Looking for something?

Friday, September 29, 2017

Dolly Dress Discussion: Kuu Kuu Harajuku sushi fashion pack

Gee whiz, was it just Wednesday that I uploaded that first Kuu Kuu Harajuku post?  It feels like forever ago, even though this week hasn't dragged like last week did.  Anyway, today I bought another one of the outfits, noting that it has a different style of shoe.  Since Pepper Parson has very small feet I figured that a lower-topped boot wouldn't fit as well...or at all.  But since I really like these little outfits I picked the sushi set.  I didn't take a picture of it in the box, so y'all will just have to settle for the outfit on Pepper.
I have to admit that this one isn't as cute as the polka dot unicorn set, though I do still like it.  The headband (which again is ill-fitting) is a plate of sushi and other small Japanese treats; I think these items together might classify as a bento, but I'm not sure.  Maybe a proper bento has more to it???  Heck if I know, but the food items make a cute headband.  The outfit also comes with a plate of oversized sushi that can double as a hair clip, and since it doesn't fit Pepper's paw I may indeed end up wearing it.  I can only imagine what my patrons will think at the sight of their thirty-year-old librarian wearing a sushi hair clip and reading juvenile lit.

Anywho, my point about this post was supposed to be about shoes.  Pepper is indeed wearing the shoes, but only because of an unusual fluke, one that I wasn't expecting.  The orange striped socks that Pepper is wearing are supposed to come up higher, but Pep's thick little calves won't allow for that so I pulled them up as high as they'd go and doubled the remaining fabric over like so.
Then I stuffed the folded socks into the boot and voila!  Pep can wear the shoes.  The connection is a loose one, but if I don't wag Pepper around too much she can still wear these shoes.  So Pinkie Cooper dolls can still wear these clothes, but with the sushi outfit one may have to play with the pieces a bit in order to get them to stay on.  And forget that big clip.  Either keep it as a cute prop or wear it in your hair.

As a last little note, I attempted this outfit on one of my Monster High dolls, and the results were a dismal failure.  The dress was WAY too short for Scarah Screams here.
Sorry, Scarah.  No new threads for you and your freaky-chic friends today.  It's gotten to the point that I have to go to Etsy in order to find nice things for the Monster High and Ever After High crew.  If Kuu Kuu Harajuku is around for very long I doubt they'll get more than these five outfits that are currently available...so I'd best try to grab the remaining three, and if any of y'all have Pinkie Cooper dolls, I suggest that y'all do the same.  Just mind those shoes; not all of them fit as well as the unicorn shoes do!

And now I'm off to work, to shelve books and read more kiddie lit.  I'm currently hooked on Rick Riordan's half-deified creations; Percy Jackson is delightfully blunt at times and I love it.  Too bad I'm ON THE LAST BOOK!!!!!!!!!!

Much love,
RagingMoon1987

Thursday, September 28, 2017

Throwback Thursday review: Dollar General clone

I've been having technical difficulties again, this time with my phone, so these pictures are going to be all over the map.  If they're super-bad, let me know and I'll replace them.  That said, I've owned plenty of dolls from Dollar General, and they've been all over the board in terms of quality.  Last week I showed the best I've ever seen, and this week is the worst one.  This is Katya.
Over the years I've noticed that there is a continuum that all Barbie clones fall under.  Kari Mitchell falls at the extremely good end of the spectrum, Jennifer and Mariclare are solidly in the middle, and Katya is at what my family calls the "very poor, must be signed by parent" end.  Why?  Well...you'll see.  Katya is not the name that my doll came with; her package simply said "fashion doll."  To me she looks like a Katya, so that's her name.  Let's start with the hair, what hair she has.
The root job is all over the place, with big thin patches and even patches with no hair at all.
The hair itself is soft and smooth...but only because I cut it several years back.  Katya's hair used to curl up at the ends, but I brushed it quite a bit and it became impossibly tangled, so I cut it.  It's not so bad now, though it's a bit unruly due to neglect.

