Being for the benefit of Miss Kite!

At the end of my review on the Katniss Everdeen doll I told you of a Barbie clone that I snagged yesterday.  I'll get to that, but first I have a bit of a Twilight Zone experience to tell you about.  Katniss has those arrows, right?  Well I went to bed very late last night, and since I am completely out of room in my bedroom I put Katniss on the top of our bookshelf in the front room.  As far as I know those arrows were in her quiver.  Then this morning I got up, traipsed in here and I found those arrows on the floor!  It was almost like she'd shot them!

I'm Katniss Everdeen, and I'm going to kill you.

LOL, okay so it's not so Twilight Zone-y; I probably forgot to put them in her quiver and dumped them when I stood up in my half-awake state.

Secondly, most of my page views are not coming from folks on Blogspot.  They are coming from sites called uglystat.com and adsensewatchdog.com.  I don't know who they are or where they're from.  I just want them to quit bugging me.  If you are out there and work for either of those websites, STOP IT.  I have nothing to hide, no shady activities for you to investigate.  This is a dolly blog, no more, no less.  If any of my followers have any ideas for how to put a stop to this, please drop me a line.

Now...on to Miss Kite.  This is her.

Her full name is Miss Katherine Lorelei Kite, Kate Kite for short, and Miss Kite until I get to know her better (LOL).  Her original name was Lovely Patsy or something like that.  How then did she get the name Miss Kite, you ask?  Because of this.

Her hair is held back with these ugly-as-sin rubber bands, and they had nothing covering them.  All I had were these two scraps of black ribbon, long enough to tie in knots but not into bows.  The back of her head looks a little like the tail of a kite with those ribbon bits fluttering around, and that reminded me of that song by The Beatles.  That loud outfit also looks like something that a circus performer might wear (if what The Beatles said was true the original Mr. Kite was part of a circus act).

Tangent over, let's look a little closer at Miss Kite.

She is your typical Barbie clone, with a soft vinyl head and a hollow plastic body.  Her hair is a reddish brown and is surprisingly well-rooted.  You know how clone dolls can sometimes have thin hair with bald patches on their heads?  Not this chica, babes!  Heck, it's even got a halfway-decent style; two parts of the hair are twisted and held back by one of those butt-ugly rubber bands.

The rest of the hair is swept back into a ponytail.  The ponytail falls to Miss Kite's waist; without the rubber bands it's a bit longer.  There are no bangs.

The hair feels smooth and soft like hair should, but it wants to fly away into a big fat mess.  I'm constantly having to brush it to keep it looking decent.  When I brushed it the first time a fair amount of hair came out.  Not enough to make Miss Kite bald, but still it was enough.

Miss Kite's face is average in appearance, not stunning, but not hideous either.

Her eyebrows are single-stroke, single-layer strips of orangey paint.  It's a good match with her hair, but it's very faint.  I find myself wondering what she'd look like with slightly darker eyebrows.

The eyes are surprisingly detailed, especially for a two-dollar dime store doll.  Miss Kite has blue eyes with long, thick eyelashes.  The eyes have painted white lines and spots to add some depth and shine.  There is also some pinkish-red eye shadow which doesn't match Miss Kite's dress.

Miss Kite's mouth is pinkish-red like her eyeshadow.  She has painted teeth.  Her mouth is just a teeny bit off-center...kinda like my mouth!

The paint is pretty good here; nothing's missing or rubbed off.  Miss Kite has a sweet smile, not too showy or flamboyant.  She's not as precisely painted as a Barbie with the same expression, though; the edges of the teeth aren't as well-painted as the rest.

Miss Kite versus Barbie

The dress was the main reason why I bought Miss Kite.  It's very...interesting looking.

The whole thing is made of a shiny, smooth, satiny material.  The bodice is completely black:

There's something odd about the fit of the bodice; it's baggy around Miss Kite's middle.  She almost looks pregnant.

That's a gnarly-looking baby bump!

The top of the bodice ties around Miss Kite's neck in halter-top fashion.  There are two black ribbons holding this part together.  The rest of the bodice Velcros together, though the bottom of the seam gaps open.

