Every once in a while you come across a reboot doll that you can tell was done by complete fans of the original doll. Monster High G3's signature Twyla has that vibe and I'm happy to say so does Jem's 40th anniversary doll by The Loyal Subjects!
While the box is unimposing, she comes with a ton of extra stuff: a complete second outfit including shoes, a stand, a backstage pass, and some other accessories. You can't even see most of it from the front as she's packed on 2 layers. You DEFINITELY get your value with this doll!
I did not collect the dolls as a kid (I was a My Little Pony girl) but I was a fan of the cartoon and I really love how the new doll looks SO MUCH like the original cartoon/illustrations. Way more than the original doll, IMO. Her earrings are tiny stars, her makeup is more like it is in the cartoon, the general face shape is more like it is in the cartoon, she's super articulated, she is just perfect.
I just happen to have an original 1985 Jem, so I pulled her out to compare. The original doll was made by Hasbro and it had pretty good articulation for the time (wrist articulation!) but the new doll has modern articulation which is way better.
Their bodies ARE roughly the same size, just a bit of difference in the underbust to hip region. Close enough that they can swap clothes:
The shoes are swappable BUT they work much better on bare feet than over stockings. The new stockings should fit on the old Jem as they're more stretchy than the old kind, which do fit on the new Jem, but getting tights on rubbery 1980s doll legs is a special kind of torture, and I'm just not that dedicated.
So if you happen to have a collection of old dolls, this one and any new ones that might hopefully come out will be cross-compatible and can swap clothes! I love that they did that, because Jem was a slightly bigger fashion doll back in the day, and couldn't really share clothes with other fashion dolls.
Let's compare the new Jem to some current fashion dolls:
Jem is a bit bigger. A bit more like 12" vs 11.5". She has a much fuller figure, and I really like it. I don't think I'd call it plus sized so much as athletic. She does not have twiggy arms and legs, she has a hint of abs and biceps/thigh muscles. She looks a lot more like the Curvy body type than the Classic body type.
So that leads us to the question you're probably here for: How does one get her clothes?
Her measurements are almost identical to the Curvy Collector Barbie. This is a more hourglass full-figured doll than the fashionista/MTM line, if you want you can read more about her here. She's a little bigger than other curvies, especially in the upper body.
For modern Jem, I'd take any Curvy-fitted pattern and enlarge it 105%. This will make the torso length of clothes slightly longer and make torso b/w/h match up in vertical distances better.
Customizer's Corner
There is one thing about the new Jem that triggered my customizer instincts: her arms don't go straight down. This is because her torso part sticks out too far around the shoulder socket, limiting the movement. I like to customize action figures as a break from dolls sometimes, and when you do that a lot of the focus is on body mods for things like articulation and sculpt so that came in handy here.
Here's my little tweak that moved Jem from 'very good articulation' to 'excellent articulation'
I brought down the cone of her armpit area with carving and then sanded it smooth. Can't tell it is not the original sculpt of the body, and it gave her much better shoulder range of motion.