So does anyone remember me posting about the special edition Shuri doll from the Disney Store? Well, there's another one in this line out! And since I reviewed Shuri I thought... well, let's have a look at this one!
So the new doll in the Marvel Special Edition line up is, in fact, Carol Danvers, the titular Captain Marvel from the upcoming (as of writing) film. As we can see from the box, we've again got the clear plastic front with the movie title emblazoned on it, this time in red with a gold outline. The clear from allows you to see right in at the doll, which means you can pick out the best one. A lot of the ones I had seen at the store had messy hair so that might be a thing.
The back of the box gives us a picture of Carol from the movie, looking pretty heroic. There's text included in multiple languages that gives a brief overview of what the line is, and a brief summary on the character. For those who can't read it on the picture, I have transcribed it below:
Like I said, quite a basic summary on all points and not really giving anything away about the movie that isn't already known. Carol, as mentioned, is the second in the series, and I would need to guess that if a third comes out, it would probably be around about the release of Avengers: Endgame, though I'm not entirely sure which of the many heroes from that line would be chosen. If they opted to wait until Spider-Man: Far From Home, they could release a Spider-Man, giving our first male to join the line, which would be cool. I don't think they'll do that, but it would be cool.
Taking off the plastic outer, we get a closer look at Carol without the shine. From this first glance, she does look pretty accurate. There's a decent resemblance to Brie Larson, and her hair is sitting quite nicely - no worries of odd looking forehead and hair placement that plague the Belle dolls from the live action Beauty and the Beast release. We also see that they've given her the comic colours for her uniform, and that there's a mix of fabric and plastic molded pieces to it all.
The back of the box shows us just one large twist tie to get rid of to remove Carol which is pretty cool. There's no too much tape on it either, so the Disney Store seem to be cutting down on the amount of waste their doll packing provides.
There's only a couple of twist ties keeping her feet in place as well. Also, this close up allows us to see that her uniform has stitched detail on it to mimic the panelling of the real thing. Her boots also seem a bit larger than usual for a Disney doll foot, and judging by it, she would appear to have flat feet. They are jointed to allow for up and down movement, but not much side to side. On closer inspection, it would appear that the bottom of the boot is her foot, and the upper has slide on over the top. It appeared to be a peg joint similar to those used in Hot Toys but I didn't want to pull too hard in case I ruined it.
Ugh the only downside and sadly the picture doesn't show it as well as I would like. Despite being held in pretty well, there are tags in her head. You're going to need small scissors - nail ones work best here - and pull her head as far away from the plastic as you can in the hopes of not snipping any of her hair. I managed it but I have to admit those ties are in there quite tight and short, and it's just beyond irritating. That being said? The packaging is customer friendly, and doesn't really take too much time to debox. Waste is minimal and... well, just look
The background now we can fully see it is clearly Earth against the sky of the universe. It's genuinely lovely and if you can slip the plastic body holder out without ripping anything, I think it would make a cool backdrop for some pictures.
But here is Carol out of the box! She stands really solidly on her own, and doesn't really need much fussing with to be able to do so. Straight out of box I didn't need to do any fussing with her, actually, which was much appreciated. Her clothing feels like pleather or vinyl, which makes me wonder about how well it will age - those fabrics tend not to age well unless kept in in the right conditions.
A close up of her face. We can see she's got a nice portrait, with brown eyes and reasonably sized eyebrow.s Mine seems to have an odd shiny bit under her left eye which isn't as noticeable in the picture, but is in real life. Her top lip looks a little bit purple which... yeah, I don't know why on that. The hair is gelled but still feels pretty nice to the touch I wouldn't recommend taking a comb or anything to it - I don't think that hairstyle would maintain nicely without the gel in place.
A look at her back shows us that they use a zip closer instead of Velcro! It's nice to see that for these dolls - which retail at £30 in the UK - they are taking the time to give a bit more in terms of quality of the item. I don't necessarily know if they'll be able to keep that up with future releases, mostly as I don't know how well these are selling. I can only hope that they do keep with non-Velcro closures, as it looks a bit nicer.
Now, here I would ideally undress the doll and show off her body. However, see the body armour? While it does un-clip at the waist, it's all attached together and short of pulling her head off, there's no way to un-clip it at the neck. Which means, yeah, she's not getting undressed any time soon. I can tell you that she is articulated, though the thickness of her costume can impair movement a bit. Articulation at the arms, elbows, with hinged and rotational movement at the wrists. Hip movement is one of the areas that isn't so good due to the costume - though you can get some movement if you work it a bit - and it feels as though her knees are hinge joints rather than Disney Store's usual click joints.
