You Create Barbie Basics by Mattel

I've been talking about head-swapping dolls for a long time now.  Since late January, if you can believe it.   I mean, there was snow on the ground back then, and now it's full-blown spring, with flowers everywhere. I'm probably at the point where I'll be trying to rip the heads off normal dolls, just out of habit.  And the thing is, I haven't even exhausted the concept.  I have a few more dolls that I found during the last few months that I'd love to show you someday.

But for now, I'm going to wrap up the series by finishing my discussion of Mattel's new Barbie Basics, all of whom have easily removable heads.  Today I'll be reviewing the You Create Kit 001, which offers extra bodies, heads, wigs, and outfits to match the 2025 Basics Model 01, who you met in the last review:

Barbie Basics Model 01 with heads from the You Create Kit 001.

2025 Barbie Basics by Mattel

There's been a lot of bleak news in this country lately, but I can usually find good stuff to distract me in the doll world.  For example, several new members joined my Patreon community recently, which is really exciting, especially since I haven't had much time for that site since I got a job.  But I have a new post in the pipeline, and am very grateful to those of you who've been keeping this blog running for the last four years.  Your contributions are invaluable--financial and otherwise.  As an example, my newest Patron, Aether, pointed out to me the other day that my List of All Reviews page wasn't working.  Sorry about that!  I have no idea why the code stopped functioning all of a sudden, and I tried to fix it, but as a last resort I'm in the process of manually entering the links to all of my old reviews.  That'll take a while, but should get everything back to normal.

As another fun distraction, I'm here today to take a look at the highly-anticipated new Barbie Basics dolls!  This crew is part of a broader You Create line that Mattel released last month.  All of the dolls have easily removable heads, which makes this review a nice addendum to my recent head-swapping series.

The 2025 Barbie Basics dolls from Mattel, $25 each.

My Scene Swappin' Styles Barbie by Mattel

Here we are on the final head-swapping review of the series!  Or at least that's what I thought.  As a few of you mentioned in the comments, Mattel has recently come out with their new Barbie Basics line, and these dolls have...wait for it...swappable heads!  They also have Made to Move bodies.  Eee!  I immediately bought all five dolls (gulp) and am eager to take a closer look at them.  However, the five Basics dolls don't share a common skin tone, so there's not a lot of head-swapping that can happen, yet.  Fortunately, Mattel also announced three You Create kits to accompany the Basics dolls.  These kits have additional heads, bodies, wigs (!), and fashions, which I suspect will add to the fun considerably.  It all reminds me a bit of Monster High's Create-a-Monster kits from 2012...although I hope the quality is better.  Anyway, my plan is to wait until I have at least one You Create kit before I write a review, and while the kits can be pre-ordered now, they won't arrive until April.

That's all very exciting to me, and I can hardly wait for April, but I'm also super-excited about the dolls in this review.  Today we're going back in time to look at a much earlier head-swapping doll from Mattel: My Scene Barbie from 2005:

My Scene Swappin' Styles Barbie by Mattel, 2005.

Pop 'n Swap Polly Pocket by Mattel

It's time for some more head-swapping!  If you're new to the blog and happen to like dolls whose heads pop off, then feel free to check out the other reviews in this series.  Incidentally, if you also like doll dissections, there have been a few of those over the years, too.

In terms of head-swappers, I'm leaving the heavy hitters (Bratz and My Scene) for last--to build some suspense.  But this week's girls, Pop 'n Swap Polly Pocket and friends, are pretty cool in their own right.  Not only can they swap heads, but they can trade torsos and legs, too!

Pop 'n Swap Polly Pocket by Mattel, 2008.

Barbie Swappin' Styles Fashionistas by Mattel

I've been thinking about dolls with swappable heads for a few weeks.  It's a strange thing to think about, granted, but I feel like I have some good reasons.  First and foremost, Lena is getting married at some point this year (they haven't chosen a date yet), and I know she'll want some fancy up-do for that occasion.  Frankly, I wish I could just swap her head with one that already has a fancy up-do.  Don't tell her I said that, though!

