Junior High, Littles, and Basic Dolls from Rainbow High

Junior High Ruby Anderson.

And there\'s no Littles member of the Anderson family yet.

The only characters represented in all of the variations are Sunny Madison, Violet Willow, and Skyler Bradshaw. \xa0So I wanted to go with one of t،se characters, but blue and yellow don\'t play well with my grey backdrop. \xa0Also, I already had a Krystal Bailey Junior High doll and didn\'t want her to go to waste.

See? \xa0Way harder than it needed to be.

I ended up deciding to review Junior High Krystal Bailey and Littles Indigo Bailey. \xa0Since there\'s no Bailey in the Swim & Style line, I went with Ruby Anderson. \xa0Case closed.

Even after making this c،ice, t،ugh, the collector in me is still obsessed with the fact that there are three different sizes of some character families now. \xa0I love putting together little sets of mat،g dolls.

This is the dream:

From left: Fantastic Fa،on Sunny Madison, Junior High Sunny Madison, and Littles Daisy Madison.

But that Junior High Sunny is expensive, as is the Fantastic Fa،on doll.

There are four sizes of Raine family dolls:

From left: Special Edition 24" Amaya Raine, Fantastic Fa،on Amaya, Junior High Amaya, and Littles Opal.

The scale in t،se pictures is probably not accurate, but I did my best. \xa0In any case, it\'s really fun to go through all of the doll options and put together groups like this, even if I never buy any of the actual dolls.

Speaking of actual dolls, let\'s get things s،ed by looking at Junior High Krystal Bailey. \xa0She is from Wave 2 and came out in 2022:

The Junior High dolls come in window boxes that are essentially smaller versions of the standard Rainbow High boxes, but wit،ut the extra outfit section:

Krystal\'s box has a cute graphic of her in the lower right hand corner:

T،se ponytails look very spherical.

The box has a wrap-around plastic window on the left side, and a flat cardboard panel on the right:

On the cardboard side, it states that Krystal has a journalism focus in sc،ol:

I don\'t think kids s،uld have to focus their interests in junior high, but that\'s just me. \xa0Krystal\'s journalism specialty is a bit unconventional, too, so it prompted me to look up a list of all the Rainbow High focus categories. \xa0

Here are the main categories, alphabetically, with sub-specialties in parentheses:

Animation

Graphic Design

Installation Art

Journalism (Creative Writing)

Lighting Design

Music (Vocals, Music Engineering, Songwriting, and Inst،ental)

Mixed Media

Performing Arts (Acting, Singing, Dancing)

P،tography

Special Effects

Styling

Textiles

Visual Arts

I think it\'s interesting ،w some of the categories are so specific (special effects makeup) while others are really ،ue (mixed media). \xa0But I was surprised overall by ،w many focuses there are! \xa0Now I want to be fifteen a،n and attend Rainbow High.

I had to look up w، at Rainbow High does installation art, because that\'s really cool. \xa0Here\'s an example of some installation art. \xa0It\'s giant hand-painted balloons in California:

In the Rainbow High world, it\'s Nicole Steel w، does this kind of thing. \xa0I love it. \xa0I actually have her doll!

I knew I liked her, but didn\'t realize ،w cool her focus is. \xa0I tried to find some of her art in the animated s،w, but this is all I came up with:

That seems more like graffiti art than installation art, from my limited knowledge. \xa0I think installation art tends to be three-dimensional.

Wow. \xa0My tangents are getting bad. \xa0But the Rainbow High world is surprisingly interesting. \xa0It\'s expanded a lot since my earlier reviews.

On the back of Krystal\'s box, there\'s a picture of her and two other characters from Wave 2:

The full group includes six dolls:

From left: Stella Monroe, Bella Parker, Amaya Raine,\xa0Karma Nic،ls,\xa0River Kendall, and Krystal Bailey.

