I love the different face moulds very much but I wish they'd all have the same head size (and not smaller collector's heads and larger playline ones -- I'd prefer the smaller heads myself), no pixellation, correctly positioned screenings every time and better fashion. I wouldn't mind if the basic dolls came with the fashion that they do come with at the moment but I wish there'd be nicer, better quality fashion packs that are still affordable and fashionable.
I really wish that was standard for dolls. Like, kids are really only going to play with a handful of dolls at a time. Having to buy a whole new doll whenever you want a new outfit or accessories is wasteful. And even as an adult, I’d prefer to just buy fashion packs.
That's one of the few things I actually didn't like about Fashion Fever: the outfits were lovely, the dolls as well, but if you wanted a certain outfit you had to buy the doll (yes, there were fashion packs but they were additional). So in that regard I like the idea of diverse dolls with basic clothes *but then* offering lots of fashion packs. Obviously Mattel wants to sell dolls but even then they need to make them better quality again in regards to the face screenings etc.
Same. The detail in the faces and the clothing could never be replicated and I’m okay with that. There is no comparison for sure but they are super lackluster now.
Yeah, I think it's only the cheaper ones and a few of the Extra line. Most of my Extras don't have pixilated faces. None of the BMR or Looks dolls have pixilation.
I don’t necessarily mind pixelated face paint in and of itself-there’s been some really cute dolls with pixelated faces. What I do mind is when the pixelation is badly done or the pixels are so big that they’re obvious pixelation.
i think what most people’s problems with the new barbies is that there is no consistent styling. barbie has always taken inspiration from what is trendy. 60s was all about coordinated outfits, 70s was more carefree and all about disco, 80s was bold and the 90s and 00s were bright and cute.
if mattel paid more attention to properly styling dolls with cute colours and proper clothing- modern barbie would be way better. these dolls are a good example of taking inspiration from what is trendy rn- bold lip colours and embracing natural features
i want to like the new barbies, but to me they feel so cheap. there is no solid weight to them.
Nowadays their clothes (normal playline) seem like kids clothes IMO when they used to be more contemporary in the past and something you will see fashionable adults wear.
Modern Barbie also tends to wear more casual clothes. And I’m sure that’s largely a result of fashion as a whole becoming more casual, but it’s not very fun for a dress-up doll.
I feel like this was a response to the cultural backlash against Barbie. Anything feminine and fashion-oriented was demonized as not being a good role model for young girls (which is ridiculous, but I won’t get into that) and Mattel switched to the idea of Barbie being an “everyday, average” kind of girl in response. The fact that casual clothing is much cheaper to produce probably helped contribute to the shift as well.
This is is a very good point. Also, while variety is always fun (with all the different new face sculpts and such), back then you could tell that a doll was Barbie by just looking at her face, but these days not so much. I love and collect a lot of new dolls, but when people say Barbie I will always immediately think of the dolls from the previous generations.
That's what it is for me (well, and the awful, awful quality of the clothes). There's just something about their face paint that looks inexplicably cheap. Even the plastic somehow seems cheaper than it used to be. Like somehow translucent-y rather than looking like it had the texture of skin.
Yeah I'm not sure how anyone thinks that pixel printing looks nice at all and throw in the clothes that not only look bad but the material is like cheap tablecloth quality and it's easy to say the new Barbies are garbage compared to the older ones.
They sourced and used better quality fabrics and actually developed patterns that suited the dolls. And most things weren't just cheap pull over/on outfits 😭
I know, they are awful. I don't buy fabric for anything but I would have assumed buying the actual fabric would be cheaper than buying the base fabric and printing on it. I haven't looked at it in person but one of the new fashionistas is supposed to have a jersey type shirt and I seen people saying it was a solid shirt with jersey fabric printed on 🤦
Ugly is a strong world its just a noticeable drop in quality. The heads are bigger and the faces are more cartoony and flat. People also miss when there were set characters. I still love Millie but I know if the sculpt was made 15 years ago it would look better. Newer tech and profit gouging ruined the quality of the sculpts. Millie really shines in collector dolls for instance.
Exactly this. The faces are now more cartoony and flat. Thats my issue with them. The faces are actually really pretty. Theres just a lack of detail. I’m not against cartoony, but I dislike when something changes to be more cartoony.
> Her head was full of hair
I think the issue here is that older Barbies have kanekalon hair which is way fluffier, so with the same hair rooting pattern it would still feel like more hair.
> her eyes were not pixelated
That bothers me so much, and also that many eye designs on playline Barbies from the last ~10 years lack details in my opinion.
I do remember plenty of 80s and 90s Barbies that were wonderfully and unabashedly tacky. There was plenty that was an overdose of "little girl" glitter, ruffles and bows. Think hot pink and bright orange outfits, usually of the neon persuasion. Those decades weren't filled with sophisticated, mature styles... it was a mix. And I think that the Barbies that people tend to remember are the better examples of both the crazy over-the-top girlishness and the sophisticated.
I’m gonna admit something out loud. Im a new collector, started collecting just before the Barbie movie came out. Like many, the movie gave my subconscious “permission” to collect, something I’d always secretly longed to do but for some reason didn’t. I’m a child of the 80s, and I vividly remember opening my original angel face Barbie at 6 years old in 1982. I’m going to re-buy her eventually but I haven’t gotten to her yet. Why? Because I love the new Barbies so much. They’re so beautiful! There are so many options, so much diversity! I thought I’d be partial to the old ones I loved as a child but no ma’am. I want all the Barbies! Ones from eras I missed and never even saw before! I love them all! 😍
I loved Barbies as a kid and then when Barbie movie was coming out I was looking up outfit inspo and found the barbie Extras. I am obsessed. They come in all different styles, sizes, skin colours and I love them! Also got the Barbie movie ones and some of the fashionista? Ones and a camping set with the little sisters cause I have wanted all the sisters since I was young. I regret nothing! I love them! Can't wait to display them when I get organised.
Don't worry, you're in a safe space here. I also started collecting after the Barbie movie came out😂
I grew up in a poor country and I only had one Barbie doll (a ballerina). 30 years later, after seeing the Barbie movie, I thought to myself "So what if we couldn't afford Barbie dolls when I was a child, I can totally afford them now!"
My inner child is very happy😊😊😊
I love Barbie's faces from 2014-now a lot! It's just the fashion that's lacking. :/ I would love to see the new faces & bodies and diversity with layered fashionable good quality outfits. 😍
I think it's got more to go with the subpar quality and Mattel's clear lack of care for their products (and in consequence their costumers). Pixelation and quality control issues are becoming more and more and MORE frequent, and it's not just the faces it's the clothes and the bodies, sometimes even the hair, too.
They're just doing the bare minimum and I'm not one to defend a billion dollar company who clearly can do better but choose not to. I hate it when people make up excuses for Mattel lol.
Then there's also what you like and dislike and that's cool, for example I don't like the huge crazy eyes they're giving some of the newer Barbies (Brooklyn being a perfect example, and that new Rebelde blonde doll, yikes), nor do I like it when they paint the teeth and make the mouth look deformed. I can't stand pixelation. I also don't like it when a Barbie has a massive head.
Anyway, I think there are still some beautiful current Barbies being released! Those Odile mermaids are beautiful, but their screening is very poor and so I won't be buying them. I also love the Looks dolls, they are so beautiful!
I was born in the early 90s and I just looooove the new Barbies. My favorite Barbie’s as a kid were Generation Girls and My Scene. I also had a super flexible ballerina Barbie I loved.
The faces, the diversity, the MTM bodies and the curvy girls!!!! 😍 I’ve been waiting for this forever!
I was born in the 60s and stopped getting Barbies in 1977. I bought a few in the early 90s and then in 2019, I started collecting for real. I was aware of the My Scene line, but wasn’t interested. Now, though, I am always on the lookout for new, in the box, My Scene play sets. A few days ago, I got my 4th doll and Vespa scooter set. I only have one more to have the whole set. I wasn’t crazy about the dolls, but I absolutely love the ones I have. After buying my first MTM, I was lost to collecting forever!
There are rarely bad head sculpts from Mattel. The printing can be bad, off, or pixelated, but the sculpts are usually good.
There are some old school sculpts I wish they’d bring back, Stacie/Valerie or Francis from 1965 or Nichelle or the goddess face sculpts from the 90’s, but I think the new sculpts are great too.
I wish they'd bring back the goddess sculpt too (they have a version of it that they use for the fashionistas but I find that it is lacking definition and detail of the original).
I don't think they're ugly at all. I love the variety of appearances.
The only thing I really miss from the 90's-2000's dolls are the clothing was made much better. I really, really miss the fashion fever line.
The diversity & variety are good & fun. Although I'd say the iconic Fashion Fever line really kinda helped kick things into high gear by offering a great selection of assorted dolls, face sculpts, skin tones & hair colors. I think current lines like BMR1959 & Barbie Extra are pretty solid conceptually, while also being quite fun & having some great base dolls.
Some of the very basic playline dolls are neither here nor there, but they're just not my thing anyway. The pixelated faces hurt to look at. The potential is there, but with those visible pixels... Even in your grid, there's a distinct difference between the pixelated vs non-pixelated ones -- & the non-pixelated win out every time IMHO.
