My Scene Swappin' Styles Barbie by Mattel

Here we are on the final head-swapping review of the series!  Or at least that's what I thought.  As a few of you mentioned in the comments, Mattel has recently come out with their new Barbie Basics line, and these dolls have...wait for it...swappable heads!  They also have Made to Move bodies.  Eee!  I immediately bought all five dolls (gulp) and am eager to take a closer look at them.  However, the five Basics dolls don't share a common skin tone, so there's not a lot of head-swapping that can happen, yet.  Fortunately, Mattel also announced three You Create kits to accompany the Basics dolls.  These kits have additional heads, bodies, wigs (!), and fashions, which I suspect will add to the fun considerably.  It all reminds me a bit of Monster High's Create-a-Monster kits from 2012...although I hope the quality is better.  Anyway, my plan is to wait until I have at least one You Create kit before I write a review, and while the kits can be pre-ordered now, they won't arrive until April.

That's all very exciting to me, and I can hardly wait for April, but I'm also super-excited about the dolls in this review.  Today we're going back in time to look at a much earlier head-swapping doll from Mattel: My Scene Barbie from 2005:

My Scene Swappin' Styles Barbie by Mattel, 2005.

Back in 2005, these dolls were in direct competition with the Head Gamez Bratz that I looked at last time, so it'll be interesting to see how the two brands compare.

To start with, the My Scene Swappin' Styles sets come with tons of stuff--especially when compared to the original Head Gamez releases.  The set that I own has a doll, two extra heads, and three outfits.  There's some jewelry and small accessories, too.  Here's the promotional photo:

It's almost like getting three dolls in one.

The prices for these dolls on the secondary market are no less scary than they were for Head Gamez.  I'm particularly amused by this Nolee auction, which has an old $14.98 clearance price tag on it, and is listed as Buy it Now for $250:

That was a pretty good investment.  

There's also an auction for the set I'm featuring in this review.  The old clearance price tag on this one is even lower:

Ten bucks!

The nice thing about this photo is that we can also see the original price: $19.99.  Can you imagine?  I think inflation makes that equivalent to about $33 in 2025 dollars, which is still really good.  I can't think of any fashion dolls on the market today who have three complete outfits (never mind two extra heads!) and cost under $35.  Can you think of any?

The My Scene Swappin' Styles Barbie character tends to sell for between $80 and $130.  I was fortunate to have one of these in my stash, so I didn't have to go shopping.  I've had it for a while and can't remember what I paid:

Not ten bucks.

I didn't buy this set new, but on eBay a while ago--maybe around the time I reviewed Fab Faces Kennedy?  So it's been through a lot.

The most obvious sign of wear is that several of the accessories have come loose and fallen down into the bottom of the box.  This is most apparent on the right side, where there are exposed thread holes:

There's a lot going on with this packaging, so let's go through it all, starting from the upper left hand corner.

Here, there's the Barbie name with "I'm a social butterfly!" underneath:

At first I thought that "I'm a social butterfly" was the My Scene slogan, and was unimpressed.  But I looked it up and actually "my city, my style, my scene" is the slogan--which is way better.  So maybe "I'm a social butterfly" is just this particular character's catch phrase?

The Barbie in the middle has a cardboard speech bubble next to her head that says "I'm goin' for lots of looks and lots of style!"

While sporting big smudges on her nose and chin.

On the right side of the box, it says there are over 240 cool looks with this set:

That's a lot of cool looks!

The bottom left corner of the box has a drawing of Barbie with an advertisement for the three complete outfits:

That's a lot of complete outfits!

The middle of the box has the Swappin' Styles name with cartoons of three different characters:

Chelsea, Barbie, and Madison?

And on the right, there's another picture of Barbie wearing a different look and advertising a total of more than 30 pieces in the set:

That's a lot of pieces!

I'm not sure how Mattel calculated the cool looks that are possible with these 30 pieces, but maybe we can check the math a little later after we see all of the items.

The back of the box is packed with information:

There's a blurb at the top about the My Scene girls:

It says: "life can get so crazy when you're as popular as the My Scene girls! They have so much to do, they're mixin' and matchin' and switchin' and swapping' all kinds of cool styles.  With this many options, they'll look great for every occasion!"

