Fail Fix PrettyArtee by Moose

 New catalogue day!

though the past few years Argos really hasn't made much of a fuss about the launch of their new lines, which is a shame because new catalogue day used to be a big event for myself and husband. It only happens twice a year, when the big restock happens (it's the fourth Saturday in January and then again in the summer) and back in "the day" we'd make a day of it. I'd hit every Argos in town, get on a train to the nearby other city and hit their Argos too as back then they used to actually get stock IN for new catalogue day.

Nowadays it seems half the stuff isn't actually due for release till weeks if not months after the catalogue launches, it's bizarre. 

Anyway, new catalogue day happened and Argos' site was glitchy as heck for most of the day but while a lot of new stuff wasn't in stock, the new Fail Fix girl was. 

What's nice about Argos is they do same day delivery for the same cost as any other day and I can use my Nectar points (that's a loyalty card scheme for the non Brits) for some money off. 

Sadly Fail Fix as a line haven't really had much hype related to them, but I really like them so of course I needed to get the new girl.

Let's take a look at her shall we?

The box is the same as the previous ones with the cgi mockup of the doll on the front. 

Artee's fail face makes her look a bit psychotic I feel lol.

Her look is apparently supposed to be "sleek and straight" so i'm not sure how the hell she got PAINT all over her face. What's up with these girls? Shoes in their hair, paint everywhere. What are they doing when they try to get ready? They seem to be a danger to themselves and others! I'm not sure they should be permitted out alone.

As usual the varient outfit picture is so damn small you can barely see it or the details. I don't get this. Like, you  have these varients, why do you not have a larger image so you can actually SEE them? It feels like an afterthought on the packaging and it bothers me. 

Like the first wave you have standard, glitter and evening. Evening seems to have a completely different outfit which is some sort of dress.. coat... thing. It's hard to tell honestly.

I love love love the artwork on these boxes. They're so cute. Though it's a shame the actual doll doesn't have pockets on her outfit to emulate this pose.

Anyway, opening the box was, as always, a pain in the arse. It took ages and I nearly cut myself on the plastic bits. *sigh* I really wish companies would stop pinning their dolls so aggressively into the boxes, they don't need that much plastic crap fixing them in place! All it does is make it take forever to open and hurt your hands. 

But I got her free at last. Her fail face has this wierd lopsided smile that looks very forced and kinda wierd. 

You may notice mine has a sparkly outfit. I got the glitter varient who has a foil printed pair of dungarees on. They're quite soft and have printed on paint splotches and stitching details.

I think it's the teeth, they're too big, there's too much tooth. It just looks... off. 

Her hair is a beautiful pale shade of pastel blue with a wonky fringe and two longer strands that are a bit frazzled at the ends for some reason. I don't know what happened there, did they cut it with a blunt pair of scissors or something? 

Her complexion is a rich tan tone that seems to match Loves.Glam for the most part (it might be slightly lighter?)

Here's everything that was in the box. Artee comes with a plastic hat as her main accessory which is very cool. She hasn't got any "hair gimmick" stuff like the others had (the curlers, the braiding tool etc) but honestly the hat is a far far more usable piece imo. She can WEAR that, rather than it being used once, given up on and thrown in a box. 

She also has her stand (these stands annoy me because they don't sit neatly against one another and thelittle sticky out piece on the base means the dolls can't be nicely stacked on a shelf.), her bubble mask, her tangle teaser brush thing, some purple elastic bands and the instructions.

The instructions are as vuage as ever. I am seriously dubious you can get a "straight sleek" style JUST from brushing this gelled mess. But let's give them the benefit of the doubt and try it before we whip out the boiling water.

The "glitter" face is very nice. There's no glitter in her faceup, instead she seems to have more pink in her makeup than the standard version (who has more blue). She has a light smattering of freckles and a cute little smile. Her eyes are grey and slightly misaligned but it's not too bad. Inset eyes on playline dolls are always a bit of a minefield.

Here's a better look at her outfit. It's a little awkward to photograph because of the shimmer. The outfit is actually two separate pieces, a little croptop and the dungarees.

And I believe Artee uses the "Standard" body like DJ and Dance.

Her accessories are cute. She has a pair of pale pink and blue high top sneakers with white laces and paint splotches on one of them. 

her earrings are little dog pawprints, presumably to tie her in with the fail fix pets which also came out alongside her release. 

She also has a pair of semi transparent slightly glittery sunglasses.

I followed the instructions and brushed her hair out with the tangle teaser brush and then also used my fine toothed comb to see if that made a difference. It didn't. This is as "straight" as you can get the hair without using water. It falls into waves because of how it was styled, you'll need to boil straighten it to get it to look anything like her artwork or the instructions. 

I mean I expected this, but I still find it frustrating that Moose insist on this gimmick when all it does is make getting the doll to look how they're "meant" to look harder for kids. Kids are NOT going to boil wash a doll's hair, nor should they have to do so but they will inevitably be frustrated by the doll's hair not looking how it's meant to look according to the box and all the promo images. 

I really struggled with the other doll's hair styles too by following the instructions because the honestly felt like several steps were missing and I found the tools provided made it all the more complicated.

Her hair is, I will give her this, very soft. But it's also HUGE and poofy and wavy, not "sleek and straight". 

