Barbie repair Archives - Barbie Treasure Chest

September 1, 2022September 1, 2022

How to make Skipper a full pony again

This week it’s more a personal story in my blog. I was asked about two weeks ago if I could have a look at a Pose n Play Skipper newly acquired by a German collector. I said sure because we have dealt with each other before. So she shipped her Skipper to me and half of the pony was missing.

P1000412 — Pose n Play Skipper with partly missing pony

It was not question that I wanted to make her Skipper a full pony again. Her Skipper was obviously played often with and the hair was a bit oxided. It was not as obvious as when you see a Julia doll https://www.fashion-doll-guide.com/Julia-Barbie-Doll.htmlfrom the late 60s. This Skipper has no color magic hair https://www.myvintagebarbies.com/colormagic.htmbut her hair changed a bit over the decades. When you work with oxided hair it’s no problem to replace the missing hair. The hair itself is intact but the question is if you could find the 100% matching color. That’s a very hard task.

P1000441 — Pose n Play Skipper after reroot with wild hair

The solution: I always keep the rests from my reroots and that came to my help here. I still had a rest of a matching color, maybe not 100% the same but at least 90%. You have to look very closely to find a difference in the colors and so I replaced the missing streaks with this rest.

Before I started my prep for “How to make Skipper a full pony again” I checked inside the head with my endoscopic camera. The hair inside was totally okay. I hoped to have this scenario because it’s a lot more work to secure the existing hair pattern first and having to fix it first. That’s really a lot of work and you have to concentrate while doing it.

P1000444 — Skipper after partial haircut

I prefer to work in silence when restoring the dolls. Not all restorers prefer it this way but I do. Some work better when they have music, some not. I like music but not when I’m working like here. I can concentrate better on the reroot I do when working in silence. In general it was no problem to restore this Skipper because she was not problematic like having a neck split or other problems that could cause trouble during the work.

The hardest task in this restoration was to find a hair color matching with the existing hair. Giving her a new pony was not very hard. Yes, it’s time consuming but not hard. You need two hours of time during the reroot. Sometimes it’s not predictable if you have used enough hair or not. When you are missing a streak or two add them later. It’s possible to add more hair later when you are unsatisfied with your own work. You can add hair as long as you like your work and as long as you have hair.

P1000446 — Pigtails are back, pony still has to be cut

July 4, 2022July 4, 2022

How to get wild Barbie hair under control again

I bet you have all experienced this situation that you have a doll with wild Barbie hair and you did not know how to get them under control again. This happened to one of my viewers in the last weeks and he asked me if I could do a video with the content of how to get wild Barbie hair under control again.

To be honest I had two ideas in mind when he asked me and I realized that wanted to make a video about this topic but lost the idea somehow in my mind because I had so many other things I wanted to do in the meantime.

Working on a lot of parallel projects is something you have to do when releasing at least one video a week. No losing the overview is important. The video of how to get wild Barbie hair under control again was an easy one and very relaxing. The amount of time I needed for planning, taping and processing was manageable.

Using a special kind of rubber is what I think is the most useful thing for getting long and wild Barbie hair under control again. That’s at least my experience after 10 years of rerooting https://barbie.final-memory.org/my-first-barbie-reroot/ . The second little diy helper I show you here in my video is very simple to diy. You often get these little plastic caps when you buy used Barbie dolls or her sister or family. Let’s call this plastic thing cap. It’s very helpful when you have a doll with a short pony. These hairs have tendency to become wild and uncooperative. It may be in the nature of the short hair. Anyway but I have a solution for these wild hairs. It’s really easy and fun to craft these caps yourself.

Don’t forget to plan some weeks until you might have it finally under control. Sometimes the hair is really unwilling to cooperate. Sometimes it can last some months until you see a success.

June 21, 2022June 21, 2022

How to get soft Barbie hair with fabric softener

Have you ever had the problem when you got a used Barbie doll that her hair was dry, frizzy and you had no idea what to do to get it in shape again? How to get soft Barbie hair with fabric softener?

This happened to me several months ago. I had a Barbie doll that I purchased. She came without box and was surely deboxed for decades but I think she was stored in a climate that was not perfect for her. Sometimes you can’t change how the dolls were stored in the past but you can give them a chance for the future to do it better. Can you safe the hair? Yes, it’s possible.

Supersize Barbie with frizzy and dry hair

What do you need for the hair care? Only things you probably have at home. That’s the good news. You can do it either with fabric softener or with conditioner for your hair. Both things work. I have tried it in the last years. What I can’t predict is how this will have an impact on the hair of the dolls in the next decade. I don’t have enough partners here to get any reliable results in conjunction with chemicals & the age of the dolls.

Supersize Barbie during beauty treatment

From what I know from the point of view today I can say that doing the procedure once or twice to your doll there should not be a big negative impact. However if you do this more often I think it could harm the dolls.

