Bratz Head Gamez by MGA Entertainment

If you've been tuning in since the beginning of this head-swapping saga, you might remember that I originally planned to review the Moxie Girlz Magic Hair dolls from 2009, but then discovered that there was an even earlier (and more famous) MGA line with removable heads: the Bratz Head Gamez girls.

I considered doing a review that included both Bratz and Moxie Girlz, but decided to keep things simple and just focus on Bratz.  The Moxie Girlz were never super tempting to me, but I did enjoy Kellen and her pooping unicorn and the tiny, adorable $3 Moxie Girlz Friends (a few of which I still have).  I much prefer the larger and more articulated Moxie Teenz.  Too bad those dolls never had a head-swapping variant!

I might do a really quick post on the Magic Hair Moxie Girlz at some point in the future, especially if there's interest, but today's going to be all about Bratz:

Bratz Head Gamez Yasmin by MGA Entertainment (2005).

These dolls came out some time during 2005, which makes them one of the two earliest head-swapping dolls in my series.  Mattel's My Scene Swappin' Styles dolls also came out in 2005, but I haven't been able to determine which line was introduced first.  I guess at this point it doesn't matter so much who did it first, but who did it best.  We shall see.

Promotional photos for these dolls don't seem to exist online (2005 was a long time ago...), but as far as I can tell, wave one of Head Gamez included five characters: Cloe, Meygan, Dana, Yasmin, and Jade.  

Four of the girls (Cloe, Meygan, Dana, and Yasmin) were sold as separate dolls with no extra head included.  They came packaged in narrow plastic boxes like this:

Head Gamez Yasmin from 2005.

There were also five extra heads available for each of those four characters (that's a total of twenty extra heads!).  These came packaged separately and had a variety of hairstyles, eye colors, makeup palettes, and jewelry:

One of Yasmin's five extra heads.

Jade's character only appeared as an extra head option in a large set featuring Cloe:

The only Head Gamez commercial I could find was for this same large set:

The "head for fashion" line is pretty cute, but I can already see that we have an Artsy problem here: Cloe, Meygan, Dana, and Jade can apparently all swap heads, otherwise this set wouldn't work.  But Yasmin has a darker skin tone so she's left out of the mix.

That probably explains why when I was shopping for new-in-box Head Gamez dolls, Yasmin was the only one whose price didn't give me heart palpitations.  Most of the single characters cost $80 and up these days, and that large set with Cloe and three heads?  That's in the $300-$600 range:

Gulp.

The Head Gamez line continued into 2006, but was re-branded as Design Your Own Bratz--not to be confused with Create-a-Bratz, which is from 2015.

Most of the Design Your Own Bratz sets come with a doll and an extra head, and these rarely show up on eBay for less than $200:

Tempting...but no.

There was also a large Design Your Own set featuring Rina (and I think this was the only appearance of Rina's character ever in Bratz world).  I hate to think how much that set costs nowadays!  I couldn't even find it for sale.

Anyway, given these prices, I wasn't sure I'd be able to afford to do this review at all.  However, because Yasmin tends to be less expensive than the others (I paid $50) and it's possible to find new extra heads for around $50, I decided to give it a go.

$100 worth of Head Gamez.

Because I tend to like the redheaded Meygan character, and wanted to do some skin tone comparisons, I also purchased a gently-used Meygan for twenty bucks:

This review will focus mainly on Yasmin, but I'll bring Meygan back again at the end.

See you later, Yas.

I've already shown you Yasmin's box, but let's go back to that for a sec:

This is one of two packaging variations seen with the Head Gamez dolls.  It has cardboard inserts inside the plastic with some information like Yasmin's name, and a hint at how the head-swapping will work. 

There's also some noseless artwork of Yasmin decorating the purple cardboard section at the bottom:

That rendering of Yasmin makes me think of Janice from The Muppet Show:

Also noseless with big lips.

