Throwback Thursday review: Aurora by Tonka

As I insinuated on Monday, Old Bitch Winter made a delivery Sunday night, and it's been so cold since then that the snow hasn't done much melting.  Oh, we didn't get a lot of snow, but the wind blowing it around makes it seem like a lot in some places.  Here's what it looked like at 5:30 Sunday evening.

I personally could do without the crap, but Joie's having fun.  They couldn't coax Fluff out since Fluff doesn't have any winter clothes, and the snow was too powdery to build a snowman, but they're still having fun.

Of course I am!  The air is nice and clean.

I agree.  I'm not a huge fan of winter, but I do love the crisp, clean air, and the snow DOES make things look pretty.  The wind is some kinda sharp though, and the air temperature was nine degrees Fahrenheit when I took that picture.  So unless you're insane like me, best stay inside this week.

Intro out of the way, once again I'm ripping Miss Emily's blog off, as she's discussed both Spectra and Aurora, and as is often the case with me Mama's approval helped twist my arm a bit.  She looked at the discussion of Spectra and of...actually it was Aurora's friend Lustra, but Lustra and Aurora are constructed the same.  Anyway, Mama thought both Spectra and Lustra were cute, and that was all the encouragement I needed.  Okay, I didn't need much encouragement.  I like things that sparkle, I like lace (Spectra and her friends wear a lot of that), I like aliens, and despite all the cheese I love dolls from the eighties.  Every so often I'll remember this doll or that one from childhood, but in this case I couldn't begin to remember either Spectra or Aurora, because I was born the year Aurora hit shelves.  Like I ever let that stop me from loving a doll now, LOL.  My arm properly twisted, I set off to find AstraGold, my favorite Shimmeron, but alas, Spectra and her friends are not at all affordable for a hayseed like me, and AstraGold was nowhere to be found, period.  I couldn't find my favorite Aurora doll either (Crysta, who ironically has pink hair), but Aurora herself will do just fine.  So, for better or worse, here she is!

Aurora.  I associate the name Aurora more with Sleeping Beauty and the color pink, or with the beautiful aurora borealis, which I long to see with my own eyes.  Similarly I associate holding company Tonka with those super-nice toy trucks and airplanes that I loved as a child.  Oh yeah, and the Cupcakes, which I also loved as a child.  Whatever, it's backstory time.  Spectra and the Shimmerons were products of Mattel and were only around during 1986.  There were four girls and one boy in the mix, all with "chrome" bodies, humanoid heads, and brightly-colored hair.  There were accessories and outfits to be had, and once again a lot of the fashions reek of eighties cheese (in a good way, I promise).  Aurora came a year later, after Spectra boarded her ship back to Shimmeron.  There were four girls:  Aurora, Mirra, Crysta, and Lustra.  Aurora has a gold body, Mirra and Lustra are silver, and Crysta is fittingly clear with blue joints and embedded glitter.  The girls got six brightly-colored fashions, and...that's it.  Aurora didn't get as large a collection as Spectra did, no pets or boyfriends or Buffatron bed or anything.  For those of y'all who don't fancy a lengthy read, Ghost of the Doll has more info on both Spectra and Aurora, complete with pictures.  For those of y'all that remain, Aurora is a little shorter than a Barbie doll of the era (Spectra was a little taller).  I also threw in Reenie for my younger readers.  Reenie has a specialized body, and she's thus about Aurora's height.

Since Fluff and my Creatable World doll have been in and out of the blog a lot lately, here's how Aurora compares to them.  She's taller than Fluff and roughly the same height as Joie.  Due to their differing scales I have my doubts about clothes sharing.

Likely if Aurora were a human doll she'd be the blonde, because the leader of the group is ALWAYS blonde, but since she's NOT human her hair is golden.  Not golden blonde, mind y'all, but a tried-and-true golden shade with slight pink tint, kinda like Aurora used a pink rinse.

Reminds me a little of pictures I've seen of almas caviar:  golden, but also kinda pearly.  That in turn is fitting because almas caviar is sold in golden tins, and Aurora's body just happens to be gold-colored.  As for that hair, Aurora has surprisingly nice hair, especially for a clone doll.  It's very thick and the fibers are obedient for the most part, though I do have to brush it a fair amount to keep it under control.  Since this hair IS old it's likely been through plenty of hands, and as a result it sometimes clumps together.

It also unfortunately holds kinks, as part of Aurora's braid reveals.