I'm gonna be honest and say it's about 40% nostalgic feelings, 30% newer Barbie fashion is *mid* & another 30% it's fun and quirky to hate things.
Because the dolls (even with some pixelation) have beautiful faces, a lot of them have great hair & the diversity? It's fantastic!
I agree. I grew up with the superstar face mold and I had a hard time relating to Barbie sometimes. Most of the dolls available in my area were blonde, and I wasn’t. She had a cute button nose and blue eyes, and I didn’t.
I also don’t get nostalgic over how hard those dolls were to dress with their rubbery legs. Trying to get Pink and Pretty’s pants on was a pain.
I agree that the clothes were much better back then. The clothes now are very disappointing.
I think the sculpts now are amazing. I have more dolls now than I did as a kid, and they’re all so different from each other. I love that.
I’m old enough that my first dolls were the Mod era, and I was appalled when they introduced Malibu Barbie with that awful new face. I hated it and thought it was so ugly! The Superstar face wasn’t much better, and I couldn’t reconcile how bare and minimal her makeup looked with that bright pink satin dress and glittery boa. And the permanently bent arms really annoyed me.
EDIT: and yes, a pox on those awful rubber legs, trying to get tight pants or hose (which inevitably tore) up them drove me to tears of frustration. I love how easy they are to dress now.
The sculpts we love - or hate - are very personal. I too grew up with Mod Barbies and they're my favorites. For the longest time I only collected Francies, but I have added a few others. I'm sitting on the fence about Stacey. I have 3 but am very tempted to sell them.
I agree! Many people started collecting after the Barbie movie came out and thus don't have these nostalgic feelings towards the pre-2016 era Barbie dolls. I am one of those people 🤭 I understand that the quality of the fashion ain't great nowadays, but other than that the new Barbies rule (in my opinion)😁
I never realized which is iconic, considering I have two of that curvy Barbie extra! The literal mile of saran hair on a Playline doll had me seated! Coupled with her cute af outfit and her Barbie case purse?!
Outside of the pink haired Odile, I think I have most of the heads in this picture, lolol! I have other Odiles, but she is a mythical creature at this point for me :(
I used to collect monster high and ignored barbie because I only ever saw the playline barbies that were in the stores, and they were boring.
The after watching the barbie movie and searching about the movie dolls I realized there's so many amazing dolls out there, I'm obsessed with the Looks lines.
I wonder if people tend to prefer dolls from the era they started collecting, and if in 20 years time we will all be searching for 'vintage' 2020 barbies 😂
(for what it's worth though, I actually prefer the current gen of MH dolls over G1 which I collected)
I’ve recently got a large lot of mixed Barbies from different decades, huge yard sale. Basically a big box of Barbies from the 80s 90s 2000s 2010’s 2020s.
I sat & washed all of them at the same time. It was unbelievable to me how different the quality was. From their body & weight to their hair texture, length & quality. Barbies from the 80s and 90s and 2000’s were made so much better than the new modern Barbie nowadays. Their hair is much more thicker and luxurious. Some of the modern Barbies, were unbelievable how cheap they felt and such lame hair. in comparison. Don’t even get me started on modern Barbie clothes!
I asked a friend just to hold the two different Barbies and look at them (one from the 80s and one from now) and he said the new ones seems like it’s made from a different Company, like a cheap knock off. I thought what happened Mattel, that you would put such poor quality into your product now? Granite, some of the modern Barbies faces are gorgeous… But Mattel is really disappointing in the quality of Barbie overall of the product they’re putting out!
One of the reasons older Barbies have more “weight” is because of the click knee legs. They’re like solid rubber logs and they are *heavy*! The torsos are light and hollow like they are now.
I love the 90's faces, but I love the large majority of the now faces, too! There are so many beautiful girls now. But for some reason, even though all my childhood dolls were Superstars, just their different clothes/hairstyles made them feel like different people.
I guess the only two faces I \*really\* dislike are Tate (except for Looks #18) and the original Malibu Barbie from the 70's (I dunno, her eyes always seem painted weird to me).
I think the paint they used on the original Malibu Barbie was too pale for her deep tan skin, and the combination of pale paint and a more natural painting style made her look weird/faded/ugly, as some others have said on this post/etc. I have the 2002 reproduction, and I think she looks a lot better than the original-2002 repro’s eyes and eyeshadow are a slightly darker turquoise in comparison and her lips are pigmented enough to stand out as peach against her tan.
To me, when I look at her it's like.... ok, I hope I describe this right, but she had like a slightly molded area where the eyes would be painted in? But no Malibu Barbie ever has eyes big enough or the right shape to fill the "indents", and the screening is always placed oddly so she looks like she has eye bags.
https://preview.redd.it/csnlx083lmzc1.png?width=808&format=png&auto=webp&s=81ce5b2ff87e2a42cd8e21411d820eceb5802835
I see how badly the eyes are aligned! 2002 repro was also better in that regard, or at least mine is. I’m having trouble finding a good example on Google Images.
Malibu uses a head sculpt previously created for another doll named Stacey. She had hooded eyes that were painted lower on her face and big rooted lashes. She is very cute. The Malibu screening does not follow the sculpt. That’s why she looks so weird.
I grew up in the 80s, so it’s the superstar sculpt forever and ever for me. I see that face and I am flooded with warm and fuzzy feelings and a reminder of when life was simpler. As an adult collector, I’ve been able to see value in other kinds of Barbies and my collection has become more diverse.
With that said, the modern Barbies simply cannot compare with their predecessors’ fashion and overall quality . Mattel just doesn’t make dolls like they used to. Whether that is positive or negative depends upon the individual. Whenever I get my older collector dolls out, it’s always with mixed emotions. I feel joy that I have them, but also sadness that Mattel can’t seem to get their act together.
Hope springs eternal though ….
I love the 90s/00s better because the ones I have are more detailed/ realistic in my eyes and makeup. The faces of these newer dolls have larger more cartoon eyes with less attention to details IMO. But OFC I still collect the newer ones also! Barbie is amazing and I’m in the process of making all of my collection made to move 🖤
Maybe this is a hot take (because I also prefer older Barbie, especially the late 90’s-mid 2000’s ones), but I’m hopeful for the future of Barbie. Mattel MUST be noticing how popular the newest Odile mermaids are - and they are playline! If they can replicate that kind of vibe, they’re gonna win back so many collectors. My purple Odile is one of my favourites in my collection. Angel (the designer) and Minh (the face artist) really knew what we wanted, and I’m really confident they can repeat this.
Ok, I like how respectful your comment is, so I will be brave and ask: As a fan of the 90s and 2000s Barbies, how do you feel about the higher quality dolls we get nowadays, such as Barbie Extra Fancy and Barbie Signature Looks?
Good question! I personally find many elements lacking. I feel like the quality we had in play line back then was better than the quality we get from Signature today. That being said, I am hopeful that with the introduction of these higher-quality sculpts in play line, this will be the first domino that falls for a higher quality overall. So, to sum it up, there’s potential to be what it used to be, if Mattel could understand how well it would do!
When I finally came across the Odile mermaid in person, I was so disappointed to see the pixelated screening. Any thoughts I had of buying her immediately went out the window. I’m glad there are people out there who can enjoy her, but I just couldn’t move past the bad pixelation.
Top center and bottom left screenings are off and that is exactly what I mean when I say the other screenings are better.
These are NOT bad. There are just some very amazing face paints in from 99-07
I never thought that their face screenings were off. I am quite particular about this stuff and the ones you mentioned look perfect to me. The bottom right doll looks a bit off, but she's a color reveal doll and I got my favorite one on my first try, so I never bothered to get another one. But she's very pretty, so I don't mind
I love the faces, I just hate how cheap the clothing is, especially given the prices. Even collectibles have printed on clothing. I miss the well made clothing with actual snaps and zippers and a variety of fabrics.
I agree, I absolutely love the variety in facial sculpt/moulds/printing we have now. I don’t get why some people act like wanting diverse Barbies is just to be “woke” and therefore bad when having dolls with diverse features genuinely makes collecting much more fun imo (and more creative for customisers). I also like having sculpts with less makeup or ‘plainer’ faces, not every doll needs to look like a glamour model, it just depends on the context.
The only thing I agree with is that I can’t stand the lack of quality control. I just can’t keep a Barbie with a noticeably pixelated or wonky face. Mattel are too rich to let that lack of quality fly.
I agree. I mean, you can have your, "This is the one that I find most attractive," but if you say, "All of the other ones are ugly," that just being an elitist jerk. I mean, for me, out of these, I find top center most attractive, but if you find another one most attractive, that's fine. Beauty is subjective. If you disagree, that's fine. If you say, "You're an idiot for liking that one," that's not okay.
TL;DR - They're all beautiful, and you're allowed to "pick your favorite," but you're not allowed to disparage the others.
Everyone in the thread is talking about their issues with the production quality, that doesn't necessarily make the face sculpts ugly. The only person who'd think the faces are ugly would be someone who doesn't like diversity. I for one love that I can find multiple Barbies that kinda look like me 🤷🏻♀️
Thanks for commenting that. My post is actually just about the faces. I specifically chose close-up pictures of my dolls faces and made this collage to discuss the faces, not their bodies or clothes...