The back of the box is all cardboard, with another noseless Yasmin and some steps for how to design your own Bratz:

The steps are basically pick a doll, snap a new head on her, then choose some clothes.

Then do it over and over again (or buy more heads and clothing, please).

There's no date on the bottom of the box, which is frustrating, but I know this Yasmin is from 2005:

Yasmin and her backdrop slid easily out of the plastic box:

The plastic on my box had gotten scratched and dirty over the years, so Yasmin looked a lot better once she was out!

The world isn't blurry!

Now it's easier to see the writing on the cardboard decorations:

When they say "1st time ever!" above the snap-on fashion head promotion, I wonder if they mean first time ever for Bratz, or first time ever for any doll?  That would imply that MGA came up with this idea before Mattel.

Also, it says "for use with Bratz Head Gamez dolls and board game."  Board game?  That certainly got my attention!  I'm gonna have to figure out how these heads can be used for a board game.

Yasmin herself is nice.  Other than an obvious defect in her lip paint, she's a great version of the character:

And she has a nose!

But, extracting her from the backdrop was absolutely no fun at all.  Apparently MGA's insistence on stressful, overdone packaging is not a new thing:

Creating de-boxing headaches since 2005.

And I guess Yasmin requires operating instructions?

That sounds serious.

I was expecting several steps and many helpful tips, but it's a single picture with instructions to "snap a new Fashion Head onto the neck plug for a whole new look," and then "pull on the Fashion Head to remove it:" 

I think I can handle that.

There's also a warning that you shouldn't try to yank the heads off regular Bratz dolls as it will permanently damage them.  Sounds like good advice.

With her big feet, Yasmin is able to balance on her own, and looked pretty great right out of the box!

I really like her face.  She has saucy side-glancing eyes and a pretty skin tone:

And she has good neck articulation, so she can tip her head to stare coyly right at the camera:

Her hair is light brown with blonde highlights, and the fiber feels like high-quality saran:

The haircut is a little uneven at the back, and the hairstyle is simple, with a section of hair on either side of the face pulled back into a small ponytail.

The rooting looks pretty good, with dense rows near the hairline and the side part, and a bit of visible scalp towards the middle of the head:

Here's Yasmin from the side:

She has a typical Bratz profile, with large lips and a tiny nose.  She also has pierced ears with little silver earrings:

The earrings are removable studs with a molded gemstone pattern:

Here's a peek at the naked ear:

It's funny that the ears have more molded definition than any other part of Yasmin's face.

There might not be a lot of molded detail in Yasmin's face, but her painted features are great:

Her eyes are blue in the center and brown around the outside, with nice iris lines and simple reflective dots.  The eye paint is glossy and clear, with no pixelation:

And she has her signature birthmark under the left eye.

Yasmin's eyeshadow is two-toned, with shimmery pink below the eyelid crease, and matte brown above it.  She also has long painted upper lashes and dark stamped lower lashes that are a bit too high on the right side:

Yasmin has dusty pink lips with an open-mouth mold and visible teeth:

It's too bad about that area of missing paint on the upper lip.  But from a distance, I still think Yasmin looks great, and has plenty of Bratz attitude:

Her outfit is a burgundy mini dress with criss-cross ribbon straps and a layered tulle skirt:

A multi-piece outfit would have been more interesting here, but I appreciate the simplicity and easy-of-use with this dress.

Things are a little messy in back, with a black velcro closure and thread ends sticking out here and there:

Here's the dress on its own:

The construction is decent, but my dress has some kind of white crusty substance on one side:

I won't think too much about that.

Bratz clothing often gets re-used, and this dress originated as Ooh La La Kumi's extra outfit from 2001:

The exact same dress was used several times after 2005 as well.  It's a cute, versatile dress, so I can see why it made so many appearances over the years.

Yasmin's shoes are lovely little strappy high-heeled sandals that match the color of the dress.  These are molded to her feet in typical Bratz style:

This design is odd (as are the toeless feet), but it allows for some delicate shoe designs that wouldn't be possible with conventional vinyl footwear.

