Just Right: Ever After High Blondie Lockes

The latest addition to my Ever After High collection is Blondie Lockes, the daughter of Goldilocks. I will admit to not being especially excited about her when she was first released, and for a long time I was actually planning on skipping her. But then there was that BOGO sale at Toys R Us, and I needed Apple, which meant I could get another one for free...and well, you know how this goes!

I will say right off the bat that I really don't like her name. I mean, could the designers have been less creative? It's like they just took the first idea anyone threw out and went on with their day. In general, I do think that the Ever After High names are a little simplistic (especially coming from Monster High, where there are some really creative names), but poor Blondie definitely got the fuzzy end of the lollipop here! 

Apart from that, there are definitely some interesting things about Blondie, so let's take a closer look! 

Her box! Same as usual with Ever After High dolls, though I like the inclusion of the bear family photo behind her. I think part of what made it hard for me to connect to Blondie was how much she differs from her animated version, seen on the back of the box. The cartoon is so cute, with those big curls and coy, side-glancing eyes, very Lolita. But in actuality, Blondie doesn't quite fulfill what the cartoon promises.

And here she is in person. She comes with the standard stuff, and her stand and brush are gold. Doesn't she look like Alice in Wonderland? With the blonde hair and the blue dress and that headband, it's hard for me to see anything other than Alice!

Let's start with her face, since for me, it's one of the most interesting things about her. Blondie's face is really different to the previous EAH dolls I've looked at, and that difference is mostly in the shape of her eyes. Her eyes are much rounder than most of the other characters, and have kind of a strange shape, being rounder towards the centre. It gives her a very wide-eyed look, but from some angles can make her look a bit blank, or confused. Her eyes are also glancing slightly upward, which makes her a challenge to photograph and have her engage with the camera.

Her mouth is painted in a neutral pink colour, and it almost looks a bit like she's frowning to me! I mean, none of the other dolls have great big smiles, but Blondie looks a bit sad to me, like the corners of her mouth are turning down just a bit. This all sounds like I don't like her face, and that's not it at all. I do like how unique she is in a line of dolls that have had a tendency to be a bit same-y in the face, and these differences do give her personality. Besides, there's nothing wrong with maybe being a bit sad, is there?

Like all other Ever After High dolls, Blondie is wearing quite a few accessories! Her earrings are dangling keys and little bears. They're hard to see in the photo, but they're also hard to see in person! The details are very small, and the shimmery gold plastic can kind of make those details blur a bit. Her bracelet is a charm bracelet, with charms of bears, locks and keys. I should mention here that Blondie has the special ability to open any locked door just by turning the handle. I can see how that could come in handy!

Her ring is a lock too! This suffers from the same blurry detail as her earrings. The details on the accessories on other dolls that are made out of a solid colour as opposed to something shimmery are much easier to see, for me anyways. I wonder if the shimmer makes the plastic not take to the mold quite so cleanly?

Her purse is also a lock, but thankfully the detail this one is nice and easy to see! The handle is painted blue, and it's just a bit small. It does fit over her hand, but you have to squeeze her fingers together or her pinky gets caught. Of course, you can take her hand off to get the purse on, and this does make it more difficult to lose, which is always a good thing.

Her hair is probably the most disappointing thing about her, and where she differs most from her artwork. Instead of those big full curls, Blondie actually has a barely distinguishable wave to her hair. I have to wonder why they did that, those big curls are such an important part of Blondie's look! 

Her hair itself is nice though. It's soft and doesn't seem prone to tangles, and the colour is quite pretty. It's a mix of a soft, buttery blonde and a brighter yellow, and the combination of colours really makes it catch the light and shine in a really lovely way.

I grabbed the other Ever After blonde, Apple White, and brought her over for a quick comparison shot. There isn't really any comparison in the colours of their hair. Apple's hair is a more natural light blonde colour, while Blondie's is very yellow. Both pretty, but very different!

Now onto Blondie's outfit! She's wearing a fairly simple A-line dress, but it has a lot of really great details. The bodice is a cream colour, patterned with blue keys. There's also a printed placket with three buttons at the neck. The collar and sleeves are trimmed with ruffled blue tulle, and there's a small cream bow right at the base of her throat.

The skirt is pretty full, and the pattern is pretty detailed, but due to the way the dress is pleated on my particular doll, you can't really see the very best part. I wish I'd noticed this in the store; I might have chosen a different Blondie!

All over the skirt there are big frames trimmed in ribbon, with one of the Bear family inside. Both of these bears are very cute, but...

My favourite is definitely Papa, with his little hat and his glasses! I wish they were visible more easily on my doll's skirt. I feel like if Mattel is going to put this kind of detail into the clothing, they should make sure that it's easily seen on every doll.

Blondie's shoes are kind of surprising to me, but I don't know what I was expecting. They're black ankle booties with keys for heels and thick fur trim at the ankles. Hope it isn't bear fur!

So, that's Blondie Lockes! The more I look at her, the more I like her face, and appreciate the differences in it.

And if you pose her just right, she can work the camera with the best of them! But, her hair was still bugging me, and since I've recently discovered a new technique for curling doll hair that seems to work really well, I decided to see if I couldn't do a little something about it.

And here she is after! It's definitely not the big, beautiful curls of her cartoon, but I think it's an improvement! It has the added bonus of making her hair look even shinier too, and what girl doesn't want that?

It's funny how much a simple change to her hair changed my feelings about her, but there's something about making a doll your own that really makes you bond with them.

She does the contemplative staring off into the distance thing really well. There's something dreamy about the look on her face from this angle, and I like how you can see that her lips do turn up slightly at the corners. Maybe she's not that sad after all!

Overall, Blondie still isn't my favourite EAH doll I own, but the longer I've had her, and especially since I've done her hair, the more I like her. Is she perfect? No, but as Blondie herself would say, she's just right :)