I can conceal that with...what else but a bow?  If I find the right bit of lace or fabric I can do it.  Big bows were in in the eighties, after all, and this doll is an eighties entity.  The braid is actually supposed to curl around Aurora's forehead and tuck in on the side, so I may have to play with this hair a bit more.  Gimmie fifteen minutes.

Most of the Aurora dolls I've run into don't have their hair up at all, but my doll looks pretty good. 

Most of the Shimmerons I've seen have hair that's yellowed and stringy with age, so hats off to Tonka for using a fiber that stood up to time, AND for not using tinsel!  Tinsel has a pretty effect in doll hair, but it can look stringy and frowsy after awhile.  So while the style is not all that (my fault), the fiber and the color are quite nice.  I'm very impressed.

Around to the face we go.  It's mostly your average dolly face, except for one very unusual feature.

Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes and she's gone!  I should probably point out that rhinestone eyes are NOT unheard of in the doll and toy world.  Sparkle Eyes Barbie and the Special Sparkles collection had bejeweled eyes, as did Twinkle-Eyed Ponies and a few creepy Trolls that one could get in gumball machines.  That said, eyes like this are not common in the dolly world, and Aurora predates Sparkle Eyes Barbie by four years.  Unfortunately, dolls with rhinestone eyes can look a little or a lot possessed if the lighting isn't right.

Take me to your leader!

You don't want America's leader, girlie.  You wouldn't have wanted Bush or Obama or Trump, you don't want Biden, and you sure as hell don't want whoever we'll be saddled with in November.  Now let's get a look at these eyes.

Ray Bradbury always designed his Martians with golden eyes, but that's where Aurora's similarities to Bradbury Martians end.  Aurora's makeup is kinda boring compared to that of Spectra and her friends, or particularly that of some Barbie dolls during the era, but it IS on straight.  Her eyebrows are...kinda devious and kinda fishhooky.  Seriously, these things have barbs on them like a harpoon.

But then again, Tonka dolls have kinda a penchant for looking devious.  Remember Beri Blue?

She doesn't have harpoon eyebrows, but I don't trust Berri any farther than I can throw her.  I have a few dolls like that (examples here and here).  Back on track, Aurora's only other makeup is her coral-colored lipstick.  Her mouth is a similar shape to Joie's, but it isn't painted as well.

The head is kinda bland for a doll from the eighties, and it doesn't look particularly cyborgy either, but I like these dolls' unpretentious little smiles.  They are who they are and that's that.

Body talk time!  In terms of shape Aurora has your typical fashion doll body, with a trim waist and developed chest.

But regarding posing Aurora is about as different from a Barbie from her era as night is from day.  Snap 'n' Play Barbie is gonna help with this part, because a Barbie from 1991 had pretty much the same body as one from 1987.

I need to think up a good pet name for Snap.  Anyway, Miss Emily actually preferred her Lustra doll's body to her Spectra's, as it felt solid in her hands and had good balance.  As I noted on New Year's Day there's a bit of a learning curve when handling Aurora and her friends, as her joints are not put together like a Barbie doll's, and a lot of them don't move like a Barbie doll's.  Aurora's neck has superb mobility...  

...but this is how her head is connected.  Her head slips onto a pencil-sized rod, the rod is in turn connected to a ball joint.

The torso has your typical trappings of a fashion doll, the prominent breasts, the nipped-in waist, and a waist joint.  Yes, once upon a time waist joints were standard for dolls this size. 

As with the neck, the waist joint is quite different from Barbie's.  Barbie has to utilize her hip joints in order to bend over, but Aurora can bend a little ways over and a little ways back.  She cannot bend sideways.

No, but she can turn sideways and then bend!  I couldn't get her balanced when she was bending sideways, but if one rotates her waist she can bend.

Aurora's waist is tight, by the way.  I have to use both hands and twist fairly hard to get her to move

The arm joints were a little out of the ordinary for the time; indeed, the only dolls I can name from this period with joints were Spectra and Aurora.  Aurora's arms are the same shape and mostly the same size all over.

Aurora's shoulders are your typical ball joints, and unlike her other joints they're a bit loose.  Just the same she can reach all the way up and all the way out.

For reasons I'll never know, Aurora and her friends have a joint located between their shoulder and their elbow.  This would be great...except that these joints move maybe a micron or two.  I twisted these arms hard, but that joint doesn't budge.

