A rare swimsuit from Spain

Some of you know that I like the Congost Barbie dolls from Spain. Last year I got a Tropical Barbie from Spain but she came naked. I had the chance to get it via a Spanish Barbie collector. She arranged it that the swimsuit landed in my collection. I really like the color. It’s very different from the US version but hard to find. What makes the swimsuit different from its US version is the pattern. It’s more yellowish than the normal version while the US version has more black in the fabric. It is as elastic as the sister but it is much rarer and harder to find. You may ask yourself why. I think it is due to a smaller quantiy that was produced in spain. I was told that it is hard to find Spanish Congost Barbie dolls in good condition because the production was done cheaply and many children customized their dolls. That means the children cut the hair. I have also seen dolls with missing hands or legs. I know it’s weird. Dolls in good condition are not so easy to find. I don’t know anything about the prices but maybe they could be the missing link why some of the Spanish Congost dolls and fashions are hard to find in good conditions.

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Spanish Tropical Barbie in original swimsuit



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Left and middle pic show the US versions of the swimsuit

Rumors about the bancrupcy of Mattel?

In the last weeks there were rumors about a predicted bancrupcy of Mattel within one year. It was predicted by a guy named Isaac Larian. I had to google the name because I never heard of him. He has a toy company of his own and made Mattel obviously an offer for a fusion.

This is what I found about the topic online https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/13/mga-ceo-isaac-larian-says-mattel-will-be-bankrupt-within-a-year-or-so-after-takeover-bid-is-rejected.html

Is the rumor true? Only time will tell… let’s keep our eyes open.

One Barbie doll, so many different make up variations

In the last days I saw a Magic Curl Barbie on Instagram and I wrote a comment that I have three of them and each is a bit different. You never see twins. Every doll is a bit different may you consider make-up or hairline. Maybe it comes from the fact that each doll was still kind of hand painted. I don’t regard the difference as something bad but just as something that we can see. Here are some pics of my dolls.

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First Magic Curl Barbie I got
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Second Magic Curl Barbie I found
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Magic Curl Barbie in box

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Comparison of my Magic Curl Barbie dolls



What do you think? All a bit different huh?

Be patient when you repair Barbie dolls

Nobody says it’s always easy with the repairs. Sometimes you just need patience. This is true in my case at the moment too. I have repaired a Barbie doll in the last weeks and then the right color for my repair was missing. I ordered acrylic colors and found out that they didn’t match. So I ordered another color from where I bought it the first time. Since it came from overseas I needed patience. Almost done and then the next problem. The second leg didn’t want to stay on the doll. The hip knob tends to break again and again due to old glue that was invisible and therefore hard to remove. Exhausting….. but nobody said it’s always easy to be a good Barbie doctor.

Do you know Chatty Cathy?

To those of you who watch my youtube channel it’s not new that I’m repairing a Talking Barbie but do you know that there were more Talking dolls produced by Mattel? Did you know that Chatty Cathy is a bit older than Talking Barbie? No? She can also be repaired and has many fans around the world. Here’s her story.

Finding the right acrylic color for my Talking Barbie

It’s not always easy to do things the way you want them to be. That is true for my Talking Barbie in repair. The repair itself is done but what is missing is the right color for finishing the repair. I ordered several skin tone color last week in Germany and realized that it was not the perfect tone that I need. In the color I used was too much pink and not enough orange. So I ordered the color from the dealer where I bought it the last time. Hopefully the color will be here until next week. Usually it’s no problem. The next time I’ll be more careful with the color and put in there a drop or two of water every six months. I don’t want a dry acrylic color again. It’s always expensive to replace the stuff. Gonna take a pic a soon as the right color is here.

Working on my youtube channel

I ‘ve done lots of videos in the last years but I only got very few clicks for my videos. For a long time I had no idea how important thumbnails, keywords and the rest of the stuff was. I had simply no idea where to look at. I did a course for social media in 2017 but I hardly learned anything about how to find the important keywords. This week I had a bit time at work to do an extended search. I found very interesting new insights that I can use for my improvements. It’s very clear that you can’t change your whole channel in one day. I have way too much videos and way too much pics and keywords to tag. This is going to last a while and of course next to that is my normal making video stuff with new projects that need lots of time and research. I have no idea if I can do it in one month or if I’ll need more time.

New experiments and new material for video stuff

At the moment I try out new things. In the next weeks you can find me on Instagram. I created an account for my youtube channel Busy B from Germany. And I also found a ” Black Magic” outfit, one of my favorite outfits from the 1960s and a Francie head. So you will hear a lot from me and my new stuff in the future.

Who has really no Holiday Barbie dolls?

The Holiday season is not far. Since August you can buy the lastest Holiday Barbie 2018 if you want. I’m not such a fan of her. I have several Holiday Barbie but not the latest ones. I think the history of the Holiday Barbie series is very interesting. Within the last 30 years many things have changed like the jewelry, the Make-Up and the dresses themselves. 

I think they are not so festive anymore. The early Barbie dolls from this series you can see a greater “wow”-effect. I don’t know really how to describe it but I would express them as beautiful. Maybe this is so because I grew up in this era and they were familiar to me. Anyway, I also have later Barbie dolls from after the 2000. 

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Holiday Barbie 2015
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Holiday Barbie 2004