I can't think of much preamble here.
Last year (?) Mattel released their "You Create" kits and dolls, the idea being that they came with a new neck knob that made it easier to take the head off and swap things around.
the first set came with three heads, three bodies and three wigs for ultimate customisability, however while the wigs were "okay", wigs at Barbie scale always suffer from looking a little bulky on those tiny heads and the price point was pretty steep (£92 + postage). Couple that with no apparently mainstream store release and being only available via Mattel's own online shopfront, they weren't exactly easily obtainable.
So 2026 brings us their second wave, where they've changed things up quite a bit.
Gone are the wigs, we have fully rooted heads now. But sadly also gone are the extra bodies. Each kit comes with three heads but only one body, which is I suppose a brilliant way for Mattel to sell more bodies... but of course they don't just sell bodies, you gotta buy a whole extra doll because of course you do.
This time not only are these cheaper (still a rather steep £64.99) they're also available via mainstream retailers like Amazon.
And as I was flush with amazon vouchers from christmas... and the kits briefly dropped to a little over £50 each... I splurged and bought a couple to check out.
I picked up kits 2 and 3 and they came via a third party seller who shipped them in their original cardboard shipping boxes. I have to admit, while I understand the pragmatism of Mattel's single doll shipping boxes, I do miss case assortments, there was something delightful about opening a whole case. I also feel like it was way less cardboard to have 6 dolls in one large box vs every single doll having their own box over the top of their retail packaging.
Anyway,
The shipping boxes were annoying to open being glued shut on both ends. It was difficult for me to wrench them open. Of course, I do have weak hands but still, stop gluing shit so excessively Mattel, sheesh!
The boxes are not actually much larger than a typical Monster High box, which surprised me actually. Given Mattel's tendency to overpackage the shit out of their dolls, this box feels quite restrained. Oh sure, it's still bigger than it technically NEEDS to be, but it's not full of empty space like a lot of their recent releases.
This is kit #3, the "pale" kit if you like.
This line looks to be replacing the Barbie "looks" line and going back to the label "basics". Sounds like they'll use the same made to move bodies but all have these new neck knobs which lack the hooks typically used.
We have the bold claim of "150 looks" which I always find pretty sus. But doll companies love to exaggerate and use technicalities in these claims.
The back of the box has a lot of text in lots of different languages, it doesn't say anything overly interesting, just a description of the packaging contents.
we also have a photograph showing the three different heads and the four outfit pieces mixed and matched. Which is the only reason there's 4 dolls pictured here, they needed to add another to show the last outfit combo. It is a little confusing though to have the same doll featured twice like that. Or is that just me?
at the bottom of the box we have the stock image showing the full contents, an image showing the new neck knob that claims it's easy to change the heads (press x to doubt), showing the earrings and some clothes.
The stock photos use the same images, so here's that neck connector. It's a long three sided plastic well.. pipe is the best word I can thing of. Typically a doll neck connector will also have two little prongs at the bottom to keep the head in place, but this has done away with that.
I know a lot of collectors use to cut those things off anyway as apparently they don't do much in terms of keeping the head on anyway and made it easier to get the head back on if you removed it to reroot it or whatever.
I admit, I don't know enough about engineering to understand any of this, but I can confirm that it does indeed keep the head in place just fine.
The inner tray slides out of the outer box and you have two compartments. One for the complete doll and another for the three black bags which look a little sinister. Barbie's first body disposal?
The doll herself is attached to her packaging with soft plastic strips instead of the usual hard plastic string ties which look like you probably could remove without scissors but I didn't want to fiddle around with that so I just cut them. However, they did elect to put 5 plastic staples in her head for some reason.
Those damn head staples are a huge pet peeve of mine. I hate them so much.
But oh goodness this is a beautiful doll.
She is the reason I bought this specific kit. She's absolutely stunning.
This sculpt is called Fryda and we've seen her before in the "looks" line. Specifically, Model #12
She looks quite different without this extreme makeup. This is something I do enjoy about modern Barbies, is how wildly different the same sculpt can look with different makeup and styling.
When I was a kid i'll be honest, Barbies all pretty much looked the same to me. Oh sure, some might have slightly more eye shadow or darker lips, but they all followed much the same overall look, just with minor colour tweaks here and there.
Anyway, it's a beautiful sculpt and it's awesome to see it again. I don't think they've actually used this head sculpt particularly often since it debuted in 2021.
So, what's in the black bags?
Bag number one contains....
drum roll please.
