You Create Barbie Basics by Mattel

I've been talking about head-swapping dolls for a long time now.  Since late January, if you can believe it.   I mean, there was snow on the ground back then, and now it's full-blown spring, with flowers everywhere. I'm probably at the point where I'll be trying to rip the heads off normal dolls, just out of habit.  And the thing is, I haven't even exhausted the concept.  I have a few more dolls that I found during the last few months that I'd love to show you someday.

But for now, I'm going to wrap up the series by finishing my discussion of Mattel's new Barbie Basics, all of whom have easily removable heads.  Today I'll be reviewing the You Create Kit 001, which offers extra bodies, heads, wigs, and outfits to match the 2025 Basics Model 01, who you met in the last review:

Barbie Basics Model 01 with heads from the You Create Kit 001.

There are three You Create Kits at the moment, and they cost a whopping $100 each.  Even before I looked at Kit 001 in detail, I knew the price was too high.  Each set basically includes the supplies needed to make three dolls.  Since the regular Barbie Basics cost $25 each, I feel like a more reasonable price for these kits is $75.  I guess we're paying $25 for the sleek packaging...which is pretty sleek, I have to admit.

I had a hard time choosing which of the three kits to buy.  Kit 001 appealed to me because there's a red wig and a head with lots of freckles.  I also like the medium skin tone:

Kit 001.

Some of the clothing looks weird, though--especially those clear boots.

Kit 002 is appealing to me because of the side-glancing Waldorf head with bright green eyes and red lips (on the far right, below):

Kit 002.

And I like a few of the clothing pieces a lot (not that shiny bustier, though).  

But the Asian Stoyan face reminds me a lot of my Signature Looks Kit from 2021, and I don't tend to like wigs with bangs.

Kit 002 again.

Kit 003 was the most advertised of the bunch, and I can see why: it's very dramatic.

Kit 003.

This is probably the best mix of clothing, at least to my taste, and I really like two of the three face molds:

Kit 003 again.

The Rose face is my favorite, but the eye makeup lacks subtlety, and the promotional photos make it look like she has fangs!

Watch out, Clawdeen.

It was hard not to buy this set--especially because I really like the matching Basics doll, Claudette (Model 03).  

I told myself that if I liked Kit 001 well enough after this review, I'd buy Kit 003.  None of the sets seem in any danger of selling out.

So, let's see how much I like Kit 001!  As I mentioned, the packaging is very sleek:

Everything comes inside a shiny black cardboard box with a velcro flap opening.  It's a beautiful presentation, and I felt very excited when I first saw it.  That doesn't mean the packaging is worth $25, but I can't deny that it made a fantastic first impression.

The front flaps opened to reveal lots of storage areas and some loose papers:

The insides of the front flaps are decorated, too, as you can see in that last photo.  The left side has a promotional photo of the three dolls:

And the right side has some text:

These paragraphs talk about an "ode to black."  It's pretty much an excuse for why all of the clothing is black in these sets.  Here's the full text:

You Create Barbie Basics Kit 001 pays An Ode to Black.

Black is simple, sleek, and strong.  It is distinct yet subtle, dramatic but effortless, and an untouchable color that endures.  It can be demure or daring, and elegant or rebellious.  It has the quiet power to amplify a silhouette and any accessories that go with it.  The beauty of black is absolute and versatile, allowing for mixing, matching, and your inner creator to shine.

Build your own Barbie Basics dolls.  Then style these fashion icons in universal-fit ensembles and striking silhouettes touched with the magic of black--to create so many looks, in so many ways, over and over again.

For the most part, I like everything that's written there.  It actually makes me appreciate black clothing more.  However, I don't think you pay an ode to something, do you?  You can pay tribute, or allegiance, but not an ode.  You could play an ode, perhaps, or sing it?  Whatever.

The loose papers inside the box include some instructions and a certificate of authenticity.  The instructions aren't very helpful.  They basically just suggest that you put the heads on the bodies, the wigs on the heads, and then maybe dress the dolls:

Radical stuff.

There's also a certificate of authenticity:

Behind all of the papers, the three heads and three bodies (plus three stand poles) are displayed next to a row of drawers:

The drawers aren't really drawers, though, but rather stacked bins.  When any of the lower ones are pulled out, everything above it will fall down:

Drawers or not, this is an elegant and plastic-free way of storing the accessories.

