Advent Calendar #7: Barbie Cutie Reveal by Mattel

It's looking like this will be the last full-length advent calendar review that I'll be able to squeeze in before the end of the month.  But I still have three (four?) calendars that haven't been opened, and I'd love to share them with you, so maybe I'll try to pull together a little summary of the remaining calendars to close out the series.

Today's calendar is from the Barbie Cutie Reveal line, and features a full-size Barbie doll with decent articulation:

Barbie from the 2023 Cutie Reveal advent calendar, $33.99.

I've reviewed a Cutie Reveal doll before--or rather Lena has, as part of her Spring Break collection from 2023.  A Chelsea doll was featured in that review, but there was also an 11.5 inch Barbie unicorn:

I really like the Cutie Reveal concept, and it's easy to get addicted to all of the different animal options, which is something we explored over on Patreon a while ago.  I'm not crazy about the dolls' hair, which is polypropylene and can feel coarse and look messy.  I also get frustrated by the limited articulation--but it's better than some Barbies, I suppose.

Normal Cutie Reveal dolls cost between $16.99 (sale) and $24.99 (list price), but they seem to have some collectible value, too, since older ones pop up on the secondary market for close to $100.  For example, this spotted deer is $70 on Amazon right now and $85 on eBay:

She's really cute, but that's a lot.

With a $33.90 list price, the advent calendar is about $10 more expensive than a regular Cutie Reveal doll, so I'm looking for that kind of value in the extra items.

Fortunately, I didn't pay full price for my advent calendar, because I found it for $26 on eBay.  That makes it almost equivalent to a regular Cutie Reveal doll, and one of the less expensive calendars in this series.  But I'll still keep the list price in mind as I evaluate the contents.

The calendar is a large, slightly flimsy cardboard box with a cylindrical area on the left side.  I assumed that the cylindrical area would be where the doll was hidden: 

The decorations are pictures of Barbie with different outfits and accessories, and she appears to have two pets: a bear and a deer.  The illustrations are pleasant to look at, but feel more like product packaging than a Christmas scene that would enhance a room.  Also, it feels like these pictures are giving away literally all of the 24 surprises.

The back of the box has another wintery picture of Barbie with her pets, and there's a photograph of all of the contents.  Look away if you want to keep some element of surprise!

The winter scene here would have made a nice decoration for the calendar face, if it had a bit more going on.

Judging by the box art, Barbie looks appealing, with a medium skin tone, green eyes, blonde hair with pink streaks, and a reindeer theme:

Yay for reindeer!

As I mentioned when this series started, reindeer are one of the most magical things about Christmas to me, and so I'm always delighted when there's a reindeer included in an advent calendar.  That scores extra points automatically.

I assumed that the doll would be hiding right behind her biggest picture, in door number one, but instead I found a smaller first flap way at the bottom of the box:

The numbers aren't in order, and they're pretty small, but they're not disguised in any way.

Behind door number one, I found the deer head!

Mattel does a really nice job with these animal heads.  They're very sweet:

I don't have a doll to put the head on, though, so Lena had to step in:

Am I really doing this for you?

It's confusing to me that the doll wasn't behind door number one.  And door number two isn't large enough for a doll, either:

What's happening here?

This looks like the animal jacket:

Yep!  The jacket is a sparkly teal color with a heart-shaped white area on the chest:

The great thing about these Cutie Reveal jackets is that they're reversible, with a completely different pattern on the inside.  In this case, the interior pattern is bright pink with white snowflakes:

It's really bright, but might look good with Barbie's pink-streaked hair:

Door number three is long and thin, and was hiding the hoof shoes!

These are aqua-teal colored and have molded hearts and horseshoes on the bottom:

I'm a perturbed by the fact that hooves aren't cloven.  Reindeer have cloven hooves.  Also, deer don't wear horseshoes, as far as I know.  I'll have to ask Santa.

There's a small slit at the back of the hooves for easy dressing and undressing:

At this point, I got the hint that the doll wasn't going to be in one of the early numbered compartments, which seemed ridiculous.  So I hunted around.

I finally found the top of a flap with no number on it:

In fact, there were no numbers on the entire flap, and it's a very long, large flap!

