Hey Bestie Dolls by Battat

I had a fourth Wednesday Addams doll review in the works, but about halfway through photographing that doll, my enthusiasm level dropped and I got distracted by something else.  I think it's mostly because the second season of the Wednesday television show isn't as good as the first, so I kinda lost my inspiration.  I might come back and finish that review at some point, because the doll is cute, but I needed a break.

What distracted me is a collection of 5-inch dolls called Hey Bestie, sold exclusively at Walmart.  I stumbled upon them while investigating an anonymous tip that the LUV girls are on sale at Walmart for $7.50.  That's a very good deal (and is still available as I write this).

The Hey Bestie dolls are also a good deal.  Most of the characters come in pairs of two, and average about $7 each.  They're made by Battat, the Canadian company responsible for the lovely 18-inch Our Generation dolls.  I tend to like Battat's products (and their packaging) so I was excited to see another doll line from this company.  As you'll see by the end of the review, I managed to buy almost every single Hey Bestie set that's being offered right now, but the first doll that caught my attention, predictably, was this green-eyed redhead named Millie:

Hey Besties Millie by Battat ($14.97).

The Hey Bestie name is fine, but it feels repetitive with Mattel's Dream Besties.  The Dream Besties came out in summer of 2024 and the Hey Besties in early 2025.  But the Hey Bestie packaging has a 2024 copyright, so maybe the name similarity is a coincidence.  Do that many people say "bestie" these days, anyway?  I guess so.

There are currently eleven products in the Hey Bestie line.  Most of them are twin packs of dolls (to fit with the best friend theme), that come with small, themed accessories.  There are also a few fun-looking playsets.  By way of introduction, I'll show you some of the sets that I did not buy.

There's a pair of school-going friends, Bella and Nicole:

I like their glasses.

These two cost $19.97, which is decent, given that they come with a nice collection of accessories.  

For people who don't want to spend $20, there are also basic twin packs, like this sleepover set which is only $14.97:

Cute bunny slippers.

And there are a few larger accessories, like this pink convertible car for $13.88:

Or this beauty salon for $24.88:

There's also a bunk bed set that I didn't purchase, but all six of the other Hey Bestie products will make at least a brief appearance in this review.

The stars of this review will be redheaded Millie, from the cover shot, and her bestie Hannah:

As predicted, I love the packaging.  It's a small, open-faced cardboard box with appealing graphics.

The pictures of Millie and Hannah that grace the front and side of the box are really cute, and fit well with the appearance of the actual dolls:

Here's a better look at the side of the box:

The back of the box has another large picture of Millie and Hannah together, and a small amount of text:

Here's a closer look at the text:

Happy every day!

It says: always together, friends forever!  Besties make every moment brighter, sweeter, and tons of fun.  Let's play every day!

Next to the large picture of the girls, there are text bubbles that say: Hey Bestie, wanna play?  And: join the fun!

In the picture, Millie and Hannah are standing together, arms intertwined, with coordinating outfits.  Millie has a rainbow shirt and Hannah's tee has a unicorn with a rainbow horn.  I love the design of the clothes, and am happy that the dolls are wearing the same outfits.

Millie and Hanna came attached to a simple backdrop that pulled out of the main box.  Behind the backdrop, there was a hair care guide and a small card with a QR code on one side:

The hair care guide is very detailed, with nine separate tips:

The steps talk about things like using a wire brush, avoiding heat (does that include boil washes, I wonder?) and finger-combing the curliest hair...which feels like a tip aimed specifically at me. 

The advice is all good, but makes me nervous that the hair on these dolls might not be very good.  It's almost like a warning label.

The card has a picture of Hannah and another girl.  Her other bestie, I guess??

The QR code directed me to a Hey Bestie website page where there's a whole article on paper fortune tellers:

There are directions for how to make and play with one of these fortune tellers.  It's a nice little activity, well-explained and with colorful pictures.

Millie and Hannah were attached to their backdrop with some long plastic ties that were easy to cut:

It only took a few moments to remove the dolls from the backdrop, and almost all of the packaging could go immediately into the recycling bin.

