As is the case with all Disney toddler dolls, Merida is absolutely adorable. She caught my daughter’s eye during a pre-birthday trip to Target and that’s all I heard about for the next few weeks until she finally got one as a birthday gift in early September.
Once the box is open, the cuteness begins to diminish. It’s the hair. Inside the box, it’s lovely. It looks so much like Merida’s with its corkscrew curls and bright red shade.
Once you start taking it out of the packaging, though, the pieces of plastic and cardboard holding the doll upright in the box begin to take a toll as they pull through those curls in some spots and cause them to frizz.
And if your child likes to try out new hairstyles or brush dolls’ hair? It’s over. The hair will look like the “after” of a curly girl who got stuck in a rainstorm and then allowed her hair to air-dry as the sun came back out. Poof. Those areas aren’t shiny anymore, and they definitely don’t have that controlled, curly look she starts out with.
Merida is about 16 inches tall, so she’s a good size for most young children. The size is perfect and large enough for carrying around and hugging, but not so small that she’ll easily get lost in the midst of other toys.
I can’t say the same for the three bears, obviously, but that’s not really a fault of the product. Any time there are several parts to a set of toys, they’re not likely to stick together for long.
These small plastic bears are likely to get lost in a collection of similarly-sized items, blend in with dark floorboards under the seats in the car, etc, as there’s nothing about them that makes them stand out and they’re less likely to be what the child focuses onâ€â€it’s all about Merida, right?
One perk is that the doll and the bears will all stand up on a dresser, so if your child likes to have toys like this on display in her room when they’re not in use, they may be more likely to stay together instead of getting lost.
Photo credit: Target
