The Kim Tae-hyung celebrity doll depicts him as V, a vocalist and member of the South Korean K-pop group BTS managed under Big Hit Entertainment. Kim Tae-hyung is a singer and songwriter/producer.  The doll was made by Mattel in 2019 and is one of seven in  BTS collection styled after their appearance in the BTS music video “Idol” released in August 2018.  

The IDOL dolls were released at a retail price of $22.95 each in late July 2019 and include the seven group members:

• • RM – Kim Nam-joon – Prestige doll, IDOL doll
  • Jin – Kim Seok-jin – Prestige doll, IDOL doll
  • SUGA – Min Yoon-gi – Prestige doll, IDOL doll
  • j-hope – Jung Ho-seok – Prestige doll, IDOL doll
  • Jimin – Park Ji-min – Prestige doll, IDOL doll
  • V – Kim Tae-hyung – Prestige doll, IDOL doll
  • JungKook – Jeon Jung-kook  – Prestige doll, IDOL doll

BTS was founded in 2013 and has made it to the top of the charts in the US and UK as well as in Asia. BTS is short for Bangtan Sonyeondan which translates to “Bulletproof Boy Scouts” and informally as Bangtan Boys.  The entire set of dolls is represented in the Celebrity Doll Museum.

The Celebrity Doll Museum BTS idol Mattel dolls video exhibit is also available on our YouTube channel.

The V “Idol” outfit on the doll consists of white collared shirt with large red hearts on the collar with black decorative button tops down the front, a shiny multicolored paisley/flowered pattern on a red based jacket and black satin pants.  The shirt is false front sewn into the inside of jacket. A Velcro strip closes the front of the shirt.  The jacket comes tacked to the front of the pants in two places to hold it in position. Pants are removable with back Velcro fly.  Molded white soft plastic hi-top sneakers have a slit in the back for easy removable and have unique left and right versions.  All the clothing is removable.

No socks under the hi-tops and skin toned underwear is molded into the body. 

Eyes are painted through some kind of textured dot matrix printing,  The half blond, half pink wavy rooted hair is roughly styled and sprayed with product to hold it in place. The doll’s head is stamped at neck line with ©Big Hit Ent. The other six in the collection are stamped with ©2019 MATTEL.

The 11 point articulation is somewhat limited for dance poses. Head rotates and tilts slightly down but doesn’t go up.  The body/waist  is fixed, the shoulders rotate around but hit a stop and hips articulate only forward and back but not side to side.  Knees, elbows, ankles, and wrists bend and twist.  The ankles rotate in all directions which makes it easier to balance and stand the doll.

The  V doll comes in a clam shell box with a black and white BTS motif. The back has a B&W photo of the K-pop group,  The clamshell packaging is a nice way to display the BTS dolls because it’s attractive and keeps the dust off the dolls. It is worth trying to preserved it when taking the doll out to play or display.

BTS Doll Removal Instructions:

1. The clamshell cover opens cleanly by running a slightly sharp utility knife blade starting from the bottom vent near the shoes and slitting between black papered covered cardboard and plastic cover around the edge. .  If you slightly angle the blade edge toward the plastic you get a much cleaner cut.  The doll is secured with two plastic fasteners into the head from the molded plastic holder. The rest is secured with all elastic bands/elastic fasteners that can be stretched to remove the doll.   
2. Cut the  two head fasteners between plastic holder and head (Be careful you don’t cut any hair) or in gap behind head if you have tiny accurate scissors .
3.  Slide/wiggle arms out of fastener loop. The articulation works in your favor.
4. Take off shoe polyband and remove shoes by pulling down near the heals.
5. Point toes.
6. Slowly slide the doll up toward the top wiggle it lose from the waist and calf fasteners.  They stretch so they will give a little. You can also bend the knees to wrestle the legs free from the calf band first.  It stretches plastic fastener pretty close to the limit so be careful. Works with shoes left on too.
7. To secure the clam shell top to the paper/cardboard backing after opening, consider Alliance Rubber 02004 EPDM Non-Latex Rubber X-treme File Bands (They are considered more archival and longer lasting than regular rubber bands).  String works too.

 
To get the current prices of the BTS Kim Tae-hyung (V) doll use these links:

Here is a longer YouTube Mirrored Dance BTS video in the same costumes as depicted in the dolls.