Happy Halloween!!! It's time to revisit one of my favorite Barbie collections of all time--the Haunted Beauty Collection! Bill Greening did such an amazing job with these dolls.

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.

I attended "Everyday's a Holiday with Barbie®", the 2014 National Barbie Doll Collectors Convention in Nashville, Tennessee a few weeks ago.  The convention officially ran from July 23-26, but I was told that some of the best convention activities are unofficial--room sales, parties hosted by doll artists, etcetera, so my husband and I checked in at the Renaissance Hotel in downtown Nashville on the 21st to take advantage of everything this gathering of Barbie aficionados has to offer.  I am so glad that we did because my favorite convention activity turned out to be room shopping!  There's something especially thrilling about hunting for Barbie dolls, accessories, fashions and diorama pieces on several hotel floors where sellers leave their rooms open for conventioneers to enter and browse their staggering displays of merchandise.  I was not expecting the scale at which this took place. 

Anyway, there were so many wonderful sights, sounds and people throughout the convention week that just the thought of writing about the entire experience is exhausting. Instead of writing a novella, I'll simply share a little photo gallery with some captions.

The "Red, White, Blue and Pink" fashion show where participants modeled human scale Barbie® fashions from every era was a big hit and deserves its own photo gallery:

Lastly, I want to give a shoutout to our table hostess, Julia Bush, and our tablemates Elizabeth, Allison, Barb, Lisa, Debbie, Kim and Kathleen. Thank you for making this convention so fun!  I hope to see everyone again at the 2015 convention in Arlington, Virginia. 

xoxo
J

The latest installment of Bill Greening's The Barbie Look™ series was released just a few days ago (available for pre-order at BarbieCollector.com).  In Mr. Greening's Barbie Fan Club exclusive designer interview this past September, he hinted that the 2014 Barbie Look™ dolls would have a glamorous theme.  

I like these dolls, but the overall series doesn't have the same cohesiveness as the Barbie Basics line.  We've already seen a party dress and a red carpet gown in this series, so these new iterations feel a bit redundant.  Furthermore, the Mackie face sculpt makes a second appearance in the series, and there are two dolls in this installment that use the Aphrodite sculpt, which has some collectors wondering why The Barbie Look™ doesn't have the same diversity in face sculpts as the Basics line.

My personal favorites from this set are Blue Jumpsuit and Gold Gown.  Blue Jumpsuit reminds me of the Versus Barbie® doll from circa 2004, and Gold Gown is a lovely new look for the Goddess face sculpt.  I'm looking forward to doing a full review of these dolls when I get my hands on them next year!

Confession: I have always had a thing for vampires.  

When I was eleven years old, I watched and re-watched Interview with the Vampire--the film adaptation of the Anne Rice novel--a few dozen times. I subsequently borrowed copies of Ms. Rice's Vampire Chronicles and devoured those books about the glamorous, bloodthirsty immortal beings that are now a staple of horror and pop culture. Buffy, Twilight, and Vampire Diaries, anyone? 

Fast forward nearly two decades later, and I am now an avid watcher of the HBO series True Blood.  Perhaps I'll pick up the Charlaine Harris books, too.  I am no longer obsessed with vampires, but they still hold some fascination. This may explain why I was drawn to Haunted Beauty Vampire™ Barbie® doll even though my collection is not focused on fantasy dolls. In fact, I opted not to purchase last year's Ghost™ Barbie®--the first doll in the Haunted Beauty series by designer Bill Greening.