Retro Barbies

As Mallory gets a little older she is more and more interested in Barbies.  I, for one, am VERY excited about this as I was VERY into Barbies for a VERY long time.  During a recent conversation about Barbies Mallory asked me if I had any Barbies when I was a kid to which I replied "oh yes, I had a whole treasure chest FULL of Barbies and Barbie stuff".  Immediately her wheels were turning and she softly asked "do you still have any of them?"  I had to think about it for a second when I remembered that I didn't really know what had come of my Barbie collection.  I called up my mom and asked.  Mom seemed to think they were still in their basement storage room somewhere so I promised Mallory that the next time we were at Grandma and Grandpa's house we would look for them. 

Needless to say, Mallory did not forget.  A few weeks ago, we stopped by Grandma and Grandpa's house on the way to the cabin for a few days during spring break and look what we found...

 

We took the chest with us to the cabin and opened it up to find all kinds of Barbie stuff inside.  I was surprised to see everything in such good condition.  All the items do need to be aired out a little bit so that's what we did.  We took EVERYTHING out and spread it around so it could air out a little and I could take inventory.  First item of interest was Barbie's Tropical Pool and Patio Set....

 

 

Yep.  Still in the box with ALL the pieces.  My jaw dropped.  I can remember the Christmas when I got this toy from my parents.  We were allowed a $50 Christmas budget for our wish list.  Being country kids, my brother and I waited and watched daily for the delivery of the Sears and JCPenney Christmas catalogs around Christmas time.  When the catalogs came this particular year, this was the ONLY thing I circled in BOTH catalogs.  I want to say it cost around $45.00.  I knew it would eat up my whole Christmas budget, but I didn't care, it was all I wanted and more and I GOT IT!  I had a lot of fun putting it together for Mallory.  She thinks it's so cool! 

 

 

I also learned that my OCD tendencies were prevelent in my early years.  Look at how I had everything separated in bags and labeled.  This totally cracked me up.  Crystal Ken got his own bag while everything else had to be lumped together.  There was even one bag labeled "junk".  Unreal.  





 

I was also surpised to see I still had all the original members of the Barbie and The Rockers Band.  This was a collection a few years in the making.  Like most toys from my childhood memories, this particular toy seemed so much bigger and better to me as a kid.  I don't mind now because Mallory spent her entire afternoon playing with this stage and the whole set up.  She thinks it's the best one from the treasure chest and was very content with her new found fun. 





 

There larger items were not the only things we found.  Also in the treasure chest was Barbie's bicycle (which you can see laying in the background in the above photo).  The bike came complete with a basket, helmet and kickstand.  Barbie's white horse with side saddle was also in there along with some homemade furniture, 4 more Barbies (in addition to the Rocker's band), two Ken dolls, Totally Hair Brunette Barbie and a whole bunch of clothing.  After some serious inspection by both Mallory and I (she was very serious during this, it was adorable) we came to the determination those Barbies were going to need new clothing.  Most of the outfits have rips and tears (being held together by safety pins), discoloration from being in the treasure chest and are grossly outdated.  That got me thinking about the last time these Barbies were actually played with.  I can remember outgrowing Barbies in the fifth or sixth grade, maybe even a little earlier.  My math isn't that great but I figure you turn eleven in the fifth grade so it's very possible these Barbies have not been played with for 25 years. 

 

I am so excited they have new life and I look forward to shopping for Barbie accesories with Mallory.  We opted to leave them at the cabin so she would have some "new" toys to play with when she's down there and this way they will get an opportunity to air out.  What a great way to encorporate my past into my present!