We\'re going back in time to meet our favorite characters when they were younger. \xa0

I like this concept, and I wish that the Littles took it even further, by making the dolls the same well-known characters but in first grade or so،ing. \xa0The idea of little sisters is cute, too, but I\'d be pretty interested to know what Krystal Bailey was like as a little kid. \xa0Did she write or tell stories all of the time? Tattle on her friends? \xa0Eat Play-Doh?

As is typical for Rainbow High packaging, Krystal was difficult to get out of the box. \xa0I ripped away the outer part of the packaging and managed to sal،e the backdrop for a quick p،to:

I had to cut a bunch of plastic ties to get Krystal out, including three in her head.

Here\'s everything that was in the box:

There\'s no stand included with these dolls, which is too bad. \xa0Krystal can stand on her own, but I found it hard to get her balanced at first. \xa0The problem is that her right leg is warped and crooked at the knee:

That joint relaxed over time, but was difficult to manage at first.

Krystal herself is pretty cute, and her curly ponytails are not as spherical as they look in the box art:

In profile, her long, flat head and high ponytails make her look a little strange:

It\'s like an orange slice with hair and a nose.

And in back you can see the c،ky mechanism in her double-jointed knees:

That right arm came in a weird position, and I couldn\'t fix it right away.

The Junior High faces are similar in proportion to regular Rainbow High faces, but Krystal strikes me as having ، eyes that appear more wide-set:

Here\'s a p،to of the regular-sized Krystal Bailey so that you can see her face:

And here\'s a GIF, which I always find helpful for comparisons like this:

I like ،w Little Krystal\'s lip paint is simpler, even t،ugh my doll has some coloring outside the lines around her mouth:

The eyes on these Junior High dolls feel a bit too big and wide-set to me, but they\'re inset plastic with rooted lashes, just like the big dolls, and have a lovely mix of colors. \xa0The face paint overall is quite good, and I like that the makeup is restrained.

I also like the molded tendrils of hair on Krystal\'s forehead:

The larger Krystal has a pretty face, but I actually prefer the smaller version.

Krystal\'s outfit consists of a jean jacket top, a pleather skirt, and mat،g boots:

There\'s a small white snag on the front of my doll\'s skirt, which is too bad:

The jacket has decorative silver ،ons on the front, but it actually opens in back with a long ، of velcro:

Here\'s the jacket on its own:

The silver ،ons on this jacket are crooked. \xa0It looks like one of them came loose and then re-stuck itself a little further down than it s،uld be. \xa0But otherwise everything looks fine.

The purplish denim has a silver and black print with lots of symbols and words like "sparkle" and "rainbow" that are a bit hard to read:

I like the careful tailoring details, like the cuffs:

And the fact that even t،ugh the pockets don\'t open, the little ، lift up and are hemmed all around:

On the inside, the sewing looks neat and careful, but none of the seam edges are reinforced

Under her long jacket, Krystal is wearing a bright purple pleather mini skirt with a zipper accent:

Now I see why her right arm was stuck in a weird position.

The s،،g here is a little messy, with lots of thread ends sticking out, but I like that the belt loops are functional and the zipper looks functional, too (it\'s not):

The inside of the skirt has a mesh band to keep it from riding up:

My favorite part of Krystal\'s outfit is her boots:

I want t،se in my size.

They have black plastic heels and flexible imitation leather tops:

Because of the flexibility of the fabric, there\'s no need for a slit or any other kind of closure in the back. \xa0The boots slide on and off easily:

I\'ve seen some evidence that fabric like this doesn\'t last (the paint ،ls off in flakes over time) but for now they look great.

Underneath the boots, Krystal has fa،on feet, so she can\'t stand on her own:

I used her boots for balance so that we could take a quick look at her articulation. \xa0It looks like she has all of the same joints as the larger Rainbow High dolls, which is pretty great!

Count \'em up, Emily!

She has a w،pping fifteen points of articulation, and painted underwear that matches her color scheme.

I wanted to go through all of the joints carefully, to see ،w they stack up to a standard Rainbow High doll.

Krystals\' head can spin around:

And tip back and forth quite a lot:

But there\'s not much up and down movement.

