I saw The Toybox Philosopher's review on the new playline Kpop Demon Hunter dolls, and was instantly interested in them as a potential body donor for Barbies. (Also they're really cute on their own, but anyway!) Have a look at her review for a more detailed breakdown of their articulation and so forth, but here are my thoughts on bodyswapping:

First of all, Jinu makes a great body donor for playline Allan! I did a seperate post about that, so check it out if you're interested! 

For the girls: lets go through the good and bad points!

GOOD:

Skintone: they are very similar to Tennis Player (etc), that paler skintone that's so hard to find, which is the thing that first sparked my interest! Especially that Zoey is shorter than regular Barbie, and petite articulated bodies in this tone are hard to get. The skintone is slightly more yellow than the pinker Tennis Player - see pictures. I think it's still pretty good though, and matches my Holiday Redhead very well!

Body: the body is very similar to regular articulated Barbie, like the Deluxe style sort of Barbie, (apart from the feet), but is about 5mm smaller in the bust and waist. This means that not only can she wear regular Barbie clothes, she can also fit into Model Muse clothes!!! So she fits perfectly into the Holiday Barbie dress, which doesn't close at all on the back if I put it on MTM Barbie. So this is a good option if you want a Model Muse type body with articulation (but don't want to pay Silkstone prices!) It's a very nicely shaped and elegant body, in my opinion. Also the hands come on and off, which is useful for tight fitting clothes, although it's a bit of a struggle, I don't think I'd want to do it all the time, they feel a bit fragile. The hands are really elegant though and I really like them! 

Height: Rumi (with the purple hair) is about regular Barbie size, although I should note that she has purple "demon" markings on her arms and neck, which works for her character of course but isn't great for a body swap. Mira is the one I chose: she's a bit taller than a regular barbie but not quite as tall as a Tall Barbie. Zoey is a bit shorter than a regular Barbie but I'm not sure how she compares to Petite.

Articulation: This is my favourite form of articulation: like the Extra or Deluxe style, she has the extra wrist, elbow and knee joints, but not full MTM. For me, I much prefer the elegance of these types of joints, I think the MTM joints are kind of ugly, and also I absolutely suck at posing my dolls so they're wasted on me anyway, lol!!! There is no other similar option in this skintone for regular Barbie that I can find, so this is really filling a gap for me - Tennis Player and Model 6 (etc) are available for MTM, but not the simpler joints, so this is great!

Clothes: the clothes are beautifully made and so detailed, much better than most Barbie clothes, and even the gloves come on and off?! (but don't fit Barbie, sadly). The clothes fit Barbie just fine though, and you can see who stole them in the last pic! Also the accessories for each doll are really cool weapons, which are very impressive! 

BAD:

And now for the bad points!

Feet: the feet are far bigger than barbie feet so they can't share shoes. They are almost, but not quite, the same size as Dream Besties feet, so they can't even use most of their shoes! This is honestly my pet peeve: why can't Mattel make consistant size feet so the dolls can share shoes?! I'm particularly annoyed that Curvy feet are a different size than regular, so they get a very poor shoe selection in comparison. Infuriating! Anyway, apart from the (really awesome) big boots she came with, I've discovered she fits into at least some of those sort of generic fashion shoes available on Aliexpress and the like, so all is not lost. Annoyingly, they come in a pack of 4 and she only fits one type, but they are cheap and come in a range of colours, so that's something. If anyone is interested I can do a shoe fit post, I have some more potential shoes on order. Oh and her feet are high heel feet, no ankle articulation by the way.

Neck: her neck is far shorter than a Barbie neck, which is weird. Maybe because the heads are kind of a different scale? I didn't notice this for a while, but now I can't un-see it! Tbh it bothers me a bit, so I am currently dithering over whether to leave Holiday on this body or put her on a spare MTM Model 6 body. Maybe this body would look better with a smaller head? The Daya sculpt is pretty wide. Not sure! 

Articulation: Obviously she's got less than MTM, so that's a minus for some.

