Barbies: Liana and Alexa from Barbie and the Diamond Castle

[mom2faith]

Another Barbie movie has brought signature Barbies to stores, and these ones have to be commented on. I always try to remain impartial and not complain, but I do have to share my disappointment in these 2 dolls.

The dolls are sold seperately (of course) for about $15 to $25 depending on the sales, etc. Liana is the blonde and Alexa is the brunette. If you purchase both, you have the ability to connect these two dolls by placing their hands together and they sing a song together.

LIANA (blonde Barbie)
This doll is horrible. She has a permanent dress that is supposed to change styles by turning a key type thing in her back. The dress does not flip around properly and the key often cranks as though it is going to break. We have never gotten the dress to change, and we do not even try anymore as both DD and I fear we are going to break her.

Liana sings a song "Connected" by pressing a button. This is also the song she is to sing as a duet with Alexa.

ALEXA (brunette Barbie)
The changing dress on this one is a much better style. This dress is not permanent and you can change the style by simply pulling drawstrings on the skirt. I much prefer this one, as even DD4 can change the dress with ease.

Alexa also sings "Connected" with the touch of a button.

DUET (joining the girls to sing together)
So the catch is you have to buy both dolls in order to even attempt this. Now if you are lucky you have 2 daughters and they can each have one. However, I would not exactly call this luck - from one mommy to another - DO NOT DO THIS!!

The reason? The girls do not actually attach to each other, you have to physically hold their hands together. And, you can never get them to sing at exactly the same time. One always starts about a half second or so after the other. So you get "I feel connected" sounding something like this: : "I - I - fe-fe-el-el con-con-ect-ect-ed-ed" It is bad, and even just thinking of it now, I am getting my Barbie headache.

OVERALL
It is so disappointing that Mattel still makes some dolls that are just garbage, and they have done that. I am shocked that after all of the years they have been doing this, and the hundreds of styles they have made, that these dolls were promoted to have the singing feature and the changing dress feature. The makers of this particular set obviously does not have children - no parent would do this to another!!

Liana (blonde) - 2 / 10 - that dress is just awful
Alexa (brunette) - 8 / 10 - this one is OK, your standard Barbie doll

Duet - 0 / 10 - can't even give them a point for trying, this just was a bad design and was obviously not tested properly.

Save yourself the money and the headache, and if your beautiful daughter must have one, get Alexa only.

[rachel1496]

LOL, I'm imagining that song in my head now and it's hilarious. I think it probably wouldn't be so funny in real life though.

Thanks for the review, my niece has added these dolls to her ever growing birthday wish list but I'll make sure everyone knows to skip them.

[NSangel]

omg terrific review. KUDOS TO YOU! boo hoo to Matel. that is so WRONG.