My daughter wanted this doll for Christmas, but I just couldn't bring myself to pay nearly $20 for another Barbie. (I am sorry but she already had 80!) My five-year-old son heard me talking to a friend about this very subject. He later came up to me and said, "Mommy, I think that I am going to have to buy that Nutcracker Barbie for sissy. I am going to hate having to look at another stupid Barbie, but I have to buy it for her." When I questioned where he intended on getting the money for this Barbie, and after telling him that the money was not coming from me, he decided to work on his Aunt Bekah. That was a smart decision, since Aunt Bekah is 18, lives with Mom and Dad, and has no bills, a job, and money to blow. She immediately hired Andrew to hand out papers at the church program practice, that she was directing. She promised to pay him enough money for that Barbie. All through the Christmas season everyone, including Sissy, knew that Andrew was working to buy her a present. Amazingly enough, he managed to not tell her what the present was going to be. The weekend before Christmas Aunt Bekah gave Andrew the money and he purchased the coveted Barbie. I am sorry to say this about my own willpower, but I broke down and bought her the Nutcracker Ken to go with it. I couldn't help it, the Barbie comes with a stand that she and Ken can dance together on, and I just couldn't resist.

On Christmas morning, when Diane got to Andrew's present, he sat up with much anticipation to watch her open it. His eyes were large with hope. I know he wanted her to really love the doll. When she opened it and found the Nutcracker Barbie, she went crazy! She fell on Andrew with a huge hug, and said, "Thank You, Thank You, Thank You, Thank You...." Finally Andrew said breathlessly, "Your Welcome, Now get off of me!"

We opened Barbie right away. To Andrew's excitement Barbie held in her hand a little Nutcracker, but we soon found that it was only a little piece of cardboard. And the next day, while I was taking down the tree, I nearly ran over that little cardboard Nutcracker with the vacuum. I don't know where it is now.

Barbie has long blond ringlets, and when I took her out of the box, I found a big ball of fizz on the back of her hair. At first I thought that was how the back of her was going to be, I was going to take this doll back to the store. Who wants a Barbie with a nasty, fizz ball, that looks like it came out of an old hair brush on the back of her hair. I realized though, that this was actually just to protect her hair while in the box, and removed easily.

After cutting out about 10000000000000 different wires and threads, that held Barbie in the box to keep her from being stolen at the store, and selling a few of my organs, I was able to remove the doll completely from her boxed prison so that my daughter could play with her.

Barbie is wearing a pink, sparkly, ballerina outfit. She is wearing white tights, and has very ugly jointed legs and feet, and her ballerina shoes are painted on. I doubt that a little girl would be able to try on different Barbie shoes because of the shape of her feet. The tights do not actually cover the whole foot, but stop at the ankle which is a little, goofy looking.

She is wearing a clip-on crown and pretty necklace. The crown is because Barbie is supposed to be The Sugar Plum Princess and Clara!?!?! The box includes a package of little pink, jewels with sticky backs that can be attached to her hair, so that she can have sparklys in her hair when she becomes the Sugar Plum Princess. Although, I think that the execs over at Mattel are laughing because the real purpose is that the sparkles get all tangled up in her hair and the hair will be ruined within a day, at the longest, and the new little, Barbie owner will be crying for new one.

The hair is meant to come up in a ponytail when she is Clara and down when she is the Sugar Plum Princess, so there is a ribbon that wraps around her hair and connects to the crown on her head, when the ribbon is up, her hair is in a ponytail, and when it is down her hair is down. This method is better than the way they tried with Barbie as Rapunzal that we bought for my daughter a few years ago. With Rapunzal Barbie there were little loops sewn in her hair that connected to the crown, and when you pushed a little button her hair went down, but these loops tangled so easily that even a careful, little, girl was sure to have messed up Barbie hair. The problem with this little ribbon on Nutcracker Barbie, is that most little girls will soon loose the ribbon, and the feature of changing her hair will soon be lost as well.

When I was young, we played with Barbies so that we could change them into all kinds of different outfits, and do their hair in all sorts of different hairstyles, and fight over who got to name their Ken, "Michael J. Fox". Today's girls a missing out! This Barbie, as with so many others that my daughter owns, has cheap hair. She sports pretty ringlets, but if you brush it too much, it is a fizzy mess. Her feet are flat, jointed, and have painted on shoes, so if Diane changes her into a T-Shirt and Jeans, she will still be wearing pink, ballet slippers! If Diane wants to change the hairstyle of the Barbie she is playing with she has to change Barbies! Believe me, I know, she now has 82 Barbies!

Barbie does come with a dance stand that she can attach to. You can purchase, the "sold separately", so that Mattel puts another $17.99 into their pockets, Nutcracker Ken, Ken can then dance with Barbie. If you are thinking that you can just put a Ken that you daughter already owns onto this stand to dance with Barbie, forget that money saver. The Ken must be attached to a stand that fits into the little dancing machine, and the stand only comes with that Ken. After about five twirls, Ken and Barbie topple over, proving that they should have trained longer before taking on the role as Nutcracker and Sugar Plum Princess/Clara ????????.

Still my son learned to be giving when he worked, to be able to buy this Barbie for his sister. Well, that is if you consider handing out paper work. It might have been good for him to wait until after Christmas. My sister bought my niece the same Barbie only one day after Christmas for only $10.00. As far as the durability of this doll. My niece's Barbie already looked old and worn by the time she showed it to me, on the same evening that her mom had bought it.

On Christmas Day, Andrew complained that his toys would all run out of batteries, and his Uncle told him to go buy more when they did. At this he said, "I can't, I already spent all my money on Nutcracker, Stupid, Barbie." This is not because of all the disappointments that now come with all these new Barbies. No, it was because he hates Barbies and thinks that are for "sissies". Still if you buy Nutcracker Barbie, you may be saying the same thing.

Recommended: No

Amount Paid (US$): 17.99
Type of Toy: Action Figure
Age Range of Child: 6 to 8 Years