I think I found the doll.

Indeed, Barbie was hiding behind this blank door!

Thank goodness!

This calendar will be a lot more fun if I have somebody to model all of the clothing and accessories.

Barbie came with a small instruction pamphlet that mostly describes the features that can be modified with temperature:

Barbie has flat feet (blahhhh!), but she can't balance on her own.

So, I decided to put the hooves on to see if they would help her stand:

But they don't fit.  Like, not even close:

What the...

And I hate to admit it, but I literally took all of these pictures thinking I'd cleverly uncovered some huge mistake:

Seriously, Emily?

I was all prepared with my evidence that the hooves couldn't possibly fit because they're smaller than Barbie's feet:

So scientific.

But I was just hopelessly without a clue.  These aren't hooves for the feet, of course, they're for Barbie's hands.  I figured that out way later.  It's been a long month.

In the meantime, I held Barbie upright so that I could get a good look at her face:

I really like her green eyes and her impressive eyebrows, but the pixelation in the screening is bad:

The mouth looks especially strange up close, I think:

That's pretty typical for the Cutie Reveal dolls.  However, from a bit of a distance, Barbie's features look fine.  If these dolls had clear features like Lena's, I'd be obsessed...but then the dolls would probably cost $40.  And I bet little kids don't mind a bit of pixelation.

I found some Mini Brands shoes that fit Barbie so that she could stand upright for a full-body shot:

I was too lazy to buckle the shoes.

She has a molded pink bathing suit with a snowflake pattern (to match the jacket!) and seven points of articulation.  Her elbows and knees are both rotating hinges, and her head has great mobility.

Her hip movement feels limited--especially compared to Barbies like Lena.  She can't do full side-to-side splits:

Her front-to-back splits are better, but still not perfect:

And she can't sit on the ground or in a chair with her legs together:

So, again, this doll's articulation is better than some of the basic Barbies, but it still feels restricted.

Barbie's hair is platinum blonde, with both pink and teal streaks.  It's quite long, and hangs down to mid-thigh level:

The rooting pattern is fairly dense, and the scalp is painted yellowish-white to match the hair:

I wish that the hair fiber wasn't polypropylene.  It doesn't feel good, and it doesn't lay smoothly or look neat a lot of the time:

I'd also love to see how this doll would look without the color streaks in her hair, because she can be quite striking and elegant, but I think the bright colors detract from that: 

However, the hair streaks coordinate nicely with the deer outfit!  The pink matches the inside of the jacket:

And the teal matches the outside:

We can test out the jacket with the deer head at this point, too:

Looking good!

Okay, let's get back to the calendar and try to find door number four:

This took me a minute.

It's way down at the bottom of the box, near the picture of Barbie with a foamy drink:

This looks like the rest of the deer outfit:

It's the pants!  They have an elastic waistband and are easy to get on and off:

I love the flared legs.

Now we have almost the complete deer costume:

Here's a close-up, because I love how cute this head is:

Number five is right above number four, which made it very easy to find:

Here I found the hoof shoes--and also realized how silly I'd been earlier, trying to jam those hoof gloves onto poor Barbie's feet:

I'm never going to live that down.

These are larger than the hoof gloves, so it's much more obvious that they aren't cloven and that they have shoes on them:

Those are horse feet.

But we finally have the complete deer/horse costume!

Hurrah!

Now it's harder to predict what might be hidden behind each door:

Door number six had a little bear:

Incidentally, the structure of this calendar makes it very easy to peek in and see the items behind any un-opened doors

There's that frothy drink!

The little bear is cute, but there's something funny about her right eye:

It turns out that the eyes have a temperature-dependent color change feature, so when my warm hands touch them, they fade:

I'm getting sleepy...

And if I hold my fingers over the eyes for a minute, they almost completely disappear, so that the bear looks like she's sleeping:

Zzzzz.

She has a single point of articulation (the neck) and nice molded detail all over:

At this point, with a doll, costume, and pet, we've already gotten almost everything that would come with a regular Cutie Reveal doll.  There'd maybe be one super-simple skirt for the doll.  So the calendar has earned $24.99 of its $33.99 price.  Now we just need nine dollars worth of extra stuff!

