Basics Model #05

My daughter is 1/2 Filipina and 1/2 Slovak with dark hair and dark eyes. She has started asking about our culture and why she has brown hair and tanned skin and not blue hair and blue eyes like most of her Disney Princess dolls and Barbies. Therefore, for her 6th birthday, I've made it my mission to find her Asian dolls that she can relate to more. This Asian Barbie is just perfect! I know she's going to love it! I absolutely recommend this doll (If you can find it.)!

I received a different doll which seems to have some factory default in her legs.

This is a beautiful, unique doll. Her hair is incredibly silky and realistic, and her makeup is flawless. The expression on her face and little black dress completes her so well. I highly recommend this if you are a collector, like myself. Just be prepared that her right arm is permanently bent, and her feet are accustomed to the shoes she comes with (left shoe left foot, right shoe right foot--different from most Barbie dolls). I am very happy with my purchase :)

Interestingly enough, I don't see any recent reviews about this doll, so I wonder, with all of the good feedback that she has, if something in the quality has changed over the years. I am only giving two stars because her face and hair are pretty. I'm very disappointed in the quality of the body--it is very hard, cheap feeling plastic. I can't believe that they consider this an adult collector doll. For what reason? This seems like a cheaply priced (which this one isn't!) doll that you would give to a kid. I can't return her because I removed her from the box before I could really tell the quality. To be able to remove the doll, the inside of the box is pretty much destroyed, because she comes fastened and taped in so many places that it takes a lot of cutting to remove her. Her head was fastened with plastic strips that have the tabs on the back of the box. In other words, you can carefully get her loose, but a part of the plastic stays in the back of her head. And then, because her hair is long, there is about a two inch wide plastic strip wrapped around the bottom part of her hair. That is fine, except they sewed the plastic to her hair! The strip is sewn across the top and bottom. So that takes careful cutting so as not to cut her hair. I thought that maybe she would look better in another outfit, but found out that the bodice of her black dress is securely glued to her bust. I suppose if I want to, I can get it loose, but for now I put her back in the box and said, "forget it." Sorry for the long review, but wanted to share my thoughts. These dolls are WAY overpriced for what you get.

Dolls dress was ripped when it arrived. I would not use amazon again. Imagine giving a gift to then find out from the child it was damaged.

This is about the closest to a Asian Barbie you can get on the market for a normal priced Barbie. Me and my wife have scoured the internet to find some kind of Asian Barbie for our daughters, whom by the way happen to be 3/4 Filipino. This was the most reasonably priced one we found. We have found other models of an Asian Barbie but your talking collector wanted money of 50-500 dollars for a doll, cause they were limited ran, and discontinued. I have to say her eyes are semi-slanted in a sense you can say she is a Asian Barbie. Overall the quality is what you would expect from Barbie Mattel, its durable, its beautiful, and most of all its loved by our daughters. The price is right at the moment, so I suggest if you plan on buying one for your daughters whether they are Asian or not, now would be the time, cause down the road they will sell for tons like most other Asian Barbies.

I had my highschool friends of 50 years over the other evening and on the mantel I had the 12 basic black barbies. I asked each one to pick a barbie that they could relate to in the past and stick their name on the chosen one. I had been hiding the barbies in the trunk of my car as I didn't know how to introduce them to my husband. What a blast from the past these old clucks had. I only have one grand-daughter out of the three that were into barbies and I will leave them to her in my will. Every xmas she would ask for the latest barbie and I would say no, no, no not another one but in the end I would buy her anyways. Ask your friends what toy they most remember from their past childhood. I think you will be surprised what memories one has that you may have completly forgotten about.

This is by far the most beautiful, exotic looking of the Barbie basic original line. Even better than the picture on the back of the box and that cannot be said of the several of them I have bought. The make up is stunning, very sophisticated for a Barbie. Glad I purchased her.