Last weekend Ghoulia13 and I saw The Barbie Movie. We actually did Barbenheimer, starting with Barbie. We loved it! Since then we’ve been on a Barbie the Movie kick. We bought some of the dolls, and Barbie the Album has not left my turntable since last weekend. I bought the Barbie the Movie Margot Robbie as Barbie doll from Walmart.com, and the Barbie the Movie Fashion Pack with Three Iconic Film Outfits and Accessories from Target.com.
Barbie as Margot Robbie is the “basic” Barbie doll, or as Barbie described herself in the movie, she’s Stereotypical Barbie. It retails for $24.99.
Barbie comes in the pink gingham dress that we see Barbie wearing in the beginning of the film to start her Best Day Ever. The doll uses an articulated body, but it’s not the Made-to-Move body. Mattel is using the less-articulated B50 Poseable Body, (a.k.a.the Gigi body because it was used for the Tommy Hilfiger x Gigi Hadid Doll in 2017). The Gigi body doesn’t have the extra joints at the knees and elbows and it’s not articulated at the ankles, waist, or bust.
Barbie wears white floral earrings with a matching necklace and bracelet.
She wears pink pumps with a heart motif on the toes. Unfortunately, the shoes don’t stay on the doll’s feet very well.
The Barbie the Movie Fashion Pack with Three Iconic Film Outfits and Accessories retails for $50.99. The box looks like a wardrobe.
The three outfits are a pink gingham beach romper suit, Barbie’s shorty pajamas, and a blue-and-white sundress. The outfits come in large, flat boxes reminiscent of the original Barbie fashions from the late Fifties through the Sixties.
I didn’t realize when I purchased the Fashion Pack that it’s a part of the Barbie Signature line until I discovered the Certificate of Authenticity on the underside of one of the boxes.
Barbie’s pink gingham beach romper comes with matching shorts and large-brimmed sun hat. Accessories include a pink seashell necklace, a pink bracelet, and cream espadrilles.
The back features a large heart-shaped cutout.
The heart-shaped cutout is in the perfect spot to align with the Barbie trademark on the doll’s back!
The second outfit from the movie is Barbie’s shorty pajamas set. It’s adorable. It comes with a velvet hair ribbon and a hairbrush. The shoes are pink high-heeled slides that look like the shoes that came with Barbie dolls from the Fifties and Sixties.
The third outfit is the blue-and-White ensemble that Barbie wears on her less-than-perfect day. The bodice features a heart motif. It comes with blue striped shorts and a polka-dotted headband, two bracelets, one blue and one white; and white shoes. The shoes are made from the same mold as the pink shoes that came with the Barbie as Margot Robbie doll.
So, I have thoughts about the Barbie the Movie Margot Robbie as Barbie doll and the Barbie the Movie Fashion Pack with Three Iconic Film Outfits and Accessories. Let’s start with the doll. As I mentioned, the body isn’t on a Made-to-Move body. I was expecting better articulation from this doll considering its $25 price point, which is more expensive than Made-to-Move Barbies that retail for about $17. The outfit on the Barbie the Movie is simple and it has few accessories to justify the $25 price tag. The articulation is okay but it’s not the smoothest when posing the doll. Also, the doll’s hair is very frizzy. The doll is cute, it kind of looks like Margot Robbie, and I like it as a tie-in to the movie, but the quality of the doll is more playline than collectible.
As for the Barbie the Movie Fashion Pack with Three Iconic Film Outfits and Accessories pack, while the presentation is reminiscent of the vintage Barbie fashions, the quality of the movie fashions isn’t the same. They do use snaps (albeit plastic) instead of Velcro (unlike the Barbie the Movie doll), but the material is thin, and the Fashion Pack uses the same cheap plastic accessories as playline fashion packs. There is repetition of accessories like the beaded bracelets, and the white shoes made from the same old as the pink Barbie the Movie doll shoes. I expected better from the Barbie Signature Collection lines. In the Nineties, Mattel made collector-quality fashion packs such as the Barbie Millicent Roberts line of dolls and fashion packs. These fashion packs used quality fabrics and accessories that had great attention to detail. The collector dolls and fashions produced today show a decline in quality at the expense of the profit margin.
Did you see Barbie the Movie? Did you buy any of the merchandise?
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