Today’s entry will be describing another
of my rescued dolls which has cost me next to nothing shipping
included. There she was in a state very much to be pitied amongst other
dolls. I would have rescued all of them gladly, however, inexpensive as
they were, the purchase of one of them would exhaust my dolly budget
completely. I chose her for the shine of her very tangled hair, however,
it was impossible to identify her by the picture only so she remained a
mystery until she arrived. When she did, I began my scrutiny.
The doll’s eyes, large and cat-like,
would suggest the 90s, her arms were straight PTR, she was wearing
pearly-white molded-in underwear and some simple red earrings. Her hair,
although a hot mess, still remained some of its original shape. The
mystery was quickly unraveled, my Barbie belonged to the Shoppin’ Fun
Barbie and Kelly giftset dated 1996.
As for her dress, the one she was
wearing in the picture was not to my liking but the very nice owner
swapped it for the one that I suspected was by Mattel and much more
consistent with the style of the rest of my ladies. The simple dress was
in a very good condition and indeed a Mattel’s creation, the shape of
the logo on the tag indicated the 80s. I found out it was a Fashion Fun
pack #2086. Google has pulled as many as three versions of this dress: blue, pink and purple. The Blue dress is a fashion pack that was released in the US as a part of the Fashion Fun line. The pink version belonged to the Fashion Play Uptown Barbie 1986. The Fashion Play Barbies were a foreign issue, available in Europe and Canada. These elegant and underappreciated Barbies were considered basic and cheap. Well ... not in Poland, in my coutry they were a dream come true, a luxury that you could get for approximately 1/4 average monthly income. But I digress.... the purple dress remains a mistery. It’s my guessing that each color variant was
released in a different year hence the discrepancy. The pack included
the dress and a silver belt of limited durability, no shoes though.
Barbie definitely needed a great deal of
work. She was dirty, her hair was tangled, and the saddest part was the
crack in her neck due to negligent packaging. Luckily, the damage was
hardly visible. The doll was cleaned thoroughly, her hair shampooed,
conditioned, combed, boiled and curled. Then hours and hours of natural
drying. The process requires patience…
My skills of a hair stylist are mediocre
to put it mildly but I think Barbie looks better than before. I hope to
practice it in the future as I’m planning to rescue more dolls.
Restoring a part of Barbie’s former glory is rewarding and satisfying,
as well as educating. It’s the best way to learn about dolls in my
opinion. And to think so much joy is gained for the price of a loaf of
bread and two rolls.
Now, all my dolls are coffee addicts so
now that Barbie is pretty again, she went straight to a coffee shop for a
much desired cup of cappuccino.
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