The severed heads of her enemies!
okay okay, it's actually the two extra heads.
First we have Millie, the closed mouth version of the standard playline Barbie sculpt they use for literally everything.
I know that's really boring, in fact a lot of people were pretty annoyed they shoved Millie into this set because it's not like she's a difficult to find head if you want one. Millies are a dime a dozen.
what makes this one special? Well she has quite a nice face with gold around both eyes and a nice neutral pink shade for her lips.
Her hair is long, slightly wavy and super soft saran.
I don't hate Millie as a sculpt, I actually prefer it to a lot of the previous Barbie sculpts like Generation Girl and Superstar, particularly this closed mouth variation. But I do get why people find her boring, she is quite safe.
I do feel like they could have done more to make this girl a little more special, perhaps for example, having her not be blonde for once? Have we actually ever had a non blonde Millie?
But she's fine, a nice version of a very common head sculpt.
The other head is called "olivia" or "pizzazz". She's been used many many times since her debut in 2015, usually as one of the budget Fashionista line. We have never had one with this curly strawberry blonde (?) sort of hair though, now one with quite such angled cat-like eyes.
She's definitely a unique looking doll despite the sculpt being a pretty common one.
Do I like her? Not overly. But some people will and that's great.
Her hair is lovely and soft like the others and very very curly. It is saran I believe, which means it may not hold that curl too well, but to be frank, she could probably do with a little spa anyway. Her hair is crazy from being in the bag and sticks all out in every direction (girl I know the feeling, my hair does the same thing every morning)
All three heads look to have decent screening, smooth paint and no obvious major wonk which is a relief. The blind bag element here does make the risk of defective heads a lot higher as you can't see what you're getting before you open the box. I'm not sure I like that, there's really no reason for the extra heads to be "hidden" in the first place.
I hope the QC on these heads is decent, but I have seen people post wonky ones already so hmmmm....
Bag 2 contains the second outfit. A sort of uh.. swimsuit leotard with a B logo all over and a beige pleather skirt that i'm dubious of the longevity of.
I also have to admit, i'm not keen on the style of it. I mean if it's supposed to be vinyl or leather effect then having such a heavy stiff fabric used for a style that typically should be light and floaty just... really doesn't work for me. A heavy fabric should be used for a more pencil or straight skirt style, which could have actually been pretty chic. How many leather tiered a line skirts with pleats have you seen?
I also feel like the style is a little "little girlish". We've seen this style of skirt many times before from Mattel, they love to give them to Monster High dolls for example, also in massively inappropriate vinyl materials.
this material is at least softer feeling than the plastic shit they use for Monster High clothes, but I fear it'll peel like pleather always does. And I resent companies using materials known for being unstable.
but even if it is a decent pleather material and doesn't peel, that doesn't change the fact that we have a heavy stiff material used to make a skirt that should be soft and floaty and that just looks strange.
The leotard bodysuit thing is really nicely made though, it's a very soft material that still feels quite thick and sturdy but drapes really nicely.
maybe they should have used THIS for the skirt.
And the rest of the stuff is in the final bag.
We have the stand base and clip (the rest of it is next to the doll, tacked to the side of her compartment)
Then we have a bag of elastic bands which is nice, but a bit of a curious addition.
then there's a bag of accessories and a bag for the shoes, headband and glasses.
The earrings are made of quite light pearly white plastic and styled into these large spirals. They fit well, sticking out just enough to be nicely visible though I will say they do feel quite fragile.
The headband is solid plastic but sculpted in such a way to quite effectively look soft. It is however extremely bulky and I just couldn't figure out a way to style it without it looking a bit off to me.
But let's be real here, I don't know a lot about hair stuff.
The other accessories are barettes/hair clips which are a pain in the arse to use and don't want to stay in the doll's hair anyway. Which may be what the elastic bands are for.
For some reason I didn't take a photo of them, go figure.
But the stock photos have a clear image of them anyway so here's that.
Though these colours aren't very true to life. They're all a lot duller in reality.
And then there's the shoes.
oh the damn shoes.
I mean first, can we talk about that wine glass shaped fucking heel? What is that shit? It's huge and ugly and strange.
But also, the shoes don't actually fit the doll.
Oh sure, you can kinda ram the feet into the hard plastic, but they don't go deep enough into the toe to stay on. As soon as you pick the doll up they fall straight off. They are completely fucking useless as shoes.
