Keep it Weird, Babes: Barbie Signature Weird Barbie (from the Barbie Movie) by Mattel Creations

 They seriously couldn't have had this out any sooner?

Greta Gerwig's Barbie was the pop culture phenomenon of 2023. It was an event movie of a type that's no longer common, and everybody was going all out for it in theaters, including me and my own friend group, and we had a blast. Perfect summer film, too. The movie itself is a hilarious and philosophical take on Barbie the brand and its history. It's also a discussion of feminism and gender roles, and while perhaps too basic for people more versed in theory and social politics, it was still pretty well done, if having a few points that feel a little hard to read in terms of intent. Putting didactic talking points on such a big platform was an achievement, regardless. Lots of people were exposed to feminist discussion by going to the biggest movie of the year. Barbie also has a lot of empathy for how patriarchy screws up men as well as women, so it's not a "men bad" kind of film. 

Was Barbie propaganda for Mattel? Well, yes. But it has more frank discussion and criticism for the brand and its toys than anybody would expect, and it's not blind love for Barbie--just love for Barbie that understands its pitfalls and brings them to the table. That's the way I engage with a lot of media, so I can accept that approach in the film.

As a really good comedy, Barbie has some great characters and performances. Ryan Gosling was incredible as Ken, just pitch-perfect delivery the whole way through. I know people got very upset about Margot Robbie not getting an acting nomination at the Oscars while Gosling got one for his supporting role, but awkward optics aside, I can't say it wasn't deserved on his part. He was just that standout, and it's valuable for the Oscars to recognize great comedic work. 

And a standout side character was Kate McKinnon's Weird Barbie, a representation of a Barbie doll who's been broken and mistreated through a child's inept experiments with hair and makeup and rough play. 

Weird Barbie offering Stereotypical Barbie a Matrix-style choice between comfort and truth. Familiarity is the high heel, the ugly truth is the Birkenstock.

(I loved the vintage blue button-up dress and ponytail Stereotypical Barbie wore in that above scene and I really wish Mattel were making a movie doll of that look.)

Weird Barbie is unnaturally limber due to messed-up joints and is marked with permanent marker, her hair is chopped short, and her fashion aesthetic is eclectic and quirky. She's an artsy, avant-garde reframing of a mangled kid's toy, feeling like a mix of a circus clown, David Bowie (a cited influence), and a freaky punk. She lives in a "Barbie Weird House" and hosts all of the real misfit Barbie toys that history deemed bizarre or inappropriate, like the pooping Tanner dog, "math class is tough!" Teen Talk Barbie, and very controversial, accidentally extremely-gay-coded Earring Magic Ken. Weird Barbie serves the role of the "sage" who sends Stereotypical Barbie (Margot Robbie) on her quest once she realizes her Barbie perfection is eroding, and later assists the Barbies in deprogramming their society after a sleazy patriarchal Ken takeover headed by Beach Ken (Ryan Gosling). Weird Barbie also stands as a symptom of Barbie Land's dysfunction, in that the society is set up with standards of perfection and creates outcasts.

Naturally, Weird Barbie would be merchandised, and for her first look in the movie, a puffy pink dress, she gets the Mattel Creations exclusive treatment. This was from a made-to-order release window last summer featuring a deluxe Weird Barbie on the Made to Move median body type--the perfect choice for her janky mobility. I was seriously starting to wonder if this doll would never come despite being aware it was a Spring 2024 release. I finally got the notification. May is cutting it pretty late there, Mattel.

I've had a Made to Move body before back when I collected the Alice Through the Looking-Glass Jakks Pacific dolls and wanted to put Alice on a better body, though the color match wasn't ideal. I've also handled the Made to Move buff Ken body from the Barbie Looks series, which I used to get an arm for an art project. I might get that doll again to have the body around. Could be interesting to try finding a Monster High or Ever After High head for it. I also bought Beach Ken after the movie, but was disappointed by his face sculpt. I was nearly tempted to get the Mattel Creations "I am Kenough" Ken to dress in Beach Ken's stock, because that doll has a face sculpt that actually matches Gosling, but didn't go for it. I might get skater Ken just to have a fresh copy with the original face paint so I can put Beach Ken back together and have two outfits. I kinda like the denim-vest Ken too, but he's a pricier exclusive release, not a retail doll, and the outfit looks pretty poorly-tailored.

