OVERVIEW: Barbie From Childhood to Generation Girl

Me and Mom on Christmas morning in the early 80s

So I've been following a pattern of one entry on a vintage toyline, then one on a modern line, repeat repeat. Well, I'm breaking the pattern with this entry, because Barbie spans both vintage and modern and pretty much the entire run of my collecting days. This is going to be a multi-part topic, because there's just plain too much to cover in one entry.

And I will likely ramble a lot, because this is a big topic to be taking on at 3:15am just because I'm not sleepy yet.

As you can see from the pic on the left, I've been collecting Barbie a long time. This was from when we lived in Jacksonville, so likely the Christmas during kindergarten. We were only there for kindergarten and 1st grade and I have another Christmas photo where I look older, so I'm thinking that's the 1st grade one.

The cherished Sweet Roses PJ

You can see my childhood Sweet Roses PJ in my hand, plus my other two Barbies, Sunsational Malibu and Great Shape, in costumes. I'd just received the generic costume set and that pop-up bedroom/carrying case. PJ is not in costume yet, because she stole Great Shape's outfit pretty quickly and decided to show that off, I guess. I played with PJ so much that about half her hair got brushed out of her head. She always smelled good, too. I only wish my upgrade one, the one pictured here to the right, still had her scent. Between her and Rose Petal, I really adored the scent of roses. In fact, I think Rose Petal herself was my first Rose Petal Place doll because of PJ. PJ is also the reason I still adore the Steffie mold. She's one of the best uses of it.

I got Day to Night Barbie and Ken and Peaches 'n' Cream Barbie in 1984 and after that I moved on to the Rockers.

Dana international variant

Dana was my #2 childhood fave Barbie. Once I got her, I played with her about as much as PJ. I still have my childhood one, but to the left is a boxed one I purchased a few years ago. She actually is an international version (I believe she was in a Spanish language box.) with a few differences from the one I had. So someday I'll get a boxed American version and open her, too!

I loved the Rockers and Jem almost equally. Jem obviously had the better show, but I had the Panini Rockers sticker book and I was obsessed with that thing. The gorgeous Tom Tierney art like the Jem storybooks had! I think he drew Dana better than any character in either franchise. She's just utterly gorgeous.

Dana and 2nd edition dancing Diva were my only two Rocker girls. I loved Diva, but she was quickly eclipsed by someone that borrowed her face.

Midge, Kayla and Bopsy rock the Diva headmold.

Dance Club Kayla was my next doll after Diva and 2nd edition Derek, I think. (I got Tropical Miko somewhere in there, too.) Kayla was like Diva, but better because she had crimped hair and that white leather bra top and awesome neon green and pink outfit. In retrospect, I'm not sure why I picked dancing Diva over original Diva, because original Diva was way more my style.

The Kayla on the right in this photo is my childhood doll, wearing her original earrings and ring. The outfit is from the Paris Pretty line. I was obsessed with the Barbie trading cards when I was young and this outfit was a must have when I started my adult collection, because it was one of my faves from the cards.

1st edition Rockers Diva

The Kayla on the left is the boxed one I bought in 2009ish. She's wearing a budget fashion that I had in childhood and was so crazy about. I finally found it around the same time I bought this boxed Kayla, so she's been wearing it with her stock belt and shoes ever since.

Kayla was a solid favorite. Her, Dana and PJ were my most loved childhood adult Barbie characters. I wanted several I never got, like DeeDee, Bride Midge, Animal Nikki and the non-Barbie Sensations characters.

1st edition Rockers Deedee

The Diva mold has continued to be a favorite into my adult collection. I bought Rockers Diva, plus Barbie and the Sensations Bopsy and Barbie and the Beat Midge, who are the two in the Diva foursome photo above.

Barbie Basics No.9

When the Barbie Basics line first came out in Spring 2010, the one I simply had to have was No.9 with the Diva headmold.

Those were pretty much all my most favored childhood adult character dolls. I had Hot Stuff Skipper, who came out in 1985 and came with tons of workout-type clothes. I guess I got her to go along with Great Shape Barbie? I'm not sure, but that poor doll never got a lot of positive attention. When the prettier Skippers started coming out, I got Teen Sweetheart in 1987. I loved her for two years and then got Cool Tops Courtney to be her friend in 1989.

Cool Tops Courtney in a Teen Time fashion

Courtney got played with A LOT. She was right up there with PJ, Dana and Kayla as one of my most played with dolls. She got all the best pets and accessories. I'm sure I had her stealing the Barbie Ferrari at some point. (Although that honor usually went to Buster Slydale from the Sylvanian Families. How I thought a 3" fox could drive a Barbie car I dunno, but he did it.) 