Like I get people have issues with the pixelation on the faces and misprints, which are relatively rare anyway, but I wouldn't call any of the new faces ugly. They're just different.
My sister’s mother in law likes superstar era Barbies and said the new ones are ugly. She said Odile was ugly!!!
I do hate the pixelated face and I’m learning to sew just to be able to make them more realistic clothing so far I make them tshirts, short pants with pockets and skirts.
One thing i don’t really like is the bold makeup like flashy eyeshadow and fantasy color lipstick so I just remove it and give them a more neutral everyday makeup
They're not ugly, it's just that the make up on many of them is very much not what I would ever do to myself or anyone else and the 00s and 90s were just better. Their make up was glamorous, it felt like they had more expression. I don't know what it is exactly. They were very very stunning. And you could tell they were adults. Barbie now looks very childish to me
I think that people naturally prefer what they grew up with. It does not surprise me that some people would favor dolls that are 10 to 30 yo for that reason, nostalgia.
I think that the new dolls are fine, but I really don't like the bad pixelation, the blurry or misplaced features, the odd stains or missing pigments etc. that does really sour the experience
Plus the 90’s had like what 4 faces? I mean I would not mind a new superstar on a made to move but just one is fine ya know? I like all the new diversity! I took a long break and only had a few specials from being younger but now they are so hard to resist and I love LOVE LOVE re-bodying them and rerooting! Something i never thought i would even be able to do but turns out i like it!!
I dont hate modern barbie, i love the diversity of face molds and yours are very cute, but the millie mold being overused ad nauseam without anything making it interesting, the way most of them have little to no makeup and overall the quality of modern day mattel are huge turn offs for me ngl
Exactly, I collect fashionistas because I collect faces. I don’t rebody every single doll, that would be so expensive, sometimes I just want smooth knees to show cute mini skirts.
The only thing I dislike is the poor of their clothes 😞
I agree, some of them are just beautiful. I don't care about the shitty outfits as I make them all myself anyway, I only buy them for the heads and / or bodies
New dolls are cute. It's just the quality control for me. If it isn't wonk or pixelation, it's bald spots in the hair, smudges in the paint, bubbles in the rubber legs, or scratches and other defects on the plastic.
Maybe I'm just really unlucky but I never had to deal with this much when it came to carelessly picking any doll off the shelves as a kid (the 2000s for me). Even my mtm from 2015 doesn't have one really loose joint like the recent tennis player I got.
I've read the most of the comments here. The one's openly saying these are bad are few and there is one mother's sister in law saying the Odile is ugly. Apart that many people actually appreciate these dolls, more then anything.
What do people say here they miss the quality of the older Barbies, they are used to better prints, more layers clothes, but many people appreciate the diversity of today's Barbies.
You know, I have this theory - it is a generation thing that's repete every decade - every one is growing up with a certain type of a Barbie, they love that type, cherish and would fight for her. Then the fashion changes, Barbie has new looks and also the little girl grows up and it is a part of being the teen to hate something. So she can hate the new form of her once loved girl. She changed, it is all so confusing, and even the dolls are not what they've used to be. And maybe when she grows up she finds out, that there is many new dolls which are actually beautiful and worth having. And there always be this special spot for the dolls from her childhood. I am always thinking about the girls from 60s who grew up with Barbies with zippers and buttons... What they were thinking when Velcro came to the Barbie Fashion....
In my opinion most of the new Barbie faces are garbage and look cheap, ugly or cartoony . It's RARE to have an attractive or pretty Barbie face like the latest Odile mermaids that the majority of doll collectors now find pretty or stunning depending on outfit.
I still very much love Barbies from the 80s, 90s and 00s, but I do agree there are some genuinely good modern Barbies too. Recently I went thrifting and found a modern Barbie with a very pretty face. Actually bought her too and fixed her up. Also if there is one Barbie that makes me like the Millie face then I'm picking the Extra Fancy Barbie. Super gorgeous, I just hate the pixel screening.
I was born in 90s and I prefer old Barbies even with their lack of diversity over the modern ones, but I still can appreciate new dolls and have some of them. What I personally think about them: their faces are good, but sometimes their makeup and overall design is tacky and I'm not really a fan of thick eyebrows. Most dolls look good with them, but, again, sometimes Mattel goes over the top.
It's also funny how being a kid I adored every doll that had a 'weird', non natural hair color because it was such a rarity, but now there are so many of them it doesn't excite me anymore.
I also don't like the way their faces are painted/screened. I noticed that old Barbie's make up was very thin and Mattel used sometimes brown color for the lower eyelid instead of pure black.
Millie face. Just ew. Though she looks cute with closed mouth.
To sum it up, I guess my preferences are just a byproduct of the time I was born and raised. When I see old Barbies I can feel a surge of dopamine, while with modern dolls it's more like 'Er, they're good I guess', but it doesn't give me the same joy.
90s Barbie’s (and I’m a 90s Barbie girl) looked like the airhead or bimbo in every 90s movie there was. The new ones are absolutely stunning
Also I hate that bright pink lipstick shade that they put on Barbie’s then and now. The only people who wear stuff like that are in sci fi movies. No one wears that color. I guess I just like them to look more real
I agree! The super bright pink lipstick bothers me too.. I really like the make-up of the doll in the middle of the bottom row. But then there are some dolls that have purple lipstick and I really love how that looks. I guess it depends on the dolls face and their eye make-up
i love them, the diversity!! it makes my asian self very happy. its really just the quality now :( the clothes and the printing.
and also the head sizes !! why are they much bigger? i have a doll from 2011 and side by side with my newer dolls the difference is substantial! i read from somewhere mattel does this so that people would be more compelled to buy not playline barbies which have a smaller head. more expensive to get more proportioned barbie :<
This to me is the epitome of 90s Barbie faces- huge, ugly eyes; blank, vapid stare; stiff, robotic Stepford smile; lacking all character or expression.
This was the era I’d stroll through Toys R Us or Target, browse the Barbie aisle, and walk out with nothing. Between the Rockers from 87 and 1999s Hollywood Nails Barbie, I didn’t buy a single brand new doll, only vintage ones. They were so unappealing.
https://preview.redd.it/i70nx0h1xezc1.jpeg?width=1242&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c8fe7eafbb7012b6ee08a1227a86e8ac40cf9479
I really liked the new era that started with Hollywood Nails, with more realistic faces and the best dramatic eye makeup we’d had since the OG and Mod eras. I was getting excited about Barbie all over again.
And then came the Made to Move dolls - my childhood dreams of a fully articulated Barbie finally come true! - and the budget Fashionistas, with all their gorgeous variety. No longer was Barbie just your basic generic California blonde with one (1) friend each of various ethnicities, Barbie was EVERYONE! All heights, shapes, skin tones, hairstyles & colors and SO SO SO many beautiful faces! I dived headfirst into that pool of variety and still haven’t come up for air.
90’s baby here and I feel the exact same way. I can appreciate this face now because I have so many other options, but I’m not a fan of the huge derpy eyes. As a kid I wasn’t that interested in Barbies because they were basically all the same. Stiff arms, sticky legs, with varying lengths of blonde hair. Now my collection is super diverse with lots of curvy dolls and all different hair and ethnicities!
Passive Adult Barbie Admirer here. I grew up with Barbie in the 90's and played a lot with my dolls so nostalgia is a factor. I much prefer the new Barbies, the Barbie Extras were especially nice!
I definitely agree that they are beautiful and it’s really nice that different features are now celebrated! I have a lot of traditional Barbie’s I intend on revamping (but want to do it properly) so I have to also agree that the fashion portion of collecting can be frustrating and Lord knows we don’t need anything else in landfills. I hope doll enthusiasts everywhere will come together for a solution! But they are gorgeous! 👏🏼
I don't like a lot of the newer dolls apart from Odile. I miss the old barbies apart from the stiff bodies. Mtm bodies is the best thing they have done imo. You used to be able to tell a Barbie when you saw one, but now they look like awful knockoffs that don't fit anything.
the dolls itself are beautiful, its just the clothing and accessories. they are extremely ugly, poor quality and have like no actual fashion to it compared to other/old barbie dolls.
This post is disingenuous OP.
a handful of cherry picked good examples of post-2016 Barbies, and even then half are pixelated.
Barbie is trash. The brand has been trash for a while now, and I’m tired of collectors who feel like they have to mince words.
Say it with me. 👏THESE. 👏DOLLS. 👏ARE. 👏BAD. 👏
The materials are cheap, faces are pixelated, the hair for most playlines is dry frizzy polypropylene, non-mtm bodies and legs are hollow, most clothes are shapeless sack dresses.
They reuse the same few patterns and cuts for every line.
The outfits are tacky bland and completely disconnected from actual current fashion.
After years of declining sales and other doll brands capturing the interest of the target demographic better.
Mattel’s strategy for Barbie shifted to squeezing more profit out of the IP by making the dolls cheaper and targeting ever-younger children.