Katya's main saving grace is her face.  She's got a cute face...if a little vacant.  Please ignore Katya's unruly hair; I'm sorely tempted to give her a set of bangs.
Awww heck, she's no more vacant than Mariclare and Kari are!  Katya's eyes are blue, and she has very thick painted eyelashes and...ORANGE EYEBROWS???  Mmmkay...
Her lips are pink-red and show some off-kilter teeth.
Katya's cheeks are blushed, except for one patch on the left side of her head.
The paint faded there because of a mishap I had with some pollen shortly after I got this doll.  I got Katya too close to an Easter lily, and her left cheek got stained by some pollen.  I tried to remove it with fingernail polish remover, but all that did was turn the area AROUND the pollen white.  I should've been patient, because the pollen faded over time.  All that's left now is a white streak on Katya's cheek.

Oh yes, Katya's ears are also pierced, but as is customary for clones, no earrings are present.
If I were to ignore the hair this doll actually has a halfway decent head.  The paint is pretty even except for the teeth, and it forms an attractive face.  The vinyl is cheap but it feels nice to the touch; it's smooth and very soft.  It's faded over time, though; I certainly hope Katya will not end up like Mego's Candi and Brandi dolls, but it looks like that may be the direction she's headed in.

I'm not going to lie:  Katya's head is pretty good for a clone.  The hair could've been better, but the body is what makes her the worst clone I've ever picked up.  The overall shape is okay...
...but the molding is HORRID!!!!!!!!!!  When I first got Katya she had large tags of plastic hanging off of her feet, arms, and hands.  I trimmed the worst of it off with a pair of nail scissors, but Katya's hands are still pretty bad.
Okay...rough molding I can handle.  Lots of cheap dolls have rough seams, and some expensive dolls do too.  The thing is this:  Katya's body parts are molded unevenly, and so the joints don't seat right.  Look at all the gaps in her waist!
Katya is the only doll that I own, repeat, THE.  ONLY.  ONE.  that can't stand up straight, and it's all because of her crude molding.  Even P. Bo can stand up straight, and remember that her torso is deliberately tipped to one side.  Katya's uneven legs don't help much either.
In addition, Katya's posing is VERY stiff...
...and because her hips are cut at an angle her legs splay apart when she sits.
Her sitting is not as poor as the Lovely Patsy dolls that Dollar General sells now, but it's definitely not great.  Her feet are dinky little nubbins with no molding at all.  The lack of molding was no shock, but the size surprised me given the size of Katya's hands.  They're even smaller than Barbie's feet, and that's saying something because she's always had small feet.
Even the neck knob is rough.
Luckily the rough knob does not affect Katya's motion in that joint.  It's the only good joint that she has, frankly.
BAD BODY!!!  Enough said.

Regarding clothes, Katya is on the low end of the spectrum in that respect too.  She came with a red swimsuit, a pair of ill-fitting purple heels that melted when I tried to super-glue them to Katya's feet, and a sarong that raveled years ago.  I still have the swimsuit.
It's a little wrinkled because I often had Katya wear this underneath her regular clothes, but it's actually pretty good quality.  The hems are all finished, though the raw edges are fairly obvious.
Some of the rough edges are cut close, so they stick out and show.
That's all Katya came with!  She's a far cry from Kari Mitchell, folks!  It really is a shame that she didn't come with a better outfit, but given the quality of the doll herself (and the fragility of her other clothes) a larger wardrobe would likely have fallen apart at the seams anyway.   Clothes actually aren't a big issue, as Katya is the same size as a TNT Barbie.  This means that she can wear almost anything Barbie has.  Here's Katya in Cool Times Midge's garb...
...and in an old Barbie Easy Living fashion, which I didn't bother to review due to its simplicity.
Cool Times Midge's outfit doesn't flatter Katya's smaller frame due to it being roomy to begin with, but the Easy Living fashion looks okay.  For grins, here's what Katya and Midge look like together.  Midge is having to hold Katya up in this picture, but they still make a cute pair.
This is Katya's usual state of dress, an old Fashion Avenue outfit.  (OLD PIC!!!)
I would still have her in this, but the hat is buried in storage and I've been too busy to dig it out.  The hat adds a lot to the outfit, so I just put Katya in the Easy Living outfit and called it a day.  The yellow pumps that came with that outfit don't fit Katya's feet at all, though.  Too big.
Kari's replacement shoes don't fit either; they're too small to fit over Katya's thick calves.
Yeah, that's another weird thing about this doll:  her feet are tiny, but her calves are thick like an old TNT Barbie's calves.  Cool Times Midge's white tennis shoes fit though...or they fit Katya about as well as they do Midge.  Flat shoes always looked weird on Barbie dolls from the nineties.
This concludes the auction.

