Barbie is a FLOP! 😢 Has this FASHION DOLL jumped the Shark??? 🦈

hey y'all but the feature-length summer blockbuster release on the horizon the new packaging style for Bobby's long-running fashionista slime and a new artwork design used for all future Barbie releases it seems like we're transitioning into a new era for Bobby with Mattel trying the hardest to push her back into relevancy after having been slacking in sales for a while now and experiencing a severe slump in 2022 Bobby has been around for a long long long period of time and shows no sign of slowing down however it has been quite the debate in the dark community and whether or not what Bobby has been delivering these past few years has been on par with her billion dollars selling Heyday in the 90s on a far cry from the quality she came to be known for the turn turn to generational icon in this video I'll be taking a deep dive to look into what the turning point in toy history was that led to Bobby jumping the shocks so to speak and whether or not it is possible for Bobby the brand to fend off suppose a downward trajectory in the years to come so stay tuned before we get into a discussion of the state that Bobby is in now we'll have to jump back a few decades as the assessment on whether or not Bobby's per se pass a prime and in her flop era differs from collector to collector take for example vintage collectors for those folks Bobby was already on a decline in 1967 when Tristan turned Bobby debuted now with sixes collectors who are like if it isn't mod I'm not interested the introduction of Malibu Barbie and Best Buy fashions in the 70s was a sign that the quality of Barbie as a doorline was going down the drain Super Sub audio collectors of the 80s and 90s hated the Generation Girl era of the 2000s in Fashion Fever phonetics of the 2000s related slack Barbie's biblification of fashionistas in 2009 in every generation there is a chosen one so what a collector might consider of lesser quality differs greatly from person to person the age of the Barbie collector and the Barbie collector type you are can influence the opinion you have on the state that our line is in with that in mind Barbie collector opinions can be highly subjective however there are certain signposts of quality that everyone in the dog Community collectively agrees upon are currently lacking in Barbie as a door line and it has been that way for a while now I would also put a disclaimer out there that I do indeed love all eras of Barbie and can appreciate something in a lot of releases whether the past or current ones while I won't say that I'm free of bias and I do indeed have a preference for a certain look in my Barbie dolls I do know that things Bobby used to lack back in the day she might possess now and vice versa the year that most fans point to as the turning point in Barbie history is probably 2016. that was the Year Bobby radically changed the line to be more inclusive and more like a mirror of our society by including dozens of skin tones hair textures and body types with that it meant that fantasy element and heightened glamor Barbie came to be known for the years prior to the backseat for the remainder of the decade aspiration made way for representation I see Barbie as like a vehicle to bring joy and representation to other people for me the ultimate compliment as a designer is when somebody feels seen and represented by a Barbie that I designed but I do think it's commendable of material to be like turning Barbie into this inclusive representation fashioned all around it also means that this cuts into the fashion part of the equation because if you have to budget your doorline you end up with less money you can spend on artificial things like clothing and hair quality when you put your emphasis on wanting to represent all the colors under the rainbow most played and Barbies at the point came with stiff plastic bodies with very little articulation Paving the way for the introduction of made to move in the same year 2016 was also the year that gave us dreamtopia and with that came the molded on tops and poly hair generation girl face made way for Millie and Bobby said it's reached an all-time low at that point tumbling down to a measly 450 million dollars in 2017. Monster High and Ever After High were gone by that point so was the Disney license and Mattel's Financial State was in tatters so it's easy to be like yes that year was when Barbie's flop error began I believe the shift in Barbie's level of quality had already begun years prior though on Bobby's Milestone 50th birthday in 2009 Mattel implemented cost cutting measures for Barbie many of which are still in effect to this day coinciding the historical session the introduction of monster AI that cut deeply into Mattel's pockets for promotion and Manufacturing and coming after a highly publicized costly legal battle with brats Mattel wasn't in much of a celebratory mood fans had to say goodbye to its Fashion Fever line of doors the land that was the closest Bobby had come to replicating the same level of quality and clothing design and textiles she used to have back in the Vintage and mod era that quality came with a price tag of course as it was too costly to produce so it needed to be X gone were intricately designed embellished Runway inspired garments with SNAP closures so for the most part we ended up with one side printed bodycon hoochie dresses with no sleeves ending above the knee Kanekalon hair secured with a lock and loop method was used as frequently anymore Barbies mostly had mint legs Saran hair glued with a cheap industrial grade glue that seeped out of her hair plugs and onto her hair Bobby used the same accessory modes for