I generally don't collect Barbies because they're far too mundane for my personal tastes. Barbie is femme camp, particularly during the eighties and in the Barbie movie, and I can appreciate that aesthetic, but a lot of the dolls, especially during my lifetime, have been too realistic and unexciting to me, and the standard for jointing is very low, limiting the appeal of many dolls. There have been some spectacular collector dolls I enjoyed-- I really like the Mark Ryden artist Barbies and their Pop Surrealist aesthetic:

I only found out about these well after their sale, though, and Mattel were seriously having a laugh with their prices when new. I'm only letting myself be imprudent with Living Dead Dolls right now.

However, Weird Barbie was an easy choice. Kate McKinnon did a great job as her in the movie, and I generally like McKinnon in all of her work. Weird Barbie is also a very fun abstract-punk distortion of the Barbie-camp aesthetic that really appeals to the art-kid and counterculture-fan in me. 

I also just really love her concept as the archetypal stand-in for a toy mangled by a clumsy creative child. Truly, whomst among us haven't wrecked a toy trying to customize it when we were too young and not very skilled? I know I mutilated PEZ dispensers because I wanted to try putting the heads on other bodies (never actually got that far), and I made horrible plush dolls of bulging stuffed felt with Sharpie faces. Even back in my original doll era as a teenager, my attempts at customization were...questionable, and I did ruin some dolls through snowballing ideas, at which point I gave up and embraced the horror of it all. This is 100% the type of doll Weird Barbie stands in for:

What used to be my Thronecoming Blondie Lockes. I knew I saved this photo for a reason!

Maybe one of the most wonderful moments in the very very strong film is when human character Gloria meets Weird Barbie and immediately recognizes her in spirit-- "I had a Weird Barbie!" Weird Barbie says an approving "Yeah, you did." and gives her a thumbs-up. Weird recognizes weird, and it's a message in the film that weird creativity is important and worth celebrating. Weird Barbie is an outcast, but she's also unique, interesting, and a rebel. She embraces her weirdness and respects what she is because she comes from a unique form of love and creativity. That's very validating to the amateur and indelicate creative in every doll-owner's history, and it's such an insightful, affectionate commentary on the experience of owning and loving your toys. Weird Barbie isn't necessarily a groundbreaking concept--mangled overly-played-with dolls have been featured in works such as Rugrats and even the Ramona book series, but I think Weird Barbie has a unique affection for the idea, framing the damage as an act of love and creativity rather than just being the product of brutal and inept children. It's such a sweet depiction.

I had a Weird Blondie!

We've seen pictures of a (maybe mass-market?) Weird Barbie doll based on her end-of-film look where she's a bit more "cool" in tone and no longer defaced by markers:

That jacket does not look correct, unfortunately.

...but we (or at least, I) don't know yet if or when she's actually releasing. She might not ever, at this rate. So I went for the sure deal. As mentioned, Weird Barbie had a made-to-order purchasing window last August with a generous enough time to let people secure a doll, and I appreciate that this was her release model because the timing lined up for me to get her. Had she been a set-quantity release drop, I'd have missed the chance to get her while I was on vacation without connectivity. Through Mattel Creations directly, Weird Barbie cost $50. Boy am I glad I got her at manufacturer price.

While part of the broader Barbie: the Movie doll line, Weird Barbie and other Mattel Creations exclusives in the series are classed as Barbie Signature dolls, under the greater Barbie brand's collector label. They also have larger boxes than the mass-market dolls'. The box design of these dolls is deliberately retro and evocative of the peak era of pink Barbie camp-- the dolls of the 1980s.

Photo of a 1980s Crystal Barbie doll in her box.

This absurd eighties-Barbie influence is evident elsewhere in the film, such as in the design of President Barbie's glittery puffy gown and sash. The movie's visual aesthetic, costuming, and production design for Barbie Land are just so good. 

Weird Barbie is on a generic backdrop of the Barbie Land film set and the sides and back of her box don't have any personalized imagery or text. Any Barbie or Ken from the film could have used this box. 

