After seeing the “Barbie” movie, I was inspired to look at some of the original dolls that brought this pop culture icon to fame. While the original 1959 doll is out of my financial ballpark, some of the later replicas are much closer! The 35th Anniversary Barbie, released in 1994, is shown here in all its pristine boxed glory. As you can see the hairdo is a bit different when compared with the original release (pictured on the back of the box below). I prefer the 1994 version, which is more flattering on the 12" doll.
When I unboxed her, I noticed that the 30-year-old rubber bands that held her classic ponytails in place had all disintegrated. Before I could photograph the de-boxed Barbie, I had to fix her hairdo. My dental bands were too small, so for a temporary fix, I used gold thread and wrapped/tied it around the base of the ponytail.
Photographing Barbie reminded me while I focus on the 16" gals vs. the 12" ones. First, Barbie cannot stand on her own. Without a stand, she will fall over. I’m not sure how much harder it would have been to design the feet/shoes to be able to stand on their own, but for photographs, it’s a pain in the a$$. For the shot below, I had to use Photoshop to remove the stand and place Barbie on the beach of Santa Monica. I also took the liberty of removing her seams.
Here is Barbie with Malibu behind her.
Barbie Land from the movie is the background here:
The sunglasses look great on Barbie, but they are EXTREMELY tight. Getting them properly placed on her face was quite a process, and caused her hair to unravel. “But Dave,” you say, “her hair looks good here!” Of course it does; I spent a lot of time digitally cleaning it up!
On the plus side: I love the retro face and classic styling of this replica Barbie. The sculpt of the contemporary Barbies is just too bland for my taste. For a cool retro toy to fill up your display cabinet, Barbie is great.
On the con side: For playtime, dressing/redressing, and posing…this is a very frustrating doll. Since this is a mass-market doll, the tailoring (and clothing quality) for Barbie outfits at this size is not all that great. I can easily understand where “Weird Barbie” came from. The hair and clothing can easily become ratty. When it comes to posing, this Barbie is extremely limited; the elbows, wrists, and knees do not bend; the head spins around, but it doesn’t tilt up and down. For little tots who want to play with Barbie, these are probably non-issues. A toy that retails for approximately $15-25 can only be expected to do so much!
See more doll/action figure photos at my website.
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