Door number seven is right in the middle of the other picture of Barbie, where she's wearing a cool-looking skirt and a long flowing scarf:

It's the other pet!

This one is a light teal reindeer with silver antlers:

A Christmas reindeer!

Like the little bear, this guy has a rotating neck joint and eyes that close when they get warm:

Door number eight is quite large, and is over on the rounded side of the box:

It's a big snowflake-shaped comb:

That was a let down.  For such a large compartment, I was hoping for something more impressive.  I'm never too invested in plastic doll combs, even if they have a pretty shape:

This one also has a little sponge for the color change feature, but I guarantee I'll never use it.  I literally forgot it existed moments after I opened that compartment.

I'm hoping for something better with door number nine:

This looks like a pair of hoop earrings:

They're molded to look like they're made out of a string of pearls, which is not something I've ever seen in full-size jewelry:

I had to search the internet, and actually this style of earring is readily available!

Who knew.

I don't have pierced ears, so I'm not very up-to-date on what kinds of things are available.

The earrings are large on Barbie, but look fine:

I wish they were slightly smaller, so they didn't touch the top of the jacket, but it's okay:

They're very dramatic.

Let's see what door number ten is hiding:

It's another pair of earrings:

These teardrop dangles are made out of opaque pink plastic, and have molded gemstone shapes:

They're are also very long on Barbie, and touch the top of her jacket:

I like the pearl earrings better, but these match the pink hair, at least:

That's a bold statement.

With two pets in a row and then two pairs of earrings in a row, I was detecting a bit of a pattern at this stage.  It seems like all of the accessories with be grouped into types.

What will the next category be, I wonder?

It's clothing!   Good.  I was hoping for a new outfit:

It's a dress, with a fur-lined collar and cuffs:

Because it came wadded up inside a small compartment, this dress emerged looking wrinkled and shapeless, which was disappointing.

When I saw this outfit on the box...

I pictured it as a skirt and top, and assumed that the star pattern would go all of the way around the skirt.  I guess it's pretty clear in the picture that it's a dress, so that's my mistake, but I don't like how in real life the pattern is only printed on the front panel of the dress.  The back is plain.

Also, the colors on the box make the outfit look more green than teal.

Anyway, the construction of the dress is fine, but the whole thing feels wrinkled and a bit cheap.

The dress looks pretty good on Barbie, except for the wrinkles at the bottom:

I wish I had shoes like that!

On a whim, I thought to myself, hey, I wonder if I can buy horse hoof shoes for myself?  And wouldn't you know, in a world where almost everything is available, Alexander McQueen has made some $2,500 hoof boots for women:

Giddy up.

I can't afford those, and don't have anywhere to wear them, but a girl can dream.

Moving on to door number twelve:

The halfway mark!

This looks like the scarf from the second outfit:

So maybe there's no pattern here after all.

The scarf is stiff and thin and looks very cheap:

And it only has the printed plaid pattern on one side; the back is white:

Sigh.

I kind-of hate how good the scarf looks on Barbie, since it's such a cheap little scrap of a surprise:

The scarf definitely looks better in the box art, though, where it's concealing door number thirteen:

This is another pearly object:

Looks like a headband!

Or a balloon arch.

The headband matches the earrings, which is nice, but I think it looks a bit silly on Barbie:

Those are some big pearls!

The dress and earrings feel more modern and youthful, while the headband is clunky and dated.  Like, it would work for a princess character, a bride, or for someone in the 80s, perhaps, but it feels too big for this doll.

Maybe I'm wrong again, though, because I found many similar headbands offered for sale at various shops online:

Those are also big pearls.

Perhaps it's time I stop pretending that I know what's trendy these days?

What have you got in store for me, door number fourteen?

It's another piece of jewelry, I think:

There might be a pattern to these accessories, after all.

This time it's a big necklace, but it doesn't show up very well against the white fur of Barbie's collar:

Pearl overload.

I'm ready for more clothing, or maybe some new shoes.  How about you?

I don't know what I was expecting from door number fifteen, but it wasn't this:

Snacks?

It's a plate of cookies!

