It's Hard To Narrow Down My Favourite Barbies Of All Time, As There Are Just So Many. However, Of The

Barbie is not the only character in the Barbie line to have received collectors edition dolls themed after other media. (I mean, Ken too, but this post isn't about Ken.)

Kelly and Tommy (before Kelly became Chelsea) featured in a variety of tie-ins, including in collections that also featured Barbie and Ken such as the Grease line-up, as well as in collections of their own.

Storybook Favorites, for example, was a line-up featuring Kelly and Tommy as classic children's book and fairy tale characters. I never grew up on Raggedy Ann and Andy and always thought they were just names for a line of dolls themselves, so it was only upon looking it up that I discovered the books came first.

I find the Hansel & Gretel way cuter, personally, but that's just my bias showing.

But besides the four in the Storybook Favorites Collection, there have been others. Some of these actually turn up on the secondary market bundled with Storybook Favorites, and I can see why, because they do look broadly similar in style and theme. For example, Kelly and Tommy as Mickey and Minnie Mouse.

I don't know how I feel about this one, whether it's cute or creepy or somewhere in between.

Or as the cast of Wizard of Oz. This one i am completely unreserved about in my praise. I think these are adorable. 10/10 design aesthetic. I mean, just look at Tommy as the Scarecrow above compared to Ken as the Scarecrow in the Barbie and Ken Wizard of Oz lineups.

Tommy does it better!

Voici comment vous pouvez procéder pour réaliser un diorama pour votre poupée Barbie.

Vous pouvez utiliser du carton, pour créer les murs, le sol et les éléments du diorama. Colle, ciseaux, ruban adhésif : pour assembler et fixer les éléments. Tissus, papier fantaisie ou autres matériaux pour la décoration. Vous pouvez utiliser des miniatures de meubles, de plantes, d'animaux domestiques, de lampes, etc. Des photos ou images imprimées : pour créer des arrière-plans ou des images de paysages.

"Abandoned" Dollhouses by artist Juli Steel

Day at the Beach

“The ocean is my happy place.” ♫Beyond the Sea by Bobby Darin (Dal doll by Groove, Pullip type doll)

“We are like snowflakes, all different in our own beautiful way.”

Lumi and Icelyn wish everyone a warm and wonderful winter!

Equestria girls should have been

I made a tutorial! Hopefully this is useful to somebody out there. This method would also be useful for modding other “plug connector” heads onto much nicer bodies.

Doll of the Day: Legends of Ireland: The Bard Barbie.

Our doll today is The Bard Barbie doll. She was released in 2004 as part of the Legends of Ireland Collection, one of Mattel’s most beautiful Fantasy inspired collections to this day. She is a Limited Edition doll, and one of my favorite dolls in this specific collection. Considering we have a Ireland for our history theme tomorrow (spoiler), I thought she’d fit perfectly.

Her dress is one of the loveliest creations that came from Mattel. It’s inspired by Medieval attire (Cotehardie over kirtle), but closer to 19th Century Pre-Raphaelite and Celtic Revivalist art than to actual Medieval clothing. Although it’s not completely historically accurate, it is no doubt gorgeous. As I mentioned before, my favorite kind of Fantasy outfits have some history as inspiration, so she’s just my kind of doll. The make up though… MAC Ireland rather than Medieval Ireland.

Well, now’s the part where I start spiiling the IRL pictures, right? But, I’ve had a minor problem. I was a child when I got this doll, and as a child I was a bit of an iconoclast…

So, I might have left this doll a little too much exposed to sunlight (not to mention pool water and all that a child can think of as an adventure) my poor Bard doll’s head has yellowed way too much and there’s no retouching I can do.

Soooo, I did the next best thing: I picked up another doll, dressed her in The Bard’s dress, and voilà! The doll chosen to represent her is a modern fashion doll by Integrity Toys. Her hair has been rerooted (a doll world word for taking the doll’s head off and changing all her hair) in a blonde color that is the closest I have to the original Barbie’s tone. The make up is modern, but it’s softer than some of my other dolls’ makeups. Loose hair isn’t period either, but it works both for Pre-Raphaelite art and for Fantasy, so again, I’ll let it slide.

The harp used in the photoshoot came with the original doll. I was very happy to discover it wasn’t just a prop for the stock photo, and I’m even happier it survived my childhood!