Advent Calendar #2: Mini Bratz by MGA Entertainment

For the second advent calendar, I figured I should show you the one that started this whole idea: the Mini Bratz calendar from 2023 that Lurkins suggested to me.

I've had bit of experience with Mini Bratz dolls, but have never featured them here on the blog.  I really love their size (good for Lena), their detailed features, and their intricate, re-usable packaging.  Lena and I were both excited to get a calendar filled with these little gems!

Lena holding her favorite Mini Bratz doll from the 2023 advent calendar.

Lena already has two mini Bratz dolls in her modest collection, so we were hoping not to get repeats of either of those:

20 Yearz Cloe (left) and Rock Angelz Jade (right).

But even a repeat wouldn't be terrible, since I don't have any minis in my collection yet!

The nice thing about advent calendars is that you can use them on any year--not just the year they were released.  So older items, like this one, are perfectly useable and can sometimes be found for a good price.  I was really happy to get this calendar on eBay for around $15:

It's a little beat up around the edges, but that doesn't bother me.

Amazon says the list price for this calendar is $59.99 (way too much), but it's currently selling for $25, which is more reasonable.

I guess the sad thing about advent calendars like this is that they can only be used once.  Unlike paper calendars, these are one-time use items.  I mean, I guess you could be really really careful opening the flaps and then put all of the toys back until next year, but it's pretty impractical.

Also, this calendar isn't especially beautiful to look at, so it's hard to see the rationale for preserving it from year to year.  There's no winter scene, just a purple background with contrasting pink-ish purple numbered doors.  And the flap that folds down in front has a large picture of the four original Bratz girls:

From left: Yasmin, Cloe, Sasha, and Jade.

This calendar is unusual in that it goes all of the way to Christmas day, with 25 doors.

All of the numbers are easy to find, and there's a mix of narrow doors and wider ones.  

We start things off with a narrow door:

All of the items are wrapped in pink tissue paper--like little presents:

I was expecting only Bratz mini dolls, so wasn't sure what this was right away:

Chocolate?

Turns out, it's a mini makeup set!

That's pretty cute.

There's no brush or anything, so I'm not sure how you'd use these colors, but they look like real makeup!

Number two is a wider door:

This looks more like a mini doll:

...or a mini doll box:

I guess the dolls and boxes are going to be packaged separately, which is fine with me.  The boxes are so detailed, they make pretty good surprises all on their own.  And then you can anticipate what the actual doll will look like.

Also, it would be unrealistic to expect 25 mini Bratz dolls for $15.  They tend to cost about $5 each when sold separately, although there are a lot of sales.

This box is for a Cloe doll, and unfortunately I know exactly which one it is, since I recognize the box from Lena's collection:

It's 20 Yearz Cloe.

I'm impressed that I can actually read some of the small print on this box.  It says, Hi!  My name is Cloe and I rock!  My fashion passion is exotic animal prints and sparkly fabrics!  My friends call me "Angel," because that's what I am!  And also modest.

I looked up the full-sized product, which I probably won't do for every doll, but I was curious about the accuracy of the minis and their boxes.

The original 20 Yearz Cloe looks like this:

She comes with a bunch of different outfit pieces, which is why so many combinations are shown on the back of the box:

This text is easier to read!

The mini packaging is a fairly accurate replica of the original, with the exception of the extra outfit pieces and accessories, of course, and some minor differences in color.

Okay, so one repeat isn't bad.  No worries.

Let's see what door number three has to offer!  It's half way in between the size of the narrowest and the widest doors: 

This might be an actual doll:

It is!  It's Yasmin:

She's wearing a similar outfit to the one shown on the cover of the advent calendar:

That picture shows how all fours girls looked in their original release (and also in the 20 Yearz re-release).

It'd be fun to get all four of the 20 Yearz girls as miniatures!

Here's Yasmin from the back:

The detail on these minis is good.  There are a lot of painted features, and I don't see any glaring defects.

I was eager to find a matching doll and box, so I ripped into door number four:

Looks like a box!

