Selena Forever Doll Vol. 1 - Amor Prohibido Doll

This entry features another Selena doll of mine, the Amor Prohibido edition. I am featuring this doll today to commemorate the 19th anniversary of the release of Selena's "Amor Prohibido" album, released today in 1994.

This 11-12" fashion doll wears a recreation of the outfit Selena wore in the photo used for the cover of her "Amor Prohibido" album.

(Check out Selena's only official website here!)

Tea and Backstory: On this day in 1994, Selena released her 5th studio album, titled "Amor Prohibido" ("Forbidden Love"). Several songs from this album would reach #1, and the title track from the album would garner Selena a Grammy nomination. Billboard credits five singles from the album, "Amor Prohibido", "Bidi Bidi Bom Bom", "No Me Queda Más", "Techno Cumbia" and "Fotos y Recuerdos", as having reached number one on the Hot Latin Tracks charts. This album was a big commercial success, selling over half a million copies by December of that year. To date, over 2 million copies have been sold.

Selena was a fashion icon, and a successful fashion designer; she had launched her own clothing line and fashion boutique, "Selena Etc" the year before Amor Prohibido's release, with multiple locations in Texas and Mexico. (Visit Selena's website here for all things Selena!)

THE DOLL:
This doll was released in 1999. It is a rare collector's doll, as there were not many made. It is no longer available for retail anywhere. This doll can be found for sale on Ebay, Amazon, and other sites.

I found this doll on my local craigslist.org in the summer of 2012. I bought it along with 2 other Selena dolls that the previous owner had. I was very excited to find this doll, and I paid a reasonably good price for it. I have found pictures of this doll online with 2 different box designs, which tempts me to buy the other doll with the box I don't have. As far as I can tell, the doll itself is the same, only the boxes are different.

Here she is in her box immediately after my purchase:

These are the alternate box releases (I don't know who to credit for the pictures):

I love this doll. The attention to the detail of the costume is wonderful. The faux leather outfit is a match down to the last detail of the original.

Here are some shots of my doll:

Here are some photos of Selena wearing this outfit:

Here are some good pictures for comparing her face to the doll's face...

I still love the doll. I may put the outfit on the newer Selena doll with a more realistic face at some point in the future.

There is a one of a kind repainted Amor Prohibido doll out there, somewhere. I found these photos of it and thought I would share. If only all the dolls were this close!

I think that this doll is wonderful. It should be a part of any serious Selena memorabilia collection!

Here's the video to Bidi Bidi Bom Bom, my favorite song ever:



HOMEWORK: Do you own any dolls that are considered 'rare' or 'one of a kind'? What are they?

Disney Princess Cinderella Holiday Princess Doll 2012

Today's featured doll is the Disney Princess 2012 holiday Cinderella. I bought her only a couple of hours ago, and thought I'd share her with you, since, coincidentally, yesterday was the 63rd anniversary of the release of the Disney classic!

First, tea and backstory. Cinderella is a story with thousands of various tellings worldwide. It was first published in 1697 by Charles Perrault, and later by the Grimm brothers. Walt Disney released his classic animated version on March 4, 1950.

Fast forward 30-something years to my childhood. My 2 older sisters and I ended up with the video of Disney's Cinderella. I would insist on watching it over and over and over, usually with my sisters watching with me. I would roll on the floor laughing during the scene where the mice are creating Cinderella's (first) dress, when Gus (the chubby mouse) was cutting the fabric, bouncing up and down on the scissors, singing "Cut, Cut, Cut, Cut!"

The voices of the mice were so funny to me!

Well, as you may know, Disney's Cinderella was recently released on Bluray/DVD. I bought the Bluray/DVD combo and have watched it a few times. My older sister was married last June, and as my gift to them, I bought a personalized Cinderella snowglobe that played "A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes", since Cinderella was a great memory for us both. So with these events, Cinderella has been re-introduced to my adult self, which is why I wanted the doll.

