[identity profile] ladysisyphus.livejournal.com 2011-01-09 02:20 pm (UTC)(link)
It's admittedly harder to tell, considering the untimely decapitation of the older model in those pictures, but I think the slender ribcage contributes to her head's looking even more freakishly large.

That being said, I agree: I've never seen a human woman shaped like '90s Barbie, I have seen ones who look like the more recent Barbie. I'm sure the manufacturers claim they're just saving on plastic, though....

[identity profile] marrog.livejournal.com 2011-01-09 02:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Someone observed in comments that the dolls' heads need to be proportionately overlarge because the clothing is so much proportionately thicker that otherwise the heads would look undersized on the dressed doll - and, after all, they're meant to be dressed, not naked.

[identity profile] ladysisyphus.livejournal.com 2011-01-09 02:36 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, good point. I guess most of my Barbies ended up naked, dismembered, and crayoned-upon, but I was rough on my toys as a wee thing.

When they were in high school, my mother and her sister used to make Barbie clothes, and when I was older I was allowed access to their '60s dolls and wardrobes. I always liked the Barbies that had the little pixie cuts so short their hair was made of plastic, just like Ken's; it seemed somehow more efficient and truer to the exercise.