Snapstars

Man I have a bunch of things to review, so i'm gonna be queing them so I don't just spam my readers with reviews and then go back to silence okay? lol.

Anyway, first up Snapstars by Yulu.

Because they just hit the UK market and I know people were curious. I mean I know I was.




Snapstars or #snapstars to give them the name on their boxes (because hashtags are cool? lol) are a new line of dolls with the same tired social media crap we've had from Bratz, Hairdorables etc already.
Seriously old white guys, stop trying to be cool, it's just painful.

Anyway,

unlike those ones, Snapstars actually come with a greenscreen and app for instagramming to your hearts content... or something.
but... do kids actually instagram? Especially dolls?
I dunno.

I thought that was mostly us lame adults hahah.

When I first saw Snapstars my initial thought was "those look like liv dolls" and i'm still of that opinion. They look like Liv heads on a different body and I find it wierd.

They were very much a "mmm interesting idea but unless they're cheap i'mma gonna pass".

They're £17 in stores and appear to be exclusive to Smyths so yeah, wtf? SEVENTEEN POUNDS!??
come on toy companies, stop this nonsense.

As it turned out though, I found someone selling a few for £10 each online so I bought two to review and get a look at.

Turns out the person I bought them from is likely an "influencer" (god I hate that term) and got these for review because they came in a big promotional box that the youtubers keep getting.

It's a nice sturdy box designed to fit 3 dolls inside. It'll be useful for storage for sure.

And inside are the large promotional cards talking about the app and stuff.

I didn't actually try out the app because 1: I don't take photos on my phone and 2: I don't wanna.

The other card has lovely artwork of the characters with blurbs about their character.

I love this artwork, they look so varied and full of personality. damnit companies, why do you keep doing such characterful artwork and then making such soulless dolls?

I mean, look at this art!

Now look at the doll:

Just.. really?

Echo I think comes off the worst, poor girl. I mean her art is so quirky and she has space buns and stuff and her doll is just...

really damn disappointing.

Anyway,

let's pretend like we didn't see the cute art and what could have been.

The boxes are really nice. They're sturdy card and very easy to open, nice and simple but effective. I like them, they also have the added advantage that they can be closed again to store the doll or clothing or whatever you want which I approve of.

reusable boxes! Thank you!

We'll look at Aspen first. Her artwork is adorable. I mean we'll pretend like she doesn't have a broken arm (what IS going on with her bent arm? it's definitely broken) but she's cute.

The back of the box has some hashtag for the character (wanderlust), a blurb about how much this girl likes to travel (yawn) and details on the app.

Whatever

I haven't a clue who Yulu are, i've never actually heard of them before. A google search didn't tell me much, all their products feel very much like those sorta generic toys you just see in stores but don't give a damn about. I dunno, nothing jumped out as "ooooh they make those!"

This does appear to be their first doll brand though.

Inside is a leaflet explaining the app and stand and stuff.

Also how to put the wigs on which honestly doesn't seem that complicated. It just rams on, but it doesn't lock in like this implies. Least I can't get it to.

Poor Aspen's hair is BAD.

They have wigs, like Liv dolls. Heck they even slot into a little hole in the head just like liv wigs and have the painted on hair under.

and much like liv, the wigs are CRAP. The fibre is soft enough but it doens't sit nicely and the wig cap is SO visible and worse, it's too small for her damn head so you always see her painted scalp.

Goddamn she looks like a liv doll.

On a teensy little body.

Her outfit isn't bad, I quite like it. It's a sort of floral frilly body suit with a separate vest over the top. Only problem is it's not very well fitted to the doll so she keeps getting some major tits out stuff going on.

The forward facing inset eyes make them look a bit dead eyed honestly. I wonder if giving them proper lashes rather than painted ones might help?

Their heads are really strangely disproportionate. Like, not in a stylised sort of way, more in a bad hybrid kinda way. It's quite offputting.

But it's not a bad body actually. It's articulated at the knees, elbows and wrists and while the range of motion is at times not brilliant, it's perfectly servicable. She can kneel and sit well, she even has a bust joint which allows for some interesting twisting motion.

