Barbie Girl

Customizing Barbies is a mixture of vision, art, painstaking work, and clever display.  Why some collectors just flip over customized Barbies may be hard to understand until you realize what all goes into the process itself.  For those who turn up their noses at these dolls, the usual rationale is that they are little more than a played with doll, where the adult collectors did a bit of hairstyling, added a new dress, and maybe added some accessories from a different doll.  While in essence this may be correct, it is also a much too simplistic view of the entire process, and should not be mistaken for such.

As a matter of fact, customizing Barbie dolls is serious business!   Just take a look at the steps that are quite often involved.

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Who is Barbie?  Sure, you know that she is considered a cultural icon, that she has shaped fashions just as she has imitated them, and you may also know that she has come under quite a bit of fire in modern times.  How did this doll – which has a figure that defies the laws of gravity and nature – capture the hearts and minds of generations of girls?  How did Barbie manage to have so many accessories created just for her? 

Here is a look at Barbie from the beginning – a brief bio of this cultural icon!

Barbie was first born on March 9, 1959.  Her role in the doll line-up of the time was that of a teenage fashion doll.

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If you collect modern Barbie Dolls, you have thousands of choices.   First you need to learn a bit about the Barbie Collectible business.  In the past Barbie Collectibles were sold as Limited Edition or Collectors Edition product lines.  In 2004 Mattel created a “tier structure” to identify Barbie dolls that will be collectible.  The structure is as follows:

Platinum: Platinum Label Barbie dolls are produced in quantities of less than 1000.

Gold: Gold Label Barbie dolls are produced in quantities of less than 25,000 worldwide.

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The Barbie family tree has grown rather big over the years.  The Barbie doll family started in the 1960’s and seems to grow with every era of Barbie’s that go in to production. Not only did Barbie’s family grow, but so did her number of friends and her families number of friends.  The Barbie collection has become quite extensive.  With all the names, babies and kids that have been produced it is hard to know who is part of the original Barbie family. So who is in Barbie’s family tree-who is she related to?

The immediate family prior to 1992 was Barbie and her sister Skipper, and twin brother and sister Tutti and Todd.  The family after 1992 is Barbie, sister Skipper, twins Tutti and Todd, and baby sister Kelly.  Following is a list of the dolls made during various time periods. After each name is the years of production and then the relationship of each doll to Barbie.

1959-1965 THE EARLY YEARS

BARBIE 1959-present

KEN 1961-present, Barbie’s boyfriend

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Barbie clothes can get expensive.  If you are not a collector who is picky about purchasing Mattel brand items, sewing your Barbie’s clothes can save you a bundle of money.

To make Barbie clothes, you need to first make or buy a pattern, and then you can choose any material you like to make the clothing.  Her wardrobe will grow and you can have more fun dressing up Barbie- your sewing options:

1. Buy patterns for Barbie clothes at a local sewing/hobby shop or online.

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Barbie has not lost her popularity over the years and neither has a little girl’s love for a birthday party.  A great idea or a birthday party is the combination of the two.  A Barbie themed party is an easy and fun way for your daughter and her friends to celebrate.  With these winning ways to plan a Barbie birthday party, you can not go wrong.

Of course pink goes along with a Barbie birthday party, it is her signature color.  Every Barbie birthday party needs plenty of pink decorations.  Using the following ideas you can have a pretty in pink party that is still durable enough for young girls. Everything on the table should keep in the Barbie theme, shades of pink.  The decorations are practical and easy to clean up. 

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HELLO Kitty will join the ranks of the world’s top fashion houses as she dresses up Barbie, bringing together the Japanese and US icons in a limited-edition doll.

Barbie, who has worn clothes of top brands such as Christian Dior, Donna Karan and Givenchy, will appear in an outfit chosen by Japan’s feline sensation, the Japanese toymaker Sanrio said today.

Barbie, retaining her trademark blonde locks, will have a sexy but cute look in a short leather jacket and a shiny stone-bearing belt hanging loose on skinny black trousers.

The 31cm Barbie doll’s jacket, belt, bag and necklace will all bear the famous Hello Kitty image.

Hello Kitty Barbie will make her world debut in September and will be released in more than 10 nations, including the dolls’ home countries of the US and Japan.

Sanrio said the new doll blends “Hello Kitty, now loved by girls and celebrities not only in Japan but also in the world, and Barbie, universally admired by women as a high-fashion avatar of girls’ dreams”.

Just 1500 dolls will be on sale worldwide with a price tag of ¥5040 ($50) each in Japan.

Hello Kitty started in Japan in 1974 as a moon-faced cartoon cat on a simple coin purse.

The cute cat’s image is now known globally, with more than 50,000 different products on sale in 60 nations.

Source: News.com.au

You have a sizeable Barbie collection, and it is the apple of your eye.  Perhaps you have some vintage dolls, which you were able to purchase NRFB (never removed from box).  Maybe you just own a large number of dolls, which you love to display lovingly all around your home.  Of course, if you are like many collectors, you probably have a few showpieces, which you keep under lock and key in a curio cabinet, and a larger number of dolls which you may have on display on a variety of shelving choices.  Whatever the size of your collection might be, you want to ensure that you will properly preserve the dolls and their accessories, yet sometimes you might not be as certain as to how to accomplish this task.

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Cyberspace has become the new front line in the battle between Mattel’s Barbie line and MGA Entertainment’s Bratz collection.

Mattel has launched a test run of barbiegirls.com, an online community where girls can create their own Barbie dolls and interact with each other in a manner reminiscent of Second Life – a virtual world for adults that boasts more than 2 million users.

The website is the first glimpse into Mattel’s Barbie Girl initiative, its next generation fashion doll line and latest attempt to gain ground in its heated competition with Bratz.

At barbiegirls.com, users can customise their character’s look and style.

They can also shop for clothes, accessories and furniture for their online room.

They can even adopt a pet.

“I think it’ll definitely be a catalyst for winning girls back,” Reyne Rice, a toy trends expert at the Toy Industry Association said.

“They can go on the site and chat with their friends, compare outfits, rooms. It’s right on target with what girls are looking for.”

Barbie has lost out in recent years to Bratz, a line of big-headed dolls with scant, trendy clothing and very skinny bodies.

On Monday Mattel said international Barbie sales rose 2 per cent, but US sales of the doll declined 21 per cent.

Mattel said barbie.com – its older website devoted to all things Barbie, which debuted in 2000 – gets 65 million visitors a month.

- Reuters