40 - lt skin, dk brown hair, dk br eyes, Jess mold

[Memory]

Miss JLY 40 is the Not-Jess with shoulder length straight hair similar to #28, the Not-Marisol. She is shown above with two original Jess dolls and she is wearing the 2009 Meet outfit. The Jess with her hair loose is Chas and the one still with braids is Iris. My #40 is named Zimmerie.



Chas' hair is wavy and has auburn highlights and a zigzag part. Zimmerie's hair is bone straight, dark brown with no highlights and has a finer texture, more like Julie's hair. As you can see when she's upside down, it doesn't have as much body as Chas' hair does either.



I was concerned about the change in jointing that Mattel made since the last doll I bought. Zimmerie's legs are a little loose for a new doll and her left arm doesn't stay up as high as Chas' does, but overall the joints seem fine.





I was surprised that Chas' hair appears to be the same length as Zimmerie's. Certainly the Jess wig has more styling options than the not-Jess wig has and I think if I could have pulled one of Chas' curls down, her hair would be a bit longer than Zimmerie's in the back.



None of my Jess dolls have much facial color in terms of rosy cheeks and neither does Zimmerie. I will probably add a little blush for her later on. Iris' eyes seem just about the same as Zimmerie's - the dark brown is almost solid and the shape and size are similar.



The consistency of Zimmerie's hair is very similar to that of a long, straight Blythe wig, if you're familiar with those. I prefer the texture of the old PM AG wigs but it's totally a matter of taste.

Here's another hair comparison, this time between Zimmerie and Minuette, who is a 2006 or 2007 JLY #27. Min's hair is layered and somewhat straight, but it falls beautifully and has tons of BOUNCE! Zimmerie's is much thinner -- and in fact, I could see sections in her wig where the hair had been trimmed out to keep the sleeked down look.





A word about her meet outfit: smallest undies I've ever seen! I think Mattel should go to a thong to get more coverage! I don't like the style, the finishing (no hems on the sleeves and the top is one piece, pretending to be two) or the size (the pants are too short in the crotch) but I do like the shoes. I seldom keep dolls in their meet outfits anyway, aside from the Ready for Fun one.

Overall I give #40 a "B". She has the classic Jess face that I love and I like the length and style of her hair. I wish the wig had more texture and body. Her joints were not as loose as I'd feared they might be. Given a choice of buying a Jess on ebay or buying #40, I would definitely go for Jess. It's easy to rewig Jess and turn her into a doll similar to #40, if that's what you are looking for. And Jess has an extra sparkle that #40 seems to lack. But Zimmerie will be staying. I like her much better than my Ivy dolls, both of whom have been "re-homed".

[Memory]

Late last night it occurred to me that #40 would be a perfect companion for #25 because their hair is similar but the parts are on opposite sides. So here are three more comparison photos, one with Jess and two without.







I like the combination of Rose (25) with Zimmerie.

[AG2Elizabeths]

Question...Is the hair shape, length, and texture (basically everything but the colour and part location) identical to Emily the historical? It looks that way...Maybe 40's hair is a bit shorter?

[reason]

[Here are some photos and slightly modified comments that I posted in another thread. Mollyfelicity suggested I add these to the review thread, so here goes!]

Before I bought my #40, I was curious about the color of her wig, because it is described in the catalog as dark-brown, but #30 is brown-black. Some people report darker wigs (rollsinsnow says that hers is black), but PleasantMemories calls her dark brown, and lighter than other black-haired dolls.

So there must be some amount of color variation in the #40 wigs, and my gal's hair is closer to the dark brown that PleasantMemories describes. Here is my Betty in 40s garb, and I think you can see a little of the brown sheen in this picture.



It's a little difficult to tell with the lighting, but the following picture shows a little more clearly. I'm holding up the pack of bobby pins we bought which were labeled "black" but which are actually half true black, and half dark brown. My 40's hair is closer to the brown pins than the black.



Overall, I'm pretty tickled with my #40. I've made almost no progress on sewing/building/writing things for Betty's world, but I'm having fun learning some new skills.

Here is a final picture of her in modern clothing. She's a cutie!



And a note on her hair length: I think it is about the same as #28, so it is long enough for very simple styles but not much more. Just putting the barrettes in her hair for the 40s style was a little tricky. The hair had a tendency to flip straight back, so I had to pin the front sections carefully to make them blend back in with the rest of the hair.

[reason]

There seems to be some variation in color, but my #40's hair is a very dark brown. If you just saw the doll in isolation, you might call it black, but if you compare it against something true black it is noticeably brown.

[meilee8]

I have #40 too. She's a cute doll and I definitely recommend her. But if your into hair styling, like me, get #30 instead. That's the only thing I don't like about her. But that's just me. Now, on to the review:

Hair: Like I said, nice pretty hair. Short, but that's expected. You can't do much with it, but I have short hair to so I get that. Sleek and shiny at first but after a while it frizzies. Grade: B+

Face: Love the Jess Mold! Some people say it doesn't look Asian. I sorta agree. Compared to other American Girl Molds it looks Asian; however stand her next to JLY #4 and bam! It turns sorta Caucasian looking. But she's super cute! Grade: A

Eyes: Her eyes are pretty, dark brown. Not much to say about them. Grade: A+

Face Paint: I love her face paint. Not to dark but not to subtle. Lighter than JLY 55 (as far as photos go...) but way brighter than PM dolls. It's really cute. The only thing I might suggest is that they used the brown paint at the corners of the eyes like they did Ivy but that's ok. Kind-of strange how only Ivy got that though. I have the brown corner thing too, its rather common. Grade A+

Body: Nice body. Joints are a bit loose but are ok. Nice enough to pose, just not the "Most" flexible and long holding. This was right out of the box.

Overall, great doll. Some minor funks but I still grade A+. Amazingly cute doll. If your on the fence I say "Go for it!"