Each bin is filled with items wrapped in black tissue paper:

The first bin had three stand bases and three stand grips:

The second bin had all of the shoes and small accessories:

The small accessories include a pair of silver sunglasses:

Cool design.

These are made out of solid plastic, so nobody will be able to see through them:

There's also a silver tiered necklace with multiple chains and pendants:

And a pair of silver teardrop earrings:

The footwear includes some studded black vinyl sandals:

Slip-on pumps with the letter B on the heel:

And the tall, transparent boots...which aren't actually transparent, but more frosted:

Like ice boots.

That's a pretty big difference from the promotional photos:

I like how you can see the little molded area for the foot, though:

The third bin had the clothing, which all looked extremely wrinkled and messy:

So much for the sleek presentation.

And what even is this?

The final bin had the three wigs:

My favorite of these is a bright red wig with black lowlights:

The wigs each have a silicone cap sewn to the interior.  The stitching is very simple and could easily be snipped out:

I'll show you the clothing and wigs in more detail a little later when I can model them on dolls--or bodies, at least.

The bodies and heads were easy to get out of the box; there wasn't a plastic tie in sight!

Ode to Joy!

This set compliments Basics Model 01, who has an Original Made to Move body.  So the bodies here are Curvy, Tall, and Petite:

You Create Kit 001 bodies (Curvy, Tall, and Petite).

The kits all pair with a Basics doll in such a way that all four body types are represented.

So now I have a full set of bodies in this skin tone!

Basics Model 01 with her three extra bodies.

The first thing I did was use Kit's head and outfit on all three of the new bodies.

Here she is with the Petite body:

Model 01 on a Petite body.

The Tall body (the boots don't fit):

Model 01 on a Tall body.

And the Curvy body (again, the boots don't fit):

Model 01 on a Curvy body.

The Petite body is cute, and I love that the boots fit, but I like Kit best with the Curvy body.  It really suits her.

The next thing I wanted to do is get a good look at all of the new heads.  I was particularly excited about this head, which has the Reed mold:

I love the heavy freckles and full red lips, but the expression is more blank than I'd hoped.

Reed has slate blue eyes with thick upper and lower lashes:  

Those are intense lashes.

I'm not sure if she's meant to have dark eyeshadow, or if the brown around her eyes is just shading.  She also has thick, dark hair lines in her medium brown eyebrows:

Her iris lines look especially dark to me, too.

The next head has the Lizzette face:

Lizzette.

Not to be confused with the Lisette Silkstone doll:

Lisette.

I like the side-glancing eyes on this face, and the knowing smile, although my doll's lip paint has some bubbles in the middle:

Lizzette has dark brown eyes framed with heavy silver eyeshadow and dark lashes:

If you look closely, you can see clear, slightly shiny edges around her eyebrows:

Are the eyebrows decals--like stickers?  That's a little weird.  Or maybe it's sealant or something else that I'm seeing?

I need to do more reading about how Barbie faces are painted.  Like what features are stenciled, sprayed, screened, or applied?  There must be a mix.

The last head has the Shirl mold:

This head had some dark paint flecks on the face when I got her out of the box, but I was able to wipe or scrape most of them away.

Shirl has shapely pink lips and medium brown eyes with brown shading:

And more dark iris lines.

The eyelashes are dark and thick, and the eyebrows sit low on the face, very close to the eyes:

Those are really intense lashes.

It's interesting to see so many faces without hair to frame their features.  

I had the impression as I was looking at these heads that the face paint is more bold than it is on the Basics dolls who come with rooted hair.  More specifically, the eye area, eyelashes, and eyebrows are more prominent.  Take a look back at Kit:

No iris lines.

And Karlie:

Again--no iris lines, or eyebrow lines.

Both of these faces feel softer to me.  As an example, even though Karlie has dark lashes that span most of the length of her eyes, the lashes aren't as densely placed as they are on Shirl or Reed.

I wonder if the designers were working hard to make the heads stand out on their own, without hair?  That might have inspired a more heavy-handed approach to the face paint.  But I'm not sure it was necessary.

Now let's go back and take a look at all of the clothing.  To do this, I used the Tall body to model each piece separately.  First, here are the shiny fake leather cargo pants:

These have white stitched details and an elastic-gathered waist and legs.