And then there's a picture of Barbie's head coming off:

Decapitatin'

Under that, we get to see the math for the 240+ cool looks statement:

With three hairstyles (three heads), three tops, three bottoms, three purses, and three pairs of shoes, there are 243 combinations (just multiply like they showed: 3 x 3 x 3 x 3 x 3).  Including the purses is a bit of a stretch, though.  Does changing only the purse constitute making a whole new look?  Hm.

Decorating the two edges of the box, there are little pictures of cartoon Barbie wearing many of the different outfit and hair combinations included in this set:

Here's the other side:

I love these little pictures because they remind me of the fashion plates on my 35th Anniversary Barbie's box (and of course her box is a replica of the very first Barbie's box):

At the very bottom of the My Scene box, there are tiny little photos of other products from 2005:

The first wave included Barbie (in this review), Madison, and Nolee.  There was also a carrying case for the extra outfits and heads, which was a good idea.

The pictures on the box are hard to see, so I tracked down the promotional photos for each set.  Here's Madison:

I love the head with red hair!

And here's Nolee:

I like both of these sets a lot.  Madison is a little cheaper on the secondary market right now (about the same price as Barbie) and Nolee is in the $200 range.

While I was researching these sets, I also discovered that "I'm a social butterfly" is, indeed, Barbie's individual catch phrase.  The other two girls have their own sayings.  

Madison says "I'm a shopping superstar!"

I'm also a shopping superstar!

And Nolee says "I'm a sporty glamour girl!"

I'm none of those things.

I already showed you Barbie's promotional photo, but we can look at it again:

From this picture, I can see that Mattel was being modest with their outfit combination count.  If you include jewelry, I see seven bracelets, five necklaces, and four pairs of earrings.  That would make 3 x 3 x 3 x 3 x 3 x 7 x 5 x 4 combinations, which is over 34,000!  Whoa.

Changing jewelry doesn't constitute putting together an entirely new outfit any more than changing purses does, though, so I think Mattel hit a good balance with their 240 number.

I've been getting a little obsessed with older commercials these days, so I hunted down the commercial for the first wave of Swappin' Styles My Scene dolls.  Here it is:

This cracks me up.  I love how the dolls are interacting with real people and flirting with real guys like it's no big deal.  Also, that expression on the bitchy girl's face at the beginning when she says "was your look" is classic.  And I'm obsessed with the ending, where bitchy girl is like, "no, she changed her head!"  Great stuff.

In 2006 there were a few more Swppin' Styles releases.  These were simpler sets, with a doll and a single extra head--much like the second wave of Head Gamez dolls.

In this wave there's Madison:

Kennedy:

And Chelsea:

Madison is the only character repeated from the first wave.

I really like these second wave sets because of the diversity of expressions in the heads.  The open-mouthed smiles on Kennedy and Chelsea are good, but I especially like Madison's sly grin.  This is what I've always wished Mattel had done with the Swappin' Styles Fashionistas!

The commercial for the second wave is not as entertaining as the first one:

It's just some funky jazz music (totally a ripoff of Cantaloupe Island by Herbie Hancock) with photos of the dolls showing off their outfits and swapping heads.  No bitchy girls or cute guys in sight.

Okay, but let's get back to the actual Barbie doll in this review, shall we?

The backdrop pulled easily out of the plastic box, and with all of the old plastic out of the way, everything was much easier to see!

I could get a nice clear look at all three heads.  Here's the first:

The second:

And the third:

There's no variety in the face molds here, which is too bad.  And all three of the heads have side-glancing eyes that look to the left, which is irritating.  But the heads are very pretty, and I like the different hair and makeup combinations.

The backdrop itself has a decorative pattern on the front and the back.  I'm not sure I've ever seen this before.  The pattern is easiest to see on the back, where the doll and accessories aren't in the way:

Groovy.

The de-boxing process was fairly straightforward, with some threads and old rubber bands that needed to be cut.  There were plastic ties in all of the heads, too.

Here's everything that was in the box:

That's a good pile of loot.

There's a dark outfit with predominantly black, green, and red colors:

The red purse in that group technically goes with the outfit that Barbie is wearing in the box, but it works pretty well with this color palette, too.