A few movie dolls have unique backdrops, and it's a real waste that we didn't get her distorted Cubist-esque Weird House here. That's its own amazing piece of set design.

The top has a flap with interlocking tabs and the backdrop slides out. Barbie herself is on a bit of a stage platform raised from the rest of the box, and of course, she's posed with her leg up at a high angle. Up in the above picture of her Weird House, you can see Weird Barbie in the same pose in the middle of the frame. The scene uses a different outfit than this one, though, since the pose isn't featured in the debut scene the doll is based on.

Had she not been a Made to Move Barbie, this wouldn't have been possible, and Weird Barbie's physicality is overall bizarre and slightly acrobatic/contortionistic, so there was no other choice to do her justice.

The back of the backdrop features her collector's certificate of authenticity. Like her box design, this certificate seems entirely nonspecific to this particular Barbie and is likely identical to the ones for other exclusives in the line. The material is a thin paper and it feels much cheaper than certificates I'm used to for Monster High collector dolls.

It's essentially completely hidden under the doll, but Weird Barbie does have a Barbie Signature doll stand with a bright pink base. The stand is under the plastic cradle the doll is strapped to and her silhouette hides it completely. The doll had a few standard plastic tags in the head under the cradle, and one pinning down her dress, but the rest of her restraints were soft plastic strips that unhooked and pulled out of the box. 

Here's everything out.

And testing out the stand. It's a typical Mattel waist-grip system, but it doesn't work beautifully with this doll because the dress's waist is higher than the body's and the clip doesn't fit tidily with it.

I appreciate the stand being included in a collector release, because it should be, but I won't use it. The clip is so loose on the pole that it comes off by accident, and the pole tips forward in a disconcerting way. A doll stand is also entirely wasted on a Made to Move Barbie when she can affect so many wonderful naturalistic poses for shelf display. Standing poses? Well, no. Especially not with these fabric boots. But Weird Barbie has lots of potential the stand doesn't give her. And a doll stand just feels so formal for the funky reject doll whose typical "display" would be getting tossed down nowhere in particular.

Weird Barbie's hair design is the slightly glam translation of a doll with a brutal haircut. I think I'd have preferred an even freakier look in the movie, with Kate McKinnon wearing a bald cap full of short hair plugs to really look like a botched doll, but maybe that was too far gone, either for Mattel overseeing the film, or for audiences. 

The spiky mess McKinnon wears in the film.

Regardless, the doll's hair is more glam and much tidier than the live-action hair. 

It's rooted in a feathered shape with the hair in the front swept up and back and a lock coming down on her face. The back of her hair hangs down. The hair is platinum blonde with streaks of pink and lavender only in the front (possibly depicting artificial color achieved by marker ink from the child who remade her), and is pretty evenly cut and very gelled. I've recently come around to adding gel to dolls (shock!) and LDD Roundup 3 coming up later will show how that started, but I later decided to do a little combing, chopping and gelling to eff up her hair more like the movie's. We want Weird Barbie looking countercultural...not like the ugly hair stereotyped as the "speak to the manager" style. Because that's the haircut I'm seeing here.

Weird Barbie's face has strange "marker" scrawls on it that look more like idle doodles than genuine attempts at makeup. While part of me finds something so phony about these being done with factory paint and doesn't know how to feel about a doll being manufactured like this, it's still cute. Weird Barbie's right eye has a black circle around it and her eyebrow, her forehead has intersecting, almost DNA-like scribbles of blue and pink, and just behind her right eye is a small green mark that looks like stitches--almost certainly a Frankenstein allusion to suit her disjointed makeover from an inept stylist! 

The wild hair and the ring on her eye bring to mind cartoon signifiers of madness, where crazy hair and asymmetrically-sized eyes with one larger and bulging are common. Weird Barbie isn't depicted as mentally unwell or "loony", but it works to showcase her as the wise outcast nobody understands, who's been through some rough stuff for a doll.

It could have been a great idea to sell a DIY Weird Barbie kit with markers, like a color-it-yourself doll to customize her dress and "makeup" with. I don't know if Mattel would have been comfortable directly endorsing that style of doll makeover, but it could have made for a more authentic take on the character.

