Flight of Fashion

In 2019 Mattel did something I consider brilliant. They asked the adult doll fandom what we wanted, and let people vote on it. This doll wasn’t intended for children and would have a significantly higher price point as a result. Four sketches were produced by Angel Kent, who is also responsible for some of the Barbie mermaids, and the showdown (their word) began. Doll groups lit up with conversation and debate (some on the less friendly side) and votes were cast.

Dear Mattel, Please do this more often.

To be fair to Mattel, they did this again in 2020, but it was mermaid-centric and I opted out, as I wasn’t particularly thrilled with the idea of mermaids. Not because I’m not a fan of them, but because their fins are usually hard-plastic, rather than a removable fabric sheath. I was “meh” to the 2020 showdown. As for the 2019 showdown, well, here are the sketches:

I was torn between the “Fantastic Feathers” (far left) and the “Galactic Style” (the one in the yellow). The doll community seemed torn between “Fantastic Feathers” and “Women of Royalty” (far right). As a result, both dolls were made into their respective prototype versions:

After seeing the prototype, I was even more convinced that the “Fantastic Feathers” doll had to be made, especially if she kept that face mold with that makeup style. She’s such a dramatic fae and I loved the look.

The end result, from concept art to full Platinum label doll, chosen by the doll community, was the “Fantastic Feathers” doll, re-named to become the “Flight of Fashion”. Sadly, her outfit significantly changed between the prototype and the final doll, which diminished the overall appeal, but not enough that it left me disinterested. Far from it:

Pre-orders opened up for gold and platinum label members on Mattel’s official site and I, very uncharacteristically, pre-ordered the doll directly from their site. I usually don’t, because of a combination of their S&H costing 60$ with no tracking available, which makes very little sense to me, and the fact that everything I order is going to have 25% VAT added to it. I’ll let you do the math on this one. Cringe.

I wasn’t going to talk about it before she arrived because I’ve had dolls get lost in the mail, and that was before the global pandemic. But after watching so many people’s disappointed reviews of Robert Best’s Pink Collection doll, I’m trying not to stress myself out with “What if I don’t like her?”

I know there are some of you who undoubtedly understand what I’m going through and just talking about it makes me feel better, so thanks for that. Anyway, here’s hoping she gets here soon, in one piece, and doesn’t suck! I’ll update this post with a link when I give her a full and proper review.