toy canon #4: it's a great time to be a barbie
My mom was a Barbie Girl. In her original iconic black and white swimsuit and cherry-red lipstick kind of Barbie Girl. She owned the original cardboard Barbie Dreamhouse, which she stored in our garage when I was little, and ended up having to part with one year when money was getting tightāa flashback to a time when she was young and her parents sold off all of her dolls in a yardsale to make ends meet. I can credit my momās own joyous memories playing on the floor with her dolls for my own childhood affection for toys. We even went to Barbie Conventions in the 90s so that she could scour tables to buy outfits for her Francie and Skipper dolls filled with new determination to rekindle her joy of collecting as an adultāsomething that I can relate to looking back at my own memories and wondering if itās possible I might do the same one day with lines that still spark nostalgia and happiness in me.
Despite my momās best hopes that she could share this adoration of dolls with her children, I was not a Barbie kid. The tall plastic-y bodies and long swoosh-y hair didnāt inspire me to play. Thatās not to say that I didnāt ever play with them. In fact, taking on this project reminded me of just how many of them I owned throughout my childhood (and these are only the ones I can easily remember from combing through websites), but what I remember enthusiastically enjoying in my Toy Canon was the material objects of Barbie world: the playsets, the little food, the little shoes, the little accessories, little, little, little. Every Barbie object passed through my other play sessions with ponies, littlest pet shop (spoiler, thatās coming up next), or the hodge podge of McDonaldās toys that I owned. I eagerly scoured bagged toys at thrift stores looking for all these accessories in the hopes of stocking my play grocery stores, kitchens, schools, and houses. Poor Barbie. Always being robbed by animals and other strange creatures.
Another thing that surprised me while doing research for this article is just how many of these toys were given to me brand new. There were apparently just as many birthdays and Christmases featuring Barbie as there were Polly Pockets. Thereās also just as steep a drop-off point. I guess it didnāt take my mom long to realize that I had fully outgrown any interest in Barbie even as the thrifted ponies kept on coming and she shifted budget for brand-new toys to Pokemon, which is a catalogue for another blog post.
Despite my disinterest in her as a character, Barbie deserves her flowers in a Toy Canon entry. This post was made possible thanks to the archive blogs Barbie List Holland and BarbiePedia
Wow, this was such a throwback when I saw this one! My parents must have bought it at a Mattel Warehouse sale (which youāll hear more about when I get around to writing about Littlest Pet Shop!) I'm pretty sure that I did not own that pool or floaty, but I do recall the bright yellow rattan chairs and the table with fruit. The pineapple half especially sticks out in my memory. Since I likely got this when I was fairly young, I have memories of actually playing with my barbies using it, trying to get them to sit upright in the chairs, which was total a Sisyphean task.
When I was in elementary school, my mom would apply makeup on me for special occasions such as award ceremonies using the the products from this set. I donāt have a lot of memory or attachment to the doll itself, but she definitely has those classic 90s hallmarks: the stiff arm pose, a similarly stiff hem to a glittery hot pink dress, those round candy-like earrings. I donāt remember playing with this doll, but the pieces from her collectionāthe caboodle and matching capāfloated around my mixed box of accessories. When I watch collection videos by A Thousand Splendid Dolls, Iām a little jealous they can recall detail the personalities and stories of dolls theyāve owned for decades.
This might be a false memory, but I swear I can remember going to the Salvation Army with my mom and getting this doll in one of their plastic-wrapped grab bags. At the very least, I know that I didnāt get this doll brand new and she might not have even had these funky earrings on - I vaguely remember something simpler, plainer stuck into her head holes. Midge stood out in my line up of very blonde dolls so I played with her a little more often because I thought her crimped brunette hair was lovely. Sometimes she was the voice of reason character, reigning in Barbieās desire to cruise around in her jeep or convertible. Other times, especially as hair became less tamed and wild, she was the more impulsive, daring friend. Occasionally, she made appearances in Pony stories maybe as another teacher or figure of authority since she was tall and imposing.
Iām not 100% whether this was thrifted alongside Midge or if I was given this doll brand new. Iām leaning toward new because those gold earrings and ring look very familiar and finding thrifted dolls with their accessories was no easy feat! Anywho, I remember this jumpsuit and jacket vividly. She was definitely paired up as friends with Midge since they fittingly look as though they could be going out together for a night on the town. Sheās not nearly as fake tan as Caboodles Barbie, but I donāt have any fond attachment to her reviewing images of the doll. I think this was definitely one that I chucked into my closet who was also likely stripped down at some point.