Sure enough, it's a box, and it's a Yasmin box, too:

This is from the 20 Yearz collection, so it's for the correct Yasmin doll:

I didn't figure out that I had a matching doll and box right away though.  I think I was confused by all of the different outfit options on the back of the box.  And the coloring of the doll on the box didn't look quite right for the Yasmin mini I had, either.

Hindsight is 20/20, I guess.

So I forged ahead, eager to find a doll and box that clearly went together:

Number five held a parcel that looked like another makeup set:

This one has Yasmin on the front:

It's another eyeshadow set:

These mini makeup sets are so cute, but they'd make a lot more sense if they came with a brush or something.

Number six looks like another doll, which is exciting!

Very promising...

Oooh!  It's Jade, and she's wearing a really cute winter outfit:

She also leans a little to the left, but that's okay.  

I like all of the molded detail in her fuzzy coat:

Number seven looks like another box, but at this point I had no expectation that it would match Jade:

What doll could it be for?

Oh!  This actually looks like winter Jade's box:

Sort-of.

The doll's outfit doesn't match exactly with what's on the box, though.  On the box, Jade is wearing a pink coat with ear muffs and jeans, not a fuzzy white hat, plaid skirt, and blue boots:

That's a different doll.

I had to look up the full-size Wintertime Collection Jade:

While the doll here matches the mini perfectly, with that white coat and plaid skirt, the box does not.  First of all, it says Wintertime Wonderland, not Wintertime Collection, and there's no sign of that pink outfit or ear muffs anywhere.

Turns out that the mini box is replicating the second edition of these dolls, which are called Wintertime Collection.  In this wave, Jade is wearing a pink coat with jeans, and she has some ear muffs nearby:

That's weird, right?  To have the doll and box be from different editions?  I mean, at this point in the advent calendar, it's possible that I was putting the wrong doll and box together, but it seemed unlikely that one calendar would have two editions of the same doll.

I was very eager to put a doll together with her packaging, so I decided to try and fit Jade into this box.

She fits perfectly inside the plastic shell:

That's a good sign.

And here she is in the box!

I think she looks great, even though it's a bit less impressive knowing that the doll and box don't match.  Also, it would have been cool to have the extra outfits included here as printed designs on the backdrop.  Oh, well.

Let's see what number eight has in store!  It looks like another doll:

Definitely doll shaped...

It's Sasha!

I really like this doll's casual outfit and interesting hairstyle:

Will the number nine flap have her matching box?

Hard to tell at this point...

It's a Sasha box!  So it might be a good fit:

It's not the 20 Yearz version, I can tell that from the front of the box.

Which Sasha could this be??

From what I could find online, it's Flaunt it Sasha.  It even says "flaunt it" on the front of the mini box, which I missed at first.  The writing is so tiny!  There were three versions of Flaunt it Sasha back in 2002, and based on the box design, I think this is the first variant.

Sasha fits in her box nicely, and looks great:

This is pretty fun!  And actually, I prefer it when the dolls and boxes are separated from one another by a few days, because then there's a bit of a matching game as well.

What could number ten be hiding?

This is too small to be a doll or a box:

It's a tiny little box that says there's lipstick inside:

They can't possibly mean real yipick...

I tore open the box:

And it's the smallest lipstick container I've ever seen in my life!

It's real lipstick too, believe it or not, although I found it impossible to remove the tiny lid without messing up the shape of the soft stick:

And with one swipe of my finger, all of the lipstick was gone:

So by the time I handed the stick to Lena to see if it was the right size for her, I'd ruined it:

Thanks a lot, Emily.

The mini makeup is fascinating to me.  On the one hand, it seems completely useless.  But I enjoy it anyway.  It's fun to see working miniatures this small--no matter how practical they are.

From an advent calendar point of view, I find it hard to see the makeup prizes as duds.  The dolls and boxes are more exciting, for sure, but I was never disappointed to see makeup.  I wonder if kids would feel the same way?

Number eleven looks like it'll be another doll:

The dolls in these horizontal compartments remind me of crypts for some reason.  Probably I've played too much Skyrim in my life:

Wake from the dead, mini Bratz.