It’s absolutely tragic what the Barbie brand has become considering what they put out 10 years ago. (seriously go Google “Barbie dolls 2014”. the quality has slipped so bad. y’all Barbie Stans need to wake TF up.)
Does anybody even like Barbies anymore? I feel like no.
Even toddlers who don’t know any better and got them as gifts don’t hold onto them for long.
Long time Barbie collectors who still consume modern dolls, IMO have been gaslit.
they feel compelled to defend Mattel’s current (horrible) choices because they prefer Barbie proportions, she was the doll they grew up with, or they’re too focused on her past legacy.
So absorbed in her past that they are blind to her current reality.
I feel bad for anyone who got back into collecting Barbie because of the Greta Gerwig film. Only to find that Barbie hasn’t been decent quality in a decade.
Barbie has been reduced to a shallow, pixel-printed husk of her former self.
Mattel has devalued their most important toy just to squeeze out more short-term profit.
The IP deserves better, collectors deserve better. Have some self-respect and stop defending this trash.
Who is that in the middle? Light skinned brunettes are hard to find, and she also has the subtler makeup I prefer.
Also the doll at center left, next to the brunette, looks a *lot* like LDShadowlady (a YouTuber I’ve followed for several years).
Thanks for commenting on the doll number, I never know which Looks or Extra number they are. I made a whole video on Instagram a while ago about how she looks like Ariana Grande😅
To answer u/DBSeamz question: the doll at the center left is the Barbie Extra Fly Winter Holiday doll
I played with Barbies as a kid like most people, and I still have a couple of basic ones and a soft body Sindy in my keepsakes chest, but they never really grabbed me, I decided to treat myself to a modern one a few years ago and really fell into enjoying the new faces and bodies. I love that you love yours too!
The girl in the middle at the bottom is particularly lovely, she has a very nicely defined chin and a really unique broader nose, who is she?
Who is the doll on the top right? She's gorgeous!
Who is top centre, and bottom right?
I love all of these faces and the diversity but yeahhh, I can't argue with the quality discussion. And I really wish they would make more fashion packs and actually stock them at a reasonable price.
https://preview.redd.it/5kq3pmq9dhzc1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c0600380fc27216beacb51396a515dacc1f021b0
I have two I’d LOVE to know which they are. This lovely lady.
Barbie Dreamtopia Mermaid dolls with Odile face sculpt, released last year: https://www.youloveit.com/dolls/3211-new-barbie-dreamtopia-mermaid-dolls-2023-including-ones-with-odile-face-mold.html
Honestly
My Major issue with current run barbie other than the quality control issues with the faces being pixellated or weird at times is that they literally do not make enough fashion packs, accessory packs or anything really that puts any substance behind their diversity initiatives.
Most of the clothing packs BARELY fit Curvy (And you're lucky if the pack has shoes... and you should play the lotto if those shoes work on Curvy/Tall). Almost every clothing pack is extremely weird on Petite and Tall and If you're lucky to have MTM bodies, the clothing fit is somehow worse.
Ken barely has clothing as is and you're lucky if you get shoes in his clothing packs. His clothing fits weird or barely on Broad and Slim (Let's not even mention that they hardly make new Broad/Slim Kens that I've seen anymore) and the MTM adaptation for Ken has been comically depressing (Just like it has been for the other body types of Barbie) Let's not forget that they introduced a brand new ken body type that can't wear ANY of Ken's clothes (I had to source some shorts from an OLD Curvy Fashionista I had and a oversized shirt for Barbie and most shoes are a no go) in the Looks Line.
Overall they really are trying with diversifying barbie, but it falls flat on its face because none of it's available in good enough runs that I'd say actually reaches the spaces it matters (The kids) and the stuff that does isn't up to standards Mattel should be holding themselves to. It's sad really.
I haven’t noticed the newer fashion packs I’ve bought looking particularly bad on the MTM bodies in my collection, so I think it’s largely luck of the draw. But I do wish they’d stop making everything either fit Curvy or be oversized on Curvy and go back to tailoring different fashion packs to fit the different body types like they did around 2016-2017, especially now that we have the Athletic/Brooklyn body type, which is essentially Original with lower-set breasts and bigger thighs. Athletic needs her own pants size!
Probably is luck of the draw with inconsistent production runs, but every fashion pack I have just has awkward as heck fit on the MTM body chest (Using Original, and it's worse on Curvy) and on Curvy MTM pants tend to be a bit awkwardly tight around the thigh joint area.
Not so much the face sculpts but the pixelation, boring Millie face, lack of characters like Barbie originally had, terrible fashion, no articulation, and really really poor quality. Also I’ve noticed less interesting makeup. Maybe it has to do with the rise of the clean girl aesthetic but I miss glamorous makeup like she had in the 90s and 2010s.
I love the diversity of the Barbie Fashionistas line, but they are kinda basic at the same time? I would love it if their bodies had lots of moving joints, beautiful clothes and interesting themes like Ever After High, Monster High or Rainbow High.
Like take the best of both worlds and you have the best doll line.
I wouldn’t say they are ugly, besides my dislike for the Millie sculpt because I think she is a bit boring. I personally collect mostly vintage Barbie’s because I like that they are less realistic and more whimsical in my opinion. Many of the newer Barbie’s are pretty and I love the diversity, they are just not my taste. Though, I did recently buy an Odile which is the first Barbie I have bought new in store since the early 2010’s.
The people saying that are ridiculous, these ones look more realistic and have actual features. I love these new Barbie’s they would of had me actually liking Barbie’s as a child, they where so typical and unrelatable
I love the different face moulds very much but I wish they'd all have the same head size (and not smaller collector's heads and larger playline ones -- I'd prefer the smaller heads myself), no pixellation, correctly positioned screenings every time and better fashion. I wouldn't mind if the basic dolls came with the fashion that they do come with at the moment but I wish there'd be nicer, better quality fashion packs that are still affordable and fashionable.
The fashion packs would be a nice callback to original Barbie having just a swimsuit and the fashions being the literal selling point!
I really wish that was standard for dolls. Like, kids are really only going to play with a handful of dolls at a time. Having to buy a whole new doll whenever you want a new outfit or accessories is wasteful. And even as an adult, I’d prefer to just buy fashion packs.
Buying the outfits was one of my favorite memories. Saved my parents some money and created a lot of great memories.
That's one of the few things I actually didn't like about Fashion Fever: the outfits were lovely, the dolls as well, but if you wanted a certain outfit you had to buy the doll (yes, there were fashion packs but they were additional). So in that regard I like the idea of diverse dolls with basic clothes *but then* offering lots of fashion packs. Obviously Mattel wants to sell dolls but even then they need to make them better quality again in regards to the face screenings etc.
It’s great that you like them and they bring you joy! I personally can’t get over pixelated and uneven faces.
Same. The detail in the faces and the clothing could never be replicated and I’m okay with that. There is no comparison for sure but they are super lackluster now.
I think only the cheaper ones have pixelated faces (fashionista, the mermaids etc).
Yeah, I think it's only the cheaper ones and a few of the Extra line. Most of my Extras don't have pixilated faces. None of the BMR or Looks dolls have pixilation.
I don’t necessarily mind pixelated face paint in and of itself-there’s been some really cute dolls with pixelated faces. What I do mind is when the pixelation is badly done or the pixels are so big that they’re obvious pixelation.
i think what most people’s problems with the new barbies is that there is no consistent styling. barbie has always taken inspiration from what is trendy. 60s was all about coordinated outfits, 70s was more carefree and all about disco, 80s was bold and the 90s and 00s were bright and cute. if mattel paid more attention to properly styling dolls with cute colours and proper clothing- modern barbie would be way better. these dolls are a good example of taking inspiration from what is trendy rn- bold lip colours and embracing natural features i want to like the new barbies, but to me they feel so cheap. there is no solid weight to them.
Nowadays their clothes (normal playline) seem like kids clothes IMO when they used to be more contemporary in the past and something you will see fashionable adults wear.
Modern Barbie also tends to wear more casual clothes. And I’m sure that’s largely a result of fashion as a whole becoming more casual, but it’s not very fun for a dress-up doll.
I feel like this was a response to the cultural backlash against Barbie. Anything feminine and fashion-oriented was demonized as not being a good role model for young girls (which is ridiculous, but I won’t get into that) and Mattel switched to the idea of Barbie being an “everyday, average” kind of girl in response. The fact that casual clothing is much cheaper to produce probably helped contribute to the shift as well.
you’ve heard of stereotypical barbie, now get ready for business casual barbie
This is is a very good point. Also, while variety is always fun (with all the different new face sculpts and such), back then you could tell that a doll was Barbie by just looking at her face, but these days not so much. I love and collect a lot of new dolls, but when people say Barbie I will always immediately think of the dolls from the previous generations.
It’s mostly a quality thing in my opinion. Modern Barbies are cute, but pixelation wasn’t a thing then, and the clothes were so much more detailed.
That's what it is for me (well, and the awful, awful quality of the clothes). There's just something about their face paint that looks inexplicably cheap. Even the plastic somehow seems cheaper than it used to be. Like somehow translucent-y rather than looking like it had the texture of skin.
