Mattel Alana Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I have two little girls. We built them a doll house and many Barbies came with the furniture we purchased for it. The Barbies made me uncomfortable. Many of them wear a thong like underpants that is molded on the doll's body, and their chests are bared easily. Their clothes are more often immodest, and the things just don't seem that innocent, too thin, ridiculous feet. Supermodels really. Why would I want my children playing with tiny supermodels?
So I started looking for a better doll. I was going to get some shortcake dolls, but they are pretty small, and I wanted dolls that would fit in our doll house. Then I found the Explorer Girls. I was a bit unsure, but I saw they were just a little larger than a Barbie.
These dolls are excellent! Young looking, innocent, yet stylish. They have the high quality doll hair, lovely faces, and there is a doll for just about any complexion. They are just excellent. The bodies come with underclothing painted on, and the bodies are like that of a 6th grader. Not sexual at all.
When I took them out of their packaging, they are just such a wonderful size, you can pick them up and hug them. Just wonderful. I got all of them, except the main Dora Links Doll, that costs too much and looks like it does wacky things, and has a video game. I don't much care about the game.
Mom's out there, seriously, before you buy Barbie, look at these first. They are just sweet. We have Emma, Alana, Naiya, Kate, and the regular Dora with the purple/blue looking dress. My girls adore them. Please Mattel, or whoever makes them, keep doing so. We want more furniture, more clothes, maybe pets for them. Market these dolls better. Moms will love them.
These dolls have eliminated the, "Hi Ken, let's get married and kiss" play in our house. (Nothing wrong with marriage at all! But really, does a three and six year old need to be fantasizing about it already?) Now it's "Let's climb a mountain!" "Have a race!" "Look at the stars!" And even "Let's use our wicked Kung Fu moves on the bad guys!"
Hallelujah! And Goodbye Barbie. We already don't miss you. The Barbie House is now just a doll house, and it is awesome.
The Alana doll has beautiful soft hair, and velvety pants and jacket. We just love her!

Click Here to see more reviews about: Mattel Alana

Your little adventurer looking for a pal to explore with? This Dora's Explorer GirlsTM doll is sure to become her favorite companion. Alana is a sports maniac who loves to play soccer and hopes to join the track team! She is dressed in a fashionable purple track outfit that fits her personality, and comes with brush and accessories for her long rooted blonde hair. Enter the Secret Explorer Girl code included to unlock the Pinball Activity game online in the World of Dora's Explorer Girls. If you own the Dora Links doll(sold separately), the included code will also unlock Alana's own closet and bedroom location online! Minimum system requirements for this Dora Linkz item which includes an online access code:1. Windows XP® (SP3), or Windows Vista® operating system2. 1-gigahertz (GHz) Pentium® 3 processor3. 256MB of system RAM4. Video adapter and monitor witho Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher resolutiono 8MB Video RAM5. 1GB of free hard disk space6. High Speed Internet access (minimum 768kbps)7. Speakers8. Keyboard and mouse

Click here for more information about Mattel Alana

Read More...

Dora Links School Cafeteria Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)My 6 year old received the Dora Links doll for Christmas from Santa and loves it so I decided to purchase the cafeteria set for her birthday in January. It's cute, not complicated and the play food is all of a healthy nature. Even the vending machine painted on the cardboard wall is full of healthy snacks. Plus it comes with an online code that opens another fun game. I was able to find the class room and the art studio on clearance so my daughter now has all of the playsets and enjoys them all greatly.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Dora Links School Cafeteria

Unlock Classrooms in the Online World of Dora's Explorer Girls! The Cafeteria is in scale to any of the Dora's Explorer Girls dolls and comes with the following accessories: Cafeteria Background, Food Display Counter, Cash Register, Table, Chair, Menu, Food Pieces, Bowl, and Spoon . To expand your online play, you simply enter the Secret Explorer Girl code included and you will unlock a brand new location and activity in the Explorer Girls' world! PC-Compatible; Dora Links doll sold separately.

