Vintage Barbie, Ken and the Fashion Queen Midge and Barbie. Not at all mint, and heavily played-with, but collection staples.
This section is hardly the crowning glory of my collection. The examples I have are not in great condition or even particularly fine or rare examples of their type. But the point of these dolls is that they have all been played with in the past and so I can carry on playing with them without fear of damage or worrying about the investment. My interest is wigged dolls, however, is well represented here – you get so much more play value from them. The Barbie Fashion Queen and the wiggy Midge have both performed extensive modeling duties and are often used as size reference when trying out new patterns. The thing about these dolls in particular is that they are still fulfilling the Mattel’s original mission of producing toys that would be great playthings.
In the late 1980s, Todd Haynes gained notoriety for his (formerly banned) movie on the life of Karen Carpenter filmed using Barbie dolls, Superstar : The Karen Carpenter Story.
The dressed doll line-up, they are just wearing whatever came to hand. There’s a wig to choose for Midge below.
Getting wiggy with Fashion Queen, let’s hope they haven’t melted on to the stand!
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