The girls are mad about Meygan, the funky fashion monkey
Written: Sep 13 '02 (Updated Sep 20 '02)
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Pros: Hip, interchangeable clothes and shoes that actually stay on
Cons: Extreme make-up and sleazy clothes may not be to the liking of some mothers.
The Bottom Line: Great for the girl who is tired of the perfect pink princess.
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| gracef's Full Review: MGA Entertainment Bratz Dolls 2002: Meygan |
I'll be honest with you here. I can't remember the last time I bought a doll for my daughter. She played with Barbies for about 5 minutes when she was four (and for another five minutes for every one of the six Barbies that have been given to her by friends and relations over the years). But dolls never really interested her much. (Give her a stuffed animal or a science kit, and she's thrilled. Give her a doll, and she is ambivalent.) So to say that I'm out of the loop on what's hip and cool on the doll scene could likely be the understatement of the year.
I try to stay educated. I watch commercials on Cartoon Network and look over the gifts at her friends' birthday parties. However, since my daughter's birthday is in September and all of her friends' are in the Spring and since I have been avoiding TV lately, it seems that I really, really had no idea what is considered cool now.
So when my daughter opened a gift that caused all the other girls to oooh and aahhhh in envy, I was interested. And when my daughter, who would normally just look at a doll in bemused half-interest, begged me to get the doll out of the box right away, I knew I had to check it out more.
What are Bratz?
Her new doll is Meygan, the most recent in the line of Bratz dolls. I relied on the girls at my daughter's birthday party to get me up to speed on these dolls. According to the girls, the Bratz dolls are hip, amazing, and incredible dressers with attitude. When I asked the girls what they felt was the best thing about the Bratz dolls, they all said, "They're not Barbie!"
They're right about that much. The Barbie is the standard in fashion dolls. Regardless of the doll's numerous redesigns over the years, she continues to be the delicate princess. Despite the various costumes and packaging, Barbie's appearance doesn't seem to change much. Long hair, cotton candy sweet facial features, big bosoms, teeny waist, and long, long legs give the pink princess an image that is completely unrealistic and almost sickeningly wholesome. Even the ethnic versions of Barbie look like the same doll except with different colored skin and hair. And the clothes? Forget it! Though little girls like the pretty ball gowns and glamorous duds, older girls realize that very few people dress like Barbie. If someone is looking for a line of dolls that reflects more ethnic diversity and individuality, the Barbie line isn't it.
The Bratz dolls are different in many respects. First, the image is completely different. The Bratz dolls are 10 inch dolls. The head is about 2 inches tall, and the torso is another 2 inches. That leaves 6 inch legs. The head is really large on the body, but the fact that the torso, legs, and arms are impossibly skinny (almost anorexic looking) makes it appear even more large.
The facial features and hair are huge and overstated and reflects more ethnic diversity. For each doll, the slant of the eyes and shape of the big, big lips are slightly different. And the make-up of the dolls is heavy and varies to reflect more individuality. One of the girls said that her mother would kill her if she wore that much make-up, but that was part of what made the dolls fun. Still, the ethnic diversity really isn't as accurate as it could be. Overall, the look is closer to the Diva Stars
The clothes are totally different than Barbies' too. While Barbie clothes follow classic lines, the Bratz doll clothes are more reflective of the clothes that can be found for young girls at Limited Too and Zootopia. In many cases, the clothes are similar to clothes that were worn in the 60's, 70's, and 80's. The dolls bring to mind images of Madonna in the "Like A Virgin" video and of Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. As a parent, I was more than a tad appalled to hear these girls gush, "I love their clothes! I want to dress like that!"
Needless to say, between the clothes and the make-up, Bratz seem to make some mothers (including this one) grimace at least a little. These are not role models, despite any marketing claims of independent attitudes. But the girls like them because they are different.
The interesting feature of the Bratz dolls is the design of the shoes. Barbie dolls are pretty famous for having tons of little shoes that don't fit the feet of all Barbies and that frequently get lost. The Bratz dolls don't have this problem because the shoes are combined with the feet. Rather than changing shoes on the dolls, you just pop off one set of feet and pop on another set. Because of this, the shoes are more substantial than Barbie shoes are known to be. Rather than delicate high heels, the Bratz dolls have boots and chunky shoes with huge platforms and/or thicker heels. This has its good and bad aspects. If you lose a shoe, you loose the whole foot, and what's left in its place is extremely unattractive. However, on the positive side, the thicker shoes allow the dolls to stand on a table without any special holder. There is also a pack of shoes available for the Bratz dolls, so a lost shoe won't destroy the look of the doll forever.
