Bratz Selfie Snaps Photobooth

About time I got around to this one.

So the Bratz relaunch happened a few months ago and amongst the relaunched products were a few playsets. A rerelease of the snow lodge they've done several times already (is anything even recoloured? it looks exactly the same as the moxie girlz lodge and the bratz one before that) and a photo booth.

Anyway, because "selfie" seems to be the buzz word of the year, we have the "selfie snaps" line, a photobooth playset and even selfie sticks with giant lips on. Uh... ok? I admit it, i'm old and don't understand selfie culture. It just baffles me. But kids have been pulling stupid poses in photobooths for decades. I never did, I mean those things are expensive! Who's got like £8 just sitting about for stupid photos? Rich kids, that's who.



MGA actually sent me this playset as an appology for a problem I had and subsequent bad customer service, so yay MGA. Took them a while but they did make things right.
I was actually really surprised to be sent a whole playset, it was super generous of them but really a lovely "we're sorry, we're retraining our staff now" gesture.
Hopefully next time anyone has a problem it'll be dealt with promptly and pleasantly, you're welcome hah.

Anyway, disclosure aside, this is not the sort of thing I would ordinarily buy for myself. I don't really have space for playsets and while a photo booth is cute and all, I just can't see any scene setting situations where i'd really use one.
It does however come with a redressed Selfie Cloe who's pink hair has had me lusting after her for a while.

The box is huge and I admit, i was a little disappointed the glasses are actually on a long handle like a mask, all the "glasses" are. Kinda a shame given the other Selfie version of Cloe comes with actual glasses. I really like doll glasses ok?

The set comes with a bunch of random "comedy photo" accessories.

Cloe herself has the standard "Budget Bratz Bitch Brows" or the 4Bs as i've decided to call them. In her case they make her look surprised, kinda, annoyed surprised. I think the partially open mouth really adds to the deer in headlights startled expression.
It's... not a good look.

The outer box was a little awkward to get open, but I eventually managed to slide the inner part out.

Inside are a load of blue plastic bits, a nice little flat packed photobooth.

Cloe herself was seriously attached to the box, in usual MGA style. Her hair was sewn to the backing card, her body was strapped down, her shoes were in plastic.. argh.

You can see her lips are painted in a way to make them look slightly parted. The way they're painted does seem to be most suited to this sort of mouth shape, the "closed lips" dolls have the same mold but it's painted over and give them this odd flat indented bit.

She has a spattering of freckles across her nose, I really like the way they're painted. They're not uniform, they actually look quite natural which is a nice touch.
her eyes are large and bright blue and she has very soft pink eye shadow. It's an understated faceup but it's ok.
Her eyebrows though... I can't stand them. They're big, they're brown, they're way too high and arched and look ridiculous.

Her hair is a lovely pale pink colour and soft saran like all the other Bratz I think. It's a little frizzed at the ends but on the whole it looks like it'll withstand play pretty well.

The accessories are held into the box with plastic... and ties... and more plastic. Dear god they were fiddly to get out.

There's a crown, a pair of bunny ears on a headband, some terrible star glasses, a party mask...

Some "nerd" glasses, some catseye glasses and then a pink mustache and some fake lips.

All of them are on a long stick with a loop on one side so the doll can "hold" them.
There's one big problem with this. That being that the dolls can't move their damn elbows and so can't actually hold these pieces up to their faces anyway! They can just sorta hold them out awkwardly and it looks silly.

The lips I felt were a little redundant, as the dolls already have such huge lips. I was wrong, they're HILARIOUS. omg look at this silliness!

She looks like a sad fish!

She kinda rocked the tasche.

These glasses were SOOO not her style.

This was actually as close to her face as I could bend her arm while holding the thing. So.. yeah.. doesn't really work. You gotta just give up on the doll holding the thing and hold it yourself.

I kinda dig this look.

This mask is creeping me out, her EYES!

Now this is just silly.

The ears are surprisingly cute. I think i'm keeping these.

The headband is a bit tight but you can wedge it on.

The crown has a little comb teeth thing inside but it really doesn't stick into the hair that well. The teeth are too short and fat and the hair is too thin and slippy. It just sorta sits on the doll's head till you move her too much then falls off.
Mmm...