There are fewer stitched details in back:

I especially like the tiny elastic-gathered areas.  They're well done:

I don't like this kind of fabric, though.  It's too shiny, and I know from experience that it can flake and crack over time, until it looks like this:

My Way Kids jacket.

Or like this:

Moxie Girlz top.

Despite the poor fabric choice, the construction of the cargo pants is much more intricate and interesting than the other two bottom choices.

Like this skirt:

Mini skirt on the Tall body.

It has a slit that can be worn at the side or in the back, and is a nice basic essential.  But it rides up all of the time and tends to look more like this:

A high-waisted ultra-mini.

The third option is this long skirt with an asymmetric hemline:

Long skirt on the Tall body.

This skirt came out of the box covered in wrinkles that make it very hard to notice anything else.

It's really bad:

The wrinkled clothing bothered me during my last review, too.  But this skirt takes it to a whole new level.

Also, I was curious to see how a skirt this long and full would look on the Petite body, so I took a quick peek at that:

Long skirt on the Petite body.

It's not terrible, I guess, but the shape looks bulky, and it rides up almost as much as the mini skirt, which pretty much annihilates the Petite waistline.

The tops include this basic cropped tank, which closes in the back with velcro:

There's also a cropped tube top with off-the-shoulder net sleeves:

This also closes in back with velcro and has clear shoulder straps to keep it in place.

I figured that this top would be irritating to get on, with the fingers constantly getting stuck in those netting holes.  But I didn't have any problems during the entire review.  It's actually quite easy to get on and off.

The last top is the piece of clothing that I couldn't identify at the beginning.  It's a bodysuit with a high neck and lots of cutouts:

This top has the tendency to expose the left breast whenever possible:

But I was able to stretch and pull and adjust until everything was nicely covered:

There's a small velcro closure in back, but also a black plastic snap at the back of the neck:

I wanted to see how the shape of this bodysuit would work with one of the bottoms, so I tried pairing it with the miniskirt.  Things did not go well:

First of all, any manipulation of the bodysuit exposes that left boob again.  Also, the edge of the mini skirt's waistline seam flipped upwards, making that whole area look ragged:

With some tucking and fiddling, I was able to get everything back where it belonged.  And now this outfit looks good:

The bodysuit is pretty tight on the Tall body, though, so I wanted to try it on the Curvy body.

I had a very hard time getting the suit over the Curvy body's upper thighs and hips:

But I finally eased it into place, and it looks good!

The cutouts are very flattering.

However, the stress of stretching the suit on over this body caused some of the stitching to rip out:

Facepalm.

It's hard to appreciate in that last picture, but when the bodysuit is off, it's easy to see the pulled stitches:

That's a bummer, to say the least.

I assembled an outfit for the Tall body so that I could try the different heads:

First, I popped on the Reed head:

She looks really good without hair, but of course I was eager to test out the different wigs.

First, I tried the blonde wavy wig.  This has a darker blonde mix on top, with golden blonde underneath:

The wig is very easy to put on, and that silicone cap keeps it in place.  However, the hair fiber is scratchy and coarse and looks messy most of the time.  It's definitely not saran fiber.

I tried to tame the wig for a better shot:

It looks okay, I guess, but I don't like the fiber, and the top of the wig sits up too high on Reed's head.

The second wig is all black, and the fiber feels silkier than the blonde wig (still not saran).  However, the hair is long in back, with a bob in front, which I think looks messy:

This hair fiber doesn't lay very smoothly or evenly, either, so it was hard to tame all of the flyaways.

The last wig is the red one that compelled me to buy this set in the first place.  It's easily the best wig in the group, with a great color, silky hair fiber, and a simple cut:

It's still hard to tame the flyaways, but the more uniform length of the hair helps with its overall tidiness.

I really like how the Reed face looks with black hair--it makes her red lips stand out beautifully, and it balances her dark, heavy lashes and eyebrows.  With a better black wig, she'd be stunning.  Of the wigs I actually have to choose from, though, I think the red wig is her best option.

For the Lizzette head, I changed the outfit a little by adding the mini skirt and frosted boots:

The boots are knee-high on the Tall body, but the fit is extremely loose towards the top:

You could fit a whole extra leg in there.