Barbie Fun n' Fold Dream House (1992)
In my Pony Toy Canon, I already wrote about the Barbie Dream House that I primarily recall from my childhood. But I also have hazy memories of this folding house that my parents picked up at a swap meet. It might have even had most of the furniture and accessories since I definitely remember the picnic table and bench, the plastic flowers and cutlery, Barbieās framed selfie, and that candelabra. I imagine that folding and putting away all of these pieces was a pain in the butt and this was likely before we turned the spare bedroom into The Playroom for all of the overflow of toys that didnāt fit in our main closet. I donāt have a lot of memories of this particular house, but I think itās interesting to reflect on which toy houses lit up my imagination and which ones didnāt. Iāll get into this a lot more when I cover all of the Fisher Price playsets my younger brother and I collected over the years, but the pink everywhere and clumsy folding mechanism didnāt do it for me nearly as much as some of the simpler fold open houses and businesses.
Mattel sure loved their hair toys, huh? For this one, I donāt remember the doll as much as the outfit. These neon colors and those palm tree earrings are seared into my memory. I wouldnāt be surprised if I gave her outfit to another doll at some point, because the playline doll herself is pretty unremarkable. Itās funny, Iām sure there are a lot of kids who really loved these gimmicky releases, but they didnāt do much for me ā especially since they were messy and had limited usage when product ran out.
Ah, yes, Whitneyā¦ we have finally come upon the first doll in the Barbie lineup that I genuinely loved and played with often. First of all, I still really love this design: her warm, wavy brown hair, the plastic scrunchie ponytail, the big heart-shaped purple glasses, the polkadot frills, the lunch plate that clips onto her wrist. The illustration in the corner is also really adorable! Even though the marketing for the Barbie McDonalds collab is hyper capitalist 90s weirdness, I canāt help finding the dolls themselves charmingly designed. In general, I loved the Chelsea line in the 90s. They were the perfect age and size for me: not a toddler (like Kelly) and not as tall as Skipper where she felt like an older teenager. Now the Chelsea dolls are somewhere between this type and Kelly in terms of size, but her new designs arenāt as interesting to me - especially the uncanny valley face molds. Kudos to my mom for also choosing the one I would have picked out from the launch.
Barbie McDonalds Restaurant with Talking Drive Thru Playset (1994)
As a kid, I thought this playset was so cool. As a chicken nugget fiend and Happy Meal toy collector (as inherited by mom who had a huge storage box of collectibles under her bed), I was excited that my toys could also visit the drive-thru whenever they wanted. The standout was the detailed menu board. This might have been the first set that I ever owned, come to mind, so thatās probably another reason why it stood out even though it didnāt come with all that many accessories. Also you can rest assured that the ponies got a lot of playtime here as well haha Usually a Barbie was the one working there since someone tall needed to be able to reach the window. Looking at the marketing of this toy now makes me feel very differently. The box art saying āthe magic of McDonaldsā feels pretty gross in retrospect. Naturally, having grown up in California when McDonalds was still relatively new, my parents had a lot of nostalgia for the brand, but the heavy marketing to children in the 90s is a whole study in the ill wills of capitalism.
Combing through the online catalog unlocked some memories for me with this doll. I mostly remember shaking and jostling her around since her limbs were completely different from the stiff dolls. My mom has always been super into the Olympics, especially gymnastics, but I just thought it was fun to stim with this doll, I guess haha I love the little accessories she came with though! The duffel bag saw a lot of use from me when toys were packing up to go on trips (I also had the suitcases that came with the International Travel Barbie that were thrifted), the tiny dumbbells that could slide over Barbie's fingers (very poor form for lifting weights!), and the medallion was also very precious.
Iām pretty sure that I owned these Kelly accessories, but Iām not entirely sure that I owned this doll and the crib set. Itās possible that I found the dress and food items in a thrift store bundle. Itās really funny to me that the box advertises that the doll smells ābaby powder fresh!ā After the Chelsea line was largely discontinued, Kelly became my favorite. Her stature meant that I could readily include her in sessions with much smaller figuresāless so the ponies than Littlest Pet Shop, which weāll be getting to next. I also distinctly remember playing with her on her own and not even necessarily with Barbie babysitters to watch after her.