I did not get too many Barbies after Courtney. I had All-American Teresa and Hawaiian Fun Jazzie in 1990 and Hollywood Hair Teresa in 1992. I consider my Jasmine from 1992's Mattel Aladdin line to be my final childhood doll purchase. 

I never had a ton of playsets. I had the hot dog stand (my favorite), the Dream Kitchen. the Ferrari, the pop-up bedroom thing in my Christmas picture, and a generic pool/barbecue playset.

I read this so often.

Just because I didn't have a lot of dolls didn't mean I didn't want a lot of dolls. At some point I bought this little pricing guide to the left and I still have it. I pored over that book and made lists of the dolls I would love to have. That's how I discovered Dolls of the World. I don't know if I never saw them or just thought they were fancy and didn't ask for any, but I fell in love with four in particular. 

1979 DotW Parisian

The first was this green-eyed Steffie mold lovely to the right here. I know why I never saw the Parisian doll. She was released in 1979 when I was one. I loved the color of the dress, the cameo, the strappy pink shoes. She probably would have been young me's first choice if I could have picked one from the book. I finally acquired her sometime in the early 2000s, I believe. My only issue with buying these older dolls is the hair. I don't know what they put in doll hair back then, but so many of them have this sticky, downright goopy-feeling hair. Hers isn't so bad, because it's in that updo, but some of them...yeesh.

1983 DotW Spain

The second on my list was 1983's Spain. Again, I would have been a little young to notice her. Although I did favor red and black even from a young age, so I probably just didn't see her. She was bought around the same time as Paris for my adult collection. She's gorgeous, but that hair took ages to put to rights. 

1981 DotW India

1981's Barbie from India was high on my list, too. This one took me longer to add to my adult collection. She was a bit pricier at the time I bought the other two, so I passed on her. I saw her in an antique mall many years later and she was only $20, but her eyes were printed so oddly that I couldn't bring myself to buy her. I finally got one I liked in March 2013, shortly before we moved. 

1984 DotW Japan

Japan from 1984 was also high on my want list. She was the last addition to my adult collection from this group of four in October 2013. Well worth waiting for! I've also added some unplanned DotWs to my collection: 1992 Native American (Diva face!), 1998 Moroccan, 1983 Irish, 1980 Scottish, 1980 Oriental, and 1996 Russian. 

Generation Girl Dance Party Lara

So after Jasmine, I stopped collecting dolls until I got into Sailor Moon and bought the noseless dolls almost everyone except me hates. I was more into comic books and action figures at that point and hadn't begun my vintage rebuying yet, but it wasn't too long after Sailor Moon that the Jems and Battle Beasts started trickling in. It was also then in 1999 that I spotted this beauty to the right on the shelves. Dance Party Lara from the Generation Girl line! I bought her and quickly got the Generation Girl bug.

Generation Girl Dance Party Chelsie

Tori quickly followed Lara and then the stunning Chelsie, who was a Toys R Us exclusive. I bought doll outfits for the first time in years. Chelsie to the left is wearing one of the Generation Girl fashions. I believe it was meant for Lara, but I think it looks better on Chelsie.

Generation Girl Dance Party Mari

The Dance Party line introduced the Japanese character, Mari, and she was the first doll I remember scouring the stores for. We finally found her at Walmart and I loved her like crazy. She's in the pic to the right wearing a Generation Girl fashion I bought for her fairly recently.

Generation Girl My Room Tori

The My Room line came out and man, were those rooms awesome! I'd never seen anything like that, so I ended up with Tori (wearing an Azone top, American Idol Barbie pants and Dance Party Lara's arm warmers), Ana, Nichelle and Mari.

I bought all twelve of the Generation Girl books, too, and they were amazing! The characterizations were excellent, the New York setting is something I always appreciate, and well, they're just the best doll-based book line I've ever read, including the modern ones.

I've since parted with some of my girls (all the Room ones except Tori) and bought new ones (1st edition Ana, 1st edition Chelsie with the nose ring, and My Room Lara). But Generation Girl will always be really special to me and the best Barbie line ever. Excellent diversity (even body diversity!), excellent characterization, excellent designs. I wish they'd come back, but I know they wouldn't be the same.

Mystery Squad Kenzie

2002 saw the release of the Mystery Squad line. Kenzie looked like she stepped out of the Generation Girl lineup, so I bought her right away. All four are pretty awesome though and I may end up with at least Drew in my collection eventually.

That's where I'm going to end things for this initial entry. I'll continue on with my first collector dolls, My Scene, and the even more modern lines soon.

PHOTO CREDITS: All mine except the book photo, which is from Amazon.