How we review
What our scores mean, how we reach them, and what we cannot test.
Every review on this site follows the same structure: what the model is, who it suits, where it falls short, and what it costs to keep. The score at the top is a summary of that, not a separate opinion.
What the score covers
Build and material quality, realism relative to price, weight and handling, ease of cleaning and storage, and how the manufacturer handles support and replacement parts. A model that scores well on realism and badly on weight gets a middling score, because the weight is what people regret.
The score is relative
A score here is a position in a field, not a verdict handed down in isolation. Every review is placed against the others we have written, so a 4.2 means better value than most of what is on this site rather than a fixed grade. Products are ranked against products and retailers against retailers, because a shop and a doll are not measured on the same things. Nothing scores 5.0: we have not handled every model, and a perfect score would claim a certainty we do not have.
What we cannot test
We do not have hands-on access to every model we cover. Where a review is based on manufacturer specifications, verified buyer reports and comparison against models we do know, we say so in the review itself rather than implying first-hand testing. A specification-based review is still useful; pretending it is something else is not.
Why the cons section is never empty
Every product in this category has real drawbacks: weight, storage, cleaning time, or price. A review that lists only strengths is a sales page. If we could not find at least two genuine drawbacks, we had not looked hard enough.
How money affects this
We earn a commission when a reader buys through our links. Commission rates differ between retailers, and we do not let that decide the ranking — the ordering on this site is by score. Where a higher-paying option ranks lower, it ranks lower.