Her head however can BARELY tilt which is... a wierd decision given how posable the rest of her is.

I had to get my Liv doll down to compare.

There are definite similarities. Same upper face shape, eye shape and hair design but a wider flatter nose and narrower chin. Honestly it looks like they modified a liv head for these, it's bizarre and a bit too close for comfort I think.

If Spinmaster were still producing Liv they might have a legitimate case for plagerism here.

There are enough differences to make the Snapstar head unique and not just a repainted liv head but damn it's skirting close to my eye.

They can wear one another's wigs no problem. The hole for the little prong is in the same place on both heads so yeah.

Though I have noticed that both wigs spin too easily on the Snapstar head, they don't really bite into the socket so they just spin around and it's annoying.

Body size wise the Snapstars are shorter than Bratz (with the hairdorable head on) and Monster High but a similar slender sort of shape.

Which got me thinking "hmm, will Bratz stuff fit?"

Aspen's outfit fit the 2016 Bratz body quite nicely I felt.

Though Aspen doesn't really have the boobs to pull off Jade's hooker look.

Short Monster High dresses/tops fit

Though the more standard length stuff looked a bit frumpy I felt.

Same with EAH stuff, the stretchy dress here fits but it's an unflattering length.

A 2016 Bratz outfit was too short and the sleeves way too long.

Though this ensemble worked nicely. The jeans are from a 2010 Bratz doll and  the top from Howleen Wolf.

I will say this though, the Snapstars are NOT the easiest dolls to dress becuase of their hands. The hands don't come off but they're also quite large and splayed and hard, so they don't squish like the 2016 Bratz hands do to get through sleeves. As a result it can be quite a fight to get clothing on and off without damaging it.

Even the clothing the dolls COME WITH aren't safe.

This is after undressing and redressing her ONCE!

I mean shit man.

that isn't BAD.

Like Aspen Dawn has cute artwork.

She's a fashion diva becuase of course she is. The black character in like EVERY doll line is the fashion diva it seems.

What is that all about?

Because these came to me preopened i'm not actually sure HOW many tabs they had holding them in but there's no obvious holes in the clamshell so hmm..

Dawn's outfit is... not great honestly. It's made from this shiny shitty fabric and I don't really understand why.

I mean Aspen's is so nice.

Her wig fits better than Aspen's and has a nice texture to it, but it's not brilliant. It's a bit kinda meh out of the box.

It's fairly thick and at least hides the wig cap better than Aspen's did.

I like Dawn's skin tone, it's a really rich dark brown that you don't see too often in this country. We so regularly miss out on the dark skinned dolls in a line so i'm pleased Smyths has got BOTH black characters in this line.

The dolls come with stands that clip into their necks like something outta the matrix. Creepy.

But fairly effective actually.

The green screen isn't bad either. Of course, I didn't try out the app and it's too creased from being folded to give a nice FLAT green screen for someone who doesn't have a lighting rig. but you know, it's okay.

Getting dynamic poses with these bodies and this stand is actually really quite fun. Though the hinges on the stand don't LOCK so it's not so easy to get her into jumping or high up poses without a bit of fiddling on the balance. The stand is quite light and the hinges bend quite easily i've found. It works better for standing poses.

The wig looks way better I think rotated.

And yes, that is a monster high dress. It doesn't look too bad.

Dawn's actual outfit is this wierd bodysuit made to look like a shirt and shorts.

It's a lot cuter in the artwork. In person it's just a bit cheap and nasty made from this shiny satin-like fabric that frays and snags way too easily.

Her shoes are quite nice though.

I definitely prefer her wig sideways so it has volume though omg.

Both dolls came with a handbag and a phone.

The bags are just solid molded plastic which is a shame as it means they can't put their phone into it.

And the phones are... problematic. The decal is glued on with some sort of adhesive that doesn't seem to have actually set, this thing is STICKY AS SHIT and the decal sliiiiides off leaving this disgusting sticky goop behind.

