12 dolls – 12 different Little Black Dresses – 12 different faces
01 – Steffie – light beige skin – straight brown hair with bangs
02 – Mbili – light brown skin – wavey dark blonde hair
03 – Lea-Kayla – very pale skin – straight black hair in a high ponytail
04 – Lara – medium beige skin – straight brown hair
05 – Tango – medium beige skin – shoulder length blonde hair
06 – Mackie – very pale skin – straight blonde hair
07 – Teresa – medium beige skin – straight brunette bob
08 – Kentucky – medium beige skin – straight red hair
09 – Goddess – dark brown skin – short curly black hair
10 – Eternal – medium beige skin – shoulder length wavey blonde hair
11 – Diva – very pale skin – short platinum bob with bangs
12 – Adria – medium brown skin – straight black hair
Please note that the names used above are the names of the face moulds NOT the actual doll’s name… and the descriptions are from sighting (yours truly) of this one image only.
Initial thoughts -
- yay! an Asian doll! then… why only *one* Asian? and why pale? why can’t there be a pale, medium beige and light/medium brown Asian dolls?
- South Asian and Middle Eastern (ok, maybe Teresa might do) representation still totally lacking
- oh look, two of the black dolls have straighter hair than me!
- who’s doll #5? – I am *not* convinced it is the Tango sculpt (of course I could be wrong…) – yep, turns out I am wrong LOL
- why the heck did it take me this long to get around to posting this?
- why so many blondes? (Mbili AA doll included)
- if you look long enough at this image, you start seeing tiny white squares where the black lines cross!
- yeah yeah, of course they’re all absurdly skinny… it is the modelmuse body after all…
So what do YOU think?
ETA (091108) – check out this album by the flickr user dastinkytwinz for real life (and full length) photos the Barbie Basics dolls! – and I’ve also found out that doll #05 does use the Tango face mould…
What do I think? Hmmm… the obvious — there are not very many dolls of color from which to choose. Thanks for the “heads up.”
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Therese Reply:
November 4th, 2009 at 10:03 pm
oh but hey, there’s like 7 (out of 12… or 9 if you include the pale Asian and Teresa) caucasian dolls to choose from! of which 4 are blonde! plenty of “choice”… as long as the skin is beige and the hair is blonde, you’re set!
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I do like the 2 darker skinned ones. I wonder if the Mbili doll is supposed to be hispanic?
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Therese Reply:
November 5th, 2009 at 12:34 am
technically… all these dolls could potentionally be Hispanic! … guess my loose usage of the term “Hispanic” generally means someone from South America (even though Brazil speaks Portuguese) who appears to be obviously multi-racial… hmmm…
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That is very true!!! My cousin told me when I shouldn’t even say Hispanice but Latino. At any rate, I went to college with several people that were from Puerto Rico, and they were very diverse in the color spectrum. Including the darker shade like Mbili with blonde hair.
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I love the variety but I think there are still many blond girls in low proportion to the AA and expect more redheads. Great for the brunnette girls!!!
#1 is like My Melody Barbie and any Birthstone Beauty, I would also have more variety if not as much and as often repeated. I’m tired of Lara face mold.
My favorites: 2, 3, 7, 9, 11
Thanks for the info
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Groan!
Just when I want to turn my back on Mattel, they pull something like this. Sigh. Once upon a time, I would have said ALL, I want them ALL. Have to be more careful now. Probably all 3 AA dolls, the Asian doll, and the Teresa doll, but also the first blonde on the second row and both blondes in between the two AA dolls on the third row. So that’s 8. I can leave the other 4.
Can’t wait to see the little black dresses. I love the concept here. Shame about the Model Muse body – the Pivotal body would have been better. Sigh. Course my choices can and might change based on the actual dolls issued … and the dresses. Just might buy a doll for the dress alone.
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Therese Reply:
November 5th, 2009 at 11:33 am
There is this image on flickr showing the dolls in the LBDs
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D7ana Reply:
November 5th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
Thanks for that link, Therese! Love seeing the dresses. Pity again about the Model Muse body. Tsk.
Oh and the bigger heads … darn.
Thanks for this update, Therese.
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I hope they all have smaller heads. Mattel really has a problem with color variety (hair and skin). The boring dolls could use more interesting hair. I agree with Dana about the Bulimic Muse bodies.
#1 boring
#2 would love her in raven black hair with big curls.
#3 almost boring again but might get her just because its Kayla and her black hair or maybe not.
#4 easy to over look
#5 she looks boring but if she’s a new mold, it would be great.
