Throwback Thursday review: Famosa Jaggets Megan Byte

Famosa isn't a crew I know too much about, mainly because they're based in Spain and don't (as far as I know) distribute dolls stateside.  I do have Nancy still, and...<hand wave> she's okay.  Her face is kinda hard to relate to, but she's okay (I like her better as a Day of the Dead doll).  Nancy has been part of Famosa's lineup off and on since 1968, while today's doll dates from one of my favorite periods for dolls, the early millennial years.  Mind y'all, the early oughts were a wonderful time for a teenage doll collector, but I don't look back on those years with immense happiness (bullying and all).  Jaggets and the smaller Jaggetis sprang from the hellish year that was 2003 (that spring was one of my worst), and Famosa apparently listed them as "one of a kind" and "fashionably styish."  Kinda like Bratz Babyz, in other words, only not nearly as vampy.  There were boys and girls in the mix, and boys were apparently encouraged to play with these dolls just like girls were, which was quite forward-thinking for 2003.  Shashi-Mi was and still is my favorite of the Jaggets, but Megan Byte was who I could afford and she's plenty cute.  From what I could decipher in this commercial, Megan Byte was either a computer whiz or an internet junkie (or both).  My particular doll is a little younger than the first Jaggets, having debuted in 2005.

These dolls remind me of Bratz Babyz (particularly the Big Babyz), Baby Face, and Baby Alive all in one.  I never was fond of Bratz Babyz (they were too risque even for my sixteen-year-old sensibilities), but I do have So Surprised Suzie and...let's go with Princess Pipp Petals this time.

Don't worry, Setsu-P, the Jaggets do not have Skittles-shaped heads like Princess does.  I was hoping that Jaggets and Baby Face could share clothes, but Megan is a little taller than Suzie is, so I think clothes sharing may be out.  Note that Suzie is still wearing her spring dress; this post has been in the making since before April 10th.

While they're not the same size, Megan and Suzie can both stand if positioned on a hard, flat surface.  Few of my baby dolls can do that. 

For some reason when I play with Megan I also include Bless You Baby Tender Love despite her being difficult to pose and despite the two not having much in common.  Probably I do it because they're both blonde, blue-eyed, and sun-kissed/tanned.  Here's how they compare; a lot had changed for baby dolls between 1974 and 2003!  I wonder if a doll like Megan would even have sold in the seventies!  Bug-eyed Blythe certainly didn't. 

All that and I've said nothing about specific sizes.  Megan is fourteen inches tall and is thus similar in size to a doll most of us are probably familiar with, the Wellie Wisher.

So Surprised Suzie is smaller than Megan by an inch or two, and NOW Suzie is in her jeans.

And lastly, since both Nancy and Megan are Famosa dolls, here's how they compare visually.  Since Nancy is dolled up for Day of the Dead she's not the best for comparison, but y'all can see she's a lot taller than Megan.  Please ignore Uncle Man-Child's stupid spy books in the background; every single book in that shelf (and all the other shelves in the front room) is a spy book.

Megan's eye color and head mold varied slightly from doll to doll, but from what little info I've been able to grub up she was always a blonde.

Jaggets' hair colors vary from character to character, but a great many of them do have the same hairstyle:  short all around with two longer bobs on either side of the head, like so.  Usually these bits are braided, and I had to redo Megan's braids. 

Megan's hair is soft and smooth, and a little yellower than Suzie's, but the rooting is very much the same.  It's pretty thick, but it's not hard to find bare patches of light yellow scalp.

Some Jaggets have mechanisms in their head to enable...talking?  Crying?  Interaction with their owners?  I'm not sure, but the mechanisms were located in the head and could be seen around the nape of the neck.  Megan has no such mechanism, which suits me just fine.  No batteries to corrode.

Y'all think I'm just a smidge pale, especially compared to Megan?  Anyway, I learned at the eleventh hour that the Summer Camp line developed highlights in their hair when exposed to sunlight, very much like Airy and Bubblegum D.J. do, so there's something to consider.  My doll is NOT from the Summer Camp line, but I thought it was worth mentioning. 