We got another Jade!

She's great!

This one is very different from Wintertime Jade.  Her hair is loose and she has a casual, summery outfit featuring a British flag.

Will number twelve hold the matching box?

I hope it doesn't!

The box is for Flaunt it Jade:

And the outfit on the back doesn't look like the one on the mini we got:

The hairstyle doesn't match, either, so this must be for a different mini Jade.  Fun!

Let's dig into number thirteen:

Do I see a winter hat under there?

Yep!  I bet this is another Wintertime Collection character, and she looks like Yasmin:

She looks angry with me, though.

There's a ton of detail on this doll.  I love all of the different layers and textures in her outfit.

And look at the tiny braids in her hair!

There seems to be a pretty good rhythm alternating between boxes and dolls, and number fourteen follows that pattern:

It's another box:

This is another Wintertime Collection box, so it might go with the Yasmin mini we just saw:

At this point I know that with the Wintertime Collection, the outfit on the box might not match the doll, since there's some edition mixing going on.  But back when I was first opening the calendar, I didn't know this fact.  

I took one look at the box picture and assumed it was for a completely different Yasmin:

Which it is...kind of.

Once again, the mini's outfit reflects the first edition of Wintertime Wonderland and the box is a replica of the second edition.

We're already more than halfway done, which is sad.

Door number fifteen is pretty small, so I'm guessing this is more makeup.  I hope it's something new!

Doesn't look like eyeshadow:

It's mascara:

Which is much more fun to say in German!

This is a fully-functional wimperntusche that's about as tall as my fingernail:

There's even a tiny brush inside, but everything's all clumped together and hard:

Gross.

The fact that the mascara has solidified is probably a good thing.  Liquid mascara is messy under the best of circumstances.

Number sixteen is pretty big, so I'm thinking this is another box:

It doesn't quite look like a box, though:

Whoa!  It's a doll with a very large and fancy dress!

And slightly smudged lip paint.

My goodness.  I've never seen this doll before, but she's got a lot of Cinderella energy, so I love her.

If we can find her box, that will give us more information.  

So, for once, I was hoping that number seventeen had the matching box:

It's certainly a big box...

Yes!  This is definitely the box for that doll:

It's a Bratz Holiday edition, and the doll's name is Trinity:

The full-size doll looks lovely:

And she's not as expensive on the secondary market as some of the other vintage Bratz dolls that I've been researching.  Very tempting!

The mini looks great in her box:

The drama of this doll would have made a great surprise for the last day of the calendar.  She's a lot more elaborate than the other dolls we've seen so far.

Following the pattern, number eighteen looks like another doll:

Yep, definitely a doll:

I like this one with her bright red hair!  Her British-themed outfit reminds me of the unidentified Jade we got earlier:

Her hair is blonde in back, not red, which is slightly disappointing, but very funky:

Let's see if flap nineteen has any clues about this doll:

I can already tell that the box has a lot of graphics:

It's very British!

This box is for a Cloe doll, and she's from the Pretty 'n' Punk series.

Once again, though, the character on the box looks nothing like the mini that I got.  She's wearing a short skirt and tube top, and her hair isn't even red:

So confusing.

This was a relatively easy mystery to solve, since Pretty 'n' Punk Cloe is still available for sale, and so her promotional pictures are easy to find:

The mini matches the doll's primary outfit, and the illustrations on the box show off her secondary outfit.

The British flag on mystery Jade's outfit made me think that perhaps she might also be in the Pretty 'n' Punk series:

However, Lena has Pretty 'n' Punk Jade in her collection, and she's definitely not the same doll:

British flag tee shirt, but no other similarities.

Maybe box number twenty will shed some light on mystery Jade?

Nope.  This is more makeup:

This looks like a Sasha-themed eyeshadow set:

I love the colors!

We're nearing the end here, with number twenty one:

It's another interred doll:

And it's a boy!

I know absolutely nothing about the Bratz Boyz.

Okay, that's not actually true.  Way back in 2017 I looked at a Bratz Secret Date set and learned quite a lot of about some of the boys.  But I don't remember much of it.