BAD
*Worst body I've ever seen on a doll, period.  The molding is rough, the pieces don't fit together properly, the motion is stilted...I could go on forever.
*Hair isn't great either; I had to cut it once, and the rooting is all over the place.
*Can't share shoes with Barbie; her feet are too small
*Rough seams are hard on some doll clothes; I didn't mention this above, but Katya's roughly molded seams destroyed one of my best pairs of Barbie tights.  That happened years ago, but it's still worthy of note.

GOOD
*Vinyl of the head is surprisingly durable
*Poor root job can be corrected by someone who knows how to reroot
*Can wear most of Barbie's clothes
*Has a cute face

And there y'all have it, the worst clone doll I've ever picked up.  If Barbie was a movie filmed by Paramount, Katya would be one filmed by the Erry Vision Film Company.  Well, maybe that's a bit harsh, because Katya is not quite as bad as Erry's sole flick (yes, mercifully they only did one).  There ARE good things to say, just as some folks have good things to say about Tales From the Quadead Zone, but unfortunately few of those things are in terms of quality.  Katya has a cute face and would loan herself well to customization (something that I'm not good at), and she's extremely good at modeling vintage Barbie outfits, which shocked me given her stilted poses.  Interestingly, the vinyl of Katya's head has taken a lot of punishment over the years, including exposure to fingernail polish remover (usually a stupid thing to do to vinyl), and yet the head is still holding strong.  So Katya does have her merits; obviously I must like her some or I wouldn't have kept her.  Don't bother trying to hunt one of these out though, unless you absolutely MUST have that cute face.  Yes, I actually have seen these dolls on eBay for reasons I'll never understand, and my advice is to skip these millennial Barbie clones and stick with what Dollar General currently has available...or just shell out the extra pesos for a real Barbie.

Cheers,
RagingMoon1987

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Dolly Dress Discussion: Kuu Kuu Harajuku unicorn fashion pack

I don't think I've stated this here on the blog yet, but I like kawaii stuff.  I don't have too much of it for myself, but I'm slowly putting together some nice things for my dolls.  Yeah, that's what I do with my time and money; instead of buying new shoes for myself I'll get a new outfit for Barbie or Licca-chan or one of my ball-jointed dolls.  Such is the case today, with this outfit.
This is from a new, slightly odd-looking line of dolls called Kuu Kuu Harajuku.  Miss Emily reviewed one of the dolls, and while I've been tempted to get one myself, I haven't.  I got VERY curious about the cute little extra outfits though, with their bright colors and cheerful little accessories.  But I didn't make my decision until a few nights ago when I was rooting through one of my storage crates for Throwback Thursday fodder.  I ended up unearthing my old Pepper Parson doll, buried under a mass of arms and legs and hair.  Any of y'all remember her??? 
Pepper and her canine cronies have been discontinued for quite some time and she is indeed being considered for a Throwback Thursday review, but I also noticed something else.  Pep is a small doll, too small to share clothes with Barbie and most of my other fashion dolls, but still too large to share clothes with my smaller dolls like Lime Chiffon.  I've found a handful of things that can fit her (Lalaloopsy Girls and Vi and Va items work well), but a handful isn't much.  Also problematic is Yasmin, my Bratz Kidz doll.
I had to jump on eBay to find clothes for Yasmin, but at least she isn't running around in her skivvies anymore, and at least there are items available on eBay (there's not much available for Pepper).  These two can't share each other's clothes, by the way.  Usually I test that out when I have two dolls facing a similar problem, but Pepper is at least a head taller than Yasmin so I'm not going to bother.