Here's Megan's face, complete with them big ol' eyes.

As I said above Megan's eye color can vary a bit; I found one freaky-looking poppet with green eyes, for example.  But my Megan's eyes are...guess what color!  Blue!

I've got three American Girls, one Cabbage Patch Kid, Terri Lee, and one of the #FailFix dolls with that combo, and maybe a few Barbie dolls that I've forgotten about, but that's it.  So Megan is blonde and blue-eyed, and her eyes are at a slight slant, like those of a stereotypical Asian doll.  All the Jaggets have eyes more or less like that, but they don't all have the same paint job.

Megan has lines radiating out from her pupil, and her irises have two light clusters and three little eyelashes.  One of the aforementioned light clusters is the same shade of blue as the lines in her iris, giving these eyes a slightly hypnotic look.  These versions of Shashi-Mi and Suzi Sprint don't have that kind of detail in their irises.  

Here's a better look at the eyebrows.  They are simple lines of paint with no details, and they're painted a smidge too dark to match Megan's hair.  Megan's wispy bangs soften them a little. 

This next bit is kinda hard to show, but I'll try anyway.  Megan has zero molding around her eyes.  The area where her eyes are painted is completely smooth.

Compare that to the eyewells of Mandy/Bless You Baby Tender Love...

...and a Baby Alive doll. 

I'll bet Megan's eyes were tricky to place. 

I like Megan's mouth a lot.  It's painted in a nice, natural, peachy shade, and the lips have some molded texture as well.  Her tongue is painted the same color, and it's a bit light for a tongue but I barely notice. 

Megan also has some peachy blush on her cheeks, like she's been playing outside.  I really like the paint on this doll; she looks summery, perfect for this time of year.  Megan's eyes do NOT make me think of candy bars like Melissa's do, but they're plenty nice in their own right.

Here's what a Jaggets body looks like.  Jaggets are anatomically correct so I'll have to tread carefully.

At the beginning I said that Megan's body was of a similar shape to the Baby Face bunch, but now that I've got Megan undressed I see how different they are.  Oh, the similarities are there, but there are differences too.  Megan's torso is thicker around the chest, so I think clothes sharing is gonna be out for sure.

Megan has a thick little torso with a rounded belly and fat pads on her chest, and a relatively smooth back with only small fat rolls.  I think her bellybutton is a riot!

Megan's legs are appropriately pudgy, but they're also fairly long for baby doll arms.  

She's got chunky hands with fat little fingers that remind me a little of very thick bananas.  The fingers have nails and knuckles visible, and...is it my imagination, or do those hands have subtly different finger positions?

Her palms are smooth, though her fingers do have creases where they'd bend.  Y'know, like if she really could bend her fingers.

Megan has short, thick legs with subtly sculpted knees and HUGE FEET!

Dig those feet!  Those are Hobbit feet if I ever saw 'em!

Her feet are mostly smooth on the bottom, but her soles have a few creases.  So cute!

Megan's joints rotate, so her posing is nothing to write home about.  She can move her arms up and down like so, and I didn't show this but her arms can go all the way around.

Her head rotates...

...and it looks up a little as the head is turned around, but not much.

Hips are the same way with rotating motion.  Megan can sit inelegantly...

...and she can do splits.

I could probably also get her to balance in a walking position, as big as those feet are.

Jaggets are usually brightly clad in apparel that...normally would not be found on babies and toddlers, and Megan is no exception.

Megan's top is a mite ill-fitting, and I wonder if someone didn't try it on a larger doll at one point because it feels stretched out.  Otherwise it's a red striped tank top, and despite the poor fit it's super-cute.  Y'all know how I like polka dots?  Mama says that she prefers stripes!

The most interesting thing about this top is that the straps have zippers.

They work, too!  I don't know why the straps would have zippers, but they do and they work so I won't say much.

