Pretty in Pink: Barbie Deluxe Style Doll #2 by Mattel

Last year, a new line of Barbie dolls was announced: Deluxe Style!

This whole line is a general tribute to pink classic Barbiecore in the wake of the 2023 film telling Mattel people wanted that back, though it's the most traditional blonde Barbie who's wearing the most diabolical outfit and I didn't look at her for a second. This Barbie did have a sinister marketing gimmick where she had a variant that functionally replaced the base doll with a redhead evoking the Barbie character Midge, with the "Midge variant" in that costume being limited to just two chase copies per retail store location. These were immediately scalped for insane prices, as inevitably happens.

The Midge doll's packaging was even unique, with a "rare find" gold seal graphic on the front, and the doll lineup and drawing on the back swapping her into the place of the blonde Barbie in a kind of unsettling way.

What do you mean, this doll was blonde? Shhh, close your eyes and it'll all be better...
(Not my photo.)

I get that they wanted to make it clear this was a variant who belonged in that box, though. Still a deeply unfair scarcity gimmick, and still an awful dress.

While I like the doll with microbraids a lot, and can appreciate the doll with the gloves and metallic outfit, they're not the subjects today. The Deluxe Style dolls don't feel much like everyday people in the way Barbie Fashionistas are. They feel like fashion models representing a designer collection, far more similar to the Barbie Looks dolls.

A second wave of Deluxe Style has since been announced with a metallic costume theme...and I like them far less.

The fabric looks so uncomfortable, and the blue Barbie looks like she's sweating to death in that dress. The purple Barbie's outfit also doesn't flatter her, in my eye. The two pink dolls are the best, but only blonde Barbie looks like she's truly able to wear her outfit with some breeze and grace. I wonder what the variant gimmick will be for wave 2. I can't see these outfits improved that much by a different base doll wearing them.

Back to focus: the doll to catch my eye in this first Deluxe Style collection the most was the one with the prosthetic leg. 

Mattel has been doing leg prosthetics I think since Vandala Doubloons in the Monster High Haunted line, though she was based on old-timey pirates and her leg (lower right) reflected an antiquated wooden peg prosthesis which could detach using a Create-a-Monster joint peg. 

If this character was a concerted effort at disability representation, she still feels a little "cute" and obscured by allegory on account of pirates in this archetype being so removed from modern prosthetic visuals.

More modern representation of prosthetics in Monster High has manifested as one of the traits of G3 Frankie Stein, whose prosthetic is just the lower half of their left leg and despite multiple variations across their dolls, is not a detachable part. While Frankie's leg is a little fantastical, the intent to reflect modern prosthetic users is a lot clearer and more direct and effective. 

Fearidescent Frankie's version of the prosthetic.

Leg prosthetics have kind of become a dime a dozen in low-articulation Barbie dolls, which is fairly incredible to say. They seem to all be detachable parts and depict prosthetics for legs that are shortened above the knee.

The bodies of these prosthetics are all about the same, sans color, while the feet are all flesh-toned and mimic the feet on the other side.

The femme Fashionistas are great, but it also looks like they're obviously reusing a mold to economize because all of these dolls have the exact same limb difference, which isn't the most realistic in a population of prosthetic users. I wouldn't be surprised if all of these Barbies are the same body type so the leg didn't need to be made in multiple sizes. At least, it's clear none of them are on the curvy build. Ken's prosthetic is likely a different mold to match his height, but it's still on the same side. Mattel also hasn't yet delved into arm prosthetics at all, unless you count Monster High cyborg Hexiciah Steam's mechanical steampunk arm. I'd love to see that explored next. 

This Deluxe Style doll I was interested in, however, is the first prosthetic-wearing Barbie with higher articulation than the typical minimum five points, and her prosthetic knee hinges alongside her other knee. While the prosthetic leg seemed to look and attach like the previous Fashionista ladies', it's also different by being on the opposite side. I was curious to see how the doll was engineered, and I liked her look besides. So much of Barbie falls out of my interest because I really want articulation for my fashion dolls, so this doll is a rare qualifying acquisition from the brand.

I do feel like breaking my rule for this café playset doll, however, because she's absolutely stunning even with cheap printed clothes.

Her low articulation and my lack of a greater vision for what to do with her in my collection stalls me. The one Made to Move-bodied Barbie Looks doll whose skintone looks like a dark enough match for the café Barbie is very expensive.

The Deluxe Style dolls are in boxes shaped like prisms with a flat back. The boxes look triangular but are actually four-sided with a short "spine" on the right side (when viewed from the front).

The box has Barbie logos and the subtitle in white text on the front face of the window, with another Barbie logo going up the side. The window is cut off by cardboard bordering on the right edge and lower edge of the box, but angles to create the top.