These dolls don't come with stands, but their balance is pretty good.  I had a harder time getting Millie to stand up for that last picture than I did Hannah, probably because of their different shoes, or maybe the different lengths and styles of their hair.

Let's take a look at Millie first:

Her hair comes tied into two pigtails, and the weight of those pigtails causes her body to tip backwards.  I had to lean her forward at the hips to get her to balance:

The hair isn't rooted for pigtails, though, so there's a lot of scalp showing at the back:

Most of the scalp is painted red, to match the hair, but there's a white line down the middle--almost as if the hair should have been rooted for pigtails:

Why else would there be a line?

The rooting is sparse, too, which doesn't look good.

I took the pigtails down to see if I could hide the rooting, but the hair wouldn't relax and lie flat:

There was also a section of hair at the front of Millie's head that was stuck on the wrong side of the part, so it kept falling into her face:

That all sounds very critical, but the nice thing is that Millie's hair fiber feels wonderful.  It's extremely silky and smooth.  It's so sleek that it almost feels wet, if you know what I mean.  It's wonderful to touch, and very easy to brush.

I tied the hair back into a single ponytail, so see if I could get it under control, but that just made Millie's balance even worse.  She had to lean way far forward in order to stand:

But the ponytail gave me an opportunity to check out Millie's profile, which is a little strange:

That's a bad underbite.

She has a flat eye region, and a nose and chin that jut out considerably.  She's not as attractive in profile as she is from the front.

Underneath her hair, she has tiny little ears with minimal detail (and a little bit of orange staining):

While her hair was still tied back, I took the chance to look more closely at Millie's face:

My doll has a minor print defect in her eyes, which is distracting.  Both eyes are shifted slightly to the left side of her face:

This makes it look like Millie is glancing off to her left.

Aside from the eye placement, though, the face paint is good.  The eyes are bright emerald green, with big reflective dots and a few painted lashes at the edges of each eye:

The eyebrows are a solid auburn color that goes very well with the hair, and the smiling lips are a natural light coral pink:

The underbite is prominent in partial profile, too, though, accentuated by a chin dimple.

Overall, the face is cheerful and versatile, if a bit generic.  I wish the profile was more attractive, but I rarely inspect these dolls directly from the side.

Millie's colorful outfit includes her cap-sleeved rainbow shirt and a pair of polka-dotted denim leggings:

The shirt closes in back with velcro, but the leggings have an elastic waistband:

The construction on the shirt is good, but the ruffled cap sleeves have unfinished edges:

I honestly don't know how you'd finish the edges on such tiny ruffles, though, so that's not really a complaint.

The interior of the shirt is a little messy, but all of the edges are hemmed, and I like the cheerful pink thread:

I also like the stretchy waistband on the leggings.  It could have been a plain band of white elastic, but it's rainbow-colored and quite pretty!

Millie also has a pair of purple vinyl hiking boots:

These have a fair amount of molded detail, but no painted areas:

Overall, the clothing looks great and is very easy to use--especially for such a small doll.

Underneath her clothing, Millie has a plastic torso with hard vinyl arms and legs.  She has nine points of articulation:

However, she also has bad balance.  It's almost entirely because of her hair.  Pulling the hair back into that ponytail made it impossible for Millie to stand straight.

So, I gave Millie a boil wash to smooth out her hair, and while she was drying, I decided to look at Hannah:

Hannah has wavy blonde hair that came tied into two pigtails.  Yet again, however, the back of the hair is not rooted to accommodate pigtails:

And there's no painted line this time.

When I took Hannah's pigtails down, her hair fell nicely into place:

Despite a rooting pattern that doesn't look very good, Hannah's hair feels uniform and thick.  The wavy texture adds a bit of volume.

I also like how Hannah has two small sections of hair on either side of face that are pulled back with pink bands.  This is a cute, youthful style:

My mom saw this doll last weekend and pointed out that "small dolls never have realistic hair."  I hadn't thought too much about that before, but she's right: small dolls tend to have hair that's way too voluminous for their scale, and Hannah is no exception.  Can you imagine a real child with hair that stuck out on either side of their body that much?  It's be frightening.  But for a doll, it's nice to have the extra hair to play with--especially when the hair feels this nice!

