So, this is going to sound really lame, but I just discovered flickr. I mean, I always knew it existed, in the back of my mind, but I'd never really looked around or searched on there before.
They have a ton of great Barbie photos on here! Now obviously, a vast majority of these photos are copyrighted and will not be appearing on this blog but in the future I'm going to include links to some of the great photographers on the site, especially when their pictures are relevant to some of the items.
I'm planning on including the Barbie Fold n' Fun House as one of the items for my Barbie Furniture and Structures page (it will be the inaugural item of that page! Exciting!). I was looking for photos which appear to be far and few between and came upon this Flickr blog:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lauralovelylocks/
The Flickr name of the author is Laura Lovely Locks and she has some great photos of some 80's Barbies. But what she also has is a "family photos" type deal where she has placed Barbies in the structures and made it look quite realistic. I think that's just awesome. Pictures of packaged items are great and all -- it really can help you identify a set and what it is exactly -- but pictures of Barbies where they are used in models really remind people of what it is to play with Barbies. And playing with Barbies is what always held the magic for me.
So I just thought I'd share!
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Barbie's Lil' Friends of Kelly
Kelly can get a little confusing for some people, possibly because she has about a trillion little friends. Those playdates must be a massive headache for all of the mommy Barbies out there.
The first Kelly came out in 1995. Barbie has had different sisters over the years but none as young as Kelly until the 90's. It is interesting to note that briefly Barbie had a sister named Kelly who was the size of Stacie and she came packaged with Todd in a wedding set. But I'll talk about that set in another post I believe.
The Kelly's page will be organized by year (which I hope to do with all of the pages as I go along.) I am starting off with Kelly's Lil' Friends only because I find them so interesting. I had several as a kid so it pulls particularly at the heartstrings for me I suppose.
Kelly's Lil' Friends differ slightly from the Kelly Dolls of the World and other Kelly's in general. In fact there is not a "Kelly" that comes is the same type of packaging as Kelly's Lil' Friends. You would simply use a Kelly from another set, or at least that was what Mattel was probably supposing would occur.
There were also different names for many of Kelly's Lil Friends depending on what type of the world they were from. I've noted this in the additional information where it was necessary. I'm having some trouble finding pictures of what the foreign dolls looked like and I'm unsure whether they are the same doll, outfit, etc with a different name or whether they are a completely different doll with a different name that is simply wearing the same outfit. I will try and make this clear later and I plan to upload pictures once I have found them.
The first Kelly came out in 1995. Barbie has had different sisters over the years but none as young as Kelly until the 90's. It is interesting to note that briefly Barbie had a sister named Kelly who was the size of Stacie and she came packaged with Todd in a wedding set. But I'll talk about that set in another post I believe.
The Kelly's page will be organized by year (which I hope to do with all of the pages as I go along.) I am starting off with Kelly's Lil' Friends only because I find them so interesting. I had several as a kid so it pulls particularly at the heartstrings for me I suppose.
Kelly's Lil' Friends differ slightly from the Kelly Dolls of the World and other Kelly's in general. In fact there is not a "Kelly" that comes is the same type of packaging as Kelly's Lil' Friends. You would simply use a Kelly from another set, or at least that was what Mattel was probably supposing would occur.
There were also different names for many of Kelly's Lil Friends depending on what type of the world they were from. I've noted this in the additional information where it was necessary. I'm having some trouble finding pictures of what the foreign dolls looked like and I'm unsure whether they are the same doll, outfit, etc with a different name or whether they are a completely different doll with a different name that is simply wearing the same outfit. I will try and make this clear later and I plan to upload pictures once I have found them.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Barbie Pretty Lovin' Pets: Barbie Cats and Dogs
The Barbie Pretty Lovin' Pets as far as I can tell consist of six "pets" for Barbie. They include the puppies Candi and Mandi and the cats Mimi and Tabbi. It also includes two cats called by their type and not by a cutesy name: Persian and Siamese. The Persian and Siamese likely came out separately after the initial four were released. They are slightly different, with less hair to style, and a more "shiny" appearance.
These pets obviously do not count as dolls but it's difficult to count them as pets given their size in relation to Barbie. They definitely don't work as a pet for Barbie, unless of course you were one of those kids and your Barbie lived on a nuclear waste pit and her dog or cat was struck by radiation which caused it to grow.
They are more like large sized toys made for kids under the Barbie name. My Little Pony toys were popular at the time and these pets are a similar size with a similar amount of hair to style. Perhaps they were Mattel's attempt to merge Barbie with the My Little Pony concept. It is also likely they didn't compete very well. However, this is all conjecture because I can't find any commercials about them nor can I find much in the way of item information. I'm not even sure about packaging numbers for this lot yet, though any information would be great.
This item isn't rare, persay, because in a given week you can find one of them on ebay pretty easily. Usually Candi the puppy or Mimi the kitty. The Siamese and the Persian are a little harder to find but certainly not impossible. They are not currently listed on Amazon, but as Amazon has a seller base that is constantly changing it doesn't rule out the possibility that one will be sold there. Ebay is a little bit easier, though the seller may not realize what brand of pet these items are and may simply call them Barbie Cat or Barbie Dog so be sure to search several terms if trying to find one.