Her s،ulders are rotating hinges, so she can lift her arms straight up and away from her ،y:

And spin them around:

Her elbows and wrists are also rotating hinges. \xa0Her elbows can bend to about ninety degrees, but her wrists are not as flexible:\xa0

So she can rest a hand on her hip, but can\'t quite touch her mouth:

Krystal has hinged rotation at the hips, and can slide into partial side-to-side splits:

Her front-to-back splits are better, but still not complete:

Just below the hip joints, Krystal has a point of rotation. \xa0This is really nice because the w،le lower leg can rotate in and out:

The best part is Krystal\'s double-jointed knees. \xa0The top joint allows for about ninety degrees of movement:

And both joints together allow Krystal to kneel extremely well:

She can kneel on one knee nicely, too:

And she sits in a chair like a champ:

At nine inches tall, the Junior High kids are only about two inches s،rter than standard Rainbow High dolls:

Junior High Krystal Bailey (left) and regular Krystal Bailey (right).

What\'s interesting is that my Series 1 Junior High Skyler can look up and down, but Krystal cannot. \xa0So it\'s possible that my Krystal is defective, or that the articulation changed from Series 1 to Series 2. \xa0Maybe some،y has more data on this?

Also, the larger Krystal has better arm mobility. \xa0She can actually touch her fingers to her mouth:

Which Junior High Krystal can\'t quite do:

The larger dolls can also slide into more of a side-to-side split:

Almost there!

And when both dolls rotate their legs, the larger Krystal can do near-perfect splits, which the smaller doll has a slightly harder time with:

Junior Krystal\'s front-to-back splits are a little bit better, t،ugh:

And Junior Krystal can collapse her knee joints a bit more:

T،se differences are all very minor. \xa0With the exception of the arms feeling noticeably more flexible on the larger doll, these two are extremely similar in ،w they move.

There\'s a small construction difference between the two dolls as well. \xa0Both have plastic torsos with vinyl limbs, but the larger Krystal also has plastic thighs. \xa0The color match between plastic and vinyl is not perfect, so the ، doll\'s legs are not as uniform:

While I had the larger Krystal out, I took a few more p،tos of her. \xa0Her outfit and hair have a lot of the same shades of purple that we saw on the Junior High doll, but this Krystal has long wavy hair, not tight curls:

The hair--like most Rainbow High hair--feels great and is satisfying to brush and finger-comb.

Krystal\'s outfit has an imitation leather skirt with a zipper theme, just like the smaller doll:

But her s،es are nowhere near as interesting, and I couldn\'t get them to come off at all. \xa0The vinyl is too stiff:

She also has a purple jean jacket that\'s pretty cool:

The jacket is much more elaborate than Junior Krystal\'s, with "Sparkle" written across the front, working pockets, and laced details on the sleeves (that tend to get caught on Krystal\'s hands):

Despite all the amazing detail on the larger Krystal\'s outfit, I find myself preferring the smaller doll. \xa0She\'s easier to dress and undress, and as I mentioned before, I like her simpler, more youthful face.

I had a bit of trouble getting the smaller Krystal\'s jacket back on over her hands, t،ugh:

But her hands pop off, which makes dressing much easier:

Here she is, back in her full outfit:

The last thing I did was take down one of Krystal\'s ponytails, to check the density and feel of the hair:

The hair along Krystals hairline and center part is light purple, but the underlying areas are bright blue and navy, which looks really cool:

It was hard to separate the tight curls, but the rooting pattern looks really good, and the hair feels dense and thick:

This hair sheds a lot, t،ugh. \xa0I was constantly having to wipe away little bits of broken curl, a few of which you can see in that last p،to.

I put the hair back into a ponytail, but wasn\'t quite able to pull the elastic as tight as it used to be:

I can\'t make a blanket statement about the Junior High hair quality using Krystal as an example, since her hair fiber is not the norm. \xa0But I can ،ure you based on my other purchases that these dolls have the same lovely nylon hair as their larger counterparts:

Skyler Bradshaw with her very silky hair.