The interior is rough around the edges with loose threads galore, but nothing shows any sign of coming apart.  The snaps are plastic, and they're tight!  I really had to pull to get those undone.

The inside hem sports a tag, removing any doubt about the owner of this top.

The shirt doesn't feel very substantial, but the skirt does.  The material is thick and is printed with a pop art design that reminds me a smidge of Luciana's goofy Doctor Who dress.

Like the top, the skirt fastens with snaps...but there's...three of 'em.  I presume to adjust the fit.

I always snap the skirt on the second snap, because it'll fall down otherwise.  The inside is holding together better than the inside of the top, though there are still a few loose ends here and there.  The skirt also has one pleat sewn in; the back of it is visible here.

Some of the images on Megan's skirt are upside down (just as they are on Luciana's dress), with this image being my favorite.  The characters appear to be driving, and they look a little like the Jaggets dolls.

But come to think of it, they also look a lot like Na! Na! Na! Surprise dolls.  Jaggets were in stores WAAAAY before Na! Na! Na! was even a thing.  Anyway, here's what the skirt looks like on Megan; the pleat on one side and the opening on the other make it look a little like a kilt.

Lastly, big feet require big shoes, and Megan has those.  These remind me of the shoes Chuckie wore on Rugrats, wonky laces and all.

The shoes are leatherette with white stripes on the side.  They're quite robust, especially for doll shoes.

The tread is fabric, kinda like a house slipper, complete with the grippy little dots that some slippers have.  Being shoes, they're also a smidge grubby.

Lastly, all the Jaggets I ran into have pacifiers hanging around their necks.  Megan's appears to be missing the flange.

It's your basic doll pacifier, made of hard plastic and brightly colored, with the dolls' logo on the knobby bit.  

I can't for the life of me get this to stick in Megan's mouth, even though promo pics show these dolls sucking on their pacifiers.  Maybe I don't have the hand strength to get in place.  Regarding the outfit in general, I think I may be missing a piece.  I think these dolls wore diapers, but Megan's is missing and that's a shame.  Megan is anatomically correct and her skirt is short, so I'll have to scrounge up a butt cover for her.  Otherwise the outfit is what I'd expect from the Jaggets:  loud and not really what I'd picture a baby wearing, but not super-duper risque either.

Since we're talking about clothes I figure now is as good a time as any to try those cute dresses that Tam sent me back in December.  Tam suggested that these outfits might fit Baby Face dolls, but I'll try them on Megan first.

The swimsuit (bottom left) fits Megan the best, and the yellow and purple dress (bottom right) fits the worst.  It's big around the chest and rides down a lot.  The mermaid dress (top left) also does this a little, but not as much.  The dress at top right is a little big around the chest too, but the blue collar makes Megan's eyes pop.  So I got two new little outfits for Megan out of this lot, and the other two will go to someone else.

It's time for good and bad!

BAD
*The worst thing I could find about Megan are the raggy hems on the inside of her shirt, and the poor fit of said shirt.
*Most of the other problems I found are age-related (the shoes are groady in places).
*Her posing isn't great, especially when she sits.
*You get what you get with these dolls!  If you want one, you have to take what eBay has.

GOOD
*Just about everything!

I really had to nitpick to find bad things about Megan.  She's an unusual little doll, especially for a baby doll, but I like her a lot.  I like her bright clothes and her bright-eyed smile, and I love those goofy feet.  I'm not in love with how her shirt appears to be aging, and her missing pieces are kinda a bummer, but I think I can rectify that.  In fact, I KNOW I can jerry-rig a diaper.  I don't recommend Jaggets if you're mega-bothered by Bratz Babyz, because Jaggets have a similar edge to them, but if that doesn't bother you...good luck.  Pickins are slim on eBay, but you might get lucky, like I did.  You might even find a red-haired boy, like I'm keeping a low-key eye out for.  Peter Play is his name, and he's got a fauxhawk!  Overall the Jaggets are cute, somewhat unique additions to the baby doll world.  I wish they were still in production.

Much love,
RagingMoon1987