The second anniversary of my blog

It’s been two years since I started writing a blog on my doll collection. It’s actually a double celebration because I treat it as a second anniversary of my collection as a whole, I purchased my first doll two months prior. The collection has changed over the last 12 months but before I show you how, I’d like to thank you for reading the blog and commenting. It’s what motivates me to continue. So here we go!

Just like last year, I planned to take all the dolls out of the cabinet for some group photos. But that turned out to be too difficult to manage, so shelf after shelf the dolls jumped into plastic containers and I ran up and down the stairs to the room where the light is best. If I were to say just in one sentence how my collection has hanged, I’d say it’s grown. I can  no longer display all my dolls in my cabinet, there’s too many so a few of them moved to plastic containers awaiting their stock clothes. One doll – the very pink Walmart Super Star Barbie 1994 has left my collection, but she hasn’t moved far. She belongs to my daughter now, who had been admiring her pink splendor with the eyes like the cat from Shrek, so I gave her the doll and I have a feeling she appreciates her better than I did. So one doll out, and …… oh so many in!

Starting with the top shelf – there are my Dolls of the World. I’m very fond of them but they weren’t my priority for the last year. Three, well four of them joined the collection. One Barbie isn’t a DotW strictly speaking because she belongs to the American Stories Collection, but she fits well, don’t you think? So two of them were long planned purchases, one was a wild dream come true and one a sudden inspiration. Please meet the two plans – Native American Barbie first edition and Norwegian Barbie. The wild dream is the Greek Barbie and Pioneer Barbie is the sudden inspiration.

I’ve focused my efforts and attention on the 80s and I’m happy that many of the famous and well-loved classics joined my collection. These would be Dream Glow, Day to Night, Dreamtime Barbie, Perfume Pretty Whitney and Tracy Bride and of course I don’t collect doubles (bwahaha) so the second Peaches’n Cream and the second Crystal Barbie now grace the 80s shelf of my cabinet. But each doll is special and unique and to show that each of them is dressed in a different clothes but in the stock outfit color scheme. Furthermore, I’ve managed to repurchase the last of my childhood dolls and now I have the complete set of my sentimental dolls.

I still adore Skipper dolls, but only a few joined the gang. There’s been Teen Fun Cheerleader and Cool Crimp Skipper dolls as well as a single Kevin – Basketball Kevin to be precise. I’m still pleased I’ve almost completed the 1988 releases, I’m only missing the Workout Skipper and I’m currently on the lookout for her. Another doll that I’m thrilled to have purchased is very unique and exotic and I call her “almost” Barbie – She’s one of the very early Takara Jenny that looked like Takara Barbie. Jenny and Kevin have brought a bit of variety to the teenage shelf.

Since we’re on the topic of guys, well here I haven’t changed much. The Ken gang doubled that’s true, but the numbers still aren’t impressive -4 in total! However, it’s not as much the case of variety and quantity as it is of quality and the two Ken dolls were very high on my wish list. I searched for them like crazy and I was very picky because I wanted them to be perfect! In the end, I’m thrilled with my Toy Story 3 and my Shavin’ Fun Ken dolls and now I really need the Harley Davidson II edition guy. The shelf where I display my Kens was supposed to be the 90s place, but the collection lives its own life so it’s more like a set of dolls that go well together. Amongst the two Benetton girls and Paint’n Dazzle Barbies, there’s Beat Midge and Fashion Play Barbie and I entertain high hopes that Beat Christie (and perhaps Barbie) as well as the European Fashion Play Barbie (or Barbies) will join them within the next 12 months.

The next shelf has always been a tight fit for all the large gowns that the dolls are wearing. Even with the Pink Queen out there isn’t enough room for all the ladies, so the Happy Holiday 1989 is currently resting in a plastic container awaiting the petticoat for her dress. The dolls that joined are the HH 1991, Emerald Elegance that I’ve wanted for sooooo long, the gorgeous Wedding Day Midge, and the lovely Sugar Plum Fairy and Fair Valentine Barbie – my second Mackie.

