Barbie Signature Inspiring Women Dr. Opal Lee

Images of Dr. Opal Lee are featured on the box of her portrait doll.

Except for the drawn-on nasolabial folds (wrinkle lines), I am inspired by Mattel's inclusion of Dr. Opal Lee in the Inspiring Women Barbie series. Mattel's honor of this nonagenarian, soon-to-be centenarian, during her lifetime is to be applauded. I have already prepared an installation for the Virtual Black Doll Museum, but it will not be published until later this month. So I am sharing a few actual pictures and additional information about the doll here first.

The doll has brown painted-on nasolabial folds, a beauty mark above her upper lip, and wears black-rimmed eyeglasses.

A mature appearance was attempted by painting around the eyes, and both sides of the nose to below the corners of the mouth (nasolabial area) instead of using a dedicated head sculpt. The white paint around the eyes represents wrinkles, which is acceptable, but painting brown "smile lines" was, in my opinion, an easy way to cut costs. That step should have been omitted. We would still know who the doll represents, because the Asha face was a good choice. Other than that, because Dr. Lee is a living legacy whose tireless efforts led to the now national Juneteenth holiday, she deserves this form of recognition in her lifetime, and I am happy for her.

Some of the text from the back of the box reads as follows:

Dr. Opal Lee Barbie is casually dressed.

Young Opal Flake was twelve years old when she and her family moved into their new home in Fort Worth, Texas. Four days later, on June 19, 1939, a mob of rioters destroyed their house and set their belongings on fire. Opal understood the significance of the day; it was Juneteenth, the anniversary marking the day in 1863 when Union Soldiers arrived in Texas to announce and enforce emancipation, two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. The incident would be pivotal in the tapestry of her life.

A determined Opal Lee dedicated her life to advocating for human dignity and creating awareness about the history of Juneteenth. Known as the "Grandmother of Juneteenth," she, at the age of 89, courageously walked hundreds of miles from Fort Worth, Texas to Washington, D.C. to petition lawmakers to make Juneteenth a federal holiday. Five years later, in 2001, the civil rights crusader's dream became reality when legislation was passed.

Opal Lee was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2024. Now, almost 100, she continues to walk 2.5 miles every Juneteenth in her annual Opal's Walk [to] Freedom events. Throughout her life as a teacher, counselor, and community activist, she has persistently demonstrated what's possible when one uses their voice to inspire change.

A full description of the doll, the clothing, accessories, and box details will be included in the VBDM installation. I'll add a link to the installation after it is published. In the meantime, view the following video review on Instagram by @Kendoesdolls.

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All photos and text are copyrighted and cannot be used elsewhere unless permission is granted by the author.

©Black Doll Collecting/dbg

There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.
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Thank you for reading. Comments that are not spam are appreciated. Spam comments will not be published. To contact me directly, go to the About page (visible in the web view mode); find and use the email link.

Visit and follow DeeBeeGee's Virtual Black Doll Museum for detailed installations of antique, vintage, modern, and one-of-a-kind black dolls. http://virtualblackdollmuseum.com

Barbie You Create Barbie Basics Neutral Kit 002-Unboxed Review

Shipping boxes for Barbie Basics You Create Kits 002 and 001

This is a continuation of my review of the two Barbie You Create Barbie Basics Neutral Kits that I purchased. The link to my review of Kit 001 is at the end of this post. 

The Tango head was attached to the Made to Move Athletic Barbie body that comes with the kit.

As with the other kits in this series, the back of the box and a tri-fold insert inside the box illustrate ways to style the doll.

This photo was taken before the doll and the packaged accessories were removed from the box.

Freed from the confines of the box, Tango posed for the camera after I fluffed out and shaped her auburn and brown curls with my fingers. 

Tango wears a metallic gold puff-sleeve top, a "B" monogrammed wrap skirt, and tan flat ankle strap shoes. 
The contents of the three black envelopes are illustrated next.

The Pazette and Elle sculpts were in the top envelope. Again, I had to work with the hair to make it presentable.

A tan spandex maxi skirt with a faux leather panel and a brown long-sleeved spandex blouse were in the second envelope.

The third envelope included a pair of plastic, white square earrings; several plastic hair clips, a pair of white pointed-toe mules with "B" monogrammed heels, a pair of rectangular white shades, a headband, a gold-tone cuff bracelet, and the base and waist clip of the doll stand. The doll stand pole was attached to the box liner alongside Tango.

I placed the sunglasses and earrings on Tango before swapping this head with the Pazette head.

