by Viktor Zavadsky

​Many years later, when I moved into my first apartment in Baltimore, in 1973, I brought along my sister's neglected ash-blonde, bubble-cut Barbie doll, and along with an eclectic assortment of other artifacts, I mounted it on the wall as an "objet d'art". One day, when my sister came to visit, she was livid that I had absconded with her doll, and she snatched it off the wall when she left. That was the last that I ever saw of it. I have no idea whether or not she still has it. Although she had been happy enough to share her dolls with me when we were children, she certainly had no intention of letting keep one of them when I was eighteen, and I must admit, I did not blame her.
 
By 1979, I was living in Los Angeles, and one night, cruising in Boystown along Santa Monica Boulevard, I noticed a handful of Barbie dolls attired in glamorous gowns displayed in the window of an apartment building. It was magical and I was enchanted. I knew right away that I had to have my own Barbie doll immediately. 
 
So the following day, I went out to buy one. I do not recall where I went in my search; perhaps a toy store or maybe Woolworth's. However, I do remember how horrified I was to behold what a hideous transformation had befallen my cherished childhood Barbie doll. The dolls that I had seen in the apartment house windows in Hollywood were the same ponytails, bubble-cuts, and T&T mods with which I was familiar. I had no idea that Mattel no longer manufactured these dolls, and that the Barbie doll had been modified beyond recognition. The glamour was gone! What was now called a "Barbie doll" was an orange-colored thing with a huge rib cage and arms that were permanently bent at the elbows. Most alarming was the grinning, grimacing, maniacal child's face with enormous, deranged eyes. Years later, I would learn that this ickety face was called, by Mattel, the "superstar" face. I was appalled. Throughout the 1980's, Mattel continued to make ugly blonde Barbie dolls with too much hair. But by the end of the decade, quite by chance, I spotted a winsome black Barbie doll named "Dee Dee". This charming doll became my first as an adult collector.

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!
 

Six months ago, I promised an update on my Barbie® den upon completing my vision for it.  Of course, any collector would know that one's collection is never quite complete.  I constantly change my displays as new dolls come in, and the occasional doll is sent to a new home.  When I wrote the post, I had a total of two sparsely populated glass cabinets in the den. Most of my dolls were stored in a large built-in closet.

I reached a turning point in my collecting habits a few weeks after posting that blog entry.  I decided that it was not worth having all these dolls unless I could display most of them.  I didn't want them to sit in their respective boxes in a closet, only to be admired when I pull them out for a photo session, so I talked my spouse into allowing me to purchase three additional display cabinets.  It took weeks to pull all the dolls out of their boxes, dress them, and arrange them in the cabinets.

I also hung up some framed Barbie® sketches to give the space a very Barbie®-centric ambience. I left a smattering of Barbie® books on the coffee table and arranged some little dioramas all over the room. Lastly, I got an inexpensive dresser to organize my doll fashions, accessories, beadwork materials, and other doll accoutrements. I can't tolerate a cluttered doll room.

I go through periods of time when I don't seem to have any energy or enthusiasm for dolls, but seeing my collection on display always makes me happy. :)

How do you store and display your dolls?

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

I haven't posted a blog entry in over a month.  That's because I've spent almost every waking moment (when I'm not working) hauling my things to the newly renovated home that I now share with my partner.

We carried in a lot of furniture, household items, clothes and other personal effects.  I also had to transport my Barbie collection.  It's a modest collection by the standards of some long term collectors I've encountered online--some have amassed hundreds of dolls.  My latest official count is 132 dolls with their original boxes and about 20 loose dolls (no boxes).  I also have a lot of doll accoutrements--fashion, 1:6 scale furniture, and accessories.  Packing, transporting, and unpacking these is no easy task!

Clandestine affair

I've loved Barbie since childhood.  I remember surreptitiously grabbing my cousin's Barbie from her toy shelf and brushing those beautifully coiffed blonde curls, admiring the glittery little outfits and the high heeled shoes that magically stayed on those permanently arched feet. Even as a child, I was aware that most people would scoff at me for playing with a doll--Barbie was my dirty little secret. Over two decades after my earliest encounters with the 11.5-inch vinyl fashion icon, I came across the teaser trailer for Barbie Boy, a short film written and directed by Nick Corporon. Memories of my clandestine childhood affair with Barbie came rushing back. I knew that the story would resonate with me and my male Barbie-collecting contemporaries, so I watched it. 

Imposing Gender Roles

The film follows Bobby (Trent Carlton), an imaginative 7-year old boy who begins to re-evaluate his relationship with Barbie and Ken after his father (William Kidd) expresses concern about how Bobby's peers might react to his playthings. While most parents would have been more forceful in imposing gender roles on toys, Bobby's dad simply discouraged him from sharing his love of Barbie with his friends. Mom (Lauren Dobbins Webb) is quite the enabler--even partaking in the role-playing games involving the dolls.


Conformity and Repression

"Then He Kissed Me," the Phil Spector-produced song that plays during the opening credits is a mood lifting gem, beginning an otherwise serious film with a touch of levity. Barbie Boy's central theme is conformity.  Must parents and society at large impose gender roles on children by guiding them towards the "appropriate" toys and games?  Is it really okay to let boys play with dolls and other toys intended for girls?  Do these little plastic things shape the character of a young person, and if so, to what extent? 

The 13-and-a-half-minute short raises more questions than it answers.  Still, given the constraints of the format, it does its job of giving us something to ponder. The film has some very poignant and beautifully shot scenes, mostly of Bobby's home life. It would be easy to write a lot of expository dialogue on the subject of boys and dolls, but Mr. Corporon deftly chose to create silent moments brimming with thought and emotion.  There were quite a few tight shots of Bobby's cherubic visage that captured his internal conflict.  Trent Carlton, the young actor who portrays Bobby gave a very satisfactory performance, bringing the anguish of repressed desire just below the surface, subtly conveying the frustrations of a little boy who just wants to play with his dolls.

Parting Thoughts

I enjoyed this short both for the nostalgia of the circa 1980s-1990s Superstar Barbie face mold heavily featured in the film (my childhood Barbie!), and for the thought-provoking content. It's a subtle yet effective piece. I hope it makes a New York City stop when it continues to make the rounds of film festivals all over the USA in the coming year.

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.

Is it hot in here, or is it Barbie®?! The reigning queen of fashion dolls solidifies her style icon status in her latest incarnation--decked in head-to-toe designer duds.  Released this past September, Hervé Léger by Max Azria Barbie® Doll did not make it to my doorstep until October 25th, but this stunning beauty was worth the wait.

Not your child's plaything

Retailing at $150 USD (and higher in secondary markets), this Gold Label Barbie® Collector doll is a far cry from the loud, saturated pink, glittery, and cheaply mass produced aesthetic of the contemporary Barbie® dolls for children that line shelves at toy stores and other big box retailers.  

There have been complaints about the new minimalist Barbie® Collector boxes, which I love, but this Hervé box hits the sweet spot for everyone.  It doesn't make the doll look like a child's plaything, but it's not too stark or plain.  The black-and-white backdrop of a pack of photographers with flash bulbs going off is a clever nod to the many celebrities who favor the signature Hervé Léger bandage dress, which flatters a woman's sensuous curves.

Heya! Welcome to my sparkling new weblog! 

I've had a photoblog for nearly two years, and intend to continue posting my photography there, but the format of my existing blog has left me feeling constrained in terms of the type of content I can create and share. Collecting dolls (primarily Barbie) has led me to other creative endeavors, which I would love to share and discuss with the doll community.  I plan on posting doll reviews, tutorials, videos, and other doll-related content here.

I'm so excited about this new site!