Playing Dolly Doctor: Sindy, Tammy, and Teresa

RagingMoon1987 here, and I've been junk shopping...again.  Ever since Johnny arrived I've had ball-jointed doll fever and I've played with him constantly, but today my attention shifts back to the play world.  There's an awesome flea market just outside Dexter, Missouri that I've never been to, and since today is nice Mama and I decided to go check it out.  The flea market has a lot of stuff, and one of the things I found, tucked away in a back corner, was a large wicker basket of Barbie dolls.  I dug through the contents to see if I could find any treasures, and needless to say I found some things.  My six new dolls are all fixer-uppers, being naked, deliciously dirty, and reeking of cigarettes.  This post focuses on the first three:  Marx Sindy, Ideal Tammy, and an All-American Teresa from Mattel.

I'm thrilled to have a Sindy in my collection.  The asking prices for the Tonner repros were a little on the outrageous side, so I never got one of those.  I was expecting to have to dig around on eBay or Etsy for a decent Sindy, but lo and behold God dropped one in my lap.

Anywho, these three are headed for THE PLASTIC BAG OF DOOM.  Teresa will also need a haircut to even out her unprofessional hair chop.

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Here's the end result.

This trio had a few surprises.  I wasn't expecting Sandy to have jointed ankles, and I wasn't expecting Tammy's hair to turn out as well as it did.  She was the holdup in posting this review  because her hair was a tangled mat.  I left her in THE PLASTIC BAG OF DOOM for a week before attempting to tame that mess.  As you can see, Tammy's hair looks great now.  I wish y'all could be here to smell her, because Tammy and her two cronies smell divine now.  No more eau de cigarette for these three!

I was also surprised and pleased to learn that Sindy and Tammy can wear Barbie clothes.  Teresa was no surprise since she IS a Barbie, but the other two are not so it was wonderful to discover that I had some things on hand instead of having to knit or buy new things.  If anyone can identify the ensemble that Sindy is wearing I'd appreciate it.  Tammy's garb came from a pack of separates that Mattel was once so good about making, and Teresa is clad in one of my favorite Fashion Avenue outfits, 52824 Tokyo Beat.  Oh, if only I'd known that Fashion Avenue wouldn't live forever!  I'd have tried harder to get more of those outfits,  because they were beautiful and of high quality. 

Keep your eyes peeled later this week for another installation of Playing Dolly Doctor, where I clean up the second half of my dolly haul.

Yours always,

RagingMoon1987 

Time to gripe: can't please everyone

Over the past couple of decades I've noticed that Mattel is extremely responsive to the complaints of its customers.  Evidence of this can be seen in the new Fashionistas and their modified bodies.  I'm not sure if Mattel wanted to shut the Barbie Body Shaming Team up, or if they are trying to compete with Lammily, but either way they've started making Barbie bodies in new, "realistic" shapes.  One of them is a heavy body, referred to on the packaging and the website as "curvy."  I'm fortunate enough to own all three body shapes, and the curvy body is...well, it's definitely curvy!

My curvy doll is on the right, and it's pretty obvious that she's got a different body shape than the others.  I owe you a review on these, by the way; I need to speak to Talolili and ask her if she'd like to do a co-review.  She too has the blue-haired doll and her opinions may be different than mine.  But I digress.

Most of the responses I've seen regarding these dolls have been positive.  Liberal-rag TIME Magazine even ran a cover story on the subject, lauding Mattel's move and attempt to be more "all-inclusive."  But wouldn't you know, someone is having a tizzy fit anyway.  Jennifer Pitt, writer for liberal-rag Huffington Post, is upset because the separate sizes are labeled.  Yeah...she's mad about LABELS!!!  The different-sized dolls are in the Fashionistas line, and good ol' Jennifer thinks that's putting an unfair label on them.  "Why can't all Barbies be Fashionistas?" she whines.  She's also upset that each size is labeled.  Don't believe me?  Read the article!

