Continuing in my series of Ever After High doll reviews, today I bring you: Raven Queen!
She. Is. Evil. ;)
To start off, I got my Raven Queen doll at my local Justice store. Yes, Justice is still the only store that sells them right now. :/ However, I'm sure we can expect them to be released at other typical retailers soon enough. (hopefully with more dolls!)
I actually got my doll during Justice's Buy-One-Get-One Free Sale (BOGO) Interesting fact: you can have Justice do a price adjust for a product if you have the original receipt and do it within 14 days of purchase. (The sales clerk may be unsure at first, but it's official. I looked it up and the manager confirmed it) Here's the fine print, the price adjust is the third paragraph under "Pricing".
That may seem random, but it means that even though I purchased Maddie Hatter a few days before with the 40% off sale, I was able to bring her price back up to normal and combine her with Raven to get the BOGO! :) Instead of paying $21.60 for Madeline alone, I paid $36 for both, with breaks down to $18.00 each.
I normally wouldn't care about a few dollars, but I needed my dolls in even pairs for the BOGO. I wasn't going to pay $36 for ONE doll. This worked out perfectly. The BOGO sale is over now, but keep it in mind for future sales! :)
And now: Raven
In box with shiny flash glare. :/ I did this review after the sun went to bed, so I wanted to include one picture with icky flash to show her truer coloring. :)
No glare, but muted colors. Keep in mind she looks closer to the picture with flash. :)
Beautiful box art, as usual.
Seen here with her accessories: her hairbrush, clutch, and story bookmark
My favorite part of the box.
Loving the broken mirror. Deep meanings, man.
The back of the box features Raven as she appears in the webisodes.
The spine of her "book" box
Pages
From above
When picking Raven out at a store, pay close attention to her plastic collar thing. A lot of the dolls at my Justice had their purple gem painted completely askew and/or had little to no paint on her feathers. Also look for any rips or tears, crooked face paint, marks or stains, and bad hair. ;)
Plastic removed! Finally!
The stand is hidden inside the "book". She's a pretty easy to get out of the box. Just be careful of all the different rubber bands holding her down. Thankfully, there's no annoying twist-ties. :)
But there ARE head staples. :(
Cut them free from the box from the inside where you have cardboard between your scissors and her hair. Once the doll is free from the box, you can carefully trim them small and/or push them inside her head with your thumb. If they go all the way in, no more spikes!
Out of the box!
She's very lovely, and much more serious than Madeline Hatter. I love her deep colors and the details are fantastic!
Hair
I was a little worried about what her hair would be like and I wasn't very surprised. It's nice hair (especially for a play doll) but it's not amazing. Her hair is pretty thick and nicely rooted, but here's what it looks like straight from the box.
Not a nightmare, but not perfect.
However, when I was brushing through her hair I found this. Scary! It looks like it was twisted around itself during manufacturing. Hopefully my Raven is an isolated case. I worked at it for a couple minutes, trying to detangle it, but the knot eventually won.
I had to call in the scissors.
After that incident, her hair turned out nice and smooth. :)
She has a half-up hairdo that curls around her spiked crown.
She has an adorable purple widows peak. :) Most of her hair is black except for the front purple...
...and the underside. That would make for some fun-colored up-do's! :)
Outfit
Raven has an extremely detailed and high quality outfit.Undoubtably, her collar is her most iconic piece, so let's start with that.
Or... let's start without it.
Here is Raven with her molded plastic collar removed. We can now see her lovely tank top that is half purple and half deep green/black. It is made from scale-like cloth and is separate from her skirt.
Ah, here's the collar!
Raven's collar is a lot cooler than I thought it would be. It is removable, and it unclasps in the front underneath the purple jewel. It is made from a flexible plastic and is antiqued with black paint, exposing its wonderful detail.
Her collar comes rubber banded to her shoulders and I was at first hesitant to remove it, thinking that the rubber bands were necessary to hold it in place. Nope. You can snip them and they don't affect her outfit at all.
However, the collar does restrict Ms. Queen a bit. :/
The collar lifts up when she raises her arms, and she can't answer many questions in class while wearing it.
In the end, however, it looks really, really cool and is worth the limited posing.
Her clutch is black with a silver mirror and handle molded on it.
As far as I can tell, it does NOT open. :( (If you've found otherwise, please tell me!)
She sports a cute belt that's a cross between a corset and a chain.
Her stand prongs show above it.
She has a cute bracelet/ring combo!
Oh wait. The ring isn't attached. Awkward.
This dot claims to "do a lot". Let's see if it can fix this...
Much better!
Okay, not perfect 100% of the time...
But still better! No more sliding ring!
She has a three-tired skirt that is separate from her top.
It has a silky peplum-like top layer, and ruffled fabric underneath in different shades of purple.
I love the dramatic high-low skirt. :)
She also features black fishnets and killer wedges.
If that doesn't spell "dangerous"... I don't know how to spell.
Articulation and Posing
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| Elegance on Mod Podge |
She has articulation at her neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, and knees!
Here she is sitting like a proper lady.
She can also kneel very nicely, but she must be supported...
...or she might have an emotional breakdown.
And if you give her an emotional breakdown, she'll probably want a serious photo-shoot to go with it.
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| Auditions for the next Sleeping Beauty are now open. |
*Cry cry cry*
And if you give her the photo-shoot, you'll probably have to bring in her best friend to cheer her up.
I love the height different between Raven and Maddie!
Happy again.
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| Violet eyes? She could be sleeping beauty. |
I love her face paint! I think she's most accurate to her character.
Comparison shot!
"You're going to run for President against Apple?!"
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| "What? It's not my fault." |
I don't find Raven as fun to pose as Madeline Hatter, probably due to her limiting wardrobe.
Here she is acting out her iconic poses from the series.
At Legacy Day practice: "Umm, I have a question."
In response to Headmaster Grimm's "Poof, Poof!" When asking what will happen to her if she doesn't follow her destiny.
"Everybody STOP!"
Getting mad when Headmaster Grimm calls her in to try to make her be an Evil-er Queen.
~~~
That's it for the beautiful Raven! Stay tuned for Briar Beauty and Apple White doll reviews! :D
Read my review on Raven Queen's best friend, Madeline Hatter HERE.
