The Long-Awaited Mattel Frozen Fever Doll Review

As those of you who have lurked around my blog before know, I received an Amazon order on February 19th that really excited me. Up until now, though, I didn't have a chance to review these beautiful Frozen Fever dolls from Mattel. Lucky us, I finally got all of my pictures sorted (thank you shout out to Aighmi* for editing them for me!) AND all of my work done!

Both girls came in almost identical boxes with generic, stock-photo detailing.

I wish they had used a picture without Anna's white streak...

The only significant difference I found was that "Birthday Party Anna" was in boldface whereas "Birthday Party Elsa" was not.

Olaf is watching you.

In the top left hand corner of both box fronts was a sprinkling of flowery snowflakes with a large gap between them to show off the Frozen Fever logo.

The backs of the boxes were once again identical except for the top right corner bearing each girl's name.

I am? Really? Yay!

Just in case we forget what movie has taken the world by storm.
Pun intended.

Obviously, Anna's said "Birthday Party Anna."

Getting each girl's plastic box front off was as simple as peeling off a layer of cardboard and pulling the little plastic tabs out of their slots in the cardboard.

Since Anna is the doll I was most excited about, we'll start with her.

Getting Anna out was fairly simple.

She had clear plastic ties around her waist and ankles and her skirt was held in place with two cardboard tabs.

But, of course, Mattel did the one thing that every doll collector hates: Plastic tabs in the doll's head. THREE OF THEM. And these weren't the long-ish ones that you sometimes get- these were extremely short and tight and it was nearly impossible to cut them without cutting her hair.

I did ultimately succeed in freeing Anna from her cardboard prison, but not without a fight.

Once out, she seemed much happier and ready to be reviewed.

The ribbons from her hair accessory were held onto her shoulder with a clear rubber elastic that easily removed and didn't leave any creases in her ribbons.

Mattel Frozen Fever Anna in all
of her deboxed glory

Her hair accessory is a small sun flower with three ribbon tails that has been sewn to the base of her Cinderella-esque bun.

The bun is not accurate, but Mattel did include her braid and sectioned bangs.

Unfortunately, the braid left some thing rooting visible on top of her head.

Anna has face paint that I have yet to see on any other doll. She is extremely movie accurate and Mattel has outdone itself.

Anna's outfit is absolutely adorable and (confession time!) I've already started making it in my size.

One thing that really excited me is that Anna's vest is not part of her dress- it's a separate article of clothing!

Her skirt is printed with sunflowers and two bumblebees, plus what are obviously supposed to be pockets.

Her corset has a butterfly printed on it, plus gold edging. Her bodice has cap sleeves, a mandarin collar, and a printed on medallion.

I don't have a picture of this, but because of the construction of Anna's vest, removing it requires pulling her arms back and holding them so that the wrists almost touch behind her and pulling it off.

Without her vest, Anna's corset becomes a kind of funny shape and it becomes fairly obvious that the design on mine is crooked.

In back, it appears that the person sewing the Velcro on to my doll's dress had a little trouble with the thread. Being a seamstress, I know how difficult it can be to get your thread to do what you want sometimes, so I don't really mind. I do think the way the corset's back meets up is a bit odd, and I wish the gold edging continued all the way around in back.

Anna's shoes are a metallic navy blue and have the slight suggestion of a design on the toe. Her legs are molded in pale green plastic which doesn't extend to her molded underpants. (I tried to get a picture of this, but every time I did it just looked like she was flashing the camera so I didn't include it, for obvious reasons.)

Anna has what I like to call the "five essential points of articulation;" that is to say, head, shoulders, and hips.

Now for Elsa!

Elsa's packaging was a little bit more complicated, mainly due to her fabulous cape.

There were plastic ties around her elbows, ankles, braid, and shot through several points in her cape. There was a clear plastic band holding her shoulders in.

And, of course, those three horrible ties in her head, which were even harder to remove than Anna's.

Elsa's hair is in a simple braid with a curled under end- nothing spectacular here.  The top section is in a ponytail for added volume and she has a wispy section in front. She does have a fun flower attached to one side, though.

Elsa also has a unique face that is also extremely accurate. This face comes close to being superior to the Disney Store's, in my opinion. It's the eyelashes.

Elsa's teal dress is decorated with leaves and pink flowers. Her corset has a point on one side rather than in the middle which I believe is intentional based on photos I've seen from the short.

Her skirt is an ombre green with a slit on one side and her cape is printed with glittery pink flowers and pale green vines.

And her shoes... are the most beautiful doll shoes ever. EVER.

Elsa also has five points of articulation, as demonstrated here:

I also brought up the earlier Mattel Anna's box to compare with the new one (see, Mom? This is why I keep my boxes!).

The new box is a little bit larger, though both have almost identical snowflake borders.

 It's summer in the new box's backdrop and winter in the old.

On the new box, the choking hazard warning takes up less space (as does Anna's name,) Olaf has been added, and there's a different picture of Elsa.

As for the dolls, I compared them to the JC Penney Coronation Set (JC Penney dolls have the same face molds as Disney Store Classic Dolls) and the Target exclusive Mattel Set.

JCP, Target, Amazon, Amazon, Target, JCP

As you can see, all 6 dolls are very different.

JC Penney Anna and Frozen Fever Anna are similar, but clearly not the same face mold or paint.

The two Mattel dolls are much more similar and share a face mold, but their face paint couldn't be more diverse.

*EDIT* Upon talking with Emily at The Toy Box Philosopher, I realized that the face molds for these two are almost identical, but FF Anna's teeth are molded in, not just painted on.

Of the three Anna dolls, the JC Penney doll is the tallest and the Frozen Fever doll is the shortest (not including her hair.) They have virtually identical articulation, though JC Penney Anna has click knees and Mattel makes their dolls with straight legs.

Once again, there is a definite difference in the paint and face mold of Mattel vs. JC Penney, though not as obvious (at least in face mold) as the difference between Annas. The face shape is almost identical, though Frozen Fever Elsa has a smaller nose and a pointier chin.

The difference between the Mattel dolls surprised me, though- this is obviously not the same face mold!

It isn't the Anna face, though- Frozen Fever Elsa's face is much rounder. I think she may have a new face as well as new paint.

Frozen Fever Elsa is the tallest of the bunch.

Over all, I'd give both of these dolls a 9.5 out of 10. I'm only knocking off half a point because I feel that Mattel has come leaps and bounds in terms of facial detailing and clothing quality with their Frozen ladies, but there are several things I'd love to improve. I'm getting sick of boring, straight arm/leg Barbie bodies when the Disney Store Classic, Monster High, EAH, and Barbie Fashionista dolls have so many more posing options because of the extra articulation. Heck, even click knees would be nice! I also wish Mattel would give a little more effort for Elsa's fabulous braid. Still, I absolutely adore these dolls and highly recommend both girls for collectors and kids alike. Well done, Mattel.

Thank you all for stopping by!
MyLittleMegara