2025 Barbie Basics by Mattel

There's been a lot of bleak news in this country lately, but I can usually find good stuff to distract me in the doll world.  For example, several new members joined my Patreon community recently, which is really exciting, especially since I haven't had much time for that site since I got a job.  But I have a new post in the pipeline, and am very grateful to those of you who've been keeping this blog running for the last four years.  Your contributions are invaluable--financial and otherwise.  As an example, my newest Patron, Aether, pointed out to me the other day that my List of All Reviews page wasn't working.  Sorry about that!  I have no idea why the code stopped functioning all of a sudden, and I tried to fix it, but as a last resort I'm in the process of manually entering the links to all of my old reviews.  That'll take a while, but should get everything back to normal.

As another fun distraction, I'm here today to take a look at the highly-anticipated new Barbie Basics dolls!  This crew is part of a broader You Create line that Mattel released last month.  All of the dolls have easily removable heads, which makes this review a nice addendum to my recent head-swapping series.

The 2025 Barbie Basics dolls from Mattel, $25 each.

The Barbie Basics were first introduced way back in 2010, and the initial concept lasted through two years, three big collections, and three smaller groups of dolls.  All of these older dolls sold for about $20 and were designed by Bill Greening, who recently left Mattel (very sad).

The Basics dolls that I remember best are from the first group, all of whom are wearing little black dresses: 

Iconic.

I bought Model 09, Adriana, back in 2012 for a comparison review:

ITBE Desirable (left) and Barbie Basics Model 09 (right).

I also owned Model 04, Reine, who is stunning.  She showed up in a few size comparison photos over the years, but was never featured on the blog.

The group I wish I'd bought in its entirety is Collection 002.  All of these dolls are wearing jeans and tee shirts that would be an amazing addition to any modern doll's wardrobe:

Here's a closer look at part of that group:

I literally want all of those clothes for Lena and her friends.

I especially covet Lia, the redhead on the right.  But of course she costs over $100 on eBay these days.

I think the reason I was fairly dismissive of these dolls back in 2012 is that they have Model Muse bodies.  This is an attractive body, for sure, but it has poor articulation.  The dolls only have neck, shoulder, and hip joints.  They're also slimmer than standard Barbies, so I'm not even sure those jeans would fit Lena.

The other memorable Basics group was from Target, and all of the outfits were red, or a mix of red and white:

I think the brunette in the middle, Colette, is especially pretty.

After those initial waves of dolls, there was nothing for 13 years.  I assumed that the Signature Looks dolls  had taken the place of the Basics, but I was wrong!

All of a sudden, we have a new group of five dolls, and, just like the originals, they're all wearing simple black dresses:

But this time around, instead of having minimally-articulated Model Muse bodies, the dolls have wonderful Made to Move articulation and a range of different body types.  

For this review, I purchased all five of the new Basics dolls.  I also bought You Create Kit 001, which has extra bodies and heads that match the skin tone of Model 01:

Barbie Basics Model 01 and her matching You Create Kit.

In order to keep this review to a reasonable length, I'll look at the Basics dolls today, and the You Create Kit in a separate review.

Model 01 is named Kit (or has the Kit face mold)...not to be confused with the You Create Kits.  Or my old deaf dog, Kit:

And you probably know exactly why I chose the name Kit for my dog:

But, look.  With this level of tangent I'm never going to get anywhere today.  Time to focus.

Here's Kit in her box:

Like Kit, the packaging is really attractive.  It's a plain black cardboard window box with clean white lettering.

I prefer this to the all-plastic 2010 packaging, although I think the hint of pink on the old boxes is very classy--and very Barbie:

The glare on these boxes is brutal, though, with the shiny black finish on the cardboard and the highly reflective plastic window.  I took the plastic window out, which helped:

You can see Kit's Model 01 designation, and also that her hair came slicked down and held in place with a band of plastic:

There's no effort to make this doll appealing in her box.  Which is probably a good thing, since these dolls were designed for customization and play.

"Barbie Basics" is written in thin white capital letters at the bottom.  It's a font reminiscent of the original 2010 packaging:

The sides and back of the box are more colorful than the front, with a photograph of the five dolls wrapping around one edge:

The opposite edge has a close-up of Kit by herself:

With very pretty hair.

