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Collecting Barbie dolls … a question of the value?

I have heard many of my fellows collectors talking about this topic. To be honest it’s no easy to answer the question. Is it a good store of value? Is it a bad store of value? Should we consider it as store of value?

In my opinion we shouldn’t consider it as store of value. I collect Barbie dolls because I like the option to have a possibility to have fashions from the most different decades in one room. I don’t collect because of the monetary value. It’s the most important reason to have fun with your collection.

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Fashion from the 1980s – Haute Couture post 1

Today I have only a pic for you. I thought it might be a good idea to show you some of the 1980s fashions because the documentation is very poor and you have to search for hours. So here’s the start of a new series. This outfit is called #9150. I don’t know which of the two bags originally belongs to the outfit but I assume it’s the one between the outfit. I got it with the two you can see.

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Totally/Ultra Hair Barbie turns 25

Recently we learned that this year there will be a Repro Totally Hair available because the Totally Hair Barbie celebrates her 25 anniversary. Unbelievable but true. I take this opportunity to post some personal thoughts since I like the Totally hair Barbie, the one that was named Ultra Hair in Europe and Canada. After watching the commercial in TV back then and reading about her in the Barbie Journal, a booklet that was similar to a catalogue, and available at an Barbie shop I wanted her, wanted her, wanted her. From a point of view as a grown up not really understandable but the commercial was made for children.  She was made for children with a colorful taste and she was not the only Barbie we had. By the way, here’s the link to the commercial https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dPoMmtvXW0&list=PLHgw1rWxs_lmc0VACw0cGu8Rremm-KWix 

Anyway, she was in my childhood the doll that came with a delay. After her release in Europe a dealer in my hometown made a special offer. I think it was back then 30DM/15€ (German marks, long gone now) and I wanted her as soon as I saw her in the ad. Later the day we tried to buy her but she was sold out. The demand was so high we had to wait two weeks until I got her. An incredible long time for a child in 1992.

Many years later I sold almost all my playline Barbie dolls when I became a Teenager and I sold her because her hair was not so beautiful anymore although I never really played with her but in my early 20s I bought another Nrfb version of the doll to be sure that the hair stays in perfect condition. So that’s my personal story about my Totally Hair Barbie doll.

Here’s a pic.

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How to store old Barbie dolls

In the last weeks some researchers did some research in behalf of the Toy Museum in Nuremberg how to store old Barbie dolls the best way. The researchers found out that it is the best to store the old dolls in a  cool, dry and dark environment. Here’s the link to the German article http://www.deutschlandradiokultur.de/spielzeugmuseum-in-nuernberg-barbie-forever-young.1008.de.html?dram:article_id=379793 .

I don’t know if this was published in English speaking countries too. If it’s not you can use google translator for reading it.

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Birthday Barbie – but it’s not my birthday today

Well I haven’t bought much stuff in the last weeks but yesterday arrived a new Barbie doll. And I have new pics for you. She  is the Birthday Barbie from 1996. I learned that she was also sold in Europe. I thought she was a USA only doll. This was a big surprise to me. And finally a new doll from the 1990s. Yay!

Anyway, here are some pics. I hope you like them.

Birthday Barbie 1996

Birthday Barbie 1996

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Time for Benetton!

I’m sorry for neglecting my blog but I hardly bought anything in the last months. Nevertheless I have two new girls that I want to show you. They are Benetton Barbie and Benetton Marina (no idea why a girl with Asian background is called Marina). Anyway I saw them when I was a child and suddenly I had the wish to have them in my collection. I found them accidentally within a short period of time. I like the bright colours of their clothes. So 90s like but also very cool and they remind me of my own childhood. I think they were available in Europe/Canada only in 1990/1991.

Benetton Marina

Benetton Marina (complete)

Benetton Barbie

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Another repaired Talking Barbie

I recently found the time to finish another repair. I think I got her two years ago but somehow I forgot that I had prepaired everything last summer. I only needed legs and I found them two months ago. So here she is… a nape curl Talking Barbie repaired to speak. This was my first repaired Talking Barbie doll. I already have repaired a Talking PJ and a Talking Truly.

IMG_3444

IMG_3445

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My finished Ooak project

Today I finished my Ooak project. In March I got a Kira/Marina head with a haircut. Somehow she was cute and I decided to restore her. The first step was to remove the hair and give her new hair. I decided for black and pink because I wanted to do a reroot in two colours. I wanted to do a very elegant hair style for her long hair and decided to do the “Arwen”-hairstyle with 9 strands that was not shown in LOTR(Lord of the Rings).  Then she needed a new body. Her body was broken. During her hairstyling I was looking for a new body and by the end of May I finally found one. When she had a new body I was able to restyle her bangs. You need a body when you want a short pony.

When her hairstyle was finally finished I started to repaint the eyebrows. 50% of the colour was gone. So I repainted the brows and had to wait several weeks for stains that appeared in the repainting process. I used a cream to bleach them. They were gone last Thursday.

Yesterday I started the final styling of her bangs and finished it today. Then she got her jewelry, earrings and a ring.

I wanted to make her look like a mixture from 80s and 90s so that she reminded me of my childhood with the giant bangs. Now she’s ready for her great entrance.

two tone Kira head

Close up from the head

My latest piece of art

The hairstyle

The bangs

The ensemble

And this is a pic of the head before I started to work.

The head before ... cut hair and 50% of the eyebrows are missing

The right head also got new hair in the meantime but this will be another Ooak project. I’m still looking for a new body. I’m going to show you more in my next post.