Speaking of which, this toy is a classic from the 90s lines. The color palette of her sweater and pants are so delightfully of the time. I donāt remember dissolving the bag for the baby name reveal if I even received this toy brand new lol I definitely had several of these babies floating around in my toy bins though because they were easy to find in thrift bags when trying to get other accessories. Unlike the polly pocket babies which I could play with for hours, Barbie babies did absolutely nothing for me. I thought they were weird and useless. Thatās not to say that all toys resembling babies were rejected by me since I had a few mini Cabbage Patch dolls and plenty of puppy surprise toys that I treasured. Skipper herself saw plenty of play timeāat least compared to the reject Barbies I mentioned earlier.
Technically, I donāt remember exactly what version of this doll I owned since they released a couple versions of her, but I do remember my grandmother giving this to me as a present one year, especially that oversized toothbrush. I liked that the doll had soft body because that I meant I could play with her more readily in bed and I was obsessed with plush toys as a kid (there were always several with me each night.) The eye gimmick wasnāt very good though and she never made an appearance with my other dolls during actual play time, but she was a temporary fixture in my bed, often falling to the floor and waiting to be rescued when I woke up.
This doll has a very different body and face mold! Her arms arenāt in that weird 90-degree angle pose and instead are stuck straight at her sides for easy pool diving (or, in my case, bubbly bathtub!) If I ever had the fragrance this came with then my mom assuredly threw it away since she always claimed every whiff of perfume gave her a migraine. This was one of my most played with Barbie-Barbieās if for no other reason than I got to take her into water with me and, as previously mentioned in my Polly Pocket post, I adored playing in water as a kid even though I didnāt know how to swim lol Sheās definitely a simple, playline doll, but I can remember actually holding and playing with the doll so much more than the others. I have a vague memory of bringing her to my neighborās house and they ran their house to make a little outdoor pool for our dolls, watching her wavy hair splay out in the water and then letting her dry out on the sidewalk in the sun.
If thereās one doll in this entire post that brings me the most joy, itās Janet. How could it not be? She came with TWO polly dolls and a cool vinyl backpack that folded out into a makeshift compact for the pollies. I love the colors on her dress and she has the most precious face. Does she have the same basic face mold as Whitney and Stacey? Sureā¦ and I do wish that Mattel had more diverse doll representation when I was a kid, but I also think that Janet is still so beautiful. You can bet that I played with Whitney and Janet quite a bit as a kid. They were best friends bouncing around between the pool, McDonalds, and school together.
This might have been a thrifted purchase or something my mom scooped up in a damaged box at the Mattel Warehouse, because I donāt remember having the two kids in my set. Everything else though? Barbieās Ms. Frizzle dress and iconic red glasses? The chalkboard and pencil sharpener with real sound effects? The two chairs that all of my toys would fight to sit at because otherwise they had to sit on the floor? Next to Tropical Splash, this was far and away my most played with Barbie. I loved that she was a teacher since playing school was my favorite thing to do and plenty of other toys could reasonably fit in those chairs. Ponies? Animal figures? Beanie Babies? Check, check, and check. Between reading Wayside School and watching Recess, I could content myself with session after session of school stories without getting bored. Teacher Barbie was one of the few dolls consistently allowed into my pony canon, though all of her co-workers were ponies. Must have been very strange in the teacherās lounge!
This was the Kelly doll that I owned brand new, because I remember having al of these accessories, the outfits (especially the duck robe!) and I played with this bathtub all of the time at the sink. It also ranks high among the Barbie commercials that I remember seeing on TV all the time along with Shoppinā Fun Barbie and Kelly (which I never owned but always kind of wanted.) Itās kind of weird how Kelly has a wide opening at her mouth. I know itās for her bottle and pacifier, but it looks odd. Dolls that could drink and pee never appealed to me and my mom bought me more than one of them (not near life-size dolls, thankfully, but still.) Even though I did not care about changing Kellyās diapers, I did love the appeal of playing in the water and then drying her off and cuddling up in that terrycloth robe.