The Lizzette head also looks nice without hair:

The blond wig doesn't do this face any favors, though:

I'm beginning to wonder if that wig will look good on anyone.

I like the black wig on Lizzette, though.  It brings out the South Asian elements of her features:

I mean, I still don't like this wig very much, because of the cut and the stringy look of the hair, but the color is nice for this face.  I see some wig shopping in my future.

The red wig looks fine on Lizzette, although the color doesn't really compliment any of her face paint:

For Shirl, I tried on the tank top and long skirt:

Of the three heads, this one looks like it needs hair the most.  And the blonde wig isn't terrible on her:

The hair still sits way too high on top, like a helmet, which bugs me.  But overall the volume of the hair suits this head pretty well.

And, once again, the color of the black wig is very flattering, but the flyaways and messy cut are irritating:

I'd never display a Barbie with this hair--or the blonde hair, for that matter.  It just doesn't look good.

The red wig is fine on Shirl, but it clashes with her pink lips:

The wigs are a central part of this concept, and I wish Mattel had done better.

First of all, why not use saran hair fiber?  It's so soft and nice to work with, and virtually every Barbie I can think of has saran hair.  The hair fiber on these wigs is not as nice.  The blonde wig is especially bad.  I don't mind how the black and red wigs feel, but the hair fibers are slippery, feel a little cheap, and are hard to tame.

The black wig could have been one of the best items in the set.  The color looks fantastic with all of the faces, and goes with all of the black clothing.  But the cut is such a misstep.  The shorter areas in front don't lie smoothly, and so it's hard to even appreciate what the style is supposed to be.  And then the longer hairs in back are thin and scraggly and cursed with constant flyaways.  A simple short bob all around would have been great, as would any uniform length.  And a better hair fiber, of course.

There are going to be a lot of people setting these wigs aside and rooting the You Create heads.  I'll probably be one of them.

Once I'd looked at the wigs, I decided to try and do something about the wrinkled skirts.  I'm pretty lazy, so my first thought was to throw them in the dryer for five minutes.  And, guess what?  That worked:

The long skirt, which was horrible, is now virtually wrinkle-free:

Yay!

The mini skirt came out looking better, too.

So, there's a very easy and quick way to get the wrinkles out of these clothes without even having to think about an iron.  What a relief!

Feeling buoyed by the wrinkle-free skirts, I took a moment to play around with the Tall body, using a few different combinations of head, hair, clothing, and jewelry.

First, here's Tall Lizzette with blonde hair, the tube top, the long skirt, and all of the jewelry

Lizzette head on the Tall body.

I was wondering why Lizzette had that bold silver eye makeup, but now I get it!  The color goes perfectly with all of the shiny silver jewelry.

Next, here's Reed with the red wig, the tube top, the mini skirt, and no jewelry:

Reed head on the Tall body.

I added in the earrings and tried to add the sunglasses, but it's hard to get them to sit straight with that silicone wig cap in the way!

I finally figured it out:

Reed head on the Tall body.

All of the clothing looks good on the Tall body, and the proportions fit with all three heads.  And I don't usually pay much attention to jewelry, but these pieces add a lot to the overall look, too.

I wanted to see if the Petite body worked as well with all of the different heads and accessories.

I put the bodysuit on this body, and added the Shirl head:

Shirl head on the Petite body.

I thought the bodysuit might be too loose or look funny, but it's fine.

I paired this with the cargo pants, and added in the black wig:

Shirl head on the Petite body.

The cargo pants look baggy, and are very long.  They hang down over the Petite body's toes:

The legs can be pushed up to the ankles and will stay in place reasonably well because of the elastic cuffs, but the overall look is certainly baggy:

I added in some jewelry, and Petite Shirl looks pretty good:

I hadn't spent much time thinking about shoes up until now, though, and suddenly noticed that the pumps don't stay on the Petite feet at all:

I investigated further, and there's no way these shoes are meant for the Petite feet:

Pumps on the Petite feet.

When I lift up the doll, she leaves the shoes behind:

But that means that these shoes don't fit the Original Made to Move body, either:

Pump on an Original foot.

They seemed too small for the Tall and Curvy bodies at first:

Will these shoes fit anyone??

But I was able to push them into place, where they stayed put:

Pumps on the Tall feet.