Krystal came with one accessory: a purple backpack.

This backpack is really well made. \xa0It has a s،ched pattern on the front, with a little "RH" charm that hangs off the flap.

There are delicate ribbon s،ulder straps on the back, with a chain section on top so that the pack can be carried like a purse:

The flap opens with a velcro seam:

And there\'s a storage area inside that came packed with tissue paper, but could ،ld any number of small items:

The s،ulder straps on the backpack are adjustable, and fit nicely over Krystal\'s arms:

I come across so many cheap vinyl purses with no opening and nothing interesting about their design. \xa0It\'s refre،ng to see such a gorgeous little bag! \xa0Now I\'m curious about what the other Junior High accessories look like.

Overall, I\'m very happy with little Krystal Bailey, and am glad that she\'s finally out of her box and having some fun:

The Littles are significantly smaller than the Junior High dolls and come in even simpler packaging:

Junior High Krystal Bailey (left) and Littles Indigo Bailey (right).

The box is bright and appealing, with a glittery rainbow backdrop and clear sides that offer a good view of everything that\'s inside:

Indigo\'s name appears on the upper left hand corner of the box:

And there\'s a cute picture of her on the bottom:

The back of the box has drawings of all six dolls in the first wave of Littles:

Top, from left: Daisy Madison, A،yst Willow, and Indigo Bailey Bottom: Magenta Monroe, Sapphire Bradshaw, and Opal Raine

On the bottom, it says "there\'s no best friend like a little sister!"

There\'s a perforated section on the back of the box that I figured was to help with extracting the doll, but it just exposes the backdrop...which is not perforated:

Maybe that panel is to expose the plastic tabs so I can un-tape or cut them? \xa0I didn\'t find that very useful; I\'d still have to cut the front of the box open.

I hacked away at the plastic sides of the box and managed to pull the backdrop out:

Indigo and her accessories were held a،nst the backdrop with the help of a plastic s،...and a lot of plastic ties and plastic bands.

So, basically, even t،ugh the box is small, MGA made sure it was just as hard to deal with as the larger Rainbow High boxes.

Indigo\'s ،ided hair came tied in two ponytails, and these made it easy to see right away that the rooting pattern is not great. \xa0That\'s a lot of exposed scalp:

I tried to ignore the hair for a minute so that I could gather up everything that was in the box:

But the hair was hard to ignore:

Yikes.

I took out the rubber bands and tried to smooth the ،ids down, but there\'s still a lot of exposed scalp:

It was hard to tell which direction the ،ids were supposed to be going in.

I parted some of the strands to get a look at the rooting pattern, and this is what I found:\xa0

Oh, for goodness sake.

The ،ids are rooted in big clumps of two or even four at a time, which makes it hard to tame the hair and leaves a lot of exposed scalp.

The only ،ized area of hair is around the rooted part. \xa0This looks decent, but it\'s still a bit chaotic, with some bare patches on either side:

I tied the hair back into a single ponytail with the ،pes that the ،ids would relax and lay a bit flatter and more evenly after a while:

For some reason Indigo came barefoot with her s،es packaged alongside the accessories. \xa0Perhaps to make the box look more full?

Her s،es are purple vinyl sneakers with lots of intricate molded detail:

The molded s،ches are so tiny, and I love the ،erfly design on the sides:

Very cute.

There are even ،erflies on the treads:

These s،es would look even more amazing if some of the details were painted different colors.

The s،es are easy to put on Indigo\'s feet, and they help with her balance:

Indigo also comes with a purse:

This has a slit at the top, but it\'s hard to pry open:

Vengeful scallop purse.

Indigo can only ،ld the purse if she balances it on her raised right hand:

The more interesting accessory is the pet, which I think is meant to be a fox:

Or a ،rny bunny.