Love the stitch mark.

I could tell Weird Barbie's head wasn't sculpted to likeness to reflect Kate McKinnon, but the disconnect doesn't bother me as much here as it did for Beach Ken's dolls. I understand the logic, that the "real" dolls would be made of existing Barbie parts and so on a meta context, it's more authentic to push the movie dolls into the existing Barbie aesthetic more heavily. I just think Weird Barbie carries a Kate McKinnon energy better than Beach Ken carried Ryan Gosling's. Ken's main head might actually be sculpted for Gosling, though (if so, what a waste), and it looks like Stereotypical Barbie and Gloria's heads are designed to likeness. "I am Kenough" Ken's head is certainly Gosling's face and is probably the best likeness of all...it just looks less like a typical Barbie toy and could be too mellow to reflect Ken's earlier states. The Kenough face might actually suit the edgy "Kendom" phase of the character better than the existing denim-vest and fur-coat Ken faces, though. The cheesy grin works well for Beach, skating, and cowboy Ken, but not so much the bitter macho Ken. 

Weird Barbie's head is old--it's stamped with the copyright year of 2003!

I have no expertise on the history of Barbie face sculpts, but this is cited as the "Carnaval" face sculpt, and it's been in pretty consistent use since its debut. I have to wonder if the sculpt originating so long ago was a conscious choice for storytelling with the physical toy--perhaps it's been since the early aughts that Weird Barbie looked the way she was designed to by the factory, and she's been a misfit ever since? Since everybody in the film's Barbie Land except for Stereotypical Barbie functions solely as an archetype for a Barbie niche and doesn't have a designated "owner" like Stereotypical Barbie does, we can't say. Weird Barbie was noted to be the most beautiful of them all before she got twisted, however, so maybe the age of the face sculpt ties into the idea that she would have been the Stereotypical Barbie of her own era before the makeover. I just don't know if this sculpt would be considered especially representative of Barbies at the time in the way that, say, the "Millie" sculpt is seen as the face of Barbie in the 2010s.

Weird Barbie's dress is a wonderful piece. It's bright Barbie pink (or even excessively beyond Barbie pink) and covered with abstract splotches and doodles on the right side, and its silhouette is clumsy, frumpy, and clownish with huge poofy shoulders, a tight neck, and a baby-doll waist. The dress doesn't appear to correspond to any real Barbie dress from the brand's history, so it's not meant to represent a familiar piece altered into what it is now. It could be a reflection of a homemade piece or possibly might be meant to look like it's from another unknown doll not from the Barbie brand. Kids don't care about those boundaries and will mix clothes that way (then again, many adult fans don't care about those boundaries and mix clothes too)! The piece certainly feels like it's supposed to look sewn for a separate doll body, because it goes out of its way to not flatter McKinnon and the Barbie frame.

The un-chic puffy cut almost feels like it's designed to evoke a classic rag doll, too, to match Weird Barbie's floppy strange mobility. The dress still feels very modern and artsy despite its vintage poofiness, and it really works for the idea of "Barbie gone wrong" with its classic pink being overtaken by the unflattering shape and modernist graffiti patterns. She also feels like she could be a really fun zany kindergarten teacher.

The use of color is also unique within the film's palette, with Weird Barbie's look featuring higher contrast, more vivid tones, and shades like green and orange and yellow which are uncommon in the more pastel femme "normal" reaches of Barbie Land. It's been discussed that Weird Barbie's look ties directly into her sage knowledge of the world. She's been "marked" by the darker aspects of being a doll, and is thus intimately aware of the connection with humans. Had she not been unignorably altered and broken by her human, she might have lived blissfully unaware of that bond and of the darker sides of life, and Stereotypical Barbie too becomes aware of this only once her shape starts getting flaws and her thoughts turn depressive. (The film could have taken it even further by having the kid write their name on Weird Barbie, leading Weird Barbie to name them as some kind of deity figure and form a fringe religious perspective on the human-toy bond, seeing herself as a prophet. That would make the other Barbies view her as a delusional fanatic and suit her "madness" styling even more...but The LEGO Movie already did something similar by having the ignorant minifigures view the humans playing with them as god entities, and the point of Barbie's story is not unmasking the reality that the dolls are dolls. Barbies being toys isn't played as a twist or revelation or anything, unlike The LEGO Movie, where the reveal that the real world is part of the story is a big bombshell.) 