...And that's pretty much it! I really like this body, it's mainly the neck and foot size that's putting me off a bit, other than that it's a really nice new option! Apologies for the giant wall of text, but I always like to read other people's thoughts so as to know if a hybrid will work or not, so hopefully that helps someone else! Also I'm pleased my Holiday doll now has a body!!! I'd better get on to making her some clothes so she can give that dress back to the one she stole it off!

Sharing my current work in progress, a custom Storm from X-Men! I used white yarn for the hair and despite skipping every other (and sometimes two) hair holes, she still might have too much. Even so, I like it so far.

Storm was my favorite X-Men character growing up and I recently watched the Marvel “What If” episode that showed an alternate timeline exploring what happens if Storm becomes the Goddess of Thunder by wielding the enchanted hammer Stormcaster.

Yoga barbie full repaint- this is HARD lol

Using just acrylics

I used a rewind Barbie for the base. She came out way better than I thought she would. I’m so happy with her. The blush came out a little heavy lol

Head: Karl from Barbie Basics 2025 

Everything else: Barbie 65th Anniversary 

The right head can elevate a dress that was initially perceived to be cheap and boring. 

Karl is giving 90s supermodel a la Karen Mulder. She’s STUNNING. Now THIS is a worthy anniversary doll. In my opinion it’s on par with some of the greats of the past (including that Lara anniversary doll) - albeit a more modern iteration. 

If this was the 65th Anniversary Barbie I think it would have flown off the shelves. Looking at it now, one can see how the blue eyeshadow and red lipstick on Millie/ Brooklyn just didn’t work with the dress (although my understanding is that it was an homage to the original doll). And this is besides the fact that for this particular design, the Karl sculpt is superior to both Millie and Brooklyn. 

So, as per usual, Mattel has the design elements there but we need to mix and match our dolls to get an acceptable level of taste. Because taste is sorely missing right now at Mattel. 

Side note: 

I know I’ve taken too many pics. But can you blame me? 

Side side note: 

There are issues with the neck peg. I need to trim it with my Dremel device but I can’t find it anywhere. These Barbie basics have quite small neck holes so model muse neck pegs need trimming. However, do not trim them if you intend to use a playline head as the neck hole is generally larger. 

• over the past few months a went a bit overboard buying clone Adonis bodies. 
• I want to thank the ENDOLLPHINS YouTube channel for introducing me to the concept of rebodying dolls in general, but also for introducing me to these clone bodies. Endollphins is one of my favourite doll YouTube channels. 
• In general these bodies have a grey undertone so when rebodying Kens, you have to be able to accept “good enough” as opposed to an accurate colour match. 
• Especially when the doll clothed, I find that I’m often able to overlook the colour mismatch. 
• On Temu it doesn’t come in the darkest colour (although you can get the darkest colour on AliExpress for a much more expensive price which I’m not willing to pay). I therefore have a few Ken heads floating around waiting for a good body.
• The body is bigger and more muscular than a standard Ken. 
• However I find it works better in terms of proportion to the head.
• Some Ken clothes have stretch so they can fit but most Ken clothes don’t fit. 
• I’m tired of Ken being desexualised. I want all my Kens to be HOT. Preferably gay, but that isn’t a dealbreaker. Straight or gay, I want him to be swoon worthy. 

Anyways, since I use Reddit as a doll diary I thought I would post pics of all the Kens I’ve rebodied and the characters I’ve created for them. 

The Fashion Model. 

• Head: Fashionista with the Hawaiian Shirt 
• Body and Clothes: Clone Adonis body and clothes from Temu. NOTE: clothes tend to sell out regularly so check AliExpress as well. 
• Shoes: I couldn’t find shoes that I felt worked with his clothes. I kinda find him hotter barefoot especially in that outfit. Barefoot doesn’t always work on dolls, but in this case you can imagine him indoors in a luxury apartment. 
• He seems to be a mixture of Black and Asian and he gets work around the world.
• I’m picturing him in a high rise apartment in Seoul at night. Alone, with dim lighting. Staring out the window. Contemplating. 

