Bratzillaz back to Magic Illiana Honesty

New Argos catalogue tonight, which means NEW TOYS WHEEEE.

So that means more MGA products to review. I dunno, they're really pulling me in with their recent offerings. The Novis are just getting wierder and wierder which I adore, the Zillaz quality is improving with every wave and the Bratz are doing good in my eyes.
So MGA are raking in a whole lot of my dosh right now.

So new catalogue meant a whole load of new lines including the most recent Bratzillaz, Back to Magic. Or should I call them, "pretty in Paisley" as every single one has a paisley outfit! lol. random, but I do rather like paisley so it's all good.

My local Argos only had four of the five characters in stock, Meyganna, Sashabella and new girls Victoria and Illiana.
Because I haven't seen anyone review her already, or indeed take any photos at all, i'll start with Illiana.

 

Illiana Honesty. 

Illiana comes in an attractive purple box. I think these boxes are a little slimmer than the regular Zillaz boxes but they look pretty similar. Lots of bright graphics, little cardboard pet and the new slogan.. or is it part of the name of the line? "house of witches"

I find that a bit confusing given the "house of witches" tag is larger than the actual Bratzillaz. Is this the new brand name or something?

 

Anyway, back of the box informs us that Illiana's power is to make people tell the truth, and that you can believe everything she says.
I find it interesting they don't bother to tell you what part of the world she's from. While it's fairly obvious she's Indian, I just find it odd they don't bother to mention this despite their "two new witches from different parts of the world!" thing.
Also, I wonder what her pet's name is. He looks adorable.

 Here's a better look at the pet. A little pink elephant eee. Such a cute pet, I wonder what the gimmick for this one will be.
I don't much like this pets coming separate thing though. It makes me think "what's the point?" you know? They feel like a totally separate line just sorta tacked in there and I was pretty unimpressed with the first wave pets which in my eyes were little more than glorified happy meal toys. I think it's a bit cheeky to charge for them individually.

Illiana has lovely dark skin and very pale purple eyes. It's a striking contrast. Her makeup is a beautiful mix of gold, magenta pink and blue. She has gold and reddish spots around her eyes and little henna style swirls on her cheeks.

Her hair is black and braided, there's little strands of gold tinsel in but it doesn't look to be unravelling like a lot of tinsel streak dolls i've owned. Her hair however, looks pretty fluffy. It's very soft to touch but that frizz at the end isn't particularly pretty.

Her box informs me her class is Tales and Texture. All the characters in this line have a different book pictured.

 her outfit consists of three pieces. A pair of pink paisley harem pants in soft satiny fabric with gold trim. A cropped pink top with gold trim and a shimmery dusky pink sash with long flowy bit to one side. I'm not sure how to describe this piece, it's not a cape but it's also not really a sash because of the random floaty bit. But it's pretty and shimmers metalic gold in the light.

 

At first I was all "Hey, where's her witch mark?" and here it is. On the back of each hand there's a henna tattoo. I'm not certain what it's supposed to be, a flower?  It looks yellow here but it's actually gold.

And now we prepare for the huge chore that is opening a Bratzillaz box. I HATE these boxes. The bubble packaging means you have to totally tear the box apart trying to get the doll out, so forget keeping the box or managing to keep the backing card half way intact. This thing will be shredded in the process of opening. Grrr.
Also, I cannot work out how to split the backing card to gain access to the backs of the ties. The whole card seems to be so glued together that I can't separate the two halves or even find where the halves meet. It's all just one big cardboard mess, so I resort to tugging and cutting the ties. Messy.

 Here she is deboxed. She comes only with a brush, no stand here. A shame, but if a stand is what they were justifying £25 on their previous release then i'll gladly do without. The Back to Magic dolls are £16:99, which is far more reasonable. However, Mattel still include stands with their £16:99 offerings so it just seems a bit stingy on MGA's part here. No handbag, no stand, just doll and brush. Hmm.

I have to admit, the hat on the side of her head is a bit silly. Her braid is really complex though, with a second braid twisting around the bigger one to hold it all up. I dread to think how awkward this will be to redo if you take her hair down.
Under the hat there's a bit of a bald patch, so the hat stays put for now.

you can see the pretty shimmery sash thing better from behind. Her shoes are squishy gold heels with tiny buckle detail but overall they're pretty simple (they are in fact, Magic night out Yasmina's, just recoloured gold).
I'm also fairly sure she has two left shoes here... hmmm.

 There's some pretty messy obvious seams on her, particularly this arm. And a few dents in her legs from the packaging but that's pretty typical of dolls these days.

 Her eyes are amazing. Slightly misaligned but nothing too serious for me. the irises remind me of Meyganna's lightening eyes, these are like shimmery galaxies. Her makeup is awesome as well, really unusual and it helps make her "pop". I also rather love the two toned lips. It's an odd choice but it kinda works. Certainly she's a striking girl.

 *sigh* Another issue. Frayed seam under arm. I'll have to stitch this. MGA QC rears it's ugly head.

Without the sash Illiana's outfit is really quite basic, and honestly pretty dull. It's pretty, but it's seriously lacking something.
Looking at the promo image on the back of the box it'd seem that somewhere along the production line she lost a bracelet and a necklace, as well as a lot of shoe detail. I'm sure I can find her some jewellery in my box o stuff though, which may just lift this whole design. It's those itty bitty details that make a doll pop.
Still, it's nice to see not much has changed between promo and actual product. Unlike those Witchy Princesses, eugh.

Underneath Illiana has the usual painted panties, silver in this case with a frilly detail lol.
I always find it amusing when they detail painted on panties, it seems so redundant.

Her joints feel a bit looser than the first wave Bratzillaz, but her posing is the same.

Turns out she's the same skin tone as Sashabella. I was wondering if she was maybe a little more saturated in skin tone but nope, same tone.
It's a nice skin tone but it's kinda a shame to have no darker tone than this. While Illiana isn't the right character to be darker (she's pretty spot on for her supposed ethnicity) i'd love to see a really dark skinned Zilla one of these days.
I do find it interesting though that this one line contains not one, but two darker toned characters. It's also interesting to me that Cloetta and Yasmina are absent. I wonder why. Still, I never much liked Cloetta so her absence isn't much missed.

All in all, Illiana photographs beautifully. I think she may even be prettier in photos than she is irl! Photos really bring out her makeup and she can pose just enough to pull some fabulous model looks.

The quality may still not be totally there, but she's a lovely doll and for the price point, i'm not disappointed.

Pros: Gorgeous eyes, as always. Lovely details, decent fabric for clothes! YES!
Cons: Hair is frizzy, though at least it doesn't feel like fishing wire like the first wave. Some badly finished seams in both doll and clothing.

Overall, I give Illiana a solid 7/10 Henna dots. She's basic, but she's beautiful.