Happy Holidays Barbie 1991

On Christmas Eve you can hardly spare time for dolls, so I prepared this post a couple of days ago. I think Happy Holidays Barbie 1991 is just perfect for this special occasion. She’s green like a Christmas Tree and so festive. She also brings back some cherished memories. As a little girl I hoped to find a Barbie doll under my Christmas Tree. After all, back then Barbie was very expensive, a luxury really, and I couldn’t have hoped to get her on any lesser occasion. Now it’s different, but my Barbie is still the same.

I purchased HH 91 about two months ago from a very nice collector who kept her in a box. The box was damaged so she was finally released and sold to me in a perfect condition as well as complete. I find that amongst the first 10 editions of the Happy Holidays series, she’s a little less ornate or extravagant but there’s much elegance about her too. She’s not covered in glitter, lace and shiny fabrics but her dress is very graceful and regal. It’s made of some very soft velvet and her bodice and her puffy sleeves are adorned with sequins and beads. A large bow and a purse complete the look. She’s wearing the classic, red Barbie pumps and some impressive jewelry too.

Her outfit is excellent, but what I like most about the doll is her face. It’s a masterpiece! Her large, round eyes are full of expression. Her face paint is all about green, her eyeshadow is green, even her mascara is green. Her lips are full and deep red, you can see the 90s are in a full swing here. Her kanekalon curs are almost completely white. It looks as if her designers were inspired by the image of an evergreen covered with snow.

I’m slowly but systematically building my Happy Holidays Barbie collection. I’m planning to purchase the first 10 dolls and I’ve got 5 so far, so there’s still a lot of hunting for me.

I wish you a wonderful Christmas and a lot of dolls under your Christmas Tree.

Happy Holidays Barbie 1989

Christmas is in the air and on doll blogs as well and since my Christmas tree is already decorated, I thought I might join the happy anticipation of 24^th December. Happy Holidays Barbie 1989 is here with me today, although I had planned to present the slightly younger HH 1994. The doll arrived and surprised me greatly and unpleasantly. The doll herself was in a great condition which is something I cannot say about her dress. The doll was used, so I expected some imperfection, but the dress was just simply damaged. The front was ok I guess, but the back was covered with ugly yellow patches where once there was the golden layer. I packed her and sent her back to her previous owner and I hope things will turn out well. Keep your fingers crossed.

The deal with HH 94 was disappointing, but no matter. Happy Holiday 1989 is just as beautiful. Her purchase was unplanned. Her previous owner also put out HH 94 for sale but I was too late. So she offered HH 89 instead and lowered the price to the point that I just couldn’t resist despite the fact that she was incomplete. For one thing, the lacy part of the outfit doesn’t belong to it. It comes with Happy Holidays 1995 so for obvious reasons it just won’t cooperate with the dress. The doll’s also missing her ring, her shoes, the headpiece and the stand. I’m planning to change that in the future. Luckily, the pieces that are still in place are just perfect. I love that dress with the opalescent bodice imitating ice and the fur trim. Barbie looks like a blizzard! Sadly, there’s no snow outside, and so I have no other alternative but to recall my memories of the snowfall so heavy it was up to your knees.

The doll herself is just stunning. Her face paint is a sample of the changes that were about to be introduced along with the 90s. The big, expressive eyes and kanekalon hair beyond control were the two things that Barbie of the 90s was criticized for. If I were to choose, I’d say my favorite decade is the 80s characterized by the simplicity of face paint and the overall elegance. However, I still like the
Barbie of the 90s and there are many of my personal favorites that were released at that time. So it’s no wonder that I like HH 89 so much with her enormous blue eyes, her platinum blonde curls and all the rest of the package.

I couldn’t resist and I took out some of the ladies that haven’t left the cabinet in a while. It was great to photograph Midnight Princess, Opening Night and Evening Majesty again. Evening, Night and Midnight, well, they sure go well together, don’t they.

