Reborn Rapunzel Doll

After a long day, I sat down at my computer to have some quiet time to myself. I spent this time lazily browsing eBay to see what other Tangled things I could find and see if there was anything new. While there were a few things that stood out as new, or at least were things I had not seen before, a familiar image kept appearing in my searches.

This is the face of a fan-made OOAK Rapunzel Reborn Doll. A reborn doll is a doll that is made to look like a child in a very extremely life-like way. They highly collectible in certain circles of doll collectors and are no doubt great works of art in their own right, even if sometimes they do tend to creep me out. Especially the newborn ones.

This doll, admittedly, did make me uncomfortable when I first saw her. The image that was used to show her off as her main sale image (the one above) was just so... odd. It wasn't just that the part was on the wrong-side of the face, but the whole outfit seemed to be almost choking the doll rather than showcase her long hair and Tangled-like outfit.

While I was not interested in buying the doll myself, I nonetheless looked over the auction and the additional images of her. There were a lot of them. Different angles, different things done with her hair, then other dolls at the end to showcase what other kind of dolls the person was making and selling; a sleeping toddler and a doll that looked more like a four-year-old child.

The doll was for sale in the United Kingdom. Some of the information was a little hard to gather, since it did not appear the person selling the doll spoke English very well or they were just terrible at spelling. Her price was about $1,200. Reading the description further, it was shown that her hair was real human hair:

"... heated irons [straighteners] can be used with human hair. Each hair is hand rooted into Rapunzel's head 1-2 hairs at a time and looks as though it has grown out of Rapunzel's [scalp]. I use expensive high quality 100% human hair, you can gently wash and treat it as your own hair."

Given that some people who do buy these dolls are attempting to cope with the loss of a child, I can see the desire for real human hair on a doll like that. There is also the who concept of it being nicer to feel than plastic hair, and a more natural artistic fiber, but given how some human hair is harvested then sold off makes me a little uneasy about the doll having human hair. Good thing I wasn't buying it.

"Rapunzel has beautiful skin tones with gorgeous pink moist lips like a real little princess."

Something about that part of the description rubs me the wrong way, no matter how innocent it really was meant to be.

"Dark brown eyelashes. Rapunzel has pierces ears, this makes her a lot of fun to play with, changing her earrings. She has one pair of diamante stud earrings. Rapunzel has realistic veining jut like a real toddler. Rapunzel is made of soft vinyl, she has full limbs and a white doe suede body."

The debate on earrings on a baby aside, there is an impressive quality to the manner in which the doll is sculpted and painted is wonderfully detailed. If you look closely at the skin, you can see where there are some veins and the shifting colors of the skin tone really do look like a living child. I can appreciate these dolls as wonderful works of art, but I do not think I would ever be caught in the complete fan-dom that they have following them.

To see the original auction, Click [[Here]]
Doll photos by Natalie (babybubblesnursery_lifelikedolls.)