The second outfit is more preppy, as Barbie said in the commercial, and has a baby blue and green theme:

Definitely preppy.

This group of items seemed a little small compared to the first one, so I checked everything against the promotional photo.

I seem to be missing two things:

That picture is so blurry, it's hard to tell what the items are, but they look like a pink drink with a straw and a green...something.

I did some hunting around online and found in-box real life pictures to help me.  The green thing looks like a small clutch purse:

Before cell phones were ubiquitous.

I couldn't find evidence of the drink anywhere, though.  Maybe it got cut before production?

Each of the two heads matches a particular outfit.  The ponytail head goes with the preppy clothes, and the head with blonde hair on top and dark hair in back goes with the other ensemble:

A head for every occasion.

I put these extra heads aside for a minute so I could get a good look at Barbie with her original clothes and head:

She balances on her own quite well without a stand, which is nice since no stand is included.

The face is cute, but it's my least favorite face of the bunch, with that bright makeup and scraggly bangs that obscure the eyes:

Here's Barbie from the side:

She's wearing fancy dangle earrings made out of metallic gold plastic:

The earrings are removable, which is nice for brushing the hair:

The earrings coordinate with Barbie's gold necklace, which I really love.  I'd totally wear a necklace like that.

Here are the necklace and earrings on their own:

Barbie also has gold pins in her hair:

The hair itself is lightly crimped blonde saran.  I usually love saran, but this hair feels dry and brittle.  I don't think it's aged very well over the past 20 years.

I tried brushing the hair, and a lot of it fell out--as evidenced by my brush:

Some of the hair didn't fall completely out, but rather made a longer layer in back:

Trying to fall out.

I snipped off the longer bits, which tidied things up:

Despite the dry texture and messy bangs, I like the elaborate style of this hair.  There's a twisted bun on the very top of the head that's tied in place with thread, but made to look like it's held in place with pins:

The rooting in this head is also good, with nice dense plugs and not a lot of visible scalp:

The hair is a little messy, overall, but it frames the face dramatically:

It's strange to me that all three of the heads have side-glancing eyes.  I love side-glancing eyes, but would have preferred to have at least one forward-glancing head.  Still, it's possible to get Barbie to look at the camera, which I appreciate:

Much to my relief, I was also able to rub away the smudges on her face.

Barbie has very light aqua-blue eyes, and lips that are blush pink in the middle with a bright purple liner:

Underneath the scraggly bangs, she has sparse, long, painted eyelashes and five layers of eyeshadow.  There's a swath of brown just above her eye, and then layers of purple and pink surrounded by subtle gold:

While not my particular taste, the makeup colors here are bright and fun, and the quality of the face paint is good.  The eyes aren't glossy, like they are on the Bratz Head Gamez dolls, but they look fine.

Barbie's outfit consists of a satiny Asian-inspired tube top paired with jeans and high-heeled sandals:

The top and jeans both close in back with velcro, although the jeans don't close without some effort:

She'll never be able to sit in those jeans.

The top is well-made, with little darts at the bust line, and delicate gold ribbon trim at the top and bottom:

The construction is simple, with un-reinforced seams, but everything is very neat and precise:

The jeans have a pink imitation leather belt around half of the waistline (the back is plain), and white stitched details:

The velcro seam in back looks a little cheap, with raw edges and some fraying fabric:

My Scene shoes are interesting.   Here, the sandals are molded onto toeless feet that are much larger than the actual feet of the doll.   This appears to be a pretty blatant copy of Bratz feet:

With the shoe-feet removed, you can see how tiny Barbie's actual feet are in comparison:

These large, chunky foot-shoes are nice because, as we saw with the Bratz dolls, they help a lot with balance.  There's no way that Barbie would be able to stand on her own with just those tiny, rubbery feet.  Unlike Bratz, though, the shoes don't offer an extra point of articulation.

Speaking of articulation, let's take a quick look at that.

Barbie has a plastic body with rubbery legs and seven points of articulation:

She has the same head-swapping mechanism as the Swappin' Styles Fashionistas, with a removable torso section.  The edges of the removable part are fairly well-concealed along the bra line:

I feel like the Fashionista seam line is more subtle, but that could be my imagination:

It looks like the fit is better.

