Mattel released three of these customization kits last month (March 2015), and although they didn’t do much for me at first glance, some YouTube videos and Reddit posts convinced me to give one a try.

Each kit comes with three different doll bodies – #3 has a petite, tall, and curvy – and three bald doll heads. Mattel has modified the neck peg to make the heads easier to remove and swap, and the individual Barbie Basics dolls they released earlier have the same neck peg as well as matching one of the three skin tones.

These kits are $100 each, which isn’t bad considering what comes with it. Customization has been a thing for years, so it makes sense Mattel would jump on the bandwagon. I started customizing last year, and have found skin tone matching to be the hardest part by a long shot. For the most part, I just try to get close, but others want that exact match which can be hard to find. So it is great to get three dolls with the same skin tone and a fourth doll you can add to the collection. I’d like to think this awareness would carry forward with other dolls, but I doubt Mattel is going to dedicate attention to perfect matches with $8 play line dolls – some of which have beautiful faces that people want to put on better doll bodies. Most likely they will keep the skin matching to the basics line and a few others like the Looks series, and I imagine they’ll limit the new neck peg to a few lines as well. We’ll see.

Reception to these kits has been mixed; some doubted the price would be justified while others questioned if the quality would be satisfactory. Personally I’ve tried wigs I bought on Etsy with other dolls and haven’t been satisfied with the results, which is what initially turned me off of these; the last thing I needed was more Barbie wigs I would never use. But more about the wigs in a bit; suffice it to say I am thrilled with my kit.

I chose kit #3 because I thought it had the prettiest face molds. I also liked the clothing pieces of this kit best, although there are some pieces from other kits I would have loved to see in this one. I’m curious to see which kit sells the best.

I feel like Mattel put a lot of thought into these kits, addressing more than skin tone matching problems. I love curvy doll bodies in general, but they don’t have anywhere near the clothing options of the other dolls, so the kits and the individual Basics dolls utilize material that can fit any body type, including curvy ones, which is really useful. And the new neck peg really does mean you can remove and switch a doll head without having to apply heat, although you do still have to push them on and pull them off a bit which made me nervous at first. I can’t tell you how many doll heads and bodies I’ve ruined by breaking the next pegs, and I was scared of doing it again, but so far so good. Rest assured if anything broke while I was head swapping Mattel would have had a return on their hands.

The box is sturdy and worth keeping, even for people like me who do not keep their dolls in the boxes. The containers holding the dolls are plastic and can be repurposed. The containers holding the clothing and accessories are cardboard, but sturdy, and can probably also be repurposed. I’m not gonna lie; I never keep my authenticity certificates, but I will keep the instruction page because it’s kind of cool.

I don’t know if this was another example of Mattel paying attention to complaints or not, but either way, take note that these dolls are only affixed to the box at TWO PLACES, and by loops instead of punch tags. And, no punch tags in the back of the dolls’ heads – just a wee plastic cup holding them in place so you can pop the heads out easily. So yes, it can be said that these dolls were easy to remove from the packaging, saving us all countless hours of frustration.

Each body has a suggested head paired with it, so I started out following Mattel’s lead but didn’t stick with that very long. More on that in a bit.

Each of the little compartments held nicely wrapped items, which is always a fun touch, and the wigs came wrapped in little hairnets. The clothing pieces are all made of a nice, stretchy material that feels substantial instead of flimsy, unlike a lot of Barbie clothes. The shoes are nicely detailed; this kit included a pointed toe flat with ankle straps as well as a slouchy boot, and the flats have a little painted gold heel. I love a good flat, but in Barbie world they’re pretty rare, so I’m always going to snatch them up when I find them. Each kit also has one transparent pair of shoes (hence those hideous boots in kit #1) and I almost like the ones in my kit, except the heels do that thing where they immediately fold inward which looks incredibly weird. The accessories are shiny instead of the dull plastic Mattel usually uses, but there’s not much to choose from here. One pair of earrings, one necklace, and one pair of sunglasses for three dolls total just doesn’t add up, so Mattel, do better in this area next time around. For $100 I think each doll could have had their own earrings and necklace at least.

The faces in this kit are just gorgeous. I particularly love that middle mold – it’s androgynous, leaning towards masculine, and I am here for it – but there’s no way that head belongs on a petite body. I’ll be fixing that shortly. We also get a side glance with blue eyeliner, and a gorgeous neutral palette. (I know the skin tones look different in the head photo but that’s just the limits of my phone camera.) I do think they could have sprung for real eyelashes, but Mattel isn’t listening to me about such things, so we get lashes that are painted on instead. Oh well.

The bodies feel solid and I detected no loose joints with these-something that will probably change with time, but whatever. They aren’t perfect – there’s a little chip on one foot, for example, and if I really scrutinized them I could possibly find other flaws, but I am not particular about things like that so I didn’t bother. If you are one to be annoyed by flaws though, my guess is you will find some as these are still mass-produced dolls. But there were no big issues to report.

For my first assembly I went with the head and body combinations that were laid out in the containers. The clothing I just played around with until I was satisfied, but the wigs were more of an issue. For whatever reason, the Afro wig would not stay on any of the doll heads. There is a little silicone cap sewn into each wig that is impressive overall; whereas any other doll wig I’ve tried sat waaaaay up on Barbie’s head making it look almost like a hairy hat, these wigs sit close to the head and look pretty great. Wig hair won’t flow like rooted hair does, so especially with the long straight wig the hair falls a bit stiffly and flips out at the end, but I don’t think there’s any way to fix that. The hair does feel nice and full and the hairlines are not problematic at all. A little piece of double stick tape seems to keep the Afro wig from falling off, so I’m ok with it. The other two fit fine and stay put.

My main issue with the “assigned” heads is the androgynous one – that mug does not belong on a petite body. I wanted her to be on the tall doll, with the Afro wig, to give her as much height as possible. Other than that, I was neutral about which head went on which body; the heads look fine on either one. I probably should have put the blue wig on the head with the blue eyeliner, but I like the shorter style on the curvy mama. It works with the pleather jacket too. I tilted the straight wigs to the side a bit as I didn’t care for the middle part; sure, it makes one side a little longer than the other, but you can’t really tell.

As much as I like those sunglasses, I’m torn about using them. I prefer it when sunglasses are transparent so you can see a doll’s eyes; when they’re totally concealed the doll loses a lot of its appeal. I’ll probably use them on an older doll with a boring mug.

For the hell of it, I used one of the skirts as a top, just to see how interchangeable the items really were. The tall doll body is wearing the miniskirt with the flowy side train as a top. It looks pretty good that way actually, and it’s nice to have that as an option. The pointy skirt is a bit weird and probably my least favorite piece. I’m not sure it’s something anyone would really wear, but I get it – coming up with 900 unique black basics pieces for all these kits must have been a challenge, so you’re gonna get a few clunkers. It’s not bad; I just can’t help thinking it needs bells sewn onto each tip and a jester’s hat.

Overall I am really happy with this kit. As far as I’m concerned it kept its promises – the heads are much easier to take off and put on, the skin tones all match, and the wigs look great. I also like that there’s another individual doll I can buy with the same neck peg and skin tone for more customization options. The bodies are sturdy and the clothing seems to be well-made. And the presentation is nice – it was fun to open the box up and see what was in each section. Personally I think it was worth the $100 plus shipping, and I hope Mattel makes more of these kits in the future. I also loved the original Basics line and am happy to see all these LBDs back in production. So two big plastic Barbie thumbs up from me on this kit!