The other reason I have swappable heads on my mind is that they keep popping up in my life.  For example, as I was getting some of my older dolls out of storage, I found a My Scene Swappin' Styles set that I never took out of the box.  I should probably do that.  Also, MGA recently came out with a line of Tweens dolls with interchangeable heads, and those reminded me of the Moxie Girlz Magic Hair dolls and their predecessors, the Bratz Head Gamez crew from 2005.  And of course there are the Swappin' Styles Fashionistas from 2010.  I've already done a brief review of these Fashionistas, but something popped up on eBay a month or two ago that got me excited about them all over again.  More about that in a sec.

With all of these thoughts of head-swappers on my mind, I figured I'd do a mini series to highlight each of the four types of doll that are on my radar: My Scene Swappin' Styles, Tweens Surprise Swap, Bratz Head Gamez, and the stars of today's review, the Swappin' Styles Fashionistas:

Swappin' Styles Fashionista Sweetie...with an extra head (2010).

Barbie Dream Besties Update with Daisy and Ken

Back in November, before the whole advent calendar series started, I was looking at Mattel's new Dream Besties.  These dolls have an accompanying YouTube show featuring six friends: Malibu, Teresa, Renee, Brooklyn, Daisy, and Ken.  However, dolls representing two of the characters (Daisy and Ken) were not released with the very first wave of products, so I didn't have them on hand for my initial review.

Because Daisy and Ken are different from the four dolls that I've already reviewed, I didn't feel like I could move on without taking a quick look at them:

Dream Besties Daisy and Ken by Mattel ($19.99 each).

Advent Calendar #7: Barbie Cutie Reveal by Mattel

It's looking like this will be the last full-length advent calendar review that I'll be able to squeeze in before the end of the month.  But I still have three (four?) calendars that haven't been opened, and I'd love to share them with you, so maybe I'll try to pull together a little summary of the remaining calendars to close out the series.

Today's calendar is from the Barbie Cutie Reveal line, and features a full-size Barbie doll with decent articulation:

Barbie from the 2023 Cutie Reveal advent calendar, $33.99.

Advent Calendar #4: Polly Pocket by Mattel

I hope everybody is enjoying the advent calendar series so far!  I'm not producing reviews quite as quickly as I'd hoped, or at least not quickly enough to open all of the calendars before the 25th, but as someone who's always saying she wants to write shorter, more frequent reviews, this is excellent practice.

There's no real rhyme or reason to the order that I'm opening these calendars, but I noticed that I'd featured two MGA products in a row (L.O.L. Surprise and Mini Bratz) so it's probably time to give Mattel a chance.

I actually have two Mattel calendars in mind for this series, and the first one I'll be looking at is the 2024 Polly Pocket advent calendar, which includes the super-tiny 1.25 inch version of Polly:

Polly Pocket from the 2024 advent calendar by Mattel. 

Barbie Dream Besties by Mattel

Well, November is almost over and December is shaping up to be either a busy month for the blog or a bust.  Let me explain.  I've been on an advent calendar kick for the last few weeks, finding myself amazed and overwhelmed by the diversity and complexity of the current choices.  So I wanted to do an advent calendar feature all throughout the month of December, and I bought about ten calendars (maybe a few more than that...) for the occasion.

But one of my kids has to be in the hospital at the beginning of December, and I want to be as helpful and present as I can.  So a lot of the month will be spent traveling across the country and being a mom.  That will either give me a lot of time for the blog (since I have a few weeks off from my animal shelter job), no time at all, or something in the middle.  We'll see.

As I wait for December and whatever it might bring, I have some time to chat with you about one of Mattel's newest playline releases, the Barbie Dream Besties:

Barbie Dream Besties Brooklyn (left) and Teresa (right), $19.99.

Diva Starz by Mattel

I'm excited to be sitting down to write this review for the second time!  As you might remember, last time around I realized I'd forgotten some important versions of the doll, and felt like I had to start over with a new approach.  Ordinarily, I wouldn't be concerned about creating such a thorough review of a brand, but these particular dolls hold an interesting place in the evolution of icons like Bratz and My Scene, so I felt like they warranted a more careful look.