So the Tall and Curvy dolls can wear these shoes and stand on their own:

That made me wonder: what shoes in this set are meant for the Original and Petite bodies?

Not the studded sandals: they're way too big:

Sandal on a Petite foot.

The frosted boots are actually the only shoes that fit the Petite and Original bodies.  However, they appear to be molded for the larger feet, since I can see extra space around the Petite foot:

Boot on a Petite foot.

And, indeed, these boots fit the Tall and Curvy bodies even better:

Boot on a Curvy body.

The boots look best on the Curvy body, since the height is good and there's not a huge gap at the top:

No extra legs will fit in there.

The only problem is that the huge slits in back open up whenever the legs are bent:

So, anyway, my only footwear option for the Petite body was the boots, but I think they look a bit silly!

They come up really high on the thigh, but there's still a lot of space between the thigh and the boot.

Also the height of these boots only really works with the mini skirt, but the boots push the waistline of the skirt up:

Which is not super-attractive.

So when Petite Shirl wears the tank top with the mini skirt and boots, none of her midriff is visible:

This looks fine, like a casual tank dress, I guess, but it's not as cute as the cropped tank look.

Without the boots pushing the skirt up, a bit of midriff peeks through, which breaks up the black:

I also tried Reed on the Petite body with the black wig, the tube top, and the long skirt:

Reed head on the Petite body.

Again, this looks okay, but I feel like the clothes are swallowing up Reed's figure.  And her head looks too big for that body--especially with the big blonde wig:

Last, I tested out the Curvy body with different heads and accessories.

Lizzette looks good on this body, and I like the cargo pants and tank top on her:

Lizzette with the Curvy body.

The pants are a little hard to pull on, but they look great and none of the stitching ripped.  I also like how the white stitched details on the pants go with the silver jewelry.

I swapped out the wig and top, and Lizzette still looks good:

Lizzette with the Curvy body.

Curvy Shirl wanted to try out the mini skirt, but when it rides up on this body (as it loves to do) that hemline gets very high!

Shirl with the Curvy body.

I pulled the skirt back down so you can see how it's supposed to look:

Shirl with the Curvy body.

The Curvy body is turning out to be the star of the show here.  Everything looks good with it.  Too bad the bodysuit doesn't fit better.

 

It came as no surprise that Reed also looks good with the Curvy body, but--again--the waistlines of these skirts ride up at every opportunity.  The waist of the long skirt likes to sit just under Curvy Reed's ribcage:

Reed with the Curvy body.

If I catch the fabric of the skirt on the molded underwear, it maintains more of a dropped-waist fit, which I think looks good:

Reed with the Curvy body.

I see a lot of midriffs in the promotional photos, so this must be the kind of look that was intended:

Easier said than done, as it turns out.

I had a pretty good feel for the strengths and weaknesses of Kit 001 at this point, so I decided to wrap things up by trying to figure out which wig, body, and outfit work best for each head.  I included Kit's (Basics Model 01) head, body, and outfit in the mix for some extra fun.

The wigs were easy.  I knew I liked the red wig best for Reed, so that was a done deal.  And Lizzette looks great with black hair, so that left Shirl in the blonde wig:

Lizette's head and features feel more delicate than some of the others, so I decided to give her the Petite body.  And I think the outfit that flatters this body the most is Kit's tee shirt dress and boots: 

Lizette with the Petite body.

I'd be thrilled with this doll, if only her hair was better.

Ever since my last review, I've liked Kit on the Curvy body, so I was eager to make that match. 

I thought the most flattering pieces on the Curvy body were the cargo pants and the tube top.  Well, actually, I like the cutout bodysuit on this body even more, but I wasn't about to ruin the stitches by squeezing it on again.

I love this version of Kit!

Kit with the Curvy body.

Her hair has been boil washed since my last review, by the way.

Of all the heads, poor Shirl is the most forgettable for me.  That's probably why she got stuck with the awful blonde wig...and the boring Original body:

Shirl with the Original body.

Don't get me wrong, I adore the Original Made to Move body, but with all of the variants available as options, it ended up feeling a bit bland.

The bodysuit and mini skirt look great on this body, though.  I especially like how the bodysuit prevents the mini skirt from riding up.

Reed has a long face, and so I thought she'd be good on the tall body:

Reed with the Tall body.