From the back of the box, you can see four of the five dolls and some text:

Here's a closer look at the text:

It says, "Every Barbie should have the wardrobe essentials.  Barbie Basics makes its comeback with the Little Black Dress - a chic closet classic that always makes its mark.  From demure to daring, these LBDs are made with stretchable fabric for a universal fit and paired with timeless jewelry so that all Barbie Basics dolls can wear, share, and style in their own iconic ways."

That's very clever!  So these dresses can be shared among all of the dolls, despite their body type differences.  I'm eager to test that out.

The top of the box has a small graphic that shows how the head removal will work:

Looks pretty simple.

It looks like a straightforward peg-and-hole attachment.  This makes me nervous since the Bratz Head Gamez dolls also had peg-and-hole attachments, and those were a disaster.

Kit was attached to a plain cardboard backdrop that slid out of the main box.  She was arranged in a fairly generic, slightly awkward pose:

Does she have indigestion?

The stand base is tucked into a cardboard fold behind Kit's legs, and a certificate of authenticity is taped to the backdrop:

Here's everything that was in the box:

Kit's hair looked really bad right out of the box.  It was stiff with styling gel, but the styling gel wasn't holding the hair an attractive shape:

It's the wet hat-head look.

Also, there were little tabs of double-sided tape holding the dress in place, but these had pulled loose and made the legs look dirty:

Here's Kit from the back, where the velcro seam of the dress looks crooked and wrinkled:

Little black hospital gown.

And the hair is uneven, with two plastic tie remnants sticking out:

Is that an intentional zig-zag cut?

Also, the mold marks on the backs of Kit's legs are quite obvious and don't look great:

Needless to say, Kit didn't make a great first impression.

I brushed the hair, which helped quite a lot, but the styling gel residue is very sticky and gives the hair a dry, stiff texture.

And it's still uneven in the back:

Not intentional.

Washing this hair would certainly help, but I was feeling lazy, so I just tied it back into a stiff ponytail so that I could get a look at the earrings and face.

The earrings are thick gold hoops that look great.  They come with clear plastic discs that separate them from the vinyl of Kit's face:

There's some missing gold paint on the posts, but it doesn't really matter since that area is usually hidden:

The earrings are easy to take out and put back in again, and they look even better without the protective plastic discs:

When I was looking at the promotional photos of all five Basics dolls, Kit had my favorite face.  I liked her expression, her green eyes, and the natural color of her lips.  

I also remember really liking the Kit face mold when I reviewed the Signature Looks girls in 2021.  Here's a reminder of that doll:

Signature Looks Kit from 2021.

I like the new Kit better in many ways, but I'm not wild about her opaque lip color, or the way the edges of the lip paint are so obvious:

Also, my doll has several small defects in her lip paint that disrupt the smooth surface and make the mouth look messy:

Still, it's nice that there's no pixelation in the eyes, and I appreciate the detail in the eyebrows.

Kit has a cute profile, too, with a straight nose, strong chin, and high cheekbones:

Usually Made to Move dolls are quite good at balancing on their own, so I tried to pose Kit without the stand to show off her outfit.  

Unfortunately, the vinyl boots have weak heels that were bent inwards:

I tried pulling the heels out, but they kept going back to this position, which gave Kit nothing to stand on.

She balances well in bare feet, though!

Kit's outfit is a simple, boxy tee shirt dress with a wide boat neck that tends to fall off one shoulder:

The dress is speckled with styling gel dandruff, which is not particularly attractive.

Here's the dress on its own: 

Bo-ring.

I was able to straighten the velcro seam a bit, but the stretchy, shiny fabric is not very forgiving: 

The construction is simple, with small, neat seams that are not reinforced:

And, indeed, there's a lot of stretch to this fabric, so it should have no trouble fitting over the larger Curvy doll's frame:

I appreciate the versatility that the stretchiness offers, and I also love how these dolls are revisiting the little black dress concept, but the original 2010 Basics black dresses were so much nicer.

In fact, I still have the dress from 2010's Model 09.  Shortly after my review, Poppy Parker stole that dress and has been wearing it ever since:

It's made out of a soft jersey knit and has beautiful design and construction.  I love the reverse collar neckline, the seam under the bust, and the perfect fit through the waist.

