Barbie is a FLOP! 😢 Has this FASHION DOLL jumped the Shark??? 🦈 

“I’m not interested in real, I find real people boring” !!! Yes! Give me the fantasy! 🎉

In my opinion the decline really began with the hard hollow legs and the molded on tops. Think of how great it would have been if Mattel had released all the fashionistas with made to move bodies and fashionable fashions ! They would have been classics by now. The line doesn´t deserve the name fashionistas....Great video 🙂

I feel like if we had a mix of the early 2000s and 2010s era then that would be like the perfect era for Barbie. Cuz in the early 2000s she still kept it real and I really love the glamour of the 2010s though. So a combo of both would be so cool!

Barbie should go back to glam and superficial. Also more pink! Why not? That’s what cemented her in the Superstar Era when she was at the top of her game. By that I don’t mean only blonde hair and blue eyes btw. There was Christie, Teresa, Kira , Summer, Raquelle, Midge, Whitney, PJ, Shani , Kayla, Lea and a lot of beautiful friends. They should be their own person again and not just “Barbie” dipped in different skin tones. Give us consistent characters again. Make them fierce gorgeous and glam , and yes superficial. With makeup on please. I want good hair ( not poly ) and super long hair again! No pixelation and at least bendable knees. Some lines can be sporty and casual , but pretty. And that’s other thing…Lines with tittles. They’re all just fashionistas and extra at this point.

Yeah...I think the first line of the articulated fashionistas was ok, then they got worse and worse. I think 2014 marked the point of no return for Barbie.

The 80s and 90s were the golden years of Barbie in my opinion! Some 2000s Barbies are also great but the quality seemed to massively decline from then onwards. I don’t actually buy modern Barbies now as they feel cheap compared to the 90s ones. The only thing Mattel are doing right is the inclusion of many skintones and body types etc. Mattel need to release some epic fashion packs, with real pockets and buttons etc. I am done with the printed on details! I think if they just released some HIGH quality fashion packs I would be interested in buying again.

If they just had more fashion packs, they’d make a ton of money. They should get back to the fashion part of Barbie. Then I don’t think people would mind not having too many joints. But at least let them have knees.

Sadly, I think it will be several years until they manage to restore the Barbie brand to its former glory. It just lacks any kind of originality or creativity. I miss the gimmicky Barbie dolls from the '90 & 2000s. They used to put so much effort into their products. Life in plastic is not that fantastic. 😪

Great video. Barbie is not the doll she once was. It's such a shame that the quality is so poor. I see row upon row of tacky Barbie's in the shops and really have no desire to buy them. Perhaps Mattel should watch You Tube!

I think barbie will get there, she changes with the time she's having a rough one right now. I think higher quality fashion packs would fix it for me. I think having affordable and diverse base dolls is good but the fashions can be sold separately much higher if they were high quality mimicking the old business plan in the 60s

Yeah I don't see Barbie bouncing back because of the situation at Mattel, unless the company gets bought up by an actual owner quality will never be a priority as quality and reputation don't pay the bills and all the people at a power position at the company are just interested in lining up their pockets (both investors and executives) that's what happens when a company becomes public...

It’s sad how they cut off the fashion part of Barbie and payed more on the body types I feel like all the dolls no matter what body type should be fashionable like their early 2010 era

In my opinion I think there's a lot of barbies lines, for example fashionistas and extra? Bring the fashionistas diversity on the extra line, kids and collectors dont like the lack of articulation and the quality of the clothes of fashionistas, and there's not much fashion packs for the barbies with different body type. Why is necessary to have a lot a mermaids, fairies and colour reveals? The houses, the furnitures and the cars they need to have dolls included (dolls with no articulation and the simpliest dresses ever), they can just remove the dolls (because kids already have the dolls already) and improve the quality of everything. In the 90s we had a line of Barbies each year and thats it. I think they make the dolls disposable so the kids ask for more.

