Review: King Ocean Ken Doll
It’s been a long, long time since the mermaid showdown of 2021. At first, I wasn’t interested - merpeople usually have fins you can’t remove and I haven’t yet written any storylines with fantastical creatures in them. I won’t say “never”, but at present? Nothing planned.
After seeing the prototype and realizing that the fin could be removed, I knew I had to have him - another articulated ken, buff build, with a face mold I hadn’t seen before? Uhm, yes please. I placed my pre-order and waited. I was bit nervous he’d get lost at sea, being that Mattel still won’t let me pay extra for a tracked package, but he was worth both the wait and worry.
****
For those who still haven’t gotten their pre-ordered doll: A friend of mine in Germany just got his on June 27th, 2022. I know it’s easier said than done, but please don’t lose hope or get discouraged. Mattel just appears to be behind on shipping them out. You are not alone in waiting.
Granted, he’s not as “gold focused” as his concept art, but at least he’s not blonde, like the prototype was. And actually, his fin looks pretty nice on some of my other dolls - but more on that another day. Details from the Mattel site about him are as follows.
Facial Sculpt: Julio (which is new as of October, 2021)
Body Type: Poseable Male Hero (what I call on here the “superman” or “buff build”)
Fashion: Shell-encrusted breastplate (not sure they know what a ‘breastplate’ actually is…this is more like a harness, no kink judgement), spaulder, and bicept armbands. He also has a little headband with two shell flourishes to either side (the band connecting them is hidden under his hair).
The armbands, arm fashion (with fins), and the fin itself are all removeable. If you want to remove the chest harness and hair accessories, you will need to cut some string and the actual harness itself.
Let’s see some more pictures, though, right? Right!
Here’s that pretty face, feauturing piercing blue eyes, a button nose, and a dimpled chin. Nice looking fellow. This image also shows off his various shell-themed (plastic, of course) accessories:
He sports an insane V-shape and, as you can see below in the image meant to highlight the fabric fin forearm accessories, abs for days. This poor guy must absolutely live in the gym. I’ll have to include that in whatever storyline I make for him. Yes, he’s going to become a character I can then ignore and barely write for.
😍 I absolutely love this fin 😍
I wasn’t sure I would, but it’s so pretty in person. The light hits the stiff fabric scales just so and it looks gold and pink with a shimmer. The camera doesn’t do it justice. It’s got an easy closure on the back, making it very easy to put on other dolls. You have no idea how desperately I want to show you the other dolls all playing in this fin. Must focus!
His hair is chocolate and caramel, or if you prefer a non-sugary description: brown with blonde highlights. It’s quite long, full, and extremely soft. Naturally, I had to take it down, it didn’t fail to impress.
I love that his hands aren’t flat like Logan, nor are they fists, like Cole. I think it’ll give a little more versatility for pictures.
Sadly, one of his arms has a rather sizeable crack. I may have to turn it into a scar or some such.
He has the same bodily articulation level as the Man of Steel that Cole is based on, but not the same head articulation, which I find rather strange.
On the left, you can see that Cole looks as though he’s looking at the camera, with his chin down a bit. He can’t look as far down as Logan, but he doesn’t have his chin forced upward, either. Sadly, this new guy is unable to bend his head down further than it is shown in the image and it appears to be slightly larger than the Man of Steel head. I guess this newbie’s character will also be a day-dreamer, haha.
Don’t get it twisted, mind you, a crack in the arm and a head that won’t tilt down are far from deal-breakers, especially for a new face sculpt and rooted hair on an articulated Ken doll that I was actually able to bond with.
I give this doll an 8 on the 10 scale. I hope you enjoyed the review. Have a lovely week. Let’s wrap this up with one more picture, shall we?
I can believe it’s not butter.
