Throwback Thursday review: Creatable World dc-319

It's been one of those weeks, a week that I sometimes have where I personally am fine but there's bad news all around me.  Early Monday morning a Malden lady got mowed down by a guy who was driving drunk, underage, on a suspended license, and the scuttlebutt is that this is his third DWI.  THIRD, and he's not even old enuff to drink legally.  The guy was facing charges of drunk driving, vehicular homicide or manslaughter (I don't know which), and driving suspended, but then he compounded the matter by leaving the scene of an accident!  He says he thought he hit a deer.  So his a$$ is in huge trouble now, and rightfully so.  Then on Tuesday the southeast had tornadoes coming out the ol' wazoo.  The death toll is only about three, but a lot of damage was done.  Also on Tuesday a house in New Madrid County burned down, over between Matthews and Sikeston, in an area where I've occasionally travelled.  One person died and another was injured.  Now...does any of that affect me?  No.  But I feel sorry for everyone affected, especially the husband of the lady killed here in town.  Those two walked everywhere (with guitars, no less), and what they were doing out on the highway at two in the morning is anyone's guess, but I still feel sorry for them.  Thank God, my own family is doing fine.  Animals are safe and okay, humans are safe and okay.  So I have that to be thankful for.

Now that that's out of the way, I give y'all...the Creatable World doll.  Specifically, the set labeled "dc-319."

Wouldn't y'all know I got the flash right on the doll's face!  Let's try that again. 

TANGENT ALERT:  that numbering system reminds me of the poem my dad used to recite to me.

Don't give me a DC-9
With the engine that's mounted behind
It'll tumble and roll
And leave a big, smoking hole
Don't give me a DC-9

Admittedly it was the DC-10 that had the big engine in the back, but the DC-9 also had rear-mounts too so it works.  Either way Daddy was referring to the terrible accidents that befell multiple DC-9s and DC-10s during the seventies and eighties.  In defense of McDonnell Douglas, most of the accidents were due to bad weather, pilot or ATC error, or just plain stupidity (the worst examples of just plain stupidity are here and here).  In the case of the DC-10 specifically, only two major accidents were attributed to a fault with the plane itself...but one of those accidents took the lives of 346 people (no one died in the other incident).  To make matters worse, McDonnell Douglas KNEW that the DC-10 had a problem with its cargo doors but didn't fix it right away, so the limerick holds some water.  End tangent.

I did a little digging and learned that Creatable World dolls are still being made...or they are if Wikipedia is to be believed (always take Wikipedia with about three grains of salt).  Reddit has a page discussing the line's failure, and as usual the one who created the thread suggests that conservatives are to blame for the dolls' fall.  This fat white conservative ended up getting her stuff from eBay, and Mattel appears to have archived the dolls' page, so none of that bodes well for the line.  Either way Creatable World was/is a line of gender-neutral child dolls that could essentially be what anyone wants them to be.  Boy, girl, long hair, short hair, and I think all ethnicities are available.  The various dolls got assigned numbers, kinda like Fashionistas and Truly Me dolls do, but in this case the numbers were a hair confusing.  Here's a taste of what they all look like; the number concealed by the flash is dc-073.

dc-725 and dc-220 have my favorite wardrobes of the lot, while dc-319 has the aesthetic I like.  Purple Monkfish reviewed dc-725, Miss Emily discussed options dc-220 and dc-619, and Tam also discussed dc-619.  I too was tempted by dc-619 but they're not as redheaded as they look on the box.  Don't they look redheaded???

Unfortunately dc-619 is actually a honey blonde with Justin Bieber hair, back when Justin Bieber had an obnoxious voice but was still cute.  I had no idea his eyes were so pretty!  Anyway, both Emily and Tam discussed dc-619 in fairly gruesome detail so I went with dc-319 instead.  Their name is "Joie."  Where did I get the name "Joie," you ask?  From a murder victim!

You heard her right!

What can I say?  I'm always on the lookout for unique names, and if the unique name belonged to a murder victim, so be it.  Joie is intersex, and thus uses "they" as a pronoun.  As noted above Joie is from Mattel, but they are NOT one of Barbie's friends for this reason or that.  Or at least they weren't marketed as such.  Joie is a teensy bit out of scale with Barbie anyway, though that doesn't bother Joie much.