Hannah's face mold looks the same as Millie's, with a small mouth, an underbite, and a little chin dimple:

Her eye placement is good, so she can look directly at the camera.

Hannah has hazel eyes and medium brown eyebrows.  Her lips are a bit brighter than Millie's, perhaps to stand out more against her darker complexion:

Hannah's outfit consists of her pink unicorn tee and a darker pink floral skirt:

I love the unicorn shirt, but there's a small brown stain near the bottom hem, which I suppose is one of the risks of an open-faced box:

The construction is tidy and looks reasonably durable:

The skirt has a ruffle at the bottom and a metallic pink elastic waistband:

Hannah's shoes are bright pink, to match the skirt, and have some flecks of glitter mixed into the vinyl:

Once again, all of the outfit elements are easy to use.  I'm able to dress and undress these dolls extremely fast, which feels great.

Hannah's balance is much better than Millie's, probably because her hair falls evenly around her shoulders:

So, I decided to use Hannah to show off the body and its nine points of articulation.

These dolls have molded underwear, with polka-dotted panties on the bottom and a striped bandeau undershirt.

From the back, you can see the Hey Bestie brand molded into the back, and some dark printed numbers under Hannah's neck:

Here's a closer look at the marks:

I'm guessing that the "021225" is a date (February 12, 2025), because it coincides with when these dolls were released.  The box has an earlier copyright:

The neck articulation confuses me because it isn't consistent.  Hannah's head can spin around:

But she can't tip her head back and forth or lift it up and down very much at all--not enough for me to capture with photos, anyway.  It's like a slight bobble motion in all directions.

However, Millie's head tips from side to side:

And up and down:

So I gather there's a little glitch with Hannah's neck that limits her movement.

There's nothing wrong with Hannah's arms, though!  Her shoulders are rotating hinges, so she can lift her arms up and away from her body and spin them around:

Her elbows are also rotating hinges that can bend to almost 90 degrees:

This means that Hannah can't quite touch her mouth, but she can reach a hand to her forehead, and rest a hand on her hip:

Hannah has rotating hinges in her hips, and these are disc-shaped with a visible peg.  The hinges allow the legs to slide into partial side-to-side splits:

And the rotation allows full front-to-back splits:

Hannah can kneel on one knee:

Or on two knees, but this is precarious:

She can also sit in a chair really well:

She has a lot of molded detail in her toes, too, which is cute:

Overall, this doll has very good articulation and balance:

Because of her good articulation, one of the first things I thought about was whether or not the Hey Besties would be good body donors for other small dolls.

The top contender for a body swap, in my eyes, is Chelsea.  Chelsea dolls tend to have frustratingly limited articulation, and, at 5.5 inches tall, they're almost exactly the same size as the Hey Besties:

Hey Bestie Hannah (left) and Cutie Reveal toucan Chelsea (right).

The two dolls can share clothing really well--including shoes, despite the fact that the Hey Bestie feet are larger and more detailed:

Chelsea wearing Hey Bestie clothing (including shoes).

Hey Bestie Hannah wearing Chelsea clothing (including shoes).

Unfortunately, though, the two dolls can't swap heads.  As you probably noticed, the Hey Bestie neck is much thinner than the Chelsea neck.  I'll go through that in more detail later, but I wasn't quite ready to start popping heads off at this stage in the review.

Hannah is about the right size to be a toddler child for big-headed 11-inch dolls like the Dream Besties, but I don't think her facial features are quite right for a toddler:

Dream Bestie doll holding a Hey Bestie doll.

At this point, Millie was done with her boil wash and her hair was fully dried:

The hair fiber acted a little funny during the wash.  It never seemed to fully mix with the water, but floated in clumps.  Still, the heat worked to relax the pigtail gap:

But this hair is so straight and smooth, the sparse rooting pattern is apparent even when the hair isn't pulled back:

That's unfortunate.

