Barbie Basics 2025 by Mattel

March 13, 2025

Prequel: Before we begin, I just want to warn any of those who are knowledgeable about Barbie or who are serious, experienced collectors that I am totally new to this, I'm just feeling my way here so don't be shocked at my ignorance. I'm sharing my learning experience. But I do claim a certain expertise at this because they are after all, dolls, which I have loved since I was a little girl, and the study of a subject throughout one's lifetime must yield some wisdom. All I ask is, any experienced Barbie fans who tread here, please be kind.

That's most of them.

So, I've decided to take a step I never thought I'd take reader. I've bought some Barbie dolls. It's not the first time, as a child I had about a thousand and they were my favorite toy. But that was a long time ago and now I'm looking for something else besides play value when I'm looking at these dolls although big picture, I'm not quite sure what that is. But as to the immediate issue of sniffing out these new dolls the things I am looking at and for are decidedly not big picture, they're incredibly small picture. In every sense. And I know what I wanna see. The new ad campaign was all over social media, you couldn't help but see it. No, not just see it, absorb it. No, not just absorb it, have it become part of your very train of thought so that you become so curious and so hopeful that you just have to buy them to see what is going on with your old friend Barbie. I think I did find out what's going on with Barbie, at least when it comes to this new release and the release next month that is tied to these dolls. They are trying to attract adult collectors like me. But they have about a billion collectors already so maybe they are trying to do that all the time and I just happened to notice with this release.

Duh, Wendy.

That said, I'm happy to see that all of these girls' earrings are metallic and not plastic. The plastic accessories make me sad. I can't bring myself to use them for the most part, except for some of the shoes which are fine. When I ordered these dolls I ordered some regular Barbie fashions, 3 different outfits for about ten dollars a piece, and I couldn't bring myself to put the clothes on the girls when they arrived. I don't know what I expected but I won't be doing that again. I also ordered some really nice things from Etsy, but of course those things are not here yet, so the girls will have to stay in their little black dresses until they get here.

I did redress one...

With the exception of No.4 or Lea/Kayla, as I ordered the "Tennis core" outfit from Mattel's website for just a bit more than $10. These outfits are lined, the knit of the sweater is to scale, the tote bag is real not plastic, the pleats of the skirt are perfect. There were 3 kits of this quality available on Mattel's website and I ordered them all, hoping some pieces might be usable on Agnes or Hollis from IT, that's how high quality they are. Of course, the shoes are obvious little pieces of plastic, as is the jewelry and other accessories, besides that tennis tote bag, which is great but why not go even further in that direction and give us some non-plastic purses. The earrings are shiny and useable (on a Barbie) though. So, there's a hierarchy at Mattel and since I buy online, I feel like I have to learn the territory to avoid buying the play line stuff. No offense to people who do collect play line, I hope you have the sparkly pink glittery Barbies of your dreams always with all their ephemera and I know that world is really fun. But the idea of dressing these girls up in higher quality gear does appeal to me, like taking in little orphan girls and showing them another life. I guess I have Daddy Warbucks aspirations I didn't even know about.

Thank goodness for Etsy

I think Mattel picked the least smiley sculpts to emulate the RBF that other fashion dolls have, (heck that fashion models have you don't see them smiling ever), and I fully support that decision. Some were furious about this on the Barbie message boards, longstanding collectors hate that these Barbies are not smiling. To them I say - this is something else, either get into it or don't buy these. They all have pretty neutral makeup that kind of goes with anything. I also think that packaging was ridiculous, what's with the little sharp plastic ties on the back of their freakin' heads? Thanks Mattel, now all my dolls have sharp pointy plastic sticks threatening to stab me every time I touch the back of their hair! Not necessary.

Doll No. 1, Kit

So, let's start with doll number one, her sculpt is Kit, it's very rare only used once or twice before, and Kit comes with about 5 pounds of nasty hair gel/glue in her hair. Why? Good question, you got me her hairstyle is pretty simple. But this is how she looks after I washed her hair with some beautiful shampoo and slathered on the Aussie total miracle conditioner and let it sit while I did dishes. In the pictures on the box the ends of her hair curl softly in, kind of like the Rachel hairstyle from the '90's. I took the tiniest comb in the world and combed her wet hair to curl under just like that for 100 strokes. But it ended up curling out rather than in. I'm just glad it's mostly going the same way.

