Pony Talk > The Dollhouse

Mattel vs MGA: Who had the better doll lines?

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karrie91:
I was playing around with some of my dolls today and I noticed something. While I love both companies and have dolls from each, I'm really starting to see a quality difference. Especially in clothes. Barbie dresses in particular seem to be so cheaply made. I have one doll for example that when I ordered her, I assumed was wear separates. However, when I got her I found out that her skirt and top were sewn in one piece. Which was really annoying because now I can't do any mismatching with it. I also noticed that the details aren't as great as some of my MGA lines. For another example, Bratz dolls seem to have pretty good quality clothes. At least the earlier lines. And don't get me started on Barbie shoes. It's hard to find anything back in the 90's that wasn't a plastic basic pink slip on.

So which company do you think made the better doll line. I love Barbie. But when it comes to quality, I'm noticing that it's just not matching with MGA. Some of my Bratz have way better hair than my Barbie's. And my Project MC2 dolls have some of the cutest most detail little clothing items. Not to mention the adorable little wrinkles on their feet. Which brings me to the question as to why most MGA lines ultimately fail when Mattel seems to do so much better. Even Monster High is starting to get cheaper and cheaper. I don't collect EAH so I can't speak for them ufortnately. And the Mattel Disney dolls were very cheaply made. I like to image what it would have been like if MGA would have had that line.

piinkypiie:
Mattel:
-in the 90s, early 2000s, i loved barbie (my childhood).
-MH and EAH in the beginning (their first few years were great with all the detail etc)

I agree with you that barbie quality has declined and so had MH and EAH(moulded clothes ew)

MGA:
- Project Mc2 (LOVED THE LINE FROM THE START!)
everything about them is awesome (except for the wobbly knees)

karrie91:

--- Quote from: piinkypiie on December 29, 2016, 07:17:59 PM ---Mattel:
-in the 90s, early 2000s, i loved barbie (my childhood).
-MH and EAH in the beginning (their first few years were great with all the detail etc)

I agree with you that barbie quality has declined and so had MH and EAH(moulded clothes ew)

MGA:
- Project Mc2 (LOVED THE LINE FROM THE START!)
everything about them is awesome (except for the wobbly knees)

--- End quote ---

I love the Project Mc2's but I agree about the knees. I actually bought my first core doll, the basic line, and she's my favorite out of my gang. I have the Camryn with the hat and the dinosaur sweater and I actually think she's made in a more durable plastic. She's so fun to take pictures with, even if she doesn't have joints like the other dolls.

I still buy Barbie dolls, and still am collecting Monster High though honestly, I find myself buying more Bratz and MC2's more than anything. I think the problem with Mattel is they can get away with low quality because Barbie has always been the queen of fashion dolls and parents are always gonna go to them first to buy a toy. I do love the Fashionistas though. Especially the new diverse ones. I just wish they would pick up their quality. Especially their hair  :cry:

Taxel:
Honestly, imo, Mattel's quality "lately" (probably for a lot longer than I've been paying attention) is total crap :x Even the fancy, expensive $50+ Collector Barbies are riddled with issues and errors. Its not a surprise. When people post about ordering or receiving these dolls the only surprise (sometimes) is exactly what errors they got. Its so depressing. I got a $75 Tokidoki Barbie and she had so many issues I had to return her to Mattel. The nicer collector-ish Barbies I got when I was little (like the Christmas ones and kid-friendly-price nicer dolls, like the princesses from all the different countries) were all amazing. I know playline toys in general are just worse and worse quality, but I really expected more from the super expensive dolls...

Monster High used to be my 2nd favorite brand and I actually planned to get pretty hardcore back into them in 2016 but the dolls I got for 2015 Christmas were so bad that plan came to a screeching halt. Mattel sent me vouchers and I got more MH dolls... a portion went back to the store. And things are just getting worse. I wish I'd returned all those dolls to the store and gotten stuff from another brand. They pretty much all have glue head, which means their hair is disgusting and eventually it'll fall out, ruin their faces, ruin their clothes, ruin whatever they're stored in, ruin any dolls they touch... I ripped all the heads off my MH girls last month and I'm getting rid of them :/

EAH has pretty much always been the "ugly stepsister" of MH and had significantly lower quality, despite usually being more expensive (at least where I live). They've just gotten worse and worse over time. The original giant moon heads weren't great but the new molds are downright terrifying. Not to mention they also have the same doll-destroying issue of glue seepage.

