Baton Twirling Skipper AA 1992

This month has brought two posts featuring Dolls of the World and it’s time for a change of age group now. This is the newest addition to my Skipper collection – the Baton Twirling Skipper AA 1992. Until very recently, the AA Skipper doll’s kept escaping me despite my best efforts at procuring my copy. I’ve noticed that AA Skippers find their homes easily and in the 80s/90s there weren’t all that many releases to begin with. Some versions don’t appear on Ebay at all, and the ones that I usually see would be the Homecoming Queen and the Baton Twirling Skipper. Homecoming Queen is cute enough, her facepaint is very sublte and she has no bangs that serves to her advantage, but she’s been dressed in a shapeless ball gown that’s not to my taste. Now Baton Twirling Skipper is hard to pass without noticing, but she often comes with bangs so huge that they cover half the doll’s face. Oh well, I could always tuck those bangs in the pink bucket she wears on her head – I thought. Now that she arrived, I couldn’t be happier with her, but she photographs awfully. I kept looking for the best place to take photos of her and no matter what I did, her face and her hair would blend and blur together. Finally I found a good spot – in my kitchen, so I’m sorry for all the coffee mugs and the appliances you can see in the background.

While doing a research on the topic of AA Skipper dolls I’ve realized that the first African American version of Barbie’s little sister appeared only in the late 80s. She came out in 1989 to be exact and that was the before mentioned Homecoming Queen, produced in 1988 as the second wave of the big-eyed Skippers. She was released about once a year and she changed twice, just like the Caucasian Skipper and Courtney.

Homecoming Queen Skipper AA 1988

 the source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahdolls/7099091425

The below list shows all the AA Skipper dolls that were produced before Skipper and her gang were discontinued altogether.

1.       Homecoming Queen Skpper AA 1988

2.       Cool Tops Skipper AA 1989

3.       Babysitter Skipper AA 1990 (+1 dziecko)

4.       Pet Pals Skipper AA 1991

5.       Baton Twirling Skipper AA 1992

6.       Cool Crimp Skipper AA 1993

7.       Babysitter Skipper AA 1994 (+3 dzieci)

8.       Pizza Party Skipper AA 1995 (Pizza Party headmold)

9.       Phone Fun Skipper AA 1996 (Pizza Party headmold)

10.   Cool Sitter Teen Skipper AA 1998 (+4 dzieci) (Teen Skipper headmold)

11.   Barbie and Skipper AA Pajama Fun Tote 2003 (Teen Skipper headmold)

Pizza Party Skipper AA 1995

the source: https://www.picswe.com/pics/barbie-pepsi-labels-4b.html

Cool Sitter Skipper AA 1998

the source: https://www.amazon.com/Barbie-Sitter-SKIPPER-Babies-Dolls/dp/B004286PDC

When Skipper AA grew up an changed her face sculpt for the second time, Nikki was on her way to replace her and after 2003 the official sources announced Skipper left for boarding school in Rio. She came back only in the Caucasian version, much shorter, with dark hair and a new face. The African American Skipper decided to stay in Rio a little while longer because her next release would be in 2018 as a part of the Skipper Babysitters inc.  

Babysitters Inc. Skipper AA 2018

 the source: https://barbie.mattel.com/shop/en-us/ba/sisters-pets/skipper-babysitting-doll-with-phone-baby-bottle-fhy91

Now the series to which my Baton Twirling belongs is very interesting. 4 dolls comprise the series and these are Baton Twirling Skipper, Baton Twirling Skipper AA, Cheerleading Courtney and Basketball Kevin. I’d love to all of them because they’re all cute. Unfortunately, once Mattel decided to finally release an AA Skipper (or Barbie for that matter) they made their point to treat racial equality very much literally and dress both Skippers in identical outfits. I’d much prefer the Caucasian Baton Twirling in a combination of blue and green that would bring the color of her eyes better. Oh well. Now back to the series, you can see that it’s all about sports in  general terms and somehow this time Mattel decided against one name that would describe all four dolls. Instead, they called each doll differently. The boxes also differ in terms of the graphics at the back. Inside the box, I’ve found a poster catalogue showing all the pretty things Mattel had on the menu at that time.

Baton Twirling Skipper caucasian- the box

the source: https://barbie-shop.pl/en_GB/p/1992-Baton-Twirling-Skipper/251

Skipper Majorette is dressed in a one-piece all in neon colors. The outfit is basically a long sleeved body with a skirt attached to it. The uniform has some silver detailing to it and it’s trimmed with sequins. The details up front are printed on. The doll’s also got a hard plastic hat with some fringe I suppose. Her ankle boots match her hat and the only accessory that she comes with apart from her brush of course, is her baton and it does twirl. The baton can be attached to her hand thanks to a skin colored piece and it turns smoothly both ways. I played with the baton just like a little kid, but don’t tell anyone. I’m supposed to be a mature and responsible grown-up after all.

On the basis of the available pictures I couldn’t really tell the material her hair’s been made of. But to my great joy it’s turned out to be saran and beautiful too. The black and brown mingle together giving it a very soft hue. Her bangs are also much shorter than usual and they don’t get in her eyes, and those are very pretty indeed. If I didn’t know any better, I would’ve assumed most AA Skipper dolls to come with brown eyes. It’s not so. In fact grey and purple are very common for these dolls, and mine’s got a mixture of purple and brown to her eyes. She’s a little more made-up than I would’ve thought, but she’s taking part in a parade after all. So there’s some opalescent violet and silver eyeshadows on her lids. “She’s ready to wow the crowd”

I’m very happy with my new doll, finally I own all versions of the 1987 Skipper headmold. They look so cute together. Now I’m slowly moving in the direction of the vintage and Pizza Party headmolds. But the big-eyed sculpt will always be my favorite face of Barbie’s little sister.