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!!!
Gee i dunno, maybe the way they had her spread her legs and make an o-face???
She has to pose, he gets to play
Asking “what’s sexual about this” is almost insidous. Sure, she’s not naked and she’s not performing any sexual acts, but that’s not what sexualization necessarily means. The girl-child is looking longinly,
languishingly into the camera. She has her legs in a short dress spread, her lips separated, and very much make-up making her look older. She is passive, for the camera/viewer, while the boy is active, joking, playing, relaxed and as a child, respected as a child. I’m sure someone might say, “but that’s you sexualizing her, with your gaze” but come on, who are we kidding here? We know the industry sexualizes young girls, we know this isn’t a coinscidence. We know this is the pattern, the model for woman according to the male gaze or woman performing for the male gaze, and we know she is 13 and that everyone knows she is. And we know this destroys girls.
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