They're very shiny light brown cookies that are permanently attached to a pink plate.

The plate isn't flat on the bottom, which is odd.  There's a circular area that sticks out, but it doesn't help Barbie hold the cookies in her hand or anything like that:

For spinning, maybe?

Barbie can still hold the cookies, if she balances them carefully:

Take one, quickly!

If I'd been paying more attention to the box art, I might have anticipated the cookies.  In the wintery scene on the back of the calendar, there are some cookies sitting randomly in the snow next to Barbie and her pets:

There's also a wrapped present and a food bowl for the pets, so I should probably expect those as surprises, too.

Maybe one of them is behind door number sixteen?

Nope, and I actually knew this ahead of time, since I peeked into this compartment earlier:

It's the frothy drink:

Is that hot chocolate with a lot of whipped cream?  Yum.

If only I could lift it up to my mouth.

Door number seventeen is at the very top of the calendar:

And this was hiding a little pink clutch purse:

The clutch is fairly boring (it doesn't open), but it matches the design of the pink dangle earrings, with a molded gemstone pattern on one side:

The other side of the purse is blank:

Ho hum.

Barbie can use the little wrist strap to hold the purse, but it's awkward:

Does gravity work this way?

Is Barbie ever going to get some new shoes?  I feel like it's past time for that.  Door number eighteen doesn't look big enough for shoes, though:

It's the food bowl for the pets that we were expecting:

I'm glad that the pets have a bowl for their food, but this is not a very exciting surprise:

The pets can't stay awake long enough to eat, anyway:

Wake us up when there's food in the bowl.

And I don't have any food to put into that bowl.  Maybe I'll get some later in the calendar?  Spoilers: I won't.

What do you have for me, door number nineteen?  Shoes, perhaps?

Nope.  It's the wrapped present:

We knew that was coming.

A lot of these items are hard to pry out of their flimsy molded plastic shells, but the present was the hardest of all.  I had to dig it out with a pair of scissors!

Like surgery, but less fun.

It's a bright pink package with a white bow, and the box looks like it will open!

It hinges open:

And there's a nice big space inside for hiding things:

The clutch purse can fit in there:

Bad present.

As can the pet bear:

Great present!

But the deer's antlers make him too tall:

Okay, we only have four more doors, and I know there's another outfit in there somewhere.  So number twenty has to be shoes.  It has to:

And it is!  It's the pink boots with fur at the top to match the first outfit:

These are made out of very bright pink vinyl and have molded fur at the top that's painted white.  There are long slits down the back for easy dressing:

However, even with the slits, the boots are difficult to push on.  I had a hard time getting Barbie's heels to slide into place:

It's like the hoof experience all over again.

I finally got both boots on, and they allow Barbie to balance on her own, which is great:

Ta-da!

The pink of the boots is a bit too bright to perfectly match the dress, but it's close.

Door twenty one is adjacent to a picture of the second pair of shoes, which are pink hiking boots:

But that's not what I found behind the door!

This is a pair of white wedge heels with ankle straps:

I don't think these shoes appear in the box art at all.  Are they the only true surprise??  I mean, okay, they're in the photo that shows all of the contents, but not in the box art.  I'm pretty sure about that.

They go nicely with the first outfit:

And I actually like them better than the overly-bright pink boots.

Only three more doors to go!

Compartment twenty two has the pink hiking boots:

We were expecting you!

These are a very different shade of pink than the tall boots, and they have a lot of molded detail:

No painted detail, though.

The boots have big, thick treads and a slit down the back:

These boots don't perfectly match the pink in Barbie's outfit, either:

Too many shades of pink.

The last two doors pretty much have to be hiding clothing at this point.

And, sure enough, door twenty three has a fuzzy-looking top:

This top is made out of a fuzzy pink bouclé that's fun, but it doesn't have much of a shape sitting on its own:

A fuzzy square.

The top looks much better on Barbie:

For the grand finale, we'd better get the matching skirt, or Barbie is going to be left half naked:

Don't let us down, 24!