I think y'all know where I'm going with this.  There are five extra outfits and it was hard to choose just one, but I picked the unicorn-themed outfit because polka dots and unicorns, that's why!  Normally this would be where I review this outfit, but it's already on the dolls and I don't want to drag it off again.  I'll fill the review part in at a later date, because it IS worthy of a review.  But for now, let's see how it looks on my girls.  Yasmin goes first.
I got most of this on Yasmin.  The headband proved to be too big for her head (surprising!) and the bracelets were too small, but the rest of this outfit fits.  The dress is too big in the bodice, but that's not obvious from the picture.  The hardest part was threading the armholes of the dress and the sleeves of the jacket over Yasmin's hands and arms; Yasmin's fingers are splayed and don't bend any, so getting the sleeves on her was tricky.  I'm not delighted about the fit of the boots either, though Yasmin CAN wear them.  Since Yasmin lacks proper feet I had to shove her leg-stubs into the boots as far as they'd go.  The stubs didn't go to the bottom of the shoe, by the way.  They're too wide at the bottom.  I do like how these boots enable Yasmin to stand better though.  So these clothes are a safe bet for Yasmin...or at least this particular outfit is.  Remember that some outfits from the same line don't always fit Yasmin properly due to her small body.

Now it's Pepper's turn.  My Facebook friends preferred the look on Pepper, but I'm not sure if it was because I was able to use all the pieces, or if it's because Pepper is always so darn cute.
Pep is the opposite of Yasmin, with this outfit being a little on the tight side.  Indeed, I almost didn't get this dress over her hips, despite the fact that Pepper is not anywhere near as hippy as some of my other dolls.  I also had a difficult time fastening the Velcro, but as y'all can see it was worth the effort.  Pepper's dinky little feet slide into these shoes, and unlike Yasmin's stubs they go all the way in.  It did take some gentle pushing, but nothing ridiculously hard.  Threading Pepper's paws through those narrow little sleeves was also tricky, but not as hard as it was with Yasmin.  To top it all off, Pepper can wear the headband.  The fit is imperfect; notice the small bit of space between her head and the bow, but Pepper CAN wear this, and she can wear it without stretching it out, unlike the Vi and Va headbands that I once tried on her.  With all that factoring in I rule these clothes a good fit for Pinkie Cooper dolls, provided one has the patience to slide these dresses over their hips.  Seriously, that takes a little time and effort, so be careful and don't pull on the dress too hard.  Oh yes, the dress is also short on Pepper...but it's short on the Kuu Kuu Harajuku dolls too, so no biggie.

I guess I should've reread Miss Emily's review, because the review clearly shows her doll G wearing Pepper Parsons' dress AND Pinkie Cooper's dress with aplomb.  That should've tipped me off right then and there that my little Pepper could wear one of these dresses.  Now I'm excited to grab the others...and I'd probably best do it soon, because we all know how Mattel tends to forget about any toy that isn't Barbie!

Blessings,
RagingMoon1987

Thursday, September 21, 2017

Throwback Thursday review: Kari Mitchell and Savannah

The End-of-Summer Bug Brigade has begun to show up at the library.  The big windows in the front are covered in little green grasshoppers, and on Tuesday I made friends with this guy.
He was at least as long as my birdie finger (much bigger than the others), and he hung out on the door all day long.  I'm used to seeing grasshoppers this time of year, but I don't always get to see them this size.

In dolly news, my obsession with clones continues.  This one isn't as old as Polly, Jennifer, and Mariclare are, but she's over ten years old and that's old for a plaything, so she gets a slot on Throwback Thursday.  When I was in junior high our local Dollar General had a nice selection of dolls.  Some were porcelain, some were brand-name Barbie, Bratz, or My Scene dolls, and the rest were clones of varying quality.  They were all relatively cheap (the most expensive ones were ten bucks), and when I needed a dolly fix I was often allowed to pick one out.  I've seen my fair share of lousy clones, but these two are the best that I've seen.  They are Kari Mitchell (left) and Savannah.
Kari's surname is sometimes spelled without a "T" on her packaging, and online circles spell it either way.  She came in all three hair colors, but mine happens to be a blonde.
Most of Kari's hair hangs loose, but she does have two segments that are pulled back like so.
Easy to restyle if need be.  Kari's hair is smooth and very, VERY thick.  I've never owned a clone doll with hair this thick in fact, and it's even hard to find a brand-name doll with hair this thick!  For example, Kari's hair has more body than the hair of most of my Fashionistas (Fashionista in the picture is Tia, #16 "Glam Team").
Moving down to the face, Kari bears a passing resemblance to a Superstar Barbie (example shown is Maeve, from the Dolls of the World line) with that toothy smile, but it's clear that one is Barbie and the other is not.
Kari has a face that's strictly her own, one that has a distinctive mold.
The mold was the same for each doll, but paint varied.  Brunettes tend to have lovely amber brown eyes, and my blonde doll's eyes are an unusual shade of teal.
In pictures they look all blue, but IRL they're teal.  They sport an unusual shade of lavender eyeshadow, long upper lashes, and light brown eyebrows that jive surprisingly well with Kari's pale hair.  The lower part of Kari's face is less stunning, with some light blush and nearly nude matte lipstick.  Matte lipstick doesn't look good on dolls unless it's done just-so, and this isn't just-so.  It's even though, and the overall mouth has a nice shape.
Notice also that Kari sports molded dimples, a feature not often seen on fashion dolls.   Gertrude, seen below, sports the "Teresa" mold (not to be confused with THIS Teresa mold), but her dimples are not as obvious as Kari's are.
Somewhere along the line Kari has acquired a stain on her left cheek, a stain that I've not been able to get off.
I'm not thrilled about that.  It looks too much like a bruise.

