Beloved Hubby's feeling better, but Dearest Son woke up with a headache, and coughing and sniffling. At 100% humidity today, I wasn't feeling much better m'self. But we all struggle through...
ID'd the two ‘painfully generic' redressed Barbie dolls I bought last week to get the hacked-up 70s peasant dress. One was 1995's "Dance Moves" Barbie, which I kinda already knew. I had the DM Teresa for a while - my mother'd found her in a parking lot. Her ‘dance' action and big silver earrings were major clues. The 1987 Rocker Barbie also had the same ‘Real Dancing Action', but the Gymnast body had six years to go before it met the buying public. Plus, her earrings and hair were different.
The other had my curiosity. The front hairline part of her dull, floss-like blonde hair was pulled back over her head like a cap, pony-tailed to fall over the rest. She lacked earring holes, and a slightly curved slot in her back held a lever which made her hybrid-Gymnanst body's arms wave right to left and back. What did she do with that motion ? Hula dance ? Play Guitar ? Rock a baby ? Sweep floors ?
Well, Barbie never cleans, so there went that idea. The Hula Hair doll would have been easy to ID, with her bright pink, orange, and yellow hair, with bangs, plus a full Gymnast body. She didn't look anything like the one guitar ‘playing' doll I knew of, the doll from The Barbie Diaries, and her arms' motion wasn't really a guitar playing one. I found a set from 2000 with Barbie and a baby Krissy, called ‘Bedtime Baby', and in that one, Barbie rocks her infant sister to sleep. But that one had glossy, shiny blonde hair in twin Sailor Moon-style ponytails, with white stud earrings. Face was nearly identical, though, so I knew we were in the right time frame.
A little more poking around...oh. Well, when I said these dolls were painfully generic, I had no idea... What I had was a 2000 "Barbie Loves N'Sync" doll. (yawn) Her arms waved to hold a "home-made" fan sign, thoughtfully professionally printed by Mattel and included in her package. Without the sign, her packaging said her arms' motion was her dancing to the beat. Um...yeah. I always stand straight and wave my arms from left to right and back again in front of my thighs repeatedly when I'm a slave to the rhythm. I'm surprised that wild move isn't busted all over the ‘Aerobics' section of Wii Fit.
Sorry. I shouldn't be so snarky about it. I just thought this doll was a tacky tie-in when she came out - with her two similarly boyband obsessed friends - and even without a shred of N'Sux anywhere on her, I find myself eager to donate her, like right now. I laughed out loud when she piled up on her initial release, not selling, and kept on not selling, even when marked down to $5. at the discount outlets. She's a perfectly acceptable doll, if ya don't mind the huge lever sticking out of her back, and the weird waving motion, but I still think she's too generic to keep and knowing she's a has-been tie-in makes me really wanta dump her. Usually the abandoned status would encourage her stay, but not this time ! Bye Bye Bye ! (yes, I had to look that up to know it was their song)
It was much easier to ID the Jasmine I got from the junk shop Saturday. Water Jewel Magic seems to be the only one ever made with purple earrings. I remember the whole Aladdin line from my TRU employee days, and if the first dolls to come out within a few years of the film can be called vintage, I knew she was just that. The newer ones have a slightly wider face, more innocent and younger looking, with a toothy grin missing that mysterious little smile she had in her heyday, and I've always loved those 90s big anime eyes.
Really, though, of all the head molds for Disney Princesses in Barbie scale, to me, it looks like Jasmine's has changed the least. Looks like her earrings are her ears still - goss, that drove (drives !) me crazy ! - and her eyes are still large and exotic. For a girl who never got out of the palace, Jasmine always struck me as one of the most cosmopolitan, sophisticated women of the DP Pantheon. I'd gladly get her an Aladdin companion, if I could find one without that blasted molded-in fez ! Even the latest ones have it, and it's too big to paint and pretend it's hair. Arrrfgh !
