Throwback Thursday review: Hasbro Moondreamers Whimzee

The news this week has been more craptastic than usual, with that mass shooting out in Vegas and the death of one of my favorite singers (Tom Petty) making headlines.  Thus it seems like a great time to review something cutesy and a little on the childish side.  Today's post is another of those posts that was inspired by a fellow blogger.  C'mon, y'all know that I don't have an original bone in my body!  Anywho, Teresa Brown (the Barbie Blog) briefly discussed Crystal Starr from Hasbro's Moondreamers series, and while Crystal was by all means a cute doll, what caught my attention were the words "glow in the dark."  Ever since I was little I've loved things that glow in the dark, be they toys, clothes, stickers, home decor, fidget spinners (yes, I own one), or yard decorations, so when I learned that these little dolls had glowing features I was all over them like white on rice.  I don't remember this line from my childhood, meaning that they likely came from earlier in the eighties than I did, and thus I have no allegiance to any particular character.  So I got one that looked cute and still had her shoes.  Meet Whimzee.

My Whimzee isn't 100% complete.  This character originally had a headband with a star on it, but my Whimzee is missing hers.  No great loss, really; at least she still has her tights and shoes (most of the dolls I saw are missing their footwear).  Anyway, before I get this post going...it's time for a backstory, y'all are so lucky!  Moondreamers (or Moon Dreamers, I've seen it spelled both ways) were created by Hasbro right around the time that My Little Pony was a big thing.  The Moondreamer dolls share a body mold with My Little Pony's human companions, but the two lines ARE NOT RELATED!!!  They were both created by Hasbro, they both involved a heavy dose of fantasy, and both occupied parts of the same thirty-minute television show...but the two lines are not related.  Moondreamers come from a world that is divided into three spaces, named Starry Up,  Monstrous Middle, and Down.  We humans reside on Down (better known as Earth), while the Moondreamers reside in Starry Up.  Whimzee is apparently the artsy one of the bunch and has the job of maintaining a balance between positrons (?) and negatrons (??).  She does this by fulfilling the dreams of children, which is apparently a difficult process.  In addition, Whimzee is a caring sort, with a heart of gold that leads her everywhere.  Wait a minute...she has a heart of gold???  Oh barf, don't they all???  As for negatrons, that sounds eerily like something that Sailor Moon or Darkwing Duck should be fighting.  Maybe the Negaverse is responsible for negatrons?  Maybe I should introduce Whimzee to Ami and see what sort of schemes they can unravel.

Since I've dragged Sailor Moon into this mix, I'll make an observation.  My little Whimzee looks eerily like a child version of Michiru Kaioh, better known as Sailor Neptune.  See?

I long to wrap my fingers around Michiru's neck and strangle the obnoxious little twerp, by the way.  She's just so cotton-pickin' perfect at everything she does, and she lacks her equally-perfect girlfriend Haruka's sarcasm and wit.  Yes, girlfriend.  Haruka and Michiru are girlfriends...NOT COUSINS!!!!!!!!!!  Dang you, DIC Entertainment, at least show the original anime some respect!  As an extra little aside, check out this fan art, depicting Whimzee as a sailor senshi.  Maybe she could push Michiru off a cliff and take over the job as Sailor Neptune.

Right then, back to Neptune Whimzee.  She's five and a half inches tall, meaning that she's smaller than most of my small dolls like Penny Brite and Cherry Merry Muffin.

She's about equal in height to Lime Chiffon and shorter than Bratz Kidz Yasmin.

I think I may have found Whimzee's niche, by the way.  She belongs with the rest of my small dolls that look extra-cute, the ones that I like to call the "Smile Purdy Squad."

On picture days at school my father used to tease my sister and me by saying "Smile real purdy!" in a goofy voice.  Thus the name "Smile Purdy Squad."  Anywho, Whimzee has fantasy-colored hair like Lime's, and I originally thought it was mint green.  In actuality the fibers are sky blue, very much like blue raspberry cotton candy.

Her scalp is sky blue too.

To my great surprise, Whimzee appears to have a mullet!  It's short on the top and long in the back, with the ends of the long part curled up like so.

I'm not going to lie:  I actually like the oft-scorned mullet.  If properly maintained the style can look very becoming.  As I said above, the shorter section of Whimzee's hair was once held back by a headband, but God only knows where her band went.  The fibers themselves are smooth, but a little stiff and coarse.  Thank Heaven this hair isn't super-long or it would be a nightmare to contain.  This pale blue color helped me figure out which part of the doll glowed, by the way; the advertisements clearly show the dolls' hair glowing, but I still had to see it for myself.  As seen below, Whimzee's hair still glows.

