Kidz N Cats David

Okay so, here it is, a Kidz N Cats David doll.
Now, of course, I don't have to tell you guys that 18 inch child dolls aren't usually my cup of tea. I'm much more of a fashion doll kinda guy but TK Maxx had them in for £30 (they retail for over £100 usually) and I thought "you know what? Why not?"

It was a proper impulse buy. Lol.

But was it worth it?




First I want to say SORRY for the photo quality again because broken camera and shitty lighting are not good friends.

First impressions? This box is HUGE.

It's also quite plain but pretty nice. It's a pale blue and white with a little bow and "kidzncats" written on. There's no obvious indication of the character name though, so I just have to take TK Maxx's word for it that this guy is called David.

I'd heard good things about this line before and they're articulated which is ALWAYS exciting.

The back of the box mentions the articulation and damn that blonde boy is cute!

Opening the box was pretty straightforward, pull open the top, there's no tape of anything and slide out the inner card.

Inside there's out boy, his backpack and his cat. For some reason MOST but not ALL of these dolls come with a little plush cat doll. I dunno why. Had to justify the name? lol.

Getting him out of the box is again relatively straightforward. He's held in place with elastic bands around both ankles, both wrists, his waist and his neck. Snip snip snip and he's free.
No head staples, no plastic tabs, sorted.

In fact the only plastic tab was the one holding the baggie containing the cat and bag to his shorts.

David has an unusual wig. It's sort of dry and spikey, a bit choppy. It reminds me unfortunately of a lot of vintage dolls who desperately need a spa.
Honestly I would have preferred sleek soft floppy hair for him like many of the other boys but I didn't have the option, he was the only doll they had (TK Maxx now also have a girl, Jana, listed for sale online)

He has lovely blue eyes, albeit a little stary but a lot of these style of dolls have that problem.

His eyebrows I personally think are a bit high and too arched. They're also REALLY simple and at this larger scale it looks a bit wierd to me.

his eyelashes likewise are kinda chunky and very stamped out.

There's no personality to this face, it's very cookie cutter, very samey, very blank.
but under that basic paint job I see potential. He has a really cute chubby nose and nicely sculpted lips under all that.

His hair is a wig so if I wanted to I could just rip that thing off and replace it, but it's not a bad quality wig. It's very very securely attached and thickly rooted. I can't see any obvious scalp or wig cap through it. But it IS very dry fiber and it sticks up in a rather unruley fashion. I guess like real hair lol.

David is supposedly 18 inches tall, though he seems smaller because unlike other 18 inch dolls like American Girl, Journey Girl etc, his head is actually not enormous.

Here he is with a Journey Girl.

His head is approximately 10 inches around compared to 11-12 inches for most other 18 inch brands. It's only an inch but it makes a surprising amount of different to how "big" he looks.  (Kenzie looks STABBY.)

He's elastic strung with a fully plastic body and joints at the shoulder, elbow, wrist, hip, knee and neck.
His arm joints don't pose that well due to their design, the elbow can only bend to about this degree and his wrists are likewise restricted.
his knees however can bend 90 degrees and his hips are ball socketed allowing him to sit quite naturally despite having no ankle joint.

LIkewise his head can tilt nicely which allows him to pose quite characterfully. I always appreciate doll head tilt, I think it adds SO much in photos.

The little ragdoll cat is adorable but mine is a bit smooshed. It's just a ragdoll with plastic eyes and yarn whiskers.

the bag is an elephant... I think. It has a tiny zipper that feels a bit fragile but means it's a fully working backpack.

Under David's monkey jungle print shirt (which has three working buttons) he wears a ribbed green sleeveless tee. This has a zipper at the back which is interesting.

His shorts are thin fashion denim with real pockets and a velcro fly with a little popper at the top.

His shoes are a sort of canvas and leatherette affair with two velcro straps. They're nice looking shoes but i'm not convinced of their longevity due to how thin the straps fabric IS. They have a jungle print on them.
the soles are blank without even any tread.

Surprisingly, under his shorts I found David has some boxer shorts!

I didn't expect underwear!

They're simple striped pants and it's adorable.

His nails are all painted too. His fingers and toes are all a pearly slightly pinkish shade that's far more noticable on his toes than his fingers.

Of course this is the point where his blocky eyebrows and wierd lashes were starting to really annoy me. So I said "off with his face!" and took out my acetone.

Under there there's a somewhat cute little face, though he looks wierd without eyebrows lol.

A short while later and he had a face again.

I gave him new eyebrows, a softer more natural lip colour, some more subtle lower lashes and some light freckles across the nose. I also did some shading and blushing to his face to bring out the sculpt a bit better, especially around the nose which is so cute.

I'm much happier with him now.

It's amazing what a different something as basic as different eyebrows does for a doll.

So, what do I think?

I'm actually rather pleasantly pleased with this boy.

His body is well made and the vinyl high quality and smooth and hefty. He poses well enough for a doll of his style (given most of them can't pose at all) and I appreciate that he can actually SIT.
He has a sweet face that feels more in proportion with his body than the giant noggins of most dolls this scale too, which I like.

His clothing is exceptionally well made and really nicely put together. It's something a kid WOULD wear and I always like that. Even his little shoes look like actual shoes you'd get for a young kid which is great.

His lashes are... wierd, but I can forgive wierd lashes because let's face it, inset lashes aren't easy to pull off. They are VERY securely attached though, I tugged on them for a bit and they wouldn't budge.

Overall he feels pretty sturdy, though his elasticated jointing does mean he can be a little pinchy if you happen to get a finger caught between the joints because you're being a moron while posing him. Not... that I speak from experience... <_< >_>

Considering that this scale is NOT my thing, i'm very pleased with my purchase and he's going to be staying.

So I guess you can consider that a good endorsement.

My only real con here is that I really didn't like his out of box faceup. I find these sorts of dolls often have very blank, very creepy staring into your soul faces. In David's case, it was more a problem that poorly designed lower lashes and blocky eyebrows just made him look blank and expressionless.
But that's a YMMV sort of thing there.

I mean I cannot STAND American Girl faces, I think theyr'e absolutely spooky and not in a good way, but a lot of people love em so who am I to judge? Some people may really LIKE the default Kidzncats faces.

Still, not bad for £30. I wouldn't pay £100 for him but then, I wouldn't pay £100 for ANY supposedly "playline" doll. I'm far too stingy for that. If I can buy a bjd for the same money, i'm gonna buy a bjd lol.

 

Can you tell i'm having a little too much fun with this little guy?