With the Pazette head on, I removed the white puffed-sleeved top and added the brown spandex top for her to wear with the wrap skirt and shoes. The headband and the earrings were also added.

After getting her hair detangled, Elle tried on the puff-sleeve top with the maxi skirt. All dolls modeled the same tan shoes because, unfortunately, the white "B" monogrammed shoes in this kit do not fit well.

This is how the white mules in Kit 002 fit the dolls in both kits. The Kit 001 foot is on the left; Kit 002 is on the right. It will require an elastic band to hold the shoes on the doll's feet, and even with that, they are prone to falling off Kit 002's shorter foot!

I wanted to see if the shoes in Kit 001 would fit Kit 002 doll's feet. The ankle strap position is off.

So, in both kits. There is only one pair of footwear that will fit these dolls, the boots in Kit 001 and the tan flats in Kit 002. 

This is the back of the tri-fold flyer, which illustrates how to build, style, and pose the doll.

This is the front of the tri-fold flyer.

My Pros and Cons for this Kit mirror those for Kit 001 with some additions.
Pros

• I appreciate the three different head sculpts, one of which (Tango) is not used often on dolls with this complexion.
• I am thrilled that two of the three kits in this collection have brown complexions. Thank you, Mattel.
• I love Tango's natural coils and the color of the hair.
• I like Elle's hairstyle, but... (see the 4th con below).
• Head removal and placement are easy.
• The interchangeability and creativity are pluses.
• The ability to create different looks using this kit with Kit 001 is another plus.
• One pair of shoes fits well.
• The neutral palette is appealing.
• The clothes in this kit are more stylish than those in Kit 001.
• The clothes fit well.
• The headband is more flexible and fits better than the one in Kit 001.
• Although they are plastic, the earrings in this kit have a better design than those in Kit 001, and they fit better without jutting out. 

Cons

• As mentioned and illustrated above, the white mules are not a good fit for Kit 001 or Kit 002.
• The plastic hair clips are useless to me. 
• The cuff bracelet is so oddly shaped with a narrow opening that I could not place it on either kit doll's wrist. So, it's useless, too.
• Elle has layered hair with multiple double-strand twists on top of loose, wavy hair with more twists underneath the wavy section. The twists and the wavy hair were tangled upon arrival. This hair mixture will easily tangle and should only be finger-combed. 
• Pazette's hair is gelled on top (not really a con, but this is worth noting). The ends looked rough, were uneven and required trimming.
• (This is just an observation, but it would be a con if I had purchased Kit 003: the clothes in that kit are frumpy! I'm so glad they were not included in Kits 001 or 002.)
• Creating three complete dolls will require buying three extra bodies that match the complexion of the heads in this kit. 

I didn't do a deep dive into body complexion matching because again, I have no immediate plans to buy more bodies for the extra heads in each kit, but I did compare this body's complexion with two dolls, as illustrated next.

The twinning Elles (the doll from Kit 2 and Barbie Looks Model #2) share the same complexion.

Elle and Barbie Looks #21 share a similar, if not the same, complexion.

Finally, I attached each head to the body and dressed each doll in different combinations of the fashions and accessories and took the following full-length and close-up photos.

Tango, Pazette, and Elle from Kit 002

And here they are in a close-up.

Initially, I thought Tango would be my favorite, and I do love her head sculpt and hair, but there is something about Elle (probably the hair, even though it will tangle easily) that I love more.

Elle is the "it" girl in this kit.

To summarize, do I like both kits? Yes. Would I love for Mattel to produce a line of doll heads and bodies with different complexions, hair styles, and hair textures that can be mixed and matched and each piece sold separately, from which collectors can pick and build dolls of their choice? Absolutely, just make and sell separately packaged heads, bodies, clothes, and accessories.

This style neck connector is used for the Barbie kit dolls.

A better idea is that, going forward, Mattel could use the kit doll neck connector on all future collector dolls so that heads can be easily swapped. I'm always afraid I will damage the traditional-style neck connector (like the one on the right in this image) if I remove a head. The kit dolls' long flat neck connector makes head removal a "snap."

Related Post

Barbie You Create Barbie Basics Neutral Kit 001-Unboxed Review

All photos and text are copyrighted and cannot be used elsewhere unless permission is granted by the author.

©Black Doll Collecting/dbg

There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.
__________

Thank you for reading. Comments that are not spam are appreciated. Spam comments will not be published. To contact me directly, go to the About page (visible in the web view mode); find and use the email link.

Visit and follow DeeBeeGee's Virtual Black Doll Museum for detailed installations of antique, vintage, modern, and one-of-a-kind black dolls. http://virtualblackdollmuseum.com