Barbie Superstar Archives - Page 2 of 5

November 8, 2018November 8, 2018

The unbelievable flexibility of Raquelle

I know I’m a bit late with my blog post this week but I had so much to do … no time to write earlier. Nevertheless I have a new topic for you. I got my very first modern Raquelle last week. I think she’s the Dream house Raquelle. I don’t know it exactly. Although I’m not a collector of modern Barbie playline dolls I must say I like her. She’s nice. I admit I played around with her a bit. She helps me to generate new ideas for my blog and for my videos.

Her hips are wider than the hips of most Barbies I own. So she hasn’t very much clothes to wear now. I put her in one of my handmade dresses, a copy of the MODERN Sunflower dress where you can adjust the opening. She’s looking good, isn’t she?

IMG 5214 e1541679970768 — Oh, I’m so small.

October 10, 2018October 10, 2018

Why Chelsie is sexy

I never thought about the name in detail but several days ago I got a Chelsie doll that I wanted for a long time. But there is an oddity because there’s another Barbie family member with the same name but she’s a little bit older although she’s still very young. Maybe this was planned, maybe it wasn’t but for sure there are two dolls with the same name. The first Chelsie doll was a friend of Shelly and I think she was available in 1996. I have her in my collection ever since.

The second one with the same name is part of the Generation Girls series from the Millennium. Chelsie is here a grown up character and a friend of Barbie. Maybe she’s a student. I’m not 100% sure what this group is representing. Anyway, have a look yourself.

Little friend of Kelly /Shelly — Chelsie, little friend of Kelly/ Shelly

Barbie Generation Beat — Generation Girl Chelsie

By the way, she was a Toys ‘r’ us exclusive … if anyone remembers this toy chain that is now gone. I like her. She’s cute somehow and I’ve been searching for her for several years.

August 15, 2018

The only Magic Moves Barbie from Congost resource you will ever need…

I admit in the last months I found lots of Congost Barbie dolls from Spain. I have no idea why but I buy the dolls when they become available somewhere. My latest find is a Spanish version of the Magic Moves Barbie. I have no idea what her name is. I bought her as Spanish Magic Moves version. She is indeed different from the US version. It seems that the boxed dolls from Spain are extremely hard to find so I bought mine without any box. She still has 95% of her hair (which is quite good for a Barbie doll from Spain). She also has her complete make up. This time no problems with repaints. The only thing she’s missing is her original outfit. At the moment she’s wearing a mini dress. I’m not sure to which Barbie doll the dress belongs.

MagicMovesCongost

Magic Moves Barbie Spanish version

The mechanism does not work anymore but I don’t care very much about it.

August 8, 2018

You haven’t seen this Barbie Venezuela trio anywhere before

Last week I got a parcel from Spain with an unusual content. I got my first Barbie dolls from Venezuela. I saw them recently and bought them immediately. What’s so special about Barbie from Venezuela? Well, they are hard to find in Europe. They were produced by Rotoplast in Venezuela similar like the one from Basa I wrote about last week. I learned that the hair quality is quite good. It seems that the make up on the cheeks was normal make up for humans. It obviously happens often that the make up from the cheeks is gone first. I think that’s interesting to know.

With a little help of a collector from South America I was able to identify all three.

Peach n Cream South America version Barbie

Peach n Cream version venezuela

Melocotón Barbie

The first one with the hair cut is called Melocotón Barbie doll. She’s from 1986 and the Peach n Cream version from Venezuela.

Barbie para Vestir Venezuela

Barbie para vestir Venezuela

Barbie para vestir

Barbie para vestir Venezuela

The second one is called Barbie para Vestir what means “Barbie to dress” in English. She was the hardest one of the 3 to identify. She’s from 1992. I was also told that she has a fabrication error ( the strange thing you can see on her neck).

Aqua Marina Barbie Venezuela

Auqa Marina Barbie Venezuela

Aqua Marina Barbie Venezuela

The last one is called Aqua Marina Barbie and was released in 1990.

August 1, 2018

What would the world be like if Workout Barbie by Basa (Peru) didn’t exist?

I wasn’t able to find out much about a Peruvian company called Basa but they produced Barbie dolls from 1980 til 1991 under license for Mattel. I recently found a Workout Barbie doll from Peru and that’s why I’m writing about it right now. The skin tone is much more orange than usual. She reminds me of Royal Barbie from her skin tone.The smell is also different from normal Barbie dolls. I don’t really know how to describe it but it’s different.

Here she comes…

Barbie from Peru

Barbie Peru

As you can see she has the marking on her butt and not on her back. And you can see the name Peru written in big letters so that you can’t oversee it. I was surprised to see it on her butt. At first I searched on her back.

I was also able to find the commercial. If you know more about the company, please let me know. The only article I was able to find is this one here http://barbievenezuela.blogspot.com/search/label/Historia%20de%20Barbie%20en%20Latinoamerica but there is not very much information given.

