Thoughts on this new doll?

[MagicalGirlMimi]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nati ... l/6113875/

Apparently, this doll is supposed to competition for Barbie. I don't collect barbies anymore, (Azone and Obitsu are more my pace) but I'm curious what all you other doll collectors, especially Barbie collectors, think about this. :3 Do you like the idea? Do you dislike it? Why are why not? I wanna know!

[MeltedCaramel]

Well, I know I'm not exactly the target audience you want thoughts on, but I'll throw in my two cents. I don't like the doll. It's very obviously a collector/novelty item at best and a thinly disguised social statement at worst. The doll...just isn't very attractive. Barbie (as well as Azone/Obitsu/Volks, they all fall under this same category) gets a lot of lip service for her "unrealistic proportions" but...she's a doll. I am about as far from a Barbie body that you could get, and no matter what weight I am, it's the same. I'm short, paler than my own Obitsu dolls, and I inherited my father's side of the family face wise with a button nose and rounded features. I have never looked at Barbie/Anime/Whatever and sighed that I wanted to look that way. In fact I was browsing through an artbook earlier and really taking note of the proportions and how exaggerated they are, with long waists and willowy limbs with breasts like memory foam pillows. All of this media falls under the suggestion of human anatomy, not the actual thing. This is simply a person's viewpoints wrapped up in a lot of hype.

I know I'm being blunt here and I apologize, and if people love the doll and want to get it, more power to them, I just don't feel comfortable with the obvious driving force behind the creation of the project.

But, aside from my own opinions, I don't think Barbie is quaking in her pink boots or selling off her dream house any time soon.

[Linainversetsg]

Personally I don't like it :\. I think the intentions behind it are interesting and I see the point, but I'm kind of on the same page as MeltedCaramel.I never thought that I needed to look like Barbie and have never felt insecure about my looks because of Barbie.
On top of that I just in general don't like the sculpt or the proportions and buying a doll of such an odd size would be aggravating because it would need an entirely new wardrobe as none of the clothes I have on hand would likely fit. (I already have two dolls facing this problem and I do not need or want a third). It also seems like the leg seams run down the middle instead of on the sides, which would bug me a lot personally. But that is just a personal preference. The wrist and shoulder joints look like they have limited poseability which is another thing that would be extremely off putting to me. As far as poseability goes, the Pure neemo flection full action is about as un-poseable as I'm willing to go anymore as I've sunk quite a bit into upgrading less poseable bodies, a new rule I have for new doll purchases is that they must be at least on par with the rest of my collection. But again, this is all person preference.

On a slightly off topic note I think it's kind of sad that the only thing of note about Barbie to a lot of people (or at least a lot of media articles these days) Is the fact that she's unrealistically stylized. I think her message was positive enough, she was an astronaut, vet, and a doctor. She worked in the military and politics, even for NASCAR. She had a ton of Careers meant to inspire and open the minds of young girls to different worlds. When I was a kid that was the only message I got, not that I needed blonde hair and big boobs to be something in life.
Personally I liked Barbie because she had such an interesting life. I also wondered how on earth she found the time to put on makeup when she was so busy.

[MeltedCaramel]

Linainversetsg:

On a slightly off topic note I think it's kind of sad that the only thing of note about Barbie to a lot of people (or at least a lot of media articles these days) Is the fact that she's unrealistically stylized. I think her message was positive enough, she was an astronaut, vet, and a doctor. She worked in the military and politics, even for NASCAR. She had a ton of Careers meant to inspire and open the minds of young girls to different worlds. When I was a kid that was the only message I got, not that I needed blonde hair and big boobs to be something in life.
Personally I liked Barbie because she had such an interesting life. I also wondered how on earth she found the time to put on makeup when she was so busy.

<----Thank you. You said exactly what I was thinking better than I ever could. I'm tired of the myriad of social experiments involving Barbie and her unrealistic proportions. As a child I never stopped to wonder why she was shaped the way she was, she just...was. Her message has been an overall positive one and I feel like the doll is constantly slammed for her iconic status. The media is in a constant destructive feedback loop with itself. It praises these college/arthouse/etc social statements about body size and hypes them up (to Mattel's detriment) and then feeds you ads with models that are just as unrealistic as Barbie ever was and praises a standard of beauty so narrow that 99.9% of humanity falls outside that demographic. I just...I'm tired of these damn things, I'm sorry. This is about the fourth or fifth "human vs Barbie" social experiment I've seen.