The only way to change the shoes is to change the feet, but they're easy to snap on and off:

Underneath her clothing, Yasmin has a plastic body with bendable vinyl arms and rubbery legs with internal knee joints.  She has nine points of articulation:

And very strange underwear.

Here she is from the back:

Where the underwear still looks strange.

Her torso has a 2001 copyright, so I gather she shares a body with the very first Bratz dolls:

Maybe it's the hips that are strange?

Yasmin's neck has good articulation.  She can turn her head all around and lift it up and down:

She can also tip her head from side to side:

As I mentioned earlier, this type of articulation is nice for dolls with side-glancing eyes, because it's easy to get them to look at the camera.

Because Yasmin is a head-swapping doll, I figured I might as well pop her head off right away so that we can see the neck joint up close:

The head was not actually very easy to get off, though.  I pulled and pulled and had a moment where I thought maybe I'd made a huge mistake and this wasn't a head-swapping doll??  But then I remembered the Operating Instructions and persisted until I got the head off.

I was surprised to find some yellowed glue around the joint:

Maybe that's why it was hard to pull off?

There was glue on the head side of the joint, too:

Hm.

I had more fleeting thoughts about this not being a head-swapping doll at this point.  But maybe glue from inside the head dripped down into the neck joint over the years?  There's certainly no reason for the neck to have glue on it.

Anyway, the back of Yasmin's head has a 2001 copyright on it:

I popped her head back on so that I could continue to look at the joints.

Her shoulders are rotating hinges that allow her arms to lift up and away from her body:

She can also spin her arms around:

She has no elbow or wrist joints, but because her arms are made out of flexible vinyl, she can be posed in a lot of ways if her arms are held in position:

Her legs are also quite bendy, so even though she has no side-to-side movement in her hips, her legs have some sideways movement:

And she can do great front-to-back splits:

This are some looong legs.

Her click knees aren't super-flexible:

But she can sit in a chair without looking completely ridiculous:

Only sort-of ridiculous.

And since her feet are removable, she has rotational movement in her ankles.  This helps a lot with her balance:

Yasmin doesn't have a huge posing repertoire, but I appreciate that she has good balance and doesn't need a stand most of the time:

One thing I noticed at this point was that Yasmin's head was wobbly.  Suddenly, she looked like this more often than not:

And my ceiling isn't that interesting.

Thinking back, I suspect the change came after I removed Yasmin's head.  I felt like she was holding poses really well right out of the box, but then she went all bobblehead on me.

However, at this point she could still maintain her head position well enough for me to snap a few portraits:

And she's a very photogenic doll.

As much as I like Yasmin's original head, I was eager to try something different!

I like the glamorous look of this extra head, although the hairstyle is not very different from the original:

Yasmin's other head variants have more elaborate hair, but this was the head that I could afford.

The heads come in boxes that are basically shorter versions of the doll packaging.  There's a very similar design the back of the box, with the noseless cartoon Yasmin and the three steps for designing a Bratz:

And there's no date on the bottom of this box, either:

The head is mounted to a cardboard backdrop that slides easily out of the plastic box:

It looks like this head comes with the same Operating Instructions that we saw with the doll.

The head also came with a lip paint defect that I noticed right away.  There's a spot of light pink paint on the edge of Yasmin's lip liner:

Fortunately, I was able to scrape most of this away with my fingernail:

The head was a pain to de-box, but I've talked enough about that already.

Here's Yasmin, free from all of her packaging:

The rooting on this head looks about the same as what we saw on the original head--maybe even better:

Nice and dense and even.

The hair is also a little longer, with more highlights.

The face paint is very different from the original face, with purple and brown eyes, fewer lower lashes, and three layers of shimmery eyeshadow:

It's a nice face-up.

