I was very busy in the last weeks but now I take the time to show you some new ideas from my workshop. Here they come…
Merry Christmas!!
Merry Christmas to all my collector friends !!!
16 years of Barbie collecting
In these days I celebrate my 16th Barbie collecting anniversary. I begann to collect at the end of 1996. Now we have the year 2012.
Barbie in India
Let’s make a trip to India today. I would like to introduce you to our travel companion. She’s from India. LEO Company,the franchisee from Mattel in India, produced this doll in 1993 or 1994. When you have a look at the eyes you see that they are quite different from the Barbie dolls released in the western civilisation. Also very extraordinary is the ear jewellery. It’s made of metal with enamel. I have never seen this on any Barbie doll before. The ring is also made of metal. The pattern for the ring was also used for many other dolls released in the western civilisation but they were always made of plastic.
I hope you enjoy the pics. She’s my nr. 5 in Indian Barbie dolls. I wish they would be easier to be found.
A long search came to an end
After almost 21 years I finally found the name of a Barbie doll that I saw in a department store when I was six years old. The mysterious doll was nowhere listed in my books. It was strange. I only remembered that she had a lipstick in the box and there was the function to change the lip-colour of the doll. A month ago I found and bought her. Here she comes… Beauty Barbie
Finished Talking Repair
In the last days I was able to finish my first repair of a Talking body from the late 1960s . I admit it was easier than I expected at first. Here is the result.
Superstar #1
Recently I bought the doll that gave a whole era its name. This doll is the very first issue of the Superstar Barbie. She was produced in 1977. The pink dress she was sold in has the disadvantage that the body and the dress fusion after a while. So it is advising to move the dress occasionally. To tell you a positive aspect the fusion marks can be removed if the fusion process hasn’t progressed too far.
The doll you can see here is not complete. She lack the necklace, the pair of shoes and her pink boa.
A new idea – Help for Help
I don’t know how it is in the rest of the world but Germany well known auctioneers try get private Barbie collectors out of their company. They only want professional dealers and no private individuals anymore. That’s very sad. Several days ago I had an idea. Maybe this could be a solution. I had the idea to offer a platform where private Barbie collectors could meet. If collector A has a doll which misses several plugs and collector B is able to fix it, they could deal with each other. When collector A needs help she/he gets the help of another collector, a system that works almost without money.
Collector A could offer something collector B is looking for. The deal could also include serveral people. If collector A is searching someone to reroot serveral plugs and offers a dress collector c is looking for but collector b can help with the reroot and collector c would offer collector b a dress she is looking for, then they could also deal.
Of course this idea is not perfect. At least we would need a feedback system and we had to control who participates in the system since too many black sheeps destroy the market. And of course there should be a regulation that only real Barbie dolls and their belongings should be part of the deals. Clones would also destroy the market.
I’m still alive
Although there wasn’t much to report about I’m still alive. In the last weeks I waited for a tutorial which explains how to repair the old talking Barbie dolls from the late 1960s. I’m still waiting for several orders to arrive here. Hope they will arrive until Wednesday of the next week. Then I can start the adventure repairing a talking Barbie.
Vintage Skooter
This time I would like to show you my very first Vintage Barbie family member. Vintage is the era called from 1959 to 1966/1967. I recently was able to buy a blond haired Skooter. She is an early friend of Barbies little sister Skipper. My Skotter hat straight legs. You can’t bend her legs. That means she is an early doll and belongs to the Vintage era. Skooter dolls produced after 1965 has a pink skin tone (not as pale as my Skooter is) and they had bendable legs.
Furthermore I would like to tell that I bought her without clothes. The clothes Skooter is wearing are from the mid 1990s and were made for Skipper. Unfortunately I have no other clothes for her at the moment.