I'm so conflicted about the hair.  The texture is amazing, and I adore the color, but that rooting pattern is a mess.  I wish that the rows of hair were more densely spaced, with fewer hairs per plug--so that the volume was reasonable.  But perhaps that's too much to ask for a $7 doll.

Millie and Hannah's outfit pieces go together nicely, so it's fun to mix and match.  Here's Millie with her own shirt and Hannah's skirt and shoes:

And here's Hannah with her unicorn shirt and Millie's jeans and boots:

Despite the frustrations with Millie's hair, I'm charmed by these two.  They're cute, wholesome, and well-made for the price.  They have wonderfully silky hair, good articulation, and a nice compact size.  And their clothing is easy to use with attractive patterns and styles.  

I'm such a sucker for rainbows and unicorns!

I was so happy with Millie and Hannah, in fact, that I went straight back to Walmart for a few more sets.  I was curious to see what the diversity in skin tones, hair colors, and eye colors might be.

The second set that caught my eye has two besties (Isa and Evie) and a pet theme:

Hey Bestie Isa and Evie set, $19.97.

I won't go into huge detail with this set, but I wanted to see what the quality of the accessories is like, since Millie and Hannah didn't come with any extras.

Here's everything that came with Isa and Evie:

There are a lot of dog-themed accessories, including a bed, a brush, a few toys, and some food and water bowls:

The water bowl is fun, with a translucent insert that looks like a tornado of water, and the food bowl is, well...serving up kidney beans and bones?

That's totally what I feed my dogs.

The set also comes with two small dog figures.  One is a husky-like critter with big blue eyes:

She doesn't have any points of articulation, but has some painted features on her face and neck.

The second puppy is a green-eyed Labrador retriever:

I've personally never seen a green-eyed dog, but I guess they exist.

This set also comes with a pet carrier.  The husky doesn't slide into the carrier easily because of her big ears:

But the Lab fits nicely:

The first doll in this set is Evie, who has a dark complexion, brown eyes, and curly hair:

Finger-combing only, Emily.

Her hair is rooted for pigtails, which is nice:

No ugly hair plugs showing.

The second doll is Isa, who has a medium complexion, grey eyes, and auburn hair:

Isa's hair is most definitely not designed for pigtails, so we have the familiar sparse rooting debacle:

The outfits on both of these girls are cute and easy to use, but they're one-piece items, so there's no potential for mixing and matching.  I definitely prefer Millie and Hannah's outfits.

At this point, I'd identified three distinct skin tones:

From left: Millie, Hannah, and Evie.

Hannah and Isa have the same skin tone...sort of.  If you look really closely, Hannah's complexion has more pink and Isa's has more yellow, but that could be due to slight vinyl batch differences:

All four of the dolls that I've looked at so far have different hair and eye colors, which is really fun.

Eager to see more of the variety with these dolls, I opened yet another set.  This one has besties Emma and Camila, with a birthday theme:

Hey Bestie Emma and Camila set, $19.97.

These two look ready to party, with a special cupcake chair, a cake, a party hat, a headband, some gifts, and even a balloon:

I really like the cake.  It comes with its own fancy purple stand, and there's a big piece that can be removed:

Only three candles, though.

The gifts and card are fun, too, although there's nothing in the present box (present boxes should never be empty), and the card is blank:

Emma has a medium skin tone that looks the same as Hannah and Isa.  She also has poker-straight blonde hair and leaf-green eyes:

Camila, the birthday girl, has the same skin tone as Emma, with dark brown eyes and hair:

Her hair is rooted to accommodate ponytails:

Thank goodness.

So the diversity in coloring has held up pretty well!  Now all six dolls have different combinations of hair and eye color.  The skin tones are less variable, with the medium complexion being by far the most common.

I tried out some of the party accessories, with Emma in the birthday hat:

This looks really cute and the hat is easy to put on.  It stays in place well, too.

Here's Camila with her star-shaped balloon:

I have to say, these sets are addictive.  The dolls are sweet, with a great range of hair and eye colors.  The outfits are cheerful and easy to use, and the themed accessories offer fodder for some fun imagination games.