The idea of enlightenment tied to hardship all ties into the human-condition themes of the movie, with Stereotypical Barbie learning to understand the ups and downs and beauty of the whole thing. Like in the story of Eden, negativity is enlightenment, but like other modern views of the concept (see also: Good Omens), the negativity is framed as worth it and part of the beauty of experience. And Weird Barbie is beautiful too.

The poofy dress piece is made of plasticky tablecloth-style fabric with print, and it doesn't feel the most luxurious, but it's visually pretty one-to-one with the film costume. I'm very very impressed. I don't see how this could look more accurate.

The lower edge of the dress shows some neon tulle fluffing up the skirt, and the back of the dress closes with three plastic snaps.

Weird Barbie has solid pink leggings, and my favorite part of her costume might be her bright yellow snakeskin boots, adding a level of tacky visual chaos to her that just doesn't "go"--and thus feels perfectly matched.

These really don't feel Barbie to me beyond, perhaps, their bright color? Almost looks like Weird Barbie's kid could have stolen some MGA boots!

The boots are faux-leather fabric with plastic heels, so they're not super tight around her feet. She can stand in them unaided, but not super stably. They look great, though.

I was surprised to find that Weird Barbie's dress is two layers, with the tulle being on a separate slip/petticoat layer!

This obviously isn't a complete dress, but I could easily see Weird Barbie wearing a deconstructed outfit like this. It reminds me a bit of the costume designs for Bella Baxter in the early parts of Poor Things!  Speaking of rebellious 2023 characters with Frankenstein allusions and framing in a feminist narrative...

The over-layer covers the slip dress pretty well due to how tight its neck is, but I think the slip could have afforded a deeper neckline just to make sure it would never show under the collar. I did realize Mattel were actually very considerate with the construction of the outfit--the overdress appears to use snaps because velcro would snag on the netting of the slip very easily when removing or putting on the layer! Good thinking, designers!

This slip layer has the doll's Barbie Signature fabric tag.

Weird Barbie's leggings end above the ankle and are stuck to her legs with adhesives to keep them tucked into her boots.

I cannot fathom for a second why Mattel didn't just give her footie tights instead. Those would keep tucked in just the same way and feel more user-friendly. Or perhaps even very long footie socks so the fit around the hips didn't get in the way when doing more extreme poses like splits. I actually opted to glue Weird Barbie's tights to her legs in the same spot later to replicate this effect because it just wasn't worth pushing them into her boots manually, especially not when the boots can pull off so easily and ruin your effort. I have no reason to change Weird Barbie's wardrobe, so it's fine having permanent tights on her. But then the tights started impeding side splits by being too tight around the hips, so I decided to cut them down the middle and turn them into socks. The posing was too important to me and I'd already made alterations. The ends of the tights need to be adjusted to keep things tight, but her legs are fully free now and her boots stay tidy.

Weird Barbie's Made to Move frame is a choice to reflect the film character's mobility. The "real" Weird Barbie toy that's implied to exist out there in the film's story would have been broken and warped at her joints, and very likely on a doll body released before the MtM sculpts were even an option for her. (The film makes no reference to the Made to Move style or how a Barbie with such joints would function differently. Everybody in Barbie Land seems to be implicitly based on simpler or older articulation to make gags like doll-style motion during a depressed flop to the ground, or flat feet being horrfically aberrant, work in the story. The doll actors mostly move like the humans they are, but this is to avoid being distracting in cases where the physicality isn't serving a joke.) 

While it's existed for several years now, the Made to Move articulation is still something of a wonder. The posing potential is so rich, and the doll really can feel like a tiny realistic person due to her range. 

