Hasta La Gadget!

Mattel’s Dora Links Doll ($59.99 list for ages 5 to 10), a new fashion doll that portrays a tween-age Dora the Explorer, could be a great toy. But you must connect it to a PC to make it work, so make sure you have some computer troubleshooting skills. You’ll need them.

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.