Emerald Elegance Special Edition Barbie 1994

If I were to sum up the entire post in just one sentence, it would be „December calls for ball gowns”. That’s when I like that type of dolls the best. Their splendor suits the holiday season perfectly and their voluminous dresses seem a little lighter at that time. In fact, splendid and spectacular dolls like the Happy Holidays Barbies were the beginning of my collection and I had initially meant for them to be its core but as I went on, my tastes and interests altered and now they occupy only one shelf in the cabinet. Now, Emerald Elegance Barbie doll isn’t a Happy Holiday, but she’s spectacular and fits with the season just perfectly.

Emerald Elegance mesmerized me at a time when a cabinet full of dolls felt unreal at all and could only be considered a daring dream, but I promised myself that if that cabinet ever came to exist in reality, Emerald Elegance would take a place of honor on one of its shelves. I truly have no idea what kept me from acquiring her so long. Perhaps it’s the wide and easy availability of the doll on Ebay combined with her low price that made me put her off in time and focus all my efforts on getting the rarer ones. Or perhaps it was my indecisiveness that was in my way – I couldn’t make up my mind which doll I liked better – the redhead or the African American. But I do know one thing for sure, I’m happy she arrived and her timing is just perfect.

I do sometimes see Emerald Elegance on collectors’ blogs, she’s hard not to notice but for a relatively popular doll, not much is known about her and I cannot be sure if the information I’ve dug out is reliable in any case. Maybe there’s not much to be known about her but her name and/or her box suggest 2-3 other dolls, all of them having been released as Toys’r’us exclusives. These will be Radiant in Red 1992, Emerald Elegance 1994, Purple Passion 1995 and Sapphire Sophisticate 1997 (production dates). As you can see the names are all about colors, the dolls are dressed in the same style, the box of Emerald Elegance and Purple Passion is pretty much the same and the four dolls were available each in two versions – a redhead or AA with the exception of Sapphire, she was a brunette or AA. They are all excellent dolls and I’d be glad to own the entire line. So far, I’ve managed to collect two of them, the other one being Purple Passion with the gorgeous copper colored saran hair.

                       Source: https://www.amazon.com/Barbie-Purple-Passion-African-American/dp/B000PKQ6H6

Source: https://gameplayforvideogames.ecrater.com/p/18504352/barbie-collector-doll-toys-r-us

Source: https://archiwum.allegro.pl/oferta/sapphire-sophisticate-barbie-1997-kolekcjonerska-i7161891689.html

 

So on the surface, Emerald seems to be just another ball gown type of doll, but what tells her apart from all the other dolls just like her is her hair. It’s kanekalon styled with simplicity but the color is just amazing. The hair is soft but not to be brushed. I’ve seen Emerald with hair damaged beyond repair and I don’t think that was due to the doll being mistreated. Her hair is just not the best quality to be honest, you just need to be gentle with her. As to the color of her hair, it’s very warm and pleasant and it contrasts with the cold of her make-up. It brings some other dolls to my mind and those are the girls from Barbie and the Rockers and Fashion Play Barbie 1988. Barbie with her make-up is so bold, daring and extravagant, and she likes to accessorize. Just look at that opalescent flower in her hair.

There’s another flower of that kind on her dress whose design I like a lot, but I wish some better quality fabrics had been selected for it. Still, the dress is really impressive. It may, however, seem a little out of date with the drop waist and the large collar at the jacket. There’s some tackiness to it and I fear for my good taste because I like it. As far as the design and the accessories go, I wouldn’t change a single thing, well, I’d give her some panties, but that’s all and since we’ve already discussed what’s underneath her skirts, let’s talk about the shoes. These are just the classic 90s Barbie pumps but I love the color with just a touch of pearly coat to them. Barbie’s name refers to emeralds and she’s got them in abundance.

The occasion calls for a group photo. Emerald Elegance and Purple Passion look so amazing together, but let’s add some more color in the place where Radiant and Sapphire are lacking. Perhaps Royal Romance and Happy Holidays 1990? Yes, that’s better.