It even closes in back with metal snaps:

It's a timeless piece that looks good on every single doll who wears it.

So, while Kit's black tee shirt dress is fine, it pales in comparison to the 2010 clothing.

Underneath her dress, Kit has the standard Made to Move body with 22 points of articulation.  I reviewed this body back in 2015, if you want to see all of the details.  I only noticed two differences between Kit and the doll in my earlier review.  One is that Kit's ankles are more stiff, so they don't collapse when she's standing on her own.  The other is, of course, the removable head.

Before I yank Kit's head off, let's take a look at the neck joint and head shape.  To me, these areas look the same as they do on a regular Made to Move doll:

Here's Petra's head for comparison:

The head/neck connection looks exactly the same to me, with a flat area at the bottom of the vinyl head that articulates with a long, slender plastic neck.

I compared Kit's head movement to Petra's, also, to see if there are any perceptible differences.  Kit can tip her head back and forth:

In a way that is virtually identical to Petra:

The same is true for the up-and-down head movement:

Here, if anything, Kit has more flexibility than Petra.  Notice how far down her chin tips, and compare that to this:

Both dolls can hold head poses well, too.  Looking down and to the side:

Or up and to the opposite side:

After examining the head's movement, I pulled it off:

The head came off quite easily (much more smoothly than the Head Gamez dolls, anyway), and left behind a long white plastic peg with a wider circular area at the base:

Like a popsicle.

There's one area at the base of the neck peg that shows some signs of stress.  Can you see the more opaque spot right at the top of the neck?

That's probably from the little bit of tugging that I had to do to get the head off.

However, when I popped the head back on, I didn't notice any change in articulation.  The joint still feels tight and solid.

The range of movement hasn't changed at all:

And Kit can still hold her head in different positions with no floppiness:

I was so relieved that Kit's head removal didn't damage her neck joint!  I popped the head on and off a few more times, for good measure, and nothing changed.  In fact, it got easier and easier to remove the head, which means that there was less and less pressure on the joint.

I decided it was time for Kit to have her portrait session!

I always have a wonderful time playing with Made to Move dolls.

Kit's hair isn't great, but I think she has a pretty face:

And I like the fact that her tee shirt dress doesn't inhibit her movement at all...

...other than the fact that it's very short and so she has to be careful with some poses.

With a new hairstyle and some better lip paint, this would be a truly wonderful doll.

And I even managed to get her to balance on those silly warped boots after a while:

Once I was finished photographing Kit, I sat and removed her head 150 more times (yes, really), to more definitively test out the durability of that joint.

My hand got very sticky from holding her hair for so long, but the neck joint stayed robust.  There might be a few more subtle signs of stress on the white peg:

And the seam at the top of the neck comes apart a little when the neck peg is bent:

But there's no damage to the head (just some white powder):

And Kit can still hold her head in different positions with absolutely no trouble:

I have to say that I'm quite impressed with this head-swapping mechanism.  After witnessing the tragedy of the Head Gamez girls, I was pessimistic about the durability of a simple peg-and-hole connection, but Mattel pulled it off (no pun intended).  Kit's head stays on and poses well, and yet it comes off very easily, too.  Amazing.

I think the biggest difference between these Basics dolls and the Head Gamez dolls is that the Head Gamez neck pegs were vinyl, which is nowhere near as durable as plastic.  Also, the Basics neck peg is long and straight, with no ball at the end.  The Head Gamez dolls have more of a ball-and-socket head connection:

Bratz Head Gamez neck joint.

I have no idea how the Basics neck peg holds the head in place so well, but it does.

With the stress of wondering about the neck joint behind me, I was able to relax and have some fun with the other four dolls in this series!

First, here's Model 02, who has the Karl face:

Her face mold is named after fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld, since the first Barbie with this face was a tribute to that designer:

This doll is stupid expensive on the secondary market right now ($6,000 and up).  I read on the Barbie wiki that Mr. Lagerfeld insisted the doll be Platinum Label because he "didn't want poor people to be able to afford her."  Could that be true?  If so, it's enough for me to have zero interest in ever owning the doll.