See how Joie's head is bigger than Reenie's?  That ain't no optical illusion. 

My Naturalistas doll Liya is more in scale with Joie, but she also has a smaller head than Joie does.  That didn't stop these two from adopting each other as siblings, though!

For further reference, here's how Joie compares to Aurora, to my rebodied Licca-chan, and to Fluff, the last two of whom were under my nose this whole time (I thought they were lost in Storage Hell).  Joie is a good-sized doll compared to Licca and Fluff.

Joie also has natural-looking hair, though on a much smaller scale than Liya's.  Joie sports a short rooted 'do that's cut into a nice, neat Afro.

I love a good Afro!  The fibers are short, but they're very curly and very densely rooted.  I wasn't able to find any large bald patches.

Not bad, eh?  Now here's the wig.  

It's big and curly, and the rooting isn't half-bad.  

Now...I don't know of too many young children, male or female, who have this much hair, but far more problematically, I've read and heard horror stories about how these wigs DON'T fit well over the rooted hair.  The wigs belonging to dc-414 and dc-725 were the worst because they had a lot of rooted hair on top but nothing on the sides, and thus the wigs flat-out wouldn't stay.  Too bad, because dc-725 had a wig with microbraids.  My little doll, on the other hand...

...they actually don't look too bad in that wig!  Their rooted hair does stick out from under the cap, but in Joie's case it can be passed off as bangs.  The wig also stays on fairly well...

...though I don't advise letting Joie bungee jump like this, LOL.  Truthfully I prefer Joie with short hair, but it's nice to have a longer option too.  Unfortunately, this wig does have one fairly glaring problem...no, it has two, but one could be seen from space.  It's very hard to get all of Joie's hair tucked under the wig.

In Joie's case I can just pretend they've got bangs to go with the long wig; this explanation also works well for dc-073 and dc-220.  If I'd chosen dc-725 or dc-414 this wouldn't have flown (as I said above those two dolls can't really use their wigs).  No, in Joie's case the biggest fault with the wig is that the cap is VERY conspicuous.  None of my other wigged playline dolls have wig caps this glaringly obvious. 

Emily and Tam also noted the visible wig caps on these dolls and discussed the possibility of painting the caps to look like a headband.  But I think Monkfish had the best solution; she suggested either a softer wig cap or a clip-on fall.  Or even an honest-to-God band of hair, like more than a few Barbie dolls have worn.  Hair Fair, Hair Happenin's, Salon Surprise, and Top Model Assignment Hair all had falls of hair that were attached to colored elastic bands, and they looked...well, not perfect, but good enuff.  I wish Mattel had taken that route with Creatable World.  I love Salon Surprise Teresa, by the way; I have her packed away somewhere safe, probably with my other brunette Barbies.  That's how I organized 'em, by hair color.

Forward to the face now.  These dolls have what my dad would've called "open, honest faces."  I unfortunately have a lot of trouble photographing Joie from any distance, as their eyes are shiny.

Let's try that again.

Mmmm, a little better.  I can at least see what color their eyes are.  They've got two-toned brown eyes with longish black eyelashes and heavy black eyebrows.  The eyes have little light clusters, kinda like Licca-chan does.

Joie's lips are painted in a gentle, closed-lipped smile.  The color is...oh, I'd call that color a dull plum.  Thank God it's not bubblegum pink.

And that's it!  A very simple paint job that (once again) can portray any gender or age one likes.  That fits the doll's gimmick perfectly. 

Regarding this body, Joie is apparently prepubescent and thus doesn't have a hint of boobs or hips or anything sexualized.  Their limbs are pretty noodly.

Creatable World has a lot of the same motion as a Made to Move Barbie, and a few of the hiccups as well.  The most obvious similarity is in the ankles; I haven't met a Made to Move doll yet that could balance without her ankles collapsing, but so far Joie's ankles are fine.  It's hard to tell in this image, but they ARE standing on their own.

Admittedly I haven't manipulated their ankles much yet.  I usually leave them sitting anyway.  After growing up with dolls that could only sit like this...

