Kurhn Doll: Sweet Girl Winnie

Hi, Ghoulia13 here again, bringing you the latest addition to my Asian fashion doll collection. Between Blythes, Momoko, J-Dolls and Kurhn dolls, I’ve come to embrace the fun and eclectic variety of fashion dolls originating in Asia. It seems like some of the dolls are tailored specifically to the Asian market, only to find themselves coveted by doll collectors around the world who are quickly and eagerly discovering this secret. Lately, I have been browsing an awful lot of Kurhn dolls on Ebay and AliExpress.  I have a lot of Kurhn dolls saved in my wish lists; so many that it was really hard deciding which one to buy next. Price was also a factor, to be honest, but there were a lot listed on both websites aroud the $30 mark and below. Last week I ended up buying three Kurhn dolls in one night of crazy, Diet Coke-fueled insomnia.  I paid between $20-$32 each. Today I’m reviewing the doll I bought on AliExpress.

I am new to–and a little wary of–AliExpress, but the Kurhn selection is much larger than on Ebay, since all the sellers are in China. Since I desperately wanted a new Kurhn doll, I decided to buy one doll on the website, and hope for the best. But which one to choose?! In the end, it was Winnie’s amazing hair, funky outfit and adorable panda backpack that put her ahead of the pack. Say hello to Sweet Girl, or Sweet Winnie, model #6103.

Winnie’s bold black and white outfit, paired with striking red sneakers, are what reeled me in. This doll is one of the new models for 2014, and she harks back to the early days of Kurhn Toys. The first Kurhn dolls were stylish and funky, a little over the top, even. They had hip urban clothes and hairstyles. Gradually the dolls came dressed a little more traditionally. There is still a lot of variation and style in the clothing, but the styling is a little more subdued. The earlier Kurhns had 10-joint articulation, and were replaced by dolls that were not articulated. It seems like Kurhn Toys is developing a new articulated body type going forward. Winnie is one of the newer models; hopefully the new releases will be in a similar vein.

The packaging calls her Sweet Girl, but a lot of the listings called her Winnie. There is another Sweet Girl doll that the sellers referred to as Chloe. The doll packaging is in Chinese, so I don’t know what the doll’s story and background is.  I’d really love to know what the box descriptions say. I’d also love to know more about the company that makes these dolls.

My AliExpress experience was basically a good one, except that the shipping box–and the doll box inside–were a little crushed. You can see it at the top left corner of the box. The doll box barely fit into the shipping box so there was no protective bubble wrap. Thankfully, the doll itself made it here from China unscathed.

You bet!

Sweet Girl Winnie comes dressed in a sort-of-punky, bold black and white outfit. The fabric and the stitching are really nice. The sewing is superior to the Juice Shop doll I reviewed here, for example. Her bolero jacket is made out of cotton. She wears a white cotton skirt with a lace overskirt. Her sleeveless turtleneck top and extra-long knee highs are made of stretchy cotton. Her red plastic sneakers stand out vividly against the socks. She comes with a panda backpack and a second skirt, which is an all-in-one black lace skirt and white lace tights piece.

The panda backpack has a great big manufacturer’s tag hanging off it. Don’t you hate that?

Winnie has the same generic facial expression as all the other Kurhn dolls, with wide eyes and soft, minimal makeup. Winnie’s jointed at the shoulders, elbows (but not wrists), knees, and waist. Her arms and legs can rotate to a wide degree (she can do splits!), and her head tilts from side to side as well as front to back.  Sometimes, though, dolls with jointed knees are hard to pose sitting down in a ladylike fashion because the legs don’t come together. I have a couple of Barbies that have the same problem.

I really love detailing such as this:

Check out the tiny toes! Great job on the big toe, Kurhn Toys!

Every Kurhn doll comes with some type of registration or perhaps club membership card, a…factory inspection tag? (there’s that number 3 chop again–man, I really wish I knew what all the packaging says), and a cool bookmark with a picture of the doll.

On the bookmark she’s wearing the black lace skirt with the knee socks, but in reality the black skirt has white tights sewn into it.

All in all, my appreciation for Kurhn dolls grows every time I buy a new one. There’s something about their sweetness and innocence that tugs at my doll-collecting heartstrings. The quality of the dolls is very good; the quality of the clothing seems to be improving as well.  This doll makes me very happy, and I plan on more Kurhn doll purchases in the future.

