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Rochelle review and thoughts (Mattel version)

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  • Rochelle review and thoughts (Mattel version)

    Ok, I am going to be really honest about this: My daughter loves Rochelle and she is a very nice addition to the collection, however I am a little disappointed in the execution and quality of the toy itself especially if they are making her as rare as 1 per case pack in addition to just 1 case type.

    Rochelle doesn't look as sleek as she does in the movie, the casting seems more bulbous and the plastic wings and engines seem chunkier than they should be. Perhaps thicker plastic gives it more strength and breakage resistance from real play with kids. but the wings look about 1.5x thicker than Ishani. Then again, perhaps Ishani is more of a glider and Rochelle is more of an aircraft so this may be justified.

    I don't know if anyone has noticed that the Mattel Plane's propellers are aerodynamic, as in, they have a dimensional torsion on the propellers and if you blow on them, they spin, like a pinwheel. This was a very nice detail that I really liked about Planes toys. All of the planes have this detail, with the exception of the 'Turbo Charged Dusty' whose propellers are straight and squared off. If you blow on it straight on, it does not spin at all. NOW ADD TO THIS LIST: Rochelle.

    Ned and Zed's propellers have a slight angle, (much less than previous planes), to the propeller, but it is still there, yet much more difficult to spin by blowing on them. Again, compare this detail to Ishani's propellers which spins with the slightest breeze.

    Then I have a universal criticism about the yellow tips on the propellers which look like they were painted with a brush that needs more paint, (due to too thin of a paint layer and streaking with black spots showing through), this seems to be symptomatic of all Planes I've purchased; but Rochelle is the worst yet. Rochelle includes paint drip marks going beyond the tip of the propeller. There are also some very miniscule spray splattering on the 'starboard' wing (lol does this terminology apply to airplanes?) where the border between the red and white part of the wing is fuzzy. These are easily corrected though, by scraping off the extra paint with a sharp razor.

    Again my daughter loves her and I am very happy they made a Rochelle. I don't want to be too harsh with this review, after all, it is just a toy. But Ishani was so perfect, my expectations were let down a little in Rochelle. And the comparison is fair game as it seems Mattel is trying to choke the supply of Rochelle to increase overall consumer demand of the Planes toy line.

    These are just my surface observations, giving all praise to a manufacturer with no criticism allows no room for improvement. :P

  • #2
    I know I'm not alone in thinking DS Planes make their Mattel equivalents look and feel well, a bit cheap and nasty in comparison. And that's before you get to the very noticeable scale difference.

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