Also, I think I'll call the Basics doll Karlie instead of Karl.

Karlie's portrait is on the side of the box, and she looks great:

Notice the position of her earrings in that picture. They look nice and straight, right?  That'll be important in a minute.

Karlie's pose in the box is not very interesting.  She's looking upwards, and has her right hand resting high on her hip in a slightly robotic way:

Where's my pocket?

Once she was out of the box, I was able to move her arm to a more natural position:

Here she is from the back:

Her wavy platinum hair is tied back into an asymmetrical ponytail, with absolutely no sign of styling gel, thank goodness.  But look at the position of her earrings!

Why are they sticking out like wings?

The earrings are jutting out at about a 60 degree angle from Karlie's head.  It looks ridiculous.

What's worse is that I had a terrible time getting the left earring out of the ear.  I tugged and pulled with no luck.  

The upside to this endeavor was that my pulling and tugging stretched the vinyl on the earring's post, making it bendable.  So I could bend the earring down into a more natural position:

That's more like it.

Are the earrings designed to be bent until they take a more realistic shape?  That seems pretty strange.

Anyway, I had to get out my heavy-duty pliers to actually remove the earring.  And now the post is soft and weak:

Also, these earrings left huge holes in Karlie's ears!

The holes are so big, in fact, that other earrings fall out when Karlie tips her head to the side:

So the earrings are a bust.  But that's not such a big deal.  I tend to prefer dolls without earrings, anyway, since they so often get stuck in the hair.

I was more interested in Karlie's face.  I had a gorgeous doll with this face a while ago, and I never took her out of the box.  She's called City Chic:

It's fun to see this face with such different coloring:

For the most part, Karlie has a beautiful face.  However, she has some stray white paint on the eyelashes of her left eye, and also on her left temple.

Unlike Kit, Karlie has no hair definition in her eyebrows, but her lips are a nice natural color with no obvious defects:

In profile, she has a slight curve to the bridge of her nose and maybe a mild overbite:

I think Karlie has the most interesting dress of this group.  It's a mock turtleneck mini dress with a large section of the back and sides left bare:

The cutout section on Karlie's right side has neat stitching, but the seam edge has folded outwards and I can't get it to tuck under:

Maybe a tiny bit of Fabri-Tac would help?

It looks much better on the opposite side:

Other than the visible seam edge, the only issue with this dress is that the missing fabric in back allows the skirt to ride up easily.

To compliment the dress, Karlie is wearing black gladiator boots:

Despite their height, these boots are easy to get on and off, and they help with Karlie's balance.

Like Kit, Karlie has an original Made to Move body that is super-fun to pose and play with.

I found Karlie to be extremely photogenic:

But you can see how her dress has the tendency to ride up now and then:

I left her factory hairstyle intact for a while because I think it looks very elegant:

But after I'd gotten my fill of pictures, I let the hair down.  It looks nice like this, too:

All of the Basics hair is saran, by the way, like most Barbie dolls.

There was a bit of scalp peeking out on the right side:

The rooting is fine, but it doesn't seem as dense as it is on the Signature Looks dolls:

Here's Petra's scalp for comparison:

It might just be that the pale color makes the hair seem thinner?  But Petra's hair feels more dense to me.

Still, Karlie's hair has plenty of volume:

And the color looks great with the black dress and boots:

Model 03 has the Claudette face and a Tall Made to Move body.  Her height fills the box and makes her look uncomfortable:

What is she doing?

She's looking way up and to her left, which is bizarre:

The portrait on the side of the box is nice, but the colors are not true to life.  It looks like Claudette's hair is bright red and her skin is a medium brown:

I had the same struggles with my own photography.  There's something about this doll that makes the camera want to overexpose everything.  In reality, her hair is a deep wine red and her skin is dark brown.

Let's take a closer look at this bizarro pose, though:

Kit and Karlie were so calm in their boxes.  Claudette looks like she's running frantically down the street staring in fear at the sky.  What does she see??  I found myself glancing uneasily over my shoulder the whole time I was unboxing her.

