Anyway, I swore I wouldn't buy any more dolls just for review (and I swore I was done with Project Mc2...many times) but I couldn't resist this new Project Mc2 McKeyla doll. She's a simpler version of the Lava Light doll that I reviewed back in 2015. She has fewer accessories and painted eyes. At this point, she's not mentioned on the official Mc2 website, and I've only been able to find her on the secondary market for ridiculously high prices (currently $70 on Amazon?!). Some of the Amazon buyer reviews suggest that she's a knockoff, but I had to get my hands on her to see what I could learn. Back when I bought her, she was "only" $29. I guess that's the price of curiosity.
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| Project Mc2 McKeyla's Lava Light doll...with painted eyes. |
This is what the original Lava Light doll's packaging looked like:
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| Original Lava Light McKeyla. |
And here's the newer doll:
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| New Lava Light McKeyla. |
Here's the back of the original box:
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| Original Lava Light McKeyla box. |
Here's the new McKeyla's box:
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| New box. |
Notice that the original box has a photo of the actress who plays McKeyla in the upper left hand corner. The new box has replaced that photo with a photo of the old doll--the one with inset eyes! That's extraordinarily careless:
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| I'm not the doll in this box. Get over it. |
Many of the graphics and descriptions on the box are taken from the old packaging and simply reformatted to fit the smaller size of the new box.
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| The original dolls from the first wave. |
The original Lava Light doll came with a ton of accessories:
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| The original McKeyla's Lava Light accessories. |
That doll came with a backpack, a comb, a notebook, a tablet, a stand, and a lava light project. Frankly, the only accessory I really liked from that group was the lava light. I might have even made a few comment in my earlier reviews about how I wish MGA would leave out the little plastic accessories and lower the price.
Maybe that's what they did?
The original McKeyla doll came with an outfit that included shorts, a tee shirt, a jacket, a hat, leggings, and boots:
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| The original Lava Light McKeyla. |
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| The original Lava Light McKeyla. |
She also had an awesome ring on her left hand:
One of the Amazon reviews I read said that the new doll does not have the ring. Bummer.
Here are a few more photos of the original McKeyla:
Before and after her hair was brushed.
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| The original Lava Light McKeyla. |
Ok, now let's go back and look at the new doll:
MGA Entertainment probably covered their bases with this statement on the bottom of the box:
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| "Contents, including specifications and colors, may vary from photos depicted on package." |
The new doll comes with her own version of the lava light instruction booklet: 
The box contents have been updated, but the ring is still listed:
I checked my doll more closely, and sure enough! The new doll has the little ring. Yay!
But the photograph on the instruction booklet is still of the older doll with inset eyes:
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| Misleading evidence. |
At this point it's probably obvious, but I'll say it anyway: based on the appearance of the doll's packaging, instructions, and clothing--she's not a knockoff. She's just a pared-down version of the earlier doll.
I wasn't originally going to take the new McKeyla out of her package, so I pulled the backdrop out of the box to get a few clear pictures:
The plastic lava light accessory is just like the original. It lights up and everything:
McKeyla has the highly-articulated, flat-footed version of the Mc2 body. Her owl shirt, shorts, leggings, and boots are the same as the ones that came on the original doll:
I was fully prepared to be offended by the new face and the lack of inset eyes...
...but I actually think the new face is very nice!
The eyebrows are lighter and less harsh than they were on the original doll and the green eyes are very well-painted and have a distinctive iris pattern that's reminiscent of the inset eyes:
Here's a close-up of the original McKeyla's face for comparison:
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| The original Lava Light McKeyla. |
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| The original Lava Light McKeyla. |
And here are the two dolls side-by-side:
Old Lava Light McKeyla (left) and new Lava Light McKeyla (right).
I tend to love inset eyes, but I think I like the new face more than the old one.
The new McKeyla's lips look quite different to me (she looks happier!), but I think it's mostly because of a different paint job. I think the two dolls have the same face mold.
I really wanted to know if the quality of this doll's hair had improved at all, so I finally caved and took her all of the way out of the box:
This way I can show off her ring, too:
The hair on this McKeyla is shorter and less curly than the original doll's hair. It was much easier to work with right out of the box!
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| New Lava Light McKeyla's hair. |
Here's a reminder of the rat's nest of hair that came on the original doll:
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| Original Lava Light McKeyla's hair. |
The new hair is still coarse--especially at the ends, but it's a nice improvement.
This doll poses nicely and has good balance, at least while she's wearing her shoes:
Overall, I was surprised by how much I like this happier, simpler version of McKeyla.
It's clearer from peering into the box that there's not much included for the project, too, which sets up more realistic expectations than the busy, full-looking boxes of the earlier dolls.
Bottom line? As pleasantly surprised as I was by this doll, my feelings about her are dependent on what her actual retail price is. Has anybody seen her out there in a store yet? If she's priced under $10 (or maybe even under $15), then I think this is an interesting move on MGA's part. They've trimmed the extras to offer a highly-articulated doll with a cute face and a fun project for an affordable price. However, if this doll is selling for a similar price to that of the older project-based doll sets (~$20-25), I'm not as impressed.
Source: http://www.toyboxphilosopher.com/2018/06/a-project-mc-2-mckeyla-with-painted-eyes.html
