Friday 31 January 2014

Doll Review: Pinkie Cooper and The Jet Set Pets - Ginger Jones


'Pinkie Cooper and The Jet Set Pets', manufactured by The Bridge Direct, is a brand new fashion doll line from the creator of the original Bratz doll, Carter Bryant. The adorable stylised canine dolls are modelled after the English toy spaniel breed and said to be based upon the Bryant's sister's real Cocker Spaniel pet, Pinkie-Cooper, which the doll line is also named after.






The box has a simple design. It features a large front window, a neat pattern of pink and brown stripes which reminds me of a vintage candy-shop. 



The logo's font is a cute curled scroll and small hearts dotting the 'i's. I feel the 'And The Jet Set Pets' is an unnecessary tag line; whilst it does get across the point of them being world-travelling fashionistas, it makes the line sound more like an episode of Scooby-Doo than a doll.


One side of the box shows artwork for Ginger, though it appears several changes have been made to the outfit from the prototype image to the final product. This is a big pet peeve of mine! It's not as drastic a difference as the Bratzillaz disaster, but it's still something that irks me.
I don't know why the outfit was changed but I guess these things happen as designs develop and progress. (What annoys me is that surely, in the time that it takes the company to realise changes need to be made and put these changes into order, the art going on the box and in catalogues to advertise the dolls can be changed too?)


The back of the box shows a larger version of the art from the side, some faux stickers and stamps showing famous places from around the world, a blurb stating that the students are aiming to make fashion more stylish and dog friendly. 


As it turns out all box art features this collared, layered shift dress, but in the end Pinkie is the only doll wearing a final outfit that resembles it! The others were changed quite a lot.



And here's the inside packaging. A simple cardboard box with some plastic ties, bands and tabs holding the doll and accessories in place. It's relatively easy to get the doll free, but I feel a lot of it was unnecessary.


I was curious to see exactly how the hairstyles could be 'mixed and matched'. The coloured thread tying the hair down gets snagged very easily. 


More bands tying accessories down.


And some plastic coated wire ties around her neck and waist. 
Just look at that cute smile! 


And now it's.. 'prom night'? This is the first I'm hearing about it! How odd to throw a prom theme into the already set theme of world-travelling-fashion-designer-dogs. I suppose each line released has to have a theme, but I thought the début theme was simply their fashion line? How confusing.

The back of the box is easy to tackle, snipping tabs and tape and the doll is free.



Instructions on how to remove and replace the.. ear.. hair.. And how to add accessories like hats and bows.



There are more expensive play-sets with pets and more clothes, but they were around £25. I couldn't justify that before I had explored the franchise, but after closer inspection I want to see more of what the line has to offer. 




This is the.. other line. I find it really creepy that they have puppies as pets. Isn't that like us humans having babies as pets? Weird!

And here's everything out of the box. It doesn't seem like that much, but it's justified with the price tag of £13 (which is on par with Monster High budget dolls) and the doll is so unique that it's totally worth it! 



Her first accessory is a small purple bag with moulded details on each side. The details are faux stitches, random swirls and a femanine profile with hair curling down one side.

As well as being tied down to the cardboard packing, the bag was also glued down! This has left some residue on the bag which makes the moulding lose its crisp look, so not it just looks shiny and flat. (Like the hair bow and the bottom of the curl)


As I was holding the doll to put the shoes on, this happened! These dirty smudges were from my grubby fingers. However, I have a routine before handling dolls/doing reviews of washing my hands thoroughly to avoid incidences like this, so I'm 99.9% sure the black smudges were residue from the box.


Small smudges from the stain remained, even after scrubbing. I was hesitant to use nail polish remover/acetone on the stain for fear of removing her body blushing, and after a bit of scrubbing with soap the stain had been removed to a (sort of) satisfactory level. 


And here she is out of the box. The overall colour scheme of brown, purple and white tones balances out nicely.


Her headband is a simply strip of hemmed fabric with a ruffle bow on one ear. It features the same silver cameo style decoration as her belt and dress. It feels nice, silky and smooth and has a nice shine. It's well made and looks neat, however, the blue-purple of the indigo fabric doesn't fit the pinky-purple magenta and violet theme of the doll. It is the same fabric as the underskirt of the tutu, but that's not particularly visible. Maybe if the bag or shoes were the same indigo colour it would fit in better?


Her shoes are simple high heels with a strap detail and ever so slight detail around the heel and sole. 


Her dress is a simple vest top of pink stretch knit with a random purple splodge print pattern. Attached to the top is a pink and purple tulle tutu. The skirt is made up of a fuchsia tulle layer on top, a purple layer and then a pale lilac layer on the bottom. The whole outfit is finished off with a belt of moulded silver plastic, and a lilac ribbon.