Now to the actual booth. We'll get to the doll last.

The bottom pieces are held in place with these ties. I don't know what they're made of exactly, it feels like some kinda of papery string and it's tough as hell. It cuts easily though. A lot of it was taped down though, which was frustratingly tedious.

I'm left with a pile of blue bits.

Thankfully there's instructions! yay.

It's actually not all that complex, all the pieces are pretty obvious what they are but I like to be certain before I start shoving tabs into slots.

It didn't take long to set the whole thing up, no decals to add as it's all already done for you, the photo cannister (well, stickers) was already loaded too so all i had to do was pop it all together and done.

Some of the tabs are a little hard and need shoving but overall it went together without much trouble.

All put together, this is the "play" side. It's open quite a bit so you can get inside and position the dolls.

The other side is really quite blank. Which is odd as usually wouldn't this be the side on "display" were it a real photobooth? With the curtain for privacy and to help the flash and camera etc. I find it off therefore that the dispenser is on the other side (the side that would be against a wall in a regular mall) while the curtained part has nothing on the big blank bit. It just looks a little.. wierd and unfinished.

I can't help but feel there should be a curtain on the other side as well, which is clearly meant to be the "display" side. No photobooth would be totally open like that right?

The "photos" that come out of the slot are a series of stickers. They feature a large assortment of character combinations and look, there on the front one, that's Meygan! Horah. Doesn't' look like we got a Selfie Snaps Meygan though, alas.

All the photos look to be different, though I didn't unravel the thing enough to see if they started duplicating at any point.

I wonder if MGA will ever sell replacement cartridges for this as once you're outta stickers, what are you meant to do?

Sure you can still use it without the "photos" but it seems a shame.

The booth is just a little taller than a Bratz doll in her giant clompy shoes, which is fairly realistic.

Even without the curtain (which it totally should have on this side too) it looks cute.
The size of the open gap is perfect for getting your hand inside the box and positioning the doll on the little seat.

The new Bratz don't sit very gracefully or very realistically. Their knees are difficult to bend and their upper legs are so long they sorta slump backwards and slide off the seat anyway.
I managed to wedge her in place using her big clompy shoes.

Now, there's a slot at the side here where you're supposed to put your mobile/cell phone to take the photos. I couldn't be bothered finding my phone but a nice touch was that this slot is adjustable so if your phone is longer or shorter, you just move the holder up or down till the camera is lined up with the little hole.

I shoved my regular camera against the hole. See how awkwardly she's sitting? that's because her body doesn't bend enough! A lot of that is her stiff stiff jeans though, and her iffy knees and static arms.

With the flash on I could get photos, but I wouldn't say they were GOOD photos. Maybe it'd work better with a phone.

Without the flash I got this dark spookiness.

I didn't test if the whole thing worked with my phone, mostly because getting pictures from my phone to my pc involves dropbox and is a PITA.
It didn't work so great with a regular camera, though perhaps someone with a better camera, more knowledge and who could be bothered putting time and effort into posing some dolls could have better luck.

The seat is strangely dipped in the middle. Other dolls can sit on it but the longer legs of Monster High or Barbie just make them look silly and precarious. Even bratz look pretty uncomfortable. 

And jumping about, on to the doll who's picture you've seen already many times.

She has the standard 2015 bratz body with the iffy knees that either flop about uselessly or don't bend without first forcing them hard.

She comes wearing this ensemble. A pair of denim zebra print skinny jeans with red stitching, a yellowish greenish neon crop top with a loveheart eyed emoticon face on it and a pair of lurid yellowish greenish boots with black stitching around the sole.
I find it odd they painted the stitching but not the laces. Why bother?

Anyway, the jeans are nicely made but because they're so tight they really restrict the doll's movement. They're also REALLY hard to get on and off.

The crop top is adorable but the colour is one I just can't quite describe. Is it chartreuse? I dunno, it's this ugly neon asparagus pee colour that honestly i'm not convinced goes with Cloe's hair or skin tone. It'll probably look awesome on Sasha though.