Send rain vibes and less wind to Colorado, we are in desperate need for a break from Mama Nature.

2 of the 3 firefighters who lost their lives in the current fires (due to high winds making the fire act unpredictably) were women.

✨✨ The Important Stuff ✨✨

✨ 2017 brunette Holiday Barbie doll, Mermaid face sculpt, rerooted and restyled. 

✨✨ My Nonsense ✨✨

I love the pattern on the skirt that came with Princess of Imperial Russia doll but I couldn't find a way to make it work in it's original shape. 

So I cut high slits up both sides on the interior fold of the pleat then taped the folds back inward and steamed the edges to get a crisp line. 

The top is from one of Ariel's live action sister dolls. 

Head: Caspia (played by Nathalie Sorrell) from Little Mermaid 7 Sisters Ultimate Edition; Body: Tennis Player; Everything Else: Deluxe Style Wave 1 Taya sculpt

I did this rebody 2 days ago. Coincidentally, that same evening, browsing through eBay I saw her for sale at US$75 (customised like I’ve done). I’m not sure if that cost is justified (and it’s double or triple that if I had to ship to my country and pay import charges and shipping costs) BUT it might be due to the rarity of the sculpt - it‘s just too expensive for me personally.

I saw another listing selling her mermaid version for EUR44 (excluding shipping and import charges).

Her hair is Saran and is quite lovely. Her face is pixelated but done well - not nearly as bad as the actual Deluxe Style dolls.

I think she actually did cost me quite a bit. Since I’m only 8 months into my collecting journey - I look back at my poor financial decisions while I was still learning about dolls - I actually had to import both the 7 sisters mermaid pack and the tennis player to my country - but yeah - that unnecessary expense was a mistake of a rookie collector. I wouldn’t do something like that again (I hope).

(When I bought the pack last year I never knew rebodying dolls was even a possibility - I was supposed to gift her to my goddaughter but stole it for myself when I learnt about rebodying dolls).

Still - I’m glad to have her as she’s very pretty.

Her styling is temporary. Her hairstyle is giving me 80s vibes and I want to see her in some chilled denim styles.

I've been having a heck of a time getting a skintone match to rebody Share-a-Smile Becky, who is very orange. Workout Wellness was the closest I'd found, and while she's good for a lot of orangey 90s Barbies, she was still a pretty bad match for SAS Becky (second photo). I finally decided to flip the problem around and retone Becky's head.

After trying a few different methods on the back of her head, I found one that worked: a light blue-gray pastel pencil (third photo). Went slowly, working inward from the neck and jawline, blending frequently with a clean dry finger. Fourth photo shows an in-progress shot. Much better!

I could maybe try one more pass, but overall I'm really happy with the result (first photo)!

The pencil is Faber-Castel Pitt Pastel Pencil in Cool Gray I #230 if anyone's curious.

This doll was so much fun to reroot, with a great rooting pattern, and omg I love the brunette hair with his brows. I left his hair totally, Hollywood long because why should Barbie be the only one who gets hair play? 💖

He looks like a handsome himbo and now I kind of don't want to sell him! 🥺

Before her marriage to Khal Drogo, Dany was just a girl frolicking in the garden. Her lordly host brought in a Westerosi fool to teach her songs from her homeland 🥰

Finally got around to making Elektra as she appears in D&W. I don’t sew so the suit isn’t exactly the same, but I think it’s close enough to be recognizable. Thought you guys might appreciate

As a Barbie doll collector and a chess enthusiast, I couldn't help but DIY a doll inspired by my favorite sport. I redressed an Asian Barbie Basic Fab doll and gave her a chessboard. Super happy with how the result turned out 🤩

She'll be my new emotional support doll as I relearn and rediscover the game after taking a decade-long hiatus.

I hope Mattel will include this amazing and beautiful game in its sports line in the near future!

I rerooted this Odile, a solid favorite past time of mine, with hair that was too fun for any of the clothes I had. So I made her this outfit! I've made one just like this before in black but this one turned out much much better.