The scenery inside the window, backdropping the doll, is an entirely pink closet of clothes and accessories.

The "spine" side of the box has a number on top designating this doll within her collection. Nameless Barbies are numbered commonly to have an easy reference point for what to call them. This doll is #2 in her group.

I assume the numbers are low because Deluxe Style as a line has begun with this wave, and thus that wave 2 will have the dolls continuing on as Deluxe Style numbers 5, 6, 7, and 8. Midge probably has the same number as her blonde interchangeable counterpart.

The back of the box shows the standard Deluxe Style roundup and doesn't tell you that Midge exists. 

Never the two shall cross paths...

A fashion sketch of the specific Barbie in the box is also present. The sketch's hair is parted the opposite direction from the doll's, but the drawing isn't mirrored because the asymmetrical top is drawn in the same orientation as the doll's. The doll photo on the box also has this quirk, indicating a prototype phase where her hair was planned to be parted the other way. I wonder why it changed.

The box feels a little old-school because it's not just a plastic window bubble unlatched from the back of the box. The front has a mix of cardboard and plastic, and the tabs interlocking the pieces are cardboard. They don't open without tearing, but I don't need the box. The back of the box is flat with no compartments or secret items. There is no doll stand for the Deluxe Style releases, which I think is a shame. They'd truly feel deluxe if they had them, but I guess these are still meant to be more playline than Barbie Looks. Unboxing the doll wasn't difficult, and she had only one stiff tag around her waist and some in her head. The rest was rubber bands or cuffs. 

The background without the doll is easier to read, and it contains all of the fashion pieces that are featured on the four wave 1 dolls, plus four pairs of extra shoes that aren't.

Here she is unboxed. To reiterate: this doll does not have a stand. I'm using Weird Barbie's for photo purposes.

This Barbie is unnamed, and is probably just Barbie, like most dolls in the brand today. There's something of a schism now where older Barbie characters like Teresa are having resurgence in the Dream Besties spin-off, while Barbie herself has also more recently split into two characters in some media--classic blonde White Barbie Roberts, referred to as "Malibu", and a Black version of Barbie Roberts dubbed "Brooklyn", with these versions of Barbie also being in the Dream Besties cast. While this Deluxe Style doll could easily be called Barbie, I decided to go on the theme of her outfit to give her the individual name Flora. 

Flora's hair is butt-length straight black saran parted to her right. It will need a boil to tidy and straighten it out, but it's good fiber.

At first glance, I assumed Flora was intended to be the Asian representation in this Deluxe Style wave, but it's not actually as clear and definitive as I first assumed. She could be Asian, but I could also believe she's Latina or from another background besides...but with no official word on it, it also really doesn't really matter, and it's important to recognize that some people either don't follow the common perception of what their ethnic background should make them look like, or aren't phenotypically isolated to one background. More than ever, Barbie has shown an interesting and nuanced population of people, and while Mattel is certainly thoughtful about representation, it doesn't feel tokenized like diverse characters in the 2000s and before where there would be more clearly divided visual depictions. At the end of the day, Flora looks nice!

Her skintone is warm and not super pale, and has no pink hue. Her eyes are narrow and brown in color, and while they're evenly printed, they don't seem to fill the sculpted contour of the eyes on the head mold. Either they're placed too low to disguise the sculpt contour or they're too small. I don't know if this is an error or just how this doll was produced. She has a beauty mark under her left eye, and her lips are very full. She has thick black eyebrows with spaced-apart strokes texturing and lightening them on the inner edges. Her eye makeup is very simple pink, while she has blushed cheeks and very glossy-looking ombre on her lips that looks more realistic than most Barbie dolls. Unfortunately, this also comes of having the grainier high-detail printing style Mattel sometimes uses today, and I'm not a fan of this being used for face paint. I prefer the flat, crisp faceup style. I'm glad Monster High stuck to that and has leaned further into the bolder look.

This is how Weird Barbie was printed.

While I'm iffy on the newer technique and lean toward preferring to keep it out of faceups, I really love Flora's look and sculpt. She looks confident and warm and friendly, but there might be a bit of mischief in her face too. She's got a great smile.

While more of Flora's costume is based on roses, her earrings are vac-metal chrome silver flowers of a more generic design. The earrings are the same design on each side.

They came turned backward a little, but I rotated them back into place. 

The earrings do not easily slide out, meaning they must be on harpoon flanges keeping them inside the head after insertion. 

