LIBERATION 56: RAQUELLE

Capitalizing on the success of their Monster High web series, Mattel has launched a new series for their main girl Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse! Featuring both classic and new Barbie pals, I find myself drawn to new frenemy Raquelle. She’s spoiled, selfish, and looking to steal Ken away- quite a change from the normal Barbie sweetness. So naturally I had to snatch up the Raquelle doll, featuring a new face mold with her trademark smirk.She uses the 2009 flexible body style. This body has some nice poseability, with a nice range of motion at the shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, and knees. This body features an under bust joint instead of a swivel waist (similar to that seen in larger size collectible dolls) that allows her torso to angle a bit from side to side. At this scale, though, it doesn’t give much of a range of movement. The legs and arms on this body are also very skinny. They’re not Monster High super deformed thin, but the arms and calves in particular look frail to me. She has a standard Mattel pink skin tone.

The new Raquelle face mold is the stand out attraction for this doll. Her nose is slightly wider than on a Barbie style face mold, and her face is a little fuller. The molded in one-sided smirk, though, really gives this doll a lot more character than most. Adding to the effect is the slightly less open right eye beneath an inquisitive brow. Her eyes are warm brown, and she has grey shadow and liner with both painted upper and lower eyelashes and rooted upper eyelashes. Her mouth is painted an iced mauve color that looks great but doesn’t really match the red and black theme of her outfits.

Raquelle comes with several mix and match pieces. There are two base pieces: a white tank top with attached sparkly black tulle skirt and a one shouldered red and black mini dress. She has a pair of black leggings that go just below her knees with red stitching detail that can be worn under either dress to make it look more modest. The cropped length gold pleather jacket was a real disappointment. It is supposed to have ruching at both cuffs, but only the left one was sewn properly. Worse, by the time I got this girl deboxed, there were nasty rub marks on both sleeves from the rubber bands holding her arms in place. She also comes with some cheap plastic accessories in gold: a purse, a double-look belt, and a ‘tiered’ necklace. The red shoes look good, but they are too big for the doll’s feet, so they fall off without much provocation.

I wanted Raquelle to show a bit more of her bad girl side, so I turned to the Dynamite Girls from Integrity Toys. Normally their outfits are too tiny for Barbie and pals, but this body is slim enough to make Jett’s debut outfit work nicely. The hot pants are a little too tight to fasten in the back, but they look great on Raquelle! I added a pair of reproduction cat eye glasses to complete the look. I think Raquelle’s decided to abandon the Dreamhouse for a life of super spy action!

I just adore Raquelle’s unique face. It’s nice to see a doll with attitude in the Barbie clan. Although there were some issues with the quality (the too big shoes and packaging damage), she’s very affordably priced and adds some much needed sass to my Barbie grouping. I’m hoping to see this mold reused in the future as well- if not, I might have to buy some extras and add some hazel eyes and bright red lips!

Scorecard
Face: A+
Body: A
Hair: A
Fabric: A
Style: B
Execution: B
Overall: A-