Paola Reina Las Amigas Mar review

I'll try to be a little more streamlined with this post; last week I got caught up in the nostalgia of having Monster High dolls again and fell victim to long spates of bloviating, but I think I've got this one about right.  With that, y'all remember that thing I said about Abigail Witch being my only Paola Reina doll?  Yeah, big lie.  It became a lie when I purchased Imani (whom I need to review to be fair), and now here's Mar.  Yes, her name is Mar.  "Mar" has negative connotations in English (it means "to disfigure"), but it means "sea" in Spanish so I guess I'll stick with it. 

My reasoning for picking Mar is probably obvious, as I've spoken many times of my fondness for exotic hair colors.  Sergio, Nieves, Rosa, Cleo, and Susana also have fantasy hair, but I didn't have an Oriental Paola Reina doll yet.  LOL, I could've gone with Super Paola, as she's Oriental and is a little superhero.  Super Paola reminds a little of Underdog...the woman, not the adorable animated super-pooch.  Y'all didn't know there was a resident of New Jersey who calls herself Underdog, did y'all???  Suzanne Muldowney is her name, and in my eyes she truly is a hero, a hero to eccentrics (like me).  Now...if the unboxing of a doll is particularly painful I discuss that, and...well, I was EXPECTING this unboxing to be painful.  Mar came from Latvia, and her shipper was wrapped in this God-forsaken crap.

I once compared packing peanuts to Daleks and rakes, so I think I'll compare this much tape to Cybermen and...what causes Sideshow Bob harm besides Bart and rakes???  I need to do some digging and get back to y'all on that.  Anyway, usually getting through this much tape is a nightmare, but for once I didn't have much trouble.  My scissors are new and sharp, and they made quick work of the stuff.  Inside the box I got another surprise:  I've seen vintage Barbie dolls packaged in baggies before, but not Paola Reina dolls.

Those staples holding the bag shut were a bigger pain in the posterior than the tape was!  On the plus side Mar's ample hair was held down by a plastic band, which was greatly appreciated.  Regarding size, Mar is a little doll, of similar height to So Surprised Suzie.  They won't be able to share clothes, but they're the same height. 

Mar and Suzie were more victims of Draculaura's review, by the way; I did want to make it look like they were trick-or-treating, but we see how well that went.

Now that that's out of the way, Mar's hair is wavy and falls to her hips.  It's...indigo or violet, I'm not quite sure which.  Mama calls it purple, so that's what I'll go with.  It's made out of high-quality nylon, meaning that it's soft but needs an occasional brushing to keep it nice.

LOL, now that I think of it, this hair reminds me of the hair on Beauty, one of my first Living Dead Dolls.  Killecrankie, I can't believe that review was eleven years ago now!  Time certainly does fly!  Mar's rooting is better than Beauty's by a healthy margin, though as with many of my dolls pigtails would not be a good idea.

The ends are curled up a bit.  I like that because it adds some fullness to the style.

Mar has a side part, so the first thing I did was put a clip in.  This particular bow is kinda somber for her, but then again Halloween was nine days ago.  The bow came from DollfaceDesignss, by the way; it came as a freebie with two of my human-sized bows (THIS one and THAT one).

Very no-frills hair, easy to maintain.  Before I move down, I wanted to show y'all this.  These small Paola Reina dolls tend to have high hairlines, and Mar is no exception.

See how high her hairline rises on the back of her head???  Normally hair covers the base of the skull, but not in this case!  As I insinuated above, Mar is not unique; some of Miss Emily's little dolls have this same strange hairline.  The front of Mar's hairline is a normal height, though.  One little doll that Miss Emily didn't keep had a high hairline all around.

Since I'm looking at the back of Mar's head anyway, here's her identifying mark.  There's no question about her maker! 

Now here's the face.  I love Paola Reina faces in general, but Mar has one of my favorites.  She's little, but she looks like a no-nonsense sort.

Ev'ry day in your indigo eyes/I watch the sun set but I don't see it rise.  I think Mar has the same head mold as Liu and Super Paola, though I can't be a hundred percent sure of that without them all in front of me.  Anyway, let's get down to this face.  Most of the Paola Reina dolls I've seen have inset eyes (Gorjuss dolls are the exception), and some of them have sleep eyes.  Mar's eyes are fixed with lavender blue irises and wispy little lashes, plus light brown, multistroke eyebrows.  I'm not a huge fan of the slant of those eyebrows, but they're not too obvious.

