Charles's Pages about Doll Stuff - www.dollstuff.net

Barbie® Fashion Fever™ "Reissues" at Target

I saw these "Fashion Fever™" dolls (the "Fashion Fever" name still isn't officially on the boxes) at Target a few weeks ago. They're wearing outfits that were recently released as part of the main line, all of which were originally worn by Teresa® dolls: Barbie®'s wearing Teresa's peach-colored dress, Nikki®'s wearing her blue dress, and the Teresa® doll in jeans is basically the same as the original.

They're packaged in slim cardboard window boxes rather than the thicker, mostly-plastic boxes the "normal" versions come in, and they're missing all of the accessories that originally came with these fashions.

Target stores in the US carried a similar no-name "Fashion Fever" assortment at Christmas-time last year made up of dolls wearing previously-released outfits. With the exception of one the blond Barbie dolls (who like this year's dolls, was dressed in an outfit originally belonging to Teresa apparently that's a theme ), the dolls were very similar to the original versions, using the same heads. However, they all had regular arms rather than the new articulated arms the original releases used.

Target was a bit nefarious with that assortment. In November 2008, they inexplicably "marked up" the regular Fashion Fever dolls from US$9.99 to US$11.99; then, when the simplified "reissues" showed up the following week, all the regular-edition Fashion Fever dolls disappeared and the reissues were put on a special "sale" at the original $9.99 price. Very crafty. (After Christmas, the "regular" dolls magically reappeared.)

They did something similar with these dolls: They were originally priced at US$9.99, but now they've been put on permanent "sale" for $5. They'll remain at that price through Christmas.

Side note: The packaging indicates that Nikki may not be included in assorted shipments with Barbie and Teresa. () If that's the case, she might be harder to find in some places. She's really pretty, and unfortunately this might be one of the last dolls that will use the head head.