These pets obviously do not count as dolls but it's difficult to count them as pets given their size in relation to Barbie. They definitely don't work as a pet for Barbie, unless of course you were one of those kids and your Barbie lived on a nuclear waste pit and her dog or cat was struck by radiation which caused it to grow.
They are more like large sized toys made for kids under the Barbie name. My Little Pony toys were popular at the time and these pets are a similar size with a similar amount of hair to style. Perhaps they were Mattel's attempt to merge Barbie with the My Little Pony concept. It is also likely they didn't compete very well. However, this is all conjecture because I can't find any commercials about them nor can I find much in the way of item information. I'm not even sure about packaging numbers for this lot yet, though any information would be great.
This item isn't rare, persay, because in a given week you can find one of them on ebay pretty easily. Usually Candi the puppy or Mimi the kitty. The Siamese and the Persian are a little harder to find but certainly not impossible. They are not currently listed on Amazon, but as Amazon has a seller base that is constantly changing it doesn't rule out the possibility that one will be sold there. Ebay is a little bit easier, though the seller may not realize what brand of pet these items are and may simply call them Barbie Cat or Barbie Dog so be sure to search several terms if trying to find one.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
A Brief Introduction to This Blog
As I'm sure you can tell from the title, this blog does a lot of things.
I'm both an ebayer and a yard sale fanatic and when I am creating descriptions for the items I sell I generally like to include as much information as possible. I noticed that when I write descriptions for Barbies and Barbie items I have a lot of difficulty finding the exact doll, furniture item, etc online and giving the right kind of description that is really going to describe what exactly it is that I am selling. This makes it confusing for sellers and buyers alike. Sellers won't know exactly what item it is that they are getting rid of and may give misinformation because of it. (For instance, a lot of people will categorize an old Barbie doll as "vintage" because she may have a headmold from 1976. But a lot of the Barbies made in the 90's have headmolds from 1976 because they weren't revamped for a long time.) And just because it's from the 90's doesn't mean it's a Barbie collectible! So how can you tell?
I found that Mattel doesn't even have a comprehensive list that they give out of every Barbie item ever sold. Though they do have books on Barbie dolls out there that will probably be useful for collectors and sellers alike to have. I want this blog to be a sort of hub of information about little known products. This way I'm doing the research for you and you don't have to tear your hair out trying to figure out what Barbie doll's house the white picket fence came from. (I did this recently and the only reason I found out about the correct Barbie house was because a very helpful ebayer saw my listing and let me know where it was from!)
I know not all of you are selling on ebay. And I'm not going to just list things important for ebayers. I believe that this blog can benefit Barbie collectors, Barbie enthusiasts, or just those who want to know what it is they've got sitting in storage in their closets. I'll try and update as often as possible with products, information, and pictures. I'm looking for help and if you see that something I have posted is wrong feel free to email me so that I can fix it. Don't be afraid of hurting my feelings I'm looking to post something accurate. I will also try to post pictures when I can, though when items are hard to find pictures become even more rare and copyrights may be in place that prevent my placing them directly on the blog.
I will also include links to some sites that give great information about Barbie from the same kind of seller/buyer/collector standpoint that I'm using.
Thanks for Reading!
Nostalgic Barbie
I'm both an ebayer and a yard sale fanatic and when I am creating descriptions for the items I sell I generally like to include as much information as possible. I noticed that when I write descriptions for Barbies and Barbie items I have a lot of difficulty finding the exact doll, furniture item, etc online and giving the right kind of description that is really going to describe what exactly it is that I am selling. This makes it confusing for sellers and buyers alike. Sellers won't know exactly what item it is that they are getting rid of and may give misinformation because of it. (For instance, a lot of people will categorize an old Barbie doll as "vintage" because she may have a headmold from 1976. But a lot of the Barbies made in the 90's have headmolds from 1976 because they weren't revamped for a long time.) And just because it's from the 90's doesn't mean it's a Barbie collectible! So how can you tell?
I found that Mattel doesn't even have a comprehensive list that they give out of every Barbie item ever sold. Though they do have books on Barbie dolls out there that will probably be useful for collectors and sellers alike to have. I want this blog to be a sort of hub of information about little known products. This way I'm doing the research for you and you don't have to tear your hair out trying to figure out what Barbie doll's house the white picket fence came from. (I did this recently and the only reason I found out about the correct Barbie house was because a very helpful ebayer saw my listing and let me know where it was from!)
I know not all of you are selling on ebay. And I'm not going to just list things important for ebayers. I believe that this blog can benefit Barbie collectors, Barbie enthusiasts, or just those who want to know what it is they've got sitting in storage in their closets. I'll try and update as often as possible with products, information, and pictures. I'm looking for help and if you see that something I have posted is wrong feel free to email me so that I can fix it. Don't be afraid of hurting my feelings I'm looking to post something accurate. I will also try to post pictures when I can, though when items are hard to find pictures become even more rare and copyrights may be in place that prevent my placing them directly on the blog.
I will also include links to some sites that give great information about Barbie from the same kind of seller/buyer/collector standpoint that I'm using.
Thanks for Reading!
Nostalgic Barbie
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