Bratz

The four original Bratz girls and the lines built around them:

Cloe, Yasmin, Sasha and Jade have been reissued, restyled and dressed up again so many times that the name on the box tells you more than the doll’s face. Play lines such as Alwayz Bratz come with a poster and a pile of accessories and are made to be played with. The 20 Yearz and Rock Angelz boxes reproduce the early-2000s dolls, each with a spare outfit, and are aimed at the women who had the originals. Bratz Boyz, Cameron, Dylan, Eitan and Koby among them, turn up far less often than the girls. Bratz Babyz are a smaller doll altogether, and Mini Bratz are pocket figures sold in blind packs, so finishing a set means trading duplicates. At the top sit collector dolls with a famous name attached, Karol G’s among them, sold with a stand and meant for a shelf. A child who wants a doll with a horse, a camper and a family is closer to Barbie, and one who wants Elsa’s dress is after the Disney princess dolls.

A Bratz body from the first years or from the relaunch:

decides which wardrobe will fit. The dolls made before the relaunch share one body, and their clothes pass freely between them. The relaunch brought taller, slimmer bodies with jointed arms, built to stand level with Monster High, and clothes made for one generation rarely sit right on the other. The faces changed too. The early dolls had their faces sprayed on, which gives the long, sultry Bratz eye, while the relaunch dolls had faces printed from a transfer that looks flatter. Before you buy clothes for a Bratz who already lives at home, find out which generation she belongs to.

A first-edition Bratz and the reissue that copies her:

look alike in a photo and sit far apart on price. A first-edition doll still sealed in her box is a collector’s piece and is priced like one, and a loose original in her first outfit still sells well, because the outfits are what got lost over the years. The anniversary reproductions were made in large numbers and are still easy to order new, so a used one gets back only part of what it cost, and an opened, played-with one less still.

The face and neck of a pre-owned Bratz:

say more about her than the outfit does. Original Bratz have brittle neck pegs, and a head that has been twisted round too often snaps clean off, so turn it gently before you pay. On that big painted face the lips and eyes rub first. Nail varnish remover lifts Bratz paint in seconds, which is how customisers strip a face and how a careless clean ruins one, so ask whether a doll was ever wiped with it. To tell an original from a reproduction, look at the eyes. The reissues use a different face print, with eye shapes and lipstick shades that are close but not the same, and anyone who knows the first dolls sees it at once. A doll with no MGA mark on her back or the back of her head is not a Bratz at all.

Naming each Bratz by her line before you list:

is what makes a collector message you. Boxed dolls carry the line on the packaging, and on loose ones the outfit and the face usually give it away, so a listing for Rock Angelz Jade in her original outfit draws far more interest than one for a Bratz doll. Photograph the face close up in daylight, the back of the head, and each outfit laid out beside its doll. Say whether any head has ever come off and which pieces are from a reissue. A boxed reissue that is already in Guatemala is worth listing as exactly that, since your buyer skips the wait for a forwarded parcel. Someone coming in from Quetzaltenango for a whole collection will want to turn every head and check every face before paying, so meet somewhere with good light.