Barbie from India

Have you ever heard from Barbie dolls made by LEO? LEO got the licence in the early 1990s to produce Barbie dolls under licence for the Indian market. These dolls vary from their cousins in Europe and the US. The most significant difference is the make up and the dresses of these dolls. Partly these dresses are inspired by traditional Indian Sari combinations and others by the regular playline (normal Barbie dolls that you can find in every toy store) Barbie dolls available in the Western world but with different make up.

What makes these dolls special? Well, they are hard to find in other parts of the world but India. You need good luck to find them. The range of Barbie dolls from India vary. I don’t know any book where all of them are listed. You find a part of them in “Around the world” with Barbie by Michael Augustyniak but the list is obviously incomplete. I heard it from other collectors who had different dolls not listed in the book.

I found one of the Happy Holidays from India several months ago. It’s a special edition Barbie and Ken released as a couple for Happy Holidays ( technically seen the only Ken ever produced for this series). Here’s a pic of the couple.

HHI1

HHI3

HHI2

The unique thing is that the production date is on the back of each box. If you have any boxed dolls, you can see their production date in the right corner. Furthermore I did a short video to tell the community from LEO Barbie dolls and showed there another Barbie doll. She’s a bit older than the couple here. Here’s the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQkD8QsDAg .

 

A bit late for Happy Holidays but here’s my first Happy Holidays from India

I know it’s a bit late for the Holidays and today is the first day of February. Nevertheless I’d like to show you my first Happy Holidays (HH)  from India. I like Barbie dolls from India but they are hard to find.  I’ve collected the Holidays series since 1996. I hoped to find the Indian issues too. I was lucky and found one. She has the box of the 1995 Happy Holidays and on the back you can see a pic of a 1995 Purple Passion Barbie from Toys ‘R’ Us. I have no idea if this was planned or not. The other Holiday dolls have pics of themselves on the back. The box of the 1995 Happy Holiday has a promo pic of a 1995 HH Barbie e.g..

One of the reasons to collect Barbie dolls from India is for me the painting in their faces. It’s very different from normal Western Barbie dolls, not so exorbitant.

HoI1

HoI2

I hope you can see what I mean.

Mystical Manipuri Barbie

Sounds like she is from India, huh? And she really is.  Luckily I found her several weeks ago in Italy. She’s my first Barbie from the first Expressions of India series from 1997. It’s stunning what foreign Barbie dolls were made for foreign markets.

She’s so exotic and I’m happy to have her in my collection.

Mystical Manipuri

Mystical Manipuri Barbie from 1997

Mystical Manipuri Barbie