Doll Review: Lots of Looks Frankie Stein
Apr. 24th, 2019 04:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hat_plays_dollsWell, it's been a while! And I've accidentally piled up a few stacks of deboxing photos, so as is usual for me, after silence comes a glut of content.
Anyway, today's doll is Lots of Looks Frankie Stein, a spiritual successor to the classic I <3 Fashion line. Lots of Looks was an alt channel line, which of course meant I never saw them in stores. I snagged mine last month on eBay for just under $20 shipped, which was the highest I was willing to go for her. For Draculaura, I'd have to be willing to pay a little more.
Boxed! Frankie comes with two pairs of shoes, a clutch handbag, a belt, two shirts, a skirt, a dress, and rarity of rarities, a pair of long pants.
Face! Yet another unremarkable reboot face, although she's from after the point where somebody figured out how to use pinkish blushes on Frankie's green skin.
Glue right in the middle of the box art again!
Okay lemme talk for a minute about how LoL Frankie compares to IHF Frankie. Because you get less, but it's less of the cheap stuff. The LoL price point was $20, while the retail price on IHF always started off at $35 (sometimes it went down to $6 on clearance, sorry, Iris and Scarah). For $35, you got an articulated doll, three complete outfits (in six-to-eight pieces), three pairs of shoes, a necklace, a pair of earrings (or two, with IHF Clawdeen), a variable number of bracelets, a purse, Some Other Accessory (a belt, an iCoffin, Venus's vines, Clawdeen's brass knuckles, a pair of sunglasses), plus a brush and a stand.
For $20, the Lots of Looks dolls come with a pair of shorts, a skirt, a pair of long pants, a dress, a fitted top, a relaxed-fit top, two pairs of shoes, and an accessory (Frankie has a belt, Draculaura has glasses. Draculaura also has a gauze overskirt thing), and a doll with five points of articulation.
Now, it USED to be that the expensive part of fashion dolls was molded accessories, because a single steel injection mold cost... like ten thousand dollars, back in 2007 or so when Robert Tonner was complaining about the cost of new head molds. The labor, however, has gotten more expensive. (As someone who sews, I actually think that's a good thing? It's skilled labor.) So it is now cheaper, on the balance, for Mattel to produce lots of injection-molded accessories that require expensive molds to pay off (but not much human effort on the production line) than it is lots of garments that require lots of people who know their way around tiny pattern pieces and industrial sewing machines.
So while the Lots of Looks line maybe has some problems?
I'm actually very impressed with the (retail) price point.
Back of the box! Frankie shows us some of the combinations she can wear. ... Frankly, '20 combinations' seems low for all the pieces.
With the seal broken! The box is nothing spectacular, but I do like how the lightning bolt is integrated into the packaging.
Frankie herself! The bubble skirt is a woven cotton-ish fabric with two elastic bands serged along the top and bottom. The blouse is a shiny knit, but the collar and sleeves are, again, woven cotton-ish.
Your average reboot-face Frankie, really-- her blush is a good color on her skin, but her paint has flaws, her hair is nylon, and there's just something inherently Frankie that seems to be missing.
Paint blob on her jawline...
Dot-matrix eye paint AND somebody dropped lint into her mascara and didn't notice it left a mess. This would be stuff I'd contact Mattel over if I'd bought Frankie in a real store instead of on eBay... but it's not like I bought this set for the doll.
I bought this set for the CLOTHES. Okay, what do you get, again?
1. Faux sweater-vest-over-blouse shirt, in white woven and blue shiny knit
2. Gray, blue, yellow, and white swing top/sweater vest that looks like she could've stolen it from Jackson, in a cotton-y knit
3. Woven blue, black, and yellow plaid bubble skirt
4. Synthetic knit blue pants with yellow thread trim
5. Cotton-ish shorts in electric argyle
6. Black-and-white lightning stripe dress with yellow serged trim and clever use of red rick-rack
7. Black triple-strap pumps
8. Silver stitch-and-nut wristlet
9. Silver riveted belt
10. Silver wedge sneakers with molded bobby socks
If you swapped out one of the bottoms for another pair of shoes, that'd be three fashion packs worth of clothes.
So, okay, I'm obviously not rolling with the Reboot Frankie that came with this set.
Here's one of my favorite Frankies, instead-- Skull Shores Frankie (on a Ghouls Rule body for those chrome bolts), wearing the First Day Of School getup (that I have since separated), gray knee socks from I want to say a very old Harry Potter doll, and... I legit forget where those shoes came from. I think the 'draw on these blank dresses' Classic Frankie. Anyway!