So, who are the dolls?  They're Mattel's Diva Starz, a varied range of electronic-themed dolls that were first released in the fall of 2000.  The original dolls were designed to fit into a market that was obsessed with electronic pets.  For example, Furby, an interactive fuzzy creature made by Tiger Electronics, was at the peak of its popularity in the late 1990s, with more than 40 million units sold between 1998 and 2000.  The early Diva Starz had more in common with Furby than they did with most fashion dolls, but by the time they were discontinued in 2005, the dolls had gone through two major transformations and looked significantly different. 

In today's review, I'll look at all three main iterations of the Diva Starz, which means it's gonna be a long one!  So, settle in with your favorite beverage and take a trip down memory lane with me.

Fashion Diva Starz Nikki by Mattel, 2002.

Monster High's Day of the Dead Doll: Howliday Skelita Calaveras

I'm back, as promised, with the second Day of the Dead doll, but first I want to outline my plans for the first Virtual Garage Sale event.  At this point, nothing will happen until after Thanksgiving.  But sometime during the week of November 27th, I'll start posting dolls for sale in the shop.  These will either be dolls that I've already reviewed, dolls that I'm realizing I don't have time to review, or dolls that are kicking around my house for some random reason.  I'll probably create short blog posts with groups of dolls as I list them for sale.

At this point I have no idea which dolls will be for sale, since I've had zero time to organize all of that, but there will be a lot of bundled, loose dolls from old reviews, including Rainbow High's Maria Garcia, who we met last week, and the beauty from this review: Howliday Skelita Calaveras.

Monster High's Howliday Skelita Calaveras, $45.

Disney's Zombies 2 Movie Dolls by Mattel

September has not gotten off to a great start for me.  First of all, my newest rescue dog, Kit, was recently diagnosed with heart disease and bladder stones.  This involved spending a whole day at the emergency clinic with him, and stressing while he had surgery the following day.  Literally one day after the surgery, I had to travel (with all five dogs in tow) to take care of some family business, which was both physically and mentally exhausting.  These are not the worst problems in the world to have, but they're why I haven't posted anything for a while.

Needless to say, I was extremely happy to get back into the swing of things this past week.  I'm delighted to be sitting here typing up a new review, with Kit cuddled beside me--healing beautifully and filled with new-found spunk.

And of course rather than easing back into things gradually with the blog, I decided to jump in with a behemoth review.  The goal today is to look at six (yes, six) dolls from Disney's Zombies 2 movie.  I started researching these dolls because I thought they looked fun, not because I'd actually seen the Zombies 2 movie.  In fact, I hadn't even heard of the Zombies movie franchise before I found these dolls.  The movies are similar in style and with the same target audience as shows like High School Musical and Descendants.  Movies like this tend to produce interesting and popular dolls, which was enough to get me on board for a review.  Also, I've never been one to resist a good zombie doll, especially if he has green hair:

Zed and Addison dolls from Disney's Zombies 2 movie, $19.99 each (by Mattel).

Monster High's G3 Abbey Bominable--A Guest Review!

In an attempt to balance out the novella-like Enchantimals post from last week, this week I'm going to feature two short and sweet posts, one of which is a guest review!  I've been getting a lot of guest review requests recently, and I love guest reviews!  I feel like it's refreshing to have new voices and opinions here on the blog.  But for my own time management reasons, I have to limit the number of guest authors.  So at least for now, I'm only accepting guest reviews from my Patrons, with the exception of anyone who has already contacted me (you know who you are).  My wonderful Patrons don't get enough thanks for their support, so this is another small thing I can do.

Today's author, Morgan, is a long-time TBP reader and Monster High enthusiast.  Morgan offered to do a quick review of G3 Abbey Bominable, which was music to my ears!  Abbey has been super-popular and very hard to find at retail price, and so she feels like a doll that I should feature.  But I have so many other dolls that I want to talk about, I don't have much time for another G3 Monster High character.  I will say, for anyone who's interested in purchasing Abbey, that she can be pre-ordered at Entertainment Earth for $24.99, so don't get sucked into the sky-high prices on eBay and Amazon.