...it's nice to own a doll that can sit in other positions.  Joie's knees rotate, as do their ankles, meaning that they can achieve quite a few decent poses.  They can almost sit cross-legged, though they admittedly look a little grasshoppery.

For comparison, Licca-chan, Sally Skater, and my Made to Move doll Cassandra can sit very well like this, but Licca-chan and Sally Skater have been rebodied with Azone bodies.  Sally can't sit very gracefully this way, but she CAN sit cross-legged. 

Joie can bend and rotate their knees, so they are capable of sitting knock-kneed or with their legs to the side (Licca-chan, Sally Skater, and Cassandra can do that too).  Joie admits that they prefer the latter, and I don't blame them.  

Joie can kneel pretty well, though I did have to prop them up when they were on one knee.

The hip joints are pretty average.  As y'all saw above Joie can sit, and he can sink about this deep on a side-to-side split.  That's way better than I can do, and better than Sally and Licca can do.

Joie can also achieve a bimbo-on-Quaaludes pose, and they're amazing at splits.  I may well pretend that they like gymnastics.

I used to make my jointed dolls do bridges, and Joie is quite good at that.

Regarding the arms, Joie has the ball-jointed shoulders that have thankfully become standard among Mattel dolls.  They can reach all the way out.

For comparison, Snap 'n' Play Barbie dates from 1991, and her arms only go back and forth.

Joie's elbows bend and rotate, and the joint can achieve about a ninety-degree angle.  Unlike some of my other dolls, Joie has no backbending motion in their elbows.  Thank goodness, because that always looks so painful!

The wrists bend and rotate, and they bend back about as far as my wrists do.  

As we've seen numerous times, Joie can wave.  They can do a little wave...

...or a big, I-see-my-friend-across-the-Grand-Canyon wave.

They can high-five their bestie (Fluff and Joie made fast friends).

Joie:  Gimmie five, Fluffernutter!  I love that new blouse!
Fluff:  <giggles>

They can hold Fluff close; she fits under Joie's arm perfectly. 

But unfortunately this body does have its limits.  One thing Joie can't do is touch their face, not below the eyebrows, at least.  They can shield their eyes like so...

...and with a little camera trickery I can make them look like they're whispering.

Wanna know a secret?

But to cover a sneeze they have to utilize the ol' elbow.  And yes, dolls do sneeze with their eyes open.

Ah-CHOOO!!!

Bless you!  Year-round allergies are real, y'all.  I know from personal experience, and apparently Joie does too.  Blow your nose, Joie, and let's do your neck right quick. 

Joie:  <blows their nose>

Fluff:  Well, at least you can do that.  I can't. 

Joie:  <sniffle>  I'll hold your tissue if you ever need it.

You don't find friends much more dedicated than that!  Now that that's out of the way, the neck is where Joie outdoes Licca and Sally, as neither of them ever could tip their heads, with or without their Azone bodies.  Joie can cock their head to the side, look up, and look down.  Just like Mattel dolls usually can.

Oh, I do have some Mattel dolls that can't tip their heads, but they're the exception rather than the rule...unless they're Ken dolls.  Poor ol' Ken usually can't tip his head.  Usually; the Signature Looks boys can move their heads up and down.

Sometimes the clothes interfere with Joie's movement, and that's a good place to segue into clothes.  Of all the wardrobes these dolls came with, I think mine has the least cohesive one.

Oh, it's a nice enuff size; all these deluxe dolls come with a good-sized wardrobe, but in Joie's cases a lot of the pieces don't really match.  I wouldn't dream of pairing this shirt with this skirt, for example.

Quite frankly there's not much in Joie's wardrobe that DOES go with that skirt, but...let's see, how did Emily do her doll's wardrobe?  I think she divvied it up into tops, bottoms, and accessories.  Using that formula, I've got three tops for Joie...if a jacket does indeed count as a top.

Oh boy, a zebra shirt!  This is my favorite of the tops, as y'all saw above. 

I haven't seen a doll outfit like this since I reviewed the Sparkle Girlz.  Granted, that zebra was wearing a teal hair bow and matching lipstick, but Joie's zebra looks just fine as a realistic zebra.  Speaking of zebras, the striped shirt reminds me of Fruity Stripe gum, with its colors and stripes.

