Hasta La Gadget!

I don’t have a daughter, but if I did, I would never let her play with Barbie dolls. There’s already enough stuff out there that messes with their self esteem. They need a better doll role model.

As you may have heard, Barbie doll artist Nickolay Lamm designed a new doll, using the Center for Disease Control’s actual average measurements for a 19-year old girl. A more realistic girl. Now he’s back with a crowdfunding project to manufacture his realistically-proportioned Lammily dolls.

A pledge of $25(USD) or more will get you a First Edition Lammily doll. Nickolay has already nearly quadrupled his modest $95,000 funding goal in just a few days. That should tell you the kind of demand there is for such a doll. This one actually has curves and isn’t just a bean-pole with a tiny waist. This is awesome stuff for the young women of our planet.

[via Geekologie]

Barbie’s always been on the cutting edge of fashion, but now she’s on the bleeding edge of technology too with a new light-up dress that lets kids completely customize its design. It’s almost like she’s wearing a Lite-Brite, but instead of impaling her with colored plastic pegs, kids simply tap on the LEDs to turn them on and change their color.

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Mattel is finally jumping aboard the mission to Mars with a new astronaut Barbie. This Mars Explorer edition features everything America’s favorite anatomically impossible wonderdoll would need to survive in space (except… gloves? no matter!), and that striped and sparkly hot pink suit sure looks snappy/gender-normative. But… Barbie? We’ve got some bad news.

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Teens struggle with body image and weight issues every day, and it doesn’t help that media flaunts images of size 0 and below models on their screens every few minutes or so. But if you think about it, toymakers are partly to blame because of the toys they’re churning out of their factories.

One very good example of such toy is Barbie. Most toddlers have one and they grow up with the notion that these too-thin plastic dolls have an attainable body type.

Barbies have been targeted and given makeovers by artists time and again, but artist Nicholay Lamm took a more scientific approach by obtaining average measurements of a typical 19-year-old woman from the Center for Disease Control beforehand. He then used 3D imaging to create a more realistic and full-bodied rendition of Barbie.

I think realistic Barbie looks better and way more healthier than Mattel’s stick-thin Barbie.

Mattel previously defended the dimensions of the doll, saying that her clothes and accessories add bulk to her frame. That’s a valid point for selling toys, but not so much for imparting a healthy message to kids who might get the wrong message or idea about what their bodies should look like.

What do you think?

[via Geekologie]

I remember that it caused quite a stir when Mattel decided to manufacture Barbie dolls with more realistic bodies. By that, I mean an average-sized chest, a slightly wider waist, and with a couple more inches (doll-inches, that is) added to her hips.

Artist Eddi Aguirre decided to go with that idea but took things a little further by using Photoshop to reveal the real face of Barbie. So here she is, minus the makeup and looking like she aged ten years overnight:

I don’t think braces can be covered up by makeup, but hey, maybe Eddi’s just trying to show what she would look like if she didn’t get her teeth capped. Here’s a closer look at Barbie’s face. I guess it’s true what they say about makeup damaging your skin if you put too much of it on or keep it on your face long enough.

Barbie isn’t the only overly dolled-up doll on the market. The one below happens to be one of her many plastic friends, and Eddi has decided to re-do her face and body if she didn’t go for the lipo.

It’s highly unusual art, but it leaves you with some food for thought afterwards.

[via Behance]