Review: Jakks Pacific: City Fashions Bloom Doll

So today I'm gonna review City Fashions Bloom. It's annoying how similarly named this line is to City Style, but this isn't that. This was that cheap line that resembled the Season 4 basic outfits and was only ever found at Walgreens and some UK stores. Can't remember which ones.

Anyway, let's get started!

I got her for Christmas a while ago. My mom said she found her at Walgreens. She wouldn't tell me the price, so uh. I think it was around $8?

As you can see, I found the notebook I pull paper from for the floor of my photos. No more weird back of the box floors!

This is her! While the outfit is a little sad, overall she's actually a really cute doll. A lot of people write her off because the outfit is so lazy but I think she's worth it if you can get her around $8 or so.

So her shoes are blue heels, with three bows on the front. I think they're reused from her Speedix pack? right? Or maybe the Speedix packed reused them from this doll. As usual, she has the Winx Club Xs on her shoes.

Her dress is cute! While nothing like the Season 4 casual outfit except for the pattern, I think it works. It's a nice soft fabric-- almost reminds me of satin, I'm sure it's not that though. It seems like whatever Disney Store makes their doll clothing out of to me. It ties in the back like Monster High's Basic Lagoona or Clawdeen's shirts do. With a ribbon that comes tied in a bow around her neck.

This is the back of her hair. When I got her it was cut extremely poorly-- for any of you Monster High fans, it looked like the back of School's Out Cleo's hair, with the diagonal cut. One side was a LOT longer then the other.

I ended up trimming it up so it looks fine now. There are a few stands that for some reason are curling up and look bent, but it's the kind of few that if I sat down for about ten minutes I could pull 'em all out. I think it's just the fault of the packaging.

Her hair is really soft! It almost makes me wish Jakks did straight hair all the time. It's really thick too, surprisingly enough. Usually cheaper dolls like this don't have super thick hair, but this is thicker then at least a couple of my higher priced dolls. Everyday Stella for sure.

The front of her hair (as seen below) is two pieces parted to the side. They're hairsprayed, and they're slightly shorter then the rest of her hair. They don't really bother me, but they do flare out a bit if you don't have them  in the right position so if that bothers you you could just wash it out.

I haven't decided how I feel about the length of her hair. It's the perfect length on a human, but this is a doll and their hair usually reaches down to like, their butts. This is a nice change of pace, but if you wanted it to be in a ponytail or something I think it'd be hard to style.

This is her face; I don't think very many people have realized just how different it is from other Blooms'.

There are two main Bloom faces Jakks uses. The deluxe, and the budget. You can see comparisons between the two on the Comparing Jakks Pacific Faces post I did a while ago.

This is different from the both of them. It has the lips of the Believix one-- the "fish lip" shape, that you usually see on Ariel dolls and some of the Bratz from when they rebooted the franchise. It seems to be around the color of the Believix one too.

But don't get me wrong, this isn't the Believix one. The eyes look a lot smoother, and you know how Deluxe faces have lots of eyelashes and Budget just two? This only has two as well. Her eyelids seem bigger to me too, and they dont have nearly as much makeup. It's like a toned down Believix face. I love it. It's definitely my favorite of their Bloom faces so far. If only it was used more.

The less posable body sure does make for good poses, right? Not. While I don't usually care about much posability on dolls, this is the most interesting pose I could come up with. Her legs would be further apart but the dress is restricting them. 

At least she can move her arms out. Can Ken do that yet? I'm not keeping up on Ken. Last time I bought one somewhere in the mid 2000s he still couldn't move his arms out from his sides. 

I guess it's not really bad since it's not like the Deluxe posable bodies could do much either, but I miss the knee articulation.

Her legs are also super prone to doing this. That's natural, right? It looks like she has to pee, but not even because she can't move her upper legs together. 

I tried pulling them apart and holding them in a normal position for a while and they got a bit better. They came even more twisty then how they look in the top picture. For anyone that's really bothered by this I suggest getting a clip that you use on like, potato chip bags and stuff? Do you know what I mean? They're like clothespins but bigger, bulkier, and plastic. Anyway. Pry her legs out of the weird twisty position, get them how you want them, then clip them together so it holds them that way. Then take it off in a few days or so and it should be significantly better, though probably not completely.

Overall I'd rate this doll around a 6.8/10. I really like her.. but I think that may just be my personal preference. The outfit is nice but inaccurate, and the legs have this weird twisty problem. Not to mention the lack or articulation.

What do you think of this doll?