My First Barbie & Ken
Today I am going to show you a set of two dolls. These are from the 1980s and feature Barbie and Ken as ballet dancers. They are wearing their original outfits and have only been removed from their boxes to examine and look at. Unfortunately the front of these boxes have deteriorated over the years I have owned them. The pink has badly faded and the cellophane panel has discoloured. Their outfits still look very nice however. Inside there is a cardboard punch out trophy and other bits and pieces. Of course they won! The date on the box is 1988. The box states they are “Easy to Dress” and for “Ages over 3” There was a poster inside showing all the Barbies and other dolls available at the time as well as all the accessories. I have tried to photograph this so I hope you will be able to see it ok. Here are the photos I took today after work.
Dolls, Dolls, Dolls 
I had forgotten you had a boxed My First Barbie as your other one, the 1980 one I think is at my house.
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This Barbie has such a sweet face. There is something very charming about the Barbie dolls from the 1980s.
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They look starry eyed and innocent and I think a lot more imagination and creativity went into making Barbie and her friends back then. More things for little girls to do with them.
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The posters remind me that when I was buying dolls for my girls, they were excited to get these in a box because the used them as mini catalogs to save and show me what they wanted for their birthdays or Christmas. Our very small budget for presents back in the 1980’s meant that I usually bought the the beach dolls, because they were the cheapest at around $3-$5 each and the girls got more dolls that way. I bought “Beach Blast or Island Fun, “or anything similar for quantity and then buy separate special outfits. I made doll clothes for the girls some sewn, but mainly knit/ crochet outfits after a Mattel dress ripped at the seams on first try. ( about 1987) What a day that was! It was a simple wedding dress and she was being very careful because I had told it would fit pretty snug, and it tore. Devastated daughter and angry mom( who wasted $8 on flimsy nylon material outfit) so I had to make her an outfit fast. Homemade doll clothes were what my girls had and yard sale clothes. So sad today, they don’t promote making outfits by Mattel any more. I think it hinders more creativity in our kids to not encourage them to make their own stuff. Sorry, long winded! 1980-1990’s dolls are my favorites.
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Mum made clothes for our dolls out of socks when we needed a quick outfit. We were each given some clone doll outfits but they were very nice ones. I never had Barbie dolls either. I got the cheaper clone dolls. We didn’t always have a lot of money to go around but Mum did her best for us. I finally got my first real Barbie doll in 1998 aged 38! I enjoyed reading about your girl’s Barbies.
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Thank you. Yard sales is where I got a lot of dolls and clothes, occasionally church rummage sales . I enjoy this blog a lot and I hope the fires are dying out so Vanda can come home safely.
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We are hoping to get her home this weekend if all goes well. Wish her luck.
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Here’s hopping Vanda’s hope soon! I donated some first Barbies and Ken for secret Santa, because they were better than the newer dolls.There used to be clothing you could print on the computer on thin knit sheets on a paper, you cut them out but used double sided tape to adhere seams together. The patterns and designs were pretty basic but a creative outlet for kids and parents.
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