Durability of Equestria Girls dolls?

[Lucky_Ladybug]

So while I probably will never collect the whole Equestria Girls line, I'm so nuts about Twilight that I'd like to have at least one of every incarnation of her. I was seriously considering picking up her doll tonight at Wal-Mart, but I keep being deterred by how small and out of proportion the dolls' arms are and how big the heads are. Then I tipped the box and happened to, well, look up Twilight's skirt. It looked to me like the legs and hips were awfully small and close together and cheaply done, nothing like the stronger-looking hips on dolls in days gone by.

So my question is, how durable are these dolls? Are the legs stronger than they look or do they tend to break off at the hips? Not that I'd be playing rough with them, but if the legs are liable to break off in my hand while simply holding or posing them, I would probably decide to pass.

[Galactica]

They're designed for small kids so pretty durable I'd say.

I found them to be as sturdy as any of the other plastic mass market dolls out there- they also stand up very well.  The arms I also find to be tiny- but the poseable arms on the deluxe dolls look slightly better

[spottedslug]

My 3 year old hasn't broken her deluxe Rainbow Dash, so I'd say the quality is good! She plays with it almost daily.

[girlyponce]

Half of Rainbow Dash's hair came out when I took mine out of the box  But that was a QC issue - it wasn't even rooted! The rest of her was pretty durable though 

[prancingstag]

They're fairly durable. I've been able to pose, lightly play with and (because I'm a clumsy idiot ) fumble/drop my dolls quite a number of times with no apparent damage. The only area of possible weakness I could point out is the jointed dolls knees. It can be quite hard to get the peg boots on and off the first few times until the connections are smoothed over and stretched a little. I became quite afraid for my Fluttershy's knee when I applied pressure to put on a boot and heard a joint crack instead of a pop-on noise. Her knee joint is a tiny bit loose now, but not visibly damaged, it's only upon posing that you feel the easier movement. If Twilight comes out with a jointed doll and you get her, I would recommend taking her pairs of boots and repeatedly popping them on and off a non-jointed doll first to wear them in, because it's very easy to hold the full leg and put the boots on without stressing the hip joints on a basic doll.

[Sakuyamon]

Only problem I have had with the quality, is the hair. It's really bad at the delux versions, it's a totally different type of hair so its not as soft, it tangles and is very fragile. Twi in the double pack has this hair, the Twi in the pony pack has the normal good hair.

[Pandora]

My 4 year old has deluxe Fluttershy and she's still standing.  Her hair though...well, it's still attached, but oh does it tangle!! 

[Lucky_Ladybug]

Thanks for the info, everyone! I'm glad to hear the dolls are fairly durable. That sounds frustrating about the hair, though. Ugh. I've wanted the double-pack with Twilight and Sunset, but the price keeps throwing me off. I really like that Twilight doesn't have molded-on clothes in that set, though.

[prancingstag]

Thanks for the info, everyone! I'm glad to hear the dolls are fairly durable. That sounds frustrating about the hair, though. Ugh. I've wanted the double-pack with Twilight and Sunset, but the price keeps throwing me off. I really like that Twilight doesn't have molded-on clothes in that set, though.

Sorry to disappoint, but every EQG doll has the molded clothes on their body. It's just a matter of whether they're painted over or not. Even Sunset Shimmer (she has the "singlet" type mold that you can see on basic Twilight/Fluttershy/Dash) and Celestia (she has the "bustier" type mold that you can see on the other three basic dolls). The dresses they come with cover the lines but they're still there. Doll&Pony and double pack Twilight come with unpainted bustier molds.

[hathorcat]

As others have said, the target market they are designed for and their price bracket, means they should be reasonably durable. I have only deboxed a Rarity and while she is perhaps not as complex as other dolls such as MH, I would be more confident that she is less likely to - perhaps because she has less parts to break than with other dolls in the same bracket!

[Starly]

Not all the deluxe dolls have bad hair, mine have excellent hair, though some of my others do not. I have seen an equal amount of Deluxe dashes with good and bad hair, as far as I know, if her boots are black and her 'tail' is blue and purple, her hair is good, and if she has red boots and her tail is red and blue, she has bad hair.
I have seen red boots with good hair though, also the bad hair is less shiny and more dull looking, just be careful and choose. I have seen both versions at Walmart, TRU, and Target, so it's not like 1 store only gets good/bad hair or what not. I have a black boots dash with excellent hair. Just watch you shinyness is all, the shinier it looks, the better. Though just condition it if it's really bad! It'll make it better! Not quite shiny and silky and smooth perfect, but it'll be better than before!

[Galactica]

Question for those of you who got a doll with "bad" hair-  is it like a super soft cotton type feeling? Like very obviously not nylon?

I am just asking because I just got a pony with that hair- and I'm hoping this isn't a trend of things to come...

[Sakuyamon]

Question for those of you who got a doll with "bad" hair-  is it like a super soft cotton type feeling? Like very obviously not nylon?

I am just asking because I just got a pony with that hair- and I'm hoping this isn't a trend of things to come...

You can definitively feel that it aint nylon. I do not know if you can compare it to cotton, but its slightly courser than nylon. You will feel the differances, specially when you got a pony next to it.

[prancingstag]

Question for those of you who got a doll with "bad" hair-  is it like a super soft cotton type feeling? Like very obviously not nylon?

I am just asking because I just got a pony with that hair- and I'm hoping this isn't a trend of things to come...

I got "bad hair" on my double pack and deluxe girls. I'm unsure of how exactly to describe it, but it's kind of... coarse? It feels dry and "grippy" to the touch, is kinda frizzy and tangles very easily, even just by trying to run a comb through it, knots can form pretty much in an instant. The individual strands also feel thinner and lighter than regular pony hair, and when directly compared, pony hair is more shiny-looking whilst bad doll hair is more matte-looking. I wouldn't describe it as soft feeling, the dryness and weird clingy texture stand out more. It can be fixed with leaving conditioner on the hair for half an hour or so and washing out, that makes it soft and silky and reduces the grippiness by a lot.

EDIT: Pics below the spoiler, it's difficult to photograph the differences but I did my best.

Spoiler

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Basic Twilight with good hair (untreated), double pack Twilight with bad hair (untreated), deluxe Fluttershy with bad hair (straightened with hot water and treated with conditioner)

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Basic/good on the left, double/bad on the right

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Basic/good on the left, Boutique FS Pinkie with regular pony hair in the middle, double/bad on the right

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Boutique Pinkie, bad hair Twilight

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I also took a photo with flash, good hair and pony hair are very reflective, bad hair is still shiny to some degree but more matte in comparison.

[Majesty]

Half of Rainbow Dash's hair came out when I took mine out of the box  But that was a QC issue - it wasn't even rooted! The rest of her was pretty durable though 

I've noticed that Monster High dolls do that too.  I see it when I take them out of the box and finally free them of their plastic things that keep them attached to the box.  Then, i usually brush their hair so it looks more normal and I get tons of hair coming from the head.

I kind of want to buy the Rarity doll that comes with the Rarity with rainbow hair just for the pony.  I don't usually do that, but I like Rarity and rainbow so I might do that.