When Pineapple Princess was first announced and the information started popping up here and there on forums and Facebook I was immediately hooked.
A translucent AND tan girl? Yes please! After the release of the official illustrations I got even more excited. She seemed to have a really nice, natural, nude makeup and a killer outfit separated in two full 50’s, “Grease” inspired looks.
Then the excitment started to fade away when first customers received their dolls. Missing hairplugs, terrible hair quality and quite a few other things were reported and I started to think I wouldn’t love her as much as I thought. Would she be the kind of doll you keep in her box just to resell? To put it simply, I was afraid to receive Pineapple Princess, the doll I was so hyped about since I placed my preorder back in May.
Once mine finally arrived I didn’t opened the shipper at all for a full day.
- Reason 1: I was so scared that she’d have problems like others had experienced.
- Reason 2: I had to work, which is a good enough excuse to justify not opening right away. Right?
But I finally caved in and took her out of the box in the evening. The face looked gorgeous, a soft, beautiful makeup on a delicious caramel color. My main concern was the hair. I quickly checked that there were no missing plugs. Result? No issues with her hair plugs. In fact, she may have the most hair out of all my Blythe collection. Another plus was that her hair wasn’t that tangled, which was great because I had read that someone had to cut the doll’s hair due to it being so tangled. The ends were a bit dry, but nothing I couldn’t fix with a good spa treatment. You can insert here a huge sigh of relief. She was everything I had dreamed of and even more actually!
The Doll
The reason I decided to get the doll as soon as she was announced was that I loved her name and I had wanted a tan or translucent Blythe for years. This would be the occasion that allowed me to get both at the same time in one doll. Also, I knew the risk of her becoming really expensive in the future was high and I wasn’t willing to take it (do you remember what happened with that Margo Unique Girl? Yeah, you know, she’s crazy expensive now).
Some people reported that her arms were of a shockingly different color from her torso. It wasn’t the case for mine. Honestly, the biggest negative thing I could say about her are:
- Her hair need to be treated to reveal it’s full potential (the quality is amazing once treated in all honesty)
- I hated her shoes and earrings (what? I already sold them anyway)
When it comes to changing her clothes, I discovered she looks amazing both in muted tones and colorful things. I especially appreciate white, flowing dresses or big bold colorful prints for her. So far, I’d say my favorites colors for her are: yellow, white and green. Maybe this versatility comes from her really soft, nude-colored makeup, which I really love! I should say that all her eyechips look great on her too… I don’t feel the need to change any.
Stock clothing
Concerning the stock outfit, I do really like the blouse, pants and socks. The only concern I have about those pieces is the fact that the pants may stain the body. I wouldn’t leave those for long on a doll, which is a shame because the cut and finite details are perfect. The overall quality of the clothes and accessories is good but I do find the glasses a bit “cheap” compared to older Takara glasses (and I have quite a collection). I don’t know, the plastic feels a bit more fragile and the only thing that actually made me keep them is the fact that I couldn’t decide if I wanted them to be sunglasses or regular glasses.
About the second half of the outfit, which means dress, headband and shoes (I already mentioned the socks, so there you go), the quality follows what I already said before but whether you like them or not is more a question of taste. I did not really like that part of the outfit. Nice looking, really cool 50’s inspiration and reference but definitely not a keeper (this is totally a personal opinion though). The shoes I really dislike. The shape isn’t really flattering and I felt like I had old Barbie shoes into my hands (and not the beautiful vintage ones, more like the boring ones. Speaking of the Barbie ones, they do win the contest at having a better shape).
Quality Issues
Even though my doll didn’t have the typical quality issues I have seen some people’s dolls have had, I feel the need to speak about them here so you’re warned in case you do want the doll after reading this. The most common problems concern her hair. From really tangled to the point of forcing someone to cut them, to missing plugs that made a customer return her doll. I’ve seen quite a lot of disappointment when it comes to her hair. Mine had just greasy hair and dry ends, which a good spa definitely fixed. I’m thinking about giving her a second one just to have the ends look flawless, but it’s okay already. So I’d say don’t buy her unless you’re motivated to do a treatment to her hair. It’s a shame that this has happened because the fiber quality is really good in my opinion. Thick, soft and of a beautiful color with golden reflections once cleaned and brushed.
The other thing that seemed to be brought up a lot online was the different color of plastic used. Some people reported arms and torso looking really different color-wise. That might be due to a use of different types of plastic for the parts but mine wasn’t shocking at all, so I can’t really say anything about it. Maybe I just got really lucky.
My final word will remain that she’s a stunning doll and maybe the best release of 2017 so far. She needs some hair treatment, but I feel like people shouldn’t get afraid to get her. You never know, you might be one of the lucky ones to get a flawless doll!
Face Type: Radiance Renew (Based on the Radiance mold)
Face color: Translucent Mocha
Make up: Eyeshadow – Dark brown, Cheeks and Lips – Almond Pink
Eye color: Light green (front) *special color, Blue (right), Pink (front), green (left)
Eyelashes: Black
Hair color: Brown
Ear rings: Cherry pink hearts
Manicure: n/a
Set includes: Doll, dress, shirt, pants, sunglasses, hair band, ear rings, socks, shoes, shorts, stand (17.5 cm tall)
Available: July 14, 2017
Retail Price: 17,900 JPY
Face color: Translucent Mocha
Make up: Eyeshadow – Dark brown, Cheeks and Lips – Almond Pink
Eye color: Light green (front) *special color, Blue (right), Pink (front), green (left)
Eyelashes: Black
Hair color: Brown
Ear rings: Cherry pink hearts
Manicure: n/a
Set includes: Doll, dress, shirt, pants, sunglasses, hair band, ear rings, socks, shoes, shorts, stand (17.5 cm tall)
Available: July 14, 2017
Retail Price: 17,900 JPY
Clothes used for the pictures: Pineapple dress, headband, bag in yellow by Oh!Melina, Maryjane Barbie shoes in mint by Mattel, Blouse and pants from Pineapple Princess stock outfit by Takara.
BLYTHOPIA 
Great review Katie! I felt the same before i opened her and was afraid something was wrong with her. Then when i did open her, sure enough she had a scratch across her cheek that was prominent, but luckily also obvious in photos.
I did try to contact Magma Heritage and they told me that if i couldnt see it across the room then thats not a quality issue, but in the end they finally agreed to talk to Takara/hasbro for me. But a few days later they just replied and told me to contact Takara directly, with a Takara japanese link that i couldnt even open. And when i contacted Magma again, they just ignored me and did not reply.
So lesson learnt, be careful of buying from Magma they just ignore you! Although now it seems junie moon/takara is also making it hard for us to return a doll due to quality issue.
Well this is a guest review written by Ben 🙂 He did a great job. Yeah they really do seem to make it hard when the doll has issues. I am so glad I have been too lazy to send anything back.