Coraline is a stop motion animated film made by the Laika company (Kubo, Boxtrolls, Paranorman, and they even worked on Corpse Bride!). It’s based on the book by Neil Gaiman, features a unique art style, and my favorite part… A short song by They Might Be Giants. I absolutely love the Laika films, but they never seem to have a lot of merch. Understandably, they’re a little bit of a niche interest, but what little merch they do have usually ends up way overpriced secondhand on ebay. So when I found out Neca was going to make Laika figures, I flipped!
The first two, in what I hope will be a long line, are Coraline! She is about 7″ tall. Pajama Coraline was first released as an “SDCC Exclusive”, but was available after the convention at Laika’s new online shop: https://shop.laika.com/ for $45. It appears she’s sold out now, but luckily the new release of Raincoat Coraline is readily available in stores such as Toys R Us! I purchased mine for about $22.
Both figures are fully poseable with a ball-joint neck, wired bendable body, and feet/hands that swivel. Their clothing is completely removable, but I believe Raincoat’s shoes are in fact her feet, and don’t come off. I haven’t tried very hard to remove them because I do not want to risk breaking her.
Taking a closer look at the hair, I noticed it’s a gorgeous translucent plastic! Light shines through it beautifully!
And with all this articulation and detail, would you believe the best part is yet to come? But first, let’s talk about the packaging they came in….
The quality of the dolls is equal, so the price difference came down to the exclusivity of Pajama Coraline, and her packaging. The outside of her box is unimpressive, but when you open it up, it becomes a fold-out display. It’s all flat printed cardboard – but there are some LED lights behind a plastic window pane that look really cool when you light them up.
Raincoat’s box is small, and also quite unimpressive. But considering the doll is the real star of the show, that’s fine with me! My one complaint is the packaging does not indicate in any way what this doll can do! …..Ready?
The face plates are removable, and the eyes can be moved! They seriously need to advertise this quirk on the packaging!! I didn’t even know my Pajama Coraline could do this until I noticed a lot of the Raincoat Coralines had super derpy positioned eyes in the store.
And the absolute BEST part?
They can SWAP faces!
These dolls are AWESOME! If you come across one in store, do not be turned away by her eyes looking a little off in position – you simply pop off the face plate and move them any way you want! I LOVE these Coraline dolls, and I truly hope they gain enough popularity to keep the Laika toy line going! Let’s cross our fingers for more characters in the near future!!!
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