Kit's shoes...

Kit's shoes will put you to sleep. Yes, they are technically a shootie (cross between a shoe and a bootie) which to me as you may know reader, should make them a most exalted form of footwear, but they are the '80's version and therefore a disgrace to the term shootie. Kit is wearing the t-shirt dress, slid over to reveal one shoulder. Kit got screwed in the outfit department.

No. 2, Karl

The second doll in the collection is the one I had about ten thousand of as a kid. I loved her then and I love her still, but God am I bored with her! Lort do most blond-haired blue-eyed dolls bore me to tears now! But do take a look at Karl, this sculpt is not particularly smiley either and since she's the blond girl she's got the hot dress and the rich parents and all the advantages.

Uh oh.

She's also got the hot boots, gladiator style and she does look hot. But she's going to end up with the t-shirt dress and the boring boots. Sorry Karl, I've seen you in every possible situation, outfit, and scenario my little girl imagination could come up with and that was even crazier than my current imagination, so I feel that we have already thoroughly done this.

True beauty

This is doll No. 3, Claudette, and she's my favorite sculpt. I think her face is so beautiful, and her sculpt was recently on another doll that was pricier. I debated buying her just for the sculpt even though I wasn't crazy about the rest of the doll. I'm glad I waited because I think she looks so much better in this skin tone, and I really can't wait for her Etsy clothes to get here. She's on the Tall doll body, cause Barbies have different shaped bodies, and not just different flavors of death defyingly skinny bodies either like most fashion dolls. I do appreciate that. I was looking forward to the tall doll and the curvy doll especially because my whole life I've been tall, and I have been into and out of "curvy" status over the years and I wanted dolls that looked like me. I definitely understand that appeal.

The boots

Claudette has some kickass boots that fit her just right, which is a good thing because she and the curvy doll have got some big#ss feet that don't fit in the other dolls' shoes (again, I can relate). These two girls are only swapping with each other, but luckily, they both have cute footwear in this offering.

Anne of Green Gables?

Doll No.4, Lea/Kayla is on the petite body, which for all I can tell is just shorter than the other dolls. She is slightly smiley but it's extremely mild compared to most Barbies. Her country jamboree freckles were highly vaunted in the campaign photos, but I can barely see them in real life. I love freckles on dolls, and I was disappointed at how invisible Lea's freckles are when she's in hand. She's a rare sculpt as well from what I read and she's a treat for collectors to see. Her literal crowning glory is her hair which has a streak of blond in it placed very precisely and evenly every 1/2 cm or so. I felt like I was in the Matrix when I noticed it, it was just so unnatural, and I guess that's Mattel. They're not going to randomly mix the blond into the red like your hairdresser does. It's going to be machine made, exact.

Tiny.

She has the tiniest feet and some little bitty black sandals on under her full-length dress. I think finding shoes for this doll may be an annoying problem, not planning on collecting the petite dolls.

Finally, my girl!

This is No. 5, the Heide sculpt, and I have a lot to say about her. The first one I ordered and the last one I received, she is the one I was drawn to when I saw all of these dolls together, she's the one I wanted to Daddy Warbucks and redress with fancy Etsy clothes, to get stuck in the niche curvy doll clothing and shoe hunt online, she was going to be my only Barbie at first. But I'm a member of the Barbie Signature club on Mattel's website and the only exposure I had to these girls was there, so naturally being a novice that's where I ordered her - as soon as I possibly could, Monday morning, 8:41 am eastern time, along with the Tennis outfit, like a great big sucker. It was a good thing she was the only one I ordered that day because Mattel sat on the package, and I didn't get her until the next week's Wednesday. Does that seem reasonable? Not to me. All of a sudden, I wanted the rest of them in my hands so I could check out the whole line. I saw some reviews on YouTube and ordered the rest from Amazon once I could see how long my girl was taking at Mattel, and they arrived the next day. Barbie Collectors famously hate Mattel for their lax shipping, and I instantly agree after my very first transaction! A week and a half for a doll and an outfit? They need to step things up when it comes to collectibles, for sure. Especially if they are going to create time sensitive announcements for new items, indicating a rush on the items! Why should I rush to pay for them if you're going to sit on them in the warehouse? And it seems like they have these big time sensitive announcements all the time.