From my limited memory, my best guess is that this guy is either Cameron or Bryce.

We'll need his box to find out:

Could this be it?

It's definitely a Bratz Boyz box, and it says Cameron.  That makes sense:

The outfit on the back of the box doesn't match the mini perfectly (there's no hat) but at this point I was getting used to that.

I decided that since I was so close to the end, I might as well wait and match all of the dolls to their boxes once everything was revealed.

Number twenty-three looks like another doll:

Definitely a doll:

She's really cute!  There's a bit of sloppy white paint around her hat, though:

I'm guessing this is Yasmin.

More often than not, it seems like the boxes come right after their matching mini, so at this point I assumed that I'd get Yasmin's box with number twenty-four:

It's a box, which is a good start:

And it's a Yasmin box, too:

The box is from the Rock Angelz series:

The promotional photos for the larger Rock Angelz Yasmin are still available, so we can compare the two dolls:

I like the mini doll better!

Mini Yasmin's hat gives away that she's definitely the right doll for the Rock Angelz box.  So I could have popped her into her packaging right away, but I only had one more flap to open, so I figured I should just finish up.  

This had better be mystery Jade's box, otherwise I'm confused.

Oops!  There's nothing inside:

That's a huge bummer.  Kind of the opposite of having the last flap be the most exciting.

Turns out, the parcel had just slipped down to the bottom of the case:

Oops.

And it's a doll!

Oh, yeah.  Forgot about her.

This is the 20 Yearz Cloe who matches the first box we got.

I know she's a repeat, but this is still a pretty good way to end the experience.  Cloe is a lovely mini.

So I guess each doll was followed by their correct packaging, meaning that I dropped the ball when "mystery" Jade was followed by the Flaunt it packaging.

And, when I look back at Flaunt it Jade's box...

I can see way down at the bottom that there's a picture of a doll wearing silver pants and a graphic tee:

Bingo.

So, yeah.  Sorry about that.  Everything is much less confusing now than it seemed when I was opening flaps.

Overall, this calendar produced five makeup items:

There were also three dolls that I felt were clearly meant for the boxes that succeeded them:

And seven dolls that I didn't feel absolutely sure of until after I did some research online:

Who goes where?

But my ignorance here created a fun game.  I really enjoyed matching each doll to their correct box, and wish that the order of the calendar had scrambled these pairs intentionally.  By sleuthing out which doll belonged in which package, I got some of the same satisfaction that I had as a child trying to find all of the well-concealed flap numbers on my paper advent calendar.

Everyone is finally where they belong.

Bottom line?  In many ways, this calendar feels similar to the Mini Brands option.  The calendar itself is nothing special to look at, with no winter scene or other holiday design.  The numbers are not in order, but they're all very easy to locate.  I found the surprise element quite rewarding here, though, with a great variety of mini dolls in highly-detailed packaging.  Even the makeup sets, which are not as desirable as the dolls, were intriguing to me and fun to open.

But the best thing about this calendar was matching the dolls to their appropriate boxes, and then researching each doll to see what the original looks like.  That felt like a bit of a treasure hunt to me, and I learned about a few different Bratz doll (like Trinity) that I might never have stumbled upon otherwise.  So, whether it was intentional or not, this calendar delivered some of the seek-and-find fun that I really enjoy, setting it above the Mini Brands experience.

Here are the basics:

Best toy: Holiday Trinity 

Worst toy: congealed mascara

Number of good surprises: 24 (everything except for the mascara)

Number of really good surprises: 20 (the dolls and their boxes)

Excitement rating, out of 10: 8

Aesthetic rating, out of 10: 4

This was not a perfect advent calendar experience, and a lot of the fun that I had might be due to the fact that I was slightly clueless and opened everything up at once.  Still, it was very entertaining--especially for under $20.  And the number of mini dolls that I got for my money is great.  So this is another one that I'll recommend for the economy and quality of the included toys, not necessarily the Christmas experience. But I do recommend it--especially if you're new to mini Bratz and have a low chance of finding repeats of dolls you already own.