I lovedddd the generation girl barbie. The best face sculpt in my opinion. She looked glamorous and yet kind and happy. The fashion fever and the 2010s barbie looked very oh im a supermodel expression. And the superstar face sculpt was cute but not as glamorous as the generation girl but had better gowns and fancy clothes. So for obvious reasons my pick is definitely the generation girl barbie from 1998 to 2003 time period. Apparently they changed that line after 9/11 and the effect took a year and some to roll in fully. Life before 9/11 was a different one and mostly better in almost all areas of consumer products and services and entertainment quality.

Late viewing this video but I agree with everything you said. It's more interesting to me to find older Barbies and Fashion Avenue fashions on seller sites than what I see in the store. The Signature Barbies are nice and good quality as are the reproductions. I miss the days of gowns!

Kind of surprised that this video basically ignores the Barbie Looks line (which, at $22 for MTM dolls, is not really “collector” level). Those dolls are very popular and, in my experience, have excellent quality (although the clothes, especially the latest series, can be playline-level). Also, as someone who didn’t play with Barbie as a kid, I only got interested in her after the 2016 redesign with all the new skin tones, hair textures and body types. For me, 1980s/1990s blonde “Superstar” Barbie holds no interest whatsoever.

Barbie does better when Mattel has competition. When they are on top, mattel phones it in.

Barbara needs to resurrect her glory days

This "flop" era of Barbie has been going on since what, 2015? We all love the old Barbie but instead of frustrating yourselves over and over again and comparing her to MGA line of dolls, why don't we just accept the fact, once and for all, she will never go back to her old roots. We wish her the best but Mattel is f**king hopeless at this point. don't get me wrong, they are trying, don't tell me you never liked any of the recent Barbies because you were obsessed with the Extra Fancy Millie and Holiday Barbie Odile. but Mattel always, always find a way to cheapen the doll. The attempt of giving us quality is so inconsistent. Barbie has been with us since 1959, she's 64 years old and the only existing doll line in 2017 😂 she WILL and she CAN bounce back.

Barbie is still selling high not because people really like the doll, because many people buy mtm doll for rebody. So instead of purchasing only 1 doll, we ended up buying multiple dolls for rebody and just throw the mtm heads. And since Carlyle was there everything in barbie fashion become a trash,

So true, I don't know if it's just me or is the Millie Face mold really lacks versatility like I can't really explain it...

I think Barbie is doing okay all things considered. There are multiple Barbie audiences and they all need something different from a single doll concept - I don't think there is a single way to make the doll that will work for all of her audiences. This means that no matter what Mattel does, Barbie will always be a flop for some segment of her audience. That said, I think this was an excellent video essay that asks some of the right questions about the nature of the doll.

Thank you for admitting that it is triggering. I keep telling my therapist that!

Honestly they dont even need to have made to move bodies but those clothes !!!!! Like cmon barbie deserves more!

I guess, for me, the doll was at her heyday in the 1960's - 70's with a healthy resurgence in the 1990's - early 2000's. The dolls were chic, slick, with wonderful fashions, beautiful face molds and elegant, not just blonde profuse hair & pink trashy outfits!!! Boring.😮😢

My favorite Barbie line to collect is the Fashionistas from 2009 to 2014! I also love 90's Barbie classics like Hollywood Hair, Totally Long Hair, Costume Ball Barbie etc (all from my childhood). I don't like many of the new Barbie's, I have a couple, but not many.

2009-2011 barbie 🔛🔝 2016 brought diversity for sure but also brought cheapness and low budget fashion 😘

Oh. My. Lordy, #mattel #barbie I still have my Jewel Girl Barbie and I’m so glad I do. You NEED TO BRING this idea back. 1👛 she came with a BENDY BODY, REVOLUTIONARY 2👛 her clothes were amazing quality 3👛 we didn’t have to pay THE EARTH for a beautiful doll that I LITERALLY Never changed anything about. This was a STATEMENT for doll. 4👛 listen to your adult buyers. You want lots and lots more money? Make dolls that adults love with the quality they expect and don’t charge us £50. Imagine if the #BarbieExtra dolls were LITERALLY #mtm. Sold old, I GUARANTEE you. In the UK we are lucky if we get a couple and when we do they are far too expensive for what they are. Nice hair, awesome outfits but less detailed accessories and SOME articulation. It’s no wonder people have started looking to buy #Integrity dolls on sale on EBay and started to look at stuff on Amazon from China LITERALLY to “headswap” rather than paying for a Yoga Barbie just for the body. I love you, I respect you, but I’m VERY disappointed in you. Go to your room whilst I figure out what to do with you. I will bring your dinner but NO dessert and you’re having porridge for breakfast. Cheerios are off the menu til you clean up your act @mattel