I especially like the lip paint.  The majority of the mouth is painted a metallic lavender color, but the lip liner is a bold, dark pink:

The makeup goes really well with the burgundy dress:

She looks good.

Here she is from the back:

The even hair length is nice.

The thing is, I was really struggling with Yasmin's head articulation at this point.  The weight of the longer hair was making the head fall backwards all of the time:

Wow, Emily.  Your ceiling is boring.

I was still able to get a few portraits, though, by jamming the head into position and hoping that it would stay put for a few seconds:

This is my favorite picture of Yasmin:

I really like this doll, except for that wobbly head.

I decided to get Meygan out and see how she compares:

Head Gamez Yasmin (left) and Meygan (right).

It's funny, because I originally wanted a new-in-box Meygan for this review, assuming that her red hair would make her my favorite, but I actually prefer Yasmin's face.  Meygan is a bit bland in comparison:

I do love her crimped red hair and green eyes, though:

However, even before I took Meygan's head off, her neck joint was loose.  She's another stargazer:

Yup. Boring ceiling.

Since I purchased her used, it's possible that her previous owner removed her head a few times.  I'l never know for sure.

When I tried to pop Meygan's head off myself, I had a really hard time.  It was even worse than with Yasmin.  And, when I finally got the head off, the neck joint was clearly stretched and damaged:

Yikes.  That stinks given how old and expensive this doll is.  Now she's basically ruined.  With only one head swap!

After seeing that joint, I went back and looked at Yasmin's neck more closely.  Sure enough, the vinyl is white from being stretched too much there, too:

Compare that to how the joint looked earlier in the review:

This explains the bobblehead syndrome, I guess.

I'm hearing angry voices from the internet yelling at me right now that I should have heated the head before I tried to remove it.  But really?  This is a head-swapping doll, and if it had been designed well, I wouldn't need to use heat.  It's also a child's toy.  Are kids going to stop their games to go use a hair dryer to swap heads?  They shouldn't have to.

That said, I certainly used heat to swap the heads from this point on, and I would advise anyone who buys one of these dolls as a collectible to do the same.  How disappointing, though.

So much for the simplicity of the original Operating Instructions:

MGA's Surprise Swap Tweens have a similar neck joint, if you recall: 

But for some reason these connectors don't stretch out when the heads are pulled off.  They might be made out of plastic and not vinyl.  Or maybe the age of the Bratz dolls has something to do with it?

Despite my frustrations, I actually bought one more head for this review, because I'm insane I wanted to do some skin tone comparisons.  It's pretty clear that Meygan and Yasmin can't share heads, but I was curious to see if Meygan's complexion matched one of the other pale characters.

I found a really pretty Dana head on eBay for under $40.  Let's see if it matches:

I couldn't tell for sure if the skin tones would match while the head was still in the box, so I got it out.  This looks promising!

There's potential.

With the head in place, I don't feel like it matches Meygan's body perfectly, but it's close.  The head looks slightly darker, with more orange tones:

But wow.  I really like this Dana!

Her grey-blue eyes go well with Meygan's dark blue dress, and I love the glamorous ponytail:

Keep in mind, though, that each of these portraits was a struggle.  It was very hard to keep Dana's head from lolling backwards.

She hid it well, though, and was fun to photograph!

I was tempted to end things right here, especially because of my disappointment with the head-swapping mechanism, but the whole board game idea was too tantalizing to ignore.

So, I found a beat-up (but relatively complete) game on eBay so that I could investigate further:

The game, which cost me $45, comes with three extra heads, so I figured that at the very least, this would be an economical way to test out more heads!

The tagline for the game is "be the first to beautify your Bratz," and it includes real makeup and accessories:

So I'm guessing that there's a makeover theme to this game.

It says "2 to 6 player game" on the top of the box, but there are only three heads.  I guess players can share heads?  I wouldn't want to share a head; I'd want to make my own style choices!

The heads are Cloe, Meygan, and Yasmin:

That works well for me since I have both Yasmin and Meygan dolls!