The predominance of the medium skin tone is interesting, though.  With the six dolls I have, four of them have the same skin tone:

These still don't quite look all the same to me, though.  Or maybe I'm imagining things?  If you look at the above picture, I think the two dolls on the left are slightly different from the two on the right.  There's like a pink-medium shade and an orange-medium shade.  It's more obvious in person, but still so subtle that it could simply be batch differences.

Giving Battat the benefit of the doubt, there are potentially four different skin tones:

From left: pale, pink-medium, yellow-medium, dark.

But I wasn't done overspending investigating yet!  I obviously had to buy the horse set, too:

Hey Bestie Charlie and Daisy set, $19.97.

I actually wasn't very excited about this set, even though I love horses.  I could see from the promotional photos that the horse figure, Daisy, doesn't have articulated legs.  I like it better when the articulation level of the horse matches the doll.  Also, Daisy is way too small for her rider.

In the illustration on the back of the box, Daisy looks larger:

Here's everything that was in the box:

The doll, Charlie, is wearing a belted dress that's printed to look like a separate collared shirt and denim skirt.  Her belt and boots are both made out of pink vinyl:

She has a transparent teal cowgirl hat with purple trim and a matching elastic chin strap.  The problem with the hat being transparent is that you can see the back part of the elastic chin strap through the hat:

And the ugly plastic tie.

I'm not as impressed by the quality of this doll as I was with the other six.  Her skirt has a lot of messy-looking loose threads, and there's a large blemish in the vinyl of her right leg:

I took the hat off to get a better look at her long blonde hair:

The hair is parted way over on the left side of Charlie's head, and pulled back into a long braid on the right side of her head:

There were loose strands of hair obscuring Charlie's face, so I took the braid down and pulled everything back into a tight ponytail:

Charlie has dark brown eyes and huge, dark freckles.  I usually like freckled dolls, but these freckles are so big that they look more like a skin condition.

For comparison, let me quickly show you one of the dolls in the Jasmine and Makayla set:

These two are really cute, with vacation-themed accessories, but I don't really feel the need to unbox them for this review.  Needless to say, I got a little carried away with my purchases.

I only want to show you Makayla's face:

Her freckles are small and faint compared to Charlie's.  I like them much better.  I also like the dark auburn color of her hair.

Anyway, here's Daisy the horse:

She has a removable saddle and bridle, and her mane and tail are nice as soft, just like the dolls' hair.  Her face is a bit cow-shaped, but I was delighted to see that she has a point of articulation in her neck!

Here's Daisy alongside a Barbie Chelsea horse:

Hey Bestie horse (left) and Barbie Chelsea horse (right).

This horse is from an $18 set that includes a Chelsea doll with articulated knees:

The two horses are very similar, with hard, hollow plastic bodies and rooted manes and tails.  The Chelsea horse does not have an articulated neck, though, and her mane and tail are not as silky and smooth.

I also like how Daisy's hooves are a different color from the rest of her legs.  The Chelsea horse doesn't have that.

For the most part, I prefer the Hey Bestie horse.  However, I like the face mold on the Chelsea horse best.  She looks sweeter and happier, with a nicer eye design:

I gave Charlie's long hair a quick boil wash, which removed the kinks from her braid.  Her hair is really long!

I think she looks pretty with her hair down.  I even like her freckles better now.  She snuck up on me and became one of my favorites.  I still don't like her outfit much, though.

But let's see how she does riding her horse!

She can mount up well, but when she's sitting in the saddle, her feet don't easily reach the stirrups:

And of course she's way too big for Daisy.

I was able to bend the vinyl stirrups to fit over Charlie's boots, but that pushed her body into a more awkward riding pose:

Overall, I like this set more than I thought I would.  Charlie's outfit isn't the best, but her super-long hair is lovely to play with, and Daisy is a fun companion despite her minimal articulation and diminutive size.

I have one more pair of dolls that I want to show you, and this time I have a good reason.  Once I started to pay more attention to the skin tones, I had a harder and harder time making sense of this set from the promotional photos:

These besties are Mia and Zoe, and they cost $14.97.  I couldn't tell from the pictures on Walmart.com if Mia has the light or medium skin tone, and Zoe looks for all the world like she has a skin tone that we haven't seen yet.

