Decora Girlz review

It's rare when I'll throw together a review so soon after buying a doll, but in this case it was kinda easy to do.  I'd been hearing whispers and seeing videos on YouTube about Decora Girlz (there go the cutesy consonants again), and since I love decora fashion I grabbed a doll.  

In a nutshell, decora is a Japanese street fashion (remember how I like that?) that relies on bright colors, cutesy motifs, and a ton of accessories.  Hair may or may not be colored unnaturally, makeup is usually over-the-top, and stickers are used liberally.  Decora has quite a few similarities to kidcore, which is also childish and colorful.  As to the dolls themselves, they're done up in the blind box manner.  There are nineteen to collect, all in the decora style, but with different themes.

Obviously that's nine and not nineteen, but y'all get the drift.  The one obscured by the flash looks like this.

Some of 'em have cute names, stuff like Luna, Heather, Celestia, Sweetie...SWEETIE???  That's a nickname, not a name.  Celestia and Buzzy are my favorites (Buzzy has a bee theme), but they're all cute.

Alrighty, this is a blind box toy, and every piddlin' little item this doll has is wrapped up, like so...

...but I'll spare y'all the excruciating descriptions of everything and show pictures instead.  I could've done without that dumb comb, though. 

Second pair had the shoes and three puffy, bow-shaped stickers.  I guess they are the advertised hair ornament.  

A stand and flat stickers came in one bag.  The stand threw me for a loop at first, because I only had the upright bit and the base.  I eventually did find the clippy bit, though.  It had fallen out of the baggie and slipped into the couch cushions. 

Finally I found the dress, along with another sheet of puffy stickers. 

The doll comes sheathed in two layers of opaque, thin plastic that I neglected to photograph.  I popped this open, removed the plastic band from the bangs, and this is her!

Hmmm...she reminds me of Hairdorables, of Blume, and of Kawaii Crush all in one.  A few Redditors also compare these dolls to Shopkins Shoppies, and I see that parallel too.  Judging from that hair, I appear to have gotten the little gal on the package...

...but I don't know her name!  Some of the dolls had their names revealed on the package, but not this one!  And get this:  all of the blind bag toys I've bought have collector's guides, but not Decora Girlz!  I turned to Google and Reddit for help...

...apparently my doll's name is...Decora.  I am not amused.  Okay, so Decora is a small doll, at four inches.  She's of comparable size to the Hairdorables and to Strawberry Shortcake, but I don't have either of those with me at the moment.  Regarding dolls I DO have with me, Decora is shorter than Susie Sad-Eyes and Checkerboard Shannon, and on a wildly different scale from the two.

My little porcelain doll Jessica is smaller than Decora, and in the process of face-planting.

Decora's hair makes my rainbow-loving heart sing.  There are six colors at play here:  hot pink and orange on the far right, yellow, lime green, and blue at the center, and purple on the left.

The hair is floor-length, stick-straight, and slippery-smooth, to the point that it feels a little greasy.  The bangs are blunt-cut and are unfortunately uneven on the right.  

Frankly, I think Decora would've been just fine without bangs.  The bangs hide her cute pink eyebrows and make her eyes look that much more crazed.

Decora has neon green eyes with enormous pupils, black mascara, and sky blue eyeshadow.  This is actually pretty tame eye makeup for the decora look, but it's painted evenly.  The same is true for Decora's goofy mouth.

Some of these dolls have teeth showing in their goofy little mouths.  I'm kinda on the fence about the teeth and am glad that Decora doesn't have them.  Overall though this isn't my favorite doll face.  The black eyeliner is too harsh.  To be fair, my Blume doll and my smallest Liddle Kiddle also took a heavy hand with their eyeliner, and admittedly I find their eyes off-putting too.  So Decora isn't alone in this boat.

As always, let's look at ears.  Decora's ears stick out, and I'm kinda bummed that they aren't pierced.

However, I can use some of Decora's stickers as earrings.  I did the same thing many years ago, when my What's Her Face doll was new.

Decora came out of her pod undressed, which turned out to be a good thing (we'll discuss why in a bit).  Here's what she looks like.

She's got a teeny-weeny body to go with her huge noggin, and her decency is preserved by purple undergarments.  To my surprise, Decora's tiny little arms are ball-jointed at the shoulder, enabling them to move all the way out.

Here's a better look at these hands.  They're tiny and delicate, and VERY bendy.  Keep that in mind for later too.

In contrast, Decora's legs are thicker and do not bend.  They're bent slightly at the knees and the toes are turned in, the way people in decora or lolita dress sometimes like to stand.

Decora's hips aren't as flexible as her shoulders.  She can sit, but that's about it. 

She's got cute feet.  There isn't a ton of detail, but she does have ten toes visible, unlike some of my dolls.

Now...I did have Decora dressed before I remembered to review her body, and I am NOT under any circumstances taking that dress off again.  Why?  Because that dress is ridiculously hard to put on.  It's made out of soft vinyl...

...but the vinyl isn't anywhere near as soft as the vinyl clothes that L.O.L. Surprises wear.  There's a slit in the back, but getting Decora dressed was still a chore.  I will admit that I like the little puffed sleeves though, and the overall color scheme. 

The shoes weren't the easiest things either, but they went on with less of a fuss.  I think it's funny how the mismatched socks stand up, by the way.  Vinyl socks DO that sort of thing, but it gives off sort of a Fox in Socks vibe.

Fox.  Socks.  Box.  Knox.  LOL, Decora's purse is a brightly colored hunk of plastic.  It does fit over her wrist, but like the comb it probably could've been left out.

To add to the difficulties in dressing, Decora's bendy fingers hung up in the sleeves, and it took the better part of thirty minutes to get her dressed.  I did it all without saying a naughty word, I was so proud of myself!  But I've NEVER encountered this much difficulty dressing a small doll in vinyl clothes.  It's worth it, though.

However, since Decora is a Decora Girl, something is missing.  That's where the stickers come in.  There are two sheets of puffy stickers and one set of flat ones.

Decora fashion is supposed to be over-the-top, so I wasn't shy about putting these stickers on.  Most of 'em went in Decora's hair, and though I didn't intend this, two of the stickers do indeed look like dangly earrings. 

I'm only now realizing how lopsided Decora's eyes are!  That's unfortunately a risk one takes with blind box dolls.  Anyway, I used the whole sheet of small puffy stickers, and two of the big ones.   It was surprisingly satisfying to gussy this doll up.

And then...well, I guess that's it!  Stickers lose their tack if reused, so all I can do now is put Decora on her shelf.  Her dress all but immobilized her joints, and it's too difficult to redress her.  So much for that mixing and matching advertised on the box.  Overall I think Decora is cute and visually exciting, but there's not a lot to her.  I initially thought she'd be better as a bigger doll...and then I learned that there ARE bigger dolls..

Bigger and with cloth clothes!  Looks like there may be a part two to this review pretty soon.  Anyway, learning that my Decora is a mini doll made me think a little more highly of her, but that dress is still incredibly frustrating to deal with.

Sparkles,

RagingMoon1987