Dolls

Dolls

Monday, January 15, 2018

For Reading Pleasure

Welcome!

My dad always knows what I like :)

Under the tree I saw this huge package.


You know, the kids always get the big presents so I thought it was for my son...until I saw my name on the top.

When it came time to open the gifts, I tried to slide it in front of me and it weighed a TON. It felt like bricks. After I got the wrapping paper off, there was a plastic tub that was filled with BOOKS! 

Not just any books, books about BARBIE! See, he does know what I like. 

I've had so much fun flipping through these. Let's take a look! 


The Barbie Doll Collectors Handbook. It includes awesome information like how to grade the condition of the doll.


Next is the Fashion Doll Price Guide. Not that useful now since it's from 2000 to 2001 but it's still fun to look at the color pictures!


5th Doll Fashion Anthology, price guide. There are some really pretty dolls in here!


Now we have the fabulous hardcover books. Like this one!



Barbie: What a Doll! I have a pocket size version of this book but this larger one is arranged differently. Mine goes by year. This one has a range of years on the pages.



So for the pages shown above, this is from the chapter titled "Party Girl." So these are party dresses. There are also chapters titled "Tailored Chic" and "Career Moves."



Funny when I randomly opened to the page above, I noticed a dress I already had :) There are no formal names on the fashions (for instance the dress on the bottom right of the second page is a Perfume Pretty fashion) and that's the only dislike I have about the book (this is the Barbie's Sweet 16 doll.)



Now is Barbie: Four Decades of Fashion, Fantasy, and Fun.



More full color photos that talk about tags, packaging and more!



The Collectible Barbie Doll. An Illustrated Guide To Her Dreamy World. Love the 40th Anniversary doll on the front.



Dreamy world indeed! Queen of Hearts Mackie Barbie anyone?



Now this is a fun one. Barbie Doll and Her Mod, Mod, Mod, Mod World Of Fashion. 1967 to 1972. Gotta love it! It's a price guide but still color photos! With a mod book I would hope you would have color photos, that's the best part of mod fashion!



The Story Of Barbie. AH, Goddess of the Sun Mackie doll. 



How about this one! Barbie Doll Accessories! I've been looking through this one a bit. We love accessories! And it includes paper dolls! I recognized some of the ones I found in here.



This is a fun one if you are into finding out which stores had exclusive Barbie merchandise. I don't know what years this is from but does go through some of the 90's. It even has dolls that were exclusives in other countries. 



And lastly we have Barbie The First 30 Years 1959 through 1989. Unfortunately I wish this went through the 90's as most of my dolls are from the 90's. But as you can see on front, I do have some dolls in this book! :) (One of my top 5, Superstar Barbie.)


And that's it! I am in love with these and had to keep myself on track when I was photographing them, I was spending too much time flipping through the pages. There is quite a bit to read in them, even the price guides so it will be fun to see what there is to read about! 

So friends, do you have any of the books shown above? Have any other books you recommend? Let me know in the comments!

And that's it for today. Next post will be super exciting so stay tuned for that one!

4 comments:

The PrairieHomemaker said...

Good Morning!
I am still working on my dolls so no Barbie post yet! I did a post on the Flip Zee Girls though.
I got the Sweet 16 bonus pack for my 10th birthday. I now have the doll MIB but the bonus set I no longer have.
I also have The Barbie Four Decades book.
You were definitely blessed by your dad! You have a Barbie library now!
hugs
m

Anonymous said...

So many books, it must have weighed a ton :-D! These look like great books to have! Your dad is an excellent gift chooser.
I sold my Barbie books years ago, and didn't own any of these. Have lots of fun going through them :-)

My Barbie Blog - Teresa said...

Hi Mel! I love the bonus set of the Sweet 16. Such a fabulous mod book. I'll go check out your post!

Hi Millicent! I'll probably keep some of the books once I'm done with them but some of the others I might pass on to someone else. The fun of books is sharing I think! It did weigh a ton. I had the hubby pass it over to me on Christmas. Hoping to get my strength back once baby is born :)

Treesa said...

I do have a number of these books. The one on Barbie's Mod fashions can be especially useful for identifying loose outfits. As for other books I could recommend, it all depends on what areas of collecting you're interested in. One book that I would recommend to all Barbie doll collectors is The Ultimate Barbie Doll Book by Marcie Melillo. This book contains photos of every Barbie and Barbie family doll Mattel made up to about 1995, along with detailed descriptions of each doll listing hair color and style, eye and lip color, markings, and other information that make this book a lifesaver for identifying loose dolls. If you're interested in vintage Barbie clothing, I would recommend Barbie Fashion by Sarah Sink Eames. Volume 1 covers the earliest Barbie outfits from 1959-1967. Volume 2 goes from 1968-1974 and includes the Mod period, and Volume 3 covers the period from 1975-1979, including the 'Superstar era'. If you're interested in trying to sew your own replicas of classic vintage fashions, try reading Vintage Clothing For The Fashion Doll by Mari Dewitt. The book includes patterns as well as step-by-step instructions for sewing a number of outfits. And if you'd like to know more about other fashion doll lines that Mattel has produced over the years, I'd recommend Thirty Years Of Mattel Fashion Dolls by J. Michael Augustyniak.
Glad you enjoyed the holidays and Happy New Year.
Signed, Treesa