Forgive me but this is not really investigated in our time. The scientists just start to learn the impact of age to plastic. I hope this is helpful when you know how to get soft Barbie hair with fabric softener now.

Freshly dried Supersize Barbie with soft and shiny hair

May 31, 2022October 19, 2023

The leg repair of an Equestrienne Barbie

Last week I told you a little bit about the leg repair of a Talking Stacey and how easy it is to repair her fallen of legs. If you forgot to read about you can do it here https://barbie.final-memory.org/talking-barbie-and-her-leg-problem/

C1397T01 — Successful leg repair of an Equestrienne Barbie

This weeks I would like to tell you a little bit about the leg repair of an Equestrienne Barbie and how easy her repair really is. I have done a video about this topic many many years ago when starting to do videos but until then no second Equestrienne Barbie crossed my way to do the repair another time. However I realized I got a pair of legs and a suitable body for the demonstration of this repair in the last months, had forgotten it completely.

When searching in my workshop for new video ideas I found the semi-assembled Equestrienne Barbie just waiting for me. She was the one I was looking for. The good thing is that for this kind of Barbie doll the amount of time needed for the repair is very low. You can do it within 5 minutes when you are trained to do it. This is no joke. You don’t need more time for the leg repair of an Equestrienne Barbie. It’s very simple. You just need hot water, the legs, a little towel, the upper body and some minutes time.

After putting the legs in your bowl with hot water you just need to wait until they become soft. You dry them with a towel. You know the problem that can appear when not doing it properly. Read more about it here https://barbie.final-memory.org/tutti-todd-and-their-problems/

C1396T01 — Here we are in the middle of the repair

You dry the legs and them push them over the joints with some feeling. It’s really hard to explain how much to push and how much is too much. I suggest simply trying the leg repair of an Equestrienne Barbie. More than not being able to get the leg in the leg joint again can’t happen. Then you do it another time and it will find its way.

May 21, 2022May 21, 2022

Talking Barbie and her leg problem

When you have a Talking Barbie from the late 60s you probably know the problem. Her legs fall off. Without a word, without any explanations. I don’t know how many of them were produced but I think up to 80% have this problem.

The fallen off legs were treated in different ways by different persons. Some re-glued the legs back to the body, some repaired the legs with screws. Be careful here when you want to repair the mechanism. When the screws are too deep in the body the Talking Barbie will never be able to talk again.

I admit I have seen some really creative solutions to the problem but seen from the point of view of harming a doll or not I got different answers to the problem. A lot of you emailed me about your experiences with Talking Barbie and the leg problem. Some told me they bought Talking Barbie legs and the legs fell off again a while. The ones glued back with Gorilla glue had the biggest problems. I have no idea in which decade it was done but now the arm and leg knobs seem literally to crumble away.

DSC08460 min — Here’s what I’m talking about. See an intact leg knob here ( in one piece again)

I can give you the advice to be careful when buying used Talking Barbie dolls. It’s often the easiest way to buy them from first owners who never reglued them to the body. You can be sure to fix them properly and you even have a chance to repair the mechanism ( if you are as crazy as I am).

Since I got so much feedback I wanted to make another Video about Barbie and how to fix her legs. It’s not really hard. You only need to have her broken leg knob piece, some MEK, a paintbrush and some patience. In my latest video you can see an instruction how to reattach the legs.

When you ask my about the cause of leg problem I can only assume that it could be a material weakness. The forces having impact on the leg knobs must be huge. We have two different materials here that have an impact on the leg. It’s the rubber of the leg and the Barbie body. I think they don’t like each other and that might be the reason for the reaction. Maybe you can imagine it like a magnet and the two don’t like each other. I hope this explains Talking Barbie and her leg problem a bit better to you.

DSC08470 min 1 — Here’s our Stacey after the repair

May 7, 2022May 7, 2022

How to change a fashion doll arm

I dedicate this article to the topic how to change a fashion doll arm. I have only Barbie family members so this is only valid for Vintage Barbie, Francie, Midge, Ken and Skipper. The joints were changed later so that this is not possible in the same way for later dolls.

What I can tell you about this topic is that it is not hard, like always when I talk about Barbie. It is simple when you know how to do it, what to use in the process and what to avoid.

One thing all of the above mentioned dolls have in common is the arm joint. It’s the same one for all dolls. That makes it easy to show it only once and you can use it for all dolls.

I refer to Barbie only here because I only have Barbie dolls. I don’t collect any other fashion dolls.

DSC08223 klein — Vintage Barbie arm with joint

For reasons of easiness let’s start with what will expect you. Have a look at one of these arms. As you can see the construction itself is very simple. The arm and the joint are made from one piece. I think it was easy to design, easy to make a mass production of these arms and the were cost effective. More pieces per doll would be more expensive. The less pieces per doll you have to assembly the cheaper the production/ assembly costs.