The moulded belt features a cameo style border and space in the middle to give a faux-gem look. This look is simple to achieve but effective in giving off a high glam look.
I wasn't pleased that the plastic tie under her bust has left a crease line in the fabric, but this crease became less noticeable after time and a bit of manoeuvring. 


The dress is very nicely constructed with neat stitching, sturdy seams and the fabric is of nice quality. The dress holds its shape very well.


Ginger's face is very cute, however it has a tendency to look wall-eyed from certain perspectives. I am not a photographer and don't really do her very unique sculpt justice!
Her inset eyes are plastic with attached and high quality eye lashes. Ginger has painted royal blue eyes with lots of detail, a black pupil and white 'shine' highlights. She features brown hearts and dots down her muzzle. Her nose is small and brown.
The (intentionally) asymmetrical forehead paint is more obvious once her headband is removed, but even when the headband is on it doesn't detract from the face paint.
The detailed lip paint is very nice, however those brown lines are a little bold for me. A colour just a little darker than the pinkish lip base or tongue paint would suffice, but the brown used helps to tie it into the scheme of the rest of the face.


Ginger's ears.. hair..? Hairy ears (..?) are two pieces of silicone wig cap, rooted with hair. These blonde and brown ear caps have lovely smooth and shiny hair rooted in, which does not tangle easy and feel soft to the touch. However, it seems brown thread to match the hair from the machine rooting process has been left behind. 
Unless this was intentional, giving the consumer something to pull on to remove the ear hair plugs, it's a small and easily over looked error.


Ginger is very cute from this angle, with a long sloped profile, a small nose and a small rounded chin. You can also see how long her eye lashes are!


The cut on the ear wigs is a little uneven.  


And this is with her wig spun around with the blonde on top! She looks very cute like this, I do like the colour of the hair. 


Each ear wig has a small white plastic square peg to help you pull it out of the plug and push it back in without risk of damaging the hair or the wig cap. This is a great idea, and is very discrete once it's covered up again.


Her other accessory is a simple plastic bracelet painted metallic silver, sculpted to look like twisted and braided metal. It's a little bit bent and wonky for some reason so doesn't sit straight the arm very well.


And here's her body. Her head, torso and arms are made from a hard plastic and her legs are rubbery. She's a lovely off white colour with peachy body blushing on the elbows and knees. This is the first time I've seen blushing on a mass market doll! It's a great bonus on an already cute doll, which adds realism and depth. 
She features 7 points of articulation and a click system in each knee (which I don't really count as articulation because they only bend bend and hold very slightly)



She has purple painted claws and a small pink heart shaped paw pad. Her hand sculpt is slightly cupped; very versatile.


She has moulded underpants on with a little bow AND an outie belly button! 


This is the extent to which the internal click joints allow the knees to bend. Each knee has two clicks and they seem to hold pretty well, but I always worry about their durability and shelf life.
Her legs seem to go on forever! They're very long and nicely shaped, with a pinched thigh/hip joint. This small point makes the joint cup look large, especially around her bum. I suppose you'll never notice when she's dressed and it's a functional design choice. 


Ginger has minimal sculpting on her back, and more blushing on her elbows and the backs of her knees. The slim upper thigh joints give way to a very odd thigh gap. 


The tapered thigh joints give her good articulation, allowing her to do the splits both ways. She's very well balanced in these positions too!



She holds poses well and makes them look very natural! Here are some more fun shots!




And some shots with a Scary Tales Monster High Clawdeen doll to offer as a comparison. 


Ginger is quite a bit smaller than Monster High dolls, but much more shapely. 


Ginger's foot arch is about the same angle and the toes are about the same length, but she has a shorter foot.


This means Ginger can wear Monster High shoes but Clawdeen can't quite fit her heel into that strap. 


They can also share clothes! PC dresses on MH dolls are a little short, but fit well around the bust and waist.


Ginger can wear some MH clothes too. Tops may be a little long in the chest due to different torso lengths but otherwise I'm sure they'd look fine.


With the fashion doll market saturated with Barbie-esque or Monster High clones so this line is refreshing in a lot of ways. 
However, the whole theme of world-travelling-fashion-designers is tolerable.. It's a great idea when it's done right, but it's also been done to death. There's no character development as of yet which means I cannot get invested in the individuals dolls. (I know there are 'Pinkie Cooper Webisodes' but I don't think they're particularly substantial. And I suppose the whole doll line has plenty of time to develop and grow as it's still very new and fresh.)

Pinkie Cooper does step into the 'pink' territory but not overly so. It's a nice mix of glitter and class and cute features that make it stand out.

I highly recommend this thoroughly enjoyable doll line due to it's versatility, it's great price point and it's highly unique features.
The puppy sculpt head and body is utterly adorable and very unique! There's nothing else like it on the market now (that I'm aware of) and I hope it will catch on with other companies, encouraging smaller businesses to bring out brand new and totally different dolls!



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