While my daughter and I were able to get the doll to do all the things in the commercial— change her eye color, hair length, and "makeup" and jewelry colors—it took a long time to update my PC laptop to work with the doll. The installation took over an hour over a broadband connection! And Dora Links wouldn't work with my Mac. These are not the kind of things you'd like to find out on Christmas morning, or on one of the nights of Chanukah or Kwanzaa.
The only way to get the doll to change hair, makeup, and so on is by connecting her via USB to the computer. When we took Dora Links out of the box, she asked (in character) to be connected to the computer. And when my daughter played with the doll when it was
not connected, Dora Links kept asking to connect (by asking to go to the beauty salon).
The interactive games in the Dora Links program consist of several mystery-solving "quests," which foster problem-solving and interpersonal relationships. The games update as you play them, changing the story Dora follows. This part is certainly fun: Like the kid Dora on TV, the tween Dora Links speaks both English and Spanish.
I had to reset my daughter's user account to "administrator" rather than the safer "limited" account, however, just so she could play with Dora Links. Also, the Quest function also stopped working after one of the program's automatic updates, and all we could do was visit the beauty salon and the town overview after that happened.
Dora Links, has the potential for hours of fun. And my daughter does love the doll, but making it work was muy doloroso.
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November 23, 2009 3:43 PM
A good review of this product, but in the future, please omit the political correctness (Kwanzaa, etc). This is a technical magazine; leave the PC indoctrination elsewhere.
December 25, 2009 10:12 PM
UGH!!! Santa brought Dora Links for my daughter and Christmas Day 12 hours later I am still trying to install this dang thing. SO FRUSTRATED! searching for answers!
December 26, 2009 10:07 AM
Me too.......my daughter keeps asking me...is she ready? I don't get it! The CD says there is an "error" and "start over"...UGH...so I tried downloading from web site......no go! What is the DEAL????!!! HELP!!!!
December 26, 2009 1:00 PM
What a horrible experiene with this doll. The makers should be ashamed of themselves. The website apparently crashed on Christmas morning, even today it is taking over an hour to download the updates and it won't connect to the internet. What is wrong with these people - don't they have kids?
December 26, 2009 1:52 PM
My daughter opened her Dora Links Doll over 24 hours ago on Christmas morning and I'm still trying to install the software (via broadband) on my pc 30+ hours later. If I knew that this product was going to be so difficult and utterly frustrating, I would've bought her something else.
It's sad and hard to explain to her that Dora WANTS to play with her, it's just that her parents (Mattel) are very strict.......
Next year, I'm doing more homework!
December 26, 2009 10:45 PM
Took almost 10 hours to get the progam loaded, but finally did. My daughter loves the doll and the program, but the eyes will not change and the hair doesn't change either. Worst of all, can not find anything anywhere in order to troublshoot the doll other than change the batteries. Ughh, if she didn't have so much fun online with the program I'd toss this in the trash. Very disappointed in this product.
December 27, 2009 11:49 PM
in order to get your doll to work you need to first plug the pink usb cord into the doll and then into your computer. Once you do this your computer will recognize the new hardware and install the doll. next go to doralinks.com and click on download at top of screen. downloading the software takes a long time. about 2 hrs even with a fast internet connection. Once software is completely downloaded a doralinkslauncher screen will open and start to update and unpack the program. this process takes awhille too but no longer than 45 minutes. after that it will say update complete and you can press play now and the program will open and you can start your new account. the cd did not work in my computer either and really is not needed if you download as instructed above. remember first step is plugging doll in with usb to your computer. forget the cd. ashame on mattel for not providing fool proof instructions. i found these instructions on ehow.com
December 31, 2009 9:39 AM
Thank you so much for the pointer.. I finally got my daughter's doll to work last night..almost a week after Xmas.
As a Software developer myself.. think I'll contact Mattel and see if they need some consulting :)
December 31, 2009 4:50 PM
Installation CD does not work. Download attempted multiple times with no success to date. 3/4 Gb download to make this work is a joke. I bet Mattel would get their act together if we all took this Dora doll back to the stores and asked for our money back. It certainly would collapse their 1st quarter revenue. Of course we'd have to take them in grocery sacks after the demolition team had to extract them from the boxes they came in. If I don't get this working soon I'm going to instruct my 7 year old that Mattel and Dora are extorting money from children and to stay away from both of them for life!
January 5, 2010 10:07 AM
Two weeks later and I am still trying to get this doll figured out. I consider myself a teck geek, but this is ludicrous. No one should have to go through this much pain to setup a doll. My seven year old basically plays with it without all the bells and whistle.If I could repackage this doll I would and take it back. Worse product ever launch and I personally would advise all to steer away from it. Morale of the story my daughter would have been just as happy without all the crap.
February 25, 2010 12:00 AM
Although we were able to download the software, we can never get our computer to connect to the site. It keeps saying we should check our firewall. We don't even have one up!
May 15, 2010 3:34 PM
i personaly dont see anthing wrong or horrid with tween dora doll but the dora links doll is way too much
July 16, 2010 10:26 AM
I am really going crazy! Since CHRISTMAS i have been trying!! I downloaded the program (after trying several times, I finally coul cause there was errors), the I Launch the program and it starts downloading new content, and the at the unpacking there´s an error and wouldn´t let me keep going. An error writing during FoxFileCopy. I don´t know what to do! Please HELP ME!!!!