I recently saw this report and thought maybe this could be interesting to some of you since you can see the biggest Barbie doll collection of the world there.
https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/hallo-deutschland/barbie-wird-60-100.htmlA lot of work ahead of me
The next weeks are going to be very busy for me. I don’t if I find the time to do a Tuesday video for Busy B. I think it should not be a problem to do a Friday video but I don’t know if there is much more time. I’ve really some work to do in April and May. I’m currently reorientiating professionally and won’t be at home much for the next six or seven weeks. Of course that doesn’t mean that I stop collecting Barbie dolls. It’s just that I have less time in the next weeks for hobby stuff like youtube.
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 ?
A funny video for Barbies 35th Anniversary
I recently learned that there was a video made by Mattel for the 35th Anniversary of Mattel. It’s very much skripted reality but it’s still nice and seems almost a bit historic. The reason I post this is because it’s funny. When you were a child like me back then you’ll remember lots of the dolls shown in this stage show. They made Barbie came to live for her 35th birthday and invented a stage show with the regular playline outfits and Barbie dolls from around. I’ve not known that a there was such a show. I’ve not known that they recorded the whole show for being able on VHS. A lot of the spirit from the mid 90s is here frozen in time. That’s what I like although it’s pure advertising.
What is Congost Barbie and where do they come from?
Congost produced Barbie dolls under license in Spain from 1975 until 1990. The reason for the production there was the limited capacity of production by Mattel itself. I asked some Spanish collectors why Congost produced them a while ago. They are said to have a poor quality although many sellers want to make big money with the dolls. They often have lost a part of their make up or hair. Some even have lost a hand. If you want to see how they look, watch this video.
Erie talking dolls
Several people have asked me if my repaired Talking Barbie dolls are really repaired due to poor sound quality. I said this is how it’s meant to be. In spite of Talking Barbie’s 50-year anniversary, we should not forget her. I had a talking doll in the early 1990s that sounded very similar. The space available for a record is very limited. Be prepared for miracles, but don’t expect them. It was even more sacrifying when Thomas Alva Edison presented his first talking dolls.
There was a technique discovered in the last few years to make them talk again, if I remember correctly. There is nothing beautiful about the doll’s voice, even if it looks nice and beautiful. It makes me rather run away than listen and I think I’m not the only one.
And then compare them with Talking Barbie. Is it better? A huge improvement almost 70 years later? Yes, but of course not perfect. Don’t forget it’s from a time when nobody knew about the digital world and Mp3s and so on.Barbie doll sets you have never seen before
Do you have seen any set that appears in no book? Well I got a set many years ago that I’ve never seen in any book. This can be good since no burglar is going to visit you but this can also be bad because nobody knows that this set exists. Anyway, there is always a chance that you have something special because it isn’t shown anywhere.
A seller that I know offered in the last weeks something I’ve never seen before. I didn’t buy it but this reminded me that I also have something that a majority has never seen before.

As far as I know the set was bought in Italy. I’m the second owner.
A crazy little foot for my sewing machine
I recently saw this video
At the end I bought the foot and tried it on my Pfaff Quilt Ambition 2.0. After a week the foot arrived at my house and I studied it. I changed my sewing machine food and attached the flower stiching foot. At first I had problems to make it work. You have to bend the arm to make it fit to the machine. It works best when you bend it into a little curve. The mechanic of the foot produces a little bit of noise. It as not as much noise as the embroidery attachment of my Pfaff Creative Sensation Pro II but the foot is a bit noisier than a normal sewing foot. In general it’s no problem to work with this foot. Don’t forget to lower your sewing machine pressure to zero and don’t use the feed dog on your sewing machine. Then it’s no problem to use this little attachment. I recommend to use a cut away stabilizer under the fabric.
So many ideas and so little support
I’m really creative with so many ideas I could write down or tape but the problem is that I have a shortage of supplies at the moment. My list with things I could use is so long and I have problems to get the things I need for my next projects. If you ask me why …. sorry, I have no idea. Maybe it has to do with the winter because nobody wants to go outside and the wish to sell something is not as big as in summer? Who knows? I have no idea but the market in Germany is almost empty.
My new book from Amazon Japan
In the last week my Japanese Barbie doll book from Amazon Japan arrived. It was much faster in Germany than I expected. I haven’t read much in the book yet. I have to translate it sentence by sentence from the Japanese but this is going to last some time but I’m curious what to read and find in it. This is my first real Japanese Barbie book. I have another one but it has not so much text and I haven’t translated it. For the long journey from Japan it arrived here in an astonishing short time. I think it was only three or four days. I didn’t expect it to arrive so soon. In general I can say that it is no problem to order there a book.

I’m really curious what Fumiko is going to tell. She worked closely with Charlotte Johnson in Japan for one year and they produced the prototypes of fashions for Barbie available in 1959.