From that teaser video, it looked to me like there weren't any changes to the bunny. However when I pulled them out the box, I could immediately see they were brighter than the originals. Comparing the two, the pink shading is definitely more neon toned here and there's more of it, most notably down the nose. There's not as much black in the eyes either this time. I also feel like there's a slightly glossier finish compared to the matte original. Still not gnome shiny, but shinier. Obviously the heel tip and ribbon through it's neck have changed too. I've also lined them up in order (I have everything but the flocked version), from original bunny to gold, glitter, jelly and the new neon. The new colouring fits very well with the neon flashing sign theme the rest of the shoe has.
One of the most obvious differences is the fawn heel, Fantastic Fawn.
While the mould hasn't changed, it's had a complete colour makeover. Instead of brown, it's lilac and has hearts and flowers painted instead of white spots. There's glitter on the painted bow, mirroring the uppers and also glitter inside the ears this time. It was obvious from the teaser video that this heel had a big change and I think it's worked out so well. It's stunning in real life and very fitting for the colourful garden theme on top. Though it's had many uppers, the fawn heel has only come in one previous guise, so that's the only comparison here.
Then we have another biggish change, the bear heels.
Fuzzy McFrosty are just the original panda heel mould, which was later changed to gold bears for Squeezy. You've got exactly the same shape in them all with the baby bear huddled into the adult. Obviously being polar bears, it's all white this time. I'm not sure if it was purely aesthetics, to have some definition between the adult and baby or to imitate the difference in coats between adults and babies in real life, but the adult is entirely glitter, while the baby is painted white. Whatever the reason, it's so well done and this is one of my favourite characters now. This whole shoe is brilliantly clever actually, but I'll come to that in another post. The facial features are clear to see in black and the bears have always had quite a sullen expression, they are less cartoonish, more realistic feeling than the fawns for example. I've compared them against the gold bears, as I thought them being the one colour was easier to look at than the shading of the panda. I've lined up all three variations though and also note the white glitter used on the shoe, isn't the same as the stuff on the heel.
Kitty cat, Smitten Kitten are the first cat heel since the original release.
This time the pink shading on the cat is deeper. It's more apparent in real life than the photos here, but it's not the biggest change of the lot, it still has the blue eyes and peachy nose. You can see the heel seems slimmer out the back, the old one ran alongside the sole, the new one has a bigger gap all the way down. To the naked eye, the heel tips look to be the same size, but as there isn't a right and left heel, they can't be placed on top of each other to tell for sure. Having gone back and looked at them again, I can see that the older style heel is pushed further back in towards the insole, than the new one. Look at the photo below and you can see far more sole upwards from the ears than on the new one, so this would make sense of the bigger gap between heel and sole now.
Final comparison is the unicorn heel, Dreams Come True.
Again this was a change that was really obvious from the first glimpse we got of these. The original unicorn came with smokey-blue shading, this time it's rainbow coloured. There's neon pink around the nose and eyes, a deeper purpley-pink towards the base of the heel and lilac around the front of it's hair. The horn is pink glitter and the rest of the mane, multi-coloured, in yellow, green, blue and pink. There's less white to see on the newer version, but it's still that same matte base colour. The unicorn has come in many different uppers and heels, so I've lined them up in order. An original, gold, two-tone (smooth shimmer in colour shifting purple/green) and the new rainbow. Again it's the perfect compliment to that pastel rainbow castle upper.
If you want to see more of the dinosaur heel, Jurassotops, then I've previously written a blog post regarding the changes made to that heel in comparison to the original Roarsum. Nothing cosmetic on that one, just some technical shifts.
I'm toying with the idea of full reviews for each style, as there's so many details I want to point out, but I'm still not sure I'm up to the job. I took photos when they arrived, so I'd like to do an initial thoughts, quick look at each, but the in-depth reviews are obviously harder on me. I don't really have anywhere suitable upstairs to take decent photos and I can't manage the stairs, so this is partly why I'm unsure of when or if I can do it. I hope you enjoyed a closer look at the heels and the comparison with previous styles anyway. I'll also pop some photos on my Instagram later in the week of my shelves, as I've managed to find room for all but the dino/unicorn (they are taller so don't fit in). I had to shift my Santa's out the way and move some stuff around, but they are looking good.
It's so interesting to see how they develop over the years and to see all the little details. The attention to detail is stunning.
ReplyDeleteIt is. I love seeing completely brand new heels, but it's also interesting when you get a new take on something we already know.
DeleteIt's very clever the way they have updated and changed these heels. The designs are very eye-catching and clever. Your comparisons are very good!! I somehow don't remember the bears first time round! I wonder why that is!??
ReplyDeleteI bought tonnes of pandas, but returned a few, sold one and finally was left with just one pair, then the gold bears also came in black fur but they just had the same panda heel, which was a bit disappointing considering they had this new gold version.
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