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You haven’t seen this Barbie Venezuela trio anywhere before

Last week I got a parcel from Spain with an unusual content. I got my first Barbie dolls from Venezuela. I saw them recently and bought them immediately. What’s so special about Barbie from Venezuela? Well, they are hard to find in Europe. They were produced by Rotoplast in Venezuela similar like the one from Basa I wrote about last week. I learned that the hair quality is quite good. It seems that the make up on the cheeks was normal make up for humans. It obviously happens often that the make up from the cheeks is gone first. I think that’s interesting to know.

With a little help of a collector from South America I was able to identify all three.

Peach n Cream South America version Barbie

 

Peach n Cream version venezuela

Melocotón Barbie

The first one with the hair cut is called Melocotón Barbie doll. She’s from 1986 and the Peach n Cream version from Venezuela.

Barbie para Vestir Venezuela

Barbie para vestir Venezuela

Barbie para vestir

Barbie para vestir Venezuela

 

The second one is called Barbie para Vestir what means “Barbie to dress” in English.  She was the hardest one of the 3 to identify. She’s from 1992. I was also told that she has a fabrication error ( the strange thing you can see on her neck).

Aqua Marina Barbie Venezuela

Auqa Marina Barbie Venezuela

Aqua Marina Barbie Venezuela

 

The last one is called Aqua Marina Barbie and was released in 1990.

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What would the world be like if Workout Barbie by Basa (Peru) didn’t exist?

I wasn’t able to find out much about a Peruvian company called Basa but they produced Barbie dolls from 1980 til 1991 under license for Mattel. I recently found a Workout Barbie doll from Peru and that’s why I’m writing about it right now. The skin tone is much more orange than usual. She reminds me of Royal Barbie from her skin tone.The smell is also different from normal Barbie dolls. I don’t really know how to describe it but it’s different.

Here she comes…

Barbie from Peru

Barbie PeruBarbie Peru

As you can see she has the marking on her butt and not on her back. And you can see the name Peru written in big letters so that you can’t oversee it. I was surprised to see it on her butt. At first I searched on her back.

I was also able to find the commercial. If you know more about the company, please let me know. The only article I was able to find is this one here http://barbievenezuela.blogspot.com/search/label/Historia%20de%20Barbie%20en%20Latinoamerica but there is not very much information given.

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If you read one article about Santacruzan Barbie read this one

Do you know that you can buy Barbie on the Phillipines t00? It’s possible since 1989. Obviously the island nation liked the doll so much that she became a hit there. I recently got two Barbie dolls from the Phillipines (Santacruzan Reyna Emperiatrix Barbie in dark magenta velvet and  Flores de Mayo Reyna Mora in blue). As far as I know these dolls were produced under license by Richwell or at least sold by Richwell there. The basic idea is that the children should not forget their Spanish heritage.

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Reine Emperiatrix Barbie

 

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Flores de Mayo Barbie

 

Flores de Mayo

Flores de Mayo Barbie

Flores de Mayo

Flores de Mayo Barbie

 

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Learn all about Spanish Barbie dolls from this blog

Have you ever heard from a company named Congost? Me neither until I found a very interesting book written by Michael Augustyniak. In the meantime he died but I still have the book and think it is a good source to get an overview what the global Barbie doll market has to offer. Recently I found several Spanish Barbie dolls made for the Spanish market ( not for the rest of Europe). Of course a collector wants to own what they can’t own. That’s the desire of collecting ( I think). Anyway, since I speak Spanish it’s no problem to look around. I did so and found some nice dolls in a short while.

What I found out in the meantime is that Congost got a license to produce Barbie dolls for the Spanish market in the late 1970s. Obviously they produced until the early 1990s. In the mid 1990s they can’t be found anymore. I assume that the capacity for production grew big enough in China in these years. It seems that there is/ was a problem with the quality. I saw some dolls with deformed arms and legs and missing hair. Barbie dolls in good condition from Congost seem to be hard to find. Why? No idea, I still investigate the problem.