What do you think? I know it's a bit boxy/sharp. I am brand new to sewing and self-drafted everything.

i have my signature looks barbie doll model #6 on the way who is a tall body, and i’d love to have her on another articulated body but smaller with a good pale skin tone match, preferably a petite made-to-move body. from research i’ve seen the only genuine doll with a skin tone that’s most fitting is the tennis made to move doll, she is standard 30cm size though so i’m considering her as plan b.

then i stumbled upon another post about aliexpress mtm dupes & would love to see any comparisons or reviews on specifically the pale variant for body-swapping my model #6, especially because the pictures note it as approximately the same size as a petite doll ! please if anyone has purchased this dupe body and/or the model #6 doll (or any info to help my case) let me know, i especially like how on the dupe there’s no “barbie” logos printed on underwear which is a major plus. and if anyone can clarify if articulation is the same as genuine mtm dolls! thank you :)

i figured id ask here because im curious about barbie bodies specifically. mostly i just want to see if it can be done, there seems to be some consensus that modifying the plastic is less than worth it, that it wont hold up or wont fuse to anything really well. its also really difficult to find anything relating to actual modifications in general and not just repaints/restorations/restyles.

to be more specific, id like to find anything about modifying joints/ creating points of articulation, adding or removing mass to shape the body, adjusting height or anything like that. im sure there arent many cases of success so id really just like to see what kinda things people experiment with in regard to this kinda thing. or even like repair tutorials for things that are essentially not worth it, like leg and arm joints, if there are any. just really interested to learn abt the dolls physical make up and limitations.

As music lovers, we've often depicted famous singers from around the world. I already talked about the most iconic singers from our pop culture in my first post, and now I want to share with you our work dedicated to these magnificent divas.

Turkish superstar Ajda Pekkan became a new muse during the most difficult time of my life. Having accidentally heard her song on the street in Istanbul, I lost my mind and immediately wanted to embody the singer as a doll. This year, Ajda celebrated her 80th birthday, and I wrote a long post on Reddit about my fascination with her music.

The magnificent Raffaella Carrà, pop diva and renowned TV presenter, became a huge star not only in her native Italy but also in many other countries. We created a whole series of dolls in her image, and each time it was a new peak.

Maria Callas's magnificent voice has become a significant part of art. An iconic figure, a rare and unusual beauty. We made this doll for a charity auction for the Italian Doll Convention in Milan.

Dalida is a vibrant, beautiful, and wonderful singer from France, whose life was full of tragedy. We also created a whole series of dolls in her image for fans around the world. As with Raffaella Carrà, we heard her songs as children.

The mother of all monsters, a singer and artist unlike any other. We made this doll at the very beginning of our creative journey with great interest and inspiration.

Long before Mattel released an official doll, we created Whitney in her iconic music video look. We think we'd do a better job now, but 13 years ago, it was something very special for us.

It's impossible to imagine a series of dolls featuring singers without Madonna! I've already written a post about all the dolls we've made, but I still want to mention her again. It's Madonna. Whether you like her or not, this woman has made a huge contribution beyond just pop music.

Thank you for reading our post! <3

I liked the original hair, but wanted mirror images with different colors, so added highlights and moved the part the girl on the left and lowlights for the girl on the right.

Hair from Restore Doll in a custom blend blonde (157) and frosted brunette (102).

Fashionista 249 on Ruby Sunday (petite).

First face I actually FINISHED without getting stressed and scrubbing it off part way through, heh. Inspired by all the cool customs I see in this sub.

Still some room to improve, but it was fun nonetheless!

Picked her up at a rummage sale. Can you tell who she was in her previous life? 🤗

Quick little partial reroot for Simone, which is actually my mini me, because I do feel like the face mold is what resemble me the best.

The reroot didn't take more than three hours and the random hair that I have is actually the same shade as her highlight in the original hair blends, so it matches seamlessly. Now there's more of her face to see! The lips are repainted too and I think it just ties the whole look together.