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.