This is the last doll that I recognized as owning with crystal clarity from my research. It was a birthday gift from my grandmother. As alluded to with Janet earlier, Mattelās attempts at diversity were an extremely mixed bag in the 90s. Despite this, I remember thinking that this doll was too beautiful to play with, which makes sense since she was intended to be more of a collectorās piece than a budget doll for heavy play. I loved her long, shiny black hair and her sun-kissed tan complexion. While I did unbox her, I didnāt really play with her so much as keep her on display or occasionally brush her hair. Iām also grateful that my grandmother chose this doll out of all the others she could have picked since my family has such a complicated history with assimilation into white American culture. As a first-generation American herself, I often wonder what kind of relationship my grandmother had to her Mexican heritage. Thereās so much that could have been improved here, such as focusing on specific tribal representation, donating a portion of proceeds to the tribe in question, etc. Using the moniker āAmerican Indianā and a very generic pastiche of native textile designs is disappointing to say the least. I would love to read perspectives from indigenous people on the dolls Mattel has released over the years and whether they have improved at all.
You can tell from this doll that we are creeping toward what would become 00s core color schemes. I love the corduroy texture, the fleece-y crop top, and the soft fuzzy backpack (which was co-opted by my other toys, obviously.) At this point, I was simply not playing with larger dolls so she didn't get much playtime, but I did think she looked neat and would sit her up on my bookshelves or stage her in the Dreamhouse now and then. I wish that I had Extreme Green Skipper, because I love her color scheme even if she looks a bit too much like her sister.
Barbie Glam n Groom Pets Lacey (1999) and Ruby (1999)
My mom caught on that I was simply not interested in the dolls that were coming out. But when she saw that Barbie had a new pet-focused line of toys releasing? That was 100% up my alley and looking through the archive, I wish that I had found more of them at thrift stores! Some of them are SO cute and filled in that hole that the Littlest Pet Shop left behind as they became increasingly more difficult to find. Admittedly, I wasn't as interested in the longer haired dogs, but I do find them very cute, especially Ruby. I also loved having their fancy accessories for my bougier Littlest Pet Shop characters.
Pet Lovin' Puppy Twins Old English Sheepdog (1999)
My uncle had an OES when I was a little kid and I have such fond memories of that dog. He was so much bigger than me and I think that launched a lifelong affection for big, coach potato dogs. My mom found the blue-collared puppy in one of the thrift grab bags and he fit right in with my other animal toys. I remember him having a very stand-up personality: loyal, kind, brave. He was a protector of all the smaller animals. I don't think he interacted with a single Barbie.
Barbie Carriage
I wasn't sure where to include these last two since I don't know the exact year or model for the ones that I own. Since the only examples I could find were from eBay, Iām also not even sure this was a Barbie toy. I think that I might have been given this carriage as a gift at one of my dad's Christmas parties at work. It was so huge that I could fit just about any of my toys inside of it, including plushies. The plastic was pretty flimsy so this wasn't one of my heavily used toys, but I wrote in my Pony Toy Canon about how the giant white horse was Whirlyās mother. So even though the horse and reigns would topple over frequently, I ended up playing with it quite often for dramatic entrances of wealthier ponies and whenever Whirlyās mom paid a rare visit.
Barbie's First Car Austin Healy
My mom kept a large white shopping bag in our entry room where she stashed some of her Barbie memorabilia including a reproduction vintage doll that I used to take out an admire all of the time. At some point, I think I must have seen this car in there and asked if I could play with it and uh she just never got it back haha I'm sure a different collector would have been scandalized by such a prized object actually being played with, but I'd like to think my mom was happy watching my siblings and I having fun with it. No toy had a cooler car in our household. Except the Ninja Turtles. But I'll save that for if I ever interview my younger brother for his Toy Canon. As you can imagine, many ponies went on road trips in the Austin Healy, but I also remember actually putting Barbies in and cruising over the carpet or shooting them across the tiles at full speed (thatās usually when Midge was driving!)
My sincerest apologies to my mom for not being a Barbie kid, but I still have plenty of good memories with the toys mentioned here. There have been plenty of books written about the problematic history of Barbie in general, but toys are such an important part of all of our childhoods that I donāt want to knock her back too hard on her semi-articulated rubbery legs. Personally, I didnāt see myself in Barbie and I had zero interest in trying to make myself look, act, or dress like her. But I did see myself in Chelseaās friend Whitney and my play time with her was usually a mirror of how I wanted to be.
Thank you for reading! Źįµį“„įµŹ
If you would like to share your toy canon histories with me, or share your thoughts on this post, please feel free to reach out to me via email.