To top it all off, I believe I heard that this doll is based off of the girl making them, meaning you'd literally be paying money to own someone's mini-me doll. *Shudder*

Again, apologies for coming on so strong. I'm just fed up with these!

[Anderson'sAllPurpose]

There's another thread about the doll here if you're interested: viewtopic.php?f=41&t=9763

The designer is a guy, so it's probably not his face. Or did I miss something?

[MeltedCaramel]

There's another thread about the doll here if you're interested: viewtopic.php?f=41&t=9763

The designer is a guy, so it's probably not his face. Or did I miss something?

Ermm...I could have sworn I read somewhere that it's based off of a real person (the face, not the body type which I know is sculpted from compiled data). Maybe I'm wrong and I just spit it out in all my FIERY RAGE. The other thread brings up some very good points, but I honestly still stand by my opinion. quidam made some good points, but I grew up in a family that taught that taking responsibility for yourself is important, so we've always self-policed, and I think parents need to practice this more instead of flying to their countless mommy blogs and screaming about the latest fad. Monster High is more popular than Jesus (don't kill me I'm joking) right now, and those dolls barely have a body to speak of. I wonder if their message has somehow trumped the issue of them being about as thin as an average man's index finger, or if I've just missed the hoopla?

[claws]

All social statements aside, I really like the body of this doll (I'd like it better with better articulation, but whatever...) The face is okay, but it's just as blank and dead-eyed as Barbie, and I never liked that. If it just had some facial expression or just a nicer paint job, I'd probably buy one.
I always preferred Skipper's body over Barbie's, since the curves weren't so exaggerated and she had flat feet that looked cute with sneakers, and this doll's body kind of reminds me of Skipper's. I don't think it's such a bad thing to have dolls on the market with more realistic body types. The variety of options just makes things more interesting. Plus, as an artist, it'd be kind of like having a whole assortment of drawing mannequins available(if they had decent articulation, that is).... ^_^

[MeltedCaramel]

All social statements aside, I really like the body of this doll (I'd like it better with better articulation, but whatever...) The face is okay, but it's just as blank and dead-eyed as Barbie, and I never liked that. If it just had some facial expression or just a nicer paint job, I'd probably buy one.
I always preferred Skipper's body over Barbie's, since the curves weren't so exaggerated and she had flat feet that looked cute with sneakers, and this doll's body kind of reminds me of Skipper's. I don't think it's such a bad thing to have dolls on the market with more realistic body types. The variety of options just makes things more interesting. Plus, as an artist, it'd be kind of like having a whole assortment of drawing mannequins available(if they had decent articulation, that is).... ^_^

I completely agree with you, it's the social statements that really ruin it for me. The artist has somewhat of a history of picking apart dolls (he did another experiment where he and a friend digitally took off the makeup of dolls to see if they looked as "pretty" without the makeup...) and it bugs me. If it were simply a person wanting to make a different doll, I'd approve, but it's a social statement that happens to have a product attached. And it's obvious this doll isn't going to get any sort of extra outfits/accessories/etc...the only merit I see it having is an artist's model who wants a realistic-ish reference, but the limited articulation puts the hold to that too. Ehhh...for some reason this doll just doesn't appeal at all to me. Though if anyone decides to get one, I'd love to see actual owner pictures to see if they're actually better than the pictures suggest.

[Kd_Bunchanumbers]

I can see a resemblance. Coupled with the fact he literally named the doll after himself it's kind of eyebrow raising.

[MeltedCaramel]

I can see a resemblance. Coupled with the fact he literally named the doll after himself it's kind of eyebrow raising.

You have no idea how much this freaking scares me. Good GOD. And yeah...."Lammily"...way to give your doll the most unattractive name ever. (I think it's a pun on his last name and "family", but...ughhhh. Is it so hard to name her Rachel, or Jane, or Elisabeth, or something nice and normal and ordinary since that's what we're pushing so freaking hard here? I don't recall my best friend Lammily.)