Padme' vs Padme'

Back to the closet

It must be interesting to manage the toy releases for a major movie like Star Wars.  Lots of money gets made from the merchandising of a movie ("Murchandizing, murchandizing, where the real money from the movie is made!".   Yeah, I've seen "Space Balls".).  

I guess the plan was to release one set of "play" dolls last year, the "Hidden Identity", "Royal Elegance", and "Ultimate Hair", then, for the year 2000, release a new doll without the Amidala makeup in the Tatooine outfit.  That doll was the "Beautiful Braids Padme'" doll.

However, something must have gone wrong here, because this doll was did not see the same release as the other play dolls, and instead was one of the harder dolls to find.  I tend to watch eBay, and saw this doll go for much higher than it should have, $30-40-50, easily, due to its rarity.

Well, when the overstock sale started happening, some Padme dolls did get released in with the other three play dolls.  And for the same price $5.99.  So, of course, I bought one.

My plan originally was to maybe retire my makeshift Padme' doll, the Lara "Generation Girl", and let this new doll take her place. As it happens, I'm not going to do that, and I think I'll let the pictures explain why.

	Here are both dolls, side by side.  All in all, I'm pretty happy with the job I did, making the costume for my original doll. The official Padme' outfit has about the same colors, and the design is very close.  The tunic and blouse is made as a single unit, no doubt to keep it simple for the younger fingers of the little girls this doll was aimed at.  The pants are short so that it is easy to tuck them into the top of the plastic boots that have the leg bindings built into them.   On my version, the blouse and tunic are separate pieces, and the bindings are sewn to the bottom of the pants. The belt and "jewel" are similar, although mine ties, and the official one fastens in the back with velcro.  The arm bindings are plastic on the official doll, while mine are strips of felt that I tie on. I do like the pantaloons on the official doll, although not the fabric, it is too flimsy for a "farm" outfit. I also like the boots with the built in bindings, those are pretty nice.  It is a bit difficult to push the bottom of the pants back into the boot top though (You can see where they are still a bit out on one side of the doll). As to the dolls themselves, I'm not going to show them naked this time.  The official Padme' is the same body as the other play Amidala's with the exception of the face paint.  Clearly very little articulation, as with all of the dolls of this group.
The "Beautiful Braids" Padme' doll comes with extremely long hair, and a permanent bun.  The long "braids" sticking out the sides are actually wire made to look like braids and they tuck into the bun to form the loops seen.	Here is the doll's hair braided, using the long wire braids to fasten it.  I must admit, it was pretty easy to do this using the wires, so I can imagine a little girl having quite a bit of fun braiding this dolls hair.
Here is a close up the dolls face.  I like her face, and the braids are very nicely done.   The face looks very young, as it should, even if she has a big of a square jaw when seen straight on.	Here are the two dolls, side by side.  Lara is prettier, but she is older too, and probable wearing quite a bit too much make-up, particularly the blush.  She has a much less pronounced bun.   She seems taller, but actually the dolls are the same size.  Padme' has a larger face, so she seems shorter.

I was originally going to let Lara go back to being a generation doll, and let this Padme' fill in for her when I do the redressing for battle, (which I'm going to get around to doing, sometime soon, I PROMISE!!!).  I would do that, but on closer examination, I realized I would have to do major surgery on this doll to remove the bun, and the braids at the front of her head.  Now, I suppose I could buy another Padme doll, and do that, but then I'd have a Padme' that could only be used for battle.  I hate this, having dolls that I can't change very much.

There is a new Amidala doll that comes with a Qui Gon doll, dressed in the battle outfit.  The box set is fairly rare in this country (it was released in Japan only), so it is going for about $100 on eBay at this time.  Clearly, I won't be buying one of these soon.  Hey, maybe KB's will get it later this year?

And now, I'd like to make a couple of comments on the Amidala play doll line.   Basically, we have 4 dolls, two of which are designed for hair playing, one has a costume you can change around, the fourth has a mask so you can use to make her look like Padme', then reveal her to be Queen Amidala herself.  All of these dolls could be used for imaginative play, but none are designed to have their clothes changed to new costumes.  And that is generally what little girls like to do with dolls.  Since the Queen Amidala costumes and hair styles were so elaborate, I guess it isn't that surprising that they took this minimalist play route, but it is still disappointing.   I'm not sure I would have bought these dolls for my daughter, given how little play value they really have.

Which is probably why I can now buy them for $5.99 at KB's.