I love your videos and I find your voice so relaxing

5:29 it’s called a mini dress

Honestly she needs her 2010's cunty Era back - you can have "mature" but also kid friendly Barbie. She can have different fun makeup and realistic fashion that doesn't look like she came out of journeys. MyScene and Bratz have proved that

I recently purchased a couple of Barbie Extras and was shocked at the poor quality compared to barbies from my youth (late 70s/early 80s). They felt light and cheap. When I was young, they felt heavier and more robust. Sigh….

I enjoyed this! I like the research and the specific points you made! Still... I I'm in love with it all. I touch a Barbie and my heart sings. Any era, but especially now. I recently gave in and got dolls with sculpted clothes and all sorts of stuff that bely the biggest changes they've made; I'm very happy. I understand it's a complex issue of budgeting and higher up's interference and fashion preferences of the designers vs the consumers, but Barbie does not make me mad at all. I understand that people don't like it, and this video is a concise dive into why. Good job!

Hello - Barbie was primarily a girl's toy. This all changed with the appearance of the 88 Holiday. This was when collectors took note and the whole adult interest burgeoned into the resurgence of the child-like excitement we all experienced. When Miss B started becoming ultra-glam around 2015, it was obvious that she was losing her original appeal for the younger girls. Mattel then introduced the Millie mold, which returned her to the fresh teenage beauty sans all that overt make-up, making her once more relatable by the junior fans. The simpler styling of the latest figures, now in fresh new-look boxes (no pencil-cases, Fashionistas name or obvious numbering) is a further development in an on-going evolution which is interesting to observe. Happy collecting.

Love these vids you are making going into the history of various Barbie era's. I had a few of the early 2000's era Barbies for practicing customizing on that's about the time when it became popular as a hobby and this was an excuse for me to start picking up some dolls here and there. Anyway Bratz seemed more popular over Barbie at that time. I never got any Bratz but I actually loved and still love Mattel's answer to that competition the My Scene dolls. Due to relocating overseas a few times of times back and forth I have had to give up my doll collections 3 times in my life. So there are big gaps in my collecting era's. Now I just seem collect Barbie by face sculpt and put her on a MTM body ...as close a skin tone match as I can find. This can get very expensive as some of the skin tones are only available from the retired BMR1959 line or looks and harder to get where I live now. As far as quality ... the glossy pixelated face screenings are unacceptable imo. As are the zombie bodies. You are 100% correct the cost cutting, corner cutting mindset has stayed with Mattel since 2008. I don't think once such a mindset is established it ever leaves. Mattel's attitude seems to me like they are producing a single use disposable item. Just get the fast cheap drive through sales. Anyway because I do love the diversity of the fashionista's I spend the extra money and time making my Fashionista's the way Mattel should have in the first place. Rerooting the bad hair, matte varnish on the pixelated eyes, removing questionable lip colors for more natural lip gloss colors and learning to sew my own fashion doll ensembles. I'm still practicing on my unwanted Millies (from all the MTM body swaps) for complete face repaints, it's so hard to get the eyes right. This has been very challenging for me and I sometimes wonder what have I gotten myself into. Why can't I just collect dolls like a "normal" person lol.

I love each era even if some is my favorites I grow up with vintage Barbie and Mod Barbie...and start collecting in 1981....

Is this news real where the new packaging is changed?. It looks horrible especially the artwork. 👎

Lol well not anymore! She's back and her movie is #1 with 1 billion in the box office! 😂 I think the movie saved Barbie!

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im a POC and i did NOT need any POC dolls... I also don't buy POC dolls...