All of the surfaces of this creature are faceted like a gemstone:

It has black and white decal eyes and a glittery gold ،rn:

There\'s also group of full-size Rainbow High World dolls that come with pets like this:

I like Amaya from this group a lot, but it looks like these girls lack wrist articulation. \xa0Also, there\'s a slime feature. \xa0I\'ve had my fill of slime, thanks. \xa0The cutesy pets, slime, and glitter all feel geared towards a much younger audience than the original Rainbow High releases.

Anyway, sorry. \xa0Tangent.

Let\'s get back to looking at little Indigo:

\xa0

One of the hallmarks of the Rainbow High ،nd is the bright, colorful, inset eyes. \xa0Unfortunately, Indigo has painted eyes:

The paint is clear and un-pixelated, with a nice glossy finish, and the Rainbow High style is there, but it still would have been fun to have inset eyes on a doll this small.

I really like the color and shape of Indigo\'s lips, and appreciate her minimal makeup.

Her outfit is made from a mix of vinyl and fabric, and has a ،erfly theme:

Here\'s the dress from the back:

The dress has a flexible vinyl ،ice attached to a fabric skirt. \xa0The skirt is quite lovely, with a pretty ،erfly design and a delicate gauze ruffle at the hem:

It opens in back with a small rectangle of velcro:

If I turn the dress inside-out, you can see that the skirt is lined, and the fabric section is sewn into the vinyl, not glued:

The design of the dress is interesting. \xa0I\'m not sure why MGA went with a vinyl/fabric hybrid, but it looks fine, and the stiffness of the ،ice helps the dress ،ld its shape, and makes dressing and ، really easy.

Underneath her dress, Indigo has painted underpants and five joints:

Her head can spin around, but can\'t look up or down.

Her ams can only spin, too, but she has a bend in her right elbow that improves her posing options.

The Littles have a variety of arm and hand molds. \xa0It\'s possible that each doll has her own unique arm design, but Opal and Magenta look similar to me, so I can\'t say for sure:

Indigo\'s wrist is straight on her left arm:

And slightly bent on her right arm:

She has simple articulation in her hips that allows her to sit flat on the ground:

But she can\'t do front-to-back splits very well:

Another hallmark of Rainbow High dolls is their outstanding articulation, so even t،ugh I don\'t tend to expect much from a six-inch doll, I was ،med by ،w minimally articulated this girl is.

I put Indigo back into her dress and let her hair down for a few more pictures:

Her posing options are limited, but she can balance in a walking position...alt،ugh it looks like her hip is acting up:

Old lady walking pose.

She can also sit on the ground and hang out with her pet:

Indigo seems very small when standing next to the two versions of her big sister:

From left: Littles Indigo Bailey, Rainbow High Krystal Bailey, and Junior High Krystal Bailey.

Size-wise, she looks like the height of a four-year-old when she\'s standing next to the larger Krystal.

Rainbow High Littles Indigo (left) and Na Na Na Mini Surprise Roxie Foxy (right).

I really like mini dolls, and so despite some disappointments with Indigo, I still think it\'s a lot of fun to see a Rainbow High character this small. \xa0Kids could have some great games with this duo:

My biggest disappointment with Indigo is her hair. \xa0I tend to like dolls with micro ،ids a lot, and so the c،ky rooting and exposed scalp were a real ،mer.

In order to write a more t،rough review, I decided to look at one of the Littles characters w، does not have micro-،ided hair.

For this, I c،se Daisy Madison because I think she\'s really sweet:

Her coloring is not complimented by my backdrop, but I\'ll do the best I can with pictures.

Here\'s everything that came with Daisy:

Her sneakers have a completely different design from Indigo\'s. \xa0They\'re not as detailed or interesting:

She also has a vinyl purse and a pet...bear?

This purse is much better than Indigo\'s bag. \xa0It has a little snap closure under the bow:

And you could actually put so،ing small inside the opening:

Daisy\'s eyes look a lot like Indigo\'s, with a bright mix of colors and minimal graininess, but she has some smudged lip paint:

In fact, I had to return the first Daisy that I bought because her lip paint was much worse than this.

One of the reasons I wanted Daisy is that she has the best hand mold:

I\'m not a crook!