Made to Move Barbies have great head rotation and tipping, rotating hinges at the elbows and hips, swivel points on the arms and legs to compensate for the non-rotating double joints at the knees and elbows, ankle joints, and a tipping torso joint with realistic limits--it rocks forward and to the side, but does not rotate 360 degrees or let the bust turn perpendicular to the doll's waist. A similar articulation scheme for Mattel dolls was debuted on Gooliope Jellington in the Monster High range on an 17-inch body size before MtM Barbies dropped. This body size and joint scheme was also used for the "Frightfully Tall Ghouls" range that released after Gooliope, featuring giant dolls of Frankie Stein, Draculaura, Clawdeen Wolf, and Elissabat's signature looks. "Frightfully Tall" has stuck as the name for this MH body scale and style, though it was short-lived. A comparable doll was released with a 17-inch double-jointed edition of signature Madeline Hatter in the sister brand Ever After High, reflecting the constant changes in size in Wonderland. She was the only EAH doll in the Gooliope scale. 

Gooliope Jellington's body.

The big articulation differences between 17-inch Monster High and Made to Move Barbie are that the MH torso joint rotates 360 degrees in addition to tipping, and the 17-inch MH body has no ankle articulation. Proportions also affect some positions. Goo's legs are much longer in relation to the rest of her.

The Made to Move joint system has since been adopted for the three other Barbie body types, the main Ken type and a newer "buff Ken" shape debuted recently, but Weird Barbie is on the original MtM frame based on the modern "median Barbie" shape which the Tall, Petite, and Curvy shapes that debuted in 2016 diverge from. There are also hybrid dolls with double-jointed knees but single-jointed elbows and, I'm guessing, no torso joints, though I don't know if those dolls have a full MtM leg with ankle joints or if their ankles are static.

Since flat feet are seen as a horrific defect in Barbie Land, there's a nice bit of resonance in the fact that Weird Barbie can flatten her feet outside of her boots. It's implied this isn't a "flaw" she suffers, though, based on her mild disgust at Stereotypical Barbie's recent ankle "articulation". 

Barbie is taller than Monster High, and her torso size is similar, though smaller, when compared to the upper half of a Living Dead Doll. Sourcing clothes made for a Barbie was how I was able to get my bathing suit for Viv.  Barbie has a much larger body but a much smaller head than G1 MH, and G3 dolls so far couldn't swap clothes with her either. I'll have to see about plus-size G3 Catty, though. Her torso might have similar proportions.

Barbie clothes also fit well on larger MH doll Treesa Thornwillow, and I gather they'd work on Gooliope too...they'd just be very poorly suited for her overall size and proportions.

I don't imagine Weird Barbie will play the role of a Barbie body model for me. I might have to seek out another MTM (maybe one of the striking Barbie Looks ladies?) to serve that role. I could also get a few for different body types and some MtM Kens too...but I'd start with a median Barbie.

The Barbie shape has gotten more realistic and diverse over the years, with much less pinched waists, more naturalistic face proportions and paint, and multiple body types. This is the most humanlike fashion doll sculpt I have now. Classic caricature survives in some places--the feet are still ridiculously tiny, and the neck is quite long. Weird Barbie's hands are larger than I expected them to be. It's been a while since I handled a Barbie, and I'd have expected the hands to be of comparable daintiness to the feet. I'm a big fan of realistically large expressive hands, so I'm pleased the Barbie hands aren't shrunken.

I do love the original-style Barbie face (like the Bee artist doll above) with those dramatic lashes and the fashion-sketch retro vibe. In my dreams, it's be fun to create a hybrid doll with a vintage-style head and a MtM body and maybe that could be my haughty, glam Barbie body model, but color-matching could be difficult and that idea is so far from a priority. There is a stunning doll I've seen on eBay with a gorgeous red overcoat, or else maybe the brunette reproduction swimsuit original Barbie. The current Barbie Signature "12 Days of Spring" surprise-calendar Barbie would suit me just fine, but that price is ridiculous.

I tried pulling at the hands, but they don't seem designed to pop out. I was able to redress Barbie fine without that assistance, but removable hands would have been nice. 

Here's a try at a different wardrobe. Thrown together, of course, in a manner similar to the way Weird Barbie's outfit is implied to be. 

It only works on her because of who she is, of course. It's not quite as colorful or successful as the official character designs, but I enjoyed throwing foreign clothing into a mess to explore the ways of making a Weird Barbie.