The story of this doll and myself... I saw her in retail stores late last Fall, and thought she was adorable. I did want her, but I had other obligations and decided against buying her at that time. She has appeared at several retail stores that I frequent at varied prices. I came across her at Marshall's for 19.99 and I almost bought her. Again, being frugal, I decided against the purchase. Well, this evening I went to Marshall's with my best friend in tow. After giving most of the store a look-through, I made my way back to the toy corner. There was a clearance section, yay! I looked at a couple of things there, then looked down at the bottom shelf and gasped.

Cinderella! But was she on clearance, or had someone just stowed her there? Red tag on top - Clearance item! Woohoo!

She was ready for me to finally take her home at $15 even. I put down the other items I was thinking about buying and didn't look back.

THE DOLL:

(Above pictures from Amazon)

This doll is one of many physical interpretations based on Disney's Cinderella character, and is not an exact recreation of the magic ballgown featured in the film. This doll was not meant to be a recreation, of course. I love the glitter additions that echo the magic sparkles that surrounded the dress when the Fairy Godmother made it in the film.

But back to this doll. I do like this doll a lot. This doll was made by Mattel.

I don't like the tiara and earrings...

They are cute, but in combination with the dress kind of cheapen the look of the doll. (I wish that they had made the tiara and earrings like the ones in the stock pictures below.) However, one could paint them and they would probably look better (silver paint would be best, I'd imagine.)

I love the dress. I love the material. I just wish that the same material used on the front of the gown would be used on the back, instead of a different print/material. Luckily in this case, the material is the same, just without the opalescent glitter details.

Here's the back of the doll:

I am disappointed with the hairline at the back. When a doll's hairstyle is up, the hairline should be good all the way around.

Something I love about this doll is the way the gloves were made. In lieu of actual gloves (that always look like mittens on dolls), the entire fore-arms and hands are the glove, cast in a pearlescent material. The glove has great detail as well, with 'buttons' and a lace edge.

And what is a Cinderella doll without her glass slippers?!

They are pretty. They have the heart on the toe, of course, as well as the back of the heel, which is cute, but an addition to the original slipper, along with the curliques on either side.

I was expecting the slippers to be made with the same material that the tiara and earrings were made of, but I was pleasantly surprised with the clear material.

I love the 'ornament' that it came with, a replica of the doll's shoes. It is a little larger than the doll's shoes, and won't fit as a shoe due to a larger inside (the foot goes down deeply into the ornamental shoe, resulting in a look as if a child is wearing it's mother's heels.) The second picture is of the ornament with the doll's shoe next to it, for size and detail comparison (sorry it's out of focus!)

I don't like that the doll didn't come with a stand. At the moment, I don't have any extra stands, so this means I'll have to take the stand of another doll. This isn't a big deal to me, but to a collector who has only a few dolls - or just this one - that means they have to find a stand.

The dress's outer shell is a transparent material with a plain white skirt underneath.

I am not a huge fan of the inner skirt not being attached to the outer skirt. This is because often you are able to see a bit of the under skirt if not arranged just so. This has always bugged me, even as a child. I may sew the inner skirt to the outer one at the hem, should I be sufficiently bored one dark, rainy day.

One more thing before I close. I really like the decoration on the cardboard backing. I wish that they didn't have to cut it to secure the doll to the backing. I would love if they included an uncut backing in the box.

Here's the backing with the anchors:

And here it is with the anchors taken out:

As I've said before, I take my dolls out of their boxes. I save the boxes and the backing, because some dolls look better when displayed with their original backing. I plan to display this doll with the backing behind her.

To close this blog, here is a picture of the back of the box:

Many thanks to my best friend who made this purchase possible :D

(Click on any picture to see the larger size of it, or right click and select 'open link in new tab' or window for original high res photo!)

Update: I found out that the arm straps can be pulled out so they aren't just thick strap-like things.

HOMEWORK: What is your favorite scene/part of the Disney's Cinderella film? Why? Do you own any Cinderella memorabilia?