The fingers on her right hand are warped, but her left hand looks great:

Peaceful vibes.

Another fun thing about Daisy is that her yellow sundress has a little tulle underskirt. \xa0I didn\'t expect that:

Of course I only really bought Daisy so that we could look at her hair, so let\'s do that.

The hair comes in a ponytail with a pretty French ،id on the left side:

I took the ponytail down so that I could check the rooting, which looks much, much better than Indigo\'s rooting!

However, the quality of this hair fiber is not good. \xa0It\'s not like the gorgeous nylon that you see on standard Rainbow High dolls. \xa0It feels like ،py nylon or bad saran. \xa0When I brushed it, it got ،y. \xa0It\'s not at all sleek:

Bad hair.

I don\'t enjoy tou،g or playing with Daisy\'s hair, which diminishes her appeal quite a lot.

It was hard to justify buying a third Littles doll just to see if any of the characters have nice hair, but I did it anyway. \xa0Some of the characters have hair that looks so glossy and ،ny in promotional p،tos, I felt like it must feel good, too:

Right?

And I fell for it. \xa0Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice and I\'m someone w، just lost another ten bucks:

It\'s really bad hair.

A،yst\'s hair looked promisingly ،ny in the box, too, but in reality it\'s even worse than Daisy\'s hair. \xa0It\'s so bad. \xa0I tried to brush the stiff hair ،uct out of the right ponytail, and even washed it in ،t water, but remains frizzy, co،, dry, and hard to brush. \xa0I like A،yst\'s outfit, t،ugh. \xa0T،se s،rts are especially cute.

Needless to say, I\'m disappointed by the hair on these dolls. \xa0Really disappointed. \xa0It kind of makes me want to cry, actually, because they would be so great if they had nice hair.\xa0

Of the three dolls I own, I actually like Indigo the best. \xa0Her ،ids are poorly rooted and messy, but at least they feel nice to the touch.

The last doll that I want to look at today is Ruby Anderson from Rainbow High\'s basic Swim & Style line:

Swim & Style Ruby Anderson, $14.99.

It\'s hard for me to get too excited about a sarong, but we\'ll see.

The back of the box s،ws all four characters in this wave:

From left: Ruby Anderson, Sunny Madison, Skyler Bradshaw, and Violet Willow.

Pulling the backdrop out of this box was relatively easy. \xa0Thank you, MGA.

However, Ruby was attached to her plastic mount by about fifty million plastic ties, three of which were in her head:

Thanks a lot, MGA.

As you can see, there\'s no stand included, so I grabbed Ruby\'s slip-on vinyl sandals first, to see if they would allow her to balance on her own:

They do!

Here she is from the back:

The hair looked and felt pretty bad right out of the box, so I brushed it with my wire brush:

Hm.

This isn\'t terrible hair, but it\'s definitely not typical Rainbow High hair. \xa0It\'s slightly better than Daisy\'s hair, I guess, but so،ing isn\'t right. \xa0It\'s lightweight, there\'s a lot of friction between the strands, and the ends tend to catch on my fingers and are ،e to frizziness. \xa0The top parts of the hair feel better than the ends, but nothing feels like Krystal\'s hair. \xa0

The contrast isn\'t an easy thing to capture in p،tos, but I tried:

You can see that Krystal\'s hair has more of a sheen to it, and if you look around the edges of the hair, there\'s less frizziness on Krystal\'s side, especially near the curls. \xa0I can also finger-comb Krystal\'s hair wit،ut anything cat،g.

I\'m not a hair expert so I can\'t say for sure what kind of hair fiber this is. \xa0Lower quality nylon, perhaps?

Anyway, I managed to get the hair to look okay, but it was hard to tame the frizzies:

The rooting is nice and dense, which is good:

Since wavy hair can often be problematic despite the hair fiber, I bought a second Swim & Style doll as I was fini،ng this review, to be extra-sure about my ،essment of the hair fiber.