Like I said, there’s too many dolls to fit in the cabinet but I still find it hard to decide which dolls go to the bins and which to the cabinet. I like to have them all close at hand so I emptied the lowest shelf where I kept the spare clothes and accessories. The space is too small for the dolls to stand but they can sit and they’re dolls galore. There’s my Party Time Barbie AA and Teresa, the All Stars Midge and my three Jazzie dolls, there’s the Hollywood Hair Teresa and Sun Sensation Barbie aka Goldie and in fact, only the Shoppin’ Fun and Pet Doctor belong to the first year collection. Much has changed here.

Now I haven’t been able to fulfill all my last year objectives, I’m still missing the first edition Parisian Barbie and I haven’t moved beyond the 1987 Skipper headmold timeframe. Great Shape Skipper (and Barbie), Phone Fun Courtney and Parisian Barbie moved to the 2020/2021 collection plan along with Harley Davidson II edition Ken, Tod (Tracy’s groom), Pfee Albee Barbies (both) and Marzipan Barbie plus Let’s Camp Barbie with her entire set. Now that one will be difficult to get from what I see on ebay. I still look at Krystle and Alexis with a dreamy eye. Hawaiian Fun and Workout Skipper  and Happy Holiday Barbies should be fairly easy to get whilst with Beat Christie and Fashion Play Barbies I would need a bit of luck. As far as the 80s go, there’s so many dreams and some of them so bold that I’ll remain silent on that particular topic, we’ll just see what happens. But for now, here’s a few more pictures to wrap up the post and a solemn promise that none of the dolls incurred any sort of damage during the photo session.  

Dream Time Barbie 1984

A few last posts have been long beyond measure so I’ll keep this one short and concise. The 80s are my favorite decade in Barbie’s history and I’ve been pretty lucky finding some great examples of the Super Star era of late. This time it’s the Dreamtime Barbie 1984 made in Taiwan.

Dreamtime Barbie was being produced in Taiwan and the Philippines and so the dolls differ a lot. The Philippine doll has round eyes that give her the expression of innocence and sweetness and you feel like the doll is about to go to sleep and her dreams would be filled with flowers and butterflies and perhaps her prince charming would appear there bearing a bouquet of roses or lilies. She’ll wake up at dawn to find joy in admiring beautiful sunrise and fresh dew sparkling like diamonds on cobwebs. The Taiwan Barbie is a successful businesswoman, so she goes to bed to have a good sleep because she’s got an important meeting in the morning and she’ll be negotiating a very lucrative contract for her company. She goes to sleep wearing full make-up like Alexis Colby but that’s only for time economy. She’ll sleep like a Geisha and in the morning she’ll only brush her golden locks, grab on a toast and put on her best business suit and she’s ready to go. At least, that’s how I see these dolls. I’m not so lucky to own both, but you can see them here, on a blog by a Polish collector. In 1988 Mattel reseased another version of the doll, the box is almost identical and she’s wearing the same gown only pink, not lavender, but the dolls couldn’t be more different. The 88’ version has platinum blonde kanekalon curls and her face paint is somewhat sharp.

the source: https://www.etsy.com/no-en/listing/559889976/pair-of-dreamtime-barbies-bb-bear-1984

 

the source: https://picclick.com/DreamTime-Barbie-Doll-with-Bear-9180-New-NRFB-263189583611.html

I’d panned to purchase the doll new in box, but her price was way more than I was prepared to pay given the steep ebay Global Shipping Program charges and customs on top of that so I opted for a second-handed doll. Her outfit isn’t trimmed so it shows the signs of wear especially at the bottom, but it’s acceptable given the age of the doll (who by the way, is my age). She was barefoot and her Teddy is missing, but her ring is still in place, her hair is gorgeous, she got a replacement Bear and I found a perfect pair of heels in my own box.

