Unboxing Barbie Extra dolls

Hello again and welcome to my 220th post. Today I just feel like doing a good ol' unboxing of some dolls that I've had lying around for some time and give them some time to shine with a dedicated blog post and photoshoot. It's been a while since I've done one of these, so I guess today is the day. 

For this post I'm unboxing two dolls from the Barbie Extra line. For those who aren't familiar Barbie Extra is a playline line that is characterized for it's often colorful and bold outfits and the accessories they come with. These are the only two dolls that I own from the Extra line, so my opinion of the line in general is going to be based on these two.  

I believe the line was originally launched around 2020-2021, so I'm very late to the party when it comes to unboxing them. Since then there have been quite a few dolls in the line as well as variants (deluxe editions with more accessories) and "spin off" series like the Barbie Extra Minis. Here we have Barbie Extra numbers 13 and 15 in their original boxes.

Let's start unboxing doll number 15, the last one I bought. This doll uses the Millie closed mouth sculpt, which still is the current face of Barbie. You might have heard me say before that I'm not a big fan of this sculpt; however, I've come to realize that my issue is more with the way they paint her face than with the actual sculpt. This one I feel is one of the prettiest paints they've done on her. 

Her hair is platinum blonde/ white blonde with some baby blue highlights. It is styled with a cute bun on top. It's not super thickly rooted, but it feels decent quality.

Let's talk about her outfit. Compared to other Barbie Extra dolls, hers falls more into the subtle category. She's wearing a denim-like skirt with a coordinating puffy-sleeved jacket, both with a bandana-like print. She's also wearing a ribbed top and a bunch of golden jewelry. Actually, one of the reasons why I picked her is her outfit, because I feel like all the pieces could work very well in other outfits, especially that white top. 

When I took her jacket out to remove the rubber bands that were holding her jewelry in place, I found two very pleasant surprises. Number one: her jacket is lined. LINED. In a playline doll. My BMR1959 Kira's jacket wasn't lined. I'm not quite sure if this was a quality thing or a requirement to keep the "pouffiness" of her jacket. Either way, I wasn't expecting it.

 

The second surprise that I had was that her top, which I assumed was going to be sleeveless, actually has long sleeves. In my experience, often when a doll comes already with a jacket, whatever shirt or t-shirt she's wearing is sleeveless. One great example I can think of is Ever After High's Dexter Charming (check out Pixie Dust Dolls' review). Honestly, I wouldn't be mad if this had been a tank top, but I'm so much happier with it being long sleeved, as my dolls don't have many long-sleeved clothes. 

She also comes with a bunch of accessories that I don't care for. The glasses are cute, but they're crooked, which I know can be fixed with hot water. Here's a pic of all the extra stuff.

 

The second doll is Barbie Extra number 13. I don't even remember when I bought this doll, but she's been sitting inside a wardrobe for far too long.   

This doll has a curvy body, which I love. I'm almost certain she uses the Goddess sculpt, one of my absolute favorites. I like her smoky brown eye makeup, although I'm not a fan of the bright pink lipstick, but it's very common in Mattel dolls. 

Her hair is wavy and has this beautiful shade of brown, with two pink highlights on the front. This type of hairstyle reminds me of the early 2000s. It's not as long as Millie's hair, but it's fairly long. 

I don't love her outfit as a whole, but it's OK. I like some of the pieces separately, because, like with Millie, I feel I can use them in other outfits. The cycling black shorts are OK, they can be used for a fitness outfit, for example. Her jacket is fine; it feels pretty similar to BMR1959 Kira's jacket. And the pockets actually work, which is not super useful for a doll, but I'm surprised they went the extra mile with that little detail. I'm not feeling the shimmery basketball t-shirt though. 

She also comes with this chunky golden chain necklace which I don't like, not only because I don't think it works well with the silver hoop earrings, but also because it swallows her neck up. I think she looks much better without it. 

I believe these retailed for about 25 USD when they launched, and in Spain they retailed for about 30€, which in both cases I thought it was pricey for playline dolls, specially considering I wasn't a fan of some of the outfits. However, I have bought both dolls on sale, and I don't think I've paid more than 15-17€ for each, which I think is more than a fair price. Regardless, I'm a bit surprised at how good quality some of the things on this dolls were, especially compared to some collector dolls that I own. 

Honestly, I'm quite happy with them, especially with Millie. Her skirt is one of those garments that I look at and think: "I could totally use this to make another one in a different color". Oh, if I just had time to sew...

Lately, I'm not very happy with the photos I'm taking, and the ones in this post are no exception. I don't know if it's me, my camera, or a combination of both, but I don't like the results I'm getting. When I look at the photos on my phone they look fine, but when I open them on my computer, I think they look terrible. I know I'm not a very skilled photographer, and I don't know anything about the theory of photography, but those skills weren't there before either, and I was happier. I don't know, I just don't seem to get the hang of my camera, and I picked this phone based on the camera. On top of that, I had to reinstall Gimp on my computer, and it's not editing the photos as it used to. When I touch up the color balance, it just does weird things. I don't know if I should go back to my old phone (which has a crack on the screen) or what. I've watched a video on how to use Adobe Lightroom on your phone to make the most out of your camera, so I will give that a go first. If anyone here has some advice to give, it will be more than welcome. 

 It's taken me a bit longer than expected to finish this post. I haven't managed to find as much time as I would have wanted to to work on things for the blog or my YouTube channel, and I have a lot of things I would like to do. On top of that, Mr. Monster and I went on holiday to Portugal, which of course kept us busy for a few days. But I swear I'm trying my best to juggle everything and find as much time as I can to work on the blog this summer. 

As always, thank you for reading me if you made it this far. I hope you're enjoying your summer or winter, depending on where you are reading me from. Let me know in the comments what do you think of these dolls. Do you own any Extra dolls?

See you as soon as possible

M.C. 

 

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This post was first published on themonstercrafts.blogspot.com. If you see it published elsewhere, it's been plagiarized without my consent.