When photos of the Barbie Extra dolls appeared, it was clear that doll #1 was the stand out of the bunch, with her big fluffy pigtails and her rainbow coloured coat. The other dolls while great, just don’t quite have the same impact. There are five dolls in the series: #2 is pale curvy doll with Asian features and pink and purple hair, wearing a shimmery dress over cloud print top; #3 has blonde hair with pink streaks, 80’s inspired pale printed pattern jeans and pink faux fur coat; #4 is a curvy doll with curly blue hair and freckles, wearing a tie dye shirt, white shorts and blue bomber jacket; and #5 has multi-coloured hair in plaits, denim shorts and fringed jacket with printed tee shirt. Each doll comes with lots of jewellery and accessories as well as a pet, and while each doll is stylish in their own way, as a group, there is one clear diva and it’s # 1.
When I saw the photos, I loved #1’s fashion, and quite liked the doll too, but more importantly, she was articulated and her vinyl colour looked a good match for two dolls I wanted to re-body. Of course, I didn’t really hold any hopes of these dolls being available here in Australia and I wasn’t the only collector happily surprised at them turning up first at one discount department store, quickly followed by another. Unfortunately, my stores had sold out of this doll before I could get my hands on her, but a couple of friends were selling her nude. Finding black articulated dolls here is almost impossible, so I snapped them up, even though I was disappointed at not getting that amazing fashion. Once I got the dolls, I realised I didn’t like the face as much as the promo pics so decided to use both to re-body the dolls I had – she was an almost perfect colour match. Eventually I found this doll NRFB and got my hands on her fabulous fashion, while the doll will go to another friend.
While I do love this doll’s face, it’s not quite as appealing in real life as in the promo photos, but I do love those glasses!
The doll has the face mould that is usually used for curvy dolls, and I really think that it suits a curvy body best. This doll’s hair is rather spectacular, big afro pigtails with two long plaits in front. Her body is articulated (almost an update of the old articulated Fashionista body and also used for the Olympic and Wellness dolls, more info in a future post), with bending elbows, wrists and knees, but it’s nowhere near as poseable as the Made to Move body. These bodies come with both flat and high heeled feet and this doll has the high heeled ones.
The ring isn’t really a ring as such. Is this a new fashion? And while I can see the dog (which is wearing pink high heels!) appealing to kids, it just seems so out of place with this doll.
I love (almost) everything about this fashion. The red knit shorts and long sleeved top are both fashionable and versatile, both pieces are great for mix and matching and the rainbow fur coat is just fabulous. It’s accessorised with large gold hoop earrings, a gold coloured necklace, a large yellow jewel ‘ring’, white socks with black stripes, silver ankle boots, a white cloud shaped handbag and – one of my favourite pieces – ‘shine bright’ motif sunglasses. There is also a small fawn poodle with star sunglasses, a small blue handbag and three pink bones, which together with the ‘ring’, are just weird. The dog is in no way lifelike and just doesn’t match the sophistication or style of the doll and fashion. The ring is not a ring as such, but fits over most of the doll’s hand. They’re a strange inclusion, even though I know they’re designed to appeal to children.
Of course, seeing as I wasn’t using the original doll, I had to try this fashion on a couple of other dolls, two re-bodied Fashionista heads, #57 Zig and Zag on the Extra body and #80 Cheerful Check on a Made to Move body.
The fashion is really well made and almost on par with a range such as the BMR1959 dolls, which makes me wonder, why can’t Mattel produce dolls like this more often? The dolls retailed at $39 here, much more than the Fashionistas at $12-13 and the Olympic/Made to Move/Wellness dolls at $20, but for the quality and styling, we’ll happily pay that. And for that matter, why couldn’t they have given them M2M bodies? I see the MGA dolls such as OMG and Rainbow High sell at a $40-50 price range and they have a popular following, so surely Mattel needs to lift their game. And while I’m at it, how about some Ken dolls in a range like this? Instead of cheap and cheerful – and plenty – like the Fashionistas, we need more quality ranges like this. Hopefully, these dolls selling so well here will mean our stores will carry a broader range of lines like this in the future. Fingers crossed.
More information on these dolls can be found here.
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