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Play Line Snobbery

9/23/2015

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LA Girl Barbie Fashionistas dollLA Girl Fashionistas™ Barbie® doll. Notice that this prototype in the photo has yellow-green shoes instead of black, and some blue hair along with the pink. She also wears 3/4 sleeves instead of a sleeveless top.
An exchange I recently found on the Barbie forums went something like this:
Member A: Can someone tell me where to find the highly collectible recent wave of 2015 Fashionistas™ dolls?
Member B: Highly collectible play line dolls? You mean the ones they make millions of? Check WalMart. They're all bound to be there for $7.99 *hair flip* *rolls eyes* *pats self on back for throwing shade at play line collector*
It seems that some collectors have forgotten that there was a time when Barbie® dolls made for adult collectors were not a thing, and Barbie® dolls were all "play line". Let's be real. Barbie® started out as a toy marketed towards young girls, and for better or for worse, the brand is continuously evolving.  
The new dolls lining shelves at Target, Walmart, or Toys R Us may not be to everyone's liking, particularly some whose tastes have moved away from colors so bright that they could induce seizures. However, that doesn't make your Platinum Label™ Karl Lagerfeld™ Barbie® more collectible than, say, the new LA Girl Fashionistas™ Barbie® doll. Karl is rarer, and some might say made to a "higher standard", but to a true collector that shouldn't matter. Yes, in some ways, dolls made for adults can be considered objectively "better" than dolls made for kids--the fabrics are more expensive, the closures are not made of velcro (mostly), the designs are more sophisticated, and so on. However, those things don't make a doll more collectible, they just make it more expensive and geared towards a "mature" crowd. I had to use quotation marks around the word mature because of all the tantrums I witnessed over the recent Platinum tokidoki Barbie®, but generally we're talking about an older audience.
The best piece of collecting advice I have ever heard, and still read on the forums from time to time, is to collect what you like. Don't buy dolls hoping they'll appreciate in value over time (some do, most don't). Don't buy dolls just because they're rare and coveted. Don't buy dolls to impress your collector friends. Buy dolls that make you happy. I mostly buy Barbie Collector dolls because those are the dolls that I enjoy, but every now and then, a play line doll, fashion or accessory catches my eye, and I don't hesitate to add it to my collection. I collect what I want. You should, too!
 

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The Longest Hair Ever!

9/16/2015

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Jewel Hair Mermaid Barbie®
There's a common story heard from adult male doll collectors like myself. It's about the doll that got away. As a young boy, I had to admire Barbie doll from a safe distance because of social norms that dictated what kind of toys were appropriate for a boy. Barbie was considered inappropriate, of course. I only got to play with Barbie when I was at a friend's house, or when my younger cousin wasn't playing with hers. 
During that time, I was also going through a huge mermaid phase. I was so into mermaids; from Disney's Ariel to the darker mermaids of lore. Many of my drawings and sketches had mermaids as a subject, from when I was about 6 years old until I was 10 or so. So when Jewel Hair Mermaid Barbie was released in 1995--I was 10 years old--this doll was the fulfillment of my childhood fantasies. I was captivated. She was a mermaid who could become human when you removed her "tail", and she had "the longest hair ever"! It even said so on the box. Every time I saw the commercial on TV, I pined for her.


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Carlyle Appreciation Day

9/11/2015

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There’s a (relatively) new Barbie® designer making jaws drop with his creations. His name is Carlyle Nuera. Okay, he’s not exactly a newbie. He had been envisioning and creating Barbie® dolls for the “play line” before joining the Barbie Collector team last year. He debuted with his first collector doll by bringing back the hardly-ever-used Kira face mold with Mutya™ Barbie® doll of the Global Glamor™ Collection. This is one of the most well-thought-out and authentic representations of a Filipina in national dress (or a dress inspired by traditional designs) since the Patis Tesoro dolls of the ‘90s, which were made for the Philippine market and sold in high end department stores there. 

Having Philippine roots must have helped, but beyond that, Carlyle seems attuned to what many collectors look for in dolls: unique details. Take, for instance, the Spanish abanico or folding hand fan that Mutya™ is clutching. He also has a fresh interpretation of the butterfly sleeves popularized by Imelda Marcos, the Philippines' own Evita clone. Whatever your politics may be, I suppose, the cuteness of the butterfly sleeve cannot be denied as it's still used in Philippine formal dress today.
Picture
Carlyle Nuera, Mattel designer

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tokidoki™ Barbie® Black Label® doll

9/7/2015

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tokidoki Barbietokidoki Barbie doll Black Label in the box
My Black Label tokidoki Barbie doll arrived this past Thursday. I pre-ordered this doll from Doll Genie, a trusted dealer, so I knew that I would have my consolation prize even if I didn't find a Purple-haired Platinum Label tokidoki Barbie doll in the much-maligned "treasure hunt" staged by Barbie Collector on September 1st. I haven't given up on miss purple hair, but this pink-haired twin sure is a great consolation.

I got into collecting Barbie dolls because of the original tokidoki™ Barbie® from 2011. There was a news segment on TV about this tattooed Barbie doll that was commanding something in the range of $500 on eBay. The suggested retail price was $50, I believe. I found the doll very attractive, but I could not bring myself to spend that kind of money on a Barbie doll, so I wound up starting my collection with a Barbie Basics 2.0 Ken doll. Years later, I found myself still yearning for tokidoki Barbie, and I was able to get her on the secondary market for a more reasonable amount. That's what happens when a doll is no longer the "doll of the moment".

I finally found the time to de-box Black Label tokidoki Barbie earlier today, and I snapped some photos.


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    About the Webmaster

    My name is Jared.  I began collecting dolls in 2011.  It all started with Barbie® Basics Model No 16 Collection 002 for me. Soon after that, I started photographing my dolls, editing the images and sharing my work on my Tumblr photoblog, Life in Plastic. "Playing" with dolls has inspired me to learn to sew, paint with acrylics, re-root doll hair, practice my bead craft, among other things...My collecting hobby turned into a passion for creating art in different media!

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