Sun Sensation Barbie 1990 Malaysian version

Ha! I’m so pleased with myself, because I’ve managed to publish on both of my blogs only a few days apart, which is something I’ve been struggling to do these past several months. The two languages are pretty dissimilar as Polish is descriptive and English is straightforward so translating is such a bother. But today the words are flowing and even more so because I’m writing about the last Barbie I got as a kid – Sun Sensation Barbie 1990 the Malaysian version.

There’s a story behind Sun Sensation - I got her from my dad living in NY. My dad would send me parcels about twice a year and those would go to my Grandma and Grandpa’s address and they were of the opinion that the good stuff should be rationed instead of given all at once. Now I can see wisdom in that, but as a kid I hated it and I was a constant pain in the neck for Grandma and Grandpa as I would conduct searches on my own. Soon I’d know every nook and corner at their house forcing their creativity – they’d have to come up with new hiding places over and over again. In the below picture you can see Cool Looks and Sun Sensation Barbie – they both came in the same parcel but Grandma and Grandpa hid Sun Sensation in such a clever place that they couldn’t find her. Eventually they did but that was when another parcel was delivered and they had to hide the new goods away.

So the result was that I got my Sun Sensation Barbie and the Beverly Hills Sunset Garden furniture on the same day. The furniture set was inspired by the Dream Furniture by Mattel minus the sleeping functionality and the armchair but there’s coziness in great amounts – cushions, a rug, a table cloth, picture frames, a crystal vase and a sizable lamp. If the genuine products offered today but a half of what a mere copy did back then!

  the source: https://pl.pinterest.com/pin/294915475592395952/

 

I loved Sun Sensation Barbie, she was so unlike all the other Barbie dolls I had with her deep tan and her straight arms. She had golden tinsel in her hair and impressive make-up. I liked the lipstick best of all. She wore a necklace that I loved and a golden bikini which I found boring even back then, but when your previous dolls wore great outfits that came in many pieces that could afford multiple looks, a simple bikini does seem a little … basic, if you know what I mean. She came with a pink brush, and I’ve always loved the Barbie brush and my only wish was that she came with shoes.

When I was identifying all my childhood dolls, I came up with a Sun Sensation that looked nothing like my doll. She had a tall forehead and her head was made of a slightly translucent vinyl. Then it turned out that Sun Sensation was produced in three different countries – Malaysia, China and Indonesia. The first two are completely different and it’s so easy to tell them apart. The Indonesian Barbie resembles the Malaysian one but her face proportions are a bit off. There’s also the case of the elusive lipstick that you can see in the above commercial – my Barbie didn’t come with it and there’s been a hypothesis that only the Chinese dolls had them but I’ve since seen pictures to contradict it. It follows that Mattel was simply inconsistent with the lipstick.

Sun Sensation Barbie is so pretty and I cannot believe why I decided there was no place for her in my collection because I don’t collect beach dolls as a rule. I’d make an exception not only for Barbie but also for the rest of the Sun Sensation gang, especially Jazzie. My Barbie may be secondhand, missing her earrings and her bikini certainly had seen better days, but I just love that doll! She makes me feel like a kid once more. So finally, I’ve collected all 4 Barbie dolls I once had.