Happy New Year Barbie

Happy New Year! My goal this year is to finish inventorying and photographing all of the Barbies in my collection. And I have reserved a table at the Denver Doll & Toy Show in March to sell most of my dolls. Going through the boxes of the less common dolls I come across some that are worth highlighting. These two are perfect given the time of year:

At the height of the collectible Barbie craze in the mid-1990s Mattel released some of the more unique and distinct Barbies to date. Not all of them have aged well and some of them have very strong 90s vibes. But the Happy New Year's/Oshogatsu dolls are cute and fun and a shift from so many of the high fashion western designer dolls.

I'm not going to pretend to have a nuanced opinion on cultural appropriation and simplification by an American company that many of the Dolls of the World fall into (there are individuals and websites that have taken that debate on in a worthwhile, meaningful way). I recognize that kimono have a deep cultural meaning and suggesting they are just pretty fashion undermines Japanese culture. Nonetheless, I think these dolls are beautiful and a noteworthy shift in collectible doll design pre-2000. The packaging and description alongside the attention to detail set them apart from many dolls of the era.

In 2008 Mattel released an updated Happy New Year doll and there was a greater attempt to add less-Westernized features on the dolls. The 1994/1995 dolls are "Barbie in costume".

I got these dolls when I was in college and I remember spending a lot of time oohing and aahing over them. If nothing else, I was always excited to get a Barbie who wasn't blonde!

Comments

Time to Let Go

I got my first Barbie doll when I was two and half. I asked Mrs. Claus for a "Boobie doll" for Christmas and never looked back. By the time I was in late high school I had accumulated more than 150 dolls of all stripes. Through the years my family was happy to support my doll love and bought me the 1970s Barbie Townhouse, the Barbie airplane, a Barbie McDonald's... You name it, I had it. During high school and college my mom and I became diehard Barbie collectible fans. I got the first Mackies when they came out and began to collect the limited edition dolls in earnest. A family friend who was cleaning out her parents' house found her 1960-61 dolls and gave me the chance to add them to my collection. That led me down the rabbit hole of vintage dolls and outfits. When I went to college my mom continued to grow my collection and we would scope out rare dolls at doll shows across the state. After college I worked for a short time at a local historical society and got th...

Barbie goes to France

When I was around 8 years old we went on a family vacation to visit relatives in Minneapolis. While we were there, we visited the largest department store I had ever been to up to that point. It had a full toy department which was a candy store to my doll-loving eyes. It was the first time I had ever seen limited edition Barbie dolls and Parisian Barbie captured my imagination. I was smitten!! But as much as I begged and gave puppy-dog eyes to my parents, I didn't get Parisian Barbie that day. I bought the doll pictured below on the secondary market a dozen years later (and yes, I paid siginficantly more money that it originally sold for) But I love this doll and would be hard pressed to sell it. Over the years, Mattel released more French and Parisian Barbies including these two: Released ten years apart, the second edition Parisian Barbie is an obvious recreation of the 1980 doll. The French doll came seven years later in 1997. These two versions never held the same fascination f...

Barbie @ the Design Museum in London

In December I had the chance to visit the Design Museum in London for their Barbie Exhibit. I had purchased tickets nine months earlier when I knew I was going to be in the city for the holidays. I took a boomer and a tween (Grandma and granddaughter) with me to see the show. Both are deeply lovely individuals, but neither are big on Barbies. Grandma had just missed the Barbie trend as a girl and granddaughter is firmly in the Harry Potter world. Seeing the exhibit through their eyes, and answering their questions, gave me a better insight into the day than if I'd attended with die-hard Barbie lovers. First, the exhibit is beautiful! No wonder, considering it was put on by the Design Museum. The layout, the colors, and the flow of the space were gorgeous. The rich, vibrant tones that back up every room allowed the artifacts on display to sing, without feeling overwhelmed by an onslaught of Barbie pink. The ability to focus on specific individual dolls while still telling a collec...

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