Aria

First let me say that Aria is the only one of the Dynamite Girls that called out to me to buy her; initially I only wanted her outfit for one of my Misakis and planned to sell the doll nude. But once I saw her in person I knew she was here to stay.

Aria makes good use of the closed-mouth Monsieur Z headmold, though it appears to me to be a bit smaller in size than the one used by the Z girls. The face paint, however, more closely resembles the style used on Misaki dolls than the style used on the Z dolls, and the gorgeous rooted lashes only make this a more obvious comparison. She has a very tan skintone similar to (but not exactly matching) Harajuku Honey Misaki, and she uses the smaller-busted Monsieur Z body type (same torso as the Model Behaviour dolls with the first articulated FR legs). Her arms appear to be the same as Misaki arms, except she has the one new feature I hope to see on all upcoming FR and Misaki dolls: removable hands! Though I haven't had to use this new innovation yet to redress her, I'm sure as I play with her a little more I'll appreciate it completely (don't worry---it's not as creepy as it sounds, and as anyone who's had to put a FR or Misaki hand through a tight or knit sleeve knows, removable hands are a godsend).

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The pink dress she arrived in is very well-made; it's fully lined, and it has a zipper with a hook-and-eye closure at the top. The tights aren't flimsy, and her plastic shoes have a black ribbon detail glued to them to give a Mary Jane effect. She comes with a sturdy plastic saddle-type stand with an embossed Dynamite Girls logo on the base, and thankfully not too many trees or plastics had to die untimely deaths to manufacture her packaging---her box is a simple yet sturdy cardboard rectangle with a clear plastic window (not as flimsy as most Barbie boxes, but not a Fashion Royalty Fort Knox number either.)

Though overall I'm extremely pleased with her, I must admit that Aria arrived with a couple of minor issues. First, her factory hairstyle was a bit sloppy; she had many fly-aways that weren't caught up in her unevenly-placed pigtails (one pigtail was higher and closer to her ear while the other was lower and closer to the center of her nape). Her hair seems to be razored at the ends, giving her a lot of shorter lengths that stick out unless her hair is gelled to within an inch of its life. Which it was, by the way (I washed it out and re-pigtailed her immediately! )

Her second issue (and a much more traumatic one, at least to me) was that her legs had a weird texture to them when I first removed her tights---it was almost as if her tights were put on her while her legs were still hot from the mold, and the texture from the fabric became imprinted into the vinyl (including the wrinkles from where the clear plastic bands held her legs to the cardboard mount). After agonizing about this for a couple of days, I decided to try fixing this myself instead of sending her back, and it turned out to be a pretty easy project (though some would argue that one shouldn't have to repair a $40 doll that just came out of the package---and I agree, but I didn't want to have to wait for her to come back to me). I simply buffed her legs down with some 600 grit (ultra-fine) sandpaper, and they turned out smooth and fabulous (like the second body-type FR legs look). No more weird skin condition...

I can't say for sure whether I'll be adding her friends Jett and Gavin to my collection, but unless they go on sale it's likely that I won't. Aria, however, is one Dynamite Girl I'm thrilled to have in my collection.