Get 40% OFF

Click here for more information about Dora Links School Cafeteria

Read More...

Dora the Explorer Link Doll Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I ordered this doll thinking that it was the Links doll that connects to the computer... my fault for not reading more closely. This is an additional doll that has a code to unlock more games on the Dora Links site. It seems to be very well made and my daughter likes playing with it, but since I didn't realize my mistake until 2 days before Christmas, we didn't have the Links doll that we needed to go with the other accessories I had purchased.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Dora the Explorer Link Doll

Unlock Dora in the online World of Dora's Explorer Girls! Dora is dressed in a fashionable outfit that fits her personality, and comes with brush and accessories for her long rooted hair. Simply enter the Secret Explorer Girl code included and you will unlock a fashion and activity online!

Get 32% OFF

Click here for more information about Dora the Explorer Link Doll

Read More...

Fisher-Price Dora Links Stylin Salon Accessory Pack Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)The toy itself is fine, and goes along with the Mattel Dora Links Doll. Each one also unlocks some additional play within the Explorer Girls world. BUT, beware of the 3rd party seller pricing (a quick online shop-around will tell you what it 'should' be priced at). It is *widely* available at big-box mass-merchandisers.
The Salon Set unlocks the disguise station within the Dora Links online world, and it does all pack up inside the little included carry case.
The Pet Set unlocks a puzzle activity within the Dora Links online world, and it does all fit inside the included dog carrier.
The Tech Tunes set unlocks a "boombox" activity within the Dora Links online world. It does not seem to have any way to keep all the pieces contained.
If/when Amazon begins to carry this one directly (not through the resellers, who set their own pricing) it will likely become reasonably priced. At the time of this review it is ONLY available through resellers who it seems are hoping to profit off of those who don't know any better. If I've saved one person from that, the review will be more than worth the time!

Click Here to see more reviews about: Fisher-Price Dora Links Stylin Salon Accessory Pack

Unlock the "Disguise Station" Activity with the "Salon Styles Accessories" for Dora & The Explorer Girls! Unlock extra wigs in the Disguise Station!Just enter the code (inside box) and you will be able to unlock a great online activity in the World of the Explorer Girls!

Get 71% OFF

Click here for more information about Fisher-Price Dora Links Stylin Salon Accessory Pack

Read More...