Athliesure Frankie! No, I actually like this kind of a lot, this looks like Frankie got roped into helping her parents clean the attic this weekend instead of going to the maul.
Shoes fit fine, leggings are maybe a little loose but not bad, and the top is meant to swing. I give it a thumbs-up!
Well, except for the holes the tag-holder-thingies left in the pants. I'm gonna have to watch those.
Faux Vest and shorts! Top fits fine, I actually really like this look on Frankie, but the shorts...
Yeah, the shorts were DEFINITELY made for shapely reboot hips. It'll only take moving a piece of velcro to snug them up so Frankie's underwear doesn't show (when I only had a handful of dolls, I used to paint their underwear. Listen the skirts are REALLY short okay) and the shorts don't just... slither on down.
The zig-zag dress, however, fits flawlessly. ... I really need a Frankie with a bold red lip. I have Gloom Beach, Scaris, and Picture Day, so that's light neutral, dark neutral, and pink. This outfit BEGS for bold red lips. Or at least more bold red accessories.
And the boxed look! Bubble skirt is elasticized so it fits great, and the belt works fine! I wasn't even a little worried about that.
See, the belt has two holes in the back. And I'm gonna say this now, I do not recognize the molds on any of the accessories or shoes in this set. Seven fabric pieces AND new molds for accessories and shoes?
And they're really nice shoes! I particularly appreciate the new character-specific sneakers, although Frankie's already had a pair of those.
IN CONCLUSION!
These are great Frankie pieces that add a lot of versatility to her wardrobe, whether you prefer Classic or Reboot dolls. The shorts need some tailoring to fit a Classic body, and the tab thingies are murder on delicate knits. If you can find Lots of Looks Frankie at or below retail price and you'd like some more basic pieces for Frankie's wardrobe, grab it, but bear in mind the pants are probably going to be a little damaged right out of the gate and shop accordingly. I am not remotely disappointed with my purchase (although I did wait until I found one for about $20; most of the options on eBay as of this writing start at $27 shipped-- which still isn't a bad price for three fashion packs).
And those budget reboot bodies would honestly make fantastic mannequins if you popped the heads off to show the weird cylinder peg. I've mentioned before-- I think with Monster Family Lagoona?-- how nice the contrapasto sculpting is on them.
Like what I do and want to help me feed my cats, but don't need anything I have for sale on eBay? You can always support me on Patreon or throw some change in my tip jar.
Anyway, today's doll is Lots of Looks Frankie Stein, a spiritual successor to the classic I <3 Fashion line. Lots of Looks was an alt channel line, which of course meant I never saw them in stores. I snagged mine last month on eBay for just under $20 shipped, which was the highest I was willing to go for her. For Draculaura, I'd have to be willing to pay a little more.
Boxed! Frankie comes with two pairs of shoes, a clutch handbag, a belt, two shirts, a skirt, a dress, and rarity of rarities, a pair of long pants.
Face! Yet another unremarkable reboot face, although she's from after the point where somebody figured out how to use pinkish blushes on Frankie's green skin.
Glue right in the middle of the box art again!
Okay lemme talk for a minute about how LoL Frankie compares to IHF Frankie. Because you get less, but it's less of the cheap stuff. The LoL price point was $20, while the retail price on IHF always started off at $35 (sometimes it went down to $6 on clearance, sorry, Iris and Scarah). For $35, you got an articulated doll, three complete outfits (in six-to-eight pieces), three pairs of shoes, a necklace, a pair of earrings (or two, with IHF Clawdeen), a variable number of bracelets, a purse, Some Other Accessory (a belt, an iCoffin, Venus's vines, Clawdeen's brass knuckles, a pair of sunglasses), plus a brush and a stand.
For $20, the Lots of Looks dolls come with a pair of shorts, a skirt, a pair of long pants, a dress, a fitted top, a relaxed-fit top, two pairs of shoes, and an accessory (Frankie has a belt, Draculaura has glasses. Draculaura also has a gauze overskirt thing), and a doll with five points of articulation.
Now, it USED to be that the expensive part of fashion dolls was molded accessories, because a single steel injection mold cost... like ten thousand dollars, back in 2007 or so when Robert Tonner was complaining about the cost of new head molds. The labor, however, has gotten more expensive. (As someone who sews, I actually think that's a good thing? It's skilled labor.) So it is now cheaper, on the balance, for Mattel to produce lots of injection-molded accessories that require expensive molds to pay off (but not much human effort on the production line) than it is lots of garments that require lots of people who know their way around tiny pattern pieces and industrial sewing machines.