Miss Kite's skirt is unusual.  It has a fifties-style shape to it, but I can't imagine any fifties female wearing material like this!  The front is a zebra print:

And the back, oddly enough, is solid black.

If Miss kite is standing with her back to you she looks like she's wearing a completely black dress.

Or it would if the zebra front didn't show.

Miss Kite wears basic black plastic pumps on her feet.  They fit poorly, so I have to use blue putty to keep them on.

She has no accessories or jewelry, which I find odd because she has molded ear holes.  At least give her some cute little black studs!

Oh well, I'm not helpless.  One of my favorite things to do is make jewelry for dolls, so I can make some earrings for Miss Kite myself.  I might even go further than studs and give her tiny kite earrings!

Miss Kite's body is typical of clone dolls, comprised of stiff, cheap, hollow plastic.

Her shoulders and hips swing back and forth but have no lateral movement.  The knees have no joints and the waist does not twist.

The right shoulder is extremely loose.

Due to the stiff hip joints Miss Kite can't sit very gracefully; her legs splay out like she's...well, like she's got something on her mind.  Having stiff knees doesn't help much.

Keep your pants zipped and your legs together, sis!

Miss Kite's head fits on a knob; this knob allows for limited mobility; she can swivel her head but not tilt it.  It can also pop off if I twist it just right.

Again, par for the course with a clone doll.

And that, my dears, is Miss Kate Kite in a nutshell.  She's not really a bad doll for two bucks.  I can see a little girl having fun with this doll.  She breaks up the humdrum and monotony that a Barbie collection can have.  You've probably seen it; the sea of blonde Barbie dolls with wide blue eyes and the same toothy smile, covered in every shade of pink you can think of.  Patsy/Miss Kite is certainly not that.  She has different hair, different makeup, and a different expression.  Yes, she's got an open-lipped grin like Barbie, but she doesn't look like she's about to star in a toothpaste commercial, like Barbie sometimes can.  And Miss Kite isn't wearing pink!!!  Nor is she wearing anything overtly slutty; that dress covers her knees and most of her chest.  Yeah, she's revealing a decent part of her back, but that's nowhere near as much skin revealed as some other playline dolls.  <cough> Bratz <cough>

The thing is, Dollar General also has basic Barbie dolls at the store for the same price, and they're of better quality than the generic dolls like Miss Kite.  While I was browsing I saw this doll:

She's a bit more imaginative than the doll I have.

I've also seen Moxie Girlz and basic Bratz, and yesterday I even saw one Monster High doll (Dead Tired Draculaura).  Draculaura was the most expensive, at fifteen bucks (high for a Dollar General doll, and a little ridiculous for a Dead Tired doll); the rest of the dolls there ranged from two to five bucks in price.  All of them were of superior quality to Miss Kite...or Patsy, whatever her name is.  Some of them also have gimmicks; this Barbie has jointed ankles to do ballet poses.  Obviously this issue with quality isn't a big deal to me.  I bought Miss Kite because she looked unique, not because I expected her to be a collector-quality item.  I just wouldn't expect a child to pick this doll over Barbie unless they want a break from the same-old, same-old that Barbie brings (and some kids do).

So that's Katniss and Miss Kite covered, and believe it or not, that's not the end of my dolly haul yesterday!  I STILL need to share my new Lalaloopsy dress.  In a prior blog I lamented not having any extra clothes for my Lalaloopsy...then I went out and managed to find three new clothing sets.  The next blog will be devoted to those and to my Lalaloopsy doll.  I've had her for almost a year and it's finally hitting me to do a review of her.  Keep your eyes peeled for that.  I also bought another outfit for my Cutie Pops doll.  Until then, stay safe on those roads and don't get killed during Black Friday sales.  Seriously, don't.  I highly recommend staying home tomorrow, in fact; our local Super Wal-Mart had people sitting in the isles waiting for bicycles, Lalaloopsy dolls, clothes, and God-knows-what-else to go on sale.  My sister and I could hardly move, and it doesn't do any good to say "excuse me, can you please let me by."  We had to push and shove a lot just to get to the checkout line.  And we weren't even there for the sale!!!  Long story short, please just stay home.  Eat some leftover turkey, spend some time with family, sleep late, and enjoy yourself.

Ciao,
RagingMoon1987