Phew.  It looks like a skirt:

This skirt is made out of fuzzy white fabric, and has an applied design of sparkling blue snowflakes and swirls:

It's hard to imagine the design staying in place through years of play, but it looks pretty right now:

The skirt doesn't make a dazzling finale, but it's definitely one of the better items.  And there's nothing else in this set that would have made a better final surprise, except for the doll herself.  But waiting 24 days without a doll to test out all of the clothing and accessories would be painful.

Here's the full second outfit as it's shown on the box:

Cute!

The matching necklace doesn't work very well with the high neck of this shirt, though:

Overkill.

Here's a picture of everything that was inside the calendar:

It's a decent haul.  I feel like the two extra outfits and three extra pairs of shoes are probably worth the extra $9 that this calendar costs.  Some of the other items, like the clutch, the pet food bowl, the drink, the cookies, the scarf, and the headband, I could do without.

Once all of the surprises were revealed, I felt like I could go back and take a good look at the spoiler photograph that shows the box contents:

That looks mostly accurate, at a glance, but what's up with the pair of pants in the upper left?  Where are those?  They would have been a great addition.  Oh, never mind.  It's the scarf masquerading as a pair of pants.  Freakin' scarf.

My perfect set would have included more clothes--like an extra pair of pants!--and ideally a whole extra outfit.  Then there could have been some mix and match opportunities, but I guess that's asking too much.

At least there's some mix and match potential with the jacket from the pet costume:

But I actually think that the teal side looks better with this ensemble:

In fact, that's my favorite mix of clothing--and Barbie's favorite, too.

The shirt matches Barbie's pink hair, and the jacket matches her teal hair, pulling the whole look together.

With this calendar, there might be a few duds, but there's also plenty for kids to play with at the end of the month.

Bottom line?  I like reviewing calendars at this stage in the series, because I feel like I have some grasp of the variety that's available.  The Cutie Reveal calendar was solidly in the middle in many ways, but it had a few areas where it let me down...and a few areas where it shone.

In terms of a strictly advent calendar experience, this was not the best.  The calendar as a whole felt cheap to me, with a crinkly plastic inner shell, transparent compartments that allow sneaky peeks, and the mix of art and advertising in the decoration.  The box art is nice, and I wish that the designers had focused on one of those scenes for the calendar surface, and left the advertising for the back--or for an outer flap that could be removed.  In addition, many of the surprises felt underwhelming to me, and even the good surprises, like the clothing, were presented in such a way (rolled up and wrinkled) that they made a poor first impression.  Worst of all, every single item was shown multiple times on the box, so there really weren't any true surprises--except maybe the white shoes.

I'm also confused about the doll.  Why wasn't she in a numbered compartment?  It took me several tries to realize that I wasn't going to get her the conventional way, and if I'd been a kid waiting several days for that realization, it would have been sad.  Barbie would have been a great reward for the first day.  That would start the experience on a high note, and offer a way to play with all of the subsequent prizes.  She'd be an excellent finale, too, except for the fact that making a child wait 23 days for her would be cruel.

The thing that redeems this calendar for me is that it probably has the best play value of any of the calendars I've opened.  It's at least in the same league as the L.O.L. Surprise and Playmobil options.  Not only is there an attractive, full-sized Barbie doll to play with, but she comes with three different outfits, one of which is the wonderful Cutie Reveal animal costume.  Some of the smaller accessories feel like throwaways, but there's still a lot of long-term value here.  I wish that Barbie's hair fiber and articulation were better, and the extra outfits could be higher quality, but these things are predictable with the Cutie Reveal line, so at least you know what you're getting.

Here are the basics:

Best toy: the doll. If the doll doesn't count, then the deer head

Worst toy: the comb

Number of good surprises: 18 (everything except the scarf, clutch, necklace, pet food bowl, headband, and comb)

Number of really good surprises: 14 (the doll, plus all outfits, shoes, and pets)

Excitement rating, out of 10: 7

Aesthetic rating, out of 10: 7

While this wasn't my favorite calendar experience, mostly because I was underwhelmed by the smaller accessories, lack of surprise, and overall quality, I feel like I came out of it with exactly what I hoped for and expected: another transformable Cutie Reveal Barbie to add to my collection.  And, best of all, I got not one but two Christmas reindeer out of the deal, and that's hard to beat.