July 11, 2018July 11, 2018

The only 7 Barbie resources you will ever need

When you’re looking for suitable books I can recommend you these books:

The Collectible Barbie Doll: An Illustrated Guide to Her Dreamy World, by Janine Fennick (1996)
Barbie Doll Around the World 1964-2007: Identification & Values by Michael Augustyniak (2007)
The Ultimate Barbie Doll Book by Marcie Mellilo (1996)
Barbie Fashion Vol. I – III by Sarah Sink Eames (1990)
Skipper Barbie doll’s little sister, second edition by Cottingham, Arend and Hemingway (2011)
The story of Barbie by Kitturah Westenhouser (1994)

It’s All About the Accessories for the World?s Most Fashionable Dolls 1959-1972 by Hillary Shilkitus James (2017)

And when you’re looking online for information:

e-book: Barbie® Talks!: An Unauthorized Exposé of the First Talking Barbie® Doll: An Expose’ of the First Talking Barbie Doll. The Humorous and Poignant Adventures of Two Former Mattel Toy Designers (2001)
https://barbieinthehouse.com/2017 (for Vintage and MOD Barbie dolls)
http://papusilemele.com/en/ (when you search for information about the latest Barbie collector dolls)
http://www.sewingandpattern.com/all-barbie-patterns/ ( Source for free patterns)
https://plus.google.com/photos/115834299775567346266/albums/5279686365593771025 ( free sewing patterns)
https://www.dollreference.com/barbie_vintage_fashions1959-1963.html ( Page for Vintage Barbie dolls and clothes)
http://www.fashionave.info/ (Page with all Fashion Avenue fashions from 1990s – 2000s)

July 4, 2018

Learn all about Spanish Barbie dolls from this blog

Have you ever heard from a company named Congost? Me neither until I found a very interesting book written by Michael Augustyniak. In the meantime he died but I still have the book and think it is a good source to get an overview what the global Barbie doll market has to offer. Recently I found several Spanish Barbie dolls made for the Spanish market ( not for the rest of Europe). Of course a collector wants to own what they can’t own. That’s the desire of collecting ( I think). Anyway, since I speak Spanish it’s no problem to look around. I did so and found some nice dolls in a short while.

What I found out in the meantime is that Congost got a license to produce Barbie dolls for the Spanish market in the late 1970s. Obviously they produced until the early 1990s. In the mid 1990s they can’t be found anymore. I assume that the capacity for production grew big enough in China in these years. It seems that there is/ was a problem with the quality. I saw some dolls with deformed arms and legs and missing hair. Barbie dolls in good condition from Congost seem to be hard to find. Why? No idea, I still investigate the problem.

Here’s a short video that shows some Congost Barbie dolls.I’m not sure if all are shown or not.

Here are some pics from my Congost Barbie dolls.
DaytoNightBarbieUSSpan

The skin tone is sometime a bit strange and the make up seems to disappear more often than from US version Barbie dolls. Here you can see what I mean in pics.

IMG 4916 e1530640698756

IMG 4917 e1530640725671

IMG 4918 e1530640738414

June 16, 2018

13 insane (but true) things about Barbies from 1966

As a collector you often learn this:

a person without any knowledge about Barbie dolls offer you a Barbie from 1966
inside your brain ( as a collector) “Great, another fool” pops up
Why?
Well, the 1966 mark on the back does not describe anything but the year of the patenting
The patent was used for more than 40 years and
there are very much Barbie dolls with the 1966 on their butt or back
how can you see if it’s really an old doll or just one from the year 2000 or later?
Early Barbie dolls have the mark on their butt

Later ones from the 1970s until 2000 have them on their lower back
Another important hint is the form of the face
Early dolls have this face(this one is from 1964)
the dolls have painted fingernails and toenails (sometimes the colour has changed to a light peachy tone)
the colour has changed like the one you see in the pic with my 1964 Barbie
the you can twist and turn the waist but early ones are at an angle (I’m going to show this in a later article)
they have real eyelashes

May 19, 2018June 8, 2018

If you read one article about the Barbie cleaning process read this one

Today I cleaned a new Barbie doll in my collection. She’s from the 1980s and she’s from Spain ( made by Congost). I know it’s hard to find any information about Congost but they produced Barbie dolls under license in the late 1970s, 1980s and 1990s for Mattel. I don’t know how many they produced but they must have produced a lot. I have heard that the quality is not the best one but anyway I like them.

This one arrived here only hours ago and since it’s Saturday I had time to clean her immediately. I can’t repeat myself often enough to tell you how easy it is to clean an old Barbie doll. I think I removed the dust and dirt from decades. You just need rubbing alc. and some Q-Tips. You dip the Q-Tips in the alc. and remove the dirt. Some collectors may say that it is dangerous because of the knee joints but I never had any problems with rubbing alcohol. You can literally see the dirt on the left leg. The right one is already cleaned.

Barbie Spanish version of Crystal Barbie

After the procedure I had a lot of dirty Q-Tips.

IMG 4696 e1526739899572

May 12, 2018June 8, 2018

6 ways Jewel Hair Mermaid is cooler than Michael Jordan

It lasted a long time until I was able to find a Jewel Hair Mermaid that was not soooooooooooooooo expensive like all the others. For many years I had 3 Jewel Hair Barbie dolls but the fourth was missing. Then I got one in a lot but her hair was not perfect. The problem with these dolls is the hair. You have almost immediately tangles in their hair. She is definitively the Barbie with the longst hair ever made but the problem was to keep the hair in good condition. As a child this was a real nightmare. Tangles, tangles, tangles. I sold my version of the Jewel Hair Mermaid in 1997. I found the Afro-American version along my road as collector more than 10 years ago for real good price and the Midge in blue too. Teresa followed in 2011 0r 2012.

Märchenhaar Barbie

3 European Jewel Hair Mermaid Barbie and 1 African-American Jewel Hair Mermaid Barbie

So why is she in my opinion cooler than Micheal Jordan?

I don’t know Michael Jordan in person
I have never owned any Michael Jordan dolls as a child
I’m not a fan of basket ball players
Michael Jordan has short hair
There is no movie about her
She’s cheaper than any Michael Jordan TV appearance