Claudette's stand is taller than Kit and Karlie's stands, which makes sense:

The base and pole also have a different-looking attachment point, which makes less sense:

Anyway, Claudette doesn't really need her stand.  She can balance on her own:

Also, once I finally got her to look at the camera, I could appreciate how pretty she is!

I have to say, this doll was not one of my favorites based on the promotional photos, but in real life she's gorgeous.

Here she is from the back:

More wrinkles.

I didn't realize this right away, but she came with a wine-colored hairnet over her ponytail.  It's very hard to see:

Her hair doesn't look that different without the net, but the curls are a bit more free:

Here's the back view without the hairnet:

Claudette has the best earrings of the bunch.  They're two-piece silver teardrops that actually obey the laws of gravity:

It's a little hard to see in this picture, but maybe you can tell that there's a hook on the end of the post, and this connects to a separate teardrop dangle:

As much as I like the earrings, they tend to get stuck in Claudette's curls, so I left them out for a little while.

I think the Claudette face is wonderfully dramatic, with big pouty lips and severe cheeks:

I think the first time I noticed this face mold was on a Design doll, who I almost bought:

She's designed by Suim Noh and I adore her playful outfit.  Too bad she has the Model Muse body...and costs $100.

Also, the Claudette face looks more haughty on the Design doll.  I prefer the relative softness of the Basics version:

The eye paint is nice on this doll, although I can see some pixelation in the gold eyeshadow.  Also, the lip paint looks too thick, which creates an uneven texture and some little defects:

In profile, you can see Claudette's strong jawline, pointed chin, and full lips:

Claudette's dress is an a-line mock turtleneck with cutout shoulders:

It's really short, and looks even shorter with Claudette's statuesque hight.

Here's the back:

These dresses are all so simple, I wish they hung better--especially in the back.  I feel like if we had metal snap closures, like we did in 2010, the dresses would look more polished and smooth.

Claudette's tall black boots might be the least fancy footwear in the group, but they're also the most sturdy:

Part of me wishes that these boots were taller, like maybe over the knee, because I think that would pair well with the ultra-mini dress.  However, tall vinyl boots would also restrict knee movement, which is bad.

Now that I have two different body types in the mix, we can see how well the dresses are shared between dolls.

Here's Karlie wearing Claudette's dress:

It looks great on her--especially with the gladiator boots.

I figured Kit's tee shirt dress would be insanely short on Claudette, but it actually works:

Just don't bend over.

I mean, it's really, really short, but not indecent.

Just so she doesn't feel left out with the clothes-swapping, here's Kit in Karlie's cutout dress and boots:

For some reason I keep thinking that Kit has a petite body--maybe because that tee shirt dress is so youthful?  But she doesn't.  Her body is exactly the same size as Karlie's body.

I won't get into a discussion of the Tall Barbie body or articulation because I covered that in detail (along with the Petite and Curvy bodies) in my 2021 Signature Looks review.

I put Claudette back into her own clothing for some portrait shots:

Claudette's hair and height make her very fun to photograph:

She even makes slouching look glamorous:

I got a little carried away with the number of Claudette portraits...

But then I realized I'd left the earrings off for too many shots, so of course I had to take a few more pictures with the earrings back in!

Once I was sure I had enough pictures of Claudette with her factory hairstyle and earrings, I took the ponytail out:

The hair is straight at the top and curly at the bottom.  This looks a little strange, but it's definitely dramatic!

I had a bit of trouble getting Claudette's true coloring to shine through with these pictures, but she was a delight to photograph.

Model 04 is the redhead in the group, which usually means a sure favorite for me.  But I'll confess that I wasn't very excited about this doll's promotional photos.  Let's see how she measures up in real life:

She has a petite body, so she struggles to fill the window of the box.  But at least she's not running in terror.

This doll has the Lea/Kayla face, so let's call her Layla.

The photo on the side of the box is nice in some ways (the red hair looks beautiful!), but the eyes are wonky:

Layla has a good box pose.  It looks like she's taking a nice, casual walk, and has just seen something lovely:

A chunk of hair from the right side of her face is tied to her arm for some inexplicable reason, but there's no styling gel in any of the hair, so I won't complain:

I like how sections of hair from either side of Layla's face are pulled back to the base of her neck.  It adds some sleek elegance to an otherwise loose hairstyle:

Here's the hair from the side:

The mix of red shades is very nice.

