Barbie Swappin' Styles Fashionistas by Mattel

I've been thinking about dolls with swappable heads for a few weeks.  It's a strange thing to think about, granted, but I feel like I have some good reasons.  First and foremost, Lena is getting married at some point this year (they haven't chosen a date yet), and I know she'll want some fancy up-do for that occasion.  Frankly, I wish I could just swap her head with one that already has a fancy up-do.  Don't tell her I said that, though!

The other reason I have swappable heads on my mind is that they keep popping up in my life.  For example, as I was getting some of my older dolls out of storage, I found a My Scene Swappin' Styles set that I never took out of the box.  I should probably do that.  Also, MGA recently came out with a line of Tweens dolls with interchangeable heads, and those reminded me of the Moxie Girlz Magic Hair dolls from 2009.  And of course there are the Swappin' Styles Fashionistas from 2010.  I've already done a brief review of these Fashionistas, but something popped up on eBay a month or two ago that got me excited about them all over again.  More about that in a sec.

With all of these thoughts of head-swappers on my mind, I figured I'd do a mini series to highlight each of the four types of doll that are on my radar: My Scene Swappin' Styles, Tweens Surprise Swap, Moxie Girlz Magic Hair, and the stars of today's review, the Swappin' Styles Fashionistas:

Swappin' Styles Fashionista Sweetie...with an extra head (2010).

One of my very earliest reviews, way back in 2012, was of Swappin' Styles Fashionista Artsy:

She cost $16.99.

I knew *so* little about Barbies in 2012, it's strange to go back and read my old thoughts.  Apparently I really hated Artsy's hair.  But I assume it was nice saran, and I could have just washed it and made it look and feel good.  Silly me.

This is the extra head that I bought for Artsy way back when:

It only cost $4.99.

Oh, how I wish you could still get these heads for five bucks!

The two versions of the doll are not that different from one another, if you ask me.  The two heads have slightly different makeup and slightly different hair, but their head molds and expressions are identical.

The original doll.

The extra head.

This is probably why my primary criticism of the line was that there wasn't enough diversity in the heads.  I wanted more expressions and fun hair colors!  At the very least I wanted side-glancing eyes.

The head-swapping feature didn't really last long enough to explore all of its potential.  There was the original lineup in 2010:

The boys' heads were not removable.

And there was another collection of dolls and heads in 2011:

These options are slightly more exciting than the first wave.  For example, there are several unconventional hair colors, and at least one of the dolls (Cutie) has side-glancing eyes:

I like her!

There were other collections, too, like the In the Spotlight group that my Artsy came from, where all of the dolls have fancy dresses: 

Artsy has the only dress that I like.

There were two gift sets as well, each of which came with a doll and an extra head.  I love the Sporty gift set because it's the only doll or head that looks like it has truly red hair!

Covet.

In fact, I think this was the very first Fashionista to have red hair.  She's like a celebrity to me.

There was also a group of three dolls that came with pets.  Here's Glam from that group:

Of course she has a pink poodle.

Last of all, there was a World Tour collection that consisted of three dolls.  I like the Sassy character best:

Except for the tinsel in her hair.

These days, it's fairly easy to find dolls and heads from the first wave on the secondary market, but their prices have gone up considerably.  You can expect to pay from $50-100 for a doll and about $25 for a head.

The special sets, like the gift sets and World Tour dolls, are harder to find.  New-in-box, these tend to cost close to $200, if not more.

Okay, but I told you that I found something else on eBay that got me newly excited about these dolls.  I wasn't even looking for it...it just popped up in one of my doll searches.  Maybe because I'd bought something from the seller before?  You'll never guess what it is.

It's a working store display for the Swappin' Styles Fashionistas!  Eeeee!

I felt so silly buying this for myself.  I mean, it cost around $200 and is really big and heavy.  Where would I even put it?  What would I do with it?  But when it arrived, I felt like a little kid.  It's so cool.  I love looking at it, watching the videos, and being transported back in time.

On the right hand side, there's a display with two full dolls and three heads:

Those are probably worth $100 on their own.

There are words and arrows on the plastic display cover that try to describe the head-swapping feature.

