I already talked about her box and the booklets etc. that she comes with in this previous post, so we'll skip past that and start by talking about her stock outfit. It consists of a floral underdress, a long yellow drawstring side vest with a "Hawaiian Island" print, yellow capri leggings, blue espadrilles, white undies (which I think are standard for all the dolls) and a flower hair-clip to match her cat's. I haven't got a picture of it here on Kiki/Lily but you can see all the components of it in the photo below. It is very well made, but unfortunately not the style I like to dress my dolls in so it was taken off pretty quickly. Kiki/Lily is wearing an outfit made by Gotz instead at the moment which is also nicely made, but the Kidz 'n' Cats outfit is definitely superior to it in quality, if not style.
Her whole body is made from vinyl and she has 11 points of articulation which is one of the things that appealed to me about Kidz 'n' Cats dolls and something we will look a bit more closely at in a minute. Her torso is fairly slender but her shoulders are fairly broad. She has a belly button and a defined bottom and her tummy is slightly rounded which you can see when you look at her from the side. Her knee joints are quite visible from behind but the rest of her joints blend in fairly nicely.
Her wig/hair is absolutely beautiful which was a brilliant surprise as I had already half started planning removing it and getting a different one, but she'll be staying as she is. Its lovely and soft and shiny, though I have noticed a couple of strands come off when I've been posing her etc. Her eyes are quite detailed but I do wish I could alter how they are set a little as they are slightly starey depending on the angle you get her from. I noticed that some of the Kidz 'n' Cats dolls look like their lips have been stuck on with a sticker or like they are wearing lipstick but Kiki's don't look too bad. As you can see, Kiki has nice tan skin which is a really lovely colour and is complimented well by her hair and eye colour. Her hands, feet and cheeks are slightly blushed too which gives her an even more natural look.
Her range of head movement is pretty good; she can look in all directions and it holds its position well without tipping backwards or forwards. She can look quite far up but not as far down. However, I think I may be able to improve on this with some modifications I have planned for her.
The range of movement in her arms and legs is a little disappointing for me, but I am used to very highly articulated ball-jointed dolls so when I remind myself that she is a vinyl play doll, I can't complain too much =) She has joints in her elbows and wrists and her range of wrist movement is very good but the elbow movement is quite restricted. Her left arm/elbow also doesn't seem set correctly in comparison to her right. The only way it can't comfortably bend and hold its position slightly is to the left, as shown in the photo, which is ok but I would prefer it if both elbows could move and hold their positions in both directions. However, I don't know if this is intentional and the same for all Kidz 'n' Cats dolls, or just a flaw with my Kiki. Its something we can work around though and again, I am hoping I can improve on it slightly with some modifications I am planning for her.
Her knees do bend but not very far and they don't hold their position well. She stands well and I can get her to stand with one knee bent as shown to look like she is walking etc. but if you wanted to sit her on a wall or something, they would not bend and hold very far so they would stick out a bit. As I said, she stands well but if you notice in some of the previous photos, if you don't position her well she can look a little bow legged. At first I thought a joint at her ankle would be nice too so you could position her feet, but unless they improved her knee joint I think an ankle joint would make her too unsteady and difficult to stand.
She can sit straight with no problems and her legs go fairly straight rather than in the wide V shape that vinyl dolls often default too. You can bend her knees slightly when she is sat down but not too much. However, sitting on a chair or wall or something, is not quite as successful. Her knees don't bend and hold their position enough so they end up sticking out quite a bit. When I have issues with my ball-jointed dolls holding their poses, I glue suede them by putting glue around their joints which means they don't swing about so much. However, this is not sensible to do on a vinyl doll but a friend has told me about some adhesive suede discs that you can buy from a BJD company called Dollmore which I am going to order and try and see if they make a difference. I'll report back when its done ;)
Overall, I am really impressed with the Kidz 'n' Cats dolls and Kiki has been a great introduction for me into the world of vinyl dolls. I am positive that I will be adding one of the boys to the family when they are re-released again soon, but that is as big as my Kidz 'n' Cats family will be. To finish off, here are a few extra pics of Lily, as she is now named, exploring the garden.
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