Have you asked yourself where this name came from? Well, the answer is easy… Harold “Matt” Mattson and Elliot Handler melted their names togehter into the name Mattel. That’s how the company got the name and it was founded in 1945.
Pool Fun Kelly/Shelly or the question was she really released?
Well, I’m going to tell you an interesting story today. When I was 11 years old I saw a promo pic of the Pool Fun Kelly and I wanted to have her for my collection. She was cute and I liked Shelly/Kelly from the very first start. Cute face, cute doll!
I don’t remember exactly where I saw the pic. Maybe it was a promo calendar or a Barbie Journal. Anyway, I saw her and I wanted her but for some reasons I don’t know she was never available in the town where I came from. I searched but I didn’t find her. For a long time I tried to find out what was going on in times before the Internet was a wide spread medium. I found no information, nobody knew anything. I thought maybe it was a fake.
Many years later I suddenly found an Afro-American version of the Pool Fun Kelly in the US. I bought her immediately. Here’s a pic.
With the name I was able to find out more about this series. I found out that this series was released but nothing more. I was later (approx. in 2005 or 2006) able to find the other dolls.
Lucky Lips … or the interesting change of the colour of Barbie lips from the Vintage era
When you consider Vintage Barbie dolls you might have noticed that some of these dolls have very pale lips, not the normal pink or red lips. Why are they so pale? Well, the paint faded. That means that the colour pigments of the original colour disappeared or bleached out. And it looks like this… there are so many shades but I have only three example that I can show you at the moment. I hope that this might help you because it’s really hard to find detailed information about this phenomenon and all the shades.
When we consider that they came in the following make up schemes … then you maybe understand what I want to express.
Dress Up Friends Kelly & friend Giftset
Today I’d like to show another set of my favorite Kelly/Shelly sets. This set was only avaiable at Toys R Us in 2002. Kelly/Shelly is dressed as a fairy and her friend Liana is dressed up as a little movie star. Both of them have additional outfits. Kelly comes with a wedding dress and Liana comes with a ballerina outfit.
I tried to find all of these Kelly sets to provide a good overview for other collectors or those who want to collect and don’t know what they have no matter where they found it.
I dream of Jeannie Barbie /Bezaubernde Jeannie Barbie
Do you know the TV series “I dream of Jeannie” from the 1960s? I wasn’t born in the 1960s but I loved to watch it in my school free days in the 1990s. In 2000 there was a ” I dream of Jeannie” Barbie doll as Collector doll. I liked the design and wanted to own her. Just because she’s a wonderful addition for any collection and due to the fact that I liked the series. I like all the details although I wonder where her golden shoes came from.
In the last years there was another “I dream of Jeannie” Barbie doll released with the Vintage face (The mold used for the first Barbie dolls until 1965) but I didn’t like her so much. I think mine is prettier.
Krissy, the Baby sister of Barbie #barbiefamily
Today I’d like to share with you another little treasure of my collection. It’s literally a little treasure because the set is very small. A small set for a small doll named Krissy. I don’t know exactly when she was released for the first time but I assume it must have been in 1999. She’s the youngst of all Barbie doll sisters and she was only produced for a short while. It may be that she is again in the current playline (the Barbie dolls that you can find in any toy shop). She’s very fragile. Her limbs are attached with strings. She’s really cute but hardly a doll to play with because of her fragility.
I have only this Krissy only play set with her. The other sets became very expensive in the meantime.
Eatin Fun Kelly/Fütter mich Shelly
I haven’t blogged about my Shelly/Kelly collection for several years. Today I’m going to change it. I really liked this little sister of Barbie from the beginning in 1994 or 1995 (she was not available in 1994 in Germany). She was so cute and I decided I had to have her. At the beginning there were only a few dolls. Back then I was not so much interested in playing with them but rather use them for a display. So I bought what I found. I think I was a little too old when this one was released but I found her later for only a few bucks. That’s the Eatin Fun Kelly. #kelly #shelly #barbieblog #barbietreasurechest #eatingfunkelly #barbielibrary
And the TV add looked like this…
Retromania !?
Today I saw a docu with the title “Retromania”. I admit I saw the title last Friday while watching youtube. It was interesting but I think that I’m probably not the only one who had the idea years ago. When I was still in school I thought about doing my own clothes because I had problems with mainstream fashion. There were trends I really hated and customized some of my own clothes long before. Once I sat in school and we discussed the whole topic. In my class were classmate who did not understand why I wanted to my own thing.
It all began with a preparation for a formal school graduation party. I wanted to wear a something like a Swing skirt but I had no idea of the name nor where you could buy one. Yes, there were times when these clothes were not so easy to get like today. We had no second hand clothes store where you could look. So my mom did her best to sew me a skirt. It was pretty fancy.
Maybe I have been more into Retromania than I ever thought before. I started to feel the way I started to collect Barbie and the feeling continues but nowadays it’s no problem to get the Vintage clothes. There are many stores where you can buy them. I have always been on the “I like to do what I like” way and not impress others. Why be so uniform? Why not be the Audrey Hepburn in heap of ….. ( I forgot her name).
Anyway I think others feel the way I feel too. Maybe we look for a bit stability in a world that changes constantly. I don’t know. Maybe that’s why I collect Barbie dolls. I can stay in touch with the past. Last weekend I did a copy of a great dress from the early 60s. I really like to copy early Barbie clothes. The quality of the fabrics is so good. The dresses are very detailed. You can easily understand how it is done. Maybe some of you understand me … and here’s a pic of my work.
Talking Barbie repair – repair or not !? #barbierepair
While writing this post I think of another collector who told that she wanted to repair a Talking Barbie doll (from 1967, the ones with the pull string in the back) but had no idea how to do it. She had no instruction, no parts for the repair itself and wanted every information for free. I gave her the advice not to repair the doll until she knows exactly what to do.
Later I got a message that she had opened the body but the parts were flying around.
This made me think. Maybe I’m overorganized but I study instructions how to repair things and order replacement parts before I do anything. Although the repair itself is not hard, the reassembly is a bit tricky. You have to test before you glue everything in, you need the right kind of glue. No, you can’t use every glue. You need to know about the material of the body. When I give this advice to anybody I know why I do it. You also need a bit of technical understanding and manual skills.
I have repaired several Talking Barbie dolls and I know what I’m talking about. Here’s the last one I repaired.
I heard from other collectors with no instruction that they didn’t manage it.
#barbietreasurechest #barbierepair #talkingbarbie #howtorepairbarbie
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.
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 .