Barbie Diamond Castle Princess Liana

We bought this for our daughter's 5th birthday along with Princess Liana's partner doll, Alexa. Why 2? simply that the price had almost halved and they sing in tandem so thought we would get both.
The build quality is the usual Barbie doll quality and will withstand medium play. The shoes are awful and do not stay on, the tiara is flimsy, but otherwise pretty good. We have resorted to using blue tack in the shoes to keep them on and much better now!
The famous transforming dress: at the back of the doll is a plastic pink "clockwork" type key. You turn the key and the left and right front panels of her dress lift up and swoosh round to reveal the glittey lining panels, creating a new outfit. It is fairly successful, certainly my 5 yr old thinks it is "incredible" but I wonder about how well the mechanism will last. The dress is very stiff with plastic bits in the hem of the panel which does help to keep the panels stiff and hold their shape well. We had to realign part of our doll's dress with a few careful tugs and bending as the doll kept flashing her knickers (to the amusement of her elder sister and the upset of the doll's owner!) The downside to this is that it makes the doll feel very awkward and a little stiff when a child holds her - especially with the bulky key sticking out of her back! Not the end of the world, but not the same as the regular Barbie dolls when a child is playing. The turning of the key also switches off the music if wished - nice to be able to cut the song short if the phone rings or trying to get the dolls to sing in sync and keep wanting to restart.

The music: same quality of sound as previous Barbies, it is ok. You can hear the words to sing along and the volume is pretty loud. As an adult I would expect a little better sound quality for the price of the toy, but my daughters seem not to notice or care about that side of it! The doll sings two songs from the movie. The singing is activated by a button on her hand. She alternates the two songs. While the doll singing solo is ok, really it is designed as a duet to sing in tandem with her partner doll, Alexa. Liana's part does sound better as a solo doll than Alexa so if you are only intending to purchase one doll, I suggest considering this one over her purple friend. The idea of the button in the hands is that if you press their hands together they will sing together. Only partly successful, we often found one would start singing and have to start all over. It is suprisingly tricky to sync them exactly and my daughter resorts to lying them flat on the floor and taking a deep breath, pressing one with each hand! Not quite the simple "hold hands and sing" method as suggested by the advert!

So, all in all, I still think the doll is expensive at current prices but no doubt the price will drop further before Christmas. It is a pretty doll and will appeal to all Barbie doll loving children. Out of the two Princesses from the Parbie Diamond Castle, this one is better as a stand alone singing doll as the music does sound more convincing than Alexa. The dress is a bit gimmicky but kids will love it anyway.

My daughter got this doll for xmas and her friends all have one, they absolutely adore it! This seem to be one of those toys that are for kids but not for the adult to admire. When I was little the barbies were less stiff, had better quality and actually lasted for years on end. I can't see how this doll will last for 8 years and still be playable, I can't even see it manage more than a year.

Cons: You can't change the dress and the spinning mechanism in the back do works but mostly amazes pre-schoolers and young school children. It's legs are stiff hard plastic, painted in fuschia to look as if she's wearing panties and they are completely unbendable. She can still walk though, in a very robotic way, not the usual barbie's softer plastic and bendable legs.
The voice with songs does work but I was surpriced how short the songs were, two seconds "lalalaa" and then a silence and then a few more seconds of "lala"-ing a bit of melody from one of the songs. And that is truly it.
The songs are short, simple and annoying. The hair has also already started to break. My daughter takes good care of her toys so that truly did startle me.

Pros: The fabric for the dress is of good quality and oh how the kids love it! I'd still buy it for my daughter even though all the cons, just cause she adores it so completely and the toy doesn't have any health regulation issues that I can see.

I'd rate it one-two stars but my daughter would rate it five stars, so it got four stars cause I'm very sure that a lot of kids does love this toy.

Got it out of the packaging to find it does precisely none of the things it is supposed to do....
Battery could be flat (??) or simply lousy workmanship. No idea which, but don't buy one.