Both Abigail Witch and my other Paola Reina doll Imani have slightly metallic-looking eyes, an effect that I really like.  Mar, on the other hand, has more nebulous irises.  Seriously, they're the exact color of parts of the Trifid Nebula.

Below the eyes Mar has a flat, wide nose and big, pouty Paola Reina lips.  I love the way Paola Reina paints their lips; the colors are soft and delicately painted so they don't look goofy.

Very no-frills paint, as most Paola Reina dolls have.  Some dolls have freckles, but Mar does not.  In Mar's case the only problem I have with her face is the eyebrows.  I find them easy to overlook, but when I do focus on them they look kludgy.

Like just about every Paola Reina doll I can name, Mar and her Las Amigas sisters are all-vinyl.  Some of the Las Amigas have extensive joints, but Mar just has the standard five:  hip, hip, shoulder, shoulder, neck.

All of these joints rotate only, so Mar's posing is predictably stilted.  She can't move her arms out to the side, but she can move them all the way up...

...and all the way around.

Mar's head rotates but does not tip sideways.  As is often the case for Paola Reina dolls of this size, her head tips up more and more as it's rotated back.  When Mar's head is turned all the way backwards she's looking up, as seen on the left.  No biggie for me since I never pose my dolls like that, but Miss Emily deems it worthy of note so I'll make note of it too.  I admit that it's kinda weird when doll necks are like that.

No Paola Reina doll can sit particularly ladylike, but Mar is rock solid when she does sit.  No tipping over for this gal!  She also stands well, but because I'm a complete eejit I didn't show that.

Her hips rotate all the way, and as a result she can do splits, though as I've said before I almost never pose my dolls like this.

Regarding molding, Mar's torso is pretty nondescript.  She has the merest suggestion of breasts and a little bit of a waist, and her tushie has a gluteal cleft, but that's it.  No visible scapulae, and only a teeny-weeny bellybutton that doesn't show in the picture.

Mar's arms are also pretty smooth, though she does have some shallow dimples around her elbows.  

Mar's hands are appropriately childlike, with longish, thickish fingers that have visible creases and nails.  Her little palms have some vague lines molded in as well.

Like the elbows, Mar's knees have some nice definition to them.  They're nice, rounded, little kid knees, just like I used to have.  Seriously, I loved my knees when I was a kid.

Mar's feet are flat and pretty nondescript.  She's got ten toes and ten toenails, and thankfully no cankles.  Her soles have no detail at all so I didn't bother to show them.

When it comes to clothes Paola Reina dolls tend to be a mixed bag.  Abigail Witch came fully dressed in a little Witch costume, Imani came in the buff, and Mar came dressed, but very lightly.  I presume that these are shorty pajamas.  I don't know how I managed to get that top so grubby, but I did.

Seriously, it's not supposed to be gray like this.  I'll need to give it a wash.

Despite being what I think is a pajama top, this top does get its sparkle on.  It's got a painted silver crown and some little stars.  This paint is rock solid, by the way; neither a lot of bending nor my fingernail could budge it.  Admittedly I didn't scratch too hard, LOL.

I had thought that the sleeves were just fortunate to escape my grubby little mitts, but they're actually a different fabric.  See the edge of the star, close to the opening?

The sleeves are scanty, but at least they're decorated.  The collar is undecorated, just a plain little crewneck with a line of neat stitches.

Surprise, surprise, the back closes with Velcro.

The insides have a lot of seam allowance, but the seams are nice and tidy otherwise.

The tag in the seam tells me what kind of fibers these are.  Apparently it's a cotton-polyester blend and thus should wash easily.  It'll have to be handwashed, but no biggie.

See?  Handwash it.  I wonder what these numbers are for?

The shorts are a different fabric that didn't catch dirt like the top did.  It's got shiny little stars printed here and there, and the waist is elastic.

One teeny-weeny little loose stitch along the waist, but otherwise I wasn't able to find any sewing foibles.

The seams here are the same as the seams on the shirt:  wide margins and neat stitches, though the elastic near the waist looks a little sloppy.

Not a bad little outfit.  Kinda simple, kinda basic, but it covers Mar's tushie.  Paola Reina does offer extra clothes for their dolls, but since I like my dolly duds extra-original I turned to my friend Etsy.  First came this outfit, which I apparently received by mistake.  

I ordered a sage-colored sweater and a similar pair of pants and got this set instead, but it's welcome now!  Indeed, it was welcome in September when football season was in full swing.  Malden's school colors are green and gold, just like the sweater.  Malden's football team had a lousy season this year, by the way.  I don't think they won a single game.  Anywho, here's how Mar looks in the Greenwave getup.