Jennifer apparently is unaware that the Fashionistas are a line that's supposed to be set apart from the regular playline dolls.  The Basics were that way, the Barbie LOOK dolls are that way, and the Fashionistas are too.  The Fashionistas are the exact opposite of the LOOK dolls and the Basic dolls, being intended as budget toys.  Indeed, I got my three girls for eight bucks a pop.  Without the Fashionista label, it gets a little tricky to differentiate budget doll from doll that may cost a Jackson or more.  As for the "curvy," "tall," "original," and "petite" labels, let's be honest.  The dolls look highly similar to one another when they're in the box.  If you look up at my picture again, you might notice that it's a smidge tricky to tell the tall and petite dolls from original-bodied dolls.  It's easier when they're all standing together, but suppose a shelf had a cluster of petites or a cluster of talls.  How could anyone tell a difference in height if the box isn't labeled???  I admit that I had trouble telling the dolls apart when I saw them for myself.  The curvy girls stood out of course, but the petites and the talls sort of...blended in, I guess you could say.  I wouldn't have had any clue that they were there had the box not been marked "TALL" or "PETITE."

I thought for sure that having a chunky doll would shut the haters up, but I guess the phrase "haters gonna hate" is true.  No matter how hard Mattel tries, they can't please everyone.  I think they know that, and while I admire their attempts to rectify problems, I think that there's only so much a toy company can take.  If I were calling the shots at Mattel I'd gather my crew together and say "Screw it, we're doing it our way from now on.  We're going back to the 1966 TNT body."  Well, maybe I wouldn't.  Because the new bodies sure are fun!  I can see a few problems that I'll discuss when I get the review up and running, but they add a lot of visual diversity to my little dolly group.  

Cordially yours,

RagingMoon1987

A message from the newcomer

Dear Ju-hwang,

I'M HERE!!!  I poked my head in earlier, but you were asleep and I think it rude to disturb someone's sleep.  I look forward to meeting you.

And to the rest of the lady's viewers, here is what I look like.

The lady of the house says it's not a very good picture, but I must disagree.  It catches my good side.

Love to all,
John Alec "Johnny" Hailey

How the big girls compare

RagingMoon1987 here, and this is a spur-of-the-moment post, inspired by a brief chat I had on the My Twinn group I belong to on Facebook.  We had a brief discussion about Ideal Kissy, and that led me to wonder how my mother's old Kissy would compare to my Rael.  As you can probably guess, that led to a photo op.  Hey, when's the last time I passed on a photo op?

I threw in Saucy Walker (right) for good measure.  As you can see, the three dolls are of similar height.  Rael is allegedly an inch taller than Kissy and Saucy, but it's next to impossible to tell.   Unfortunately, these three do not look like they can share clothes.  Kissy is too chunky to wear the clothes I have for Rael.  Saucy might be able to wear some of Rael's things, according to a Facebook friend.

After I put the dolls away I remembered that Kissy and Saucy are both Ideal dolls.  The two deserve a comparison of their own, so different are they.  But that's for another time.

In marginally related news, my Johnny finally shipped.  He was already at Cincinnati when I learned he was coming, so that was either some uber-fast shipping or some sloppy communication on the part of Alice's Collections.  My vote is for the former.  Anywho, last time I checked the tracking his package departed Hazelwood, Missouri and was on its way south.  I figure I'll get it tomorrow or Monday.  This afternoon is a long shot, but it's very slightly possible he could get here today too.  We'll all just have to see.

Love always,
RagingMoon1987

Jeepers creepers...

...where'd you get those peepers!  LOL, this blog has been pretty quiet lately, so here's a random picture of Ju-hwang with new eyes.

These are arguably the cheapest doll eyes I've ever purchased...and the catch is that they're not even doll eyes!  These are dragon eyes from Hobby Lobby, and they're supposed to be jewelry fixings.  Since I occasionally make jewelry anyway I bought these, reasoning that if they do not make good doll eyes I can still make some epic earrings.  As it turned out, the largest pairs are eighteen millimeters, the smallest size Ju-hwang can wear.  The others are twelve and fourteen millimeter eyes have been put aside for anyone that I might get in the future.