Kinda puts the elbow in a tight spot.  It's a simple hinge that bends to almost exactly ninety degrees.  One can also see a few chips in Aurora's shiny finish here.

When fully extended the elbows are straight as a board.

The wrists are also simple hinges with zero rotation, but that's more than Spectra's got.  Spec has joints molded onto her wrists, but they don't move.  I didn't think to photograph the wrist joints, because look at these hands!  They're shaped like spades or flippers or ping-pong paddles.

Now...these hip joints are where I would've run into some problems had I not read Emily's blog.  The hinges on the hips are very conspicuous. 

They can move forward, and Aurora insists that that's all they do. 

Aurora:  That is all she wrote, as you humans say.  I promise.

We'll see about that, space girl.  I imagine Aurora passing a voice kinda like Alexa's or Siri's...unless she's yelling about something.  Then she sounds like a robotic Wicked Witch of the West.  ANYWAY, Aurora is quite skilled at looking like she's going to charge headfirst into a door.  She can't do the splits.

These legs can rotate, though.  Like, all the way around. 

Yowza, don't do that, Aurora!  Yeah, in addition to hinge joints these hips can rotate, though the motion is extremely stiff and some poses look kinda weird.  Aurora can attain a deep side-to-side split, though.

She can also do a respectable grand plie; I haven't tried to get a doll to do that since I compared the Obitsu and Made to Move doll bodies.

Admittedly Aurora does look a little insectlike in that pose, like a grasshopper or a mantis.  In this pose it's easy to see that Aurora's ankles and knees are both hinged.  Again, the motion in these joints is good, but they're kinda hard to bend.  ALL of these joints have a lot of friction except for the shoulders.

Wait a minute, I compared Aurora to a grasshopper, and that sounds familiar.  Who did I compare to a grasshopper recently?

Joie:  It was me, Moon.

Aurora:  ...

Aurora <yelling>:  GET OUTTA HERE!!!  I'M NAKED!!!

Joie:  Yikes, I'm sorry!

I'd advise you not to yell at Joie, Aurora.  They're no pushover, but they do have a gentle heart.  Back to the point, Aurora has no definition on her feet, just like she doesn't on her hands.  Miss Emily wondered if these dolls were adept at swimming, but I think I'd stay away from water if I were Aurora.

In truth Aurora doesn't have much molding anywhere!  No spine or bellybutton, though I doubt she'd have the latter since she's robotic.  No, all Aurora has anywhere is a screw in the middle of her back, her copyright info, and the word "Polistil GG."

That lines up with what I read on the packaging of the extra outfit.

Yes, extra outfit.  We'll get to that...eventually.  Polistil was a die-cast car bunch, so their collaboration with Tonka makes a lot of sense.  So Aurora's body falls on the good side of the continuum, but handling those joints definitely requires some practice.  Aurora feels very sturdy in my hands though, so I was careful with those joints but I could still use a reasonable amount of force.

An unusual body usually means an unusual outfit, and Aurora does not disappoint.  Both Aurora's line and Spectra's featured a lot of shiny fabric and some nice colors, but Spectra and her friends went extremely heavy on the lace.  Their tagline WAS "Lacy, spacy, out of this world," after all.  Aurora and her friends didn't utilize a warehouse of lace, but they DID use some of it.  Case in point.

This lace reminds me a little of the lace bow that my Glitter 'n' Gold Jem doll is wearing.  Yep, I still have Jem, Rio, and Roxy, tucked safely away in one of my boxes.  Spectra and Aurora both remind me a lot of Jem and the Holograms, by the way.  Anyway, Aurora's dress is actually two pieces, consisting of the lace part with iridescent panels, and a sparkly bodysuit underneath.

The bodysuit is halter-necked and has exactly one piece of Velcro holding the top part together.

The whole shebang fits Aurora tightly and is a little tricky to pull off and put back on.

The outer part, the main part of the dress, is where things get fun, because it's got a part that goes over Aurora's head.  

This top bit, made of plasticky iridescent pink stuff, is the bit that loops in front of Aurora's arms and behind her head, like so.

Unlike the bodysuit this fabric has no stretch, so I have to take Aurora's head off to get her dress off and on.  But since Aurora's head comes off that's not a huge deal.  Lustra also has a fair amount of this pink stuff on her outfit, and Miss Emily preferred it to Spectra's abundance of lace.  I personally am glad I'm not the one wearing this pink stuff, as it's stiff and makes a bit of noise when it's manipulated.  Still, I like the effect.  The back of this material looks like this, by the way.  It's very nicely hemmed.

