Doll Review: BMR 1959 redhead boy

Hello, and welcome back to my blog. Today we're doing the very first doll review of 2021. There was a time when I would do doll reviews back to back, but those days are long gone. It's not just that I don't buy as many dolls as I used to, but I was getting bored with doing so and felt like my content was getting stale. No offense to anyone but, as much as I still like to read a doll review here and there, I don't find blogs that just do doll reviews that interesting anymore. 

Even though I don't do as many doll reviews as I used to, from time to time there's that one doll that it's worth taking the time to do so, either because she's quite unique or because I find that I have a lot to say about it. And, judging by my other two BMR 1959 reviews, I do have a lot to say. 

Unlike my previous two BMR dolls, I didn't buy this myself, but instead it was a gift from my Mr. Monster. I'm not sure how much he paid for this, but it was probably close to the original retail price (30 U$D or 30€), since this particular doll doesn't seem to go down on sale on Amazon. Is he worth the price? Let's find out.

Like the other two dolls, he also comes in this shoebox looking cardboard box with a sketch of the doll. These boxes really come in handy when you want to pack a couple of dolls for an outdoors photoshoot. 

The doll comes protected with this custom tissue paper, which I think is a cute detail. 

After a few minutes of removing plastic straps, finally our guy is free.

He has fair skin, red hair and a really nice face. He uses a brand new sculpt called "Tate", so that's how we're going to call him from now on. Fun fact, Carlyle Nuera, who designed these dolls, named this sculpt "Tate" because that's his middle name. Unfortunately, Tate suffers from "pixelated face syndrome" which is something very common lately with Mattel dolls. What have collector dolls become...

Just like with the rest of the line, I don't like the clothes he comes with. He wears this black and white hoodie and a fanny pack and some bright yellow pants that deserve its own section.

The fabric of the hoodie feels pretty decent quality compared to the other two dolls I reviewed. The design is actually nice, but the torso part is too short and the sleeves too long.

I noticed that the hoodie is sewn to the pants, and that's why his belly button is not being exposed when I lift his arms.

And this is what happens when you unnatach the pants and the hoodie.

The pants have to be the most hideous part of his outfit. He's wearing this bright yellow tracksuit pants that, for some reason, are opened on the side. Mr. Monster thought the pants were broken when he first saw them.

Do you know what this pants remind me of? Back in the late 90s-early 00s, some guys at my school wore these tracksuit pants that had snap closures on the sides, and sometimes they would wear a few of them opened. I don't know if this was a trend anywhere else.

I don't like the shoes. The front looks like a regular running shoe, but the back looks something like Crocs. I was curious to see if this shoes exist in real life, and turns out they do. Just search for Nike Air Force 1 VTF. 

One thing that I noticed about the fanny pack is that the fastener is really long. I do get that they made it like that, so you can attach it to different parts of the body, but it's hard to hide it in photos. 

He also comes with a blue visor that, luckily, didn't come attached to the doll. 

Now, to start wrapping up this review, here are my thoughts. I do like the doll, he is quite what I had been wanting from Mattel in a while: an articulated male doll, with rooted hair, and a face that's not too cartoony. I don't like the pixelated face paints that Mattel seems to be using nowadays, specially when it comes to a doll that's considered collector. It doesn't look that terrible on camera though.

The fashions aren't for me. I don't understand this style and I don't love the overall aesthetic of this line, despite some pieces are fine. The fabric of his clothes felt a bit better quality than with the other two. Because I didn't have any male dolls until very recently, I haven't purchased any Ken fashion packs, so the only outfit I have is this one that he has borrowed from a Ken fashionista. 

I still do not think that these dolls are worth the 30$/€ that they cost. In fact, they don't look like collector dolls to me, but rather some sort of "deluxe fashionista". Even though they come with a doll stand and a fully articulated body, I think they should offer more for 30$. The Rainbow High dolls come with a doll stand, an extra outfit, and they retail for a similar price (I believe around 28$). I'm not sure about the quality of said dolls since I don't own one, but on the paper they seem to be offering more for  the same price point. For that price point, these dolls could come with an extra outfit.

But, despite all the bad things, I was less dissappointed in this doll than I was with the Kira doll. I don't know, maybe with this one my expectations were lower because I already knew about the pixelated face. These past few days I've found myself reaching out for him for photos quite a lot, he's quite photogenic. Overall, I'm happy to finally have a male doll like this in my collection, but I don't think the quality of this doll is worth the price point. If anything, I would recommend buying him when he is on sale. 

Sometimes I don't understand what Mattel is trying to do with the Barbie line. They have the potential, the experience and the budget to do so much more, yet they seem to fall short many times. The Made To Move body debuted in 2016, and it has taken them 4 years to launch the first Made To Move Ken, which was something collectors had been asking for during a long time. They have dropped a curvy MTM doll once in a blue moon and make them hard to find. It sometimes feels like they're feeding us crumbs, and we're supposed to be thankful for it. Don't get me wrong, they do some things right (the wheelchair dolls could be an example), but it seems that when they do so, they take a step back and leave fans waiting for more. 

There's a third BMR 1959 line supposed to be coming later in 2021 but, to be honest, I'm not super excited about it. If anything, I'm more interested in the upcoming playline Made To Move line that features a curvy doll. I have a bunch of stiff dolls that could benefit from a body donor, if their prices haven't  skyrocketed. Who knows? Maybe 2021 is the year that Mattel will finally start listening to their fans. 

If you made it up to here, thanks for reading my review. Sorry it got a little ranty towards the end, but that's how I've been feeling about Mattel recently. I'd love to hear what you think about this doll and this line in particular. Will you get him? 

My next post should be up early March. It's probably going to be another photo compilation, since I've been trying to post one photo a day during February. That will also give me some time to work on another craft post, since those are the ones that take me the longest to make. So, you can expect another craft project at some point in mid March.

So, what do you guys think of this guy? What would you like to see from Mattel? 

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