In BJD-related news, I'm learning the hard way just how difficult it is to wait for one's order to be completed.  Today makes seven weeks and one day since I ordered Johnny, and the website still says "processing."  I understand that it takes a long time to cobble together a nice ball-jointed doll, and I also understand that the holidays slowed things down a bit (Alice's Collections took a week for the Chinese New Year).  The anticipation makes being patient very difficult, but that'll just make owning Johnny that much more rewarding...and it'll also buy me some time to find a restringing tool.  Crochet hooks do work, as I learned from Ju-hwang, but my hooks are all aluminum and they're bad to slip out of my hands when I pull on the elastic.  So I'm looking for a clamp or a hook with a better grip or SOMETHING that will do the trick.

As always, when something comes up I'll give y'all a holler.  Talolili and I are both working hard at our respective jobs (my hours at the library got extended, in fact), so posts may get a little more sporadic as time passes.  But if something earth-shattering comes up, I WILL give y'all a heads up.

Yours truly,
RagingMoon1987

Time to gripe: Monster High reboot

Let's talk about Barbie's...well, both of these are Mattel lines so I'm not sure if these dollies are Barbie's frenemies or rivals.  But let's talk about the Monster High dolls, those edgy, freaky-fabulous offspring of famous monsters and mythical legends that have been giving Barbie a run for her money lately.  The Monster High dolls remind me more of something that MGA Entertainment would've done, what with their Bratz-like proportions; big eyes, puckered lips, and slim, oddly proportioned bodies.  I absolutely love the Monster High dolls, to the point that they've taken over part of my bedroom.  In the past I've reviewed C.A. Cupid and Skelita Calaveras, shown how the Inner Monster masks looked good on the regular Create-A-Monster sets, lamented Mattel's oversight of new MH clothing sets, gawked at the new big dolls, and I've even cobbled together some knitwear.  Skelita Calaveras remains my favorite character, though River Styxx did give her a run for her money.  Being a mortuary student I feel a certain kinship with the daughter of the Grim Reaper.  Plus, River and Skelita have some of the same aesthetics, especially in the face.

This is where my gripe is going to get hypocritical.  Both River and Skelita are smiling dolls, which is not something one sees every day in the Monster High world.  Most of my other MH dolls have either a neutral expression...

...or they've got their attitude on.

Skelita and River are both smilers, as are Bonita Femur, Honey Swamps, and Clawdia Wolf.  In fact, I suspect that Bonita may be Skelita's mother's secret love child, since she's supposed to be a cross between a skeleton and the Mothman.  Or maybe the two are cousins.  Go figure.  Anyway, every so often we get a Monster High doll that's smiling.  With the exception of Clawdia, I've liked these happy little dolls.  Unfortunately, Mattel is once again mucking around with something, trying to fix that which isn't broken, and they are apparently revamping the Monster High dolls to where nearly all of them are smiling!  Look what they've done to Frankie and Draculaura!

The new faces are cute, but what on earth is wrong with the old ones???  These dolls are supposed to be freaky fabulous, not generically pretty like Barbie or cute and sweet like the Ever After High dolls.  Don't get me wrong, I like Barbie and EAH, but after growing up in a world full of perpetually happy playline dolls, it's nice to see something different.  Something edgy.  Something with a bit of attitude.  It's my opinion that edge and attitude are what made the Bratz such big sellers, and I believe the same is true of the Monster High dolls.  Heck, the dolls even look a little alike!  Check this out!

Meygan and Lagoona are very different, but they've got a lot of the same attributes.  Their expressions are similar as are their features.  They've both got full, pouty lips and big, made-up eyes that suggest a hint of personality.  Compare that to Barbie, whose wide eyes and wide smile remind me of something you might meet on Sesame Street.

