Tag: vintage barbie
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Barbie’s ’70s Travelogue, Part II: Unofficial Adventures
Last time, we looked at play sets representing various far-flung locales frequented by Barbie in the Seventies. While Mattel was shuttling their characters between mountains and beach, other manufacturers concocted their own dream destinations for Barbie and her rivals. Let’s review a few that helped further expand Barbie’s horizons. A-frame Ski Lodge by Omlie Industries…
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More crafts and hobbies (1963-1971)
In past entries we’ve seen how Whitman broadened the early Barbie illustration space through their paper doll sets and coloring books, but those are just the tip of the iceberg; here are some other Whitman products that helped define Barbie visually during the first dozen-ish years. “Barbie and Ken” jigsaw puzzles were produced starting in…
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Barbie’s ’70s Travelogue, Part I: The Mountains are Calling
At the conclusion of our Many Abodes of Barbie series, we noted that the Seventies would bring a new focus to Barbie’s built environment, this time outside the domicile. Today we reveal that that focus is travel, and during this decade Barbie exhibited a strong preference for mountain getaways. Consider Exhibit A: Barbie’s 1972 Mountain…
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Sidebar: Mattel Fashions for Julia
Among Barbie’s 1960s celebrity pals, Julia must have had the biggest star turn. Witness: the dolls are still plentiful 50+ years later, implying brisk sales; and of the three “personality” dolls, only Julia received both her own line of fashions and a re-release as a Talking doll (Twiggy also had a fashion line, while Truly…
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The built environments of mini vintage Barbies
One of the last key topics we have yet to cover in Barbie’s 1960s built environment is this one: miniature environs suited for Barbie-scaled vintage Barbie dolls. Since Barbie is 1:6 scale and 11.5″ tall, we’re talking about dolls that are 1:36 scale relative to a human, standing just a hair under 2″ high. Note…
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Cafe Today (1971)
Sixties Barbie was all dressed up with few places to go. There was the Little Theatre, but what’s “dinner and a show” without dinner? A show? Barbie’s only known 1960s eatery was not much of a restaurant, certainly not a nightclub: the Campus Sweet Shop was where Ken took Barbie for malteds, but she had…
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The “built” environments of Whitman Barbie paper dolls
We talk a lot about Barbie illustrations here, and we talk a lot about Barbie’s play sets and furniture, but what about the built environments within Barbie illustrations? In our posts on Whitman paper dolls we featured some paper doll folder interiors that show Barbie’s home or place of work; in fact, there are many…
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Unique Boutique (1971)
During the second half of the Sixties, Barbie was a total homebody: following the release of Skipper’s Schoolroom in 1965, Barbie went through about a dozen homes, but no more public spaces. When she was finally ready to reemerge in 1971, it was into a different world. Between the years 1963, when Barbie’s Fashion Shop…
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The Many Abodes of Barbie, Part VII: 1970
In 1970 the best Barbie house arrived. A controversial statement, to say the least: among vintage Barbie Dream House enthusiasts, the chipboard diehards clearly feel differently, and for many plastic aficionados the great, timeless houses came later in the decade. However, we’ll present compelling evidence that the Lively Living House (and the Surprise House, which…
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Dell Comics (1962-1963)
From May of 1962 to August of ’63, Dell Comics released a 5-issue run of “Barbie and Ken” comic books. Contemporaneous with the Random House chapter books, the comics introduce a different vision of Barbie. Whereas the chapter books’ protagonist was a high school student, the comics’ Barbie is an adult with numerous careers: flight…
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Silken Flame 