I love how the stripes are different thicknesses in addition to different colors.  While this shirt may not go with all the available bottoms I do like it.  I'd have worn something like this at one time in my life.

Lastly, the jacket.  Since it's finally acting like winter outside Joie has been wearing this a lot.  It's made of leather and I thus have concerns about how this piece will age.

The box art would have us all believe that this jacket can fasten shut, but it can't.  Just thought I'd point that out.

Now, bottoms!  Skirt, jeans, shorts.

First, here's that skirt that doesn't really match much.  But then again, being camo means it doesn't clash too terribly either.

That said, this skirt wouldn't have passed muster at my high school.  Shorts and short skirts had to be hemmed, period.  I saw more of a danger in the unhemmed full-length jeans of some of my classmates; the undone hems formed big tags that acted like untied shoelaces if one wasn't careful.  But Joie doesn't go to my high school, and even though the skirt doesn't match anything I like it.  I like the shorts too, even though I'd never wear shorts like this (or any shorts) with my thunder thighs.  That said, silver goes with everything.  Kinda the metallic form of white.

I do have to admit that these look like something Richard Simmons would wear, but oh well.  Richard Simmons is eccentric, but he's pretty cool too.  Lastly there's that fashion staple that we all have, blue jeans.

It finally decided to get cold and stay cold after Christmas, so Joie has been living in these ever since I busted them out of their box.  They're nice jeans, but a little tight in the butt.  The Velcro pops open a bit when Joie sits.  I see a bad moon risin'!

Both the jeans and the skirt have real little pockets.  Joie can tuck their thumbs in there and hold some tissues in there.

Then there's shoes.  Joie has three different pairs.

The high tops look the most comfortable and help the most with Joie's balance, but my favorite pair is the yellow checkerboard pair.  I had a pair kinda like that in high school and they were also quite comfortable. 

Interestingly, Joie's accessories came in twos (unless one counts the jacket as an accessory).  They've got sunglasses and a cap.

I almost never use Mattel sunglasses, because they're almost always opaque all the way through.  Joie's glasses are no exception, though admittedly they don't look too bad.  Aviators can be mirrored or frosted, after all.

Now the hat, I like.  It doesnt match a stitch that Joie owns, but it looks good with their vinyl.

The hat doesn't fit all of Joie's wigs, though.  Yes, I said "wigs," plural.  We'll get to that.  Anyway, when Joie's hair is short the hat fits and looks cute, but when Joie wears their wig the hat slides off like so.

Oh yeah, Joie also came with undergarments.  I probably should've started here since Joie came dressed in them.

The shorts didn't fit very well under Joie's jeans, and they looked bulky under their silver shorts, but they're good for underneath the skirt.  See?  Can't even tell.

I've learned from bitter experience not to go outside in a skirt without shorts underneath, so Joie's smarter than I am.  LOL, the top is a little more versatile than the shorts, as it can be worn on its own or under the jacket or the striped shirt.  For the record, by the time I took this picture Joie's ankles had loosened significantly.  The blue sandals don't help them balance.

Notice, by the way, that I did pair the striped shirt with the camo skirt.  It's not a great pairing, but Joie doesn't look terrible.  I kinda like the overall look with that goofy wig.  That said, I think I'll pair this skirt with the other tops from here forward.  The plain white top looks great.

I guess I should also point out that this white top and shorts make great loungewear or pajamas.  Or at least in warm weather they do.  

Alrighty, that's the doll, and that's the doll's wardrobe.  These deluxe dolls came with nice-sized wardrobes, but there were also starter dolls that just came in their underwear and with a wig.  For them there were extra fashions available; I've counted three so far, and this one is my favorite.

...a rain set!  The yellow and blue makes me think of Lottie, who also loves rain.

I told y'all that Joie was a backpack type!  See?

As with Joie's stock blue jeans, their new raincoat has real pockets.  I have to bamboozle Joie's arms a bit, but they can get their hands into their pockets.

Joie's hood is also functional...at least when Joie has short hair.

The hood can also be worn down, but the vinyl is both thick and a little stiff so I have to coax the hood a bit.

In a similar manner the vinyl sleeves restrict Joie's arms, and it also makes it impossible for me to see how the joints are turned.  I have to just gently bend the elbows until I find the right position.  It can be done, though. 