That doll is a cute one, no question.  But if she could talk, I'd expect her to sound like a female version of Big Bird.  She'd walk up to whomever she met and go "Hiiiiiiiiiii, everyone!"  No offense meant to either Barbie or Big Bird, whom I'm still quite fond of at my age.  I don't mind the innocence that Barbie projects with her big eyes and her friendly smile, but the problem is that 99% of the Barbie dolls in stores look alike.  They all wear the same smile, and they all look perpetually cheerful.  Compare that to Ghoulia Yelps, who looks slightly perplexed, or Cleo de Nile, who looks slightly put-out, or Lagoona Blue, who always looks innocent and approachable.  These ladies do not wear plastic smiles, and yet they each have their own personality.  The new faces, with their overly large eyes and innocent little smiles, rob each character of much of her personality.  If that weren't bad enough, the new faces make the characters look highly similar to one another.  Mattel made that mistake once with the first wave of Ever After High dolls, and they appear to be doing it again with the Monster High dolls.  Don't believe me?  Check out this post by Kazuya Mishma.  Cleo de Nile still looks like Cleo de Nile, but Frankie, Clawdeen, and Draculaura all look similar.  The new face suits Draculaura, who has always had a bit of a sugar and spice attitude about life, but the same can't be said for she-wolf Clawdeen, who has always been sassy, saucy, and fierce.

I may live to eat my words, but I think this is a dumb move on Mattel's part.  Children seem to like the dolls the way they currently are; every girl I know under a certain age owns at least one Monster High doll, so they're obviously selling.  The new face IS attractive, and it would probably make for some decent NEW characters, but I feel that the OLD ones should be left as is.

Yours always,
RagingMoon1987

My Twinn's not-so-grand finale

Right before the turn of the year the My Twinn Collectors group was in an uproar because of decreasing quality; cloudy eyes, receiving the wrong thing, disappearing black dolls, stuff like that.  I predicted that the company was closing, and that turned out to be true.  As of today, February 8th, 2016, My Twinn has officially closed.  Furthermore, they appear to be closing for good, and that sets the stage for an interesting backstory that played out on the Facebook group recently.  Some of my fellow group members received the wrong thing over the past month and a half, including one lady who had ordered eye replacement for her boy and girl dolls.  This lady, whom I'll call Miss A, is Hispanic, and she had two dolls, one for her son and one for her daughter.  Lo and behold, when she gets the package back, she had one black girl and one Hispanic girl instead of a Hispanic girl and boy.  The black doll was VERY cute; she had a full head of dark curls and a Cai head, just like Miss Emily's Sabrina.  She was adorable...but she wasn't Miss A's doll.  Miss A did get her boy doll back, and the cute little Sabrina-lookalike was on her way to her real home, but I'm not sure if My Twinn helped out or not.

Apparently Miss A wasn't the only one who had this problem.  The catch is that now My Twinn is doing nothing to help.  Another of my fellow group members e-mailed them and got the following response:

If you received the wrong doll we cannot exchange it for you at this time. We have completely closed and are not receiving any packages for exchange.

One straggler did remain so that customers would at least get a refund.

This latest closure looks to be final, as opposed to prior closures where a revival was attempted.  Not only have most of the employees headed for the hills, but all the unsold stock has been sent to charity.  And get this as well:  the 23-inch head molds were apparently DESTROYED!!!  So even if someone wanted a revival there would be very little to work with.  (UPDATE, 2/19/2016:  the molds were not destroyed, but rather taken by an employee and put in storage.)

The reported destruction of these molds makes me wonder now which of the current dolls will become the rare ones.  Past faces like Tamsen and Beatriz have become hard to find and eagerly sought-after by hardcore collectors, so I wonder if any of the others will become like that.  I doubt my little Ariel dolls will be considered rare, but we'll see in the years to come.  In the meantime, I'm going to prowl eBay for a black Denika.  Nope, I still haven't given up on that pipe dream!

Very truly yours,

RagingMoon1987

UPDATE:  Miss A's Sabrina-lookalike came back to her today, so some little kid out there didn't get her doll.  I don't know what Miss A is going to do about that, but I'll keep you posted.