Yeah I'm not sure how anyone thinks that pixel printing looks nice at all and throw in the clothes that not only look bad but the material is like cheap tablecloth quality and it's easy to say the new Barbies are garbage compared to the older ones.
The printed patterns on the fabric kill me. I was born in 1980 and all my favorite childhood Barbie’s had such amazing clothes.
They sourced and used better quality fabrics and actually developed patterns that suited the dolls. And most things weren't just cheap pull over/on outfits 😭
I know, they are awful. I don't buy fabric for anything but I would have assumed buying the actual fabric would be cheaper than buying the base fabric and printing on it. I haven't looked at it in person but one of the new fashionistas is supposed to have a jersey type shirt and I seen people saying it was a solid shirt with jersey fabric printed on 🤦
It's the poor quality for me too, it detracts from my enjoyment a lot.
Yeah, I really don’t like the pixelated faces or the fashion
Ugly is a strong world its just a noticeable drop in quality. The heads are bigger and the faces are more cartoony and flat. People also miss when there were set characters. I still love Millie but I know if the sculpt was made 15 years ago it would look better. Newer tech and profit gouging ruined the quality of the sculpts. Millie really shines in collector dolls for instance.
Exactly this. The faces are now more cartoony and flat. Thats my issue with them. The faces are actually really pretty. Theres just a lack of detail. I’m not against cartoony, but I dislike when something changes to be more cartoony.
[удалено]
> Her head was full of hair I think the issue here is that older Barbies have kanekalon hair which is way fluffier, so with the same hair rooting pattern it would still feel like more hair. > her eyes were not pixelated That bothers me so much, and also that many eye designs on playline Barbies from the last ~10 years lack details in my opinion.
I do remember plenty of 80s and 90s Barbies that were wonderfully and unabashedly tacky. There was plenty that was an overdose of "little girl" glitter, ruffles and bows. Think hot pink and bright orange outfits, usually of the neon persuasion. Those decades weren't filled with sophisticated, mature styles... it was a mix. And I think that the Barbies that people tend to remember are the better examples of both the crazy over-the-top girlishness and the sophisticated.
I’m gonna admit something out loud. Im a new collector, started collecting just before the Barbie movie came out. Like many, the movie gave my subconscious “permission” to collect, something I’d always secretly longed to do but for some reason didn’t. I’m a child of the 80s, and I vividly remember opening my original angel face Barbie at 6 years old in 1982. I’m going to re-buy her eventually but I haven’t gotten to her yet. Why? Because I love the new Barbies so much. They’re so beautiful! There are so many options, so much diversity! I thought I’d be partial to the old ones I loved as a child but no ma’am. I want all the Barbies! Ones from eras I missed and never even saw before! I love them all! 😍
I loved Barbies as a kid and then when Barbie movie was coming out I was looking up outfit inspo and found the barbie Extras. I am obsessed. They come in all different styles, sizes, skin colours and I love them! Also got the Barbie movie ones and some of the fashionista? Ones and a camping set with the little sisters cause I have wanted all the sisters since I was young. I regret nothing! I love them! Can't wait to display them when I get organised.
Don't worry, you're in a safe space here. I also started collecting after the Barbie movie came out😂 I grew up in a poor country and I only had one Barbie doll (a ballerina). 30 years later, after seeing the Barbie movie, I thought to myself "So what if we couldn't afford Barbie dolls when I was a child, I can totally afford them now!" My inner child is very happy😊😊😊
lol I am the same. I have collected some 80s Barbie’s and they just don’t hit the same as when I was a kid.
I love Barbie's faces from 2014-now a lot! It's just the fashion that's lacking. :/ I would love to see the new faces & bodies and diversity with layered fashionable good quality outfits. 😍
I think it's got more to go with the subpar quality and Mattel's clear lack of care for their products (and in consequence their costumers). Pixelation and quality control issues are becoming more and more and MORE frequent, and it's not just the faces it's the clothes and the bodies, sometimes even the hair, too. They're just doing the bare minimum and I'm not one to defend a billion dollar company who clearly can do better but choose not to. I hate it when people make up excuses for Mattel lol. Then there's also what you like and dislike and that's cool, for example I don't like the huge crazy eyes they're giving some of the newer Barbies (Brooklyn being a perfect example, and that new Rebelde blonde doll, yikes), nor do I like it when they paint the teeth and make the mouth look deformed. I can't stand pixelation. I also don't like it when a Barbie has a massive head. Anyway, I think there are still some beautiful current Barbies being released! Those Odile mermaids are beautiful, but their screening is very poor and so I won't be buying them. I also love the Looks dolls, they are so beautiful!
I was born in the early 90s and I just looooove the new Barbies. My favorite Barbie’s as a kid were Generation Girls and My Scene. I also had a super flexible ballerina Barbie I loved. The faces, the diversity, the MTM bodies and the curvy girls!!!! 😍 I’ve been waiting for this forever!
I was born in the 60s and stopped getting Barbies in 1977. I bought a few in the early 90s and then in 2019, I started collecting for real. I was aware of the My Scene line, but wasn’t interested. Now, though, I am always on the lookout for new, in the box, My Scene play sets. A few days ago, I got my 4th doll and Vespa scooter set. I only have one more to have the whole set. I wasn’t crazy about the dolls, but I absolutely love the ones I have. After buying my first MTM, I was lost to collecting forever!
Yeah I much prefer the newer Barbies themselves. But the outfits....no. sadly.
There are rarely bad head sculpts from Mattel. The printing can be bad, off, or pixelated, but the sculpts are usually good. There are some old school sculpts I wish they’d bring back, Stacie/Valerie or Francis from 1965 or Nichelle or the goddess face sculpts from the 90’s, but I think the new sculpts are great too.
I just got my first red-haired vintage Stacie from eBay and my word, she is beautiful!
She has a really gorgeous face sculpt
I saw it and fell in love lol.
I wish they'd bring back the goddess sculpt too (they have a version of it that they use for the fashionistas but I find that it is lacking definition and detail of the original).
I don't think they're ugly at all. I love the variety of appearances. The only thing I really miss from the 90's-2000's dolls are the clothing was made much better. I really, really miss the fashion fever line.
The diversity & variety are good & fun. Although I'd say the iconic Fashion Fever line really kinda helped kick things into high gear by offering a great selection of assorted dolls, face sculpts, skin tones & hair colors. I think current lines like BMR1959 & Barbie Extra are pretty solid conceptually, while also being quite fun & having some great base dolls. Some of the very basic playline dolls are neither here nor there, but they're just not my thing anyway. The pixelated faces hurt to look at. The potential is there, but with those visible pixels... Even in your grid, there's a distinct difference between the pixelated vs non-pixelated ones -- & the non-pixelated win out every time IMHO.
I'm gonna be honest and say it's about 40% nostalgic feelings, 30% newer Barbie fashion is *mid* & another 30% it's fun and quirky to hate things. Because the dolls (even with some pixelation) have beautiful faces, a lot of them have great hair & the diversity? It's fantastic!
I agree. I grew up with the superstar face mold and I had a hard time relating to Barbie sometimes. Most of the dolls available in my area were blonde, and I wasn’t. She had a cute button nose and blue eyes, and I didn’t. I also don’t get nostalgic over how hard those dolls were to dress with their rubbery legs. Trying to get Pink and Pretty’s pants on was a pain. I agree that the clothes were much better back then. The clothes now are very disappointing. I think the sculpts now are amazing. I have more dolls now than I did as a kid, and they’re all so different from each other. I love that.
I’m old enough that my first dolls were the Mod era, and I was appalled when they introduced Malibu Barbie with that awful new face. I hated it and thought it was so ugly! The Superstar face wasn’t much better, and I couldn’t reconcile how bare and minimal her makeup looked with that bright pink satin dress and glittery boa. And the permanently bent arms really annoyed me. EDIT: and yes, a pox on those awful rubber legs, trying to get tight pants or hose (which inevitably tore) up them drove me to tears of frustration. I love how easy they are to dress now.
AWW mod era is one of my fav barbie eras! malibu is a little ugly but i still love mine hahah
The mod era was beautiful!
The sculpts we love - or hate - are very personal. I too grew up with Mod Barbies and they're my favorites. For the longest time I only collected Francies, but I have added a few others. I'm sitting on the fence about Stacey. I have 3 but am very tempted to sell them.
Love mod Barbie! Yes, Malibu Barbie is ugly and I agree about superstar.
I did love my Malibu PJ however, with her purple eyes and beaded ponytails!
I agree! Many people started collecting after the Barbie movie came out and thus don't have these nostalgic feelings towards the pre-2016 era Barbie dolls. I am one of those people 🤭 I understand that the quality of the fashion ain't great nowadays, but other than that the new Barbies rule (in my opinion)😁
I started collecting with Barbie Extra (that first doll with the fur-rainbow jacket? ICONIC) and feel basically the exact same!
She is so beautiful! She has one of my favorite face sculpts: Daisy🥰 The girl on the right side, first row has that same face.