I think it was not intended that doll docs would ever write about the topic in the future but this construction is also easy to repair. You can replace the arm with another arm. Of course you need one from the same doll type like Barbie – Barbie, Skipper – Skipper and so on. It would not work for different doll types simple because of the different size.

The lengths and joint sizes for the dolls are simply different. You would see it immediately when you replace a Francie arm with a Skipper arm. The lengths are simply different. I came across this topic because I recently bought Francie arms and in reality they are Skipper arms. The difference is very small but you would see it.

I hope it is clearer to you now how to change a fashion doll arm and you know what to look for and what to avoid. If you want to read more about my Francie project have a look in this article https://barbie.final-memory.org/francie-and-how-to-restore-her

April 16, 2022April 16, 2022

How to rescue an Alan with stains?

The question how to rescue an Alan with stains was the latest idea for a video. I got an Alan head with stains in January or February. He had lost some of his hair color and he has been the victim of a child who painted the head black. Maybe this was in the 1970s? I have no idea but the black is very durable and moved into the head itself and made a connection with the rubber of the head so that a removal was very hard.

I know that you have to be very patient with removing stains even when they are ink stains. It’s time consuming and you need a lot of sun light. For the rescue of Alan both things were missing, like often when you want to do a video but the time is limited.

At first I wanted to remove the stains with Remove Zit, good idea but it failed I think due to the color of the ink and missing sun light. It’s not that Remove Zit is not working. Anyway rubbing alc and Q-tips did not work but I already imagined it. Another idea I had while working on the head was to try the Stain Devil. That’s a stain remover I have already used for removing black stains from Barbie feet or heads. The black part was however much bigger this time than the last time I used it.

I thought it was a worth a try after having removed the reddish hair color of Alan. At first I thought I could get the black totally of but I underestimated the color. It’s hard to get black off completely. I don’t know the content of ink but it’s an awful substance when you have to remove it from dolls or clothes.

I simply don’t like it. However this meant not that I had to throw the head away. I simply made something complete new out of him. After realizing that the black won’t come of as I hoped I decided to do a OOAK Alan. When you can’t remove all the ink use the same color again. That was at least the idea here in this how to rescue an Alan with stains project. I used black color to paint his head and painted over the spots that contained black.

March 25, 2022March 25, 2022

Francie and how to restore her

I have not made much videos about Francie in the last two months. The reason was that I had problems to find a tlc Francie for this project. I came across a body without a head and then suddenly there was a perfect Francie offered, perfect for this project. The seller said she was tlc but even tlc is not for free. I bought her.

Francie before the reroot, some streaks are missing

Some days later she arrived in her parcel. I must say I expected her in a shape worser than you can imagine but this was not the case. In fact I see her potential. Yes, this doll is almost in her 60s but does it stop me to repair her? The answer is no. I sometimes really enjoy these bigger projects where you can use a lot of creativity to restore them.

As I already mentioned in my last repaint video I don’t recommend you to start without the correct material ( link https://barbie.final-memory.org/what-you-need-for-a-good-barbie-repaint/ ). Buy everything you need for the project in advance or simply have it at home when you plan your project. It’s good when you have a time schedule in advance. For making this video I needed at least 2 weeks. It’s not the pure time you need but you need to consider that things like hairs have to dry at least for 24 hours when you want them to be dry for your next step.

I also have a little endoscopic camera for my projects so you can think of buying one before you start ( if you want to work with one). Then arrange to have the hair at home. I know this may sound weird but I prefer to have a big box with hair at home before I do anything. This gives me a creative feeling. I need some positive vibes before I start. In my case this vibe is created when I can have a look into my hair storage or my acrylic paint storarge or my brush glas. I have all my brushes in one glas. I think it’s a handy dandy way to start. Have everything at home before you start.

Francie after re-root but before repaint still drying

Before I actually started with my video I made a plan how to start what to show, what to do at first, what to do next and so on. I wanted to have some logical steps in a plan before I started to film. So I could make sure that nothing was forgotten.

I my case I started with the head but as you can imagine I wanted to have a look into her head before I started to reroot her. This was a kind of safety insurance not to expect anything unexpected. I checked the pattern of hair in her head way before I started to reroot. When you see there is a destroyed pattern in the head you have to repair it before you can replace missing streaks. Then continue with the hair. After having inserted the new steaks you have to flatten the new streaks.

For this you need at least a day for the drying. Good. After that you can cut the hair. I recommend combing the hair before you cut it. Use a good pair of suitable scissors. I have a professional pair of scissors for cutting hair but it’s for right handers, not lefties. That’s why I use my pair of embroidery scissors here. Works.