I decided I couldn't deal with Cloe's awful eyebrows any longer and so I decided to do something about them. Unsure about the idea of repainting them, I noticed someone else on flickr had cut bangs into their dolls and thought "yeah.. that'd work."
So I combed some hair forward and snipped it into a long fringe. This length of fringe I usually like the grumpy old lady I am yell "cut your hair!" at the TV over, but in Cloe's case, it's all for a good cause honest.

Her hair isn't really that thick though, it's rooted sufficiently but I wouldn't call it thickly rooted. As a result, pulling a bit forward did leave me with gaps and thin areas I had to carefully comb to conceal before setting her hair with hot water.

She's fine for display, but the thin patches may irritate some people so if you want to do this to your doll, be aware of that.

I vastly prefer her with bangs. They hide her surprised 4B eyebrows and make her look... honestly? rather sweet. The pink hair, big doe eyes and freckles just combine to make a really syrup sweet dolly.

I am still not feeling that lurid top though.

So a change was in order. I also got this Bratz fashion pack which strangely included a dress, a pair of denim dungarees and an over skirt. Oh, and some ballet shoes but those are lame so no photos (yes, I have issues with ballet, i did it as a kid and it SUCKED and I was terrible at it and gave up because I fell once and ended up doing the splits and omg I can't do the splits and it hurt so bad. *issues*)

Anyway, my childhood trauma aside, the outfit with a few bits from my bratz/mh collection made two cute outfits.

I don't understand why there's a dress under the dungarees but whatever.

Jade got the lurid green boots because they go with her green streak. Cloe stole her pink boots because PINK.
She's like my little goth fairy now.

See, Jade here? She pulls off the 4B eyebrows because they're lower on her face and give her this "i'm a bit mad, rarrgh" attitude. on Cloe however, she just looked like someone had poured ice water down her back.


So, overall?

The booth itself is ok. It's built... ok. It's not hugely flimsy but I couldn't call it sturdy either. It should stand up to play though.
It also does actually come apart if you want it to, though it takes a bit of force and determination to pull some of the pieces apart. I don't think it's MEANT to be taken apart repeatedly, but at least it's possible should you need to move it or store it.

If you have some sort of photobooth obsession or enjoy playing shopping mall with your dolls, then yeah it's probably a fun playset but for me personally, the playability was pretty limited. Stick a few dolls in, snap a few photos, yeah.. whatever, moving on.
I guess i've just never really cared about photographs of myself pulling dumb faces for the camera, I can't even mustre up the interest when it's dolls doing it.

The little accessories are cute for a few pics, but they don't really have any use beyond as selfie props. Well, except the bunny ears, people totally just wear bunny ears day to day right? <_< >_>

I can't help but wish some of the glasses had been actual glasses so they could have other uses beyond just "prop" but I guess that wasn't the point.

I'd also have liked the dolls to be able to HOLD the damn prop pieces up to their faces without me having to hold them. Having no jointed elbows makes posing the new Bratz a right pain, they just sorta.. stand there. I'd forgotten with the whole Monster High and Ever After High and all that being fully jointed how static and kinda... boring non articulated dolls can LOOK in photographs and how much being able to just pose the elbows adds to the attitude of a doll in a picture or on a shelf.

The doll is nice though, her hair is a really cute candy floss pink and sooo soft. I don't much care for the original style, I find it boring and uninspired.
The outfit is well made and the jeans are really cute, but they don't suit the doll they're on imo.
They do make for cute outfit pieces to have though.

Is the set worth the price for the doll alone? no. The doll is quite bluntly, just the regular Selfie Snaps Cloe in a different outfit, and the outfit isn't special enough to justify buying another otherwise identical doll. if you don't already have that Cloe and kinda want the booth? Yeah go for it, but for me? I think i'm just NOT the right person for a toy photobooth.

As a toy? It's ok. Like, 7 pink mustaches out of 10. 

I do like the doll, but I could have gotten just the doll without the playset for a fraction of the price and gotten as much enjoyment from her.

Also, I really wish the set came with a damn hairbrush. All those accessories, all this focus on pictures and no brush? Come on MGA.

I don't think i'll keep the booth. The doll yes, but the booth? Pass.