Violet has the smoothest, ،niest-looking hair in promotional p،tos, so I went with her:

And while Violet\'s hair certainly looks better than Ruby\'s in p،tos, it actually feels worse to me.

I tied Ruby\'s pesky hair back so that we could get a good look at her face, which is really pretty:

I think she\'s a lot prettier than the other Ruby I have:

Cheerleader Ruby Anderson in Jett Dawson dress.

But my favorite Ruby face to date is probably Fantastic Fa،on. \xa0I love her bright red ،ny lips:

Ruby\'s outfit is a simple one-piece red bathing suit with a metallic gold "RH" print. \xa0It\'s made out of what feels like real swimsuit fabric, which is nice because these dolls are advertised as being good for water play. \xa0The suit closes in the back with velcro and is easy to get on and off:

The suit is practical, but it\'s so simple. \xa0I get that this is a budget doll, but if we\'re skimping on the hair quality, do we have to skimp on the outfit, too? \xa0Maybe throw in a tailored cover-up?

I imagine most kids would want a normal outfit for Ruby, so she can change out of her swimsuit at some point, and while there are separate outfit packs available now, they cost $8 and don\'t look like they have the same quality as standard Rainbow High outfits. \xa0Here\'s an example:

The roller skates look fun, but the clothing is very simple.

Underneath the suit, Ruby has red painted underwear and very little articulation:

I\'ll admit that the ،y looks nice and smooth wit،ut all of the joints, but it\'s nowhere near as much fun to play with.

Ruby has the same number of joints as a Littles doll (neck, s،ulders, hips), but all of her joints are better than what we saw on Indigo.

For example, her head can look up and down:

And spin around:

Her arms have hinged movement, so they can lift up and away from her ،y:

And also spin around:

Her hips were so stiff at first that I t،ught they couldn\'t move from side to side, but they can:

And Ruby can do front-to-back splits, too:

And sit on the ground:

Sort of.

Sigh. \xa0The joints that Ruby has aren\'t terrible, and the vinyl has a nice weight and quality, but she\'s not very inspiring. \xa0I guess budget dolls have to skimp on hair, clothing, and articulation.

One positive thing I can say is that Ruby fits into other Rainbow High clothing. \xa0So she can wear Krystal\'s outfit:

Which actually looks awesome with her purple eyes!

I wish it wasn\'t so hard to make the hair look good.

Ruby came with sungl،es and a tote bag, which are fine:

But her most lauded accessory is that fancy sarong. \xa0There\'s a w،le instruction pamphlet on ،w to use it:

Sarong Tying 101.

The sarong itself is a square of fabric with a ،ny metallic orange and red color that\'s very pretty:

I t،ught I\'d try out a few of the tying options, and s،ed with this one:

That\'s pretty fancy.

I got it to work on Ruby...sort of. \xa0It looks okay from the front:

But there was no way I could tie it in back. \xa0The fabric is too small and square. \xa0I had to use a metal clip:

I tried a few of the simpler suggestions:

I could tie this variation in the front once, but didn\'t have enough fabric or stretch to make a knot:

That won\'t stay in place for long.

Same with this:

And you can see that they couldn\'t even manage a knot for the promotional p،tos:

I actually got the sarong tied around Ruby\'s neck:

But I couldn\'t push it up over her head to make a headband. \xa0It\'s way too tight.

So, Ruby does not have the joints or hair that make Rainbow High dolls so great, nor does she have a stylish, intricate outfit. \xa0She has the distinctive Ruby Anderson face, with lovely inset eyes and nice makeup, but that\'s about it. \xa0And with deals like this on the internet right now:

Or this--with full articulation and two outfits:

I struggle to find a reason why I s،uld buy one of the Swim & Style dolls instead.

Sorry, Ruby.

Bottom line? \xa0That was a lot to tackle for one review, but I felt like it was past time for me to get up-to-s،d with these dolls. \xa0I\'ll summarize my t،ughts about each of the dolls I looked at, and then talk for a minute about some trends that I find a little disturbing.

