Doll Review: Berenguer Boutique Twins

Berenguer Boutique Baby Doll Twins are made by JC Toys and are available from Smyths toy shop for £34.99. Although Berenguer dolls used to be made in Spain, the twins were made in China. They're soft bodied dolls with vinyl heads and limbs and are 38cm tall. They are dressed in matching outfits and shoes and come with dummies, bottles and a blanket each. The boy twin comes with a hat and the girl twin comes with a headband, but I forgot to put them on for the photo.

Although one is dressed as a boy and one is dressed as a girl, the two dolls are exactly the same which is a bit of a shame, especially since boy/girl twins obviously can't be identical in real life. Once you take their outfits off, there is nothing to differentiate them. Basically you're getting a set of two identical dolls with slightly different outfits and different coloured dummies.

Here is one of the twins compared to another one of Berenguer's dolls, Missy Kissy. Both are 38cm tall although Missy Kissy looks much larger. I think I don't have them lined up perfectly, but Missy Kissy is definitely bigger all round. One thing I have noticed about the twins is that they have very short arms compared to most dolls, which makes even short sleeved dresses and tops look like the sleeves are too long.

I said in my review of the Missy Kissy doll that I thought she was a bit heavy, hard and chunky and not really suitable for young children. The twins are the complete opposite. They're lightweight, even the vinyl seems softer and lighter than Missy Kissy, while still seeming good quality. Their bodies are nice and soft and they feel cuddly. I think they'd make excellent first dolls for a toddler.

Unfortunately, their soft bodies mean that they're not really able to be posed very well. Berenguer does have a soft bodied newborn doll who has much better joints that move and she can be posed in a sitting position. The twins can't sit very well and their arms tend to stay in the position you can see them in in almost all of the photos here. Below is one of the twins dressed in the same style of dress as the soft-bodied Berenguer Boutique La Newborn doll. You can see that the newborn doll's limbs can be posed while the twin's arms just stay out at her side. The sleeves of the dress also look longer on the twin doll, covering over her elbow due to her shorter arms.

The twins are leaning against my backdrop here in order to help them stay sitting up. Their legs are also bent at the knee, so they can't sit flat. They would sit better in a buggy or doll's chair.

Here are some of the accessories that the twins come with. The dummies stay in their mouths reasonably well, but the bottles that the dolls come with can't actually fit into the dolls mouths, which is a bit strange. The bottles are cute though and have little elephants printed on them that match the elephants on the doll's outfits.

One of the things I don't like about the dolls is that their necklines look messy where the head is joined to the body. The fabric is all lumpy. My La Newborn doll is the same. When the dolls are dressed, you can often still see the messy neckline showing above their clothes. Since these dolls don't have full vinyl limbs, the body fabric will show if you have them dressed in sleeveless tops or even just very short sleeved tops.

I also noticed that Berenguer does add some detail to the dolls hands and feet, which is something most doll manufacturers don't do. Personally, I think it does look a bit too pink, like they got their hands sunburned and like someone has made them wear shoes that are too tight. I think it's a nice touch though.

The outfits the twins are wearing look like two piece outfits, but they're actually a one piece romper, which does make dressing the dolls easier for younger children. It can be quite difficult dressing a doll in dungarees because the t.shirt underneath often gets pulled up as you pull the dungarees on. The outfits appear to be made from polyester and are reasonable quality. None of the seams are overlocked inside, but the polyester fabric won't fray so it doesn't need to be done. It just looks neater if they're overlocked. The necklines are made by folding the edge over, which is less hard wearing, but a lot of dolls clothes are made this way. I don't really like how they did the velcro at the back. It leaves a weird lump. It should have had a proper placket sewn so one side could lap over the other, but this is just a minor detail.

I think finding other clothes to fit the twins will be quite difficult. They are too small to fit into any Baby Born sized clothing, but too big to fit into clothing for smaller dolls like the Minikane doll. Because of their short arms they will also struggle to fit into some clothing meant for dolls their size. I have been able to dress them in shorts and skirts meant for Baby Born dolls, and I did dress them in Baby Born sized t.shirts, although the sleeves didn't look right as they were too long.

Overall, these are a cute set of twin dolls. They're soft and cuddly, have nice features and you do get quite a few accessories with them. They'd make an excellent first doll for a young child, or a nice gift for any doll loving child.