I bought the new Carmen Sandiego doll from The Loyal Subjects. The packaging was extremely easy to open. The first picture here of the doll in box is actually repackaged. Only one piece of tape holds the box closed and the plastic trays slide right out. The background cardboard is not attached and can easily be kept as a backdrop. Carmen is tied to her tray but none of the plastic ties went through her head or clothes. The ties were on her ankles, wrists, waist, and two around her head.
Carmen comes with two fabric fashion pieces, her red coat and her black bodysuit. The coat has one small Velcro piece to keep it closed and the bodysuit has a Velcro closing on the the back. My coat needs some excess thread trimmed. The inside is not lined. The bodysuit is pretty tight I found it hard to take off but putting it back on was a bit easier. I have not noticed any staining from the black fabric. The gold stitching meant to look like a zipper is a bit off center on mine, but I did see better ones on the shelf. I was just more picky about her face paint.
Plastic accessories include two pairs of shoes, her hat, a black tiara(?), binoculars, and a comb. Her boots feel pretty thin, I think I could rip them if I wasn’t careful. Her heels seem a bit small, the straps don’t fully wrap her ankle. Her hat but it does not stay on well. I will try to hold her hat on with rubber bands. The binoculars do have a hinge in middle and hand bracket on the side for Carmen to hold. I was not able to fit her hand in normally though. I got the plastic jewel as my mystery accessory. I included a photo of the code on the bottom of the box in case it could be a way to tell which accessory Carmen comes with.
The body has a lot of articulation. The head can turn and tilt a little, shoulders, upper arms, double joint elbows, wrists, mid chest, hips, upper legs, double joint knees and ankles. All together that is 22 points of articulation. The bottom half of the knee joints are stuck on my doll. There looks like there is a seam on her waist but I am not sure if it is actually a seam or just the the shape of her molded on underwear. One of Carmen lower legs is cracked and rough as if it got stuck in machine during manufacturing. Her head is rock hard and her gold earrings are painted on. The hair is soft with a bit of curl. The color is a blend of brown and red hair, I think the red stands out more than the brown. She does have a middle part but with the majority of the plugs around the hairline it may be difficult to to give her a new hair style.
Overall I am happy with this doll. There are only a few small things I would want to change and they aren’t even big reasons. I would have liked if the bodysuit had a slightly different pattern so it was easier to take off but I doubt I will taking it off frequently anyways. I think I would have liked her hair to be more brown but the red does look good. And of course I wish I had got the mystery accessory I actually wanted. I am fine with the jewel but I really wanted the nesting doll. I could buy more of her and return the ones that don’t have it, it would be easy to check without causing any damage to box so a full refund would be possible. But that is just too much work for me. I will just keep an eye out at thrift stores and garage sales for a mini nesting doll instead. Carmen Sandiego is definitely getting a spot on the shelf!