I wonder if Jem and the Holograms ever had glowing hair?  That would've been a cute feature, and it would've been possible since Jem was a Hasbro entity as well.  Hasbro certainly had some neat toys during the eighties, didn't they?

Right then, back to the current doll.  Whimzee's face is round and cutesy like that of many an eighties doll, and completely unlike that of her cousin Jem.

Her eyes are blue and are very round, with small, lifted eyebrows that are dark blue.  This whole eye area is blue, even the outlines and the eyelashes.

Whimzee's lips are pale pink with little teeth painted in, and her apple cheeks are heavily blushed with a different shade of pink.

The paint is very good on this doll, but she does have a few speckles of blue paint on her forehead, right below the hairline.

Also of note are the eyes.  Here they are again.

Whimzee's irises are painted like crescent moons, with little stars and reflecty dots added in.  I like the spaciness of these eyes, but they're also looking in two different directions and I'm not thrilled with that.  Apparently this is a feature common to all the Moondreamers, so I don't suppose I have anything to gripe about.  It does make these dolls look a little wall-eyed though.

Whimzee's cute little ears are simply molded and don't have any earrings.

Moondreamers clothes are sparkly and spacey, fitting given the space theme of these dolls, and Whimzee is no exception.  Wouldn't y'all know, I choose a doll that's wearing...pink.

Sigh...I don't hate pink, but...well, I've voiced my feelings on pink in the past.  This is a nice shade, though; the bodice so shiny that it doesn't even look pink in pictures.

The front of the bodice shows a little wear where a shiny moon decal once was.  I'll get a bead and replace that moon someday.

Around Whimzee's waist is a woven silver band that simulates a belt.  It's showing some wear in the form of loose threads, par for the course for a doll that's over thirty.

The front of the belt sports a fake buckle made of gold and pink material, with a plastic red gem glued on.  Six tulle streamers hang from this buckle.

The buckle needs to be sewn back into place.  It's not falling off yet, but it's getting loose.  See?

The skirt is short and has two layers, one of pale tulle and one of shiny pink fabric.

Ooops, I forgot the collar!  It's silver...

...and it has a cape attached!  The cape is made of the same material as the outer layer of the skirt.

Both the cape and the outer skirt are hemmed with silver trim, by the way.  This is holding up well, as are the tulle bits of the outfit.  This is important because the dress is held shut in the back with Velcro, the kind that snags.

On a dress with this much tulle, snaps would've been a better option.  This dress is in fairly good shape, though; none of the tulle is snagged, and there are no rips or holes or loose seams.  Most of the problems are cosmetic.  Also potentially problematic but in good shape are these pink tights, done in more tulle, or some fabric like that.  I have to be very careful that the Velcro doesn't catch these tights and snag them.

Pink flats round out the look.  These have little hearts molded onto the toes and plain treads.  Despite a bath they're still a little groady in places.

These are plain cute shoes, and they're made of more robust plastic than the Skipper shoe that I reviewed last spring.

Under her clothes Whimzee has a little girl doll's body.  Nothing sexualized or anything of that sort.

She's got the prerequisite bellybutton and gluteal cleft, but not much else.  The molding is infinitely better than Katya the clone's is, and being a brand-name doll I'd expect nothing less.  Whimzee's little arms have straight elbows and dainty hands that are bent slightly at the wrist.  The left arm is raised a little.

The hands are simply molded, with little indentations between each finger and no fingernails.

The palm is smooth.

Legs now...the legs confuse me a bit.  These are made out of soft vinyl and feel like they should bend at the knee, but as far as I can tell my doll's knees don't bend. 

I also think these legs have been both molded and set into place unevenly, and as a result Whimzee has a hard time standing.  This is particularly noticeable when Whimzee is clothed; notice her left foot is at an angle, while her right foot remains flat on the ground.

Whimzee's feet are simply molded, just like her hands.  She has little indentations for toes, but nothing else.

Posing is average, about what I'd expect for a doll this size.  Whimzee can move her arms and legs back and forth, and she can turn her head.  Back-to-front splits are possible, as is a basic sitting position.

Again, Whimzee's left leg looks a little peculiar in these positions.  There are no nasty surprises here though; the wonky left leg leaves me scratching my head, and the lack of knee joints are a bummer, but everything is structurally sound.

Whimzee's small size means that she likely won't be able to do much clothes sharing, but her similarity in size to the Strawberry Shortcake gang may mean that they can share clothes.  I already know for a fact that Whimzee could wear the original Blueberry Muffin's hat (and Lime's too, for that matter)...

...but I don't think this session of Dolly Dress Shuffle is going to go well judging from the difference in bodies.

I doubt that Lime can fit into Whimzee's clothes due to her hands and feet, but I turned out to be wrong.

