Irregular Choice Cinderella: Call Me Cinders

My third review from the recent Irregular Choice Cinderella collection is Call Me Cinders. This style along with Home Before 12 were released separately from the initial launch (more on that later). Pre-Cinderella I hadn't seen these, but the description was enough to put them on my wishlist! I actually had a really stressful day buying them when they did come out. I managed to get a bank card stopped for suspicious activity (err, shoes, not suspicious at all!), had no other way of paying for them, watched them almost sell out and my Mum, who was in Manchester at the time, got in touch at the last minute and I managed to snag the last pair in my size.  The tears and tantrums were for nothing though as they got restocked later, but how was I supposed to know that?  Don't even get me started on the "live help" from a certain store that told me literally an hour before they launched that "no, doesn't look like we're getting either of those styles in", then proceeded to guilt trip me by telling me how she wished she could afford to buy Irregular Choice and then how quickly this stuff usually goes (as if I wasn't stressed enough).  Anyways, they arrived and actually I ended up with two pairs exactly the same size (don't ask) and here they are.      

Given that this collection lacked character heels, CMC and HB12 were definitely the "all singing" styles. Based on the amazing ballerina heels we saw in 2014, Cinderella is encased in the signature IC carved perspex heel and actually twirls inside! I know, it's incredible!  Before I talk more about that, I'll take a look at the actual shoe. It's a lace-up shoe-boot, exactly like the Glissade styles. There's a large, slightly tapered, platform sole and wedge heel. The platform and surround of the heel are covered in glitter. From afar it looks to be silver, but when you look up close it's actually made up of several colours, just like Sparkling Slipper. FYI, HB12 have gold glitter exactly like Gracious Dreamer.
Unusually the uppers are actually the same fabric as the insoles (for the whole Cinderella collection), the magical blue castle print. I have Sky Fox where the soles mirror the uppers, but you don't usually find the inners as outers, especially in a limited collection like this. It actually happened three times in Cinderella with Faith In Dreams and Believe In Magic too. The trademark blue shade very much fits in with the Cinderella theme anyway. Another inner/outer feature is the pale pink Cinderella heart below the ankle, which is also inside every style in this range. It's a nice touch to add a bit of contrast colour, which is mirrored with the pink organza ribbon laces and actually picked up in the print. The shoe is also trimmed with distressed metallic silver leather.
The toe is very rounded and bulbous, which I tried to capture in these photos. I must admit I did a double and triple take trying to figure out if I'd definitely been sent two different shoes and not two for the same foot. There's not an obvious inward curve, but having two pairs, I could see they were both exactly the same.
The soles are the same as the rest of the collection, with Cinderella on one and the horse and carriage on the other. Given the bulkiness of the shoe, you'd think the base would be large, but you can see the soles are actually very slim on these. There's a large portion of the picture you can't see when you compare it to my other styles.  The tip of the sole at the toe end is also set-back from the toe of the shoe, but flush at the heel end.  
Now for the special heel. Cinderella is wound up using the key in the sole. This was really well thought out on the original ballerina and is the same here, with a hole cut out in the sole and the key set back up into the hole. You flick the ring down, wind it up, then flick it back up, so you can walk freely on them without putting any pressure where you shouldn't or scraping anything (while Cinderella moves if you wish). Cinderella spins very slowly, but I have to be honest and say I do miss the magic of the music that came with the ballerina heels. I believe this was the issue for the delay on these styles as they originally had music, but had to be removed. You can actually see in the photo I took below, that the cylinder with the dots on it (sure there's a more technical or musical term for it!) where the keys would usually strike in a traditional music box like this, is still inside the heel (it'll move as Cinderella does, so it couldn't be removed). It's the keys which have been taken out (so you know if you were brave and got in there and got one of those metal key strips, you might be able to hear something)! I wouldn't recommend it though!! I think it was an issue with licensing because that's separate to that of the Disney logo and everything else, hence why some embroidered lyrical quotes on the samples were changed to regular quotes from the film. It's still an incredible feat getting a figure to spin within a shoe, but it definitely would've been enhanced with music. You'll just have to hum your own tune when showing people!  I have a video of them rotating here on my Instagram.   
Cinderella herself is dressed in the famous blue ballgown, which is covered in glitter with long gloves. Her hair is up and there's tiny painted details there, like her hairband, choker and even individual eyelashes. Note the scale here, significantly smaller than the gnomes or Santa and even Alice, who had been one of the more detailed heels. I love that the underside of the footbed is mirrored silver, not only reflecting Cinderella as she twirls, but giving you that sense of the grand, spacious ballroom and the small figure within it. Annoyingly both my figures refuse to finish spinning, facing out the back.  They sit side-on facing into each other, which is actually quite cute I suppose!  The pair I returned did (like my ballerinas) face out the back, but I preferred this pair for other reasons.  I think they were facing properly when I got them, but no matter how much or little I play them, they just always end up back there.  I don't suppose it matters much.  More for health reasons (the fact I'm rarely out) than anything else, I still haven't worn my Glissade shoes outside, but I admit they do scare me.  I'm terrified, more of someone else kicking or knocking them by accident and dislodging the figure inside.  So I definitely thought a lot about whether or not it was a waste to buy another similar style.  Maybe now that I have these and the Glissade, I'll be braver about wearing one.  I certainly bought them with that being my intention, it's just never happened.  I took the Glissade to physio once, but held my breath the whole time as they passed them around and oohed and ahhed over them.  I think I told you about my Mum's brash friend too, who grabbed them as she was here when they were delivered and was not very gentle with them.  Ah another heart attack moment!  I've walked around the house in these a couple of times and there's no creaking or wobbling Cinderella that I can see, so I'm thinking she's reasonably solid in there, but obviously a certain amount of care is to be taken when wearing something so precious.         
What do you think, do you like these?  Did you get these or the pink HB12?  For fit information, I reviewed them here on The Shoe Girl Diaries.

No items were gifted.  Post contains some affiliate links, all opinions are my own.