My two previous posts featured Courtney dolls from the end of my beloved Superstar era and I feel I’ve lingered a bit in the 90s. It’s high time for me to go back in time to my favorite decade – the 80s! What splendid dolls were produced back then: Dream Date and Magic Moves are only two examples of Mattel’s excellence of that decade. Doctor Barbie 1987 may not be quite as popular as the two mentioned above, but she does share the features and the qualities that Mattel viewed quite essential then. She is also an important doll in Barbie’s history because she’s the first Barbie doctor ever!
It was actually hard for me to believe that there had not been a doctor Barbie sooner and Barbie got her medical school diploma only in the late 80s! Sure, Barbie had had her medical episodes before that time, there had been a MOD Surgeon Barbie from 1973 and even earlier, Barbie had been a Registered Nurse, or rather she wore the Registered Nurse 1961 fashion pack. The 90s mark a great progress in Barbie’s medical career. Barbie made many specializations: there was a Dr. Barbie 1995, a Pet Doctor Barbie 1996, a Dentist Barbie 1997. Barbie loves children so it comes as no surprise she should choose to be a leading pediatrician as Barbie Children’s Doctor 2000, Barbie Baby Doctor 2002 and Barbie Newborn Baby doctor 2008. That was the 90s and the 00s but there are more examples of contemporary Barbie doctors that I can count and I don’t even need to look far. There’s a lovely Nurse Barbie and a stunning Ophthalmologist with strawberry blond hair in my daughter’s drawer upstairs. By the way, what would you call the current period in Barbie’s history? The Fashionistas Era? The Millie Era? Modern Barbie dolls isn’t a correct term, all dolls have once been modern. I struggle searching for the right terminology. Anyway, this isn’t a post about all the Barbie doctors in the 62 years of her existence, that would need a very, very lengthy essay and we don’t have the time for that, so let’s get back to the doll form the picture above, shall we?
I’ve already described the Doctor Barbie series
when I reviewed Nurse Whitney but that was a long time ago and the series
deserves at least a short reminder. There were three dolls comprising the
series: Doctor Barbie, Doctor Ken and Nurse Whitney. Mattel medical crew were
generously accessorized, as their boxes inform, they came with over 20 play
pieces! The dolls were produced in Malaysia, but there were at least two
versions of Doctor Barbie and they differed in terms of their hair and face
paint. Mine has saran hair and her face looks softer than the kanekalon variant
with darker eyebrows and lipstick. The kanekalon version seems a bit fierce to
me. A doctor needs a work place so Mattel released a proper playset to go along
with the series – the Loving Care Playcase 1987 is one of my favorite playsets
but it’s rare and comes with a hefty price tag so it’s unlikely I should ever
include it in my collection.The commercial below presents the series but there's a glitch I think, the mobile version of the blog doesn't display videos like the computer one does. Tricky, very tricky!
I purchased my Barbie in a NRFB condition which didn’t do much good to the doll itself. She had sticky legs and a funny smell about her so I can’t display her in my cabinet for the time being. I’ve applied the coffee method to get rid of the smell – I’ve put her in a box with freshly ground coffee. The next step is taking her outside to breathe in a shade on the terrace. But for that I need summer, it’s too humid at the moment. My Whitney shared the same ailments, but her box had been opened and her previous owner took out the doll still attached to the inner cardboard to look at her so she wasn’t sealed and there was air circulation so her smell wasn’t quite as strong as Barbie’s and it disappeared quickly when I took the doll out of her box completely. I’ve washed Barbie’s legs with dish soap and the stickiness disappeared for the time being. I’ll have to repeat that in a while though. Well, these are the possible imperfections that you have to take into account when collecting dolls that are over 30-years old, right? I still adore my smelly doll!
The sealed box didn’t serve Barbie, but it did keep her accessories safe. I can now enjoy all those play pieces that the box mentions and they are now completely odor free. My Whitney could breathe, that’s true, but a large portion of her accessories got lost. When I unboxed Barbie, I discovered two frames with accessories to assemble and put stickers on. I hate sticker plans! The stickers I put on are always sort of wonky! Anyway, Barbie comes with a large doctor case that can store most of her accessories. There is a stethoscope, medical information sheet, some X-rays and real sticky notes. There’s also a box of band aids, cream and ointments, a bottle of pills, some syrup, an otoscope, a reflex hammer and a cast to secure a broken arm. Barbie needs to be punctual as a doctor, so she has a watch and she should be easily reached so she comes with a pager – we’re talking the 80s here, right? There was also a bouquet of flowers, a classic Barbie brush that I’m so obsessed with, and some paper punchouts. Funny how a handful of accessories makes a doll even more attractive.
Barbie’s outfit has had some damage as well. Her white coat isn’t quite so white anymore. It’s pretty stiff and feels plasticky, but that’s alright because it keeps its shape and displays nicely. Underneath the coat Barbie’s wearing a basic pink tube dress tied with a ribbon at the neck. She’s also got the Minnie Mouse pumps so popular in the 90s and it seems strange that Whitney should be given the skinny pumps from the early 80s. Perhaps Mattel was overstocked with the white pumps so they included them in Whitney’s package whilst Barbie got the newer type of shoes. Anyway, as I already mentioned, Barbie’s outfit transforms because she likes to go to a fancy dinner with Ken when her shift is over, but she has very little time to get ready so her dress turns into a long skirt, she puts on a white shimmery top and a lacy stole and that’s what her evening look consists of. It’s amazing! How could I ever keep her boxed when there’s so much to discover about her! I absolutely had to check that outfit out!
Barbie herself is naturally very pretty. I can’t even count how many versions of the blue-and-pink make-up scheme I’ve seen in the 80s Barbies but they still manage to look different from one another. Doctor Barbie is very easily identified to me, I can recognize her with ease even if she’s been “very well loved”. There’s something about her face paint that makes her so distinguishable to me. She’s like Benetton Barbie – we’ve seen it before, but not quite this way. She has thin lips and large, blue and purple eyes with soft eyebrows. She’s so quintessential 80s! That’s the kind of Barbie I like best and mine has saran fibers rooted which makes her just perfect. I had searched for my doll for a long time and I had been very picky. I rejected all the kanekalon dolls not only for their hair but it was the face that I didn’t quite like in the first place. My doll isn’t really perfect because she has a slight blemish to her face paint – there’s a blue spot on the pink eyeshadow, but that’s all fine. I find I can accept such imperfection in older dolls quite easily because they weren’t all that frequent when the face paint was applied manually. Now an automatized cold metal arm puts on Barbie face and it does it poorly. Wonky eyes and visible pixels don’t surprise me anymore, I quite expect them to be there, it doesn’t mean that I like it that way though. Sadly, collector’s dolls aren’t any better than playline in that respect.
I’ve had a lot of fun photographing Doctor Barbie and of course I had to put the cast on the doll. Even her cast has to be color-coordinated! How glamorous she is even with a “broken” arm! Only Barbie can achieve that! Take care and stay safe!
EDIT! Puttning Barbie outside to breathe isn't necessary, coffee works miracles! What I did is I put some freshly ground coffee on a plate and Barbie with all her accessories in a plastic box and closed it tight. There was no air circulation in the box. After just two weeks the smell disappeared! Of course Barbie smells of coffee now, but I like that. Barbie is goning to the cabinet now! Take care!