The dress doesn't look good on Lime's dinky little torso, but if I was desperate to clothe her I could make this work.  My doubts about Lime's dress on Whimzee proved to be unfounded as well.

Lime's shoes are WAY too big for Whimzee's dinky little feet, and the bodice of the dress is tight across her chest, but I'm calling this a win.  It's good to know that if I decide to grub up some of Strawberry Shortcake's old clothes online Lime won't be the only one who can wear them.

I have more small dolls than I remembered though, and that's gotten me thinking.  Novi Starz have small bodies and a spacey theme.  Maybe they can share clothes with Whimzee.

Well...the coat (entitled "Winter Gear" by MGA Entertainment) fits, but none of the accessories did.  The earmuffs are too large for Whimzee's head, and the shoes were made for high-heeled feet, not flat feet like Whimzee's.  The other two outfits, the formal "Galactic Gown" and the pajama set "Space Dreamer" proved to be too small across the chest for Whimzee to wear, and Sila's and Malie's stock outfits didn't fit either.  So for the most part Novi Starz clothes are out of the question for Moondreamers.

Just for the hairbell of it, here's what Whimzee looks like in  Kuu Kuu Harajuku outfits.  I also threw Pepper Parsons' stock outfit (bottom) into the mix.

From the front these dresses look okay, though Pepper's stock outfit is a little long.  Unfortunately, being a little long is the least of the fitting problems here, as all of the bodices are too tight and can't be fastened completely in the back.

Neither Kuu Kuu Harajuku nor Pinkie Cooper clothes are suitable attire for Moondreamers and that's a shame, because Pepper's dress looks great with Whimzee's blue hair.  Maybe Vi and Va clothes will work better; they were hit and miss on Yasmin's small body...

..and they're hit and miss on Whimzee as well.  The pink and white dress fits but is big around the neck, while the yellow dress is just too big altogether.  This is the way it went with Yasmin; the white dress fit and the yellow one did not.  The blue sleeper set has become lost in the maelstrom of boxes and crates that I use to store my doll clothes, but given its oversized fit it would likely look okay on Whimzee.  

Lastly, I have Lalaloopsy Girls.  Pix E. Flutters' dress is one of those that surprised me in the past, as both Pepper Parsons AND the Novi Starz can wear it.  It's worth a shot with Whimzee.

We have a winner...er, THREE winners!  Pix E. Flutters' pajama bottoms are baggy, but I'd rather have baggy pajamas than tight pajamas.  The other dresses fit fine, though Furry Grrs-a-Lot's dress is a little on the long side.  This makes me wish MGA Entertainment had released some outfit sets for the Lalaloopsy Girls though; despite their unusual bodies, the Girls can donate their clothes to Novi Starz, Pinkie Cooper, AND these Moondreamers.  MGA hasn't even officially announced whether the Girls are discontinued or not, even though it's been ages since I've seen any in stores.  Anyway, one Novi Starz outfit and one Vi and Va outfit can clothe Whimzee's nakedness, as can Lalaloopsy Girls clothes.  The rest are all either too big or too small.

Time to sum it up!

BAD
*Clothes are showing a tiny bit of wear, particularly on the bodice where the moon decal peeled off.
*Knees don't bend, though I'm not sure if they were supposed to.  They feel like they should.
*Legs are uneven, albeit slightly
*Can't wear a lot of the clothes I have for small dolls

GOOD
*Hair still glows after all these years.  I'm not sure if the glowing function will ever fade, and I certainly hope not.
*Sturdy; this doll lacks the large number of joints that can break over time
*Cute face with intact paint
*Most of the outfit has held up well; no snags in the tulle, both shoes are present.  The one main problem (the missing moon decal) can be fixed.
*Can wear some smaller dolls' clothes; Lalaloopsy Girls clothes particularly fit well, and some old Mattel Kelly clothes might also be worth the effort.
*Fits in well with other small dolls of the era; though Whimzee and Lime Chiffon cannot share clothes, they make a delightful pair.

This is a cute line, one that Strawberry Shortcake and My Little Pony fans might like if they're not into it already.  Whimzee and her spacey friends have every quality that eighties toys have, but they keep it simple by being simple themselves.  They don't have any fancy gimmicks that require batteries; they're just plastic dolls with sweet faces and glowing hair.  My particular doll has some hiccups with joints, and being over thirty her clothes show a little wear, but for the most part she's alright.  She'll fit in nicely with my slowly growing collection of small eighties toys.

As a last little note, tomorrow is my birthday.  I'll be thirty.  I don't have anything special planned for the blog tomorrow, but there may be some gifts that I'll want to share.  We'll just see.

Hugs, kisses, and cookies,
RagingMoon1987