Finally!... sort of...

Boom!💥

 

Sometimes Mattel shows hints of its former genius... these dolls are beautiful and adult collectors everywhere are scampering to get their hands on them. 

Yet, I suspect they are more excited by the prospect of non-ugly faces and articulated bodies than by the 'meh' designs... The jumpsuit had potential, but the top and skirt are basic, and the dress looks like something my 50-something year old mother would wear.

Personally I like the dolls, but I am cautious about #10 (middle). For one, I have been waiting such a long time for an articulated body in this exquisite dark skin tone 😍... and they go and produce a TALL body. Sigh... ok. I guess I'll make it work. But who did this doll's makeup? Purple and pink eyeshadow and... red lipstick??? My word! With this face mold which is already on the dramatic side, I would think adding more drama with over-the-top makeup could push this face over the edge into ugly. Remember the frighteningly hideous BMR1959 petite AA doll with purple hair? 🤮

Mattel, I see you but I'm also watching you. Were you secretly bought over by Integrity? #10 looks like she will fit in well with Fashion Royalty dolls (which I detest). I'm willing to bet FR collectors will have her snatched up before Barbie collectors even manage to get their credit cards out.

Mattel hits a slam dunk... in the trash

 I'm convinced Carlyle Nuera is a spy and a plant, sent to destroy the Barbie brand.

For a while he managed to trick us into thinking he had potential. I admit I was fooled at first... I bought the Convention doll in red, even if I didn't understand the Dilophosaurus-like frills on the outfit. 

But after seeing the second and third dolls in this series, I now see Carlyle has descended into madness and no-one at Mattel has the sense God gave a turnip to tell him his designs are bad.

Poor Mariko and her blue eyebrows.

Seriously. Try to say something nice about the yellow get-up. 

 

Ugh. I don't even believe he likes Barbie dolls, probably never played with them as a child. He should save himself further embarrassment as a designer and resign and go flip burgers or something... He'd be better suited to a 9-5 in a non-artistic field. 

Mattel faces hit a new low...

 I haven't been inspired to post recently.

Mattel keeps churning out crap: ugly faces, ugly bodies, ugly clothes... it's like that company is now a mere shell of itself... all its glory days are long gone and it is a joke in the doll world.

I mean... look at this Barbie Extra Fancy doll... it looks like it could be a character in Fraggle Rock!

What do the designers at Mattel do? Besides Carlyle Nuera who is single-handedly trying to destroy the brand and reputation with his hideous designs, I mean? They all seem like lazy no-talent accounts who just sip mimosas while drawing a paycheck for doing nothing.

What a joke Mattel is now. They have become cheap clones and knock-offs of a once gorgeous, magnificent doll.  

Big Head Shelf

I had these pics in my old phone...

 

Small Head Shelf

 

Here are what I call my "Small Heads". They're my older 90s-00s Barbie dolls.

(If doll nudity bothers you, you're weird and I don't want you looking at my girls anyway.)

I managed to articulate a good set but a lot still have older bodies :)

Mattel REWIND

 Sigh.

Everything Mattel does nowadays is sh*t. For real. Like stinky doo-doo. 💩

For instance, they come up with a great concept to go back in time or REWIND and pull out some goodies out of their massive vault. 

And what are they re-booting? 

        Fashion Fever? 

            S.I.S. dolls? 

                DOTW dolls? 

                    Teen Skipper? 

                        Byron Lars? 

                            The Basics?

No, no, no, no, no, and hell no.😞

Mattel decided to go back to the worst era of fashion (80s) with the worst face mold (Superstar). Ugh.

There truly is no hope for this doll brand.

My Top Shelf Dolls

 

Here are my model muses, pivotals, celebrity dolls, and a few collectors dolls.

Judging by Mattel's current direction, this era of beautiful dolls is over.😭

Mattel just be hiring anybody around there, huh?

Where does Mattel find these people who apparently never played with Barbie as a child and who are trying to destroy the Barbie brand???

This one terrible "face designer" Minhtam Nguyen is personally responsible for many of the newer ugly face molds I really dislike.

Her two great unforgiveable sins are that she is happy to feminize Ken and turn him into Carlyle Nuera and that she seems to me to be a bit of a r****t. Look how she perceives Black people - exaggerated big lips which stretch from one side of the face to the next, long, bright-colored weave, and ratchet clothes. 

Nothing positive has come out of her being hired by Mattel. Ugh.

Uninspired by uninspiring dolls

 I haven't been posting regularly for a number of reasons.

First, I haven't been inspired... all the crap that Mattel puts out would only inspire me to flush it down the loo.

Second, I feel very alone and alienated as a collector. Barbie collectors seem to like the plain, stiff-body "Fashionistas", 'meh' BMR1959 dolls, and ugly Barbie Extra dolls now on the market. Even the Zara Barbie dolls are "blah" to me. 

Images below are from IG:

Third, I'm like, "What's the point?". Hardly anybody posts on Flickr anymore and IG is flooded with dolls I don't much care for (*cough* "Fashionistas" *cough*). Only a handful of collectors seems to share my passion for an era when Barbie was great and the name was actually a respected brand instead of the joke it is today.

But recently I saw three dolls which caught my eye... 

Papusile.mele says they're collector dolls, but if that's true, Barbie Collector is also in the toilet. I mean, they're cute but they're just...I don't know... OK... Not sure they merit the furor of collectors. Mattel has set the bar so low, the dolls they should be putting out are being hailed as the best thing since sliced bread. Sad.

Gil Plazola

I saw this morning that this well-known repaint artist in the doll community had passed. How sad. 

His work was beautiful and I am posting a link to a few repaints he would have done.

Below are two samples of his work (and what Barbie *should* look like!):

Find pictures here