There's a button on Barbie's back that releases the torso:

Here's a closer look:

There's also a 1999 copyright stamped on the back.  My Scene dolls came out later, in 2002, so we know that they shared a body with regular Barbies from that time period.  They look dramatically different because of their large heads and big shoe-feet.

When the button on Barbie's head is depressed, the torso can easily be removed:

I was dying to know if the Swappin' Styles My Scene dolls could share heads with the Swappin' Styles Fashionistas.  That would have been so cool.  But, alas, they cannot:

It's close, too, which is extra-frustrating.  I'd love to be able to swap a My Scene head onto the better-articulated Fashionista body.

Oh--right.  Articulation.  That's what I was supposed to be talking about.

Barbie's head has great mobility.  She can look up and down:

And to the side:

And she can tip her head back and forth:

I don't know why I always make a GIF for the side-to-side movement.  It's hypnotic to look at.

Barbie's shoulders are rotating hinges that allow her to lift her arms up and away from her body to almost ninety degrees:

And she can spin her arms around:

Her elbows and wrists are unarticulated, and her arms do not have much bend in them.

Barbie doesn't have any side-to-side movement in her hips, but her legs are rubbery, so she can do a very uncomfortable and unnatural version of a side-to-side split:

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

She has internal click knees, boo, which have limited bending capacity:

She can sit in a chair...but her feet have no hope of reaching the ground:

The My Scene body does not have great articulation.  It's better than some of the current Fashionistas, I guess, but the absence of elbow joints is tough.  I preferred the Head Gamez Bratz articulation, where at least we had bendable arms and an extra rotational joint at the ankle.

Still, Barbie can strike a few nice poses, and her face is so captivating that I tend to be focused mostly on that:

When I got Barbie redressed, I put her into the blue and green preppy outfit:

The accessories that match this outfit are the green purse and four bracelets:

There's also a silver heart necklace that would go with anything:

My favorite accessories are the two smaller bracelets with their tiny little designs.  One has a watch face and the other has a green butterfly:

The long cuffs of the shirt don't accommodate bracelets well, though.

No room for bracelets.

The necklace works fairly well with the neckline of the shirt, but the pendant always sticks out a bit:

This clothing itself is a cropped sweater over a striped collared shirt, worn with jeans and blue flats:

The top is the most interesting part of this outfit, with the neatly ribbed sweater neckline and striped collared shirt.  The shirt is actually attached to the sweater, though, so it's all one piece:

The jeans have a polka-dotted green sash belt around half of the waistline, with stitched pockets and fly:

Both the sweater and the jeans close in back with velcro and are fairly easy to get on and off, although the friction from Barbie's rubbery legs makes the jeans stick a little:

I also had some trouble getting Barbie's hands through the sleeves of the sweater because her fingers kept getting caught on thread loops.  I had to cover the fingers with tape, which is a trick I learned fairly recently.

The shoe-feet in this outfit have very tiny heels and molded white straps that run up the ankle.  This creates a slightly awkward transition at the ankle:

Here's the head that matches this outfit:

I love the blue butterfly necklace that comes with this head!

The head also has hair elastics with blue plastic squares that coordinate with the sweater:

I snapped this head on Barbie's body to get the complete look:

She looks really cute, and the butterfly necklace works a bit better with this neckline than the heart necklace did.

I tried brushing out the ringlet ponytails, but that just made them look messy:

You can see the mix of colors better now, though.  The base hair is light blonde, and there are several different lowlights mixed in.

Here's the view from the back, where there's a nice rooted part:

I took the ponytails down to see if I could tidy up the hair.  

The rooting is thick--if a bit random.  I also see a few empty holes.  But the overall thickness of the hair feels good:

After spending so much time in ponytails, this hair did not want to relax!

The texture of the saran feels really smooth, though.  It's not dry and brittle like the original head.

I'll boil this hair later, but for now it looks good in a single ponytail:

With the hair pulled back, we can get a nice clear look at the face.