#6, 7 and 11 I’ll pass
#8 I like her hair. I wish it was in just a little darker orange/red tone.
#9 love her
#10 and 11, I’m not a fan of smiley dolls
Thanks for sharing Therese!
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Therese Reply:
November 5th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
hehehe thanks for your input Niel
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Ebony,Nicole Reply:
November 5th, 2009 at 7:27 pm
Niel, I love Number 9 too!
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Love the goddess! very impressed!
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Therese there are some more close ups on the BBB. The Mbili doll looks to be a medium brown with auburn (copper colored) hair instead of being lighter skinned and blond. I am not impressed with the face paint on the Goddess doll at all. I do want the Asian, Steffie, Mbili and Desiree dolls.
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I’m interested in which of these will sell the best. Mattel says that the blond WASP-y dolls are in the most demand, but it’s hard to compare when every doll has its own distinct fashion. And people treat “friend” dolls like knock-offs.
In the BC poll, the Asian doll is by far the most popular, followed by the Steffie and Teresa. The two that both got a 1% vote are the Mackie and Carnival dolls.
Before real pics came in, my favorite was the darkest AA doll. But her eyes seem odd.
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Therese Reply:
November 9th, 2009 at 7:50 pm
… and mattel doesn’t release sales numbers so you’ll never know for sure!
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Ok so I got barbie no.11 for my daughter for Christmas…love it a beautiful barbie…but I can not figure out how to set her up on the stand!!!! Can someone help???
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Melanie Reply:
January 1st, 2010 at 4:06 am
Hi Kady,
These dolls are packed with stands that are meant to hold one leg slightly in front of the other. All you need to do is poise the doll over the stand and guide her down onto it, so that it’s up between her legs and she’s resting on her crotch (vulgar, but that’s the way it works). The stand will guide one leg forward and the doll may tilt to one side, but you just have to push her down a bit more to the opposite side to straighten her out.
Personally, I hate these stands as you can’t pose them at all with their feet together. I’ve since ordered several metal stands from MyFavouriteDoll.com, which hold them around the waist.
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George Reply:
August 31st, 2010 at 8:25 am
I bought her as well. the stand is not correct one for her. Mine stands like a North Korean soldier marching in the plaza, haha. I had to call Mattel and complain because i had thrown box away. They wanted me to send her back but i had restyled her. Mattel finally agreed to send me a voucher to buy a new one. Hopefully #11 aren’t all packed with defective stands. Great customer service i have to say though.
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Love this blog – just found it when I googled Barbie Basics.
Anyway, I love ALL of them, so much so that I picked them all up (except for the Lara doll, which the store didn’t have) and the accessory packs yesterday. All were impressive, save for some minor hair issues. 7 and 11 are packaged with their hair so shellacked with hairspray that when you try to fluff it up, it gets all flaky. Both dolls needed a hairwash.
5′s hair is pretty in the promo photos, but nothing like that in the box – she has two chopped short pieces on either side of her face and the rest is long, very different from the evenly layered hair in the promo. So, she got a wash and hair cut, which turned out great – much more like her promo.
Finally on the hair front, 12′s hair is pretty until you feel it, mine’s was actually really greasy feeling, so she got a wash too. Other than needing a bit of hairstyling, those are all the issues I have with the dolls, they’re all beautiful and quite diverse for what Mattel has done in the past. Baby steps – maybe the next collection will have more diversity.
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Therese Reply:
January 1st, 2010 at 11:43 am
Hi Melanie, thanks for all the hair info! Much appreciated
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greetings, donnie here. I happen to LOVE this Barbie Basic Collection. i do agree with the fact Mattel could have brought it even further with the diversity like adding more asian face molds with various skintones more red heads. But what i do love the fact that Mattel has launched a line of “so many dolls at once” it was like they heard my calling to them… i was tired of each new doll line only consisting of between 2 to 3 other dolls along side the usual blonde Barbie doll. i know that this all started wit Barbie as the head dolll but even in 1950 something when the doll was first introduced, other looks and ethic backgrounds were still celebrated in our world but just not yet seen by the makers of Barbie… my point is that now in this more openminded world we want change and something that pushed the envelope not the same blonde bue eyed girl we fell in love with and still adore but we want her “friends” to have a chance to take center stage..
…also i think that instead of modelmuse bodies they should have combined the look of a modelmuse and a pivotal body that i that would have made them more “Model’ish.” i feel the model muse bodies give girls unrealistic visions of what thier bodies should look like… i do love them MM bodies but im a gay man with NO wieght issues… just think they would attract more attention if they had the articulated pivotal features….
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