Mattel 2024 Lunar New Year Barbie Review

😊As you already understood - near our office, a truck with Barbie Lunar New Year series dolls from Mattel overturned, so today we have the opportunity to amuse you with a review of the newest girl from this series, which was released in early 2024

The designer of the doll's image is the talented Joyce Chen. For her, creating a Barbie doll based on the lunar calendar has a personal meaning. This year marks her fourth time designing a special edition doll, after designing the 2021, 2022 and 2023 versions. "Growing up Asian-American, I rarely found toys or dolls that I could relate to," she says. "Being able to make dolls for Lunar New Year means a lot because I can connect with and be inspired by my own culture ".

The doll's packaging has the festive look and colors traditional for the series: red with a white and gold ornament in the form of peony flowers.
The package includes a certificate of authenticity certifying that the doll belongs to the Black label, and a white model stand.

This time, to create the image of the Barbie Lunar New Year 2024 doll, Joyce Chen was inspired by the Peking Opera - a cultural treasure of China, which often hosts the most solemn celebrations of the Lunar New Year and other holidays. That's why the doll is dressed in a traditional sifu costume in "lucky" red with a colorful peony print, symbolizing good luck, and the costume's dramatic "water" sleeves are used to create beautiful hand movements and expressions on stage. In addition, the doll has an exquisite head decoration with charming pink and blue flowers on the ears, inlaid with plastic rubies and with a gold peony ornament.

As a mold for the creation of this doll, an exquisite sculpture of Lara was chosen, the grace and intelligence of which is emphasized by the sideways glance, with which the girl looks incredibly charismatic and cute vixen🦊
Make-up is non-pixelated, quite bright, scenic, very harmonious. But, in this case as well, dolls with bright lipstick often have slightly smeared lips. It can be corrected, wipe off the excess, but the fact is the fact. Another interesting point is the location of the upper eyelashes, pay attention🤓 I wonder if this is a feature or a bug?🤔
Finally, the right angle has been found for printing a sideways look, thanks to which the girl is able to casually look straight into your eyes😍

The doll has luxurious silky hair that feels very much like a locust. The long tail is gathered with a regular red silicone rubber band, and additional, densely varnished strands are fixed behind the doll's ears with the same rubber band, only black. In general, only the bangs and strands are varnished in the hairstyle, the tail is clean.

The plastic decoration with rubies and peony flowers is solid and firmly attached to the head with threads, so you have to be very careful to cut them so as not to catch the hair.
Also, the girl has a bright red manicure.

The "sifu" costume consists of a tunic and a skirt.
A vibrant crimson tunic in semi-sheer, shimmering satin features a printed peony design, a gold-trimmed stand-up collar and 'aquatic' translucent sleeves that are sewn in an interesting way that doesn't show the outer seams. On the sides of the tunic there are two characteristic cuts that will allow you to move freely in the dance. At the back, the tunic fastens with white plastic buttons, which visually are not enough for the entire length of the back, so for that purpose, a "freehand" seam with a red thread was added 🥴 The treatment of the inside of the tunic also raises questions.
Under the tunic hides a long "to the floor" simple white skirt, which also has a printed ornament of flowers. The waist of the skirt has a regular elastic, without unnecessary fasteners.

The doll's legs are decorated with concert blue shoes with high solid heels and bright crimson pom-poms.
The heels of the shoes are decorated with a floral molded pattern. Peonies!🌺🪭They are everywhere!😁

Finally, the time has come to take off the magical decoration from the head and see what is there in the beauty with the hair embroidery🤓 At the same time, an option for using a skirt without a tunic was invented😊

It's discovery time🤩 It turns out that varnished long strands come not from under the tail, but from the parting!
Part of the bangs is not "stitched" in the direction of the nose, like the main part, but also grows from the usual vertical parting in short strands. It is difficult to see it at first glance, because the entire part of the head under the decoration turned out to be heavily varnished. Another surprise was the lack of hair above the first row of bangs, so, most likely, you will have to beg. The head is not painted to match the color of the hair, so this plane reflects very clearly.
On a pleasant note, the girl's ears already have markings that can be pierced for earrings, if there is a desire to wear them😊

The doll, traditionally for the series, is built on a fragile Model Muse body, which looks very aesthetic and refined, but has only a few basic joints.
The head is marked with the year 1998!😍

Lightest skintones like Yoga Tennis Player (Standard), Andra Looks with Short Hair (Standard), and Victoria Looks (Tall Body) are good for hybridizing with the Made to Move Super Move Body.

These are the proportions of a girl on a yoga tennis player's body. The doll has a small head, like most collectible dolls from Mattel.

As you guessed - the hair is also washed from the varnish, straightened and a little put with boiling water in the area of the bangs. Admire this beauty!😍❤️

And a few more photos 🤭 Just an Asian girl getting dressed for a performance at the Beijing Opera 🪭🌺🪭

Thank you for your attention!🌺 We hope this review will be useful and informative for those who are still considering the decision to invite this incredible beauty to their collection🪭

Best regards,
The DollsHobby.club team