So here’s my Dreamtime Barbie and Victorian Barbie with Cedric Bear and don’t they look dreamy!

 

Tracy Bride 1982 and Wedding Day Midge Fashion #9631 1990

My personal spy tool has arrived and thus I no longer have to confiscate my Husband’s phone to photograph my dolls. I’m glad because a cell phone is like a pair of panties, you can’t share them with another person, right? Of course I’m still learning how to use the new device, a good half of the pictures went straight to trash, the rest isn’t perfect, but there’s no picture that would do Tracy justice. So here’s Tracy Bride 1982!

Sometimes, when I browse for a doll from the elusive Fashion Play series (the European exclusives) I type a very general term like “Barbie bendable/rubber legs”, “Vingage/ retro Barbie” but it’s “Barbie 1966” that generates the best results – If I don’t come across anything of interest, I’m at least sure to get a good laugh. You’ve probably seen it too – a doll in a horrible condition, with a broken neck, a pixie haircut, and chew marks on her feet or hands, but the description seems to be inconsistent with what the pictures present. ’A vintage Barbie, ultra-rare, for collectors!’ - shouts the headline of the add and the price …. Well, let me remain silent on that. So that’s how I found Tracy Bride described as Barbie Bride and I nearly choked to death on the chocolate I was consuming at that moment. By the way, I believe that chocolate is one of the safest products to eat – it will melt before the crucial 4 minutes pass, I fear to think what would have happened if I’d been eating an apple! Anyway, once my pulse went back to normal, I began to grow suspicious. A Tracy doll, just hanging there for a few days already, and at an affordable price seemed too good to be true, there must be something wrong with that doll.

And it was. A few things actually. First, her head had been ripped off and someone tried to fix that with acrylic gel. The chipped neck had been filled with the compound and then filed with perfection, but then whoever did that, realized that they’d forgotten to place the neck joint. It was too late now so they filed some more, and the result is that Tracy’s head comes off and on very easily. When she arrived, her head was separate from her body. The second defect is a spot on her chin that I just can’t get rid of. But that’s all still fine, the worst part of her is the hair! Someone apparently wanted to give her an asymmetric bob and chopped her hair leaving the front strands longer. I tucked them behind the neck but that’s all that I could do. The doll’s legs are almost green and one leg has a hole.

I may sound displeased with the purchase, but I’m actually thrilled to finally own a Tracy Bride and my doll is so pretty despite the damage done to her in the past. She has a pair of lovely, emerald eyes, her hair although cut, is still soft and silky, and I love the chocolate-brown tone to it. Some Tracys have a very unflattering root line and their heads look like eggs, but not mine. She stands in the front row in the cabinet and graces the entire collection.

As to her outfit, she arrived wearing something atrocious that was supposed to resemble a wedding dress, but failed. I would have thrown it to the trash but my daughter saved it. Tracy’s stock dress was beautifully outdated and conservative, and despite the fact that I find wedding dresses boring, I would love to own that. I thought I might get her some 80s/90s dress but I decided to skip the Church ceremony and the wedding party and went straight to the wedding night. I gave her a set that belongs to the Wedding Day Midge fashion collection.

 the source: https://pl.pinterest.com/pin/351632683377661882/

There were four sets that Mattel produced for the just-married Midge and I love them all, but unfortunately the old fashions tend to be sometimes even more expensive than a fully dressed doll so I got just one. I chose what Mattel just doesn’t offer nowadays – lingerie. I have no idea why they wouldn’t sew Barbie’s underwear, I wouldn’t mind a doll with a pair of undies for a change. The set is lovely! It’s foam green color, there’s some flowers on the fabric and it’s trimmed with lace. It comes with a short top, panties, a night gown and a pair of heels.

 The source: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Barbie-Midge-Wedding-Day-Fashion/dp/B00204W5ZW

So that’s how Tracy is spending her retirement in my collection. I can’t believe the doll’s actually older than me!