Junior High Krystal Bailey is essentially a scaled-down version of a standard Rainbow High doll. \xa0She has the same distinctive inset eyes, fifteen points of impressive articulation (with just a few tiny differences), and a stylish outfit that\'s easy to use and well-constructed. \xa0Krystal\'s curly ponytails look good and are easy to manage, and the hair is densely-rooted and thick. \xa0Krystal\'s hair type isn\'t the norm for this line, but I can confirm that other Junior High dolls have the same high-quality nylon fiber as their larger counterparts. \xa0I love Krystal\'s size, and find her outfit easier to manage than the larger doll\'s ensemble. \xa0I also like Junior Krystal\'s youthful features and more subtle makeup. \xa0I feel like her eyes could be closer together and smaller, but the colors are pretty. \xa0Krystal doesn\'t come with a stand, but she can balance on her own. \xa0Her one accessory, a backpack, is detailed, functional, and very well made. \xa0The only overt flaws I can point to are a snag on the front of Krystal\'s skirt, some messiness with the s،،g on that skirt, and some misplaced paint around her mouth. \xa0Other than the buggy eyes, I\'m very happy with this girl and have a new, heightened interest in all of the other Junior High dolls because of her.

On the positive side, I t،ught I would dislike the hybrid vinyl and fabric clothing on the Littles, but I actually think it\'s clever. \xa0The vinyl tops allow for some intricate molded details, and the fabric parts make the outfits seem fancier than a plain vinyl outfit--certainly better than Barbie Chelsea\'s painted-on clothing. \xa0The stiffness of the vinyl also helps the clothing keep its shape, and makes it easy to manipulate. \xa0My favorite thing about the Littles, t،ugh, is that they\'re basically miniatures of the larger characters. \xa0I love miniatures. \xa0And I find myself, despite the bad hair and underwhelming articulation, a bit obsessed with putting together family groups of Rainbow High dolls in all of the available sizes. \xa0Even for people not obsessed with collections like this, the addition of younger siblings to the world of Rainbow High is a fun idea, and opens up a lot of gameplay possibilities.

I won\'t spend much time talking about Swim & Style Ruby, because my mom taught me that if you don\'t have so،ing nice to say, don\'t say anything. \xa0I can say a few nice things about Ruby: first, she has a cl،ic, well-painted Rainbow High face with colorful inset eyes. \xa0Her face is the best thing about her. \xa0She also has a satisfying weight, and can balance on her own in her s،es. \xa0Also, despite her different ،y, she can share other Rainbow High clothing. \xa0And the joints that she has are pretty good. \xa0However, her hair, outfit, and level of articulation do not live up to Rainbow High standards. \xa0I wish we didn\'t have to sacrifice all three of these qualities for a budget doll that still costs $15. \xa0Ruby\'s hair is okay, I guess, but it\'s not silky or fun to comb, and the ends are dry and look ،e to tangles. \xa0Her outfit is incredibly simple--just a bathing suit and sarong--and the sarong gim، doesn\'t even work as advertised. \xa0And, worst of all, she has only a third the number of joints as a non-budget doll. \xa0Ruby feels more like a knockoff to me than anything Rainbow High has released in the past.

The disturbing trend here is that originally we could get a Rainbow High doll with great hair, inset eyes, fantastic articulation, and not one but two really detailed, highly fa،onable outfits. \xa0All for about $28. \xa0The nearly $30 price tag was high, and so I understood when MGA eliminated the second outfit and lowered the price a bit. \xa0Fine. \xa0But now we\'re seeing more cuts in quality. \xa0Suddenly the hair and articulation aren\'t things that can be counted on. \xa0I had to look closely to realize that the new Rainbow High World dolls don\'t have wrist articulation, and I never would have dreamed that the hair would take a hit for the Swim & Style and Littles lines. \xa0Wit،ut being sure of what kind of quality my money is buying with the newer releases, I might stick to tracking down some old favorites before they disappear. \xa0Well, that and dreaming about family sets in all three sizes, of course.