Category: Musings
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Three Nostalgic Black Barbies We Need (and a few existing alternatives)
We’ve got a lot to cover today, but first let’s clarify what’s meant here by a nostalgic doll. Since you’re on this page, chances are you’re already aware of Mattel’s reproductions, re-releases of Barbie and family doll+outfit designs that were originally produced decades ago. These are examples of nostalgic dolls, but they are not the…
sheathsensation
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Great books for vintage Barbie fans
Recently, in a series of hilariously escalating blunders, someone at Mattel slipped on a banana peel, stepped on a rake, ran headlong through a sheet of plate glass being carried across the street by men in coveralls, and then accidentally ordered only two hundred copies printed of a new book on Barbie Dream Houses–all in…
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A chronicle of Barbie shoes, 1959-1967
Recently, while sourcing various, specific vintage shoes for a custom project, I began to realize there were basic facts about Barbie’s early shoes that were not known to me. What year was Barbie’s first pair of closed-toe shoes produced? (The answer surprised me, but maybe you already know.) What were the most common “gold” open-toed…
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When Barbie turned 21
It’s a paradox: she was a teen-age fashion model in 1959, and she turned 21 in 1980. For Barbie, both are true. And in 1980 Barbie held her 21st birthday bash, where else? in a nightclub: “Hurrah” in Manhattan, a “new wave disco,” per the Charlotte Observer. Befittingly, the party was punctuated by a fashion…
sheathsensation
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Visions of After Five
Where to next? Have visions of Solo in the Spotlight, or of Midge; envision After Five one more time in the Keys to Fame board game; or go up to the Table of Contents.
sheathsensation
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Barbie on TV
When Barbie turns on her TV, it’s usually to watch Barbie. The televisions of the early years are examples of Barbie’s built environment that double as Barbie illustrations. The earliest television we feature comes from the original 1962 Dream House. It is actually a TV-stereo combination, as a panel on the top opens to reveal…