Another nice feature of the Bratz dolls is that the legs are bendable. When I first saw one of my daughter's friends doing that (an heard the knee of the doll popping into position), it kind of freaked me out. But the girl assured me that this was perfectly normal and one of the many reasons why the Bratz were more fun than Barbies.
Fall Fashion 2002 Bratz: Meygan
If Rosie Perez sat down to design a doll, she would most likely create a doll that looks like Meygan, the latest in the Bratz doll line. As far as Bratz dolls are concerned, Meygan is actually rather pretty. Her bottom-length auburn hair goes nicely her hazel eyes. Her lips are a dark merlot color.
It's important to note that Meygan is packaged two different ways. The first is the package that my daughter received, Fall Fashion 2002 Bratz Meygan. The other is the Bratz Funk-n-Glow Meygan. The outfits in these packages are different and the doll's hair is styled differently. I will be addressing the Fall Fashion 2002 Bratz: Meygan package for this review.
Meygan is a characterized as the "Funky Fashion Monkey" who likes autumn colors. And, having since stopped by Toys R Us to see how Meygan compares to the other Bratz dolls, I have to say that I prefer the looks of Meygan best. The colors of the clothes in this package are perfect for the skin and hair color of the doll. And while the clothes may not be the kind that I would like my daughter to wear, they are less trashy than some of the other Bratz dolls.
Fall Fashion 2002 Bratz: Meygan comes dressed out of the box dressed in her casual daytime look. Her little midriff sleeveless brown and white striped top shows off a bit of her belly but not lots. She also wears a soft shaggy rust-colored coat that has a bit of glitter to it, a pair of hip hugger jeans, a belt and a pair of tan boots with 3/4 inch heels. She also wears what one of my brothers would call a brown pimp hat: kind of a beret but not quite.
According to the advertisements for the doll, Meygan is supposed to come with two tops and two bottoms as well as two pairs of shoes, a hairbrush, a backpack, and a hair accessory. The makers kind of cheated a bit because she came with one army fatigue green dress that they counted as one top and one bottom. Calling this a "dress" is almost a misnomer though, because it barely covers her bottom. The "backpack" isn't really a backpack either. Rather, it's an over-the-shoulder fake leather purse.
The clothes all look nice, and between the pieces, I was able to come up with a pretty nice looking outfit that, if kid-sized versions were available, would be one that I'd allow my daughter to wear.
The doll also comes with an 11" x 17" (or so) poster of Meygan. The girls at the party who already had Bratz dolls said that part of the fun of the dolls is collecting all the posters, which have drawings of the dolls that match the drawings on the web site. I was actually surprised (and pleased) because the clever marketing drones missed a marketing opportunity. They could have made the poster so that it showed one of the outfits from the other Meygan package, but they didn't. Rather, the drawing reflects the outfit that Meygan arrived in.
Overall Impression
My daughter seems pretty impressed with Meygan for now. One of her friends, who has the four original Bratz dolls, assures me that Meygan is the most beautiful of them all.
As far as I can see, it's just a styled doll. It's no more realistic than Barbie, and most of the girls agreed that the trendy clothes, which can be mixed and matched between dolls, are what appeals to them the most.
My one big complaint with Meygan is the hair. One would think that doll manufacturers could come up with a way to keep the hair from looking horrible the second a child plays with the doll. After a few days play, Meygan's hair has started to frizz and some of it has started falling out. (Unfortunately, this means that I have little auburn doll hair stuck to my furniture.)
The Fall Fashion 2002 Bratz Meygan is roughly the same price as the average Barbie that one would buy for a child to play with. The other version of Meygan, which comes with more clothes and accessories, is a little more. But either package is a good deal, especially since the clothing combines to create a number of different looks.
While the mother side of me cringes at the extreme make-up and the belly baring clothes, I can at least heave a sigh of relief that the Bratz have skipped the swimsuits. Besides, playing with Barbies didn't turn me into a fashion maven, so I have little reason to believe that playing with an overly made up doll in hip clothes will turn my daughter into a streetwalker. So if you have a pre-teen girl that enjoys clothes and is tired of the pink princess Barbie, I still think that Meygan could be a good choice.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): gift
Type of Toy: Other
Age Range of Child: Kids to Teens
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gracef
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