Here’s a short video that shows some Congost Barbie dolls.I’m not sure if all are shown or not.

Here are some pics from my Congost Barbie dolls.
DaytoNightBarbieUSSpan

 

The skin tone is sometime a bit strange and the make up seems to disappear more often than from US version Barbie dolls. Here you can see what I mean in pics.

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Latest trend in doll stands

Have you bought doll stands for Barbie dolls in the last months? I bought some and I’d like to talk about the latest trend. I prefer metal stands for Barbie dolls but they are currently hard to find in good old Germany. I have no idea why but I have been searching for month and found no ones. I have some Kaiser doll stands and some no name stands in my collection. One doll stand is better than no doll stand. Anyway. It seems that in the last year doll stands from China have flooded the market. They are widely available and cheap. The processing is not bad and as a quick solution as transition they are okay in my opinion. Furthermore there is the advantage that just can adjust them to the size you need for Barbie, Skipper or Francie. IMG 4912

Nevertheless I have doubts that they may melt on the doll when using them for a long time solution. But I haven’t had the problem until now.

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The Insider’s Guide to Takara

Have you heard about Takara yet? Probably not. Do you know that they are Japanese toy makers? Probably not. Why the hell am I asking you so much questions? Well, I like to teach and discover the world. So, if you have no idea what Barbie and Takara have in common, watch my video.

and if you want to know more about the Japanese doll craziness, watch this episode of Japanology.

And here’s a short commercial about Takara from the early 1980s.

 

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After Five! Really after five?

It is said that in the time when this dress was made you dressed in a dress you wore after five when it was over five o’clock. Really? Sometimes I wonder how often the dressed and undressed themselves in the time. I know that I don’t have the time to dress and undress all the time because I’m at work usually and come home around 5 p.m. Anyway, I liked the Vintage After Five ensemble ever since I found out that it was made. Recently I got a my version but it’s not in the best condition. A button is missing and there are some holes in the dress but I’don’t want to complain. It has less holes than the Enchanted Evening I showed you last week. I plan to do my own copy this summer … I know a long time but I have another sewing project coming up but I’m still waiting for the fabric. So here’s the real After Five and stay tuned in for some new project in the future.

 

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5 reasons you should be talking about the Enchanted Evening dress

The other day I bought a Vintage Barbie outfit named Enchanted Evening and was very disappointed when it arrived here. The condition was so bad that I gave it back. I had no chance to use it for display. The only thing I could have done was using it as a pattern for sewing but that was not the intention I had.  The fabric is very delicate. I don’t know exactly the fabric maybe some kind of satin and I saw no chance to repair it with my abilities. Here’s a pic of the back.

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I even had problems to put the body into the dress because of it’s tightness. I didn’t want to destroy it and I thought this might happen by the next time I dress or undress the body.

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So my advice before buying the dress from anyone selling online is

  • let them send you a pic from front and back
  • let them send you detail pics from the seams so that you can check before buying
  • try to read as much as possible about the fabric
  • ask someone who has the dress to tell you about the color
  • get yourself a reference book about the dress

 

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If you read one article about the Barbie cleaning process read this one

Today I cleaned a new Barbie doll in my collection. She’s from the 1980s and she’s from Spain ( made by Congost). I know it’s hard to find any information about Congost but they produced Barbie dolls under license in the late 1970s, 1980s and 1990s for Mattel. I don’t know how many they produced but they must have produced a lot. I have heard that the quality is not the best one but anyway I like them.

This one arrived here only hours ago and since it’s Saturday I had time to clean her immediately. I can’t repeat myself often enough to tell you how easy it is to clean an old Barbie doll. I think I removed the dust and dirt from decades. You just need rubbing alc. and some Q-Tips. You dip the Q-Tips in the alc. and remove the dirt. Some collectors may say that it is dangerous because of the knee joints but I never had any problems with rubbing alcohol. You can literally see the dirt on the left leg. The right one is already cleaned.

Barbie Spanish version of Crystal Barbie

After the procedure I had a lot of dirty Q-Tips.

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