My Twinn haul

In my last post I vocalized the impending arrival of yet another package, and the possibility that we might be blown away before the package arrived.  Well, the storm system came on Tuesday, bringing a fifteen-minute downpour, a single crack of thunder, an anemic-looking rainbow, and that's all!  Second time this winter that we've been warned of something coming, only to get relatively nothing.  In short, I didn't blow away, and I've survived to see my package from My Twinn.

I must say that our UPS carriers are some of the quietest I've ever witnessed.  I didn't hear the vehicle, and I didn't hear our carrier bring the package up to the door.  I didn't even know my package had arrived until I went out to start warming up the car for work.  Lo and behold, it was there.  Everything inside is for my larger doll, Rael.  I probably could've ordered some things for Xenia too, but finding clothes for her is so easy that I completely forgot to look on the MT website.  Shame too, because I might've been able to snag some outfits that matched Rael's.

Alrighty, let's start.  Each little outfit is packaged in a cute bag like this:

The plastic is thin enough to reveal a little bit of the fabric underneath, so I knew right away what this bag contained.  It had the denim dress, which was my favorite of the bunch that I ordered.

I loved the way this looked on the doll My Twinn used as their model, and I love how it looks on Rael.  I'm not sure if the material really is denim, but regardless of fiber composition it's a nice little dress.  The fabric feels thick and durable, and yet soft enough to feel pleasant to the touch.  The buttons, to my surprise, are real.  They go through honest-to-God holes as opposed to snaps or strips of Velcro.  They're well-sewn, but these buttons automatically render this dress unsuitable for small children, lest they detach, swallow, and inhale said buttons.

To my surprise, the dress came with some shoes.

Yeah, MT showed shoes with the dress, but I thought they had to be purchased separately.  The shoes are Converse-style sneakers with fake leather toes and rubber soles.  The laces are real, which means no shoving the shoes blindly onto Rael's feet.  Oddly, the rest of these sneakers are not made of a material that I'd expect; instead of pleather or canvas, the black material is velour.  It's soft to the touch and it makes the shoes a little easier to slip on, but the heel is bad to fold under when I put these shoes on.  I'm also glad that these aren't shoes for real children, as that velour would get filthy in a hurry.

Next is a pink outfit.

Okay, it's not 100% pink, but pink is definitely the dominant color here.  This outfit reminds me of a getup I wore on my first (and only) childhood fishing trip.  It's got a little sunhat, the presence of which required me to rearrange Rael's hair quite a bit.  I don't know if it'll ever be normal again, but if it's not, oh well.  The shirt further necessitated the rearranging of hair, because it doesn't open in back.  It slips over Rael's head just like a real shirt does.  It buttons up the front and has a real pocket on the left chest.  The jeans are your normal, run-of-the-mill cargo jeans.  The pockets and hems are stitched with pink thread, which helps tie the overall look together.  The pockets aren't real, which is a bummer, but real pockets likely would've driven up the cost of the outfit and added unsightly bulk.  The fly closes with Velcro and a snap, which is a cute touch.

Like the denim dress, this pink outfit came with a pair of shoes.

These are slip-on shoes, the kind that look like they're a bastardized cross between a loafer and a sneaker.  They're not my favorite shoe aesthetically, but I know from experience that shoes like this are extremely comfortable and convenient.  These are made of a pink suede-like material with white canvas interiors and white rubber soles.  They're more rigid than the black sneakers, so they slide on more easily.

The next outfit is also dominantly pink.

This shirt has a Velcro closure in back, so I don't have to yank this over Rael's head like the last one.  It's the same shade of pink, but that's pretty much where the similarities end.  The shirt has long sleeves, perfect for the current time of year, and the design on front is painted on.  From a distance it looks like fancy embroidery.  The leggings are black stretch-knit leggings that go with everything.  There's not much else to say about those; they look great on Rael, but I can remember having to wear stretch pants when I was a kid.  I was chunky when I was a tween, and the stretch pants didn't help one iota.

