Barbie Fashionistas 2015

Picked these two girls up for a friend, but before I posted them off (he wanted them deboxed) a review was of course crucial!

So these are the new 2015 Fashionistas from Mattel. They're £10 and I found these girls in Tesco. The case assortment seems to be 2 different Barbies, Raquelle, Summer? Or is she Teresa? I don't even know anymore...  and one each of these two girls.

They don't have names, so um... I shall name them George and Susan.

The back of hte box has the assortment. The case I saw had the Barbie in the "be your self" shirt, the brunette in the denim skirt, Barbie in the maroon top, Raquelle in the red dress and then frizzy haired girl (George) and super dark skinned girl (Susan).

I've seen the other girls around too, so looks like we have multiple case assortments? Confusing.

Anyway, the boxes. They look like the plastic nightmare I usually complain about, but I actually figured out the knack pretty quick.
You need a pencil or something to stab into the plastic tabs around the outside (no tape is used in this box AT ALL, not a single piece of tape. How cool is that?)
Once you have those tabs popped, the backing card hinges open to reveal this, another card with more plastic tabs. They are pretty soft and very easy to just flip with a finger.
It took me about 30 seconds to open this box, so i'm very pleased with this.
No blood sacrifice? thank you Mattel, now please fix the Monster High boxes. Grrr.

Here's "Susan". She's held into the box with two ties which are easy to snip. One around the ankles, one at the waist.
Her head is held into a plastic cushion thing with the usual head staples, but because it's a raised cushion and you can easily slide the tabs holding it to the card OUT, it's actually very easy to snip them without risking cutting hair.

She's a pretty girl.
Though she does have some scratches on her lips. Hmmm.. odd. Stray hairs while they were spraying maybe?

"Susan" comes wearing a cute little dress. It's made of a knit fabric at the top with a cute collar, then a shiny soft floral fabric for the skirt part.
The pattern is full print, which I know Barbie folk will be delighted by.
It's a really nice little dress actually. Simple but the different fabrics make it feel a bit more interesting than a plain shift dress.
The skirt is slightly bubble cut too, it's pleated so it poofs out a little and then becomes a bit tighter around the bottom.

She comes with a plastic purse, a plastic necklace shaped like a bow (it's silver) and a pair of strappy flats.
Yes... FLATS. She has FLAT SHOES.

The plastic of the shoes and handbag has an iridescent quality that means it shimmers and reflects light, so it kinda gets a pearly rainbow effect when you move it. It's really cool. Sadly I couldn't photograph it.

But yes, FLAT FEET.
This girl has flat... feet... small... flat... feet.
I am so surprised by this.

I mean, I knew the new articulated bodies had ankle joints so they could wear flats or heels, but they're making dolls with EITHER flat or heeled feet as well?
This seems a bit odd to me. Because it now means you need more shoes, because this girl? she cannot wear regular Barbie shoes.

At all...

This just strikes me as a dumb idea. What is a kid meant to do now? Poor girl is doomed to forever wear the same pair of shoes?
Hmmmm.

Her body is a bit odd. The legs are hollow feeling plastic, hard and unbending. Her arms are equally as unyeilding and stuck in a one hand on hip pose.
Not exactly a very playable pose.

At least she can sit down though, unlike the bloody Stardolls.

Her hair is kanekellon I think and the black is streaked with auburn. it's quite pretty.
Her bangs are of course gelled to hell though. She also had globs of glue in her hair when I deboxed her. Ewwww.

She's short!
And it's not just the flat feet... I don't think anyway... I dunno, she seems rather little and reminds me of those "hobbit" bodied Fashion Fever dolls.

I think it's a real shame the Fashionistas lost their articulation. Jules there is an old Fashionista, same price point (she was £10 when sold in stores too) and such a superior body. *sigh*

That said, Chandra's skin tone isn't one we see too often these days and it's such a pretty skin colour.

"Susan" is a perfect match for SIS Chandra, which is good news for those with spare SIS bodies laying about.