On the left, the first step says "pop!" and points to Glam's head:

Pop that head right off.

In the middle, next to the extra heads, it says, "swap!" and there are three head choices.

On the top, there's a Sweetie head:

There's a Sassy head in the middle, with pink hair and brown eyes:

Brown eyes are rare in this collection.

And at the bottom, there's the Artsy head that I showed you in my 2012 review:

The last step says "style!" and shows the Glam body with the Sassy head:

The "pop, swap, style" sequence is repeated on the base of the display, with photographs of Glam switching to yet another head and gown:

I love to think about how many people walked past this display back in 2010 and admired these exact dolls.  And they're still in good condition after so much time.  I think the necklaces are glued in place, which makes sense, and the heads might be glued in place, too?  So removing the dolls from the display could have some frustrations.  But it's still so tempting to get them out and play with them!  I'm trying really hard to fight those urges.

The dolls are awesome, but the other side of the display is captivating, too.  It has a small screen with two red buttons:

One of them says "see it work," and the other says "what's new."

Here's my slightly crappy recording of the "see it work" option:

The music is trippy, and the photos elaborate on the "pop, swap, style" theme:

I wonder how many kids wanted these dolls just so that they could pop their heads off on a regular basis?  I'm betting it's a non-zero number...and would have included Young Emily.

The animation shows a few of the head selections:

There are so many looks!

And so many outfits!

One thing that's uncomfortable about this line is that five of the six characters can swap heads amongst themselves, but Artsy is left out.  Her skin tone only matches her own extra head.  So if you have Cutie, Sweetie, Glam, Sporty, or Sassy, you have five extra heads to choose from.  With Artsy?  Just the one.  Boo.

Late in the video, there's a picture of the full product line from 2010:

It looks like there were only six extra outfits that year, which makes the "so many outfits!" claim feel a bit hollow.  But at least Artsy can wear all of them.

The second red button says "what's new" underneath it, but that doesn't exactly describe the video content:

Or maybe the iPad app and online content is what's new?  The video advertises those things, but mostly shows clips of the six Fashionista characters in cartoon form.

There's Sassy:

Glam:

Sporty:

With her red hair!

Artsy:

Sweetie:

And Cutie:

At the end, there's a group shot with all of the characters together:

I like the style of this animation much more than the CGI we're getting these days with shows like Rainbow High and Barbie Dream Besties.

There's a website that's advertised as having "games and more:"

But that address redirects to Mattel's shopping site now, which is sad.  Still, I can understand why they wouldn't pay to maintain a website for a product that's been discontinued for 15 years.

There are some glimpses of what the website offered, though.  It looks like there were downloadable wallpapers:

And some style secrets that I can't read:

Anyway, I just love this display.  It's like a time capsule that can transport me back to 2010.   And it makes me appreciate my Swappin' Styles dolls even more.

It would have been fun to review the Glam doll that's featured in my display, but she tends to cost $65-70 new-in-box.  First wave Sweetie is cheaper, at more like $45 (including shipping), so I chose her instead:

Not all of the Fashionistas from 2010 have swappable heads, so it's nice that these boxes have hanging tags to advertise that feature:

That head is in my display!

The back of the tag has basic instructions for how to swap heads:

Pop, swap, style...we get it.

The bottom of the box says Barbie Fashionistas Swappin' Styles, and there's some sticker residue where a price tag used to be:

Oh, how I wish the price tag was still there!

I searched and searched to try and figure out what the suggested retail price was for the first wave of Swappin' Styles, but there aren't a lot of clues.

I found two pictures with price tags, one from a Canadian discount store, Zellers, that says $17.99:

But that's Canadian dollars...and a clearance price.  At the current exchange rate, $17.99 would be $12.49, but who knows when this doll went on sale or what the exchange rate was at the time.

Moving on.  This photo is more helpful, but the dolls are from the second wave:

The tags say $15.99, on sale for $12.99.  So $15.99 seems like a reasonable guess for the suggested retail price, at least for the second wave of dolls.  And it fits with Artsy's $16.99 price.

I wish I'd bought a few more dolls when they were this cheap!

The back of the box has a photo of Sweetie combined with a new head and a different dress:

  

I like the new dress!

