Fair Valentine Barbie 1997 Hallmark

I can live without Mackie. Not that I don’t appreciate the harmony and beauty of her features, but I can admire them from afar. Once in a while however, there appears a doll  that I cannot resist.  In December I spotted as many as four such Mackie dolls, they took high places on my wish list in a blink of an eye. These are Fair Valentine Barbie 1997, Mrs. Pfe Albee Barbie 1997 and her successor from 1998 as well as the lovely Barbie as Marzipan 1999 I’ve already mentioned in the post on my Sugar Plum Fairy Barbie.

I’ve recently managed to get a hold on the Fair Valentine. She belongs to the underappreciated Be My Valentine Collector Series/ Hallmark. Fair Valentine is the third in a series and the remaining two are the Sweet Valentine and Sentimental Valentine. All three dolls come with St. Valentine cards, amazing, detailed outfits and are packaged in neat boxes that open like a book. Two out of three have the Superstar faces, but it was Mackie that I like the best. The dolls and their outfits were inspired by paintings of famous artists.

Sweet Valentine Barbie 1995

 the source: https://barbie.mattel.com/shop/en-us

 

Sentimental Valentine Barbie 1996

the source: https://barbie.mattel.com/shop/en-us

My Valentin is a dolly version of the beauty in the Portrait of Mademoiselle Guimard by Jacques-Louis David. There’s a miniature of the painting printed on the lid of the box as well as a romantic description of the doll. The box itself is really nice and in a perfect condition. The artwork both outside and inside is breathtaking and a perfect background for the doll. I thought to myself that perhaps I should keep her NRFB but that’s not me. I’m like a kid, I have to debox a doll and admire every inch of her and all the details of her outfit. In any case it should be fairly easy to put her back to the box, she was held with just a few wires – one was planted in her hair and pulled a couple strands! I guess that’s still better than a plastic tab shot through the back of her head. So cruel!

the source: https://pl.pinterest.com/pin/179932947586417041/?lp=true

 

Mattel’s notorious for creating a prototype, photographing it and making an impression that’s the doll you’re going to get and then ….. changing their mind! My Valentine is one of such cases. I’m not sure if that’s for better or worse, I like both the doll in the promo pictures and the end product. The prototype’s colors are more vibrant, darker in general and she has less make-up. In reality the doll’s expression is softer and the eyeshadow gives some more dimension to her face and depth to her expression. The hair, however, is solid! There’s so much product in it that it looks like a perfectly shaped doughnut was glued to her head. She doesn’t even need the rubber band that got disintegrated over the years. I had hard time digging its remnants out of the doughnut. Yuck!

Fair Valentine Barbie 1997 promo

the source: https://barbie.mattel.com/shop/en-us

The doll’s dress is also modified. The collar is missing and the sleeves are different. The royal blue was changed into much softer bottle green. I wouldn’t mind a couple roses for the doll to carry in her lacy apron, just like in the portrait. Now the dress is actually a two-piece – the pink part is separate. The design in general is really good and well executed too, though it’s polyester while you’d expect cotton, but it’s a doll so I guess it’s acceptable. The piece that the outfit is missing is the proper underwear! Where are her bloomers I ask?! And her stockings too! I’m joking of course, but if Pullip can wear bloomers, why not Barbie from the time period? She’s got molded in panties instead. I like her rubbery shoes though.

So far I’ve managed to collect only two Mackies, both have that porcelain doll look that I love about them. Mackie headmold is incredibly versatile and it can be a great face for an angel and a devil and both would look good. The Mackie image is consistent in all the dolls on my wish list, but I’m thinking about a Mackie badass. There are a few that would do really well. Until that time, here’s my two “porcelain” Mackies.