Others say...

"Pretty, but Disapppointing"
I bought this doll for my 3-year-old for Christmas. She was happy with it until I tried to show her how to transform the dress. Although the description says her dress transforms "with the touch of a button," it's actually a handle on her back that you turn. The dress looks nice in "princess" mode, but when you change it to the peasant mode only the front three panels flip over. The frame that holds them to her body sticks out so the dress looks odd and the fabric doesn't sit right. Also, my daughter was upset that the back panel didn't change at all and she kept saying it was broken. She finally threw the doll aside and said she didn't like it.

As others have mentioned, the hard plastic pink legs are not like regular Barbie legs. They're the same color as her dress, they're non-bendable, and just odd. I'm sure they made them pink so they're not obvious through the slits in her dress, but I don't understand why they couldn't have used regular rubber legs and either tinted them pink or had tights for her.

It's strange that they would have her dress and legs done in this manner, as the companion doll, Alexa, isn't like this. Her dress functions with Velcro and a drawstring and she has normal legs.

My daughter did start playing with her again after a little while, and she likes to make the two dolls sing together, although they don't actually sync up. You have to push the buttons at the same time to get them to sing together. If you don't push them exactly at the same time then the audio doesn't match up, but she doesn't seem to mind this. It drives me crazy to hear them out of sync, and you'll have "Connected - Protected" running through your head for hours.

Overall, this is a very pretty doll and it does sing, which is what my daughter is most interested in. If you're looking for a pretty princess Barbie then this would work, but if you're interested in the transforming dress I think you'll be pretty disappointed.

"This Barbie may be a Golddigger."
I usually let Gold Box Specials and Amazon sales guide me to toys for the grandkids, but in the case of the Mattel Barbie I confess I have second thoughts. The pitch is that the doll has blonde hair that can be combed, twist a knob in its back and it issues a percussive but melodious "briiiing!" sound as the dress swirls and changes, press a button in its palm and the little bimbo sings songs from a movie (actually a few bars of undistinguished romantic Disney schmaltz), and last but not least the talented little toy sings duets if you purchase her brunette "sister" and place the hands of the two dolls together.

Nothing wrong with friendship, sisterhood, harmonizing, talent and beauty, but this is pretty explicit marketing if not pure hustle. By most standards the doll is quite ordinary. My granddaughter got the hang of depressing the hand so that Barbie would issue her melodious babble (the concept of a twin Barbie, thank God, remains elusive to her). And she liked the "spriiiing" sound when we could get it to work. Getting Barbie to swirl and change her dress is the hard part, requiring Barbie's owner to turn a gear button on Barbie's back. Presumably, the slip gear arrangement is to prevent youngsters from twisting the mechanism too hard and breaking it. The problem is that the slip device is set too loosely, preventing Barbie from complying to attempts to make her swish. An adult has to ignore the slip part of the button and grab the button securely by the base, pinching it between two fingers while turning it. Then Barbie swishes, swirls, and "briiiings!" until you've heard and seen enough.

From now on, I'm going to listen to my grandchild a bit more before ordering gifts, Gold Box special or not. I'll know this one was, after all the fuss, a success if my granddaughter begins clamoring for the DVD, the storybook (there are 3 on Amazon), the coloring book, the twin sister, and the handsome prince. In that case, I will no doubt feel ambivalent about the success of a toy that worked out just as Mattel no doubt is counting on it to do. (My granddaughter is 2, a bit young for the romantic, mechanical, and marketing complexities of this doll, who obviously brings a lot of unsuspected baggage with her.)

"Princess Liana"
The doll arrived quickly and in excellent condition. I'm sure my 4 and a half year old niece will love her.

Thank you.

"Worst Quality Barbie, doesn't meet expectations."
My daughter received this Barbie as a gift, knowing she would love it- she also has the singing Erika doll and the singing Island Barbie- both her favorites. This one was given to her with the apology "I think you have to replace the batteries, but it was the last one they had." After not a cheap investment in 3 watch size batteries, the doll still does not sing- but of course you don't know this until it is out of the box and unreturnable. The instructions indicate there is to be a "brrrrring" sound when turning the knob to flip her dress (not an easy job, requires adult help) but all this does is click like you have turned it too far. The "knob" that sticks out of her back is a HUGE key type knob. As others have stated, this dress CAN NOT be removed- and if your daughters are like mine, all they want to do is change Barbie's clothes! What is the point of a Barbie if you can't dress her?

Right out of the box this Barbie didn't perform as stated, and many shocking unexpected disappointments, like not being able to remove the dress. WAY overpriced at $22. Buyer Beware. I gave it 2 stars instead of one because my daughter still believes she is beautiful, and fortunately has a very active imagination and continues to play with her.

Later: After contacting Mattel, they were more than accommodating as far as the Barbie not working out of the box. Excellent customer service- a rare thing these days. This does not solve the problem of the knob or the dress, but this customer is satisfied.

"Get ready to be annoyed with the music"
My sister gave my girls the Princess Liana and Princess Alexa dolls. My 5 year old chose Alexa and by default my 2 year old got Liana, and since that's her middle name that was a nice added bonus.

We already had the Diamond Castle book so my girls were familiar with the characters and the story, which was also good. Those 2 points are going to be irrelevant to most people.

WIth that background information aside, let me get to the point:
- The dolls are advertised to each sing 2 songs and when their hands are "joined" they will sing a duet.
---Yes, they each sing 2 songs (each doll has the same 2 songs, so you're not getting 4 songs).
---No, they don't really sing a duet. The enclosed directions tell you the dolls should be side-by-side (not facing each other) and you place one hand over the other to activate the switch in their hands that makes them sing. Well, there's no way to really nest a hand in the other and it's very awkward. You have to keep your fingers on their hands to keep them together. Plus, it's nearly impossible to activate both their switches at the same time, thus making their songs a bit out of synch by a few notes. You might as well just activate their switches at the same time but not while "joining" them together. As far as we can tell, you can't get them synchronized and there's no unique song for their duet. It's just one of the 2 songs they sing.

That's my major complaint with the dolls. Another annoyance is the actual song. One song is short and totally tolerable. The other one goes on FOREVER and the only way to stop the song is to push a button on the doll's back to make this "jingling" noise, thus interrupting and ending the song. The song is a bit annoying and for days you will sing "connected...protected" in your head.

This is NOT a toy you can take to bed with you because it's very sensitive and easily turns on. The only way to keep them off is to take the battery out (with a screwdriver, which is a pain).


THE GOOD:
--- the dresses are really pretty
---the accessories are attached, so no losing necklaces or tiaras
---the girls love them

And the NEUTRAL:
--- the legs are painted pink instead of skin toned. This kind of annoyed my older daughter at first, but she quickly got over it.