This is probably ALSO what the elastic bands are for but am I crazy for thinking I shouldn't have to elastic band shoes to a doll in order for her to be able to wear them? Like i get elastic banding them on to keep them on long term, a lot of doll heels need that extra help, but all other doll shoes i've ever encountered have still stayed on the doll when you PICKED THEM THE FUCK UP, at least momentarily. These don't even try, they immediately fall off because they don't fit onto the feet. The feet just sort of sit on top of the plastic.
And I don't get it. I mean, these pointy toed monstrosities clearly have plenty of space in those ugly pointy ass toes, so why the fuck aren't they sculpted to allow the doll's foot to go INTO that space?
I mean this isn't a case of "these shoes are really prone to fall off", this is a case of "these shoes don't even go on in the first place"
what the fuck?
They don't even LOOK like they fit. I rammed these feet as deep into these things as they would go and they don't even look good. Adding ugly ass elastic bands won't help, I may as well elastic band a flat piece of plastic to the foot, it'd fit about as well as this shit.
but also, they're just so fucking ugly. They're so... so fucking ugly.
Her other pair of shoes are these brown uh.. are these mules?
and yeah, they aren't exactly pretty shoes, but they're fine and they FIT. They stay on her damn feet just fine. No elastic bands needed. They're functional fucking shoes.
Okay... deep breaths. I'm getting too worked up about plastic doll shoes here.
..... in
....... out
........ in
....... out
okay, i'm fine. Really, i'm fine.
The other outfit is nice too by the way. The gold fabric for the cargo pants feels quite thin but it's nicely stitched and has patch pockets and actual stitched details which I always appreciate.
The top is a stretchy material that's soft and quite pleasant to touch. It's a really soft blush pink colour with "cold shoulders" and ruched sleeves.
It fits a little baggy on the much smaller Dream Besties body but it was the only body I had available to me. The colour match isn't great but eh. I think this kit would match Renee's pale skin tone better than Malibu's darker pink.
This skirt is from the other kit, which i'll get to in just a moment.
I just want to mention the head swapping gimmick first.
While yes, you can get the heads off with a solid tug, it's not nearly as easy as the advertising would imply. You do have to pull quite hard and I was still concerned i'd break something. I would suggest still heating the head up a bit honestly.
as for getting the head ON, that's also a challenge. These heads are actually quite hard, not rock hard but certainly less squishy than the heads i'm used to. So I had a bit of trouble getting the head on and seated correctly and ended up having to twist the head around and around several times while pushing to get it to slip over the neck lip and sit correctly.
It was equally tricky to get the head onto an old hook style peg like this Dream Bestie, again I had to twist the head around and around while pushing it down to get it to slip over the neck and seat properly.
otherwise the head just sits above the round base of the peg and looks ridiculous.
I also find that the heads themselves wobble a bit more than i'm used to. It isn't the head being lose so much as the peg itself is just a lot looser on its pin, so it has more mobility. This does allow the doll to tilt her head and look up and down, but it also makes that joint feel a bit more fragile which again, makes me wary of just tugging the heads off without applying heat first.
Ultimately, i'm not sure it really makes things much easier. Perhaps I won't have to heat the heads AS much, and the lack of the hooks will mean there's less to catch onto the vinyl lip and pull when removing the heads, but it's not quite as revolutionary and effortless as they'd like to make out. more a minor QOL improvement than a real revelation.
Anyway,
kit #2
Once again I predominantly got this kit for one head. Elle here.
Elle is another of the head sculpts that debuted with the Barbie Looks line. She appeared twice in that line and like Fryda, hasn't really been used for much else.
Her outfit is a gold puff sleeve top that appears to be made of similar fabric to Fryda's trousers and a very cool skirt in a dusky pink tone with a pleather panel of beige.
Her other outfit pieces are the brown shirt Fryda is wearing here and
this faux wrap skirt in the B print that matches the leotard in kit 3.
her hair isn't actually fully microbraided, the yarn braids are only around the perimeter of her hair while the rest of it is super soft black saran.
This is a little disappointing because full braids would have been quite unique, but also because the mixed fibers mean brushing her hair is going to be an absolute fucking nightmare. In order to brush the saran you'll have to separate out every single braid and that's going to be time consuming and annoying.
thankfully her hair is fine straight out the box for me, but styling this hair will be a challenge.
Her earrings are quite plain little rectangles, they're fine but nothing to write home about.
We also have a rather fabulous "Tango" with an auburn and brown afro. Her little side glance and slightly quirked smile gives her real personality.