And here's the view from the back:

Layla's earrings are tiny little hoops.  They almost look like the hook side of Claudette's dangle earrings:

I feel like the earrings in the box photo are more substantial:

Those are definitely not the same earrings that come with the doll:

They're like tiny silver candy canes.

I probably won't bother to put those earrings in again.  They don't add much.

I love dolls with red hair and freckles, and Layla certainly delivers on that front.  Her hair is gorgeous and she has some light freckles:

However, this is not my favorite Barbie face mold--or at least it's not my favorite iteration of this face mold.  The eyes look wonky, and I had a hard time getting Layla to look directly at the camera.  Her right eye is facing forward, but her left eye is wandering off to the side.

Several of the early Barbie Basics collections had the Lea/Kayla face.  For example, in Collection 001, she's a brunette with bright red lips:

She looks nothing like Layla.

My favorite is probably the Lea/Kayla from the Basics swimsuit collection.  She has an Asian look about her that suits the mold very well:

Her eyes don't look wonky, either.

I guess it's cool to see a version of this face that's so different from the ones that came before it.

Layla has very bright eyes in an unnatural shade of electric blue:

I like the freckles, but there's something funny about them.  Maybe it's that they're confined to only the upper part of Layla's cheeks, just under her eyes?  I think if she had more widespread freckling, it'd look amazing.  

Like this, maybe:

I like that this face has a bit of a smile in the mouth, though.  That's a nice change from the fierce model expressions on some of the other dolls.

And, as usual, the eye paint is nice and clear and there's some hair detail in the brows:

In profile, Layla has a small chin and nose, and a short, sloping forehead:

Layla's outfit is a long black dress with ribbon straps and a high slit on one side:

The concept of this dress is good, but it looks a bit shapeless in actuality.  It's also not a great match for Layla's shorter frame.  She's swallowed up by it.

Also, the ends of the ribbon straps poke out of the neckline way too easily:

 Layla was covering this with her hand and her hair in the box, which is convenient.

Here's the back of the dress:

I wish it was more fitted towards the bottom.  That would accentuate the slit and create a nicer shape.

Layla's shoes are wedge sandals with thick criss-cross bands on top and a smaller strap at the back:

I'd wear those.

Despite their height difference, Layla's dress works well on Claudette.  In fact, I think it looks better on her than it does on Layla--especially with those boots:

Unfortunately, after only one re-dressing session, the left strap on this dress broke:

I'm tired of ribbon straps breaking.

Claudette's a-line dress looks super-cute on Layla:

Claudette and Layla might have to permanently swap wardrobes.

For now, though, I put Layla back into her long dress for a quick portrait session. The dress looks nice from the right side, because the slit breaks up the wall of black:

From the left side, it's not as attractive:

The fabric does not drape well.

But Layla's face started to grow on me as I took her picture:

And she did her best to make that dress work:

My favorite of Layla's features is her hair.  I love the color, and the big curls at the ends:

I'll admit that she's a real cutie--wonky eyes and all:

I just wish she had a better dress!

The last doll is Model 05, who was frankly my least favorite from the promos.  There's something about her face that doesn't gel with me:

Her box portrait looks pretty, though, so maybe there's hope:

For what it's worth, this girl probably has the best in-box pose.  Her arms are positioned well and she looks casual and confident:

She has the Heide face mold and a Curvy body...and also some more gravity-defying hoop earrings:

It's very hard to look past the earrings, but if I do that, I'm still not enamored with this face:

Despite some subtle Angelina Jolie vibes.

I own a Signature Looks doll with this same face, and she's so much more dynamic:

Maybe it's the bright makeup and colorful hair that make the difference?  But I also feel like the soft smile is more pronounced on the Signature Looks doll.  I love her.

I'm always amazed and entertained by how different these face sculpts can look, though.  So despite my complaining, I'm actually thrilled by all of the different interpretations.

Here's Heide from the back:

She has long brunette hair that's gathered into a thick ponytail.