So I bought the set to see for myself what's going on:

I'm not going to go into any detail with these two dolls other than to say that they're both cute, Mia has the medium skin tone that we've seen before many times, and Zoe has a new skin tone!

So here's the lineup:

From left: Millie (pale), Emma (pink-medium), Isa (orange-medium), Zoe (dark-medium), and Evie (dark).

This range of complexions is great for a bargain doll line.  And each character has a unique combination of hair and eye colors, too.  In fact, most dolls have their own special hair and eye color, but there are a few repeats.  Like both Charlie and Camila have the same shade of dark brown eyes, and Jasmine, Evie, and Zoe all have black hair.

Now that we understand the range of skin tones, hair colors, and eye colors, I can, as promised, show you why the bodies can't be used for Chelsea heads--at least not easily.

Here's Camila with a medium skin tone Chelsea:

I'd never pulled a Chelsea head off until now, but it's easy--even without heat.  The Hey Bestie head was harder to get off.  I had to use my hair dryer and some gentle pulling to separate the head form the delicate neck peg:

Hey Bestie body (left) and Chelsea body (right).

As you can see, the Chelsea neck peg is much more robust.  It's an extension of the torso, with no moving parts.  In contrast, the Hey Bestie neck peg is a separate piece that articulates with the torso.  This explains why the Hey Bestie dolls have better head movement than Chelsea.

The Hey Bestie neck is also much thinner than the Chelsea neck.

And the two dolls have differently-sized holes in the bottoms of their heads:

You could probably cut the connection area out of a Hey Bestie head and glue it into the wider hole of a Chelsea head and maybe do a body swap that way, but I would worry about the long-term integrity of the resulting joint.

It's a shame that the Hey Besties can't be used for body swaps.  However, I didn't see any skin tone matches between the Chelseas in my house and all of the Hey Besties, so maybe it wouldn't have been a realistic option for other reasons.

The last Hey Bestie product that I bought is one of the larger playsets.  This is called the Hugs and Mugs Cafe, and cost $24.88:

I really love food-themed diorama room sets like this, so it was an easy choice over the equivalently-sized hair salon that I showed you earlier.

The structure of the cafe is decorated on all sides, with a big arched window and a Hey Bestie sign on the back outer wall:

The interior of the cafe has a counter with a display case, a table and two chairs, and what I think might be a purple oven on the left side?  It might just be a purple cupboard with some shelves on top:

The set comes with a modest assortment of accessories. This is nowhere near the amount of stuff that you'd get with an equivalent Calico Critters or Li'l Woodzeez set:

But I like the espresso machine and coffee cups:

And there's a lemon meringue pie that reminds me of the birthday cake that we saw in Emma and Camila's set.  It has a piece that can be cut out and a nice raised serving plate:

I arranged all of the accessories inside the cafe:

It's a bit sparse.

The counter has sliding plastic doors on the front.  These don't move very smoothly, but I like that they open and close:

The oven/cupboard has some shelves for storing cups, and opens to reveal a plain interior:

The dining area is cute, with a light fixture over the table and two glitter-infused chairs:

I added in the accessories form the birthday set, just to make the cafe look a bit more full and lively:

Because we have something to celebrate!  It's Camila's birthday, after all:

Happy birthday, Camila!

Thank you guys so much!  This is great.

Do you wanna cut the cake?  It looks yummy.

Shouldn't we wait for Millie?  Where is she?

Oh, she'll be here in a few minutes.  She had a special errand to run...

Why don't you open one of your gifts while we're waiting, Camila? 

Oh, good idea!  I love presents.

Hm, what could this be?

Oh, wow!  It's a cute little squeaky hedgehog!  But what's it for?

It's a puppy toy, Camila.

I don't have a puppy.

Oh, look!  Here comes Millie!

Hi Everyone!  Sorry I'm late!

I brought an extra guest here...

Happy birthday, Camila!

Oh, my gosh!  For me??

Thank you so much!  I can hardly believe it!