Winnie arrived in the US just in time for the Fourth of July weekend, so I thought it was appropriate to take her to downtown Salem for some summer fun.

 

 

First she paid a visit to the organic grocery store and climbed into their window box.

Then she hopped on her shiny, new red bike for a ride along the Salem Commons.

 

Then she took in some of the other sights downtown. You can’t go to Salem without visiting the Salem Witch Museum…

 

…or without seeing some of the old houses.

 

Finally, we went to the waterfront, where Winnie wanted to have her picture taken in front of the replica sailing ship USS Friendship.

 

 

It was a perfect summer holiday.

Lucky Kurhn Doll

I think it’s safe to say Kurhn dolls from China are my newest doll-collecting obsession. They’re pretty, they’re different, and many of them come with a lot of clothes or a lot of stuff. Some of the dolls essentially come with their own little playsets, minus the house or the room; the packaging’s background cards can double as a background for play. Someone on Twitter has a Kurhn doll that comes with a fully loaded pastry cart, so you know I won’t rest until I get my hands on that one.

This doll is the Lucky Kurhn doll.

 

With the exception of the doll’s name and a couple of phrases, the packaging’s text is all in Chinese so I’m not sure what the concept of her being lucky represents. Chinese New Year, perhaps? Since Chinese New Year was just last week (Year Of The Horse) I think it’s a good omen that she arrived so soon afterwards. To me she represents the seasons: her green dress and pink accessories are very spring-like, while the coat with the fur trim says winter. She comes with a tank top and flowered skirt accompanied by a big, floppy sun hat for the summer. There’s nothing here that represents autumn, but I’m going to stick with the seasonal theme for this doll. So what’s the first thing I did the day after she arrived on my doorstep?

I took her out for a photo shoot in a snow storm.

She weathered the storm very well, despite being blown around in some strong wind gusts.

She didn’t mind a trip to the harbor.

These pictures were taken on Wednesday, when I had the day off of work because of the storm. Ghouliette and I debated walking into town to take some doll pictures, but we opted instead for a trip to the water, which was much closer. Since it had been snowing for 8 hours straight and it was still coming down hard, it was a good call…

Lucky comes dressed in a voluminous A-line dress, a kerchief and matching wrap.

She also comes with a fur-trimmed coat, a skirt-and-top set for summer, one sun hat, and two purses. I love a doll that comes with a purse (or two). Her winter look:

And here’s her look for the warm weather.

The summer outfit is my least favorite outfit. The skirt…just doesn’t do it for me. As we’ve mentioned on this blog before, the design of the Kurhn doll’s clothes and accessories are cute and clever, but the quality is a little lacking sometimes. One of the fur cuffs on the winter coat is a little more uneven than the other and it’s sewn a little tighter, making it harder to get the doll’s arm into that sleeve. Otherwise, I have to say the coat and green fur-trimmed bag are my favorite pieces. I love that all the outfits use the same fabrics in different ways so that everything coordinates. The blue floral trim used along the hemline of the dress and the waistline of the coat is my favorite touch.

Another minor quibble: her hair has uneven layers. You can see what I mean in the picture of the pink stole posted above.

In internet pictures and in the package, her hair looked brown. But it looked like her hair had a copper hue to it as well. I love redheaded dolls, so I was really happy when I took her out of the package. Her hair is definitely auburn.

You can see it especially well in the pictures taken in natural daylight. Lucky Kurhn has eyelashes drawn under her eyes as well as above them. I’m not a big fan of it, although I know Ghouliette is.

There were some papers tucked into the box with the doll, along with two bookmarks. I’m going to guess that the larger paper is some type of club enrollment form, or warranty, since there are blank spaces for someone to write their name and address in? Maybe? I think the smaller form is an official factory up-to-snuff inspection form. Inspected by Number Three!

I am a big fan of surprise bookmarks.

On the whole I enjoy Kuhrn dolls and their sunny outlook on life. I will seek out more of them on the internet *cough*pastrycart*cough* as long as I don’t pay an arm and a leg for them. That fast-food delivery service Kurhn doll on Ebay is awfully cute…

You know you can’t resist this face.

This pretty much sums it all up.