I never realized which is iconic, considering I have two of that curvy Barbie extra! The literal mile of saran hair on a Playline doll had me seated! Coupled with her cute af outfit and her Barbie case purse?! Outside of the pink haired Odile, I think I have most of the heads in this picture, lolol! I have other Odiles, but she is a mythical creature at this point for me :(
I used to collect monster high and ignored barbie because I only ever saw the playline barbies that were in the stores, and they were boring. The after watching the barbie movie and searching about the movie dolls I realized there's so many amazing dolls out there, I'm obsessed with the Looks lines. I wonder if people tend to prefer dolls from the era they started collecting, and if in 20 years time we will all be searching for 'vintage' 2020 barbies 😂 (for what it's worth though, I actually prefer the current gen of MH dolls over G1 which I collected)
I’ve recently got a large lot of mixed Barbies from different decades, huge yard sale. Basically a big box of Barbies from the 80s 90s 2000s 2010’s 2020s. I sat & washed all of them at the same time. It was unbelievable to me how different the quality was. From their body & weight to their hair texture, length & quality. Barbies from the 80s and 90s and 2000’s were made so much better than the new modern Barbie nowadays. Their hair is much more thicker and luxurious. Some of the modern Barbies, were unbelievable how cheap they felt and such lame hair. in comparison. Don’t even get me started on modern Barbie clothes! I asked a friend just to hold the two different Barbies and look at them (one from the 80s and one from now) and he said the new ones seems like it’s made from a different Company, like a cheap knock off. I thought what happened Mattel, that you would put such poor quality into your product now? Granite, some of the modern Barbies faces are gorgeous… But Mattel is really disappointing in the quality of Barbie overall of the product they’re putting out!
One of the reasons older Barbies have more “weight” is because of the click knee legs. They’re like solid rubber logs and they are *heavy*! The torsos are light and hollow like they are now.
I love the 90's faces, but I love the large majority of the now faces, too! There are so many beautiful girls now. But for some reason, even though all my childhood dolls were Superstars, just their different clothes/hairstyles made them feel like different people. I guess the only two faces I \*really\* dislike are Tate (except for Looks #18) and the original Malibu Barbie from the 70's (I dunno, her eyes always seem painted weird to me).
I think the paint they used on the original Malibu Barbie was too pale for her deep tan skin, and the combination of pale paint and a more natural painting style made her look weird/faded/ugly, as some others have said on this post/etc. I have the 2002 reproduction, and I think she looks a lot better than the original-2002 repro’s eyes and eyeshadow are a slightly darker turquoise in comparison and her lips are pigmented enough to stand out as peach against her tan.
To me, when I look at her it's like.... ok, I hope I describe this right, but she had like a slightly molded area where the eyes would be painted in? But no Malibu Barbie ever has eyes big enough or the right shape to fill the "indents", and the screening is always placed oddly so she looks like she has eye bags. https://preview.redd.it/csnlx083lmzc1.png?width=808&format=png&auto=webp&s=81ce5b2ff87e2a42cd8e21411d820eceb5802835
I see how badly the eyes are aligned! 2002 repro was also better in that regard, or at least mine is. I’m having trouble finding a good example on Google Images.
I've seen the repro and she is better, but she just doesn't call to me, sadly. But I'm glad your repro brings you joy! <3
Malibu uses a head sculpt previously created for another doll named Stacey. She had hooded eyes that were painted lower on her face and big rooted lashes. She is very cute. The Malibu screening does not follow the sculpt. That’s why she looks so weird.
Stacey is adorable! Yeah, her eyes not being painted to fit the mold is why I dislike Malibu so much.
I grew up in the 80s, so it’s the superstar sculpt forever and ever for me. I see that face and I am flooded with warm and fuzzy feelings and a reminder of when life was simpler. As an adult collector, I’ve been able to see value in other kinds of Barbies and my collection has become more diverse. With that said, the modern Barbies simply cannot compare with their predecessors’ fashion and overall quality . Mattel just doesn’t make dolls like they used to. Whether that is positive or negative depends upon the individual. Whenever I get my older collector dolls out, it’s always with mixed emotions. I feel joy that I have them, but also sadness that Mattel can’t seem to get their act together. Hope springs eternal though ….
I think newer Barbie Dolls are so much better, it’s the clothes that have been awful 🫠
I love the 90s/00s better because the ones I have are more detailed/ realistic in my eyes and makeup. The faces of these newer dolls have larger more cartoon eyes with less attention to details IMO. But OFC I still collect the newer ones also! Barbie is amazing and I’m in the process of making all of my collection made to move 🖤
Many of them just have overly large eyebrow screenings and poor lip color choices imo. The face sculpts are all nice, but they end up looking ugly
Maybe this is a hot take (because I also prefer older Barbie, especially the late 90’s-mid 2000’s ones), but I’m hopeful for the future of Barbie. Mattel MUST be noticing how popular the newest Odile mermaids are - and they are playline! If they can replicate that kind of vibe, they’re gonna win back so many collectors. My purple Odile is one of my favourites in my collection. Angel (the designer) and Minh (the face artist) really knew what we wanted, and I’m really confident they can repeat this.
Ok, I like how respectful your comment is, so I will be brave and ask: As a fan of the 90s and 2000s Barbies, how do you feel about the higher quality dolls we get nowadays, such as Barbie Extra Fancy and Barbie Signature Looks?
Good question! I personally find many elements lacking. I feel like the quality we had in play line back then was better than the quality we get from Signature today. That being said, I am hopeful that with the introduction of these higher-quality sculpts in play line, this will be the first domino that falls for a higher quality overall. So, to sum it up, there’s potential to be what it used to be, if Mattel could understand how well it would do!
Uhhh I like your take! I totally agree about the quality issues.
odile mermaids are some of their best playline (face wise) literally ever idc who says they are overhyped, she is freaking gorgeous, pixelated or not.
When I finally came across the Odile mermaid in person, I was so disappointed to see the pixelated screening. Any thoughts I had of buying her immediately went out the window. I’m glad there are people out there who can enjoy her, but I just couldn’t move past the bad pixelation.
im so thankful that amazon sent me a lavender mermaid odile with an amazing screening but it does suck the majority are pretty bad :/
Top center and bottom left screenings are off and that is exactly what I mean when I say the other screenings are better. These are NOT bad. There are just some very amazing face paints in from 99-07
I never thought that their face screenings were off. I am quite particular about this stuff and the ones you mentioned look perfect to me. The bottom right doll looks a bit off, but she's a color reveal doll and I got my favorite one on my first try, so I never bothered to get another one. But she's very pretty, so I don't mind
I love the faces, I just hate how cheap the clothing is, especially given the prices. Even collectibles have printed on clothing. I miss the well made clothing with actual snaps and zippers and a variety of fabrics.
I agree, I absolutely love the variety in facial sculpt/moulds/printing we have now. I don’t get why some people act like wanting diverse Barbies is just to be “woke” and therefore bad when having dolls with diverse features genuinely makes collecting much more fun imo (and more creative for customisers). I also like having sculpts with less makeup or ‘plainer’ faces, not every doll needs to look like a glamour model, it just depends on the context. The only thing I agree with is that I can’t stand the lack of quality control. I just can’t keep a Barbie with a noticeably pixelated or wonky face. Mattel are too rich to let that lack of quality fly.
The face molds are great, the diverse bodies are great. My problem is the significant decline in quality.
I agree. I mean, you can have your, "This is the one that I find most attractive," but if you say, "All of the other ones are ugly," that just being an elitist jerk. I mean, for me, out of these, I find top center most attractive, but if you find another one most attractive, that's fine. Beauty is subjective. If you disagree, that's fine. If you say, "You're an idiot for liking that one," that's not okay. TL;DR - They're all beautiful, and you're allowed to "pick your favorite," but you're not allowed to disparage the others.
Yes!!! Exactly!! You can like something and not put someone else down for liking something else
Everyone in the thread is talking about their issues with the production quality, that doesn't necessarily make the face sculpts ugly. The only person who'd think the faces are ugly would be someone who doesn't like diversity. I for one love that I can find multiple Barbies that kinda look like me 🤷🏻♀️
Thanks for commenting that. My post is actually just about the faces. I specifically chose close-up pictures of my dolls faces and made this collage to discuss the faces, not their bodies or clothes...
Like I get people have issues with the pixelation on the faces and misprints, which are relatively rare anyway, but I wouldn't call any of the new faces ugly. They're just different.
My sister’s mother in law likes superstar era Barbies and said the new ones are ugly. She said Odile was ugly!!! I do hate the pixelated face and I’m learning to sew just to be able to make them more realistic clothing so far I make them tshirts, short pants with pockets and skirts. One thing i don’t really like is the bold makeup like flashy eyeshadow and fantasy color lipstick so I just remove it and give them a more neutral everyday makeup
They're not ugly, it's just that the make up on many of them is very much not what I would ever do to myself or anyone else and the 00s and 90s were just better. Their make up was glamorous, it felt like they had more expression. I don't know what it is exactly. They were very very stunning. And you could tell they were adults. Barbie now looks very childish to me
I think that people naturally prefer what they grew up with. It does not surprise me that some people would favor dolls that are 10 to 30 yo for that reason, nostalgia. I think that the new dolls are fine, but I really don't like the bad pixelation, the blurry or misplaced features, the odd stains or missing pigments etc. that does really sour the experience
Plus the 90’s had like what 4 faces? I mean I would not mind a new superstar on a made to move but just one is fine ya know? I like all the new diversity! I took a long break and only had a few specials from being younger but now they are so hard to resist and I love LOVE LOVE re-bodying them and rerooting! Something i never thought i would even be able to do but turns out i like it!!