The boots and long skirt definitely work best on this body, so that was an easy decision, too.

And I figured Reed could have the sunglasses, for a bit of extra attitude:

Here are all four girls together:

The thing about this set, though, is that even after I'd found everybody a great combination of features, I couldn't leave things alone.  I just kept on swapping:

Oooh!  I like Kit and Shirl this way, too!

Bottom line?  This review didn't change much about my initial impression of the new Barbie Basics.  

I still think Mattel knocked it out of the park with the actual head-changing functionality.  It's so easy to trade heads between these dolls, and I delight in seeing how the different heads look on different body types.  The addition of more new head molds adds to the fun considerably.  And I like all of the heads in this set, especially Reed, with her red lips and freckles, and Lizzette, with her knowing smile and side-glancing eyes.  I also appreciate that there are very few paint defects in this group.  However, the face paint feels overdone in some instances--particularly around the eyes.

I'm also still bummed about the clothing in this line--perhaps even more so now.  Most of the pieces are made out of the same shiny, wrinkle-prone, black stretch knit.  Although at least now I've learned that five minutes in the dryer can fix the wrinkles.  The individual clothing pieces in this set are a mixed bag, with some nice essentials included, but there were far too many disappointments: both skirts have waistlines that ride up constantly, the bodysuit doesn't fit the Curvy body without breaking, the cargo pants and long skirt overwhelm the Petite frame, the bodysuit exposes the left boob all of the time, many of the seams turn inside out when manipulated, and I bet you those overly-shiny cargo pants will be cracked in ten years.

Since way back in the Liv era, I've enjoyed playline dolls with wigs.  I love the idea of changing a doll's hair--whether it's to easily swap to a different hairstyle, or to change the color and texture of the hair completely.  So I was quite excited about the You Create wigs.  Unfortunately, they ended up being a disappointment.  First of all, I don't like the hair fiber that was chosen.  It's not saran, like all of the other Barbie Basics, which is jarring in and of itself.  The blonde wig has an especially unpleasant fiber that feels dry and coarse and looks perpetually messy.  The other two wigs feel nice, but are still plagued with flyaways and can look thin and scraggly.  Of the three, the red wig is the only one that I'll use going forward.  That leaves me with the unfortunate dilemma of what to do with the other heads.  I could either have them rooted or go in search of better wigs.  But either of those choices will cost at least another $20-$50 per doll, which feels icky after spending $100 on this kit.  One good thing I can say about the wigs is that they're very easy to use.  They go on quickly and have silicone caps that keep them in place.

Perhaps the thing that delights me most about this kit is that I now own a complete set of Made to Move bodies in a single skin tone.  Even if I'd only had one head to swap between these bodies, I'd be happy.  It's amazing to see how body type affects the way a specific head looks.  For example, I liked Kit on her Original body, but I love her on the Curvy body (and the Tall body!).  And I like Reed on the Tall body (and the Curvy body!) but her head looks oversized on the Petite body.  Some heads, like Lizzette's, look good on all of the different body types.  And I hope it goes without saying at this point that all of the bodies are amazing, with sturdy balance and outstanding articulation.

I absolutely love how this You Create Kit gave me so many options for swapping different heads with different body types.  Mixing and matching clothing and wigs was fun at times, too, but was more often frustrating.  And I'm left with only one (maybe two?) dolls that'd I'd ever actually display.  So I'm probably not going to buy Kit 003; it's just too expensive.  

As a collector, I'm left wishing that Mattel had presented this concept differently.  What if, instead of the kits, there'd been a larger release of individual Basics?  Like, for each skin tone there could've been four available dolls, one with each different body type.  Then, for my $100, I could have bought all four dolls in one skin tone and had the same mix-and-match fun that I had with this kit, but with rooted hair, body-specific outfits, fewer frustrations, and more dolls.  Basically, I'd have four workable dolls no matter what combinations I chose.  Or, if Mattel truly wanted to cater specifically to customizers, why not sell all of the bodies and heads individually or in small sets?  And maybe make all of the head molds available in the full range of skin tones?  There's huge potential for fun and creativity with the You Create notion, but the current presentation is overpriced and clumsy--despite that sexy, glossy black box.  With a bit of re-structuring, this whole concept could be a game-changer for the next generation of Barbies.

Shirl looks pretty great on that Tall body, too...