Barbie The Look 2016 Doll Reviews

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My dolls finally came!! Super excited about this!!!

I bought all three and two extra Sweet Teas; I'm keeping Night Out and one Sweet Tea, and the other three dolls are body donors. I will only be reviewing the dolls I will be keeping. Since I deboxed Urban Jungle, popped her head off and put another doll's head on, I don't think it would be fair to do a review of her, although I will go on and say that I hate the playline mold they used for her. I also apologize for not showing the dolls in their original outfits, but I literally got home, ripped the dolls out of the boxes, and commenced to redress and rebodying!

Night Out

Ellen (Night Out): OMG! She is too cute!!! I know these dolls have been getting a lot of hate for looking so young, but I love the new look. Finally, a cute, sweet looking African American doll by Mattel! Honestly, the last cute AA doll Mattel made, in my opinion anyway, was the first bellybutton Christie with the Everflex waist way back in '99, which I still have. A lot of the AA barbie dolls look very mature, which isn't bad, but it's nice to see a sweet, youthful face. I love her curls and her neutral makeup, which is a big change from the previous The Look dolls. I know a lot of people are also complaining because Mattel didn't add rooted eyelashes, but I think removing the eyelashes is a big improvement. Mattel doesn't do rooted eyelashes as well as Integrity Toys, so the Barbie rooted eyelashes tend to be more noticeable and not as "natural" as Integrity Toys dolls. Also, the first wave of The Look dolls that I bought couldn't wear eye wear because of the lashes.

Ellen is so cute, that I'm actually seriously considering selling Mighty Real Reese and replacing her with Ellen! Never thought the day would come when I would even consider replacing an Integrity Toys Dynamite Girl with a Barbie doll!!

My only complaint is that it would be nice to see an AA collectors doll that does not have the Mbili mold. This version is really cute, but Mattel uses this same face for almost all their AA collectors dolls. And this doll even has almost the same hairstyle as The last Basics AA doll, except with bigger curls. Seriously, Mattel all black people do not look the same, so diversify your AA face molds a bit!

Sweet Tea

Felicie (Sweet Tea): Super cute! I never liked any of the other Karl face mold dolls, but this one was a must! As with the previous doll, I love her neutral makeup. Yes, she does have big, doe-like eyes, and yes she does look very innocent, but that's part of her charm and what makes her cute. I'm a bit confused by her hair, though. On the promo pictures, it's wavy and kinda like a modern version of Nancy Drew's hairstyle, but the doll came with big Shirley Temple curls! I left my doll's hair curled, but did brush the curls out a little so they wouldn't look so much like individual curls. I'm assuming you're supposed to brush her hair out completely to achieve the look in the promo pictures, but with the curls being so tight, I have a feeling doing this will actually turn her hair into a big, bushy mess.

Cons: Overall, these dolls are the best collectors dolls I've bought, although I am not at all happy about the playline elbow joints that greatly limit the range of motion of the dolls (working on a fix for this though *wink*). I was initially bummed that the bodies did not have the pivotal chest articulation, but I'm beginning to get over it. There were also serious quality issues. For one, almost all the dolls I received had stains/smudges/marks on the bodies. I don't think Night Out did, but the other four definitely did. The Sweet Tea doll that I'm keeping had spots/smudges on her face. I was able to remove all but two spots, and the two that are still there are small and not noticeable, but they are still there. I also noticed spots on my Mockingjay Peeta doll's face, so I'm guessing this is a general issue with Mattel now. The other Sweet Tea heads have big Shirley Temple curls but wonky bangs. I decided to keep the doll I have because her bangs are perfect.

One of the Sweat Tea dolls seemed to have her leg glued to her body in the hip socket! Crazy right?! I had to use all my strength to free the leg, and luckily I was able to free it without breaking it.

Accessories
Night Out: I think these are the best accessories I have ever seen with a doll besides Jazz Diva with her wigs, extra clothes, and makeup. The makeup brush and eyelash brush are just too much! Very well done! The compact is cute but is missing some paint. I have so many better compacts that I may toss this one. Then again I rarely play with any of the compacts, so I doubt it will ever be opened again for me to see the chipped paint anyway.

Sweet Tea: OMG! Love, love, love! I've been meaning to buy some Re-ment food, but haven't gotten around to it, so these scones are great substitutes for the time being. My only complaint is that the scones are made onto the plates (of course Mattel can't get it completely right because that would just be too much of a good thing). The menu also does not have real words and food items, unlike the menu with the Poolside outfit form the first The Look collection.

Urban Jungle: This set is actually the least appealing. Basically, these accessories are just reused playline (necklace, not shown) and collector (coffee and magazine) items.

Shoes: Ooopps, forgot to take pictures of the shoes, but they are all nice. I believe they are all new shoe molds, or at least not any that get used often. I'm glad of this because most of the collectors dolls only used three or four shoe molds, just in different colors.

People have been complaining that the Sweet Tea shoe straps are broken, but all of the dolls I ordered had the same kind of detached straps. This leads me to think that the straps are actually made like this. I know for me, I usually don't use shoes with ankle straps because they break easily. I think Mattel maybe trying to remedy this by making the straps detached. Just my theory anyway.

That's all for my review. For more pictures of these dolls and the rebodied dolls, check out my Flickr photostream. I promise it won't hurt at all!