The bottom of the box advertises the same (defunct) website that we saw in the display video:

Sweetie was still attached to her cardboard backdrop, but there were several signs of age.  Many of the plastic ties that held her in place were loose or disintegrating, and the bow for her ponytail had fallen out:

The plastic bow fell out because the rubber band that had been holding Sweetie's ponytail in place was hardened and cracked:

It's mostly the gel in her hair that's keeping that ponytail from falling down.

Sweetie comes in a cute pink striped dress with a gathered, dropped waistline.  She has a matching bow-shaped purse:

The back side of the dress is flat at the bottom, without the gathered waist:

I'd forgotten how play line Barbie clothing does this all of the time: puts cute details on the front that don't carry over to the back.  It's frustrating.

The extra plastic accessories are unremarkable:

The purse has a cool molded knit pattern, but it doesn't open:

The bow is fairly plain, and I don't see an easy way to put it back in Sweetie's hair:

There's a loop on the back, but I'd have to thread a ribbon through that and tie it into the hair, which I probably won't bother to do.

Sweetie has the Generation Girl face mold, with an open-mouthed smile and visible teeth:

Her lips are red, and she has both purple and faint silver eyeshadow accenting her bright blue eyes:

The eye makeup looks super-dated.

There's no hair detail in the eyebrows, but the painted upper eyelashes are really long!

Was 2010 that long ago?

Overall, the facial screening on this doll is good.  There's no pixelation and the colors are rich and clear.

I struggle to tell certain Barbie faces apart, but I think the majority of the dolls in wave one of Swappin' Styles have the Generation Girl face.  The obvious exception is Artsy, who has the Desiree mold, and I also think Sassy and Sporty have a different face:

Wave one Sassy.

Sassy's smile is less intense and her eyes have a different shape than Generation Girl.

The next thing I did was remove the failing rubber bands from Sweetie's hair.  The rooting is fine (there are no hidden bald spots under that ponytail), but the hair, having spent 15 years in a ponytail, had no intention of relaxing:

Party in the front, party in the back.

I quickly tied the hair back again; I'll boil wash it later.

Sweetie's dress is sprinkled with glitter, and the fabric feels a bit stiff--probably because of whatever adhesive was used to make the glitter stick.  It has a striped print and a ruffled halter strap that closes in back with velcro:

The gold heart necklace is a little warped, and tends to get caught up in the straps of the dress:

I think this dress is cute and easy to use:

None of the seams are reinforced, but it feels durable:

I just wish that the gathering in the skirt went all of the way around.

Sweetie's shoes are pink vinyl high-heeled sandals with bows on the front:

Even with her shoes on, Sweetie can't balance on her own.  I tried for a long time with no luck.  Her legs are too spindly, with very skinny, weak knees:

These dolls don't come with stands, so I had to borrow one.

Next to a Made to Move Barbie like Petra, you can see how skinny Sweetie's legs are:

Otherwise, these two dolls have roughly the same proportions.  Petra can wear Sweetie's dress and shoes with no trouble:

Showing off that flat-backed skirt.

And Sweetie can wear Petra's outfit, too, which kind-of surprised me:

Both pieces are tight, but they mostly close in back:

I've looked at this Fashionista body before, but I'll quickly run you through the eleven points of articulation.

Sweetie's neck joint is great.  She can tip her head from side to side:

Spin her head around, and look up and down:

Her shoulders are rotating hinges that can lift up and away from her body to about an 80 degree angle:

Her elbows and wrists are also rotating hinges.  The elbows can bend to 90 degrees in some positions but not others.  The wrists are a bit less flexible:

Sweetie can touch the front of her head, but not her mouth or face:

And she can rest a hand on her upper thigh and scratch her head:

She has limited side-to-side hip flexibility that reminds me of the Dream Besties:

And she can do a nearly-full front-to-back split:

She can also sit flat on the ground if she leans back a little:

Sweetie's knees are rotating hinges, so she can sit in a chair beautifully--with her legs gracefully crossed at the ankle:

And she can effortlessly kneel on one knee:

Or on two:

Overall, this is a very nice body with a lot of posing options:

I just wish that Sweetie's balance was better so that she didn't always need a stand--especially because she doesn't come with one of her own.

