Paola Reina Las Amigas Articulated

The Spanish doll brand Paola Reina established in 1994, have been working for decades to bring hope to children all over the world. This path has allowed them to imagine, to dream and to innovate.

To innovate in their process of manufacture, in the design and in the improvement of the quality of their products. They currently offer one of the most extensive and varied doll catalogues in the world, ranging from classic collectible dolls to modern dolls, dolls with mechanisms and educational babies.

This variety has allowed them to position their products in the display windows of more than twenty countries. Among the most popular with doll enthusiasts are the Las Amigas dolls.

In 2021, Paola Reina presented a collection of Las Amigas Articulated dolls.

PHOTO: COURTESY OF PAOLA REINA

These innovative dolls maintain the style and originality of the classic Las Amigas, but with an improved and more flexible body. They are made of vinyl and have 10 high quality joints in shoulders, elbows, legs, knees, waist and neck that allows each joint to move independently. Thanks to their flexibility, they can adopt multiple positions and you can place them in a wide number of poses to take photos.

Neck: Like the classic Las Amigas dolls, the head can turn to both sides.

Shoulders & Legs: They have the same joints as always, being able to move the arms up and down. The union of each leg with the hip, has a traditional joint with which you can move it back and forth.

Elbows & Knees: They have a ball joint, which offers greater flexibility of movement, allowing you to pose them in a greater number of positions.

Waist: These dolls have a new joint in the waist that allows you to turn half of their body laterally to the left and right.

I chose to order Cleo and Manica, but like many inexpensive dolls, their clothes had Velcro attached, so I made them both new sets of clothes.

Both dolls are lovely and are the same fine quality as all my other PR dolls. The new articulation certainly adds a little more "life" to them in photos, but the articulation is not as versatile as I was expecting. PR have given added movement to their elbows and knees, but the shoulders, wrists and ankles are still the same as always, with no flexible jointing.

I do love this face sculpt though, Cleo is quite the little cutie with pale pink lips and tiny scattered freckles across her nose and cheeks. Her new outfit comprises bib front overalls and top that does up at the back.

Manica is just as pretty and with those curly locks she is a delightful addition to the fold. Her outfit comprises a dress, pinafore and scarf. I used a little foxy print for both dolls, but used a different contrasting fabric; a pink and white daisy print for Cleo and an aqua blue and white check for Manica

UPDATE: April, 2024.

This month I put all my other Las Amigas up for sale, but retained my red haired Cristi and modified her.  It was a simple matter of removing her head from the standard body and placing it on the new one. This makes my trio complete.