Somewhere I still have a Dawn doll (shorter than Barbie, but with the same golden blonde hair). I think she still has her one piece dress: blue metallic halter top with poufy pleated white skirt.
One Barbie is missing her hands and feet (younger sister, teething at the time). Might still have Midge somewhere, as well as P.J. (complete with violet sunglasses that perched on her head).
Most of the furniture from the camper is missing, but we still have the fake campfire and part of the foldout table. Somewhere.
Most of the clothing ended up on the wooden animals that came with the Fischer-Price circus (the giraffe was the only one tall enough to wear the evening gowns).
Shoes ended up as vacuum cleaner fodder. Barbie went barefoot a lot.
I loved the Candy doll, always thought she was prettier than Barbie. Like other folks mentioned, it just sucked that she was so damn big and couldn’t fit into any Barbie clothes. Her feet were enormous, too.
At one point I had the Donny and Marie dolls including their purple van! Both with wild brown hair that I eventually chopped off. I had a Cher doll, too, who was equally as large as Candy but had very long hair which got chopped off, as well.
Someone told me that the Western Barbie is now a serious collector’s item because they only made them for a short time. But you have to have her hat, boots, fringy white outfit, etc.
I had all the Barbie horses (Dallas, Midnight, and whatever the white one’s name was), the Barbie Corvette, and the Barbie camper which proved to be great fun to put my grandma’s kittens in and watch them try to figure out how to escape. My neighbor had the townhouse and pool and we had many very grown-up dramas involving hot Barbie love down by the pool. Very Melrose Place-ish.
Crystal Barbie by far had the prettiest dress and Peaches & Cream Barbie was always the goody-two-shoes in my Barbie dramas. Golden Dreams Barbie always seemed a little Studio 54-ish and was never to be trusted.
I had peaches and cream Barbie too, and I loved her swishy dress. But my favorite was also day-to-night Barbie, and her snappy pink suit turned into a cocktail dress by taking off the jacket and turning her skirt inside out. We should all be so lucky to have an outfit like that.
We had the ‘ugly’ Ken who would try to pick up Barbie, but was always rebuffed. Then ‘cool’ Ken would come and they would drive away in his blue roller skate.
We also had the Barbie pool, the Barbie McDonalds (as if Barbie would ever work at a McDonalds!) and the Barbie news studio. I loved playing Barbies and I will never be a mom who won’t let her daughter play with them, if I ever have a girl I will play with her! Those new ‘Bratz’ dolls will never compare to Barbie.
I still remember getting my first ever Barbie (not “My First Barbie”) at age five, Golden Dreams Barbie. She came with a gold-striped cape, so, with my brothers’ influence, she became Super Barbie! Able to leap tall buildings in her high-heeled strappy pumps! She’d rescue the Fisher Price Little People from all sorts of trouble, particularly when they were terrorized by my brother Rob’s Darth Vader acion figure.
I adored both the Peaches and Cream Barbie and the Barbie with the glow-in-the-dark starry dress, both of them for the kick-ass outfits they came with. I always wanted a mermaid Barbie, but they didn’t come out with that until I was “too old” to play Barbies anymore.
Thanks for the wonderful memories, y’all! I’m thrown back to the times my best friend Kathy and I would play Barbies. We played “'Tend Like.” That’s what we called it!
Kathy had the house, and the car, and a mom who could sew. Tons of clothes to try on. It was so much fun.
Sadly, I don’t have any of my Barbies, or Skipper, or any of my childhood toys. But I still have the memories!
I had Dawn! And Angie–her brunette friend! I even had Dawn’s Beauty Parlor! Nobody has ever heard of them–it’s nice to find someone who does.
As for Barbie: I had an old Midge (I am the youngest girl), Skipper, Ken and some dark haired dude that looked like Ken, but wasn’t.
Lord, how I loathed Barbie! Had fun with Dawn, but Babs I always tried to hurt–hair cut off, clothes ragged. I believe my brother and I conducted a series of scientific experiments on Babs–Babs does not survive a drop from a second story window onto blacktop…heheheh.
Gots no Barbies but I gots a couple-three GI Joes (the 12 inch manly ones, not the little weenie ones) around that haven’t had R&R leave since ca.1970. Can we play?
I still find myself buying dolls every so often, just to have. I like to take them and do their hair and dress them up-I LOVE “Fashion Ave”-how come they never had cool outfits like that while I was growing up?
Oh, and there is nothing in the world like the smell of a brand new Barbie. To me it says “Xmas Morning!!!”
