Bratz

Bratz characters, from the first four girls to Karol G:

Cloe, Yasmin, Sasha and Jade set the look every later doll follows, with a head far too big for the body, almond eyes under heavy shadow and glossy outlined lips. Meygan joined them the following year, and the Bratz Boyz, Cameron and Dylan among them, arrived as the boyfriends. Bratz Babyz are the same characters as chubby toddlers in grown-up clothes and do not share a wardrobe with the full-size dolls, while Mini Bratz and Bratziez come in blind packs as small collectibles, made for a shelf rather than for dressing. Since the brand’s twentieth anniversary, MGA has been reissuing its old collections, starting with the first edition and Rock Angelz, and adding celebrity dolls: Kylie Jenner, who also came as a much larger collector doll, and Karol G, the one a Panamanian fan of the singer is most likely to ask for by name. If the doll a child wants is taller and slimmer, with feet of her own, she is a Barbie; a character from a film will be among the Disney princesses.

Bratz feet that come off with the shoes:

each shoe includes the foot and clips onto a peg at the ankle. Small hands find that easy, and the chunky foot is why a Bratz stands up so well on her own, but once the shoes go missing she is left on two pegs, and Barbie’s shoes have nothing to go on. Only Bratz shoes fit a Bratz, and MGA sells them in packs of their own alongside spare outfits. For a child, a current doll with her clothes and a few extra pairs is the easy choice. For an adult who had the originals, the question is whether a reproduction is close enough, and the differences are small but visible once you know where to look.

Telling a first-edition Bratz from a reproduction:

start with the shoes and the box. The first dolls were already reissued once, for the fifth anniversary, and those re-releases have holes in the soles of their shoes and a holographic logo on the box, where the originals have solid soles and a matte logo. The twentieth-anniversary reproductions differ more: longer, often thicker hair, a harder body, a slightly different face print and lip colour, and on later batches a nylon hair that collectors rate below the original saran. A reproduction is a good doll, just not a first edition, so a seller asking collector money should be happy to show you the soles and the face up close. On any used Bratz, count the feet first. Then look for rubbed lip and eye paint, hair that has been cut or has gone stiff and frizzy, and a head and arms that still hold firm. The face print is the doll: a lost outfit can be replaced, a rubbed face cannot. A bag of footless dolls goes cheaply, while a first edition still in her shoes and outfit, and above all one still boxed, keeps collector value. The Karol G doll was sold in limited numbers and is mostly wanted sealed.

A shoebox of old Bratz, ready to list:

name every doll, because collectors search by character and collection: Rock Angelz Jade, first-edition Sasha, Boyz Cameron. Say plainly whether each one is an original or a reproduction, and photograph the face close up in daylight, the soles of the shoes and, if there is one, every side of the box. Match every pair of shoes to the doll it came on, list what is missing, and mention any hair that has been cut, washed or restyled. Snap the feet back on before anyone arrives. A collector who has driven over from Las Tablas will stand each doll on the table in front of you, and the ones that stay upright are the ones she takes home.