Thursday, March 21, 2019

Birthday Surprise Barbie 1991


Normally, I’d publish on my English blog and then on the Polish one a couple of minutes later but ever since Blox announced their plans for closing I’ve been migrating to Blogger. Although that’s finally finished on both of my blogs, I’m still behind the Polish one by a couple of entries. I realize this post, which is actually meant to celebrate Barbie’s 60th birthday, is terribly late, but I wanted to show you this doll anyway. She sure deserves it. So here’s Birthday Surprise Barbie 1991.

She actually doesn’t belong to me but to my little daughter who got a Fashionista for her 4th birthday. When I asked her what she’d like to get from Santa she replied: ‘A beautiful ball dress for my Barbie’. So while I was sure she was fast asleep sat down by my laptop to search for that dress. I didn’t find it but I did come across Birthday Surprise. As I was devouring the doll with my eyes, a sudden scream brought me back to reality and almost gave me a heart attack. My little girl was standing right behind me mesmerized – ‘Oh mommy! This is the most beautiful Barbie I’ve ever seen! Can I get her from Santa?’. Well, Santa had some doubts, because my daughter was just 4 years old, this was no ordinary doll and many collectors would reproach me for even thinking about such an abominable thing as giving it to a child. But as it happens, my girl has never, ever broken a toy in her life. Blame Toy Story for that, but she treats her toys with the utmost care and gentleness. So I hit the buy now button and here she is.


My daughter manifests a true collector attitude towards Birthday Surprise: Fashionistas are for play time, Birthday Surprise is just to look at. She hardly ever gets to be played with and she usually just stands on the chest of drawers supported by her stand, still in her stock dress and shoes (!), with her hair never brushed while the Fashionistas constantly change their outfits and hairdos. I guess my little girl just feels sort of intuitively that Birthday Surprise is special and she’s to be treated just as that. But the doll is important to me as well, my collection actually began because of her. When I was holding this beautiful doll in my hands I remembered all the Barbies I used to own and lost and I suddenly just wanted to see their pictures again and then the pictures simply weren’t enough.


Birthday Surprise is clearly a collectible. She was packaged so that she could be fully admired while still in her box and should anyone wish to release her, a stand was provided so that she could be proudly and properly displayed. The doll was available in the Caucasian and the AA version with the stunning Christie 1987 features. Both were packaged identically and wore the same dresses. As a birthday doll, Barbie came with a surprise gift for her little owner. The present could be a bracelet, a necklace or a pair of earrings and you didn’t know what you’d get because the gift was wrapped. My daughter’s doll came second-handed so she lost her gift, her brush and she got a replacement stand, but her outfit was complete as were her shoes and her jewelry. The ring was loose however and I was the one who lost it even before Santa managed to deliver the gift.

the source: https://pl.pinterest.com/pin/352336370843868002/?lp=true



The dress is beautifull and elaborate. It’s huge too and fortunately, it’s not pink but peach colored. The upper parts are very decorative. There’s an intricate pattern on the bodice and the neckline has some tulle rosettes to it. At the waist there’s some white, opalescent detailing and the skirt part is three layers sprinkled with glitter and adorned with pearl beads. The doll looks queenly and the dress has been designed with taste.




Barbie’s hair is this wild and soft kanekalon, gathered at the forehead and styled in a lovely little doughnut bun. The rest of it should be let loose, but it gets caught by Barbie’s dress and tangled. So we just tied the hair with some ribbons to protect it and the hair pin is my daughter’s idea. Barbie’s face is just stunning! Her blue-green eyes have that happy look to them and the eyeshadow is very subtle. Her coral lips smile in this gentle way. At some point, about the year 2000 or so I was very unhappy with what Mattel was doing, creating an army of drag queens and it made me wonder. Having created such beautiful dolls that both children and collectors loved, why would they go in that direction. Oh well.




Happy Birthday Barbie!




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