Merida #2

I think I've made it quite apparent on this blog that Merida is one of my favorite Animators Collection Dolls. I love everything about her character, so when we got out Merida doll just over one year ago at Goodwill, you can imagine how thrilled I was. :)
Earlier this week, we went to Goodwill and guess what I find: another Merida Disney Animators Collection Doll. I'm not against having duplicate dolls - we have two Belle dolls and a ton of Webkinz ducks. This Merida's hair was in pretty bad condition, and there was something about it that didn't seem right. The body and limbs were smaller, the legs had painted on tights, and her head can only rotate. At first I thought maybe it was a knockoff doll, or someone had swapped the head with another type of doll. Because of this, I decided maybe I wouldn't get it, but she was a $1, so why not?

We brought Merida #2 home and I compared her to our first Merida. (I put Merida #1 back in her original dress for comparison purposes.)

On the left is new Merida, Merida #2, and on the right is old Merida, Merida #1.

Here you can really see the difference in the dolls. Not just the hair, but the dress and the feet.

The face molds are the same.  Merida #2's hair is a lighter red, and her eyebrows are lighter, but other than that, they're the same.

Merida #1's dress is quite different than the one on Merida #2.  It has a lot more detail, the dress is a darker blue color, and the gold ribbon is longer and has a different design on the front.

It doesn't really show up on the picture, but Merida #2's dress is made of a sparkly fabric, the ribbon and collar are super simple, and the dress is also shorter in length.

As you can see here, their legs are different.  Merida #2's legs stand wider apart and are much thinner.

Here I made an animated gif showing how much Merida #1's head can pivot and move.

Here you can see that Merida #2's head only rotates and cannot pivot at all.

Merida #2 is definitely a lesser quality doll, with less details and a very simple body. Is she a knockoff doll? I don't think so:
2 years ago, in December 2016, we visited a Disney store and it was really fun seeing all the dolls and various Disney toys physically in the store. I remember there was display for the Disney Animators Collection dolls where at the top there were three dolls looking down at you.

Hello up there! #disney #disneystore (Photo from my instagram.)

I remember thinking something looked off with the dolls, like they looked a little bit smaller and lesser in quality as they're just for display purposes.
I'm thinking Merida #2 was a doll like the ones pictured above, used only for display purposes and somehow wound up in Goodwill. I think in that case, she's a rare doll as I haven't been able to find anyone else with dolls like Merida #2 (smaller body, lesser quality, etc.)

Either way, I cleaned up Merida quite a bit with a magic eraser, soaked her hair in fabric softener, brushed it all out, and re-curled it like I did with Merida #1 a year ago.

Before:

 

After:

Her hair isn't perfect, but it's better than it was before. And I'm really happy to welcome Merida #2 to our growing doll collection. :)