Down below Aurora's dress has a peplum made of the same pink stuff (this part likes to stick up and look goofy sometimes).

And then there's the lace bit.  Two panels of white lace with gold threads shot through.  One panel for each side.

The two panels make a pretty effect when they're spread out, like so.

The lace panels have two layers.  The outer layer is more open and has a flowery design woven into it...

...while the bottom is more tulle than lace.  Neither layer is hemmed, but neither layer appears to need hemming.  

The only thing I don't like about this getup is the Velcro.  It hold the skirt together in the back, where it can also potentially snag the lace.  I wish Tonka had used a snap.

Not a bad little getup!  Lace usually feels fragile, but this stuff feels fairly substantial, though I'd recommend keeping it away from cats and small children.  I've also seen iridescent fabric like this split and grow thin with time, but Aurora's iridescent panels are also holding their own.  I like this outfit, though putting it on the doll is a little fiddly.  Lustra's dress was kinda complicated too; her dress had a lace panel attached to a cuff on her wrist.

So Aurora and her friends are already quite well-dressed, but Tonka had the foresight to give them six extra outfits...and by no small measure of luck I have one of 'em.

Yowza, that outfit came from Toys 'R' Us!  One can't get cute doll clothes from there anymore, and one sure as hell can't get cute doll clothes for a buck ninety-six.  

The other thing I noticed about the packaging is this.  That is definitely NOT the doll I own!  Her face looks a little like Jem's...or like Kari Mitchell's.

The other image on the front shows this same Superstar Barbie-style Aurora, and in this image one can see that Lustra has followed in her footsteps.  For a quick reminder, here's Miss Emily's Lustra; she has the same face as my Aurora, as do Crysta and Mirra.  

I'm glad Tonka ditched the toothy look, because the prototype Lustra looks more like she'd kill humanity than teach it about fashion.

EXTERMINATE!!!  EXTERMINATE!!!

Actually she reminds me more like a Cyberman than a Dalek.  Whatever, I'll just get my ACME jumbo magnet...and promptly blow myself up.  Yeah, moving on, the back of the package has the dolls modelling the various fashions...and more psychotic-looking prototypes.  Here Cyberman Lustra is modelling "Glamorous Evening," which is pretty Barbie-ish, and Cyberman Aurora is wearing "Lunch Date."  Are those MC Hammer pants she's got???

<pauses to google>  No, "U Can't Touch This" was a hit after Aurora was here and gone.  Anyway, the next image shows Mirra trying to be a ballerina, though she's awfully...well, robotic!  Cyberman Aurora is modelling my outfit, "Night on the Town," and looking a little less Cyberman.

By the last image Aurora appears to be herself again, and is clad in the only honest-to-God fragile-looking getup, an admittedly-pretty party dress.  Crysta is wearing "Time Travel."  

I'm gonna skip further fangirling and say that "Time Travel" looks more like "Tin Man."  Seriously, Tonner did a trio of dolls that were based off of characters from The Wizard of Oz, and predictably Heart on My Sleeve was clad in silver.

Bangity-bang, bunkity-bunk, boom, TOOT-TOOT!!!  LOL, Heart on My Sleeve also has beautiful flaming hair, but I digress.  Multiple searches of both eBay and Etsy turned up only the single outfit that I now hold in my paws, so either these didn't sell well, there weren't many made, or both.  Instead of being the dress that one might expect, "Night on the Town" is more complex, consisting of another bodysuit, a jacket, a pair of slacks, and a belt.

The whole getup is shiny and slinky and has a teensy bit of stretch, but the belt feels kinda cheap.  The material is thin and not hemmed.

Interestingly, none of Aurora's extra outfits came with shoes, nor have any of the out-of-box dolls that I've seen.  Indeed, I'm not sure if Aurora ever wore shoes.  Spectra and her friends did, but their shoes can get brittle if not stored properly.  I guess if one is an android one doesn't need shoes.  Here's what Aurora looks like in this getup.  Forgive Aurora for dancing; I  was listening to "One Thing Leads to Another" when I took this picture.  Hey, eighties hits for an eighties doll!

This feels more substantial in my hands than Aurora's lace-and-plastic stock dress, largely because there's no lace at all.  The belt STILL feels flimsy, but it went around Aurora's waist and looks...well, okay ("867-5309/Jenny" was playing by now).