the most part very little of which came with painted detail and of those that did were doused in hot water the paint would easily chip and so would Bobby's face paint if you were not careful enough to cut costs even more and out of fear of not moving POC darts Mattel reverted back to mostly churning out a huge amount of blonde barbers in this era after having a much wider variety of different dots with a line and the 2000s with Christine Nikki Theresa Kayla Leah Drew and some hobby soccer friends shrunk down to a trio at best a Duo at most these things affected all Barbie releases of the time from fashionistas to Life in the Dreamhouse The Taste level was also something that was a very questionable in this era I do have to say that I'm not that big of a fan of a lot of the designs as they tend to Veer into tacky parody territory Bobby truly became a caricature of herself at this point and there wasn't a whole lot of variety other than short pink sleeveless dresses I believe Mattel started to realize this and attempted defy the error by emphasizing a Vita Variety in terms of Silhouettes and text sites and attempted to have more layered clothing with 2014's Barbie style series I don't want to make it seem like I'm endlessly on this era of Barbie no not at all another Sarah of Bobby I love how God it is how glamorous it is let's see it is it's exactly what we all want Bobby to be like but it was around that time frame like 2009-ish when Mateo had to invest tons of money in two months to hive cutting into Bobby's budget when Mater defeated the biggest opponent Brads so that meant that there was no reason to be like we have to push Bobby further up the auntie and invest tons of money to make the quality good to defeat our opponent in door Isles no now the mindset of having to cut costs having to cut Corners having to wind the margin to make more money started and that was also fueled by the big recession of 2008 and this mindset of having to be penny pinching and cutting the quality of Barbie kind of state and continues on to this day and while I love myself a good bimbo era Barbie and would probably much rather dive into a pink vomit era of the 2010s than the zombie body fashionistas of the later years I can see that an attempt was made with the initial reboot fashionistas to have more designs that reflected fashion trends of the time what I cannot Vibe with though is the pixelation I can even forgive a doll having Polly hair but when I see the shiny crispy UV resin glow back at me I have to check out I also don't want to come across as someone who is not appreciative of Bobby's attempt to be more inclusive when it comes to body types but this meant that we'll get one size fits all clothing pieces that look trash on all of them or have cute clothes that you can't mix and match because they only fit on a petite or standard body it ends up doing a disservice to all body types instead of celebrating beauty in all sizes I also haven't touched upon the signature level collector side of things because as someone who has more familiarity with Bobby on the playline level I lack the knowledge to be discussing whether or not Barbie collector releases in the past decade have become trash too I do have to say though that I don't really care for either the inspiring women nor the celebrity dolls and would have much rather see them pour the funding into Fierce amount Muse fashion dots invoking the Barbie Basics line and more reproductions of underrepresented 90s and 2000s era Barbies discussions of Barbie's plus 2016 transformation online can be traumatic and triggering I will tell you there's a certain Nuance that's sometimes lacking so collectors either become hyper defensive or show their true colors you are allowed to dislike Bobby's current standard of quality the pixelation the T-shirt dresses the questionable taste level and tacky prints as well as art over the place hair quality but you can also have a preference for a certain fashionable aesthetic I feel one that had been Barbie's standard for half a century without having their preference be necessarily rooted and xenophobia racism or body shaming none of these things are mutually exclusive and that's something both long-time collectors and new school fans need to understand I guess Barbie's Focus now on representation is what makes discussions so heated as new collectors and feeling it's a personal attack as criticizing a doll that represents them ultimately in the eyes means you're criticizing them and their appearance and or features that's how I see it but I'm not a collector because I want to see myself represented I don't care for realism in my toys I have no interest in real I find real people boring to sum it up though it's safe to say that there is a standard level of quality a doorline has to meet in this day and age and Bobby is currently lacking it when I don't necessarily think that she's a lost cause I do think there needs to be done a whole lot more than Bobby currently is doing so it's going to be interesting to see whether she's able to reinvent herself again or if she's slowly Fade Away by churning out the same thing over and over again I hope you enjoyed watching this video please comment down below and let me know what you think was the moment that Bobby morphed into a husband like And subscribe and we might catch each other in my next video bye for now [Music]

Channel: dontcallmedoll

Views: 4,618

Keywords: barbie, dolls, fashion dolls, video essay, toy history, toys, rainbow high, monster high, shadow high, unboxing, bratz, mattel, 90s, 2000s, vintage dolls, vintage toys

Id: uAqnJ0adtqk

Length: 11min 20sec (680 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 16 2023