I half unboxed the doll to get to the instructions and the first thing I noticed was that the color change feature is temperature based (reminds me of a Barbie I had as a kid). This feature bothers me a bit because the instructions state that you fill the insert that's in the blue stylus with water and put it in the freezer for a few hours. Who wants to open a toy and find out they have to wait a few hours to play with it? Not me and definitely not any child I know. This also means that once the area of the doll warms up again the drawings fade, usually in a few minutes. I can see where this provides an unlimited drawing area, but I can see this frustrating some kids who have to keep going back over what they drew to make it visible again. You can also dip the arms and legs in cold water and draw on them with the friction stylus, but this way doesn't work as well, at least not for me.
On the plus side if you take the ice stylus over the top of the torso (the only part of the torso that can be drawn on) there is a neat design hidden. Also the cute ears or antenna, which ever they may be (there are molded ears on the head) attach into holes on the wig to better keep them in place. I like that this set has add on packs that contain extra wigs, clothes and fins, which are great and can be used to accessorize some of the other dolls but overall I prefer the Create A Monsters.