So while the Lots of Looks line maybe has some problems?
I'm actually very impressed with the (retail) price point.
Back of the box! Frankie shows us some of the combinations she can wear. ... Frankly, '20 combinations' seems low for all the pieces.
With the seal broken! The box is nothing spectacular, but I do like how the lightning bolt is integrated into the packaging.
Frankie herself! The bubble skirt is a woven cotton-ish fabric with two elastic bands serged along the top and bottom. The blouse is a shiny knit, but the collar and sleeves are, again, woven cotton-ish.
Your average reboot-face Frankie, really-- her blush is a good color on her skin, but her paint has flaws, her hair is nylon, and there's just something inherently Frankie that seems to be missing.
Paint blob on her jawline...
Dot-matrix eye paint AND somebody dropped lint into her mascara and didn't notice it left a mess. This would be stuff I'd contact Mattel over if I'd bought Frankie in a real store instead of on eBay... but it's not like I bought this set for the doll.
I bought this set for the CLOTHES. Okay, what do you get, again?
1. Faux sweater-vest-over-blouse shirt, in white woven and blue shiny knit
2. Gray, blue, yellow, and white swing top/sweater vest that looks like she could've stolen it from Jackson, in a cotton-y knit
3. Woven blue, black, and yellow plaid bubble skirt
4. Synthetic knit blue pants with yellow thread trim
5. Cotton-ish shorts in electric argyle
6. Black-and-white lightning stripe dress with yellow serged trim and clever use of red rick-rack
7. Black triple-strap pumps
8. Silver stitch-and-nut wristlet
9. Silver riveted belt
10. Silver wedge sneakers with molded bobby socks
If you swapped out one of the bottoms for another pair of shoes, that'd be three fashion packs worth of clothes.
So, okay, I'm obviously not rolling with the Reboot Frankie that came with this set.
Here's one of my favorite Frankies, instead-- Skull Shores Frankie (on a Ghouls Rule body for those chrome bolts), wearing the First Day Of School getup (that I have since separated), gray knee socks from I want to say a very old Harry Potter doll, and... I legit forget where those shoes came from. I think the 'draw on these blank dresses' Classic Frankie. Anyway!
Athliesure Frankie! No, I actually like this kind of a lot, this looks like Frankie got roped into helping her parents clean the attic this weekend instead of going to the maul.
Shoes fit fine, leggings are maybe a little loose but not bad, and the top is meant to swing. I give it a thumbs-up!
Well, except for the holes the tag-holder-thingies left in the pants. I'm gonna have to watch those.
Faux Vest and shorts! Top fits fine, I actually really like this look on Frankie, but the shorts...
Yeah, the shorts were DEFINITELY made for shapely reboot hips. It'll only take moving a piece of velcro to snug them up so Frankie's underwear doesn't show (when I only had a handful of dolls, I used to paint their underwear. Listen the skirts are REALLY short okay) and the shorts don't just... slither on down.
The zig-zag dress, however, fits flawlessly. ... I really need a Frankie with a bold red lip. I have Gloom Beach, Scaris, and Picture Day, so that's light neutral, dark neutral, and pink. This outfit BEGS for bold red lips. Or at least more bold red accessories.
And the boxed look! Bubble skirt is elasticized so it fits great, and the belt works fine! I wasn't even a little worried about that.
See, the belt has two holes in the back. And I'm gonna say this now, I do not recognize the molds on any of the accessories or shoes in this set. Seven fabric pieces AND new molds for accessories and shoes?
And they're really nice shoes! I particularly appreciate the new character-specific sneakers, although Frankie's already had a pair of those.
IN CONCLUSION!
These are great Frankie pieces that add a lot of versatility to her wardrobe, whether you prefer Classic or Reboot dolls. The shorts need some tailoring to fit a Classic body, and the tab thingies are murder on delicate knits. If you can find Lots of Looks Frankie at or below retail price and you'd like some more basic pieces for Frankie's wardrobe, grab it, but bear in mind the pants are probably going to be a little damaged right out of the gate and shop accordingly. I am not remotely disappointed with my purchase (although I did wait until I found one for about $20; most of the options on eBay as of this writing start at $27 shipped-- which still isn't a bad price for three fashion packs).
And those budget reboot bodies would honestly make fantastic mannequins if you popped the heads off to show the weird cylinder peg. I've mentioned before-- I think with Monster Family Lagoona?-- how nice the contrapasto sculpting is on them.
Like what I do and want to help me feed my cats, but don't need anything I have for sale on eBay? You can always support me on Patreon or throw some change in my tip jar.