Joie can sit a lot more comfortably in the rainbow leggings, though a full knee cross is still barely out of reach.  These leggings are easier to move in than the jeans are, though.

As for the shirt, it's your usual T-shirt made special with the print.  I can't help humming "Mr. Blue Sky" when I look at this shirt...or "Your Wildest Dreams," either one.

I remember skies, mirrored in your eyes!  LOL, as a last little bit, I was worried that these boots would be hard on Joie's ankles (some LIV shoes are hard on their ankles), but these go on and off with minimal problems.  Just pull carefully and no feet should be broken off.  The slits in the back help a lot.

Now, as promised, let's look at some extra wigs.  Mattel made three sets of these, and each set had two wigs, for a grand total of six.  I got the set with the straight blue wig and the curly purple wig.

The box shows how the wigs are theoretically supposed to look, with all the rooted hair tucked in.  Now here's how they fit Joie.

That purple wig is just this side of ridiculous.  Probably if I give it a chance to relax and puff out it won't look so bad; indeed, that wig is the only one with a nicely covered cap, thanks to the thick, curly fibers.  As for the blue wig, it's not so bad, but the cap is again pretty obvious, as are bits of Joie's natural hair.  I can arrange this wig so Joie's rooted hair doesn't show...

...but it doesn't really feel worth the effort, because Joie looks better without either wig.  I gotta hand it to Mattel for giving it the old college try, but those wigs, which could've potentially added a lot to this line, end up being the biggest stumbling block.  It's nice to have options available, but I usually leave Joie unwigged, with their halo of short, dark hair framing their sweet little face.

I can also check out Etsy to see what they've got.  Their wigs are fake fur wigs and are usually outrageous, but they're a lot of fun and they usually fit well.

Time to hit the graveyard!  This is fast becoming my favorite place to bring my dolls, because it's relatively safe to come here alone and because there's a lot of places to pose a small doll.  The raincoat proved to be a wise choice, because this January has been a wet one.  

This big tombstone is quickly becoming a favorite among my dolls (and me).  Cameron and Draculaura both love to perch here, and Joie does too.  They love the view, they tell me.

Oooo, but it was cold and windy and fixing to rain when I took those pictures, thus why there's only two of them.  Tonight snow is predicted, followed by nighttime lows in the teens.  I'm NOT looking forward to that!

BAD
*I'm not a huge fan of these wigs.  They could've added a lot to this doll, but...well, they don't!
*Joie is weak at the ankles.  I've read that this is a widespread problem with these dolls.
*This is largely my opinion, but Joie's wardrobe doesn't go together very well.
*I'm not sure what other clothes these dolls can wear!

GOOD
*I love this doll's no-frills paint.  A lot of child dolls look too made-up nowadays.
*I also love their short hair.  It's surprisingly thick and feels nice to the touch.
*Joie isn't as limber as the Made to Move dolls, but they have a nice range of motion in those joints.
*These dolls come with nice big wardrobes, making up for my inability to find other clothes.
*For what it's worth, these dolls also had accessory packs.  I like the clothing sets, but as I insinuated above, the wigs flop.

Mattel actually had a pretty good little doll on their hands when they made Creatable World, and in this increasingly liberal day and age I think Joie and their friends could've found an audience.  The only glaring problem I found with Joie was those wigs, and then only the extra wigs...but that's kinda enuff to kill the fun of switching the wigs around.  It was fun to switch LIV wigs around because they stayed in place and came in tons of fun colors.  Joie...well, the wigs DO stay in place, and there ARE fun colors, but I can't un-see this.

Y'all know darn good and well that some little kid will just cram their doll's wig on like that.  In Joie's case it's...not TOO big a deal since their stock wig blends well, but with the others it just looks dumb.  The dolls with partially shaved heads had the extra problem of the wigs flat-out not working at all, and I think that that may have been a big reason why Creatable World is no more.  The folks on Reddit also mentioned bad marketing, and indeed I can't even remember seeing these dolls in stores.  I heard about 'em through word of mouth and through a single Failbook ad, and in this day and age that won't cut it.  That's a shame, because I find Joie charming and innocent, regardless of how they're identifying at the moment.  

Cheers,
RagingMoon1987