I took the earrings out almost immediately, because they're basically just gold versions of Karlie's weird earrings.  They were also hard to remove, but Heide looks much better without them:

After some reflection, I think what bothers me most about this face is the eye placement.  The eyes are already quite close together, and then the irises are set more towards the center of the face--especially on the doll's right side:

She's almost cross-eyed.

I do really like the lip and nose sculpt, though.  The nose is realistically not tiny, and the lips are well-shaped and half-smiling.  However, this doll has some defects in her lip paint (especially on that lower lip), which is emerging as a pattern with this release:

In profile, Heide has an upturned nose, a soft jawline, and prominent lips:

And huge earring holes.

Heide's dress is very short and fitted, with a kind-of bolero top that leaves a peek-a-boo crescent of exposed skin above the bust:

Incidentally, that cutout section at the top caused some trouble during dressing and undressing.

Peek-a-boo, indeed.

The dress looks okay from the back, but it still has the tendency to wrinkle and ride up:

Heide's shoes are tiny little open-sided, peep-toed booties with bendy heels:

I had a lot of fun with Heide in her portrait session.  The Curvy body has a nice weight to it, and it balances better than some of the other body types.  And Heide knows how to work the camera:

Her short dress performed better than I expected during this session, too.

The stretchy fabric is good for more than just sharing dresses across different body types.

Whatever my initial reaction happens to be, these characters always come to life when I start posing them.  It's a testament to the power of good articulation!

I was curious to see how Heide looks without that high ponytail, so I took her hair down:

The rooting is good here--better than Karlie, I think:

There's no rooted part in the hair, though, so it has to be slicked straight back or pushed to one side or the other:

 But I like how the extra volume frames Heide's face:

With all five dolls out of their boxes, I was eager to start mixing and matching clothing (and heads!).  But first, let me show you a comparison photo of all the dolls without their clothing:

2025 Barbie Basics dolls, from left: Models 04, 05, 01, 02, and 03.

You can see that no two dolls have the same skin tone, and only two (Karlie and Kit) share a body type.  Claudette stands out because of her unnatural hair color.  I kind-of wish she had pure black hair.  However, since all of the clothing is black, it's nice to have this extra pop of color.

Now, let's see how well the dolls can share their stretchy clothing!

First of all, the shoes aren't as sharable as the dresses.  As I mentioned in my Signature Looks review, the Tall and Curvy dolls have larger thighs and feet, so they can't wear Regular or Petite shoes:

Heide trying to wear Karlie's boot.

Heide trying to wear Layla's shoe.

In contrast, the dresses were very fun to share among all five dolls.

First, here's Karlie wearing Heide's dress:

This doesn't flatter Karlie's figure the same way it does Heide's.  It looks a bit boxy.

It looks even more boxy on petite Layla:

However, Heide looks amazing in Karlie's dress:

It's super-flattering on her curves:

Heide also looks great in Claudette's a-line dress:

Kit looks extremely skinny in Layla's long dress:

I actually think Heide looks best in that dress:

And I love how Kit's tee shirt dress looks on Karlie!

Claudette looks good in everything:

...even Heide's boxy peek-a-boo mini:

Since none of the skin tones match in this group, head-swapping is limited.  However, I still took a minute to swap heads on the dolls with similar complexions, like Layla and Karlie:

Layla's head looks fine on the Original body, but Karlie's head looks strange on the Petite body.

Maybe it's just the difference in skin tones that's throwing me off?  But I swear this head looks too big for this body:

It looks Photoshopped.

I also swapped Heide and Kit's heads.  This turned out pretty well for both dolls, but omg.  Heide's neck looks so long:

It's almost like I didn't get the head fully in place...but I did.

Heide looks even more like Angelina Jolie now, and Kit's head suits the Curvy body.

After an excellent suggestion to try out some other heads (thank you again, Aether), I rummaged around to see if I had any Barbies who might be willing to donate their noggins for experimentation.  I came up with three volunteers.

First, I tried Fashionista 91, who I thought might look good on Layla's pale body:

Barbie Fashionista head on a Basics body.

Her head is actually even more pale than this body (she's an albino), and the head falls right off when she's turned upside-down:

That's too bad, since this sweet girl could definitely use some better articulation.

Next, I tried a Pivotal or Gigi head from my Barbie the movie collection:

Barbie Pivotal/Gigi head on Basics body.