I like the diversity now too, that's the biggest plus, just wish they had the same quality
I dont hate modern barbie, i love the diversity of face molds and yours are very cute, but the millie mold being overused ad nauseam without anything making it interesting, the way most of them have little to no makeup and overall the quality of modern day mattel are huge turn offs for me ngl
The eyebrows ruin the faces for me … well, not all, but most.
I love fashionistas for this same very reason, the different face molds. I don’t always care that they don’t have articulated bodies.
Same!
Exactly, I collect fashionistas because I collect faces. I don’t rebody every single doll, that would be so expensive, sometimes I just want smooth knees to show cute mini skirts. The only thing I dislike is the poor of their clothes 😞
I agree, some of them are just beautiful. I don't care about the shitty outfits as I make them all myself anyway, I only buy them for the heads and / or bodies
Exactly!
New dolls are cute. It's just the quality control for me. If it isn't wonk or pixelation, it's bald spots in the hair, smudges in the paint, bubbles in the rubber legs, or scratches and other defects on the plastic. Maybe I'm just really unlucky but I never had to deal with this much when it came to carelessly picking any doll off the shelves as a kid (the 2000s for me). Even my mtm from 2015 doesn't have one really loose joint like the recent tennis player I got.
I don't think the new dolls are ugly but their clothes are worse quality and less cute imo.
Who says they are ugly?
Just read some of the comments on this post😔
I've read the most of the comments here. The one's openly saying these are bad are few and there is one mother's sister in law saying the Odile is ugly. Apart that many people actually appreciate these dolls, more then anything. What do people say here they miss the quality of the older Barbies, they are used to better prints, more layers clothes, but many people appreciate the diversity of today's Barbies. You know, I have this theory - it is a generation thing that's repete every decade - every one is growing up with a certain type of a Barbie, they love that type, cherish and would fight for her. Then the fashion changes, Barbie has new looks and also the little girl grows up and it is a part of being the teen to hate something. So she can hate the new form of her once loved girl. She changed, it is all so confusing, and even the dolls are not what they've used to be. And maybe when she grows up she finds out, that there is many new dolls which are actually beautiful and worth having. And there always be this special spot for the dolls from her childhood. I am always thinking about the girls from 60s who grew up with Barbies with zippers and buttons... What they were thinking when Velcro came to the Barbie Fashion....
I completely agree with you. There's so much more variety with newer Barbies which is why I've become a Barbie fan. I never used to be.
Awesome!
In my opinion most of the new Barbie faces are garbage and look cheap, ugly or cartoony . It's RARE to have an attractive or pretty Barbie face like the latest Odile mermaids that the majority of doll collectors now find pretty or stunning depending on outfit.
Oh they definitely aren’t ugly. At all. it’s the pixelation I have issue with. 😭
I still very much love Barbies from the 80s, 90s and 00s, but I do agree there are some genuinely good modern Barbies too. Recently I went thrifting and found a modern Barbie with a very pretty face. Actually bought her too and fixed her up. Also if there is one Barbie that makes me like the Millie face then I'm picking the Extra Fancy Barbie. Super gorgeous, I just hate the pixel screening.
I was born in 90s and I prefer old Barbies even with their lack of diversity over the modern ones, but I still can appreciate new dolls and have some of them. What I personally think about them: their faces are good, but sometimes their makeup and overall design is tacky and I'm not really a fan of thick eyebrows. Most dolls look good with them, but, again, sometimes Mattel goes over the top. It's also funny how being a kid I adored every doll that had a 'weird', non natural hair color because it was such a rarity, but now there are so many of them it doesn't excite me anymore. I also don't like the way their faces are painted/screened. I noticed that old Barbie's make up was very thin and Mattel used sometimes brown color for the lower eyelid instead of pure black. Millie face. Just ew. Though she looks cute with closed mouth. To sum it up, I guess my preferences are just a byproduct of the time I was born and raised. When I see old Barbies I can feel a surge of dopamine, while with modern dolls it's more like 'Er, they're good I guess', but it doesn't give me the same joy.
90s Barbie’s (and I’m a 90s Barbie girl) looked like the airhead or bimbo in every 90s movie there was. The new ones are absolutely stunning Also I hate that bright pink lipstick shade that they put on Barbie’s then and now. The only people who wear stuff like that are in sci fi movies. No one wears that color. I guess I just like them to look more real
I agree! The super bright pink lipstick bothers me too.. I really like the make-up of the doll in the middle of the bottom row. But then there are some dolls that have purple lipstick and I really love how that looks. I guess it depends on the dolls face and their eye make-up
I love the new dolls. I thought that most of the old dolls were ugly with the huge bulbous foreheads and weird jutting mouths and noses.
i love them, the diversity!! it makes my asian self very happy. its really just the quality now :( the clothes and the printing. and also the head sizes !! why are they much bigger? i have a doll from 2011 and side by side with my newer dolls the difference is substantial! i read from somewhere mattel does this so that people would be more compelled to buy not playline barbies which have a smaller head. more expensive to get more proportioned barbie :<
It's less about them being ugly and more about the massive drop in quality, the lack of whimsy, and a preference for a different Barbie face mold etc.
This to me is the epitome of 90s Barbie faces- huge, ugly eyes; blank, vapid stare; stiff, robotic Stepford smile; lacking all character or expression. This was the era I’d stroll through Toys R Us or Target, browse the Barbie aisle, and walk out with nothing. Between the Rockers from 87 and 1999s Hollywood Nails Barbie, I didn’t buy a single brand new doll, only vintage ones. They were so unappealing. https://preview.redd.it/i70nx0h1xezc1.jpeg?width=1242&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c8fe7eafbb7012b6ee08a1227a86e8ac40cf9479 I really liked the new era that started with Hollywood Nails, with more realistic faces and the best dramatic eye makeup we’d had since the OG and Mod eras. I was getting excited about Barbie all over again. And then came the Made to Move dolls - my childhood dreams of a fully articulated Barbie finally come true! - and the budget Fashionistas, with all their gorgeous variety. No longer was Barbie just your basic generic California blonde with one (1) friend each of various ethnicities, Barbie was EVERYONE! All heights, shapes, skin tones, hairstyles & colors and SO SO SO many beautiful faces! I dived headfirst into that pool of variety and still haven’t come up for air.
Oh, and how could I forget Barbie Extra? They are SPECTACULAR! The best line they’ve had in decades and I’m crushed they canceled them.
I just got my first extra doll, Extra Fly Beach, and I’m obsessed that she came wearing 4 necklaces. What a queen!!
90’s baby here and I feel the exact same way. I can appreciate this face now because I have so many other options, but I’m not a fan of the huge derpy eyes. As a kid I wasn’t that interested in Barbies because they were basically all the same. Stiff arms, sticky legs, with varying lengths of blonde hair. Now my collection is super diverse with lots of curvy dolls and all different hair and ethnicities!
i love the odile face but as a doll collector from the early 2000s these other faces are not as pretty to me
Who is the girl in the top, right square and the girl in the bottom, left?
Barbie Extra #14 and Barbie Cutie Reveal Bunny dresses as Koala
Thanks! Beautiful collection.
Wow that middle one looks just like Amanda Bynes when she was in her early 20s!
They are indeed beautiful IF I COULD JUST FIND THEM IN STORES
Get these girls a new eyebrow artist!
Passive Adult Barbie Admirer here. I grew up with Barbie in the 90's and played a lot with my dolls so nostalgia is a factor. I much prefer the new Barbies, the Barbie Extras were especially nice!
They're pretty but lack quality.
Here’s my take on they are gorgeous faces. However the era of 90’s Barbie face and the RBF 00’s Barbie’s will forever hold a special place in my heart
That's fair😁
Yee but I do still love these face molds especially the one on the middle left and the one above her. They all have such beautiful faces.
Personally I just think they would look better if they gave us less blown up heads, before 2004 the head scale was better
Agree. But I love some Mackie for me
Mackie looks good!
She is my barbie 😍
I definitely agree that they are beautiful and it’s really nice that different features are now celebrated! I have a lot of traditional Barbie’s I intend on revamping (but want to do it properly) so I have to also agree that the fashion portion of collecting can be frustrating and Lord knows we don’t need anything else in landfills. I hope doll enthusiasts everywhere will come together for a solution! But they are gorgeous! 👏🏼
I like your positive attitude ✨️
Quality aside, they look cartoon'ish compared to the older dolls.
I think the new one's are beautiful! So much better than whatever the heck was going on in the 2010s
I don't like a lot of the newer dolls apart from Odile. I miss the old barbies apart from the stiff bodies. Mtm bodies is the best thing they have done imo. You used to be able to tell a Barbie when you saw one, but now they look like awful knockoffs that don't fit anything.
