Mattel Barbie the Diamond Castle Princess Alexa Doll
From Mattel
Customer Reviews
non matching dolls
i love the movie and the dolls, but this drives me nuts that i cannot find matching dolls anywhere. even here they are sold differently. one uses a strap to change dresses, the other a knob. it's not that big of a deal, but since they aren't the same model number, when they sing their duet, it's off. liana sings faster than alexa and the brochure tells you to buy matching dolls, but they're aren't any!
Alexa is a better doll than Liana in the Diamond Castle Series
The Barbie & The Diamond Castle (B&DC) Princess Alexa doll is the same height and proportion as the 90's 00's era dolls. Not too many complaints about this one--see my review on Liana for the alternate review.
First, Alexa has a dress transforming pull on the back. It does not hide well, but it is part of the dress and not of the doll, so I feel it's not as bad as the Liana twist knob. The issue with this however, is that it does not hide the transformed diamond dress very well. If this is important, you may need to sew on a few more pieces of pink glittery velcro on the front side to keep the seam from showing.
Lianna has flesh toned legs underneath her dress. These bend at the knees and are quite pose-able.
Another neat thing with this Barbie is that her skin tone is darker complected than her Liana counterpart. She does appear to have more makeup on than the Liana doll, but my daughter enjoys it more than the Liana (that her sister has) because it matches her skin tone and hair color.
As with all Barbies, the shoes do not stay on. I have contemplated either super gluing them on the feet or removing them so my daughters don't lose them.
Another issue with the B&DC dolls is their accessories are few--this one has shoes, a crown, and a brush. Many less expensive Barbies come with more stuff. And all of these items are small, losable, and possibly a choking hazard.
Now for a critique on her "singing ability." It's nice to hear the first time, but the two songs very quickly lose their appeal, even if it's a former American Idol singing (McPhee). The Liana doll does do a nice duet with the Alexa doll, but again, it's a quickly fading novelty, and gets worse when you do not push the sing buttons at exactly the same time, or if the two songs are mismatched. !!IMPORTANT FIX!! If your Liana doll does not sing two complete songs when you take her out of the box and pull the tab out of her back, try this before you take it back--1) Find a thin piece of metal: paperclip, cake tester, needle, etc 2) Insert it into the hole in the back 3) pushing slightly in a downward motion skim the floor of the hole 4) About halfway in, the metal should catch the switch 5) pry this in an upward fashion (it will stay that way) 6) Remove metal tool from doll and press sing button 7) Assuming the batteries are not dead, the doll will sing again. I checked all over the internet for a fix, but none were to be found, including the mattel website. Cheers!
Fun for your daughter
We first purchased the singing Liana Barbie doll for my daughter, which she loves. Then we found out that the Liana and the Alexa dolls sing together, so my 4 year old had to have Alexa too. She got Alexa for her birthday and has been so happy with her. Alexa's dress is much easier to switch back and forth than Liana's. When you press the two dolls hand simultaneously (which is hard for a 4 year old) they sing in sync with each other and it is really neat. Even if you don't have both dolls, they are equally as fun by themselves. I highly recommend these for your Barbie lovers!