Again, this outfit came with a pair of shoes.

Of all the pairs of shoes I received today, these are my favorites.  They're white canvas with white pleather toes and white rubber soles.  The design is painted on the side, and the eyeholes for the laces are each painted a different color.  They are highly similar to my first pair of laced shoes.  I love the springtimey look of these shoes!  I'll have to find a cute sun outfit to go with them.

The next outfit...well, it looks like it might be an exercise set.

The shirt opens in the back, but not all the way, so I either have to pull this over Rael's head or over her feet.  Since pulling stuff over her head isn't much fun I elected to pull the shirt over her feet.  The shirt is decorated with printed flowers and butterflies in green, black, and lavender.  Other than that there's not much to say.  It's just your basic little T-shirt.  The pants are cargo pants, and they have pockets that actually open and close.  The right hip and left leg are emblazoned with more flowers, which helps tie the look together.  The fly snaps and Velcros closed, just like the jeans above.  The shoes, which I carelessly neglected to photograph, are purple and white sneakers with lots of detail.  The soles even have treads, for crying out loud!  This is a well-executed set, though it brings back memories of those hideous windbreaker suits that I had to wear when I was a kid.  I don't have a single positive thing to say about those.  At least these pants don't swish constantly, like my set did.  Lord have mercy, that was annoying.

Lastly, I got a pajamas set.

I'm not going to discuss this in much detail, because it's exactly the same as Xenia's set, only on a larger scale.  If you want to read about this pajamas set, you can find Xenia's review HERE.  As you can see below, the two make quite a pair in matching pj's!

I wish now that I hadn't neglected to pick up some other outfits for Xenia as well.  I believe the eighteen-inch outfits were on sale as well, and a couple of them matched some sets that Rael has.  I can still look for the sets on secondary market, but I do wish I hadn't overlooked them on My Twinn's site.

Well, that's a lot to think about, innut!  Time to relax!

Before I sign off, I should probably mention that Xenia's eyes are indeed turning.  I wasn't able to get a decent picture, but her eyes have a definite lavender hue.  I guess that's inevitable for the eighteen-inch dolls, but it certainly is disheartening.  It'll be interesting to see how Xenia's eyes look as they change though, so I guess that cloud has a silver lining.  See you soon!

Love,
RagingMoon1987

The mysterious package

When one orders any sort of doll, be it a ball-jointed doll, an American Girl, or a Barbie, one tends to watch the mail quite a bit.  So it was with me this past Saturday.  My mother very kindly ordered some things for Johnny, and they showed up on Saturday, but I also got a pink slip.  Not the kind that says "YOU'RE FIRED," but the kind that the mail carrier leaves when you've got a parcel that was too big to carry.  The slip said the package weighed over a pound, so I figured that it was either Johnny and his stuff or a package of My Twinn clothes that I ordered around the middle of the month.  There was one serious problem with this thinking, though:  neither package had shipped.  Johnny's order still says "processing," and the My Twinn order had been filled but not put in the mail.  So I was at a complete loss for ideas...and I had to wait all weekend to see what the package was!

It turns out that I forgot about another thing that I ordered.  My mystery parcel turned out to be this.

Gabrielle Justine is an Etsy proprietor who makes unique little rag dolls, and that is where my girl came from.  This was another find of my mother's; she was surfing Facebook and found a link to the store on Etsy.  Needless to say my interest was piqued, and within fifteen minutes I'd picked out this blue-haired poppet.  She's about eighteen inches from head to toe.  Her eyes and mouth are painted, and everything else is sewn.  Her arms are jointed with little buttons, and her legs dangle like rag doll legs should.  Her clothes are not removable, but as well sewn as they are, no one would want to remove them!  Her hair and the flower decorations are wool, and the rest is one of my favorite fibers, cotton.  