Dora Links School Playset Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I know there are people who are down on Dora Links.
Let me say this... even with the difficulty downloading Dora Links, it is WAY worth the trouble!
This is THE present at Chrstmas and the one that gets played with over and over again. I don't mind shelling out the cash if the toy gets played with constantly, and this one does.
Here are some tips if you are looking to buy Dora or in this case, accessories for Dora Links:
This product (the school) is as integral to the website navigation as the Dora Links is herself. You hook the locker that comes in this item up to your computer with a USB cable (not included but it is a standard cable... the same cable that we received in my other daughter's present, a leapfrog product... I think it is the same USB cable that you hook cameras up to your computer also) and this allows Dora to explore the school. The Dora Links doll allows you to explore the town. To have full navigation you plug both the locker in this playset and the Dora Links doll up to your computer at the same time.
You do not have to have this product to play with Dora Links, just like technically you don't have to have the Dora Links to play with other Dora Explorer Girls add ons but it really doesn't make as much sense when you are playing with the things... all the add ons are like individual activities if you don't buy the key components (that allow for the exploration of the city/beach/park and the school).
If you are downloading the Dora Links do it from the website (doralinks dot com) not from the cd that comes with the Dora Links doll. We could not get the cd to work and I see a lot of other people couldn't either so don't waste your time.
It takes a while to load, even on high speed internet so be prepared for this to take a good portion of the hour. If you don't waste your time with the cd some of this time will be alleviated. Do the downloading before you give the gift as is mentioned in some other reviews on Dora Links. Again, it is worth the trouble and if you have trouble with the downloading, I say it is worth it to pay someone else to download it if you must. (My daughter is a kindergartener and she is having an awesome time with her Dora Links, school, art room, cafeteria, Dora Friends, and the fashions that come with the whole Dora Links collection. My second grader loves playing with her also.)
DON'T chintz on buying the Dora Links doll... there are two Dora dolls in this collection and the more expensive doll is the Dora doll you want in order to explore the town/beach/park. The other Dora doll is like buying one of the friends... you are just going to be able to unlock two activities if you buy that doll (this is the only part of the dora collection that my daughter doesn't have, so I am deducing this from looking at the map when she plays it and seeing what she can't "unlock")
The dolls are of VERY high quality... the hair on the friends are so nice! The fashions that you buy as add ons to the collection are of very high quality. Worth the money!
My daughter is a kindergartener and is one who likes to play with dollhouses... this seems to be the "next step" for her in that type of play. Because the girls have this Puerto Verde "life" online I see her playing more with the dolls than her Barbies because of that interaction. (Similar to seeing her play more with her Webkinz stuffed animals than I do typical stuffed animals.)
Lastly, if you don't want to buy the addons (like some people have complained about on the Dora Links dolls reviews) you might want to skip the whole doll purchase. Your daughter will see the areas of the website that she can't get into (there will be a locked icon showing when you go to click on that part of the website) and there might be some disappointment. Like I said earlier, my daughter has everything but two of the outfits (the ones that are target exclusives) and one of the friends (we are waiting for it to arrive from Amazon) and the other Dora and I played it for more than an hour and I didn't get quite through all the activities on the website (and this didn't include the mysteries that you solve because my daughter hasn't played with the mysteries yet so I didn't want to explore them before she did). There is a TON of stuff and lots of variety of the website if you buy the components of the collection... well worth the money invested especially since she plays with the dolls quite a bit on their own in addition to playing online.
(P.S. We have dialup internet and she can still play... I had to take my hard drive to someone's house to download the initial Dora setup... then when I downloaded the updates (new mysteries, etc) I installed an internet download manager so that if the download got disconnected because of the dial-up internet that we use I didn't have start back at square one. You are hooked up to the internet when you play on the computer but I notice no problems with playing with this with a dial-up connection. I think it would be next to impossible to download the innitial set-up without doing it with a high speed connection.)

Click Here to see more reviews about: Dora Links School Playset

N8516Now Dora and her friends can pretend to find clues and solve mysteries at her school. This adorable play set includes a desk, a chair, a chalkboard, a locker, a pencil cup, a plant, a waste can, a trophy, a stack of books, 2 single books, and a globe. You can find endless ways to play out your Junior high Dora experience. Features: -Dora School play set. -This set creates the perfect classroom setting. -All of the accessories are in scale to links and the friends. -Age: 5 - 10 years. -Dimensions: 15'' H x 18'' W x 6'' D. Looking for expedited shipping on this item? Please give our customer service team a call!

Get 67% OFF

Click here for more information about Dora Links School Playset

Read More...

Fisher-Price Dora Links Tech Tunes Accessory Pack Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)The toy itself is fine. It goes along with the Mattel Dora Links Doll, and unlocks some additional play within the Explorer Girls world (a "boombox" activity). BUT, it is *widely* available at big-box mass-merchandisers for 65% less!
If/when Amazon begins to carry this one directly (not through the resellers, who set their own pricing) it will likely become reasonably priced. At the time of this review it is ONLY available through resellers who are hoping to make almost 3x profit off of those who don't know any better. If I've saved one person from that, the review will be more than worth the time!

Click Here to see more reviews about: Fisher-Price Dora Links Tech Tunes Accessory Pack

"Tech Tunes" Accessories for Dora & The Explorer Girls!Just enter the code (inside box) and you will be able to unlock a great online activity in the World of the Explorer Girls!

Get 71% OFF

Click here for more information about Fisher-Price Dora Links Tech Tunes Accessory Pack

Read More...