Doll Review: Baby Born Big Sister and Brother Dolls

Did you know Baby Born has older siblings? These dolls are a newer addition to the Baby Born family of dolls. There are several different dolls available in the range and they are priced from around £20 up to £60. I'm not sure why there is such an extreme difference in the price but I think it might be to do with the clothing and accessories that the dolls come with. I did wonder if the cheaper ones were end of line dolls that companies were trying to sell off cheap. I purchased both of mine from companies on eBay that specialise in dead stock. The box my boy doll came in was incredibly dirty and dusty, as if it had been in a warehouse for a long time.

The nice thing about the Big Brother and Sister dolls is that they are very similar in size to Baby Born, so they can share a lot of clothing. The Big Brother and Sister dolls do have longer legs, so some trousers made for Baby Born might be a bit short on them but overall, they can share clothes easily. I suppose it does make it a bit strange for a child playing with the doll that the child doll is the same height as the baby sister doll.

Like Baby Born dolls, the Big Sister and Brother dolls don't require any batteries. They can both drink water, which then makes them cry real tears. Like feeding Baby Born, this is a bit of a messy activity and unless you want everything soaking wet, I would avoid feeding the doll real water.

Unlike Baby Born, Big Brother and Big Sister have knee joints, so you can pose them in all kinds of different ways. This also helps them to sit nicely. Big Sister is leaning against my backdrop in the photo below because she can't really stand on one leg, but I think it's nice to be able to pose the doll in lots of different ways. They can stand on their own, but I found you have to get their legs in exactly the right position for them to be able to stand up. The outfit Big Sister is wearing in this photo is the same one that Baby Born was wearing in the photo above, so you can see that it fits well.

The only thing about the movable knee joints is they look a bit weird. You can of course hide them under trousers, tights or even long socks.

Here are the dolls undressed. My Big Brother doll has a 'soft touch' body, which is just a squishy layer of vinyl. Big Sister has a hard plastic body similar to the older style Baby Born dolls. I think newer style Baby Born dolls might also have a soft touch body now.

I'm not sure if this is because of the soft touch body, but Big Brother's arms don't go straight up beside his head, they go up at a sort of angle. This doesn't sound like it's much of a problem, but I found it was quite difficult to get a jumper on him. His arm span was much wider than bottom of the jumper. Most clothes for dolls, even jumpers open up at the back completely and close with velcro, so this shouldn't be much of a problem. I found it an issue when I was trying to put hand-knitted jumpers on him. I just couldn't stretch them enough to get them to fit over his arms. Getting the same knitted jumper on Big Sister was no problem at all. You can see in the photo below that Big Brother looks like he's doing the Y arm movement from the YMCA dance. You can't get his arms any closer to his head.

The clothing the dolls came with is cute and trendy looking. I guess Big Sister and Big Brother are supposed to be around 4 years old, like pre-school age children because they still have quite baby-ish features.

Big Sister's clothes are not too bad quality The fabrics are nice, but some of the stitching is a bit messy. The top has iron on designs, but the edges aren't hemmed. They're finished with an overlock stitch, which is fine, but it just doesn't look very professional. The seams and raw edges inside the jeans are all overlocked, which makes the trousers look neat inside. I do like the pink stitching on the jeans around the knees. It just adds a little bit of extra interest to what would otherwise be plain jeans.

Big Brother's clothes look really cool, with distressed patches of denim and pockets on the jeans, but these are actually just printed on. I believe it's a technique called sublimation printing and it only works with polyester fabric. Big Brother's jeans are made with a weird crispy waterproof feeling synthetic fabric. The top is also polyester and the stripes and the designs are just printed on. I do like that the top actually has a neck binding, rather than just having the edge folded over like so many other dolls clothes manufacturers do.

Both the dolls shoes are nice. Shoes are something that always seems to be lacking in dolls outfits. I suppose it's because most dolls are baby dolls and don't really need shoes. Big Brother and Sister's shoes are made from quite a hard plastic, but Big Sister's have little patterned designs moulded into the plastic and Big Brother's have Baby Born printed on the soles. The nice thing about these shoes is that they fit Baby Born too.

One thing I didn't really like about the dolls is their hair. Big Brother's hair is particularly bad. His is really rough feeling, Big Sister's is much smoother and softer. But the main thing about Big Brother's hair is it's not very well cut. You kind of want to hide it under the hat he comes with. Big Sister's hair is much better, but even she has a few bits that seem longer than the rest of her hair.

Overall, these are great dolls and a lovely addition to the Baby Born family. If you already have Baby Born clothes and accessories, they'll all work with the Big Brother and Sister dolls. They're probably more suited to slightly older children rather than toddlers since they're made of quite hard materials. It's also nice to have a doll with no annoying electronic features that they require batteries for. I think not having that gives the doll more play value and makes them more of an open ended toy.

If you are in the market for one of these dolls, definitely shop around because the prices vary quite dramatically