Since the next few reviews are going to be all about head-swapping, a critical detail about Sweetie is her head mechanism.

The Swappin' Styles heads disconnect along the upper chest.  The seam is contoured to fit along the top of the bust line, so it almost looks like part of the molded bra:

Very clever.

I don't find the seam distracting.  In fact, when I was searching through photos of Fashionistas online, it was difficult to tell which dolls have removable heads and which do not.  Most outfits will hide the seams.

In back, the seam is low, but not quite to the level of the molded bra strap.  There's also a small button above the copyright stamp:

When the button is depressed, the head slides (pops!) right off:

The head doesn't launch off the doll's shoulders with any propulsive force, though, which is still a bummer to me.

An there's no actual popping sound when this happens, which is anticlimactic.

Wow, I'm tall.

The body can balance on its own without the head, but that's not of much use to me.

Something that is useful about the removable head is that it makes boil washing easier!  I didn't have to worry about getting water all over the whole body.

So this was a good opportunity to try and fix Sweetie's hair:

Definitely needs fixing.

Another nice thing about swappable heads is that Sweetie's body didn't have to sit around headless while the hair was drying.  She could simply choose another head!

I wanted to try a head from a different character, and the extra Sporty head looked nice and, at $23, was more affordable than other options:

The back of this box shows Sporty transforming with the help of the enclosed head and a new outfit:

This head comes with pink sunglasses that make it hard to appreciate the face:

The sunglasses were tied to the hair, so they didn't budge when I took the head out of the box.  I couldn't even straighten them:

Those are bad glasses.

You can see the elaborate rubber band system in the back:

The extra heads come attached to bust stands that roughly match the color palette of their intended character.  Sporty's head pulled away from her purple stand with minimal effort:

And it easily snapped onto Sweetie's body!

The skin tones match perfectly.

The Sporty head came with a silver plastic necklace that says "Sporty:"

I untied the glasses so that I could get a good look at Sporty's face.

The glasses are warped, especially on the right side, and don't stay on the head without the rubber bands:

They have fancy ear pieces, which look nice, but I don't like their overall look, so I don't mind that they're crooked.

Sporty looks much better without the glasses!

She has really pretty eyes.

As I mentioned before, this head mold is different than what we saw on the Sweetie head.  I believe it's the Summer face:

Sporty has deep fuchsia lips and dramatic eyeshadow with five different metallic colors ranging from blue to silvery grey.

She has two hair line details in her brown eyebrows, and her eyelashes are almost as long as Sweetie's:

This head has a wonky left eye, so it's never clear where Sporty is looking.  

In the next photo, Sporty's right eye is looking straight at the camera, but her left eye is wandering off to the side:

Partially side-glancing.

I took the rubber bands out of Sporty's ponytails, and her hair looked about as bad as Sweetie's did:

Time for another boil wash!

So, I popped Sporty's head off and took it up to the kitchen...

But, luckily, Sweetie's head was dry by then:

Her hair is a soft saran and I think it looks and feels really nice after the boil wash.  I also like that the hair is cut so that it looks good without the ponytail, with an even length and lightly layered ends:

The hair is a medium brown color (almost strawberry blonde) with natural-looking blonde highlights:

It's pretty cool that a 15-year-old doll can look this new with just a quick wash!

I took a few portraits of the new and improved Sweetie while I was waiting for Sporty's head to dry:

Sporty's sunglasses match the pink dress nicely.  Too bad they're ugly and it's hard to keep them in place:

Sporty's boil wash made a huge difference:

There's still a fair amount of styling gel in her hair, even after several dunks in boiling water, but the cut has a beautiful shape and the hair stays in place well:

Sporty looks so much more elegant with her hair like this!

I had a lot of fun photographing this girl.  Despite that wonky eye, she's wonderfully photogenic:

And I think she looks even better in a different, more sophisticated dress:

As I was progressing through this review, it kept popping into my head that I really wanted the Glam doll who's featured in my store display to make at least a cameo appearance.  It was so tempting to reach in and pull one of the dolls out of the display, but I didn't want to risk ruining the structure or the dolls.

