A Look at Coraline Bendy Dolls from NECA
And so CORALINE the movie premiered February 6th in the U.S. [tagged] and while I eagerly await (an drastic understatement, mind) the film's opening in Singapore in April (*pulls-hair*) I thought to check out the current toys - more specifically the 7 inch tall Coraline Dolls from NECA (this too, after all, is predominately a "toys"-blog, innit? heh). CLICK THRU for Doll-piccies, as well as impressions from a owner of the doll :)
As far as I know, NECA's Coraline dolls were released in January 2009. Jenn aka "esmereldes" (aka "Nightfall") has posted her "Raincoat"-Coraline on her flickr along with some comments [used with kind permission]:
JENN: "She's bendy, so you can pose her, but not as well as a Pullip* or anything ... One funny thing is that her eyeballs move, tho again, not very well. I spent a while trying to put them in the right place! XD" (Personally, I reckon the cat used in Jenn's diorama set is adorable!)
(FYI: A *Pullip is an equivalent of a Blythe Doll - in articulation and play)
Referring to my question of articulation and body-form, JENN adds: "The doll is not really articulated, she's got wrist joints (they rotate, but don't move up and down) and the arms and legs are jointed at the shoulder and hip so you can move them up and down. But the legs and arms are otherwise just bendy, so no knees and elbows joints. I don't think the body part is meant to be swiveled or anything, that just seems to be a solid piece."
JENN: "She doesn't actually come with a shirt on under her raincoat, btw, which I found disappointing. She's wearing some random shirt I stole from a tiny teddy bear. It's too big for her. I am wondering if she might fit Kelly clothes or something? She's super-skinny tho... "
As much as I'd lurve to ask someone take a pic of Coraline sans clothing, it'll just come out reading uber-weird and perverse (too late!) -
Well, Coraline novella-writer Neil Gaiman of coz was given a goodie-bag with the dolls, toys, stationary etc - which looks like a real sweet goodie-bag given out at premieres, for which I wouldn't be invited to any in the first place, innit? bah :p
"NECA is proud to present several new Coraline figures! Our 3” PVC line consists of three prepackaged sets, each with their own version of Coraline and her guardian cat, along with several friends and the evil Other Mother. Our Bendable figures also present Coraline in a 7” form! Super poseable, she comes in three different versions; each with its own unique head sculpt and clothing." [via]
THREE Coralines were released - dressed in Striped Sweater, Raincoat & Boots and PJs - as well as 3 different facial expressions. The trio shown above were from the NECA website itself, while the decidedly different expressions (and more "expressive", IMHO) shown below were pilfered from Blister Japan (no idea of timeline of pictures tho). And I am uncertain if the PJs-Coraline includes the blankie shown below too. Well, at the very least this post will serve an archival / reference purpose then? (heh).
Now I don't know if the eye-ball-system is still accurate and in-place tho (image below via Blister) but I reckon would be fab if it is, as it perhaps does provide Coraline the Doll with an added "life" beyond the silver-screen and the hands of stop-motion animators LAIKA, yeh? I'll be interested to see if anyone attempts to animate their own Coraline Doll for their own short films and stories too tho ~ *Cool*
UPDATED 12.02.09: From a Coraline-owner (who chooses to remain Anonymous - thanks anyway for the pics-use!) comes a few images showing were her face-line is, to be removed for adjusting of the "eye-balls":
