The stiff material of Barbie's purple, pink, and orange sparkly dress will stand up well to lots of play. Her matching purple, high-heeled shoes, on the other hand, could get easily lost or swallowed. Parents should help with the delicate operation of cutting Barbie's tiara free from the plastic that binds it to Barbie's head. Afterall, every princess likes to take off her crown once in a while!

A Barbie with Bling
This Barbie has a lot of bling -- from the dress that makes a "bringg" sound when it flips from "plain" to "fancy," to the pendant that lights up during this same operation. Barbie's fancy dress, with a sparkling pink bodice and layers of shimmering orange gauze over pink "silk," will dazzle every girl. Plus, it looks just like the dress that Princess Liana wears in the movie.

Your child will also love being able to remove Barbie's purple tiara with its orange jewel and the purple shoes that perfectly match her dress. If your child has the "Princess Alexa" doll (also based on a character from the movie), the two dolls can sing a special duet together while holding hands. And, of course, how could you forget Barbie's hair? Long, silky, and lustrous, girls will love brushing it with the heart-shaped gold brush that's included.

A Princess from Head to Toe
We appreciated the whole princess-like package -- the tiara, the sparkly dress, the light-up pendant. Everyone child dreams of being royalty and we think think this singing Barbie will hit just the right note with your own would-be princesses. It would be nice if you could remove her princess dress for those days when Barbie wants a more casual look, but that isn't the case here. We like the hairstyle that Princess Liana sports (with two sections of hair knotted together at the nape of her neck), but we worry that younger girls might accidentally muss it with inadvertent brushing and end up with a bad-hair day for Barbie. These minor criticisms aside, we think this Barbie will be a hit with little girls even if they haven't seen the movie "Barbie and the Diamond Castle." If they have seen it, they'll love their Princess Liana Barbie even more!

Plug the toy into a TV for dual-screen action—and twice the fun!

In case you didn't catch that, this groovy teaching toy can be hooked up directly to a TV (necessary cables are included) so that kids can experience all the fun and learning on a bigger screen. When hooked up to a television, the system goes into dual-screen mode: the L-Max puts one image on the TV and a second one on its own screen, allowing players to interact with the handheld while they watch the action unfold above. An example would be the players writing the letter B on the handheld game and then seeing an animated dance the B does on the TV screen. This action is controlled by using the multi-directional control pad or by placing the attached stylus directly to the toy's interactive touch screen. When a TV is not handy (possibly when traveling between destinations) the portable game can be played in single screen mode. The full color system features a backlit screen for easy viewing and a headphone jack for quiet play.

comfortably shaped for little hands with safe, rounded edges and small enough to store or travel easily.

The device itself is comfortably shaped for little hands with safe, rounded edges, and is small enough to store and travel easily. A bonus cartridge with six educational games is included. Games offer multiple skill levels and teach kids letters, words, plants, animals, shapes, and basic math. The L-Max requires special cartridges (sold separately) for dual-screen play, but can work with existing Leapster titles. Older titles won't play on dual screens, though, and may not project to the TV. Four AA batteries are required, but not included.