Today I thought you might like to see the two Rocker Barbies I posted about recently. I have done their hair, cleaned the glitter from curly haired Barbie and redressed them in some era appropriate clothing as I don’t have any Barbie and the Rockers fashions on hand.
Our first doll is the smooth haired Barbie. I had wondered whether to curl her hair and decided not to. In the end I just put it up in a high ponytail. I actually prefer her softer make up to the other one. Here are the before and after shots.
The other Barbie I was more worried about because I didn’t want to ruin her hair. I really needed to wash her though. It turned out that the glitter came off her body quite easily with Dawn. I didn’t even really have to scrub. I had been planning to leave her legs as they were but as the glitter was coming off anyway, I washed it all off. I washed and conditioned her hair and I’m pleased to say that the curl remained intact. I think the wash brought out the colour more too.
I am quite pleased with the results for these two girls and they will now be put aside for rehoming.
Unfortunately there is no chance that their previous owner can have any dolls back. It is impossible for us to keep all of these dolls and a lot of them are not what we collect so in the near future I will offer them for sale either in the Facebook doll groups I belong to or eBay. Some dolls may go to Op Shops too but the older ones that I can identify I would prefer see go to collectors who will look after them. Many of the 90s dolls seem to be quite popular now. I have seen too many dolls in terrible condition at Op Shops and I think it would be a shame for these dolls to end up naked and dirty in someone’s backyard.
For me the pleasure of having these crates of dolls is having the chance to fix, photograph and identify them. Having said that there is a crate put aside for “keepers” who will join my own collection and be used for photo shoots and dioramas.
Dolls, Dolls, Dolls 
Both dolls look even nicer since they’ve had their spa treatments. Their new outfits are great and the knit dresses are so cute. In the last picture they look like sisters. It’s satisfying to bring dolls back to their former beauty. I can identify with the choices you are making about rehoming them. There are some thrift shops I won’t donate dolls to as they just throw them helter skelter into a bin.
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They do look like sisters don’t they? At the Op Shop I worked at the dolls were displayed on a shelf with other toys but children who came into the shop were allowed to play with whatever they fancied. The parents just left them to play while they shopped and some of them would mess up the dolls, take their clothes off and lose them which annoyed me after I’d spent time fixing them. As for the ones that came in as donations. Well you’ve seen some of them here. I don’t want that for the dolls we can’t keep.
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I agree, my first thought is that they look like sisters You have done a fantastic job as normal. It is a shame children don’t look after them. Why do they always end up with no clothes on? My sister and I always kept our dolls fully dressed at all times. We would get them out, redress them and when we had finished playing with them , they were put away carefully in the clothes they were wearing. All my dolls now are also fully dressed at all times too.
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I think that there are two things. One is that I think that some children don’t get taught how to play with or take care of their dolls. The other is that Barbie is now marketed to a younger age group, 3-7. I was nearly seven before I got my first fashion doll.
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I think you’re right. We were playing with them right up to the age of 12-13 and outfits were more readily available and we also made our own. These days even toy shops are rare. We used to have three in our town. Now there are none. Luckily we have Argos where the new Sindys are and even better that my son works there. You can imagine what is on my Christmas list!
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Oh that is fantastic, a direct line to the toy store. There are a lot fewer toy stores here too and the Barbie aisle in department stores and chain stores has shrunk dramatically. When Naomi and I first started colleting in the late 90s there was a big Toys R Us in Adelaide and it had a huge Barbie aisle. In fact both sides of it were not enough room for all the dolls, clothes and accessories. It was amazing, I could spend half an hour or more there. The other stores all had a few things too so we’d do a “Barbie run” around town stopping in the major department stores . We also covered all the suburban stores where you could buy dolls. I’d look at the ones in the south and Naomi the north and west. We nearly always found something we wanted. I think it is a shame that just as they get to the age to play dolls properly children are discouraged from doing so.
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It is a shame. At least we had a proper childhood. All they want now are electronic devices! A friend at work recently went to Hamleys for her daughter’s 5th birthday in London. It is a huge toy shop with multiple floors and she said the Barbie isle was amazing, but very expensive!
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I’d love to visit Hamleys!
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