The new Fashionistas have ditched articulation in favour of slightly more interesting outfits, varied face moulds and a large range of skin tones. They feel like Fashion Fever and I loved Fashion Fever.
It's nice to see faces being used in interesting ways, and some old favourites along with brand new moulds in the mix.

And speaking of interesting mixes...
Woah.

"George" here uses a mould traditionally used for dark skinned dolls, and here she's rocking blonde curls and pale skin. It's quite striking, very unexpected.

She even has green/hazel eyes and freckles!

Her outfit is also a single piece dress. Black stretch at the top with a rolled collar, then a cross over skirt. It is also full print the whole way around. I really like this dress, the pattern is really nice and the cut is interesting.

She comes with a pink clutch, pink strappy heels and a gold winged heart medallion. the necklace is cool.

Unfortunately she does suffer a bit of "box hair" problems. Her curls are rather flattened at the back.

Like "Susan", "George" comes in a static modelly pose. She has the opposite hand on her hip here, and one leg slightly bent which means she won't stand up straight.

This body reminds me of the Model Muse bodies... like.. so much.

Same pose and everything.
She even has the same popped hip.

Bizarre.

I'm really not sure about these bodies. Having them posed like that suggests they're for display rather than play, but their price point and accessories suggest they're for play and arghh.. i'm so confused.

"George" is rather pale. Jules is typical Barbie tan, and a lot darker skinned.

"George's" hair is awesome though. look how poofy it is. It makes me smile. I love this kind of frizzy halo of hair on a doll.

Here's "George" and "Susan" together. You can see how short "Susan" looks. I'm all for body diversity in dolls and all, but it does strike me as a bit wierd that all the Fashionistas seem to have different bodies to one another.
Sure they can all wear one another's clothes, though not shoes... yeah... shoe mixing is a problem. But I just can't help but think like... why bother with the different poses? aren't these supposed to be playline dolls for kids to uh... PLAY with? And can you really play much with a doll with one arm forever in a "I'm a little teapot" pose?

Overall, for a tenner, they aren't bad.
Their bodies do feel pretty damn cheap though.
the plastic is light, their fingers have next to no detail (it's all fuzzy like a cast of a cast of a cast) and the static poses feel very limiting.

I like their heads though, and the skin tone variety. It's SO nice to see a properly dark skinned doll in a toy aisle again. The UK doesn't tend to get dark skinned dolls so "Susan" stood out on the shelf. I saw her from the end of the aisle, her skin tone is just so striking against everything else. I'm delighted that we have gotten the black doll, because for so many years we in the UK have been getting cases with any doll darker than "ambiguously brown" removed. MGA removed Sasha from their assortments, Mattel removed Christie and gave us "ambiguous brown that's actually the exact same colour as tanned beach Barbie" Artsy instead. So In style was barely sold here and I have NEVER seen any of the dark skinned Moxie Girlz in a store.

I'm so happy to see some representation for darker skin, but also what could be perceived as a mixed race doll. "George's" features are facinating, and really quite appealing in how unique she is with that mould in this skin tone.
I like that they gave her really curly hair too, it adds to the idea that she might have mixed heritage and I think that'll speak a lot to kids who haven't had that sort of representation previously.

So overall, the Fashionistas aren't bad. I do wish they had better bodies. Articulated bodies with this variety of skin tone and face moulds (every single doll has a unique mould with the exception of the repeated Barbies in each case) would have been my perfect Barbie line.
But alas, that shall have to remain a dream...

or rather... be the Style line that Mattel have also brought out. Lol.

But the Style line doesn't have quite the range of faces yet. I'm sure it'll get there though.

Now i'm really looking forward to the Fashionista with the half shaved blonde hair, that doll WILL be mine damnit. She will. She's the most exciting Barbie Mattel have produced in well over a decade.

I'm rambling.

Barbie Fashionistas... great faces, ok hair, good quality outfits, ok accessories, craptastic rubbish bodies omg.
I give them ooo.. 7 little teapots out of 10. What the hell is the deal with the flat feet on some and heeled feet on others and what's up with the static model poses?