Kinda boyish for her, but does it look comfy!  Sadly, I'm not in love with how the shirt fits around the waist.  The hem likes to both ride up AND curl under, leaving Mar's belly exposed.  That wass NBD when I took the picture (it was July), but having an exposed tummy isn't cool this time of year.  Having bare feet isn't either, so I bought some shoes that match everything.  Nothing like buying from Etsy and getting something marked "Paola Reina," LOL!

Granted, the weather has been pretty mild so far (we had one cold snap around Halloween), but I know it won't stay mild.  Indeed, it's raining today, and temperatures are predicted to drop tomorrow so these shoes arrived at just the right time.

By and by I did receive the outfit I asked for, with the aforementioned sage sweater.

Green, as I've said countless times before, is my favorite color, but I really love this subdued celadon hue.

The past week has been unseasonably warm, but I threw this on Mar anyway.  The sweater has short sleeves, so she should be comfortable.

As an aside (because I love asides), after Mar modelled her Greenwave sweater for the first time, I sat her back with the other dolls I had at Uncle Man-Child's place.  Bedsie Beans immediately passed out on Mar's shoulder. 

Mar isn't as gifted with baby dolls as Salome and Madge are, but she didn't mind Bedsie in this case.  By the way, guess who's lap they are sitting in!  LOL, it was too hot for slacks and long sleeves back in July, so I bought Mar this.  Etsy shop is TheConrow.

That looks more suitable for summer.  It even has a hair bow!

Everything is better with a bow!

Now...the Halloween outfit was kinda a surprise.  Etsy shop is judysdollboutique.

I was planning on buying a Ruby Red Fashion Friend, but prices for those are kinda crazy.  However, I already had the dress.  Mama likes these big-nosed, bushy-faced gnomes, so I got it with her in mind. 

I didn't want this cute little getup to go to waste, so I tried it on Mar.

Mama predicted that the dress would drown Mar, but it ended up being just right.  If I'd paid attention to my purchase history on Etsy the fit wouldn't have been a huge shock, as the romper I bought last summer is also sized for Ruby Red Fashion Friends.  Heck, with Mar around who needs a Ruby Red doll?  

I don't know if Wellie Wisher clothes will fit Mar because I haven't tried it, but my Wellie Wisher has a bigger build than Mar so I doubt those clothes would work.  That's a good place to cut the cameras.

BAD
*Posing sucks...sort of.  Any doll that only has five joints is gonna look kinda robotic.  Some of the Las Amigas have more joints, but Mar does not.
*The hair requires some maintenance to keep it looking nice.  Not a lot, but some.
*I know some of y'all don't care for unnatural hair.  Other Paola Reina dolls have natural hair colors.
*I don't like these eyebrows.
*The eyes are a lovely color, but are not as deep and lively as Abigail Witch's eyes are.

GOOD
*When this doll was new she smelled like vanilla cupcakes.  The scent has faded, but it was nice while it lasted.  
*Hair is easy enuff to maintain.  A gentle brushing after a play session is usually sufficient.
*With the exception of the eyebrows, the face paint is nice.  I particularly like Mar's lips.
*The joints are few, but they hold whatever pose one puts them in.
*I love the way this doll feels in my hands.  Her vinyl is soft and smooth.
*Easy to dress.  Paola Reina makes clothes for these dolls, and Etsy does as well.  Ruby Red fashions may also fit, but I don't know about shoes.

Well, this is my second Paola Reina doll reviewed, and the second one that I've liked a lot.  Indeed, I've yet to see a Paola Reina doll that got a bad review, and admittedly that may have biased my opinions a bit.  But as is often the case with my dolls Mar's bad qualities are either nit-picky or based on one's own tastes.  I know a couple'a y'all wouldn't like her purple hair, for example.  No biggie, most of the Paola Reina bunch has natural hair.  I don't like Mar's eyes as much as I like Abigail's, but they're still a pretty color.  My biggest beef with Mar would probably be those eyebrows; they're multistroke, but the strokes look ham-handed.  This problem is common to just about all the Las Amigas, and when I photograph Mar I hardly notice her eyebrows at all.  Overall I'll say that my particular little doll was a good buy, though one might want to be careful if they're sensitive to smells (Paola Reina dolls are always scented).  If Mar's purple hair is a turnoff, Liu's raven tresses might suit you better.  The sky's the limit with these!

Warm hugs,
RagingMoon1987