Disney Pirate Fairies & their knees

Rosetta! I only took this photo to point out how uncentered her pupils are, but now I can't be bothered to take a new one. Anyway, she has pointy ears!

The good news is that the articulated Disney Fairies by Jakks are finally available here. As soon as I spotted them I checked the online stores too - two stores that I know sell them didn't even have them on their site, while the third has them on sale?? Not sure whether that means they just arrived or they've been here a long time and I've just missed them (that's what I get for not spending every waking moment checking the webshop stock). Nevermind, I have a Pirate Fairy Rosetta now. :) The Pixie Party dolls seem to have been left out (we got the pirates and Stylin' something instead), otherwise I would've picked the Tink with the green shoes. On the other hand I really like Rosetta's dress. 

Pictured: articulation, barely

I'm glad I'd read the reviews beforehand, or else I would have thought there was something wrong with her knees. The articulation is ...barely there, really. This is as much as the knees would bend. 

And then there's that "knee cap", sticking out over the joint. It looks like the lower legs were pushed further into the socket than was intended, or maybe something went wrong at some point between design and manufacturing. The legs are pretty soft plastic, even the thighs, so I decided to boil them and take a look at the inner workings. 

To my relative surprise, the pins came out pretty easily - they do look like they might be designed to do that, but I don't think it'll work without heating first. 

ETA: yes, it works with the arms too! But you do need to heat them first (I used boiling water) so it's not as convenient as it could have been. Still, good to know!

The thighs seem to be pretty thick solid plastic, but a more handy person could probably make the holes less deep by drilling/dremeling them open and fill them in with hot glue. I don't know for sure whether that would work, and anyway I don't even have a drill, so I just cut away some plastic around the back of the knees. There's still some way to go, but it's much better. 

Pictured: articulation, kneecaps

Left: the thin edge of the knee socket deforms easily (temporarily), showing how soft the plastic is

One of last month's thrift store finds was a pretty nice Ariel doll whose head proved to be full of nasty glue (Mattel!!) so I'm keeping an extra eye out for that. There's no stickiness in the hair and the head doesn't feel hard, but there's a plastic smell that I've come to associate with the glue, so I'm a bit suspicious. The boots and plastic belt are a bit smelly too, but not the worst kind. ETA: Head seems glue-free! I took the chance to check when I removed it for a rebody experiment yesterday. Whew!

On that subject, when I cleaned out the fridge I found Ashlynn Ella's "glass" shoes, as stinky as ever. I finally decided to throw them away - I don't even want to be near them, and I don't feel ok donating them with god knows what chemicals leaking out of them. Oh well, I wasn't really a fan of the design anyway. 

Speaking of shoes, Rosetta's feet are smaller than I expected. Just a little too big for Fashionista shoes, but too small for Simba Super Model and definitely for MH and bratzillas. It's one of those weird inbetween-sizes. Then again, she's a fairy and probably doesn't need footwear except for when she's pirating.