I always forget earrings!  Kari has these unusual X-shaped earrings, rendered in pearly white plastic.
These remind me of some bizarrely-shaped cultured pearls I once saw in one of my books.  Instead of the round cultured pearls that we're all used to seeing, these were shaped roughly like chromosomes and were achieved by skipping a step in the culturing process.  Though unusual, these X-shaped pearls are quite beautiful, and I tend to think of them when I look at Kari's earrings.  Indeed, I used to pretend that these earrings WERE those odd pearls.  In short, I like this head quite a bit; the lip paint is NOT great, but I say that about a lot of my dolls' lips.

The clothing has a semi-interesting story, as this outfit is the reason why I picked this particular doll.  It's never easy for a kid to pick a single thing from a shelf of toys, and so it was for me when I was about eleven.  I stood in an isle of the local Dollar General, transfixed by the sight of over thirty Kari Mitchell dolls, some black and some white, some red-haired or blonde or brunette, each one wearing an eye-catching outfit.  I wanted a doll with bright red hair but there were none to be found, and Daddy wisely suggested that I pick my favorite outfit instead.  This one won my vote.
The only other outfit that has remained in my memory was a sherry-colored ballgown on a brown-eyed brunette; I didn't pick her because I preferred my doll's slacks, slacks that were highly similar to a pair I wore during my late teens (I've NEVER even once worn a ballgown).  Reminiscing over, let's start breaking this outfit down.  The jacket is a hip-length black pleather jacket with full sleeves.
As was the style in the early part of the new millenium (and now to a certain extent too), the jacket has a large collar, made of gray and black speckled plush.

Kari's jacket is anomalous among my pleather doll clothes in that it is not splitting.  At all.  Not one rent anywhere.  It's beginning to thin in places, but so far, no holes.
As y'all will see in weeks to come, some brand-name doll clothes don't hold up this well.  Heck, I touched on this in my What's Her Face! review; one of my WHF dolls has a pleather skirt that's super-cute, but it's splitting so badly that she can't wear it anymore. 

Moving on, underneath the jacket Kari wears a black turtleneck tank top.
Nothing super-special about this piece, just a plain knitted top that will look nice with blue jeans or anything I choose to dress Kari in.  Okay, take that back...there is one noteworthy thing about this top.  There is NO OPENING ANYWHERE!!!  In order to get this off of Kari I had to take off her head and work it up over her arms.  Good thing this top is stretchy, and that Kari's head can come off.

The few seams are hemmed but not serged, so there are a few loose ends sticking out in places.  Par for the course with a knitted item.
I don't know of too many people who wear a tank top with a jacket and slacks, as the latter two tend to suggest colder weather and the former does not.  However, long sleeves would've been hard to thread under the jacket's tight sleeves, so this was a prudent move on whoever made these dolls.

Before moving down, notice that Kari is wearing a necklace.
I'm not going to bother reviewing this, because I made it.  I thought Kari needed something nice to wear around her neck, so I put this together.  It's just a simple string of beads, but I love the sparkle that the beads add to this outfit.

