The original series of The Friendship Kids from Kingstate, The
Dollcrafter, was released in 1998. At that time they looked very much
like the company's porcelain dolls in vinyl color, hair style and dress.
In 2005, the series was released again with a much more contemporary
look. This is one of the few doll series with boys!
The dolls are very
close to American Girl in size, though they are very slightly thinner,
and their shoe size is approximately the same. The two types of dolls
can share clothing very well.
The quality of the vinyl, cloth body and wig is quite good though not
near AG standards. The clothing is also nicely made and has good detail
like embroidery. Unfortunately, the cloth body is white which means they
do not look very good in styles that expose their torso. Their heads are
attached with a nylon zip tie instead of a string.
My biggest personal complaint about these dolls is their unnatural
appearing eyes. They are much too big and too close together. The
problem is particularly glaring when the doll is displayed with other
18" dolls. They are also pigeon toed (meaning it's hard to make them
stand without their feet pointing inward). If you can pick one up for a
discount, however, they are worth the price for the clothing alone.
New
series doll (another of Taffy's) in box
