Sweet Tea arrived well-packed and wrapped in tissue, which is always a nice touch.
But when I opened it up, I found that my Sweet Tea had a wonky right eye, set in too far. It doesn't come out as badly in the photos, but her left eye looks straight ahead while her right eye looks to the left.
This, in conjunction with what looks to me like a warped head, looks terrible to me. Sweet Tea is my first doll with the Karl facemold, so I am not sure if the face structure is supposed to be the way it is, but it looks funny. The face/eye problem doesn't come off as badly in the photos as it does in person, and even to me it sounds like I am finding fault where there is none, but in person she doesn't look good. I did show her to a friend before deciding to post about this, and my friend saw it as well.
I was glad to find that she didn't have glue in her head, which is a big Barbie pet peeve of mine. However, I did continue to be disappointed with her. The eye decal was misplaced, as noted above, as well as several fingernails, and the right hand (perhaps the left, I did not check) had some flashing (excess plastic from the molding process).
Now, I'm really not one to be picky, and I really wouldn't have cared about the hand problems, because I don't mind a bit of fine-tuning - flashing can be sanded off, and nails can be repainted. But in this case, it was just one of several problems, the next on my list being the shoes.
I really liked the style, and liked that one end of the ankle strap was not connected to the shoe, so you didn't have to worry about it breaking when you take it off and put it on, which has happened with most of my Barbie shoes with ankle straps. However, these shoes are made of a very soft plastic, so the straps don't stay. The strap on the left shoe of this one was placed incorrectly during packaging, and remains as it is in the picture, up and away from the ankle.
The exceedingly soft material of the shoe make them extremely difficult to stay on. They slide off easier than butter on a hot knife. This style of shoe has been used before without a strap, and they stayed on well enough for me with the previous harder material. Being the ModelMuse foot with left and right molding, the shoes stuck on well, and are perhaps my favorite style for use on Barbie. So it was disappointing when I discovered the shoes just flew off.
My other complaint is the body. I am a huge fan of the articulated bodies, both MM and Fashionista, and buy them up whenever I can to rebody dolls that are not on articulated bodies. My Tarina Tarantino Barbie is now on an articulated MM body (donated by the Elvis Barbie) and I love it. However, Sweet Tea's body is not the same. It doesn't have the chest pivot, and it feels incredibly cheap. It is terribly light, all parts are hollow, and just doesn't look as good in person as previous articulated MM bodies. I don't mind the hollow leg feature, because it does use less plastic, which is good, and you can't tell by looking. But this body just felt very light and just... cheap.
The same goes for the fabric used. The fabric is the same quality that is used on playline, which isn't in itself a bad thing, but it feels quite cheap. The skirt is lined with a mesh inside, which is a nice touch. There isn't velcro on the shirt or the skirt, but buttons, which is another great thing - I returned a second-wave Look Barbie for having velcro (I'm more than happy to pay the extra dollar for buttons, Mattel). The purse was sewn to the skirt in a way that you would have to cut the string if you both don't want it to put a run in the skirt or have the purse separate. It would be very easy to mistake this and ruin the skirt while unpackaging the doll, which luckily I didn't end up doing. This isn't the same kind of sewing as some previous securings, where it is sewn but not tied off and you can just pull the string out, you actually have to cut the string, which endangers the skirt being cut as well as getting the run that I mentioned by pulling the purse away from the skirt to get to the string in between.
I don't think I've ever published a post that has been so critical, and I tend to forgive where others condemn, but I was just very disappointed with Sweet Tea. I returned her for an exchange, and I hope I don't receive another one that I am not happy with.
Here are the other photos I took of her. Everything else seems in order. I like the accessories and will look for an additional set on ebay so that I can have two matching cups and plates. The scone on the plate is attached, not separate, so perhaps with some DIYing you can remove it from the plate, unless it is hollow and there is no bottom to the plate. I do not know because I didn't get that far in deboxing before deciding to return her. The menu is like other paper with print in the other Look releases, with nonsensical words of random letters instead of actual words. I don't care about it not having actual words.
I dislike having to post a critical review, instead I would have not mentioned her. However I've posted the Part One entry already, so I had to follow up with it. My bottom line is that this doll was not worth the 30 dollars they are asking, considering past quality and the problems highlighted here (I'm sure I'm forgetting something else). So if you're a stickler for quality or perfection, this is likely not your best pick. But if you're a stickler for quality and perfection, you probably know not to look to Barbie much anymore, since they continue to produce lower quality dolls.
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