Charles's Pages about Doll Stuff - www.dollstuff.net

Summer® and Drew® go head-to-head. Literally.
(Click to see it bigger)

Did you know the Lara® head the new Summer® dolls are using is a different version from the one that was being used before?

In 2005, playline dolls with this head sculpt (like all playline Barbie dolls) began using an enlarged version of the existing 1998 Lara® head sculpt.

The head that's being used now is noticeably larger than the first enlarged version. It's pretty noticeable in this picture - for example, you can see that Summer's nose is significantly bigger than Fashion Fever® Drew™'s. Also, the nose has lost some detail, possibly as a byproduct of the enlargement process. (The first enlarged head similarly lost detail from the original smaller-size version.)

The difference isn't because this Summer doll was made in Indonesia while Drew was made in China; the head is a different SKU, meaning it's officially a different head. (The SKU corresponds to Beach Glam™ Summer, by the way, so she's the first official "New Summer" doll if you're into those little trivia thingies like I am. )

One easy way to know for sure that this is a different head is to look at the copyright information on the back. The wording is the same as before, but it's written differently and is in a different place than it was on the first enlarged head. (Copyright information that's written differently is usually a tipoff that the part was made from a different mold.)

As far as I know, Lara currently has the distinction of being the only head that's undergone two enlargements in the playline.

(You could make a joke about Lara's head getting bigger and bigger because they use it so much in the Barbie Collector™ line, but I won't because it's catty. )

(Uh...and also because Lara isn't an actual person.)