This version of Barbie has the same eyebrows, eyelash pattern, and aqua blue eye color as the original head, but the makeup is very different:

I really like the rose pink lipstick with its burgundy liner.  And the eyeshadow is dramatic, with layers of brown, gold, purple, and dusty rose:

I definitely prefer this head to the original.

However, I put the original head back on in order to test out the third outfit:

I really love this outfit.  The colors are beautiful, and there's a lot of detail.  For example, look at the little metal grommets and the metal buckle on the mini skirt!

The cropped shirt is very cute on its own, but the outfit also comes with a padded green vest:

The vest is really well made and fully lined:

This outfit also includes big black boots with green and silver strap accents:

The boots slide on and off easily, help with Barbie's balance, and don't have an awkward shoe/leg transition.

Two of the purses go well with this outfit, although the black one probably coordinates best:

Here's a closer look:

The shorter sleeves on this top mean that Barbie can wear some of her bracelets, too:

Here are the three bracelets that go with this outfit:

This ensemble also includes a pendant necklace and hoop earrings.  The necklace goes well with the shirt, but it's hard to see the earrings under Barbie's big hair!

Here's the jewelry on its own:

Unlike the preppy set, this outfit came with a clutch purse and a coordinating drink, but Barbie can't hold either of these items:

Here's the head that matches this outfit:

It comes with a black choker necklace and an adorable pair of cherry earrings:

The head, with it's underlayer of black hair, goes really well with the black skirt and boots:

Here's Barbie again with the green vest added in:

This head is lovely, and the hair didn't require any extra effort.  Everything looked good right out of the box:

I tied the hair back for a moment so that I could get some close-ups of the face.

The eyebrows and eye color are the same as the other two heads, but this time there's a different eyelash pattern.  The lash shapes are short and spiky, and the upper lashes run along almost the entire length of the eye:

This head has dark red lips with a burgundy liner, and relatively simple eyeshadow, with bands of baby blue, salmon, and faint gold:

I like all three of the heads in this set, but especially the two extra heads.  They're very pretty, with detailed makeup and beautiful faces that make me think of Disney Princesses.

However, I was still feeling a bit bummed that there's no diversity in facial expression or eye position.  I wanted a head that would really change Barbie's look!

So, on a whim, I purchased two used heads from eBay.  One is a second wave Chelsea head, and the other is a first wave Nolee head:

I'm gonna call this head Bad Choices Chelsea:

I almost instantly regretted my desire for a new facial expression.  Wow.  This girl has an open-mouthed smile, which is certainly different, but her lips are coated in glitter, which makes it look like she has crumbs all over her mouth.  Also, rather than colorful bands of eyeshadow, like all three of my Barbie heads, Chelsea has a huge swath of brown that makes it look like she hasn't slept for days:

The forward-glancing eyes are a nice change, but they look slightly crossed and give Chelsea a dazed, dorky look.

And the glitter is so random and messy:

Is there glitter on her teeth?

Putting the Chelsea head on Barbie's body didn't improve the situation very much:

The skin tones don't match, which is most obvious along the torso seam, but actually the mismatch doesn't bother me as much as I thought it would.

I boiled Chelsea's hair, which helped a little, but the cut is uneven and I couldn't really figure out what the bangs are supposed to be doing:

I actually have the set that this head came from, still in box, so we can see what Chelsea is supposed to look like:

The fancy up-do makes the hair look better, and the glitter is slightly more convincing when it isn't partially worn off, but I still dislike the glitter on the mouth.  And I'm not a fan of the eyes or the eye makeup.

Still, I love that these second wave sets have two heads with completely different expressions.  Madison's secondary head is my favorite, with that lopsided smile:

Too bad about all of the glitter.

Nolee's head has a cute expression and no glitter:

Her skin tone doesn't match the Barbie body, either

She might be even paler than Chelsea.

But I like this head's smiling eyes, and her lips have a nice upturned shape with a beautiful burgundy color:

She reminds me of Belle from Beauty and the Beast.

I think this is the same face mold as Barbie, but the eyes and lips are painted to make those features look quite different!

Nolee has purple eyes, which is unusual, but I think they're very pretty:

I boiled Nolee's hair, which smoothed it out a bit:

She looks great in Barbie's striped shirt!  What a lovely doll.  Now I want to play with her entire set.  If only I could still buy it for $14.

