/// 16 July 2007 /// (Updated: 15 March 2009)
I got yer variations right here...

Head Games: Beach Glam™ Barbie® Gets a Makeover

Beach Glam™ Barbie®'s Two Faces - First version on the left; second version on the right (click to see it bigger)

Did you know that Beach Glam™ Barbie®'s face paint "screening" design was changed during production?

Both of these dolls were made in Indonesia. The one on the left is the early version; the one on the right replaced it soon after the dolls started showing up at stores.

As you can see, the overall look is very different. The second version removed the black liner from under the eyes, altered the eyebrows, and fiddled with some of the proportions.

Personally, I think the older version looks better (and it's closer to the prototype on the box), although the face looks more "casual" without the black lower liner, which makes sense for someone who's supposed to be going swimming.

However, the revised version of the face has the eyes stretched toward the sides of the head so it looks like she was driving 900-miles-an-hour down the highway in a convertible with the top down and someone sprayed hairspray all over her face and it got stuck like that.

Beach Glam™ Scooter with Barbie® doll

So far all of the basic swimsuit Beach Glam Barbie dolls have been made in Indonesia, but there are a few China-made dolls with the same face paint design (like the doll that comes with the Beach Glam Scooter [#M8586], shown to the right) and they look much much better than the Indonesian dolls. I really hope Chinese basic Beach Glam Barbie dolls show up at some point....

(Update: They didn't. )

Doll Diary 16 July 2007