Hi, sweet puppy!

This is the best birthday ever!

The cafe feels a bit small for the Hey Bestie girls, but it's still a great space for imagination games.

Once Camila's birthday party had disbanded, I took the original duo, Millie and Hannah, outside for a few quick shots in the natural light:

I tend to reserve my outdoor photo shoots for art dolls or other special additions to my collection, so it speaks highly of these inexpensive cuties that I'd want to take them on a field trip to the garden.

Millie's coloring is perfect for the fall foliage and festive mums:

And Hannah's shiny hair and moss-green eyes look wonderful in the sunlight:

Bottom line?  It took me forever to write this review because of some big life events that have come up during the past two weeks.  One of them was the loss of our 15-year-old dog.  That was a gut punch.  Our other 15-year old dog took it upon himself to suffer a back injury the same week, which didn't help matters.  I'm also currently visiting one of my kids, clear across the country, so things are very busy and emotional.  But I hope that despite the delay, you can sense my enthusiasm for these dolls and see why I wanted to put aside the Wednesday project to review them as soon as possible.

Honestly, I don't expect much from dolls that cost $7 each.  It's almost impossible to get a doll for less money.  That $7 price is a bit misleading, though, since all of the Besties are sold in pair sets that cost between $15 and $20.  Still, it's a manageable price, assuming you don't do what I did and buy up the entire collection.  And it makes sense that the dolls are sold in pairs, staying true to their best friend theme.

As affordable and charming as they are, these dolls are not without their flaws.  The hair is one of the biggest flaws--but only with some of the dolls.  Millie is a good example of a doll with problematic hair. Her rooting is sparse, and the plugs are thick.  This means that not only are pigtails unsightly, but the hair also looks bad when it's down; the straight, sleek fibers fall close to the scalp, so all of the lumps and bumps from the rooting plugs are clearly visible.  Not all of the dolls have this issue, though.  Hannah's slightly wavy hair doesn't reveal the scalp or rooting plugs much at all.  And Camila has hair with a rooted part in back to accommodate pigtails.  So the hair is not bad across the board.  Also, the hair fiber is so wonderfully silky and smooth to touch, I have to count it as one of the brand's best features, too.  Which is confusing.  I'd say that overall, my enthusiasm for the texture and color variety of the hair outweighs the disappointment around the awkward rooting job.

Other flaws are similarly nebulous.  For instance, some of the outfits are fantastic--like Millie and Hannah's bright, colorful rainbow/unicorn wardrobes with mix-and-match pieces that can be shared between friends.  Other outfits, like Charlie's cowgirl dress, are not as well-made, attractive, or versatile.  But by and large, the clothing is easy to use, with youthful, colorful designs that have reasonable attention to detail and a fun mix of fabrics and styles.  By the same token, most doll have no defects in their construction or paint, but Charlie has a vinyl blemish in one leg and Millie has slightly off-center eye placement.

So, yeah.  Overall, I'm impressed with these cuties.  They have a wonderful mix of hair and eye colors, enough to allow children to find a doll that resembles them in some way.  And, whichever doll that child relates to will come with a bestie who has completely different features.  The face molds are all the same, which is too bad, but the features on those faces are friendly and pleasant--if a bit generic.  There could be a better spread of skin tones, since most of the dolls have the same (or similar) medium complexion.  But the emphasis on the middle might be the right move.  It reminds me of Sasha Morgenthaler's decision in her creation of Sasha dolls.  The idea there was to create a skin tone that was an amalgam of all possible skin tones, thereby including everyone to some degree.  Aside from the impressive diversity, these dolls also have decent articulation and balance, especially when compared to the comparable Barbie Chelsea dolls.  I only wish that the Besties could be used as body donors for their stiff Barbie cousins.

Last of all, I love the size of these dolls.  I wish there were more options in this 5 inch category.  The bodies are big enough to be easy to dress and house a good collection of joints, but they're also small enough to store well and carry around in a purse or pocket.  With their manageable size, silky hair, easy-to-use clothing, affordable price, and versatile design, the Hey Besties strike me as an excellent choice for little hands and big imaginations.