The last thing I did for this review was play around with as many of the outfit and head combinations as I could think of--leaving out the Chelsea and Nolee heads for simplicity.

First, here's the original Barbie head wearing the tube top, green vest, and preppy jeans:

I like the look of the tube top with the vest, but it pairs better with the black skirt:

And a few bracelets!

I was reluctant to try the black skirt with the preppy sweater, since the styles of these two items are so different, but it doesn't look terrible!

And I was able to push up the sleeves to accommodate several bracelets.

After I boil-washed the ponytail head, I tried it with a few different outfits, too, like the striped shirt with the black skirt and boots:

I love her hair even more now, by the way.  It's silky and wonderful.

She also looks good with the green vest and preppy jeans:

I think this head looks elegant when the hair is pulled back, especially with the satiny tube top and black skirt:

I mixed up a lot of things for the third head, pairing it with the green vest, preppy jeans, and tube top:

I think I actually tried that outfit combination already, but was having a hard time keeping track in the moment.

I like how this head's lip color brings out the red areas in the tube top:

It doesn't look quite as good in the full preppy outfit:

But she's still lovely:

My favorite combination out of everything I tried is the ponytail head wearing the striped shirt, green vest, and black skirt:

Everything works here, and the long hair on this head is so nice to play with:

Bottom line?  This has been a fun series for me, mostly because I find the process of changing doll heads highly entertaining.  I'm also happy about the serendipitous alignment of this series with Mattel's new You Create line.  I'd have been sad to end things today thinking that there might not be any more head-swappers on the horizon.

In terms of head-swapping quality, I somehow managed to save the best for last.  My Scene Barbie has a removable upper torso, just like her Fashionista cousins, and this is my favorite method for changing heads.  The mechanism is super-easy to use, with no tugging or pulling required, and there's no compromise to neck mobility.  Also, the seams of the torso piece are subtle, and well-concealed under most clothing.  It was hard to pick a head-swapping favorite between the Swappin' Styles Fashionistas and My Scene, but I slightly prefer the My Scene version because the heads are more engaging.  I also like the diversity of face molds and expressions in the second wave of dolls.  This is exactly what I felt was missing when I reviewed the Fashionistas.

As a bonus, My Scene Barbie is a great doll even without considering her head-swapping capabilities.  She has a beautiful face with well-applied paint and three vibrant makeup variations.  I wish there was some difference in the eye placement among the three heads, but it's hard to be critical of well-positioned side-glancing eyes.  The hair on all of the heads is high-quality saran with dense rooting and a nice mix of colors and hairstyles.  As a set, the heads offer three distinct versions of what is clearly the same character--a cohesiveness that was missing from MGA's Surprise Swap Tweens.

The most pleasant surprise was how much I enjoyed the amazing mix-and-match wardrobe.  In general, dressing and undressing dolls for these reviews is one of my least favorite things to do, but I actually had a blast trying out different outfit combinations with this set.  It was very rewarding.  Despite the diversity of styles and color combinations in the separate pieces, most of the assembled outfits look good.  The jewelry in this set is also more interesting to me than doll jewelry tends to be.  The gold necklace, butterfly necklace, and cherry earrings are especially great, and I even had fun mixing and matching the large selection of bracelets.

One thing that I wish was different with these dolls is their articulation.  The lack of elbow and wrist joints was particularly frustrating to me.  I really wish that the heads were interchangeable with the Swappin' Styles Fashionistas.  Then I could have the best of both worlds: an articulated Fashionista body with an assortment of My Scene heads.

Reviewing these dolls on the heels of Bratz Head Gamez enhanced their appeal for me.  After struggling so much with head removal on the Bratz dolls, I was extra-appreciative of the smooth head-swapping mechanism on the My Scene girls.  It was so easy to switch between the five different heads, and I didn't have to worry about damaging the neck joints.  It's a brilliant mechanism, and one that I wish Mattel had kept around for longer.  It's a shame that the world only ever got six My Scene Swappin' Styles dolls.  However, if the new Barbie You Create line has the same kind of quality and versatility in the wardrobe options, and the same amount of thought put into their head-swapping technology, then we're in for a real treat.