Now to these very unusual slacks.  I don't think I ever could've worn these and looked decent (mine were plain gray corduroy), but Kari, like Barbie, can wear darn-near anything and look good.
These are made of the same speckled plush fabric that the jacket's collar is made from.
The waist has a faux belt, made of black ribbon and a white plastic "buckle."
The belt is only attached at the back, where the Velcro is.  This outfit is unusual in that it only has this one piece of Velcro.
Lastly, there's these shoes, which are unsurprisingly black.
These are not Kari's original shoes, but rather a pair of Barbie boots.  They fit Kari's feet with no fuss, and I think that they jive better with this wintry ensemble than the original shoes.  Kari's original shoes were plain black pumps that weren't terribly different from Barbie's high heels.  They fell off at the drop of a hat, so I put them in storage and I can't say that I miss them much.  I do wish I'd been able to find Kari's purse, though; instead of being a plastic piece of crap it's a real little fabric purse, with a clasp and a handle.

That takes care of Kari for the moment, so let's break away from her and look at Savannah.  Savannah is pretty much just another Kari Mitchell doll, but with a different hairstyle and different clothes.  While Kari attempts to look stylish (and does pretty well), Savannah takes a stab at looking like a pioneer.
There are some minor differences between Kari and Savannah, but nothing super-defining.  Savannah has no part in her hair, for one thing.  It's just swept back from her forehead and was once tied in a ponytail, but the rubber band melted and gave way long ago.
The fibers and the color are the same in both dolls, but I like Kari's style better.  It doesn't bulge around her forehead and look weird like Savannah's can.
Another minor but interesting difference exists in...in the vinyl color or the makeup, I can't tell which ATM.  But there's definitely a difference in color.  Kari's face is pale and matte like she's wearing a tad too much makeup, while Savannah's complexion is more peachy and natural looking.
I know a way to figure this out:  just look at their necks!  A doll's facepaint rarely extends past the face, though it does happen.  I doubt that'll be the case here, though.
It appears to be the color of the vinyl!  Kari's head is lighter than Savannah's is.  The rest of Savannah's face is the same as Kari's (minus the bruise-colored stain), so on to clothes we go.
In keeping with the pioneer theme Savannah is not as elaborately dressed as Kari is, but there's still a lot to see here.  I'll start with this bonnet.
The bonnet isn't really so much a bonnet as it is a panel of fabric cut and sewn to look like a bonnet.  It's open in the back, letting Savannah's abundant hair hang free.  Compare that to the bonnet that my Pioneer Barbie, Miranda, wears.
Miranda's bonnet is clearly the more realistic one, but Miranda is intended for collectors.  Savannah is obviously a toy, and her bonnet suits the job fairly well.  I say fairly because of these.
Savannah's bonnet ties on with these navy blue satin ribbons.  They're long enough to get the job done and look nice, but they also are the kind that will snag or ravel in the hands of children.  Take it from a veteran of satin ribbons!  The rest of the bonnet is made from navy blue fabric with pink and green flowers, plus a band of white...bias tape???  I'm not sure what that white stuff is, but it doesn't feel like bias tape.  It feels like polyester of some sort.
The inside is the same as the outside, with the exception of visible raw edges.
 Given my track record with satin ribbons, I was not surprised to see that one of the ribbon ties is fraying at the base.
The dress is made of the same material as the bonnet, and given the popularity of calico fabric during pioneer times, I believe this fabric is supposed to simulate calico.
The sleeves are full-length and are of an unusual shape, being puffed at the tops and fitted from the elbow down.  I thought that was more of a Victorian style, but maybe I'm full of crap.
The collar is white and blends in with the front of the dress, which is a panel of the same fabric.  This panel of fabric has ruffled edges and is trimmed with burgundy ribbon.  A row of fake blue buttons completes this faux opening.
Whew, that was hard to describe!  That front could do to be a little less busy, even if this IS a simple outfit.  The interior is hit-and-miss; the hem of the skirt is nicely serged...
...but the shaping at the waist looks rough.  The stitches are sturdy and show no signs of coming undone, but they look a little sloppy.
Of course no pioneer outfit was ever complete without an apron.  Kirsten wears one, Miranda wears one, and Savannah wears one.
Savannah's apron is white with ruffled edges, just like the ruffles on her dress.  The right side has a large pocket that is trimmed with the dark blue "calico" fabric that we've seen in the dress.  It fastens in the back with Velcro, rather than the fabric ties that Miranda's apron has.
The seams are about the same as those on the dress; finished, but with some raggy loose threads here and there.  The underside of the apron looks better than the interior of the dress.
To my complete surprise, Savannah is wearing little white panties, something that Kari didn't have!  They're simple little panties, made out of gauzy white material, but they're shaped well.  See how the waistband is gathered?
Like Kari, Savannah came with an accessory to hold, but unlike Kari, I was able to keep Savannah's accessory where I could find it.  Savannah was packaged with this rather ridiculous-looking long-stemmed rose.
It's just a piece of plastic that can look cute or stupid, depending on one's opinion.  Savannah also originally had shoes, in the form of ill-fitting dark blue pumps, but modern shoes looked ridiculous with an old-fashioned dress so I took them off and set them aside for some other outfit.  In hindsight this turned out to be a smart idea, because Kari's original shoes stained the holy crap out of her feet.
Great time to review the body!  Yep, I'm through with Savannah's clothes.  Kari and Savannah were created towards the end of the TNT era, and thus their bodies are very similar in shape to those of the older Barbie dolls (Miranda will be my nude model this week).  It's a little blurry, but y'all get the point.  Miranda is tiny bit taller than Kari, and Kari's limbs are smaller, but the basic shape is the same.
One notable difference is at the waist.  Both Kari and Savannah have a waist joint that's cut at a slant, like Longlocks and Glori's waists are.
I was expecting this to make for some unusual motion in the waist, but these waists twist like any other Barbie of the era did.
The other notable thing about these bodies is the neck joint.  Kari and Savannah both have detachable heads that fit on rounded neck knobs.
Other than those two things these bodies are highly similar to Barbie's.  They move in all the same ways, and they can wear each other's clothes.  This means that Kari and Savannah can wear other similarly sized doll clothes, like Sindy, Bibi-bo, and Yue-Sai WaWa.  Savannah can even wear Miranda's clothes, though the bonnet is a bit of a squeeze over that voluminous hair.
The one problem I have with this body is that the feet are a little smaller than Barbie's.  It's not a noticeable difference at first glance...
...but once I put some of Barbie's old-style shoes on the ill fit becomes obvious.  Kari's feet slip a bit too easily out of Stacey's yellow pumps.
Pilar's pink All-American tennis shoes fit better, but they slide around a lot.
Miranda's brown flats fit Kari about as well as they do Miranda.
The more modern-day shoes appear to fit much better, though I think this may be because these boots are over-the-ankle models.  The taller a Barbie shoe's cuff is, the more likely it is to fit.  Kari's big Barbie boots are an example.
Sindy's shoes won't fit Kari's dinky little feet at all, and neither will the pink Bibi-bo pumps.
Yue Sai's green heels probably would fit since her feet are the same size as Kari's and Savannah's, but I've stored them somewhere and can't remember where.

