I know, another one! There should be only one more of these, though. Until we get more. Haha.

 

1967 was a year of big changes for the toy. Ken was being discontinued and wouldn't reappear until 1969 with a bigger body and a new head mold. Her first and best friend Midge vanished as well, replaced by Christie - the first black doll the same size as Barbie (there had previously been a black Francie doll) - and the British Stacey. Midge's head mold would be used again as Barbie's new best friend PJ in 1969.

 

 

The difference is startling. The clothes were brighter, shorter and more and more of the dolls would come with "real" eyelashes. Above left is a 1963 Midge in "Lunch Date" (1964), right is a Talking PJ in her original mini-dress. Her pigtails are supposed to have multi-colored "love beads", which we have, but haven't figured out how to get them back on her as the elastic is gone!

 

Barbie herself had a new face mold debut this year as Twist and Turn Barbie, but we oddly haven't found one of those yet. So here is a 1965 American Girl (Bendable Leg) Barbie in "Fraternity Dance" (1965) contemplating her future wardrobe, in this case "Pajama Pow!" (1967) it also has chartreuse flats and insane earrings.

 

 

 

 

I don't have a Stacey, but we did find a matched Talking Christie and Talking Brad (both 1969) in their boxes in a shop. I know why I shouldn't take them out of their boxes, even if the boxes are in poor shape, but the struggle is real:

 

 

They, like the Talking PJ, are mute. The mechanism was rubber-band based and very few are still working. They are missing the pull strings which may explain why they were never taken out of the box. Talking dolls can be repaired but you have to cut open the torso so there really isn't any value to add.

 

Anyway, the mod years are a lot of fun because of the Austin Powers aesthetic. I'm talking clear raincoats and bucket hats, hostess pajamas, neon negligees and crazy go-go boots all in eye-bleeding color combinations and patterns. I'd like to have had more examples to photograph, but the mod clothing and dolls are some of the most desired still by collectors. Additionally, since some of the really cool ones were too weird to be popular and had crazy fragile accessories they are scarce. Still, it wouldn't be fun to collect if we could just find them all in the first places we looked.

 

Once I finished Barbie Girl, I didn’t blink as I rushed to buy Barbie World. I had high hopes, maybe a little too much, which is why this book left me feeling confused. I still (sort of) liked Barbie, Dylan, Third and Roxie but aaaaaaargh! That’s how I felt for most of the story. There was far too much teenage angst in this one for me to love it. Yes, Barbie had a tortured past, and I appreciate some of the decisions she made but, my goodness, I kept wanting to shake her and yell “make up your mind already!” Dylan? Again, what is wrong with that boy? He dates Katie yet hates her and keeps trying to get with Barbie. Even when she appears to be dating Kai! Yet he’s the guy readers are supposed to be gushing over? And that ending – rushed is an understatement. It wasn’t a bad book, but when I started skipping pages to avoid unnecessary scenes of sexual frustration, I knew it wasn’t great either. Read this if you want to find out what happens with Barbie and Dylan, but brace yourself.

barbie world heidi D'costa

Check out full review HERE (: 

I was ecstatic to participate in this tour. I absolutely ADORED Barbie Girl and I could not wait to find out what happened with Barbie(and Dylan!!), and I was not disappointed.Barbie World continues shortly after Barbie & Everett have started living with the Knights. Barbie and Dylan are NOT together(boo!) and Barbie has been placed into counselling to try to cope with the issues in her life.I adored Barbie in the first book, and I enjoyed her very much in the second book as well. She’s such a free spirit and incredibly independent. I love how nobody can tell her how to live her life, or what she should do. Dylan was perfect as always. Third was my same, fabulous, silly Third as the first book. I also loved Roxie even more than in Barbie Girl. Actually… I adored all of the characters :P Everett is so incredibly sweet and my heart breaks for the horrible young life he endured being placed with the Knights.Obviously I want this to remain spoiler free so I will try to be as elusive as possible. Barbie World was a perfect continuation(and ending) to the wonderful story of Barbie Girl. It was just as heart wrenching in parts as it’s predecessor and my eyes were welling up repeatedly. One of the toughest topics that Barbie had to deal with was her mother abandoning her and it was extremely painful to go through that with Barbie. One of the most important parts of the story as well is Barbie & Dylan. I had a love/hate relationship with this part of the story. I found there was a lot of back and forth in Barbie World and it started to become a bit tiresome. I still loved their relationship and their journey but I wanted to just yell at them to get it over with! The pacing of that part of the story is the only reason it received 4 stars.The ending was FANTASTIC. I will reveal nothing about this, but let me just say it was quite possibly the very best ending ever. ZERO loose ends… everything was perfect and I was completely content with how the story was completed, although it may not be what you are expecting.If you haven’t read Barbie Girl, I highly recommend picking it up… this is a wonderful series and the conclusion absolutely does the first book justice. If you HAVE read Barbie Girl, you need to read Barbie World