Ewww ew ew ew ew ew.

Gross.

Like so gross.

both phones have this problem. Whatever glue they used is clearly shit.

 

The doll can hold the phone kinda, it has a little toggle thing on the back but it's a bit awkard I think.

The handbag is as useless as any doll handbag.

I tried Aspen's outfit on Dawn and I think it's quite cute.

Aspen didn't come with earrings, despite having pierced ears. I'm not sure if she was supposed to. So I dug out some Monster High earrings for this outfit and I think they look quite good.

The floral headband Aspen came with hides the flaws in Dawn's wig well.

All in all I think Dawn is a far more successful doll than Aspen. I mean her wig actually FITS, her darker eyes and eyemakeup make her look less dead eyed and staring and her wig is better made.
Her outfit is SHIT though.

They do actually have different face molds. Slightly. Dawn has a broaded nose than Aspen.

They have oddly flat profiles, kinda like Liv dolls again.

The way their lips are molded and painted looks wierd from the side. Sort of ducklipped but also just.. I dunno.. swollen and strange.

The heads are hard plastic but I discovered are actually fairly easy to just yank off. They're held on with an old fashioned ball knob.

Now this kinda limits your hybrid options without some modification but for someone like me who has a large collection of vintage dolls that use ball knob necks?
Exciting.

Matilda's head hole was too big sadly, but kinda cute combo I thought.

Yuko Chan though fits pretty well.

Certainly this is an improvement over her shitty original body that is stuck in a perma sitting position.

The only problem is that her head has no stopper so if you push it it'll fall down the neck. Usually a knob joint like this would mostly fill the doll's head to stop that happening, this body doesn't have such a feature so hmmm.

Still how cute does Yuko Chan look!

the proportions look pretty decent to my eye and the colour match is perfect.

SWEET.

The articulation means she can actually pose which is also nice. I wouldn't call this body a perfect poser but it's not bad (about on par with Monster High maybe?) and certainly better than the 70s articulation Yuko had originally (hinge knees and that's it)

Redressed I actually quite like Dawn though. She's a wierd goofy looking doll with horrible proportions but I kinda like her regardless of her awkwardness, or maybe because of it. I do think she needs something done about those staring dead eyes though.
Maybe some inset lashes and a side glance might help?

I have an Aspen head to experiment on bwhahahaha.

Very small dolls seem to be the current trend, it's odd. I'm not totally sure how I feel about it, but I am glad we're getting dark skinned dolls over here again and that more companies are producing dolls with actual articulation.

Haydin reminded me of how cool Liv dolls were though. Man, I miss Liv. Back when they came out I thought they were dead eyed but looking at Haydin alongside a lot of modern dolls with inset eyes, I take it back! They're fine!

I do though wonder what Aspen would look like on a Liv sized body...

sadly I don't have any spare Liv bodies and getting the heads off is a real pain because their heads are SUCH hard plastic and it takes ages to heat them to a point they won't just destroy the little toggle thing in the neck.

Still... if I come across any in a charity shop i might buy one to try that hybrid out heh.

I feel like the Snapstars would work a lot better on a larger body with that head size and shape. It's not round enough to be stylised chibi big head, it's just long and that throws off the proportions in a way that's not cute, it's just wierd and wrong.

In summary, Snapstars have pretty decent little bodies but their clothing seems pretty hit and miss. A lot of the other ones look to have really hideous cheap plasticky outfits which is even worse. At £17 they're massively overpriced. Their wigs aren't very nice, their clothes are generally pretty shit and their accessories are pretty generic and worthless. They have okay shoes, their stands are cool, the green screen gimmick is probably fun for about 20 minutes before the novelty wears off so ultimately what you're paying for is the body.
It's worth maybe £10 at most.

I don't feel cheated paying £10 for each of these dolls, but I sure as heck would have had I paid full retail.

They're okay dolls, but they really aren't lighting the world on fire with anything new or revolutionary.

6 dead eyed stares out of 10.