That may be a new face mold Chelsie's sporting, but it bears an awfully
strong resemblance to the familiar 'Superstar' mold. I guess Mattel didn't
want to take any other risks with this doll. Her face paint is nice, if
uninspired, and I'm quite fond of the deep purple lip color they chose.
Her silver earrings are trendy little nails. I can't quite get over what
they did to her hair. Instead of the soft curls pictured on the prototypes,
her bangs look like she fried them with her curling iron! The rest of her
hair is a shapeless mass, with body but no real curl definition. The color
is red red RED! Next time I go see my colorist, I'm taking this doll instead
of trying to explain the color I want. That tiny speck of white you see
in the photo is the infamous 'nose ring', which also bears little resemblance
to the prototype's larger, silver ring. Her necklace can't be removed without
taking off her head!
Mattel shows off their wonderful ability to reuse existing parts in
the 'all new' Generation Girls. Chelsie owes
her legs and torso to the Teen Skipper Dolls. The good news is, the
TS feet can wear all of their own shoes,
and quite a few of Barbie's. The bad news is, those knees have three
really pathetic positions. The bent leg
in the middle picture above is the maximum angle, so a lot of
more active poses will look downright silly.
Interestingly enough, although her upper arms are the standard posable
ones, her lower arms appear to be all
new, and the elbow joint is much sturdier (and holds a pose better!)
than the original posable arms. Those stupid
molded white panties are here, and as is typical for a lot of Mattel
product, quality control is nonexistent. I gave
up a long time ago on getting Mattel to give dolls even haircuts, but
one section on her head is an inch and a half
longer than the rest of it! And what's with the permanently spread
legs?
Check out the nice sculpting on these hands! They're really delicate
and graceful looking, and look awesome when
Chelsie's strumming her guitar. The big ring is a nice touch... too
bad the earrings don't match.
Evaluation:
Face: B+ (nothing special, but hey, it's body
jewelry!)
Body: B- (ho-hum)
Hair: D-
Overall: C