I worked on ruining Weird Barbie's hair with snips and gel, not worrying about flyayways but working to keep the hair above the ear, and later added a touch of real pen vandalism to her face to darken the black around her eyes. McKinnon's Barbie has a piercing creepiness to her stare aided by a high contrast of mascara that approaches eye shading, so I wanted the toy to get closer to that.

While I was partially foiled by the restrictions of her torso joint, I was able to get Weird Barbie into a lot of dynamic, bizarre, or freaky poses!

"Can ya do this, dollface?"

These are the closest doll shoes I had to the "make a choice" film scene.

You can't stop playing with a Made to Move doll; the poses are just so nice. Whether trying to make her feel like a small person on the shelf or a damaged contorted doll, she does beautifully and inspires you to try more. The joy I had posing Weird Barbie reminded me of the joy I had manipulating Return of the Living Dead Dolls Sadie's ball-jointed eyes--it's the luxury feeling of a unique level of artistic control over the doll's display that lets you pursue so many more ideas than the standard toy. With both Weird Barbie and Sadie, there was far less negotiation and compromise needed than usual, because the dolls could just go ahead and do what I was thinking of!

Here's Weird Barbie in her signature splits. She can't split and bend far enough to bring her torso and head close to ground level like in the movie, but this is pretty good.

If Mattel had wanted to be strictly accurate, Weird Barbie probably should have had a body with only exceptional hip motion, because her motion isn't completely weird all across her body...but I'm glad to have the ultimate potential for poses here. It also suits the way Weird Barbie starts the film as the most enlightened and "human" of Barbie Land's residents. 

Weird Barbie knows about things outside of Barbie Land...and she's aware that some things in other toy lines are far weirder than herself. If the Barbies of Barbie Land were shocked by her and flat feet, they'd be annihilated by the things Weird Barbie has seen.

"They really just make the dolls weird today, huh? Even my ol' alma mater Mattel! And these Living Dead Dolls! Talk about sick brainchildren!"

In fact, I have even weirder (pseudo-)Barbies arriving pretty soon, but I decided it didn't work to wait for them and combine them into this post. Weird Barbie will be dropping in again for that post imminently. 

Then I put together some more portraits with her. 

Stereotypical Barbie may be "What Was I Made For?" but Weird Barbie is more "Bad Guy".

"This is where the basement smell comes from, sweet cheeks. 100% all-natural basement."

I was glad I kept the backdrop intact from Neon Frights Frankie.

While Barbie and the Barbie Land cast feature multiple queer actors, including lesbian McKinnon, none of the Barbie Land residents are explicitly tied to any real queer identities. Still, it's hard not to read at least a little bit of queerness in Weird Barbie. Her straight-talking demeanor and bizarre almost anti-feminine style feels oppositional to society in ways resonant with some queer roles in addition to generally sticking out in Barbie Land. Though Weird Barbie does express curiosity about the non-anatomy Beach Ken is set up with, so who knows. The character is iconic regardless. 

Weird Barbie is a delightful doll. Her costume reproduction is pretty much dead-on for the film character, and her Made to Move body is such a joy to play with. I don't think her hair did a very good job at matching the film hairstyle, and I'm iffy about the semantics of a doll professionally produced to match a homemade mess, but there were opportunities for me to get DIY-involved in "weirding" her in authentic ways which let me participate in the real deal while also raising her visual accuracy. Lastly, I dislike the way her leggings were made. Footie pieces would have been much easier to use with her boots and probably would have ridden through her poses much better, in a way pieces tacked to her legs couldn't. I had to glue them down after separating them the first time, and elected to split them to turn them into socks so her hips had full movement. 

I love this character as a tribute to the deranged, inept creative in every child, and she's a wonderful acknowledgment of the real side of owning and playing with dolls as a kid. She's also a wonderfully madcap artsy camp and even slightly punk doll design that deconstructs the Barbie aesthetic with pop and chaos. I'd love to see her end-of-film doll enter production, and for a wider audience, but I can't imagine finding that doll to be on par with this one. I might get skating Ken soonish.

There have been several Barbie film dolls, and maybe more are coming, but none that appeal to me more than this. Weird Barbie has a major leg up on the competition.

*rimshot*