Barbie Paper Dolls a Hit In The Great Depression
Barbie has always been well loved by little girls. Many mom’s have smiles on their faces as they watch their daughters play with such objects. Barbie paper dolls became a hit in the 1950’s due to the Great Depression. Children weren’t able to have all the toys they once did, but paper dolls were very inexpensive. They were also something that offered little girls hours of entertainment. They could pretend to be anything they wanted and escape the reality of what was going on around them.
Even after the Great Depression ended though, Barbie paper dolls continued to be a huge selling item. By the 1970’s the manufacturers were also printing them of her sister Skipper as well. Even though she never became as famous as Barbie, she definitely had high numbers of sales. It was also great fun for little girls to have both Barbie and Skipper to play with. However, there were many arguments out there between siblings as to who got to be which one of the paper dolls.
Towards 1975 there were more Barbie friends introduced to the line up. Ken who has been Barbie’s long time boyfriend was added. Her friend Midge was also featured in some areas. With the addition of Ken, there were often little boys taking the time to play with paper dolls as well. Due to the stereotypical roles of males being what they were at that time though, it was often frowned upon in most households.
There have been very few new lines of Barbie paper dolls to emerge on the market since the 1990’s. Those individuals that still have them from the 1950’s and even the early 1970’s have a very valuable collectible on their hands. These items are bringing in thousands of dollars depending on the quality of the materials.
Today, most little girls that are interested in Barbie paper dolls do it on the computer. Barbie has her own site where you can click on clothes and drag them to place on her. There is even great music to go along with it. Children of all ages seem to be enjoying using the computer for such games. They can even choose to print out their final production if they choose to.
Are You Looking For A Collectible Barbie Doll?
Who knew that almost 50 years onwards that people will still look for collectible Barbie dolls? Chances are nobody but as history has shown, there are people who are willing to pay thousands of dollars just to have this in their collection.
In the Beginning, Barbie was just a fashion model. She worked a variety of jobs that people could relate to, such as a teacher, an artist, a nurse, a medic and a cheerleader. Accessories such as cars, houses and clothes were made and she was soon paired with her boyfriend then husband namely Ken with 6 kids. The Barbie series was such a big hit that no other toy ever came to close to it.
But in the 1970’s, Mattel changed its approach. If you were to compare the Barbie dolls made until the year 1967, you will notice a big difference and that is the dolls were not made of the same high quality.
Some say that Mattel focused more on making a profit instead of continuing what they started.
It wasn’t until the mid 80’s that they began to refocus and designed a new Barbie doll called Porcelain Rhapsody in Blue Barbie. This was soon followed by Happy Holiday Barbie two years later. To mark Mattel’s 35th year anniversary, they reproduced again the original Barbie doll that came out in 1959. Given that were only a handful made, it was very difficult to find one and its market value today is a little over $600.
Given that Barbie could fetch for hundreds of dollars, a lot of consumers bought everything off the shelves in order to make money. To calm things down, the company increased the production and things began to normalize.
As a result, only a handful of collectible Barbie dolls and accessories are worth a lot of money. What was worth $10,000 like the 1959 Barbie doll isn’t really worth that much, but people are still willing to spend money in order to add this doll to their collection.
Now that you have your Barbie collectible doll, how do you take care of it? Collector’s are advised to leave it inside the original packaging and placed face down if this will not be displayed. If this is going to be placed on a shelf, this should be dusted regularly.
If you are able to dust regularly, you can put your Barbie collectible doll in a plastic container. Just put some holes so moisture will not accumulate and able to evaporate. Also, do not expose the doll to direct sunlight as it will fade or discolor her clothing and skin.
For those hoping to find Barbie collectible dolls, the best place to find them is in a convention, specialty store, garage sales, pawnshops and online. You just have to search high and low but most importantly.
Barbie’s had her 50th birthday. What does the company plan for her now? We will just have to see. Who knows, this could be another Barbie collectible doll worth selling to the highest bidder 20 or 30 years from now.
