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.

Victorian Barbie with Cedric Bear 1999

Have you ever heard about a dolly virus? I surely have, but it wasn’t until very recently that I came to realize how deadly it is. The virus strikes fast and the victim is completely helpless against the illness that spreads momentarily. It’s transmitted electronically so there’s no way you can protect yourself unless you decide to forsake reading dolly blogs or refuse to even look at dolls. Me? I got ill before I even knew what was going on. When I read the intro to the post on Neytiri’s blog I was still fine. The first symptoms manifested themselves when I saw the doll’s pictures – my hands were shaky, my pulse was quickened and there was that brightness to my eyes that usually speaks fever. The next several weeks were not so dramatic and my state could be described as stable. I would notoriously look at the doll’s pictures online and I knew her youtube review almost by heart. Once in a while, I would heck Barbie’s availability on eBay for fear that some lunatic may prevent me from purchasing her by buying all existent copies. The fears turned out to be groundless of course. The doll was still there, her availability quite steady. When she finally arrived after what seemed to be a century of waiting, I got miraculously cured! The doll was none other than Victorian Barbie with Cedric Bear 1999.

I purchased Victorian Barbie as NRFB and she was packaged in such a way as to enable admiring her without the need of unboxing. The box has a removable lid with a large cellophane window. Though I really like the doll against an imitation of an old-fashioned wallpaper, I had to take her out of the box. That’s just me – I think 20 years is long enough. The doll came with a certificate of authenticity with a serial number, a warranty that’s long expired and some questionnaire. There was also a doll stand for her and all this was hidden behind the inner cardboard. No brush though. Not that I really needed, it’s really insignificant but it’s like a sign of a new era for Barbie. The good old superstar was gone. There’s a description of the doll in the back of the box. It tells the story of her bear too.

Now, Victorian is a Mackie of course and I have to admit that at first I wasn’t all so thrilled about this headmold. In time I came to appreciate it, Mackie is a beautiful mold, there’s no denying as to that. But in all honesty, admiring the dolls from afar was enough for me. I liked to look at Mackie’s pictures on the blogs of other collectors but I didn’t really need to own one myself. Until I saw Victorian Barbie. And she is pretty like a porcelain doll, just look at her complexion, so pale and her cheeks, so rosy. Her eyes have that striking look and they’re green and brown, the color further brought out by the light green eyeshadow. The lipstick is a very natural pink color. The face is beautiful, but so is the hair and so elaborate too. The hair is brushed with simplicity in the front, one section is twisted in a twirly braid at the back of her head while the rest was held with some ribbons, curled and secured with some products. It holds beautifully.

Victorian Barbie is about to go to sleep so she’s wearing a satin (polyester), burgundy dressing gown and it’s very elaborate. The top of the dressing gown is trimmed with heavy lace that also goes around her puffy sleeves. There’s also a mauve ribbon and some rosettes to the sleeves. The bottom of the dressing gown trails behind the doll and it’s adorned with some finer lace. Underneath the dressing gown Barbie’s wearing a mauve night dress without sleeves. The design is exquisite and it’s executed with perfection and attention to detail. The neck part is trimmed with the finest lace and pleaded organza. The middle part of the night dress is embroidered and its lower sections are embellished with lace, ribbons and rosettes. I really like the combination of burgundy and mauve.

There’s satin, lace, rosettes, ribbons and whatnot. There are shoes too and those are very pretty indeed. These are stilettoes with open heels and white rosettes to the toes. They completely refuse to stay on and the rubber bands that secured them have come undone in those 20 years and so have the bands holding the Bear to the doll’s arm. Cedric is simply adorable, he’s brown plush with articulation and he’s wearing a mauve nightcap trimmed with ribbon and lace so it’s coordinated with Barbie’s outfit, how cute is that.

I really hadn’t expected a Mackie to join my collection, not for some time at least – my beloved Krystle is still out of my reach and the Bard on my wish list is going into obscurity and I’m beginning to think I don’t need her all that much, but Victorian? She was simply a must! And so this way I stepped out of my most favorite Superstar era, but the quality is still there. Barbie is a TnT with click-bending knees and vinyl legs. So have a look at some more pictures, but on your own responsibility, and don’t say I hadn’t warned you.