After cutting you can curl if you want to. I did this in my case to have the hair out of the way for the repaint. So I used the hot and cold bath method for the curlers and started one day later with the repaint. Before doing the repaint I put my brushes and colors on my desk and prepared my wet palette. After finishing the repaint I waited 24 hours before I used my sealer. After another day I took her curlers out, finished the styling and prepared everything for the final scenes.

Francie after her repaint. No problem when you have the original colors.

You see it’s a lot of work. Being well prepared is never a mistake.

March 18, 2022March 18, 2022

How to clean a Vintage Barbie body

One of the most discussed topic among collectors is the cleaning of the old dolls. When you ask one collector you probably will get 7 different answers and not all of them can be used without critical consideration.

I recently asked other collectors how they clean their dolls and the answers were partly alarming. I don’t use any chemistry that can harm a doll. You know that I really do research and read books before I do anything on my dolls. My method how to clean a Vintage Barbie body was obviously not known to a lot of fellow collectors. No, I don’t use any chemicals that could harm a doll. Where do I know this from? Well, I have a good book from an expert who worked in the chemical industry for toy production for almost 40 years. I only use rubbing alc and Q-tips and a magic eraser but not from Mr. Clean. I have a no name product, cheap and with a good cleaning power. Rubbing alc does the least damage to the doll.

From using dish washer tabs to the use of oxi I got a lot of expert answers how to clean your vintage Barbie. Is this good for your Barbie doll? I say no, you are destroying your vintage Barbie without knowing it. Before you use these cleaning products have a look at the ingredients. The more cleaning power products you use the worser it will affect your doll.

Some collectors swear to use CLR for removing green ears but what they don’t know is that it will dissolve your doll in the long term. Even if you use it only on cotton pads it will destroy your doll in the long turn. Why? The chemicals will start to eat up the rubber of the Barbie and cause a long time damage you won’t get ever rid of. Also don’t forget that you can entice fungicides with your actings. Fungicides are a big problem among Barbie dolls that nobody seems to care about.

Another “helper” I got to know was Chlorox spray cleaner. I have never used this stuff and I will never do so because what you can do is a doll that might be cleaner at the moment you use it but it can also lead to a brownish tone after the treatment. Not immediately but later.

Acetone was also recommended. Why? Do you want to dissolve your doll? Really? Don’t forget that this stuff can cause different kinds of cancer. Not to mention that acetone removes the plasticizer from your doll when you put your doll in a bowl of acetone for a longer time period. The result will be disgusting. I promise.

Where do I know all this from? Well, before I treat any of my dolls I read books about what I’m doing. I can recommend you this book

I hardly recommend any books here but this one is worth to be read because when you don’t know what you do here you can cause a big damage that you can’t make undone. In the worst case you can throw your dolls away. I would think about it twice. When in doubt let her be a dirty doll. That’s all I know about the topic how to clean a Vintage Barbie body.

March 10, 2022March 10, 2022

Tutti, Todd and their problems

You have probably never heard of Tutti and Todd. No wonder. I also never heard of them for a long time. Even after starting to collect Barbie dolls I was for a while not aware that these dolls existed.

What’s the problem? Well, they were stopped to be in production almost a decade when I was born and I think they were not as wide spread as Barbie and the grown up family members.

Tutti and Todd are twin baby sister and baby brother of Barbie from the mid 60s until the mid 70s and then they disappear from the family and were never seen or heard of again. For a first impression I would like to link to https://fashiondollz.de/1965-tutti-todd-and-chris/#!gallery-1176-9939

D has always nice pics of a ton of Barbie dolls. But what makes Tutti and Todd so special that I dedicate here an article to these two twins? I recently bought a package with repair parts and among these dolls was a Tutti with a green leg and an open arm. So I was able to show you the wire inside the body. It’s the wire that causes the problem concerning the green arms and legs these dolls have often.

The wire reacted with some kind of liquid, often water. I think this problem is so wide spread because these smaller dolls were produced in one step while Barbie was produced in several steps. For Barbie you needed to produce the torso, the arms and the legs separately plus the head. For Tutti and Todd you needed only body and head. Here was at least a potential to save money and I think that these dolls now suffer from. https://fashiondollz.de/1965-tutti-todd-and-chris/#!

It’s something you hardly find information about but I think they are worth to be talked about even if they are out of production now for a long time. The little outfits have their very own charm and there are lots of outfits for Tutti and Todd around. By the way this Todd mentioned here has nothing to do with Todd https://fashiondollz.de/1977-ken-superstar/#!gallery-557-11415 from 1982, the groom of Tracy https://fashiondollz.de/1971-steffie-face/#!gallery-553-6993

The dolls are not related here. I know it’s sometimes a bit confusing. I hope you like this little article about Tutti, Todd and their problems.