Flora's costume is fairly poorly-received, and maybe I have awful taste, but I don't know why. I thought the babydoll dress on the blonde Barbie/Midge was the worst-looking outfit in the group, but others have singled out this one. The outfit is two pieces made of the same monochromatic vibrant pink fabric with a diagonal complementary theme. Her top is one-sleeved and cropped, with a rolled-fabric rosette on the shoulder and a ruffle all the way down the sleeve, while the shirt has a ruffle on the hip opposite the sleeve and a diagonal angle opposite the angle of the top. The skirt is short and well above the knees.

Maybe the doll's hair parting was changed after the prototype phase because the designers thought it looked better for the hair and top to be angled in the same direction, or wanted the long side of the part, if swept to the front, to not interfere with the rose and ruffle on the top? 

Swept forward, not blocking the shoulder.

It's fine, but I can also see an argument for the prototype working better because the diagonals created an alternating back-and-forth with the hair going down to the right, the top going down to the left, and the skirt going back down to the right.

Diagonals drawn as pink arrows.

The fabric of the costume snags on velcro a little, but it isn't a shiny synthetic-feeling material. I'm nervous about the edges of the ruffles being unsealed, and there was some loose thread on the shoulder that I cut off.

The thread is more red than the outfit.

Here's another angle of the rose accent.

The sleeve on the top feels slightly loose around the arm for the look this outfit is aiming for, and the fit feels more sweater-like than it probably should. Maybe the outfit is hitting too "cozy" and casual, or people don't like the monochrome pink or ruffles? The top does easily slide on and off her hand, though. Both pieces velcro in back, with the skirt opening partially and sliding down while the top opens the whole way.

Around her right wrist, Flora has a translucent pink clip-on bangle that corresponds with her leg and her purse. The piece is sculpted like it has a leather adjustable strap, but the center is a jeweled shape, not a watch face, and the coloring is all translucent in a way that doesn't match the sculpt.

The doll's hands can pop out, but it really doesn't feel like they're supposed to because it takes a lot of effort to pull them out and pop them in and makes me feel like the vinyl is risking undue stress. I wouldn't treat this as a feature.

Flora's shoes are heels with lots of straps and rose accents at both sides. They're not a debuting sculpt.

Flora comes with a translucent glittery pink purse. It can slip around her wrist and hang on her forearm.

The purse has a seam, but does not open. It's just two parts held together by three pins in the middle.

Flora appears to be on the standard "median" Barbie build, just like Weird Barbie. 

The prosthetic leg is translucent pink with a flesh-toned foot piece, and cups around the end of her thigh. The plastic is a softer material filled with glitter. The thinner end of the leg is slightly bendy and flexible, which can make it a little harder to put the shoe on that side.

Most of the leg has mechanical shaping, and the foot piece is a separately-molded element attached in the end which aesthetically mimics the flesh foot on the other side, same as the other Barbie prosthetics. While, again, the prosthetic-wearing Ken Fashionista probably has a modified prosthetic leg sculpt to fit his height and thigh shape, if a prosthetic could theoretically suit a Barbie and a Ken's bodies at the same time, then only the foot popped into the end would need to change.

Since the overwhelming majority of Barbie dolls today are undefined non-narrative characters for kids to project onto, there's no stated reason this Barbie has this limb difference, but that's a personal question, and the vagueness makes her more applicable and relatable to a wider range of prosthetic users. The Barbie doll brand doesn't ever deal in the raw, painful, and grotesque, even though disability often comes of something painful or unfair, so the origin story isn't part of the depiction of limb difference and prosthetic use here. You can decide, and that makes these dolls more useful for kids to relate to. I do think there is some element of cultural "pretty bias" holding Barbie back from a few aspects of representation, like scars or deformity or disfiguring injury, and even in spooky Monster High, the impulse for stylized aesthetics and beauty filtered into Operetta's highly-designed fantasy depiction of scarring.

I'm not saying Mattel's disability rep has been bad; quite the contrary. I must remind myself that their progress and diversity has been hugely significant as it is, and the company, while a profit-driven corporation, is nonetheless very easy to believe as sincere in its representation. I trust that diversity is an honestly-held value of the brand. Keep it up, Mattel; we need it more than ever now. I just wonder if the fashion doll veneer and expected beauty standard is preventing a few more types of productive depictions from occurring.

The way this prosthetic attaches feels realistic. Both Monster High characters' prosthetics were just the lower half of the leg assembly with less explanation for how they attached or integrated. 

Flora with a G3 Frankie Stein wearing their original prosthetic design. Frankie has also had this mold cast in translucent tones and glitter and has gotten a couple of sculpt variants on the prosthetic, but all have a mechanical laboratory look and the feet aren't made to closely match the other side.