I haven't had Azure, as I've chosen to call her, long enough to really get a feel for how well she's made, but I certainly do like her!  I love her color (blue, my second favorite color), I love the fabric, and I love the print (POLKA DOTS!!!).  How I managed to forget she was on her way, I'll never know, but it's good to have her home!  If rag dolls are your thing, Gabrielle has plenty of options to choose from.  You can get a blue one like mine, or a ballerina, or just about anything.  She offers other things too, like stuffed animals, pillow coverings, and cute little jewelry boxes!

With Azure safely in my arms, I can now settle back and wait for my other things.  The My Twinn clothes should arrive in the middle of the week, provided we don't get swept away by a tornado before then!  Gotta love El Nino and his goofy winter weather!  Anywho, if I survive Tuesday I should have a box coming with some My Twinn clothes for Rael.  My Twinn is apparently closing for good, and I got five outfits for a buck ninety each.  So...weather permitting, you may be hearing from Rael and Xenia later on this week.  

Best wishes,

RagingMoon1987

Time to rant: the new Barbie Fashionistas

This isn't going to be 100% griping, since I can see both good things and bad things about today's subject, so I've declared this post a rant instead.  That being said, let's talk, once again, about Barbie.  Hey, I've got to do SOMETHING with the blog while I wait for Johnny to get here!  Anywho, we all know Barbie has caused a lot of waves during her reign as Queen of the Dolls, with her unattainable figure being a bone of contention ever since the early sixties.  Back in the days when toy companies did what they wanted, Barbie's figure changed very little.  But now, since toy companies have grown increasingly liberal and sensitive to the complaints of overly butt-hurt parents and consumers, things get changed around.  There are cases when these complaints are legit; I wouldn't want my kid to choke on some toy piece that was carelessly overlooked in the design department, for example.  But a doll's body shape is not something that a kid can choke on.  So why change it?  Apparently, Mattel didn't see it this way, and in recent years Barbie has seen multiple body changes.  Furthermore, all have appeared over the last three decades; the Shani body is the first change that I can name, and it appeared with the release of Shani, around 1993 or so.  Shani's body is only slightly slimmer than the classic Twist 'n Turn body, almost imperceptibly so, but it's enough of a difference that my old Shani can fit into tight dresses better than most of my old Barbies can.

Alrighty, so we've established that Mattel can't seem to leave well enough alone.  They've already made waves this year with their proposed redesign of Monster High dolls.  I'm saving that topic for another Time to Gripe.  But apparently screwing around with Monster High wasn't enough for Mattel!  Noooooooooo, they're mucking around with Barbie's body...AGAIN!!!

It's a cute, visually interesting group, with a nice selection of ethnicities, faces, and hair colors.  BUT...look closer, particularly at the blue-haired girl and the brunette in the very center.  Notice their bodies.  They're...well, THICK!  Not thick as in stupid, but rather thick as in curvaceous, just like our old frenemy, the Lammily doll.  Another interesting difference can be seen in the two dolls on the far left; look closely at the black girl in coral, and her Asian friend in the pretty red skirt.  Notice that they're both flat-footed like my Elizabeth...but the Asian girl is taller than the black girl.

According to Mattel, the bodies are called "curvy," "petite," "tall," and "original."  The blue-haired doll and the brunette in the center are curvy, the black doll in coral is an example of a petite doll, the Asian in the red skirt is on the original body, and the gang's sole redhead is a tall doll.  A more in-depth description can be found here.  This is good and bad for a number of reasons:

BAD THING:  WRONG WAY TO BUILD A CHILD'S SELF ESTEEM!!!  I've been over this before, and I'll go over it again:  it is not Barbie's job to make Rosanna and Billie Jean feel better about themselves after Roxanne calls them both fat.  It's supposed to be the job of us, the adults.  Mom, Dad, Aunt Jane, whoever the guardian is, to reassure Rosanna and Billie Jean that Roxanne is full of crap.
 

GOOD THING:  It makes a group of dolls more interesting visually.  I don't know about y'all, but I love a good group of diverse dolls.  Black ladies, white ladies, Latinas, Asians, redheads, brunettes, blondes...it makes a group fun!  See?