So, I found a used Glam on eBay for a good price:

I'll take a really quick look at her, just to bring this review full circle.

Glam is wearing a fitted pink mini dress with glitter all over the front...and the front only:

It's like a different dress from the back.

This is even worse than the back of Sweetie's dress.  Ugh.

Glam has a fancy-looking up-do that I was very curious about, and she comes with an oversized silver necklace...although this is not the necklace that originally came with the doll:

She has the Generation Girl face, with bright blue eyes and eyeshadow in different shades of pink and mauve:

The hairstyle looks very fancy, but it's basically just two ponytails: one on the top of the head with short strands, and another at the nape of the neck that's formed from sections of hair that are pulled back from the front of Glam's face:

Here's a different view:

This hair has gotten messy and matted over the years:

But of course the hair is untouched in the display, so we can see how Glam's hair was supposed to look when it was brand new:

With a little ringlet curl at the back.

Of the three heads in this review, Glam's hair was by far the worst when I took it down!

3AM hair. After a night of poor choices.

But it boiled out nicely.  However, there are some longer strands left over from the small ponytail:

Was a haircut one of the poor choices?

A few quick scissor snips fixed that problem, though!

Now she looks great.

Glam is probably my least favorite of the three, but she's still attractive, and I'm impressed by how good she looks after years of play.

Hopefully, owning this used version of Glam will keep my hands out of that display.

And, now that I have two Swappin' Styles bodies, I can do outfit changes with the snap of a head!

Popped, swapped, and styled.

Bottom line?  I'm not sure why I had such a lukewarm reaction to these dolls when I reviewed Artsy in 2012.  I agree with my earlier assessment in that I wish there was more variety in the head molds and expressions.  My Scene did a good job with this, as we'll see later in the series, which makes the head-swapping concept more fun.  But I still had a blast with the dolls in this review, and find myself coveting more.

One thing that worked well for me this time and hurt me last time is that all of the characters have interchangeable heads except for Artsy.  When I was reviewing Artsy, there were only two extra head options that would match her skin tone.  In fact, throughout the entire run of this line, there were only ever two extra heads made for Artsy--and they weren't very different from one another.  For a doll like Sweetie, there are ten extra heads that will work, not to mention all of the complete dolls that she can swap heads with.  So for this review, I had a lot of options when I was shopping for heads, which gave me the ability to change both hair color and face mold.  It's a shame about Artsy, but I certainly had more swapping fun during this review than I did 13 years ago.

I also appreciate the hair now more than I did in my last review.  From what I can tell, all of the dolls and heads have high-quality saran hair, and while it might have too much styling product initially, it can be washed or boiled so that it looks and feels great.  In addition, all of the heads in this review had some kind of up-do, and yet the hair can also be worn down.  Glam's hair needed a bit of a trim, but it was super-easy to do.  I also like the variety of hair color that's available for dolls like Sweetie.  Not only can she switch from blonde to brunette, but there are also heads with red, pink, purple, and even streaked hair--if you can find them on the secondary market.

These pivotal Fashionista bodies don't measure up to the Made to Move bodies, either in design or appearance, but they're still well-articulated and attractive.  I wish that the balance was better and the knees weren't so spindly, because it's frustrating to have a Barbie who can't stand on her own.  However, it's important to remember that back in 2010, these highly-articulated bodies were a big step forward for play line Barbie.  And the bodies are way better than current Fashionista bodies, too, most of which have no elbow, wrist, or knee articulation whatsoever.  Another nice thing about the Swappin' Styles bodies is that they can share some clothing with Made to Move dolls---and probably other Barbie variations as well.

I still wish there was more variety in face molds of these dolls.  Even the difference between Sweetie and Sporty's faces was hard for me to detect right away.  It would be fun to see a head-swapping feature in a modern line like Signature Looks, with all of its facial variety.  But I suspect we've seen the last of head-swapping Barbies.  The concept is not as feasible today as it was 15 years ago, thanks to the ever-expanding diversity of skin tones and body types.  And despite appreciating the Swappin' Styles dolls much more than I did during my original review, I'll take Barbie's expansion in diversity over a head-swapping gimmick every time.