Her hair is really really long and so silky soft. The gold makeup coupled with the hair works really well and I do love a dark lip on a doll.
You can just see that this particular head has some molding issues on her ears. It looks like one side has a bunch of excess material that needs removing and the other side is pretty raggedy too. This should come right once I shove some earrings in, but it's disappointing to see this qc issue.
thankfully once again all the faces look good and their hair is perfect.
The accessories have several barettes again which have the same issue as the other set, a headband which feels very very flimsy but is quite pretty, a big gold bracelet (not pictured because I keep losing it. Whoops) and *deep breath* a pair of heels.
Let's just get this out of the way
No, these don't stay on either. But at least the foot looks like it goes into them.
but they're still fucking useless.
The B logo heel I will say, is a lot cuter than that bullshit of the previous kit's pair so they have that going for them. But the huge long bit that sticks out the front looks very wrong. Aren't your toes meant to come a little further forward even in pointy toed shoes? What is up with these shoes?
The other pair are these pointy ballet-likes shoes which I think are pretty ugly but they don't offend me enough to go dig out an alternate pair. At least these stay on, they just make the doll look like she's wearing clown shoes. Those elongated pointed toes are not a look I ever think looks anything other than stupid as fuck. Sorry ladies who like pointy toed shoes. But I guess at least it makes Barbie's feet appear larger, her stupid little hoof feet always bug me.
Okay, so having gotten the dumb ass shoes out the way, I would also like to take a moment to bitch about the glasses.
I gotta get this all outta my system okay?
Mattel... what the fuck are these about? Was it really so much more expensive to cast these from a transparent material so they had actual lenses?
the sticker decals on Elle's glasses are particular egregious to me, but Fryda's glasses have a whole extra piece which looks like it could so easily have been cast in a transparent material but they went for an opaque anyway because fuck you I guess.
it looks DUMB.
It also looks cheap.
these dolls are expensive, they're supposedly for collectors (they even come with a certificate of authenticity in the box) so what is this budget playline bullshitery?
I mean, at least the glasses fit on the dolls. UNLIKE THOSE FUCKING SHOES.
okay okay.. I said I was done. I swear...
I won't mention those goddamn shoes again. Promise.
Sadly I can't find my extra bodies, so only these three have bodies for now.
also i do find it a bit strange that despite having three heads, we only have two outfits. Guess doll #3 can just go naked huh? 
Kit #2 uses a new made to move body (to me at least) which is called the "athletic" body.
alongside the standard mtm it is quite different. Similar height but with broader limbs and a less cinched waist. Bust appears to be slightly smaller too but that could be an illusion. I don't have a tall mtm to compare but I think the torso may be similar.
So a new body to add to the assortment. So we have what, 5 different Barbie body shapes now? Nice.
I mean overall, i'm delighted by the head sculpts and look forward to having bodies for them.
but I do have grips (oh hell do I have gripes)
I wish they'd given us, for example, an extra set or two of earrings instead of the difficult to use barrettes. All the heads have earring holes and yet we only get one pair for them all to share.
And while the quality of the clothing in both kits is really nice, it still seems a bit strange to me to have two outfits for three dolls. I know it'd hike the price up, but still, the math ain't mathing.
If I had my way, i'd have ditched all the hair clips and replaced them with two more pairs of earrings.
i'd have also made shoes that actually fit..
no. I said I wouldn't mention it again.
I shan't.
And maybe another necklace instead of the bracelet which doesn't make a lot of sense for a doll who's BOTH outfits feature LONG SLEEVES anyway.
I also would love to see Mattel make fashion packs that match these kits, it'd be really fun to be able to fill a whole wardrobe with matching pieces.
It IS annoying to have to find bodies though. Like previous spare head releases like the Bratz Headgamez, the moxie girls, the my scene, the barbie fashionistas... there's always the issue of too many heads and not enough bodies.
the only way around this is to either sell just bodies via Mattel's online store front (which they could actually do quite a good trade in given how many people buy mtm dolls just to steal their bodies) or package three bodies in the kits like the first wave did.
yes it did make the first wave of kits much more expensive but it did give you three (mostly) full dolls.
When you actually cost it all out, expensive though those £93 kits were, they did work out at £31 per doll and they got a full outfit each too.
meanwhile these kits, though significantly cheaper, end up costing you more in the long run trying to find matching bodies.
So hmmm.
time to scour the secondhand market and see what I can find.
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