Honestly, it does seem like these dolls are more for display than play, but it's worth putting it forward.
She's a good bit shorter next to Mattel's Black Label Wonder Woman (from the Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice release) being at least a head size smaller than her. You'll notice that Carol's arms seem a good bit thicker than Diana's in this shot. Admittedly, this release did not have the muscular sculpt of later releases - though more articulated - but this idea of Carol having a thicker body is actually one I want to keep with
Here she is besides Shuri, the first release from this line. As we can see, Shuri is actually a bit shorter than Carol, but her hair puts her at the exact same height. The interesting thing to me is that their bodies are completely different. Carol does have a thicker body shape, as well as different joined, in comparison with Shuri's more slight figure. I didn't actually expect the bodies to be different in this line, so this was a pleasant surprise. It does mean that nothing can be shared between them but as I mentioned, this is more of a display line than a play one.
She seems to be just a tiny bit shorter than the signature Ms Marvel from Hasbro's Marvel Rising line of dolls. As Kamala - the current Ms Marvel - is usually introduced as Carol's biggest fan, this could prove a bit annoying to those who would wish to recreate some of their interactions from the comics. (If this line proves succesful enough to continue, I can only hope that they will release a Kamala who is in scale with Carol - and yes, Kamala is apparently coming to the MCU.)
In fact, Carol seems to be the exact same height as the Character Options' figure of the Thirteenth Doctor from Doctor Who, putting her at 10" tall. As a random aside, I would highly recommend this version of the Thirteenth Doctor for having great articulation, a good likeness, and being at a more affordable price point than the Mattel offering.
Just to show again that they're pretty much the same height, though Carol was a little taller.
So overall, what do I think?
Honestly, I really like the line and the potential it has. I hope that they try to do a lot of different types of characters from the MCU, of course, and would also maybe hope that this can be done for Star Wars as well - it would be amazing to have a great Leia like this. It is very much a display type line, but even then you are getting a nice doll for the money you pay out, whose details are well done and has quality in the details.
I just wonder who'll be next...
So the new doll in the Marvel Special Edition line up is, in fact, Carol Danvers, the titular Captain Marvel from the upcoming (as of writing) film. As we can see from the box, we've again got the clear plastic front with the movie title emblazoned on it, this time in red with a gold outline. The clear from allows you to see right in at the doll, which means you can pick out the best one. A lot of the ones I had seen at the store had messy hair so that might be a thing.
The back of the box gives us a picture of Carol from the movie, looking pretty heroic. There's text included in multiple languages that gives a brief overview of what the line is, and a brief summary on the character. For those who can't read it on the picture, I have transcribed it below:
Special Edition.
In collaboration with Marvel Studios, the Disney Store is proud to introduce the Marvel Special Edition Action Dolls. This exclusive series captures our heroes in incredible detail, inspired by the
groundbreaking films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Captain Marvel.
Carol Danvers becomes one of the universe's most powerful heroes when Earth is caught in the middle of a galactic war between two alien races.
Like I said, quite a basic summary on all points and not really giving anything away about the movie that isn't already known. Carol, as mentioned, is the second in the series, and I would need to guess that if a third comes out, it would probably be around about the release of Avengers: Endgame, though I'm not entirely sure which of the many heroes from that line would be chosen. If they opted to wait until Spider-Man: Far From Home, they could release a Spider-Man, giving our first male to join the line, which would be cool. I don't think they'll do that, but it would be cool.
Taking off the plastic outer, we get a closer look at Carol without the shine. From this first glance, she does look pretty accurate. There's a decent resemblance to Brie Larson, and her hair is sitting quite nicely - no worries of odd looking forehead and hair placement that plague the Belle dolls from the live action Beauty and the Beast release. We also see that they've given her the comic colours for her uniform, and that there's a mix of fabric and plastic molded pieces to it all.
The back of the box shows us just one large twist tie to get rid of to remove Carol which is pretty cool. There's no too much tape on it either, so the Disney Store seem to be cutting down on the amount of waste their doll packing provides.
There's only a couple of twist ties keeping her feet in place as well. Also, this close up allows us to see that her uniform has stitched detail on it to mimic the panelling of the real thing. Her boots also seem a bit larger than usual for a Disney doll foot, and judging by it, she would appear to have flat feet. They are jointed to allow for up and down movement, but not much side to side. On closer inspection, it would appear that the bottom of the boot is her foot, and the upper has slide on over the top. It appeared to be a peg joint similar to those used in Hot Toys but I didn't want to pull too hard in case I ruined it.