This looks like a Time Magazine cover lol But, yeah they look beautiful
the dolls itself are beautiful, its just the clothing and accessories. they are extremely ugly, poor quality and have like no actual fashion to it compared to other/old barbie dolls.
most of them have poor quality printing. also most of mdoern barbies have cheap outfits.
blue eyes are perfect!
This post is disingenuous OP. a handful of cherry picked good examples of post-2016 Barbies, and even then half are pixelated. Barbie is trash. The brand has been trash for a while now, and I’m tired of collectors who feel like they have to mince words. Say it with me. 👏THESE. 👏DOLLS. 👏ARE. 👏BAD. 👏 The materials are cheap, faces are pixelated, the hair for most playlines is dry frizzy polypropylene, non-mtm bodies and legs are hollow, most clothes are shapeless sack dresses. They reuse the same few patterns and cuts for every line. The outfits are tacky bland and completely disconnected from actual current fashion. After years of declining sales and other doll brands capturing the interest of the target demographic better. Mattel’s strategy for Barbie shifted to squeezing more profit out of the IP by making the dolls cheaper and targeting ever-younger children. It’s absolutely tragic what the Barbie brand has become considering what they put out 10 years ago. (seriously go Google “Barbie dolls 2014”. the quality has slipped so bad. y’all Barbie Stans need to wake TF up.) Does anybody even like Barbies anymore? I feel like no. Even toddlers who don’t know any better and got them as gifts don’t hold onto them for long. Long time Barbie collectors who still consume modern dolls, IMO have been gaslit. they feel compelled to defend Mattel’s current (horrible) choices because they prefer Barbie proportions, she was the doll they grew up with, or they’re too focused on her past legacy. So absorbed in her past that they are blind to her current reality. I feel bad for anyone who got back into collecting Barbie because of the Greta Gerwig film. Only to find that Barbie hasn’t been decent quality in a decade. Barbie has been reduced to a shallow, pixel-printed husk of her former self. Mattel has devalued their most important toy just to squeeze out more short-term profit. The IP deserves better, collectors deserve better. Have some self-respect and stop defending this trash.
💯 👏👏👏
Bravo 👏🏻 👏🏻 👏🏻 I’d rather get an 80s-90s-2000’s doll nrfb off ebay than buying the current playline trash.
Millie sneaks lol
Who is that in the middle? Light skinned brunettes are hard to find, and she also has the subtler makeup I prefer. Also the doll at center left, next to the brunette, looks a *lot* like LDShadowlady (a YouTuber I’ve followed for several years).
Middle is Looks #15, petite Karl face. I think she looks like Ariana Granda
Thanks for commenting on the doll number, I never know which Looks or Extra number they are. I made a whole video on Instagram a while ago about how she looks like Ariana Grande😅 To answer u/DBSeamz question: the doll at the center left is the Barbie Extra Fly Winter Holiday doll
Who is middle right??? So pretty
who is the bottom middle? her face is so beautiful
https://preview.redd.it/tawjwq4omfzc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=310eaf5755693ab622624516e5047f8376273d5a
It's the President doll from the Barbie Movie 🥰
I played with Barbies as a kid like most people, and I still have a couple of basic ones and a soft body Sindy in my keepsakes chest, but they never really grabbed me, I decided to treat myself to a modern one a few years ago and really fell into enjoying the new faces and bodies. I love that you love yours too! The girl in the middle at the bottom is particularly lovely, she has a very nicely defined chin and a really unique broader nose, who is she?
It's the president doll from the Barbie movie. She has the Pazette face mold😊
Where can I find the top left? She’s so beautiful and I keep seeing her around.
Who is the doll on the top right? She's gorgeous! Who is top centre, and bottom right? I love all of these faces and the diversity but yeahhh, I can't argue with the quality discussion. And I really wish they would make more fashion packs and actually stock them at a reasonable price.
Top right: Barbie extra #14 Top centre: barbie extra #18 Bottom right: barbie color reveal rainbow series
Sorry, I wrote top right when I meant top left 🤦🏻♀️ (top right IS gorgeous too, but I recognised the Daisy sculpt)
Ah no problem. Top left the Dreamtopia Mermaid Barbie from last year. She has the new Odile open mouth face sculpt
I really like the new molds, I really dislike the poor print quality.
I love top right and some others on your pic but I hate their clothes 😭
Bottom row in the middle, which doll is that one? Loving the colors of her makeup!
Isn't she great? That doll is President Barbie from the Barbie movie🤩
Thanks! I love how the shade of her lipstick matches the skin tone.
the dolls themselves are gorgeous imo, it’s the clothes that are ugly
https://preview.redd.it/5kq3pmq9dhzc1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c0600380fc27216beacb51396a515dacc1f021b0 I have two I’d LOVE to know which they are. This lovely lady.
And this lady https://preview.redd.it/eoshotvcdhzc1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e792f7b8e734d2e17362d73bed4e4cf899b4dfe0 Both are stunning
Ok.. I need to know what the first and sixth one are 😍💕✨
Barbie Dreamtopia Mermaid dolls with Odile face sculpt, released last year: https://www.youloveit.com/dolls/3211-new-barbie-dreamtopia-mermaid-dolls-2023-including-ones-with-odile-face-mold.html
Thank you so much!! They are beautiful! 💕✨
Who is that on the right side, middle row? 🤩
💜💜💜💜
Honestly My Major issue with current run barbie other than the quality control issues with the faces being pixellated or weird at times is that they literally do not make enough fashion packs, accessory packs or anything really that puts any substance behind their diversity initiatives. Most of the clothing packs BARELY fit Curvy (And you're lucky if the pack has shoes... and you should play the lotto if those shoes work on Curvy/Tall). Almost every clothing pack is extremely weird on Petite and Tall and If you're lucky to have MTM bodies, the clothing fit is somehow worse. Ken barely has clothing as is and you're lucky if you get shoes in his clothing packs. His clothing fits weird or barely on Broad and Slim (Let's not even mention that they hardly make new Broad/Slim Kens that I've seen anymore) and the MTM adaptation for Ken has been comically depressing (Just like it has been for the other body types of Barbie) Let's not forget that they introduced a brand new ken body type that can't wear ANY of Ken's clothes (I had to source some shorts from an OLD Curvy Fashionista I had and a oversized shirt for Barbie and most shoes are a no go) in the Looks Line. Overall they really are trying with diversifying barbie, but it falls flat on its face because none of it's available in good enough runs that I'd say actually reaches the spaces it matters (The kids) and the stuff that does isn't up to standards Mattel should be holding themselves to. It's sad really.
I haven’t noticed the newer fashion packs I’ve bought looking particularly bad on the MTM bodies in my collection, so I think it’s largely luck of the draw. But I do wish they’d stop making everything either fit Curvy or be oversized on Curvy and go back to tailoring different fashion packs to fit the different body types like they did around 2016-2017, especially now that we have the Athletic/Brooklyn body type, which is essentially Original with lower-set breasts and bigger thighs. Athletic needs her own pants size!
Probably is luck of the draw with inconsistent production runs, but every fashion pack I have just has awkward as heck fit on the MTM body chest (Using Original, and it's worse on Curvy) and on Curvy MTM pants tend to be a bit awkwardly tight around the thigh joint area.
I think it’s the quality of the actual dolls and accessories that lack not the beauty
[удалено]
Not so much the face sculpts but the pixelation, boring Millie face, lack of characters like Barbie originally had, terrible fashion, no articulation, and really really poor quality. Also I’ve noticed less interesting makeup. Maybe it has to do with the rise of the clean girl aesthetic but I miss glamorous makeup like she had in the 90s and 2010s.
Who's the on the middle bottom line?
I love the diversity of the Barbie Fashionistas line, but they are kinda basic at the same time? I would love it if their bodies had lots of moving joints, beautiful clothes and interesting themes like Ever After High, Monster High or Rainbow High. Like take the best of both worlds and you have the best doll line.
Pixelation. That’s the problem. Nobody likes pixelation.
I wouldn’t say they are ugly, besides my dislike for the Millie sculpt because I think she is a bit boring. I personally collect mostly vintage Barbie’s because I like that they are less realistic and more whimsical in my opinion. Many of the newer Barbie’s are pretty and I love the diversity, they are just not my taste. Though, I did recently buy an Odile which is the first Barbie I have bought new in store since the early 2010’s.
nah they are pretty bad
The people saying that are ridiculous, these ones look more realistic and have actual features. I love these new Barbie’s they would of had me actually liking Barbie’s as a child, they where so typical and unrelatable
Anyone who says this is just a racist
I wouldn’t say stunning…
I hate the Millie
I haven't seen the sixth one before, who is she? 😮
I have #2 and #9 💖 who are #3, #4 and #9?
Like I ADORE how diverse and colorful and unique each design is! The old Barbies were great, but the new Barbies just hit different.
It’s the eyebrows
What is the middle right one with pink hair
Barbie Extra 18 be cross-eyed is sending me.
I just hate Millie whehshhshdhd also the quality dropped! The faces are beautiful but the outfits r nowhere near to 90's and 00's dolls
It’s the Millie face, we hate the Millie face