But on the flip side, 2016 ended up being The Year of American Girl so Mattel got my money anyways. I've been really impressed with the quality of the dolls, clothing, and shoes I've gotten. But of course the prices are insane! Over $100 for the regular dolls (or $60 for a smaller one... or way too much for a simple baby doll) and $30+ for outfits (less for pieces; I paid $12 for a pair of jeans), so I mean I'd sure expect the quality to be good for that price. But at the same time, they've started cheapening AG! The new Girl of the Year was just released and her stuff comes in cheap looking boxes with plastic windows, which isn't that big a deal on its own.  But the clothing is sewn to the boxes, leaving holes in very expensive doll clothes. People are rightfully furious! Its ridiculous. If they start packaging everything that way I'll have to be done with AG. I can't justify costs like that if the clothing is packed like $3 doll clothes from Walmart.


Bratz aren't my thing but I loved them as a kid. I remember the quality being good (and still have some bits and bobs hanging around), but then again at least the Barbie accessories and houses were WAY better then too. They're too exaggerated for my taste but I still like some of the recent clothing/accessories I've seen. Bratzillaz were more my style and I have one of the glow-in-the-dark girls that I love. I wish I had more of them!

Lalaloopsy is like my 2nd favorite brand (3rd before MH kicked the bucket). The fullsize dolls suffered from a big quality decline but I've been collecting the minis since 2011 and have always been loyal to them. Although they seem to have been discontinued I still prefer Lalaloopsy ponies over G4 (and even G3) MLP. I got my first Littles, Fullsize, and Girls within the last two years and was just as impressed with them as I've always been with Lalaloopsy. I've been worried because it seems like the line is dying out and losing popularity, but I have my fingers crossed for the "reboot". I don't like the hair-hair but the new dolls look awesome and I'm very excited. I'm sure they'll be great quality, and look great on my shelves!

I like Moxie Girlz and Teenz, and have a few of each, but they've never been all that appealing to me. The Teenz are SUPER cool but ugh, their size! Its so hard to store my one Teen. I wish I was able to have a few more. They're such pretty dolls! The True Hope Moxie Girlz and Bratz really helped cement my love for MGA. I don't think they did very well (I got mine on very steep discount), which sucks, but I love that the company was willing to give it a shot and produce bald playline dolls sold in stores.

Novi Stars are a sad love of mine! I wanted some so badly but ended up getting into Cutie Pops instead. Now both lines are dead and I need to hunt eBay for all the stuff I want from them. Novi Stars were so unique and daring. I wish they'd had better articulation and pricing. Maybe that would've helped.

Project MC2 is on my wishlist but I don't own any of them yet either. I love how focused the line is on STEM and the little experiments some of the dolls come with are awesome! That's such a perfect way to get kids interested in stuff like that. Plus the lack of pink! Barbie, and lots of other "girl toys", are so overloaded in pink its just plain offputting. MC2 dolls remind me a lot of my favorite line, Liv, that had very natural and normal-person looking dolls. Hopefully MC2 is more successful!


As far as the companies themselves go, I've had good customer service from both when products were defective/damaged out of box. MGA really impressed me with how they handled a Lalaloopsy issue I had in 2015. That's not totally relevant but hey, it was really good service xD


So yeah... I think its clear I vastly prefer MGA lines and talk too much, haha.

Galactica:
MGA for sure. I never got into Bratz but they are nicely made. I loved the Moxie girls (the teens were really well made too, just a little too big). The Novi Stars are gorgeous.

Mattel has for years now taken more and more shortcuts- even on their "collector dolls"!  They've had more quality issues than can be listed.

One of the things that drives me crazy about them is when they show a picture of a collector doll you can "preorder" the doll that actually arrives is 9/10 times a complete mess.  Want a specific example? This lady has some good photos in her recent blog post of the most recent club Barbie: http://terrigoldphoto.blogspot.com/2017/01/collecting-2016-best-and-rest.html

SO glad now that I passed! (I had been tempted by the look of the dress)

And yeah, MH started out okay but at some point they just kept cutting and cutting costs until the outfits were all horrible and the heads were all glue-heads- and it feels like they made the hair cheaper too...

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