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

I am Ken-in-Roller-Skates Years Old

This weekend a friend and I went through the clothes and the dolls that I played with as a kid (and she has an amazing memory on the clothes. This website is quite the resource if you're interested: BarbieWorld.it ). I had A LOT of Barbies and accessories. There was the Barbie pool, the piano, the three-story townhouse. I had an RV, an airplane, and a boat. And then there were the dolls themselves. Yes, I had lots of Barbies but there were also Skippers and Midges and Christies. But today, we have to talk about Ken. This is my first Ken Doll: Roller Skating Ken c.1980. The short tight shorts, the shiny purple jacket, the Addidas style roller skates. He's so retro, what's not to love? I can't pretend to remember why six-year old me needed a Ken doll at that point. I was never as gung-ho about the guys because for me Barbie was about Fashion shows and climbing mountains, and sleepovers. But there were definitely days Ken was part of their entourage. I didn't have Ro...

As Ready as I Can Be

Sunday is the Denver Doll & Toy Supershow . I reserved two tables in the fall. Since the holidays I have been pricing, sorting, organizing, researching, labeling, and generally getting my collection ready to sell. I learned how to use Canva to make a poster for the booth. I have a one-time sales tax license, a Clover for credit card sales, a QR code for Venmo, two printed inventories, and a slideshow of all the dolls I am bringing. Over the weekend my mom and my eldest turned my cross stitch patterns into kits to sell. If I'm not ready, it's not for lack of trying. In an ideal world, I will come home with empty boxes. In a more realistic world, I will come home tired, invigorated, having made new friends, and carrying a significantly reduced collection. Wish us (this is a joint endeavor. All hands on deck) luck!!

Barbies and Grandma

As a little girl, my Grandma was a constant presence in my life. She lived two hours up the road but spent most holidays and many summers with us. The summer I turned 12, she moved to town and lived in a retirement home up the street. She gave up driving, so there was lots of ferrying Grandma back and forth to our house. As a junior high kid, I would spend one Saturday a month at Grandma's playing board games, eating lunch, and talking at her for hours. She knew all of my friend drama and always asked after my friends even into college and later. Grandma had worked for the US Department of Defense, stationed in Germany, and she bought me many of my first Barbie toys. I had the 1974 Barbie Dreamhouse - complete with working elevator. I had the 1972 Barbie Friend Ship - complete with flight attendant cart and Ken's pilot's costume. But as much as I associate Grandma with my Barbie toys as a girl, this blog is really about a different side. Grandma liked her sweets and whenev...

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