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What did Santa Clause bring?

I was already asked by other collectors if I got new Barbie dolls or Barbie family dolls for Christmas and I can say yes. I got some new dolls but I did not find as much as in 2020. I think that’s not so much of a problem as long as you really searched for them and wanted them for a long time.

I never expected for example to find an affordable Supersize Barbie. Supersize Barbies are hard to find in the meantime and they are really expensive. Something is always missing. No matter if it’s the dress, jewelry or shoes. Sometimes when they have a function the function is not working anymore. It’s what stopped me from buying the doll you see in my latest video with the hair function. Often the hair piece/ hair part is simply gone. I think one could repair the hair when you have a doll showing you how the mechanism works. That’s why this doll screamed “buy me” when I saw her.

The function of the hair will be covered in one of my next videos. It’s very easy but was not covered in any video yet. Let’s change this in 2022. She will also get some clothing. You know it’s not the problem to taylor something once you understand how to take the correct measurements.

Francie came along my way in November. We made an online doll convention online and there she was offered. So I bought the two of them you can see in my video.

You know I’m not the biggest fan of Fashionista Barbie but the one in the wheel chair somehow fascinated me since she’s black and she was available in Germany. I observed her the whole year but the price was too high for the quality so I had to wait until I found her for a good price.

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A quick update for my Windows 10 problem

In the meantime I consulted several forums to get the solution to my problem not being able to work with my lately updated Windows 10 version. Did I get answers? Yes, I did but they were not helpful. Why should I consult Nvidia for a problem with Windows 10? The latest driver is 3 years old. Sorry, I don’t get the point. Nvidia will say it’s a Windows problem. So the poor guy from India got a bad mark from me for his answer. It’s simply not helpful and it does not explain why Windows 10 forgets the driver any time I start my Windows 10. We had the problem 2 years ago too but it was fixable.

So we started to solve the problem with updating my Linux. Yes, I have more than one PC operating system on my PC. I have 3 on it and 2 of it accept the driver without problems. The next problem I had to focus was the problem to explain this. I know a bunch of people only use one operating system on their PC. The update was in general no problem. It only lasted several hours but being at work on a Wednesday and coming home and your PC got its update is a good feeling. Nevertheless we were not able to solve the DaVinci Resolve problem. I suppose my CPU is to old for making it run on my Linux desktop. My PC is from 2012. Graphic driver check, running but CPU not. Obviously the problem is that under Linux DaVinci Resolve is treated a bit like a neglected step-child. So what’s the solution to the problem? Guess what? Spending money and spending a lot of money to be more precise.

We hope to solve this stupid graphic driver problem with a new PC but not just a PC but a really high performance PC with a fast and up-to-date graphic card from Nvidia with hopefully a working driver under Windows 10. I guess it’s exactly what they industry wanted to hear but it’s sad somehow that this problem can only be solved with money and not with a quick fix.

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New Barbie repair adventures ahead

I know I haven’t posted anything for two weeks but now I can tell you something new. I’m going to get a parcel this week with lots of Barbie dolls for repair and the best thing is I haven’t to pay for them. They are a gift from another collector who likes my idea to get repair without paying the repair itself only the shipping and handling costs and material costs.

She asked me to test a new glue for broken necks and I said I’d be glad to test and do a video, although I don’t know if this stuff is available outside from Germany. I’m curious to do the test. I heard a lot. Now I get the chance to do a test.

What else happened in the meantime?

Well I had to work only three days last week and had a long weekend that I used for Barbie, not for doing videos but to continue to develop my sewing and pattern making skills for Francie. I started on May 1rst I think with a pattern for Francie and had problem to make it fit to her size. I had too many wrinkles at the wrong places but this weekend I had an idea how to make it probably work. I tried it and had success with my idea. It’s not perfect yet but I think I’m on the right way to find the pattern. I did a second project yesterday and designed my very first sleeve. The sleeve is definitely something for the next weekend. I saw some progress in my Francie “Let’s Dance” sewing project. It feels good to see some progress.

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The biggest annual Barbie Convention in the USA took place

I think by the end of the last week I saw the first pics from the annual Barbie Convention that took place in Kansas City, Missouri this year. I wish I could go to one of these big Barbie USA Conventions too but at the moment it’s way too expensive to fly over the Atlantic Ocean, stay there for a week ( a longer trip would probably be cheaper) and buy Barbie dolls. Even the smaller Barbie Conventions in Germany are not cheap. At least that was my experience when I visited the Barbie Convention in Hamburg, Germany in 2010. It was nice but the dolls were very expensive but to come back to our point the big annual Barbie Convention in the USA … here are some pics that are amazing and we can even enjoy them without spending money.

https://gramha.net/explore-hashtag/NBDCC2019

I hope you like them.

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A very dissatisfying adventure with DHL

I bought two Barbie dolls from the USA by the end of May. I awaited the arrival of my dolls in these days. Last Friday I got an e-Mail from a big auction house stating that my parcel would have arrived. Unfortunately I got no notification from any postal service in the last weeks. You can only get your parcel when you have a notification. In my case I never got one and I wasn’t able to pick up any parcel, It was indeed the case that the parcel landed in Germany but it was stored in a DHL hub somewhere in another state than I live in. Obviously my parcel layed somewhere several hundred of kilometers.

Nobody felt any responsibility for sending it at least to the city I live in. So my parcel was in a hub somewhere but nobody shipped it to my city and shipped back after 3 weeks with the statement “unclaimed” the USA. I couldn’t even stop it because the shipping status hadn’t changed for weeks and I couldn’t locate my pacel. Suddenly the seller answered my e-Mail and was not very helpful. I wanted to know why my parcel shipped back without being delivered but instead I got my money back. That was definitive not what I wanted….

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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.

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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.

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A visit at Tokyo Skytree

For Barbie dolls 60th anniversary you can visit an exhibition at Tokyo Skytree with different dolls from the last 6 decades and read about the dolls. There was also a one of a kind event for a Japanese designer. Everything ready for the 60th birthday huh ?

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Wishes for 2019

While writing the last article for 2018 I think about 2018. What happened in 2018? My blog became available for Smartphone users. I tried to mordernize it a bit. I have written many articles. I also invested a bit in better equipment for my videos. I also plan to invest in 2019 but not this week. I’m still enjoying my vacation. I have ideas for new videos in 2019. My biggest wish for 2019 is that you watch my videos and read my articles. It’s not always easy to get a feeling for what you like and what not.  

I have no special dolls in mind that I want to have urgently in 2019. I think I’m beyond this point of collecting now. Do you have any special dolls you want to have? But until you have or get them, let’s have lots of fun with my first dancing video. I among the dancers.