The back of the box is packed with information:

On the left side, two girls are playing the game and they each have a styling head and some little accessories in front of them:

The small text in the middle says, "it's a cosmetic competition as you race to make up and accessorize your Bratz first!  No matter who wins, it's always funky fashion fun!"  And then it says all of that again in French:

It's refreshing to see a photo like this and be certain that it wasn't created by stupid AI.

But, call me old fashioned, those girls look a little young to be worried about makeup.

Anyway, the right side of the box has noseless cartoon versions of four characters, which I guess are Yasmin, Meygan, Jade, and Cloe:

All the Muppets.

I wonder why Jade was left out of the game?  Or Dana, for that matter?  I like a bit of character continuity.

Lower down on the right side, there's a photo and list of everything that's included:

This is hard to read, but I see a lot of makeup, hair accessories, and little sticker sheets.

My game was in really gross condition, with lots of melted makeup, little bits of disintegrated rubber bands, and other unidentified old debris.  And there weren't any instructions.

The sticker sheets are in decent shape, though, and include earrings and necklaces:

I can't imagine that these stickers will last through too many uses, which severely reduces the longevity of the game.  Maybe MGA sold replacement packs?

Some of the items were too gross to put on my table, but here are a few of the hair clips and some melted makeup:

There are also some dice: one with conventional pips, one with a choice of cheeks, lips, or eyes, and another with hair, necklace, and earrings options:

Last, there's a deck of cards:

The cards influence a player's movement on the board in good or bad ways.  For example, this one says to switch places with any opponent and follow the instructions on their space:

This one says you have to remove a hair accessory:

Remove you, hair accessory?

This one allows the player to roll the Funky Fashion die!

But this one makes you remove all earrings and necklaces go back to the start:

Brutal.

So, best I can tell, the idea is to roll the normal die and progress around the board, adding accessories, makeup, and hairstyles to your Bratz head as you go.  Here's the full board:

To move around the board, players use cardboard cutouts of Cloe, Yasmin, or Meygan:

Yasmin and Meygan look very similar.

I suppose the winner is whoever gets to the finish first?  I had to go to my most trusted board game resource, Board Game Geek, for some answers.

There's very little information there (and only one rating--of a measly 1 point), but the official description says: "It's funky fashion fun as you travel the board, pickin' up cosmetics and accessories to make over your Bratz™ girl! If your Bratz™ is completely made up and you reach the end first, you win!"

So you have to finish first and have a completely made up Bratz doll in order to win.  Got it.

I can't imagine that this game was a success.  It doesn't sound fun to me at all, and would have been a nightmare to clean up and store.  Also, some of those cards (lose everything and go back to the start??) are just tantrums waiting to happen.

However, I was very excited about the three included heads!

The heads came attached to a backdrop, and were predictably difficult to remove from said backdrop:

Also, all of the heads were, um...sweating?

They all had sticky oozing liquid on their faces:

I assume this is because the heads were coated with something to protect them from repeated makeup applications, but wow.  After twenty years in storage, the coating looks (and feels) gross, gross, gross.

I washed all of the heads with mild dish soap and then dunked them in boiling water.  This removed the sticky coating--at least temporarily--and straightened the hair:

Here's a close-up of Cloe, who had the worst ooze, after her bath:

That's better.

I like the color of her eyes and her lined lips, but her eyes seem too big.  And her hair looks and feels very thin.  It's also not saran, but probably a lower-quality nylon.

The rooting is definitely inferior to what we saw on the regular dolls, too:

Yikes.

It's disappointing that these heads are not up to the same standard as the other heads.  But what did I expect from a board game?

At least the sticker earrings and necklace work...

...for a minute.  That earring fell off the moment I moved Cloe.  The necklace stayed in place better.