I don't know if there are common cases of real prosthetics that start exactly at the knee while having hinged articulation, and I think the Barbie prosthetic leg design, while repetitive and uniform in its own way, rings a bit truer than the Monster High ones. This leg works like the Fashionistas' before, just with a knee joint. Here's what the thigh looks like alone.

The inside of the thigh is hollow, with a white plastic piece inside that has been attached with a metal screw--an uncommon sight for a high-profile fashion doll.

I could believe this is all purely mechanical doll design and that this plastic insert and the screw were deemed the best design for the functionality of the doll, nothing more, but I wonder if this also deliberately reflects the appearance of a shortened leg with an implant inserted for the prosthetic to connect to? Some prosthetics use an implanted connection point, and certainly, this reading allows the visible mechanics of the thigh piece to not feel jarring on the doll.

The prosthetic does interlock with the interior of the thigh--a smaller cup inside the prosthetic fits inside the thigh and encircles the white piece.

The way the pieces are sculpted, the hip cup of the prosthetic is locked in its position and cannot rotate around the thigh. The piece does not click or snap onto the thigh, but the connection feels secure and you could carry the doll upside-down by the prosthetic leg if you didn't shake or swing her.

Unlike the stiff-limbed Fashionistas' legs, this prosthetic has a rotating knee hinge to match her other side and give her symmetrical articulation. Flora isn't a Made to Move doll, but she has the typical standard of articulation below that, with no torso joint but hinged rotation on her shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, and knees.

Flora's arms are too long to really reach her face, and her head tips upward but not downward. Her prosthetic knee also has 360 degree rotation while bent to 90 degrees, but her flesh knee has contouring around the joint that restricts its bend when it isn't facing forward.

I always appreciate how Monster High's mid-arm joints are flat-cut and allow the elbows to rotate 360 degrees at a full bend. I'll take that functionality over minor aesthetics any time. To be sure, though, Flora's prosthetic articulation is a bit beyond the range of realistic practicality thanks to this rotation. It turns more than it needs to!

I really like the way this leg is designed, and it's great to have one on a well-articulated doll. I want to see arms like this next, and also on articulated Barbies and Kens.

There's also something to be said for the leg matching the costume. Mattel has done a good job depicting prosthetic users as fashionable and fun and confident, and multiple G3 Frankies' outfits are built around highlighting their prosthetic as a fashion statement with uneven boot lengths or trouser legs that leave it as a focal point. Flora here having a pink leg to match her costume almost feels more extra than what Frankie does. I expect that kind of elevation from a fantasy universe like Monster High, but Barbie is aspirational reality. This is a real woman who possibly special-ordered a new copy of her prosthetic just to suit the designer outfit she's walking the pink carpet in, or else her designer boss thought of it and made it happen? Now that's extra. 

The knee on the prosthetic, was, however, a little loose and floppy when at the most upright rotation of the hinge, which made the doll harder to pose. I eventually remedied this by gluing a tiny piece of folded sheet plastic between the hinge and the leg surrounding it (not easy to do!), but I wish it had just come a little tighter at all parts of the bend.

To be sure, the colorful nature of Flora's leg, while perfect for the doll as designed, does pose a slight challenge for clothing coordination when redressing, and certain wardrobes might be held up by the color of her leg. I myself have very little Barbie-compatible clothing right now, but I do have the green Masker Masquerade dress, which I thought would work well against her pink.

It also looks really good with the addition of the O.M.G. Fierce pink fur from Lady Diva.

Neon lime green would be ideal for her, and I'd probably love the doll ten times more if her factory costume was all lime green except the shoulder rosette, shoes, bracelet, and purse. I know it's against the intent of the line's aesthetic, but it would look great.

I look forward to other dolls with this articulated right-side leg prosthetic so there will be alternate color options available for the wearers to swap and plan outfits around more easily. But I also look forward to more Barbie body types getting in on this representation with their own prosthetic leg sculpts.

The fur looked good with Flora's original outfit, too.

And here's some more portraits.

This doll is a nice little piece. I don't know if she's quite as deluxe, manufacturing-wise, as she's presented to be, but she's a very pretty doll in an attractive outfit, and her depiction of prosthetic use makes her special even as such a trait is becoming wonderfully, gradually less unique in the land of Barbie as a brand. I think her prosthetic is well designed and great to see on a doll with this standard of articulation. I do wish her outfit was a little tidier and boded better for longevity, and that her right knee was tighter. 

The Barbie Deluxe Style dolls aren't spectacular characters with grand narratives, but wave 1 is a fun pink explosion with some interesting dolls in the group. Right now, #2 here is something of a novelty for introducing the articulated right-leg prosthetic, but I fully expect she won't be unique in this for long--and that's fantastic.