Morgan needed some de-boxing photos for this review, so I took my own Abbey out of her box, which was really fun.  I'll chime in at the end with a few quick thoughts and pictures, but for the most part this review is all in Morgan's hands.  Take it away, Morgan!

Monster High G3 Abbey Bominable, $24.99.

Revisiting Mattel's Enchantimals

You might be surprised to see an Enchantimal review here today, since I reviewed the line when they first came out in 2017.  But I have a few reasons for revisiting this brand.  First of all, I've been reminiscing a lot about dolls from the early days of this blog--especially my older Monster High and Ever After High characters.  I blame this nostalgia on the re-emergence of Monster High and the rumors that occasionally swirl around about an Ever After High re-boot.  As I was searching the internet for photos of my Ever After High favorites (like Holly O'Hair and Ashlynn Ella) I came across Enchantimal pictures, too.  I'd forgotten how similar the Enchantimal and Ever After High faces are!

Seeing those photos sent me into a deep-dive on Amazon and eBay, where I was amazed to see how much the Enchantimal brand has expanded over the last six years.  Not only are there a ton of different animals now, but there are also male characters, larger animal companions, a few eight-inch and twelve-inch dolls, some smaller four-inch dolls, and even a few surprise-themed sets.  

My internet searches also revealed that the Enchantimals are still being made.  I assumed that they were discontinued at this point, but no: there are new dolls for 2023.  Can you believe that Ever After High only lasted four years, and yet the little Enchantimals have been around for six years and counting?  It's crazy!  My initial review didn't make me think that they had much staying power, but I was clearly wrong.  So it's time to take a second look.  I'm very curious to see how the brand has changed since my last assessment.

Enchantimals Felicity and Feana Fox by Mattel, $16.99.

More Barbie Movie Dolls!

Here we are at the end of Barbie Month.  The time flew by for me!  But this has been one of the most fun months of blogging that I've ever had.  Not only was there a ton for me to learn about Barbie, but the range of dolls I got to play with was awesome.  And the movie has united so many people with its joyful exuberance!  I've heard only positive things about it--and from a really wide range of people.

I've been tracking all of the Barbie movie dolls since they were released, and it's been interesting to watch the sales patterns.  Cowgirl Barbie sold out very quickly, but the other options were available for quite a long time.  Then, suddenly, in the ten days since the movie premiered, most of the dolls have completely sold out.  I think Denim Ken is the only character left at Mattel Creations, and the big box stores only have Basic Ken and Gloria...and I would not count on that to last.  So with new buyers facing secondary market prices that are leaning towards $200, it's important to know what these dolls are like in person.

I knew there was never going to be time for me to review all of the Barbie movie dolls.  In fact, I wasn't even sure if I'd be able to squeeze this review in by the end of July--especially since this past week happened to overlap with a mini vacation that my husband and I have been planning since February.  But it all worked out and I'm here to finish up the month by showing you three of the Barbie Signature dolls that I bought:

Barbie movie Signature dolls, from left: Disco Barbie, Gloria, and President Barbie. $50 each.

Barbie and Ken from Barbie, the Movie

I don't think I've ever anticipated a movie as much as I did Barbie.  And now I've seen it!  As one of my kids said, it felt like a movie that was made especially for me.  And I'm sure a lot of doll people feel exactly the same way.  I mean, when has there ever been a movie that was entirely about dolls?  And there was so much Barbie history in it, too!  It's so clever.  I will definitely have to watch it again, to pick up on more of the details and nuance.  No spoilers here, but I laughed a lot, I cried a little, and it was everything I hoped it would be.  It was a fun experience at the theatre, too, even though we went to a matinee.  The seats were all full, and I'd say about half of the women (and some of the men) were wearing hot pink--including me and Lena.  I hope many of you got to see it over the weekend, too.  I'd love to hear what you thought (and what you wore!).