Her skin tone matches Karlie's body really well.  However, the head is loose.  It doesn't fall off like the Fashionista head, but it comes off easily.

Last, I tried the Made to Move head from the skiing set:

Made to Move head on Basics body.

This head works extremely well with Karlie's body.  Not only does the skin tone match, but the fit of the head is good, too.  It might be slightly more loose than the Basics heads, but it's hard to tell.

Here's a look at all of the heads I tired:

Barbie heads, from left: Fashionista, Pivotal, Made to Move, Basics '25.

You can see that the opening on the Fashionista head is much larger than the others.  The Pivotal head has a slightly larger opening, and it's hard to tell the difference between the Made to Move head and Basics head.

Here's a closer look at just the Made to Move head and Karlie's head:

Basics head (left) and standard Made to Move head (right).

With that small sample size, it seems likely that most Made to Move (including Signature Looks) doll heads will work with these bodies, which makes sense.

To wrap things up, I put everybody back into their own outfits, with their own heads, for a few group photos:

Claudette and Layla wanted to demonstrate the extremes in height with this group:

Claudette wanted to show off her height and strength a bit more by demonstrating that she can lift Kit up in the air.  It almost went badly...

Whoa!

But Karlie came to the rescue!

And I was able to get a cute shot:

Heide was tired from all of her previous posing, and wanted to take a break!  Let's see if Layla and Karlie can convince her to join in...

They did a good job!  After a lot of coaxing, the girls managed to get Heide up and moving...and even doing trust falls with Kit:

But all of that effort seems to have exhausted Layla and Karlie.  Maybe that's my cue to leave everybody alone so they can rest up.

Bottom line?  This group of Barbie Basics has a fun mix of face molds, body types, and coloring.  The dolls have excellent articulation, but are plagued by some wonky eyes and frustrating lip paint defects.  Basically, there's not much to distinguish the modern Basics from the Signature Looks--save for two critical differences.

The first and most obvious difference is the easily removable heads.  These heads are designed to be pulled off and swapped onto other bodies.  I had some skepticism about the durability of this feature, given my experience with other head-swapping dolls, but I think Mattel did an excellent job.  First of all, I wasn't able to detect any significant difference in neck articulation between the Basics girls and my other Made to Move dolls.  So nothing was lost in order to achieve the head-swapping functionality.  Next, the heads are easy to remove, yet they seem in no danger of falling off at inappropriate times.  And they pop back into place easily, too.  Finally, even after more than 150 head swaps, with no heating of the head or other precautions taken, I couldn't detect any change in the stability, movement, or pose-holding capability of the heads.  It's pretty amazing.  And when head-swapping is stress-free and easy, it's a lot of fun!  I enjoyed seeing how some of these heads look on different body types.  It can make a big difference.

Another difference between these dolls and the Signature Looks crew is the clothing.  All of the dresses are made out of a stretchy black knit with the idea that they'll fit any of the dolls.  So a Petite doll's dress should fit onto a Curvy body with no problem, and vice versa.  This works as intended for the most part, and I had a lot of fun swapping dresses.  However, not all of the dresses look good on all of the dolls.  For example, Heide's form-fitting dress seems oversized and boxy on the smaller dolls.  My bigger complaint with the clothing is that it's not particularly attractive or well made.  As functional as it might be, I don't really like the stretchy black fabric.  It looks cheap, shows wrinkles (especially along the velcro seams), doesn't hang very well, and the slippery texture makes the hemlines ride up.  There were also some problem areas on my dolls' dresses, like the broken ribbon strap on Layla's dress, and the flipped seam edge on Karlie's dress.  Some of the dresses are cuter than others, and I'll probably make good use of Karlie's dress and maybe Claudette's dress.  But, overall, the outfits make me nostalgic for the early days of Barbie Basics when the little black dresses were creative, well-tailored, and finished with metal snaps.

Made to Move Barbies are always fun, especially with the ever-expanding mix of faces and body types that are available.  But the best thing about this new Basics group is the mix-and-match potential that the removable heads offer.  I'm left wishing that I had more bodies for each head.  Fortunately, that's exactly what the You Create Kits have to offer, and what I'll be talking about next time.