New Bratz - Totally Polished Jade

So the relaunch of Bratz (psst i'm taller) began with a handful of lines. The budget nylon haired Xpress it dolls and the obligatory beach line, two gimmicky lines: Kool Catz and Sea Stunnerz, and two "deluxe" lines: In the Wild and Totally Polished.

Both these latter retail at around £17 which is a bit more than a Barbie but in line with Monster High (go figure)

Totally Polished is the largest of the lines so far, with six different characters in the line instead of the usual 4.

Alongside our usual cast: Cloe, Yasmin, Jade and Sasha, there's fan favourites Meygan and Fianna.

Each doll comes with a set of false nails "for you" which are themed around each character's outfit.
Sadly, they're child sized and my fingers are fat so no false nail fun for me.

Anyway, Jade and Sasha really leapt out as "must haves" when I saw their promos, so naturally I had to pick both up. Jade I got first because she's available in this country, while Sasha had to be imported from the US (Seriously MGA, this is really starting to tick me off)

My Jade cost me a little less than the £17 price tag thanks to The Entertainer's almost perpetual Bratz sale. Whooo.

 These boxes make a hell of a lot more sense than the Xpress it half opened.... things. They're actually really smart little boxes. They're slightly trapezoid but they stack pretty neatly on the shelves unlike so many other doll line boxes at the moment (seriously, what's wrong with a nice rectangular box?).
What you see is what you get, a hair brush, doll and false nails. Not a lot, Jade doesn't even get a handbag or necklace but the presentation in box, though simple, is tidy and effective.

The box itself is splattered with what I ASSUME is supposed to be nail polish given the "nail" theme of the line, but the red is an unfortunate choice. It makes the box look blood spattered! But maybe that's too much monster high speaking.

 The back of the box features a large cartoon drawing of the character, and surprisingly for MGA dolls, not much has changed in the design. She has different earrings and the colours are slightly different (green not blue pants) but overall, not bad.
Again we have the dripping slime and blood effect (seriously, I know it's supposed to be nail polish but it doesn't look like it to me!)
It's vivid and effective against the white box.

We're told Jade is the quirky one, fair enough. I admit, I never really paid that much attention to the Bratz "characters" so i'll take their word for it that she's always been so.

The bottom banner shows all 6 dolls in the line, though unusually shows them only in cartoon form rather than actual dolls. They look good though, the art is adorable and has this pop art, printed sorta dot effect going on.

 

Box sides. One side, obviously intended for display shows the character name in pink and red. That particular "spatter" really does look like blood. Was there a Bratz massacre in the nail salon!? 

The other side informs me that Bratz are "style" whatever the hell that means. New slogan? Whatever.

 Let's get this girl out of her box!

 

Shockingly, I don't have to destroy the box to get her out. Maybe MGA finally noticed the constant jokes about their packaging? 

In any case, it's a simple matter of untape the top and slide the whole card out. 

The back of the card, looks about standard. I remove the tape holding the plastic foot cover, slide her hands from their cuffs, snip the tie around her waist, snip the head ties and then set to work on the thread holding her hair in place. Oh.. my... god the thread. She has 6 different points where her hair is strapped down, really guys? Was that necessary? It takes me several minutes to sort out but overall, time taken to remove doll from box: about 5 minutes instead of the usual half hour and sliced up hands. Zero injuries, SUCCESS!

 

Here's everything that comes in the box. Doll, nails, brush. It's not a lot for your £17 but such is inflation right?

 The hair brush is mangled due to the way it was over tightly strapped into the box. Why bother MGA? Are you seriously concerned the hair brush might drop into the bottom of the box? Are there rampant dolly brush thieves on the loose? The bottom bristles are totally crushed, and there's no real reason they had to tie an elastic band around that piece anyway.
Still, at least it's just the brush and not the doll's hand or something.

I'm pleased to report her hair is saran and beautifully thick and soft.  It's mostly black with a few large chunks of pale pink streaked through one side.

What's particularly nice to see is that every single piece of her outfit is separate. She has a little fabric belt, a tunic top, teal green flares, a pink headband and pretty teal shoes that you never see under her trousers anyway.

She also has a pair of earrings that are either feathers... or leaves... i'm not totally sure.

 

These new taller bodies, as I showed in my previous review of Xpres it Yasmin, don't have leg articulation which I feel is a shame. This is as far as they'll bend so forget being able to have your doll sit realistically or even practically. No chairs for Jade, poor girl. 

The arms have a nice range of movement in the elbow but are still somewhat stiff in certain directions. She can't touch her own face, nor can she put her hands to her chest, they simply will NOT bend toward her. Bummer. So fashionistas, Monster High and Liv all have her beat on the arm movement front. I believe she's about on par with the Moxie teenz. 

  

I love this new body, it makes the oversized head look a lot less lollypop and the proportions are actually quite attractive. Unlike the freaky when nude original Bratz who had waists like they'd been corset training for a decade or two, or the 10.10.10 bratz who look a bit hobbit-like with their short little leggies, the new bodies have a nice shape to them. Least, the torso part. the legs are a bit toothpick thin for my taste, as are the arms. A little more shape in the arms and thighs would have made this body a lot more attractive in a swimsuit. 

They have nice slender hands though, I like these hands. They're much easier to get through sleeves than the old bratz hands. I HATE old Bratz hands with their solid unbending thumbs and teeny tiny tight sleeved clothing. Who the heck thought that was a good idea? I have Bratz clothing I cannot physically get ON a Bratz doll due to the hands/sleeves issue. 

Of course, Jade's outfit has strap sleeves so maybe i'll change my tone when/if I encounter a long sleeved Bratz outfit for one of these bodies.

I'd have loved to have seen a scaled up version of the 10.10.10 party body though, knee articulation is SO useful for play and posing. 

Old style body, new taller body, 10.10.10 "party" body.

Overall, the totally polished line is what Bratz SHOULD be. Decent quality, trendy outfits all ready to mix and match, nice hair and expressive stylised faces. I love Jade's side glancing eyes and lowered lids, it gives her a wonderfully sultry look. 

I love her outfit. The colours are really attractive together and the style is very much something I could see in a high street store. I've missed fashion dolls that wore actual real human FASHIONS. 

My only criticism would be that this line feels a bit basic for the price tag. No handbag, no jewellery aside from the earrings. A simple bracelet or necklace or something would have just helped bring her outfit together. Also no stand, which seem to have become a mainstay of modern doll lines. Of course, Barbie doesn't come with a stand either and that's who Bratz are taking on. There's not many human fashion dolls on the market right now, so it's good to see Bratz jump right back in where they belong; directly competing with the allmighty Miss Barbara Roberts!

Still, the line feels like it should be a few quid cheaper. 

As a comparison to Barbie though, the articulation isn't as good as the Fashionistas, but the fashions are infinitely superior. It's really no contest, the outfits in the totally polished line hit it out the park while Barbie is stuck in a rut of half print mini dresses. Certainly these jump out more on the shelf so perhaps Bratz have got their groove back after all. 

I hope so, Barbie needs some competition to fuel creativity.

I give Totally Polished Jade a solid A-

I love her outfit, I love her face, I love her hair, but I wish she had articulated knees and a little more bling. Her neck area looks so bare to me.

Certainly it's a line I would recommend checking out. If MGA continue in this trend, Bratz are BACK baby.