Barbie- A girl’s best friend
Barbie dolls, Flower Pom Poms are plastic toys made for kids. They are an imitation of princesses, which becomes a fantasy for little girls. They want to have hair like them, dress like them, have shoes like them and so on. Barbie dolls give kids a sense of style and beauty. The kids play with them, comb their hair, redress them over and over to make them look good, have parties and much more. The Barbie doll was launched in March 1959 by Ruth Handler.
Ruth Handler got the idea of the doll from her little girl Barbara, who used to role play with paper dolls. While on a visit in Germany she came across a doll named Bild Lilli, a blonde bombshell which was exactly what Ruth was looking for. Back in the States she worked with Jack Ryan to remodel the German doll and formed her own toy called Barbie, named after her daughter Barbara. On 9th March 2009 Barbie doll marked its 50th birthday.
The very first Barbie was a swimsuit model wearing a zebra stripped swimsuit and had a ponytail. Even though there were a few complaints from parents, around 350,000 dolls were sold during the first year. Since the production the physical attributes of the doll has varied, from hair to figure.
In the years following the production, hairstyles of the doll were changed. The first vintage ponytail Barbie was joined by the vintage bubblecut Barbie in 1961. The bubble cut were manufactured in blonde, brunette and titian and lasted from 1961 to 1967. Then in 1964 came the swirl ponytail, sleek and side stepped hair in colors such as blonde, brunette, ash, lemon blonde, and redhead. In 1965 came the American Barbie doll which had one feature that has never been repeated again, which was the ability to move its legs from the knees. This Barbie became a collector’s item and is searched for by every Barbie collector in the world.
Barbie is being manufactured by Mattel Inc. It was the first toy in history to have TV advertisements as its marketing strategy. Mattel claims that three Barbie dolls are sold every second, and that over a billion dolls have been sold in over 150 countries. The Barbie doll collection comes with a wide variety of dresses and accessories. They also have storybooks, video games, cosmetics and apparel to further market the dolls.
The play scale of a Barbie doll is 1/6. This makes every doll to be at a height of 5 feet and 9 inches and have a weight 35 lb less than the ideal weight of a person with that height. Having a perfect figure and face, these Barbie dolls become a dream for girls.
Sources of Mattel claim that there are over 100,000 hardcore Barbie collectors, 90% of them are women over 40. Barbie has been an integral part of the toy industry for over fifty years, giving little girls someone to look up to for a perfect figure and face.
For the last 5 years Mike has been selling toys online. Amongst all the toys he sells, Mike is fascinated by the success of Barbie dolls, which are still some of the best selling toys.