Goldie Blox review!

Finally got my hands on a GoldieBlox!

I know, I know... they've been around since 2013, so what took me so long? 

(Well, the price for one. I'm the type of person who'll pay $24 for a fashion doll with extra clothes, but not so much for a smaller doll, even if she does come with building supplies. >_>)

So I waited til she was on Amazon (at a slightly more reasonable price of $16, though she's currently going for $18 if you don't want to pay TRU prices).

If you are unfamiliar, GoldieBlox was started by Debbie Sterling, as a toy to introduce girls to engineering and "disrupt the pink aisle". Sadly, when I've seen GB in stores she's almost always in the crafts, far away from the pink of the "girls toys" aisles and a little hard to find. Plus, our Walmart doesn't carry them at all, our local Aaron Bros doesn't carry the dolls- just the playsets- and I couldn't find them at the Staples, either. However, I have seen them at Toys R Us, and they have a variety of specialty toy stores listed on their webpage. So I don't know how much disruption they're causing- as the doll aisles are almost always empty but there tends to be plenty of GB over in the crafts section. Hmm.


 Anyway, the intention is good- (from the website):

"At GoldieBlox, our goal is to get girls building. We’re here to help level the playing field in every sense of the phrase. By tapping into girls' strong verbal skills, our story + construction set bolsters confidence in spatial skills while giving young inventors the tools they need to build and create amazing things. 

In a world where men largely outnumber women in science, technology, engineering and math, girls lose interest in these subjects as early as age 8.  Construction toys develop an early interest in these subjects, but for over a hundred years, they've been considered "boys' toys.” GoldieBlox is determined to change the equation. We aim to disrupt the pink aisle and inspire the future generation of female engineers"

Admirable u_u As a mom whose daughter went through an inventor phase in her early years but is now desperately trying to retain her interest in science and math (as it gets more and more involved) I love the idea of this.

But how does she fair as a toy?

back of the box

The box has a simple, sweet outdoorsy design (refreshingly lacking in pink, as promised). 

Note: They don't HATE pink, they just want to include all colors of the rainbow :) 

The back has a little intro, and a pic of a little girl having a ball getting her Goldie to move. The drawings are cute, and the doll looks just like the character here. 

Cute ^_^ not sure about Blox-eriffic >_>

The packaging is simple to open, just a single sticker holding it shut and a single plastic piece inside (extra parts were found in a plastic bag at the bottom of the box. Goldie is held onto the plastic bubble with three easy to remove twist ties. 

no awful ties through the back of the card

Easy Peesy!

Caveat: The pieces visible from the front AREN'T held in especially well. Well I turned her over to untwist the ties everything came out and I lost a piece immediately :( 

This is what (almost) everything looks like once its freed, and then everything in the box: 

 (It has a handy guide and easy to read instructions)

Goldie is about 6" tall, so she's like a spunky kid sister to most fashion dolls. Her face reminds me a bit of the Disney Stores Zarina (the pirate fairy). 

Could be the smirk

Her hair is soft and fluffy and impossible to tame. The texture reminds me a little of La Dee Da's hair (forgive me I'm not familiar with the doll hair types). It's a very bright yellow, with lighter streaks on top, and it FEELS thin, but there is a LOT of it. I could barely hold it back for pics ...

her ears are HUGE and its adorable.

Can you see the highlights?

Goldie has 9 points of articulation- her head spins all the way around, her arms lift up and down and rotate (after a little forcing), her legs bend back and forth, and her elbows and knees bend but do not rotate. Pretty impressive for such a little thing (she has more articulation that most fashion dolls!). She reminds me more of an action figure than a doll.

 As shown above, her hands can grip little things like her trusty wrench :)

Her clothes are molded onto her, and as you can see she's wearing a lavender overall, with a white tee (with yellow stripes) underneath. There is a cursive "L" on her pocket, which is perplexing? Her shoes are a  bright salmon color (see? a little pink doesn't hurt!) and her utility belt is a turquoise color with a gold G shaped buckle. I almost found out the hard way that it is NOT removable. 

oops (its glued together)

Also, the wrench does not fit in the spaces provided u_u

Anyway, in addition to standing pretty well on her own, she also sits very nicely.

Her face is cute, with big green eyes and her sassy little smirk. She has no makeup (though her lips are pink), pale brown eyebrows, and some eyelashes on her upper lids (it bothers me when dolls don't have eyelashes?). She seems like she'd provide some decent playtime for a little one. The box says 4 and up (and I recall seeing that its for kids 4-8 but can't find the source on that), and I think she's appropriate for that age range but would probably need the contraptions and additional kits to keep an older child interested.

The kits run from $20 to $60 (for the mega building kit). As I mentioned previously, the kits can be found at Toys R Us, Aaron Bros, Staples, and toy shops like Gepettos. The builders survival kit looks like it has pieces to build things like cars, carnival rides, buildings etc. Like Tinker Toys :D

Looks like fun! My own kiddo is turning 15 in a couple weeks, and though she will occasionally pick up her Monster High dolls, or her Littlest Pet Shop animals (for stop motion projects), she seems a little beyond Goldie and her building kits (though I'm sure if I bring one home she'll want to help put it together- she tends to start a project, get me or the boyfriend involved, and then end up inching away as we allow the project to slowly take over our lives XD {see: the radio she asked him for help building}). As she is not so interested, I will probably pass Miss Blox along to a friend with a 7 year old and see what she thinks of it.

(And I have to add, as a person of Mexican descent (who grew up with hundreds of blonde dolls available but very few who looked like me) I usually prefer dolls that are brunette (just a personal preference) as there are so many blonde dolls on the market. Nothing wrong with blond hair, of course, it's just nice to see different races and skin tones in a doll line. It would have been nice if Goldie's other kits came with different dolls, representing a variety of girls. However, I'm not all that pressed about GB since she is a take on "Goldie Locks", and a new toy line, besides. Plus the commercial has a number of girls of all ethnicities:)

LET'S BUILD SOME .... STUFF!!!!

I am hoping for some friends for Goldie in the future and look forward to seeing what they bring us :)

Now, unfortunately I have to bring this review to a close. Remember the caveat earlier? Yeah.. I kinda lost a piece and it is GONE. And sadly, the construction of the contraption requires that sixth smaller post u_u

I'm missing a little purple piece T_T

(Plus I'm realizing that my cameras white balance is WAY off, lol, sorry about that). All in all, she's cute, and could be fun...  they just need to go on sale. $24 for a doll with some easily lose-able parts is not in my budget, but if you can find her on sale she's worth it. (Also- you can email them for missing pieces, it says). 

Will check in again with a kids opinion, and in the meantime I'm working on collecting 18" play dolls for some comparison shopping. Thanks for reading!