"Back to me, please?"

But back to Heide, or No. 5, as she is known. Again, she's not overly smiley and I'm thankful. She still seems friendly but not offensively so. I think what is happening for me here is that I grew up with a sweet loving German Shepherd named Heidi and I am seeing her open and eager to please expression in this Heide's eyes. I don't know why I just like this sculpt so much, but I especially love the long ponytail on the top of her head, it looks so adorable there. She comes in a hot dress as well, clingy and short with a little upper chest ellipse window.

More sandals.

Her shoes are pretty cool, little open toed sandals. Barbies don't have toes or pedicures, or manicures for that manner. I wish they did.

An evening gown

I had to see what she'd look like in something different and since little Lea is wearing tennis gear her dress is up for grabs, so I grabbed it for Heide. I think she looks gorgeous in it.

OMG! Sorry Karl. And sorry you have an old bus driver's name.

I also swapped the two regular size Barbies dresses. Kit gave her t-shirt dress and embarrassing booties to Karl and Karl gave up the hottest dress in the bunch and the gladiator boots which are gonna walk all over you for sure.

Kit got an upgrade.

Who wore it better? That's the question with these Barbie basics because you can really swap the outfits among the dolls and switch things up. But Mattel announced recently (they had a countdown counting the seconds!) the release of their You Create Barbie Basics Kits. The kits will be hitting stores/shipping out in April and each kit contains 3 doll bodies in different shapes, 3 bald doll heads with brand new sculpts, 3 wigs, 3 different types of jewelry (a necklace, earrings, and a bracelet or something) for the girls to share, and 3 complete different outfits that fit on all 4 body sizes and fall under the category of "little black dress", along with 3 sets of shoes. So basically, with these kits, you can make your own doll within the parameters of what Mattel gives you, pick its clothes, and accessorize it right down to picking its hair. I love this idea. And I'm the kind of collector who just leaves her dolls in the clothes they came in; I tie them back in their original boxes with all their goodies in a Ziploc bag when they're not on display, I don't want to disturb the pieces of art that are Integrity dolls. I didn't think I had any desire to dress or customize dolls at all, but Mattel's effective ad campaign has made me excited about it. Curse you Mattel! And what's worse is after they revealed their "time sensitive" create your own kit I signed up and bought all 3 from Mattel like an idiot! How long am I going to be waiting for them? How long will I eat my heart out watching video reviews on YouTube before my kits arrive? I paid for next day shipping, but we'll see if that does anything.

She's still my girl, look at that heart!

I obviously will be writing about the kits when those arrive. All of the dolls in this article have removable heads - yes, it's true! Mattel gave them all new neck pegs so collectors can just pop the heads off and swap them without hair dryers or hot water. When the new kits come, they will all have swappable heads too and you can add Kit, Lea, and Claudette and their bodies to the girls in the kits 1,2, and 3 respectively as their skin tones match. There is something about collecting something that's so mass produced and ubiquitous all over the globe that feels very different than collecting from IT, JHD, DefaLucy, etc. The designer or the person who created my Heide doll feels very far away. I don't really like that. It feels like it might have been a team of people, or even a program on someone's laptop that designed her face, as pleasing as it is. It's a different experience. It's still art, but it's mass-produced art so how does that make me feel? I guess right now it makes me feel like I want to put my own spin on it. But if Barbie abandons their foray into RBF for this line, I don't think I can stand having a bunch of them standing around smiling at me all the time. Although the price of a Barbie definitely makes me smile, which is another big advantage of collecting them.