Ugh the only downside and sadly the picture doesn't show it as well as I would like. Despite being held in pretty well, there are tags in her head. You're going to need small scissors - nail ones work best here - and pull her head as far away from the plastic as you can in the hopes of not snipping any of her hair. I managed it but I have to admit those ties are in there quite tight and short, and it's just beyond irritating. That being said? The packaging is customer friendly, and doesn't really take too much time to debox. Waste is minimal and... well, just look
The background now we can fully see it is clearly Earth against the sky of the universe. It's genuinely lovely and if you can slip the plastic body holder out without ripping anything, I think it would make a cool backdrop for some pictures.
But here is Carol out of the box! She stands really solidly on her own, and doesn't really need much fussing with to be able to do so. Straight out of box I didn't need to do any fussing with her, actually, which was much appreciated. Her clothing feels like pleather or vinyl, which makes me wonder about how well it will age - those fabrics tend not to age well unless kept in in the right conditions.
A close up of her face. We can see she's got a nice portrait, with brown eyes and reasonably sized eyebrow.s Mine seems to have an odd shiny bit under her left eye which isn't as noticeable in the picture, but is in real life. Her top lip looks a little bit purple which... yeah, I don't know why on that. The hair is gelled but still feels pretty nice to the touch I wouldn't recommend taking a comb or anything to it - I don't think that hairstyle would maintain nicely without the gel in place.
A look at her back shows us that they use a zip closer instead of Velcro! It's nice to see that for these dolls - which retail at £30 in the UK - they are taking the time to give a bit more in terms of quality of the item. I don't necessarily know if they'll be able to keep that up with future releases, mostly as I don't know how well these are selling. I can only hope that they do keep with non-Velcro closures, as it looks a bit nicer.
Now, here I would ideally undress the doll and show off her body. However, see the body armour? While it does un-clip at the waist, it's all attached together and short of pulling her head off, there's no way to un-clip it at the neck. Which means, yeah, she's not getting undressed any time soon. I can tell you that she is articulated, though the thickness of her costume can impair movement a bit. Articulation at the arms, elbows, with hinged and rotational movement at the wrists. Hip movement is one of the areas that isn't so good due to the costume - though you can get some movement if you work it a bit - and it feels as though her knees are hinge joints rather than Disney Store's usual click joints.
Honestly, it does seem like these dolls are more for display than play, but it's worth putting it forward.
She's a good bit shorter next to Mattel's Black Label Wonder Woman (from the Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice release) being at least a head size smaller than her. You'll notice that Carol's arms seem a good bit thicker than Diana's in this shot. Admittedly, this release did not have the muscular sculpt of later releases - though more articulated - but this idea of Carol having a thicker body is actually one I want to keep with
Here she is besides Shuri, the first release from this line. As we can see, Shuri is actually a bit shorter than Carol, but her hair puts her at the exact same height. The interesting thing to me is that their bodies are completely different. Carol does have a thicker body shape, as well as different joined, in comparison with Shuri's more slight figure. I didn't actually expect the bodies to be different in this line, so this was a pleasant surprise. It does mean that nothing can be shared between them but as I mentioned, this is more of a display line than a play one.
She seems to be just a tiny bit shorter than the signature Ms Marvel from Hasbro's Marvel Rising line of dolls. As Kamala - the current Ms Marvel - is usually introduced as Carol's biggest fan, this could prove a bit annoying to those who would wish to recreate some of their interactions from the comics. (If this line proves succesful enough to continue, I can only hope that they will release a Kamala who is in scale with Carol - and yes, Kamala is apparently coming to the MCU.)
In fact, Carol seems to be the exact same height as the Character Options' figure of the Thirteenth Doctor from Doctor Who, putting her at 10" tall. As a random aside, I would highly recommend this version of the Thirteenth Doctor for having great articulation, a good likeness, and being at a more affordable price point than the Mattel offering.
Just to show again that they're pretty much the same height, though Carol was a little taller.
So overall, what do I think?
Honestly, I really like the line and the potential it has. I hope that they try to do a lot of different types of characters from the MCU, of course, and would also maybe hope that this can be done for Star Wars as well - it would be amazing to have a great Leia like this. It is very much a display type line, but even then you are getting a nice doll for the money you pay out, whose details are well done and has quality in the details.
I just wonder who'll be next...
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