Flat and Halfhearted

Barbie attempts to be relevant by “living” a hashtagged life centering on fashion. That means keeping up with the trends like flat shoes. These shoes have been having their moments in the runway since 2013 and Barbie, being a fashion icon that she is, caught up with the trend late last year.  Blame Mattel’s rumored lengthy design process for the delay.

If you’re within Mattel’s favored distribution area, you probably have seen Barbie dolls with flat feet on the toy shelves. Along with the dolls, fashion packs and accessories were also made available. The curious thing is that the fashion pack never came with any flat footwear. A separate accessory pack can be bought but each pack only has a pair of flats. 

 fashion packs without flats

It seems like designing dresses that can go with flat shoes is way beyond the skill of any Mattel doll designer/stylist. (I'm exaggerating, of course.) It just feels like that Mattel is halfhearted in promoting the flat feet design. If there are minimal clothing options, who will buy these flat footed dolls? After the poor sales of these dolls, people will conclude that the consumers don’t want to deviate from high heel formula.

 accessory packs with one pair of flats each

They could have packed the clothes with both heels and flats. I have shown in my previous posts that some dresses can work with flats. Instead of the lousy plastic bags the dresses came with, a flat footwear option should have been provided. More flat footwear design (shoe mold) should also be made available. 

 

 a flat shoe for Raquelle

I know consumers like me sound like whining brats sometimes. It’s just sad to see a toy line we have grown to love die. The new Fashionista dolls have lost their articulation. It would be sad to have them loose their fashion versatility. With the low sales of Barbie dolls recently, the next thing we’ll know is that we have totally lost them for good.

Mint

This is another Mattel dress I recently got at a discounted price. I like the color and the simplicity, although it's a one-trick pony dress unlike the previous one.

The New Girl

I was supposed to make another dress but I misplaced my patterns. I was too lazy to make one from scratch. I ended up buying new dresses. This is the first one.

I was going for a Zooey Deschanel (The New Girl) vibe for this Lea doll. I just got her because she was discounted. There's no point in paying the full price when I only wanted the head. She has been rebodied with Barbie Style Raquelle, the one with flimsy knee joints.

Girl Feelings

They are wearing the three variants of the Jianidi Girl Feelings dress. I was told that there's an orange one but I had enough.

Black Widow

"The result is an overdue character exploration for Black Widow that still manages to reduce the baddest bitch in the MCU to a shell of a superheroine who’s sad she can never be a complete woman."
- Jen Yamato

Having taken a few courses from the Natasha Romanoff Academy, I have learned (though I still need years of practice) to use my emotions to my advantage. Tears can be used to manipulate people, to make them do your bidding, or at least catch them off guard by creating an illusion that you are vulnerable. Sensuality, too. To do that, one must not be controlled by the notions of sex that the society/religion has propagated. It's taking control and following your own notions of your sensuality. Nick Fury thought that she'll do a good job in assembling the Avengers.

In one scene of Avengers: Age of Ultron, Bruce Banner was in drama queen mode about his inability to have a normal family life. Everybody knows what happens when Bruce cannot control his emotions, right? It's a good thing that Natasha was there to provide emotional support for the most emotional Avenger.

She painted a picture of herself as a vulnerable person having no ability to bear children. And it's okay for her and that she can still have a relationship despite that. The sadness was used to get the message across that she can relate to Bruce, that he can trust her because she has made herself relatable to him. If you ask me if who I'll choose between Black Widow and Hulk, I'll go with the Widow. She's in control. That is why she's in charge of the big guy and his lullaby. Yes, Iron Man can make the Hulk sleep with Veronica but Natasha does it with so much less destruction.

I don't agree that the Black Widow character was reduced, but I do agree about what Jen Yamato said about the lack of female superheroes and the lack of female action dolls. Marvel and the toy companies like Hasbro is the villain in that story.

I still like the movie but Hawkeye should have died. That will be more dramatic. Plus, Jeremy Renner called Natasha a slut. I'm not hating or anything. Hawkeye did die a number of times in the comics. As for Chris Evans, I expect Captain America be killed in his 3rd solo movie or at least turn over his shield to someone else. That happened in the comics, too.