BTS Mattel Dolls

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About

BTS Mattel Dolls are a line of toys produced by Mattel, the makers of the popular doll line Barbie. The dolls are 11.5 inches tall and resemble the members of the K-Pop group BTS.

History

On March 18th, 2019, Mattel previewed the dolls on their Twitter page.^[1] They tweeted an image of the dolls' silhouettes and wrote, "No more dreaming. Something big's coming… 💜 #BTSDollsOfficial #BTSxMattel." The tweet received more than 51,000 retweets and 141,000 likes in less than two weeks (shown below).

Over the next week, Mattel continued to post previews of the dolls on their Twitter account. These posts feature portions of the dolls, such as parts of their face or outfits. Each of these posts received more than 40,000 retweets and 100,000 likes in less than one week (shown below).

On March 26th, 2019, Mattel posted images of the dolls on Twitter.^[2] They wrote, "MIC Drop, ARMY! 🎤For the first time ever, we're thrilled to show you the line of #BTSxMattel fashion dolls! Take a look at V, SUGA, Jin, Jung Kook, RM, Jimin and j-hope as dolls inspired by the Idol music video!" Within 24 hours, the tweet received more than 52,000 retweets and 133,000 likes (shown below).

Reception

Online Reaction

Fans of the group expressed disappointment over the design of the dolls, claiming that they do not resemble the band members. Twitter^[3] user @loonyforjoonie tweeted, "Bro this egg look more like Namjoon than that" (shown below, left). Others posted reaction images and memes expressing their reaction to the dolls (examples below, center and right).

Others, however, expressed their enjoyment of the dolls, stating that they think they look like the members. For example, Twitter^[4] user @Bklaht_Yani tweeted, "They actually look alike. Mattel did a very good job on the faces in my opinion. The facer are very detailed im impressed. But, honestly the HAIR… They reuined it with the hair." The tweet received more than 3,100 retweets and 10,000 likes in 24 hours (shown below).

That day, Twitter^[5] published a Moments page on the release of the dolls and the reaction to them. Several media outlets covered the reaction, including BBC,^[6] Billboard,^[7] New York Post,^[8] The Daily Dot ^[9] and more.