I presume that this bit was to make the gold pants look seamless at the top, and when the belt is properly placed it does just that.  Unfortunately it also likes to ride up, like so.

Aurora's six extra outfits are less than Spectra's twelve, but all six of 'em play up the metallic gimmick in a more-or-less effective way.  Only one of Aurora's ensembles utilizes lace as the main fabric (a bunch of Spectra's fashions do), and that's good because lace can be fragile.  It's also SEE-THROUGH, meaning that Spectra and her friends look a little wrong in those lacy getups.  Lastly...y'all can correct me if I'm wrong, but Aurora doesn't look too dated in this.  Not TOO dated, mind y'all.  For some reason I'm getting some mild David Lee Roth vibes from those pants.

Ain't nothin' like her, that shiny machine!  LOL, in this getup Aurora started to come alive, trying to strike a pose.  Being a robot, striking a pose wasn't always easy.

Hmmm, this pose?

Or perhaps this one...???

This one!

I agree, that one.  Getting Aurora to STAY in that pose was a pain in the posterior, though.  Even more frustrating, the top of Aurora's bodysuit gave her a couple'a Tara Reid moments. 

DON'T LOOK, DARN IT!!!

LOL, modesty is VERY important to Aurora.  I don't mind being yelled at by an inanimate object, but after a few minutes of modelling and hitching her top back up, Aurora remembered yelling at Joie and felt bad.

Yes, where is the little Earthling?  He seems nice enough

They're a "they," Aurora.  Yes, Joie is VERY sweet, and quite reasonable.  When they heard Aurora had calmed down they were more than willing to talk.

Aurora:  Hey, sorry for yelling at you.

Joie:  That's no biggie...hey your voice changed!

Joie was already over it, LOL.  I was afraid their feelings would be hurt, but I think Aurora feels more guilty.

Joie:  Awww, it's okay.  Would you like a hug?
Aurora:  I am always up for a hug.  Brrr, you are cold.

Yeah, Aurora, they are.  They just got in out of the snow again, LOL.  Best enjoy it while you can, Joie; the temperature is supposed to get up past forty this coming week.  Aurora says she's ready; she noted that both of her bodysuits can double as swimsuits if she so choses.

Yep, I spent a whole summer complaining about the heat, and now I'm complaining about the cold.  Now I'm gonna wrap it up.

BAD
*The baddest...LOL, look at my English!  The baddest thing I can think of about Aurora are her joints.  They're quite tight and the hips might break if they're forced in the wrong direction.  With the way the hip joint is constructed, shoving a leg in the wrong direction is unfortunately kinda easy.
*There's also a fair amount of lace in that dress.  Lace can be fragile if in the wrong hands, as I've stated ad nauseam.
*Face is kinda blank.  Tonka could've gone all out with this doll's makeup, but they didn't.
*As far as I know, this doll can't wear other dolls' clothes.  I don't know that for sure yet, but Aurora can't wear Joie's or Fluff's clothes.
*Discontinued, so in-box examples are expensive, and some characters are near-impossible to find.

GOOD
*I freaking love this doll's hair.  I love the color and I love the fiber.
*I also like the rhinestone eyes, unusual though they may be.
*Awww heck, I like just about everything about Aurora!  If I haven't been playing with Joie or next week's dolls I've been playing with her.  

At the end of her review Miss Emily scored her Lustra doll ahead of Spectra in almost every category except originality, because if there hadn't been a Spectra then there wouldn't have been an Aurora (and thus no Lustra).  That said, Lustra outdid Spectra in the hair department, in the clothing department, and in her posing (Spectra dolls are notorious for having fragile elbow joints).  I don't have Spectra or any of her friends so I can't corroborate Emily's experience with that line, but I can verify that my Aurora feels like she's built to last.  She stands very well, her hair needs only a little maintenance to make it super-nice again, and she doesn't feel like she could break easily.  On the other hand, some of Aurora's joints are stiff, and/or they need careful manipulation before they'll move (like those hips).  Her face is pretty generic except for those awesome eyes, and the molding on her hands and feet isn't great.  Her clothes do the metallic gimmick and the space gimmick very well, but some of 'em ride the edge between sturdy and not-so-sturdy.  Overall I'm not sorry I have Aurora now, particularly since her arms don't break as easily as Spectra's do, and since she can stand on her own.  Maybe Spectra can too.  I dunno, but I'm content with Aurora for now.