Mattel to me is such a contradiction in terms of its Barbie brand. At a time when it seemed to be moving forward in the right direction, for every one step forward, it took three giant leaps backward.
The Positives:
First of all, let's congratulate the brand on its move to diversify its dolls. Many little children the world over are now able to see themselves represented in real (not just token) ways as Barbie has moved beyond the lily-white-blonde archetype with one token Black friend (either Shani/Christie1/Nichelle/Christie2/Asha/Adria), Hispanic friend (Teresa), and Asian friend (either Kira/Lea) each to a wide array of races, colours, shapes, and sizes.
Photos below courtesy of Kattis Dolls.
Barbie's token Black friend
Barbie's token Hispanic friend
Barbie's token Asian friend
As a Black doll-buyer I was fed up of every Black doll on the market at that time having the Asha face mold, or later, the Christie face mold and, much later, the Adria face mold. These were just iterations of the same character although I suppose Black consumers were to be glad that at least the Black dolls no longer looked like White dolls with White features dyed dark brown. Asha and Christie now had predominant Afro features although Mattel forgot to do away with the unrealistic long, wavy hair.
Fast forward to today and Barbie has evolved so that there is a much wider variety of dolls.
There are also several different dolls of color - dolls of varying shades of Black and mixed-with-Black, and with Afro-kinky blowouts, cornrows, short hairstyles, and braids! There is even a doll with Vitiligo!
My favourites from The Doll Evolves line are Rainbow Bright (with no matching articulated body anywhere to be found!!) and the 'Albino' doll. (I put Albino in quotes because I'm not convinced Mattel got that completely right, but hey, at least they attempted it!)
Secondly, kudos to Mattel for recognising that there are other colors out there beside pink. Young collectors today will never know the feeling of being fed up with all of Barbie's clothes and playsets painted in that nauseating pink color.
Thirdly - and I cautiously give them props for this because in my opinion they haven't gone far enough - Barbie is venturing into other careers beyond doctor, nurse, vet, and policewoman or, at the other end of the spectrum, ice skater or princess. I mean they're still promulgating these professions but they've now added others to the mix. I was so happy to see Barbie in the roles of ambulance driver and barista. This coffee shop playset is definitely on my wishlist!
I'm still waiting, though, for a mechanic Barbie or at least Ken (just because I have been searching for years for a 1/6 scale roller thingee that they lie on to check under cars!)
But see, they made three great steps in the right direction: the diversification of dolls, the jettisoning of 'hurt-my-eyes-make-me-vomit' pink, and the expansion into other careers.
But Mattel, Mattel, Mattel... Can't you stay on the path of progress?? Must you always give with one hand and take with the other??
The Negatives:
Not only did The Doll Evolves line usher in a wave of diversity, it also heralded a backward step in terms of lack of articulation. So although I was glad to see curvy, tall and short bodies, these new bodies are the ugliest ones ever produced by Mattel, (just behind the 'Hobbit' bodies). Stiff arms and legs have reverted Barbie to mannequin status.
At first I spent so much effort and money trying to find articulated matches for these dolls but then I just stopped buying them altogether. Trying to diversify my Barbie community by adding the new faces wasn't worth the trouble.
And too, and perhaps my greatest beef with Mattel, the Barbie brand has returned to a smiley face doll. If you've read any of my previous posts, you would know how much I hate smiley faces. So instead of modern dolls with expression and a little 'tude, we get dolls which seem to me to be a host of airheaded, blithering idiots. THIS IS MY OPINION - DON'T @ ME DEFENDING THESE STUPID SMILEY FACES!! I'm not saying their faces need to look like Fashion Royalty dolls, (because frankly I hate those mean-looking dolls) but they convey a fierceness Mattel dolls have lost. Even their collector lines are showing up with these goofy-toothy grins. Ugh.
Don't even get me started on the ugly, bug-eyed Chelsea dolls... what the hell happened to the cute-as-a-button Kelly dolls?
Thirdly, what is with these face-ups nowadays???? I'm not talking about lack of eyeshadow and lip color which I already gripe about continually - I'm referring to the fact that Mattel now seems to have employed 5-year olds to paint Barbie's face with crayons!! 'Cause that's what it looks like to me.
I know the vast majority of Barbie collectors on IG are new to collecting, a lot of them (re-)discovering Barbie with The Doll Evolves line, but come on! How can you accept Barbie going from a face like the blonde Goddess from the Barbie Basics line to the petite AA BMR1959 line? How can you mess up the Claudette face mold, Mattel? A face which looks good in any shade and Mattel manages to 'uglify' what should have been a fierce, spunky Nicki Minaj look-a-like in a petite, dark-chocolate-coated package.
That was the last straw for me. I am not buying any more Mattel dolls. I do not support this new direction. The brand has completely overlooked on purpose its adult collectors who valued style, quality and elegance in their dolls.