And this is the big problem with Fail Fix. The hidden outfits are a cute idea, the spa theme with the masks is interesting but the bizarre hair gimmick only makes the doll harder to get looking nice. The dolls ARE really nice dolls, so it feels rather like self sabotage to package them in such a way that you have to spend a good hour or more fixing them. I get it, that's the gimmick, you're meant to "fix" them, but kids aren't as patient as adults and don't have access to the same tools we do. What kid is gonna handle boiling water and carefully comb through a doll's wet hair with a fine toothed comb to straighten it? And what kid would then have the patience to wait for the doll's hair to dry again before being able to play with them?

I feel like the whole "spa" theme could have been better implimented without gelling their hair to shit and putting it into wierd coil tentacles.

As her hair was still poofy and wavy and NOT how it was meant to be, I got out my kettle and boiled her head. 

which worked a treat but left the hair very sticky as the gel melted out. I ended up having to rinse her under the hot tap more to get the stickiness out, it was really grossing me out because every time I touched her my hands got sticky and I hate hate hate stickiness. 

In this photo her hair is still damp but with her hair flattened down and straightened her hat actually fits her head! (it wouldn't stay on previously)

The ends of her hair are pretty frazzled looking like her longer bangs but she has such a sweet little face and I love her colours. 

 

Unlike the Rainbow High Avery Styles doll who tried to pull off tan skin and pale hair (the pink wig works a lot better on Avery) and just kinda looked wierd and washed out, Artee actually pulls it all together.

I tried to emulate her box art but as she doesn't have a pocket to stick her hand into (pockets are just printed on) and her elbows don't bend a full 90 degrees this was the best I could get. 

Her glasses pop off her hat a lot too, they're designed to fit her face so they're a bit too narrow to fit her hat.

Here she is in the morning, hair dry. 

I think it needs a few more combing sessions to look quite right in photos as the remaining remnants of gel make it a little crunchy now it's dry. I also think the ratty ends need trimming. 

I wish her hat had something to hold it ON her head. It stays on as long as you don't move her but as soon as you pick her up it falls off as it's only balanced on top of her head. I like what MGA did with the peg for the hats so it slotted into the head and stayed in place but failing that there's also the good old fashioned elastic strap or clips, just anything to keep the damn thing ON. 

But for all my griping, I really DO like Artee. I really do like the whole failfix line. They're very cute dolls and they're a nice size. At about 10 inches tall they're fairly small for fashion dolls (they fit Bratz stuff) but they feel quite a good size for play in my teensy little child sized hands (I'm a teensy person okay?) while a lot of the current dolls on the market are a little too bulky (rainbow high, lol omg etc) 

I like this size for dolls and being roughly in scale with Bratz means they can use a lot of the really damn nice older Bratz accessories and playset stuff which is great. Bratz had some incredible bits.

I love their follow-me eyes too, they make taking their photo quite enjoyable as they're always looking toward you and depending on the angle it really can change their expression.

I also love that they ALL seem to use unique face sculpts as well as having distinct colour pallettes and different eye colours. 

Their clothes are simple but unlike Barbie's simple stuff, they don't feel quite as "thrown together". They have the same printed details but those details seem better thought out and the fabrics themselves are softer and more pleasant to handle. Only Dance.Stylz felt like she was wearing a sack dress, poor girl. That dress was vile. 

I don't even mind the blind bagged aspect of these because you still get to pick the character and it's only 3 variations. You might get a varient you weren't so keen on but the varients aren't hugely different from one another barring the evening (rare) ones anyway. It adds the "which one will you get?" excitement without the huge disappointment that comes with your more typical blind bags which I always find I resent. 

At £20 these dolls aren't cheap, but once they're all put together they look really nice. I can't help but feel though that you're really paying a premium for an annoying gimmick.

I don't mind fixing up dolls, it's one of my hobbies after all, but I don't like having to fix a brand new doll. it makes me grumpy to spend money and have to invest time repairing what should have been done at the factory in the first place you know? 

and the big problem with the gimmick is that the hair ends up really frizzy, crunchy and poofy as a result of the way it's styled in the box. It makes the hair fibre feel cheap when it's actually quite pleasantly soft and it makes the doll look messy even before you've had a chance to play with her. 

I feel like these would have worked absolutely fine without that hair gimmick, in fact, they might have been more appealing to many people. The gimmick feels like a company who's insecure in their design "as is" and has to shove in some other aspect rather than standing confidently behind just making a good doll. 

I LIKE this line, i really do, but that doesn't mean I don't see the major issues in their marketing and packaging. 

If nothing else it kinda frustrates me because I feel like the gimmick is actually hurting their sales more than bolstering them. 

I keep telling people "the fail fix dolls are really nice!" and they don't believe me because of how they look in the box. *sigh* 

But let's put it this way, I haven't collected "a whole line" in years. I tend to pick and choose one or two from a line I like best and only get those. But Failfix inspired me to get every single one. I bought my first and rushed back to get the rest! And I think that in itself speaks volumes for how much I like these dolls. 

I've been honestly more excited about getting Artee here than the Rainbow High dolls or the LOL OMG dolls coming out. Everyone else is clamouring about the new MGA lines and i'm sitting there going "coooome oooon Moose, want doll! " lol. 

What can I say, i'm a sucker for unique face sculpts. 

SlayitDJ, PreppiPosh, 2Dreami, Dance.Stylz, KawaiiQtee, PrettyArtee, Loves.Glam