Alrighty, I think that takes care of it!

BAD
*Stock shoes stained Kari's feet
*Face is a little vacant, but no worse than some modern-day Barbie faces are.
*Kari's cheek is stained, and the stain has so far refused to come off.
*Bodies, while sturdy, are not quite as nice as Barbie's.  I'm nitpicking here big time, because the bodies are not bad at all.

GOOD
*Hair is soft, smooth, and thick, way better than most clone hair.
*Faces are well-painted and distinguishable from Barbie's
*Bodies are made of solid plastic and have bendable knees, something that most of my clones don't have.
*Clothes are well-made and detailed, and don't yet show signs of age (remember that Kari's jacket is pleather)
*Can share clothes with Barbie, Sindy, Bibi-bo, and Yue Sai Wa-Wa.  Shoe sharing is only possible with Barbie and Yue Sai, but it can be done.

Of all the Barbie clones I've come home with over the years, these two are the best quality.  I've yet to see hair as nice as Kari's and Savannah's; Kate Kite comes close, but she does not equal them.  Are these my favorite clone dolls?  No, believe it or not; that title goes to Jennifer, whose smile is more contagious than the wide-eyed grins that Kari and Savannah have.  Nevertheless these two were worth the money, and frankly I was surprised that they were as nice as they are...particularly after my experience with OTHER dolls from Dollar General!  I'll show the worst one next week!

Now...I want to again solemnly request prayers/good vibes/whatever you believe in.  I'm having trouble with some backstabbing at work...and Talolili was in a bad car wreck!  She lived and I'm pretty sure she's going to be okay, but she did sustain a head injury and has been feeling pretty sick because of it.  Please pray for a full recovery for my good buddy!

Much love,
RagingMoon1987