the mountain, with clouds coming in, (at least three people had died up there the weekend before we left on the 14th, so we were told to book it down the mountain as soon as we saw lightning ANYWHERE...), without a partner, and alone.  My extremely shy self ended up eavesdropping and having to stop a random elderly couple and asking if I could walk with them, since they were well on their way to the same spot my group was supposed to meet up at, because I was completely lost.  They told me where to go, and so I was luckily able to keep going. [Thank you, random elderly couple, you guys rock.]

And, well, I ended up there, completely alone and about 9,000 feet in the air, praying that I didn't get lost or die (and wondering if anyone would even NOTICE) and also asking for just ONE person to be friends with me, (because let's just say that the trip was full of teasing and pure harassment from my roommates, who picked on and teased me for every single thing I do, every single thing I like, and even how I SLEEP and EAT!  It was getting old.)
Shortly after, I finally made it up to Gem Lake (the place we were supposed to meet up at), tagging along with two other random stragglers that I'd caught up to.  We hung out there for a little while, and then they left me, too..but then one of the boys from my church came over and we walked back down the mountain together.  He's kind of shy and actually a lot like me (aside from the doll collecting and Disney obsessed part, of course...) and we had a surprisingly long conversation the whole way down the mountain.  About halfway down, thunder started and we heard rain wayyyy up in the mountain...most of the girls started screaming and running down the  mountain, afraid of getting wet, but we just kept poking along.  Of course, we kind of hurried a little more when lightning struck somewhere close by, but yeah xD We crammed under the overhang for the restroom literal seconds before a long downpour started, so that was lucky!  We were among the first back down the mountain, so a lot of people got soaked.
Anyway, that was my experience hiking on the foothills(?) of the Rocky Mountains.  After that, the boy and I hung out for the majority of the trip (he and another guy from my church let me eat with them [which was awesome, because my roommates would ditch me constantly and it was getting awkward, always tagging with our Sunday school teacher xD])  but after that, if we were going the same place, we were going together and talking.  And it was really nice.  I'll be forever thankful and grateful to him for his companionship, and I do believe he was the answer to my prayers up there on the Rocky Mountains.
ANYWAY.  You guys are probably really sick of reading this stupid drama, right?  Moving on to more pictures from the Rockies.  It's also been on my bucket list to go to the Rocky Mountains, so that was EPIC too. 

And this one is the view we had from our dorm room, at five in the morning.  It was really pretty!

Anyway, that's about it.  Reeeallly long post, sorry 'bout that!  More posts coming soon, not about my trip, but about other stuffs.  :P  Talk to you guys soon, I hope!