Based on Barbie's popularity, I suspect a lot of people will be shopping for the movie dolls during this next week (in addition to the "I am Kenough" shirts...) so this is a good time to start talking about the options.  So far, there are nine available dolls: four Stereotypical Barbies, three Kens, President Barbie, and Gloria.  Of those nine dolls, only two cost under $30.  The rest are priced at a whopping $50.  I'll look at a few of the more expensive dolls in my next review, but for today I want to focus on the pair that is the most affordable: basic Barbie and Ken:

Ken and Barbie from Barbie, the movie.  $25 each, by Mattel.

Barbie's Expanding Inclusivity

Writing two smaller reviews in one week didn't work out as well as I'd hoped.  Some family stuff came up, and everything always takes longer than I expect.  Another part of the problem was that I kept adding dolls to this review, and the dolls were too much fun!  I had a really great time with them and didn't want to stop playing.  That's been a bit of a theme for Barbie Month as a whole, though, so it shouldn't have come as a surprise.  But I managed to get everything ready for you before the opening night of the Barbie movie, and that was my goal, so it's all good.  Once I've seen the movie, I can start talking about the dolls that it inspired.

The idea for today's post was not to review anything in-depth, but rather to showcase and celebrate Barbie's growing acknowledgement of diversity, equity, and inclusivity over the years.  And for this, I decided to focus most of my attention on the Fashionistas--a group of dolls that I seldom talk about on this blog.  It's a pretty wonderful group:

A collection of inclusive Barbie dolls.

Tea with Lena: Barbies Great and Small

It's only one week from tomorrow until the Barbie movie comes out!  My husband and I bought our tickets the other day and are getting really excited.  Opening night had already sold out at our closest theatre, so I'm glad we secured seats for the weekend.  I really hope this movie is good!  While we wait to find out, I'm hosting Barbie Month here on the blog.  This week will be a little different because I'm trying to squeeze in two shorter reviews so that I can cover more ground.  We'll see how it goes.

Barbie Month wouldn't be complete without Lena hosting her own review, though, would it?  That's what Lena keeps telling me, anyway.  So today I'll be the assistant while Lena introduces the size extremes in Barbie world:

Lena holding a World's Smallest Barbie doll by Super Impulse.

35th Anniversary Barbie by Mattel

Hello and welcome back to more of Barbie Month here on TBP!  I may have gotten in over my head with this idea, which is pretty typical for me.  Barbie has a very rich history, and it feels like every day I encounter something new that I want to write about!  For example, Kenzie mentioned the My First Barbie dolls from the 80s in her comment, and that intrigued me because I love dolls from the 80s!  I also got an Instagram request to look at Gloria from the upcoming movie.  And then I feel like every time I do internet research for the review I'm working on, I come across a new Barbie doll or concept that I hadn't thought to include.  It's going to be a busy month!

For today, I want to go back to the beginning of Barbie's timeline and look at a doll that represents her roots.  Barbie made her debut in 1959, but the very first dolls from that year are expensive now, with prices as high as $10,000 or more.  However, there's a reproduction of the original Barbie that was sold in 1994 to celebrate her 35th anniversary.  These dolls are still easy to find on the secondary market and cost in the $50 range, so that's who I decided to feature in this review:

35th Anniversary reproduction Barbie by Mattel, 1994.

My First Barbie by Mattel

Happy July!  I decided that since the movie, Barbie, is coming out on the 21st of this month (I can hardly wait!!), I would make this Barbie Month here on the blog!  I'm not sure if every single review in July will be Barbie-themed (that'll depend on how fast I work), but I'll definitely have a few Barbie features and will round out the month with a look at some of the dolls that are specifically based on the movie.

To start things off, I figured that on the first day of the month, the first Barbie that I review should be My First Barbie!  Makes sense, right?  Besides, I teased a review of this doll during a Tea With Lena post way back in January, so it's high time we finally get to meet her:

My First Barbie by Mattel, $19.99.