My group represents a fairly decent demographic; each of the core races are represented, as are the dominant hair colors.  Most, but not all, of the faces are different.  My point is this:  most of these dolls are the same in terms of body shape.  A couple of them have the stiff Model Muse bodies or something similar, and several of them are fully jointed, but the overall shape and size is the same.  The only one different is Merida.  Here's what her body looks like compared to a bellybutton body.

Merida has a smaller torso and shorter, thicker legs than her friend Belle does.  Merida thus adds a little splash of something different to the mix, but it's drowned out by her willowy companions.

BAD THING:  This is strictly a gripe of my own because I'm obsessed with doll clothes, but it's pretty obvious that clothes sharing is going to be limited here.  I like to knit and crochet, so cobbling clothes together won't be a huge deal for me...but not everyone knits or crochets!!!  There's also an issue with shoes.  I already have a hard time finding shoes for my Elizabeth; her feet are flat, and Mattel has not yet produced a large quantity of flat shoes.  Yes, there are some, just not enough to make a nice, varied shoe wardrobe like the dolls with high-heeled feet have.  The wider bodies on some of the new dolls just compounds the issue.  I refer you again to Merida, who is dressed this time.

The only reason why Merida can wear this dress is because the top stretches.  The dresses I own that don't stretch don't fit Merida.  The dolls' differing heights makes this tricky situation even more complex.  In short, Mattel is releasing a group of dolls that will have thick waists, thin waists, tall bodies, short bodies, flat feet, and high-heeled feet.  I predict that clothes sharing could get frustrating in a hurry, regardless of whether the dolls are in the hands of a kid or a collector.  That leads us to a good thing.

GOOD THING:  Maybe now Mattel will get their butts in gear and make some more varied clothes.  Recently I've complained about the lack of variation of clothes from doll companies, and the disappearance of Monster High clothes altogether.  Barbie clothes have been on the upswing; my group picture above was the result of a game of Dolly Dress Shuffle, with most of the pieces being things that I'd just bought.  Some of the new dolls also come with two extra outfits.  Not one, like the Dreamhouse dolls did, but two.  So there's that little conundrum semi-solved.  The flat-footed dolls also come with extra shoes, so there's another problem averted.

NEUTRAL THING:  Oh, my poor pocketbook!  LOL, I have to admit that I'm excited about these new dolls.  They come in such a vast array of colors and styles that it's hard to pick just one favorite.  The doll that I provided in the link above, with cocoa skin and two-tone hair, is an easy contender, as is the curvy girl with blue hair.  I also like most of the new outfits, especially the fact that most of these dolls are NOT wearing pink.  Pink, as I have said before, is a perfectly fine color in moderation, but during the nineties Barbie wore so much of it that I got sick of the color.  Most of the outfits have little pink accents in places and that's fine.  Touches of a gal's favorite color in an ensemble are fine, as long as the whole wardrobe isn't drowning in it!

That's plenty to mull over, innut?  I can already name a few that will be joining my group (and one that WON'T, as she's an overly stereotypical Barbie).  It gets a little confusing for a collector, though, to have multiple sizes of doll and of clothing to keep track of.  It also gets frustrating when you have a cute doll that's bigger or smaller than her comrades, so she can't wear any spare clothes that you might have on hand.  In short, my feelings are dominantly good about this new Barbie doll development, but they are mixed.  It'll be interesting to see how these sell...and it'll be very interesting to see if the curvy dolls can share clothes with the Lammily doll!  I just thought of that, LOL.  I certainly HOPE that they can share!

I won't be preordering any of these dolls since I just bought Johnny and a boatload of items for him, but Talolili has the blue-haired doll and a tall Asian girl on the way, so these new ladies may still be coming to a blog post near you.  What do y'all think of these?  Love 'em or hate 'em?  Got a favorite?  Discuss.

Hugs and kisses,
RagingMoon1987