I was eager to try the new heads on my two bodies, so I popped the Yasmin head on first:

She looks okay, I guess, but something's off.  She's not as dynamic as the other two Yasmins.  I think it's mostly her hair: it's thin and monochromatic, and the hairline is high.  There's also not as much expression in her eyes.

I tried the Meygan head on my Meygan body, and the head basically just spun around.  That neck joint is completely shot at this point:

The hair on this head is pretty, though, with two shades of red and a fun criss-cross part on top:

I eventually managed to get Meygan to look at me for a head shot:

Again, I don't like this head anywhere near as much as the one that came with my Meygan doll.  It's not as special.

Before I tried the Cloe head, I wrapped a clear rubber band around the base of the neck joint.  I read online that this can help stabilize neck wobbliness:

The rubber band definitely helps keep the head from tipping back, but it also restricts the overall movement.  So it's a decent fix for photography, but not great for posing or play:

It was enough to get a good picture of Cloe, anyway.  Her skin tone matches Meygan's really well:

If it weren't for that thin, scraggly hair (and overly big eyes), this head and body combination would make for a nice doll.

This was by no means an exhaustive look at the Head Gamez line, but I feel like I got a good sampling.  And with all of the different combinations that I tried for this review, my favorite is still Yasmin.  And I like her extra head best.  I like the original Yasmin head a lot, too, but the extra head has a touch more flare and nicer hair:

Bottom line?  I haven't done very many Bratz reviews, especially considering the 13 years that I've been reviewing dolls.  I think it was just Create-A-Bratz Sadie, Mowalola Felicia, the amazing Secret Date set from 2004, and the guest overview by Samehch.  Well, and also the Li'l Angelz, Bratz Catz, and Mini Bratz if you want to count those.  So this review was a great chance for me to get a close look at a few more of the earlier offerings.

I can definitely see why the early Bratz dolls catapulted this brand to its current fame and longevity.  If I look at Yasmin on her own as a regular doll (with either of her heads), she's great.  Her facial screening is well done, with clear glossy eyes, lots of little details, and a fierce expression that makes her stand out.  She has high-quality saran hair that's well-rooted, with a versatile cut and attractive, realistic highlights.  I also like the unique style of the Bratz body, with those huge removable feet.  I may not be a big fan of internal knee joints, but I appreciate any doll who can stand on her own and boast nine points of articulation.  And those bendable arms add even more posing potential.  The clothing in this line is simple, but I like both of the dresses.  They have some style, and are versatile and easy-to-use.  All in all, Yasmin is probably my favorite of any of the Bratz dolls I've owned (or at least the ones I've de-boxed), but that's what makes the next part so depressing.

The bad thing about this line is that the dolls are very poorly designed for head swapping.  They have delicate little vinyl head attachment pieces that are separate from the solid plastic neck.  The top of the attachment piece is a robust ball, but it's mounted on a slender peg that easily gets stretched and warped from the stress of pulling the head off.  And, once that little peg gets stretched, the otherwise excellent neck articulation is ruined.  So, after only a few head changes, both my Yasmin and Meygan dolls are permanently damaged.  My advice to anyone investing in these dolls is to always heat the heads before trying to remove them.  But that's what you'd have to do with any doll; it shouldn't be necessary for a doll marketed specifically for regular, easy head changes.  So, basically, I don't consider the Head Gamez dolls to be true head-swappers.

Another word of warning is that the heads included with the board game are not of the same quality as the heads that are sold separately.  The board game heads have thinly-rooted hair with high hairlines.  The hair fiber isn't saran, either, but a lower-quality synthetic.  The faces on these heads also come coated with some type of sealant that oozes out of the vinyl over time and makes a sticky mess.  In fact, the entire board game didn't age well due to the inclusion of so much real makeup.

I'd love the chance to go back in time and re-purchase Yasmin with the knowledge that I have now.  She's a well-made, attractive doll who's full of attitude--and she's a great piece of Bratz history.  She could probably even withstand one or two careful head changes, but anything more than that is game over.