Thursday, May 2, 2024

Barbie Dreamhouse Over Six Decades: An Architectural Tour The New York Times

original barbie dream house

Her 1983 Barbie Dream Cottage included the same bright orange and yellows of the A-Frame house but had an open floor plan with an enclosed rooftop that could be used for imaginary pool parties and barbeques. While not as collectible as the previous homes are, this set can be worth between $100-$150. For example, one seller has listed a Barbie Dream Cottage with the original instructions for about $150.

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If you already have the shell of the house, but lack the appropriate furniture, you can find blow-up plastic furniture sold separately for about $15-$20 each. $375 is a bit too expensive for a cardboard Barbie dream house, even if we talk about vintage collectibles. However, we’ve included this one in our list of the 19 most valuable vintage Barbie dream houses because it’s worth every penny. Unlike the 1962 Barbie dream house, this one was a much-limited edition, and you will not find many of its pieces available for sale.

Barbie Dream House By Mattel, Inc. Doll, House and Accessories

The funds will help “to build girls’ confidence and help them excel in school – ensuring everyone has equal opportunity to achieve success,” per a release. Only a few lucky Barbie superfans will get to snooze at the pink-powered seaside property, but these cool Barbiecore finds let you recreate the whimsical experience at home. In 2019, with the marking of Barbie's 60th anniversary, Mattel released a new Barbie body type that featured a smaller bust, less defined waist and more defined arms.

Barbie and Ken Break Up?!

Thanks to the ideal structure and supporting props, it soon became Mattel’s second hit. Basically, Ruth Handler (the co-founder of Mattel) observed her little girl playing with make-believe paper dolls. Quite interestingly, her daughter fantasized about the lives of adult women and used to imagine them when playing with her paper dolls. Barbie’s dream house was created in 1962 to facilitate the living of the sensational doll that came out in 1959 from the same toy-manufacturing company, i.e., Mattel. Back in the 1960s, if you had a Barbie dream house, you were the kid of the town.

'80s-tastic Townhouse (

You can even see the Barbie doll that started it all, clad in a black and white striped swimsuit and her iconic ponytail. The real-life Barbie DreamHouse is reopening its doors in Malibu soon — but this time, the three-story Airbnb promises big Kenergy. The seaside property with panoramic views first went up for rent in 2019, and Ken has redecorated the bright pink pad ahead of Greta Gerwig’s highly-anticipated Barbie film. To address longtime criticism that Barbie dolls did not accurately reflect the diversity of the modern woman, Mattel in 2016 introduced Barbie Fashionistas.

Even though the first ever Barbie dream house was only made of cardboard, it was one premium toy. The book examines the cultural and architectural forces that shaped the Dreamhouses over the decades, including Queen Anne Victorianism, midcentury modernism and back-to-the-land granola-ism. This house is an updated version of the pink Victorian house. It came with updated furniture and significantly more accessories.

original barbie dream house

‘Barbie' Movie Drops New Teaser With Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling and More

Why The Original Barbie Movie Idea Never Would Have Worked - IGN

Why The Original Barbie Movie Idea Never Would Have Worked.

Posted: Mon, 17 Jul 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

Since a lot of people are selling their pre-owned Barbie dream houses, buyers have an edge in considering all available options and choosing the cheapest one. There’s only one piece of the original Barbie 1983 townhouse offered by the seller. All pieces are in mint condition with minor scratches.

Barbie 3-Story Dreamhouse

original barbie dream house

They came in four body types, seven skin tones, 22 eye colors and 24 hairstyles. Barbie’s official birthday is March 9, 1959—the day she was officially introduced to the world. Handler always saw Barbie as a reflection of the times, with the first doll mimicking the glamour of 1950s stars such as Elizabeth Taylor and Marilyn Monroe.

Given Andy Warhol’s longtime fascination with iconic stars such as Jackie Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley, it came as little surprise that the Pop artist would get around to depicting Barbie. The inspiration for his 1986 painting came from his longtime friendship with a jewelry designer, who happened to be an avid Barbie collector with tens of thousands of dolls. Barbie’s appearance was modeled after a doll named the Bild Lilli, which had been inspired by a German comic-strip character. Originally marketed as a racy gag gift that men could buy in tobacco shops, the Lilli doll later became extremely popular with children. Mattel bought the rights to Lilli, and Handler created her own version. A later version of the townhouse, produced in the 1980s, was more Postmodern in concept, featuring checked black-and-white kitchen floors and a massive sunken tub in the bathroom.

We particularly found this one valuable because you get about 100 additional pieces, along with the basic framework, at only around $285. Initially, everything about Barbie and her dream house depended on what was trending in the real world. If A-roof houses dominated real estate at the time, then that’s exactly what Barbie’s dream house looked like. Barbie’s dream house surfaced as a major jump from urban settings to sub-urban settings. This unique edition of the Barbie dream house featured a spacious rooftop and ground floor. Barbie went back to a detached, non-condo in the late '70s — an A-frame house with six rooms and working windows and doors.

All of the vintage Barbie dream houses listed on the internet, or sold by anyone at all, are used. You’ve to check the degree or intensity of usage before purchasing. Only a few people categorize the 1998 edition of Barbie’s dream house as a vintage collectible. As mentioned earlier, the cost of this cardboard dollhouse is only eight dollars. The seller put this dream house up for sale at eBay’s auction. After seven bids, it got sold out for around $76, and the shipping charges that the buyer paid to acquire this asset was around $114.

Amid a rash of high-profile celebrity breakups, Barbie and Ken made news of their own in 2004 when they decided they were better off as friends. They didn’t have to worry about splitting up their things though; the Dream House was always Barbie’s. For decades to come, Barbie continued to evolve with the changing times. Here's a look at her cultural revolution through the years. Get our guide to events and happenings in the SoCal arts scene. Naturally, all of this has gotten me thinking about Barbie Dreamhouses.

The furniture within the house fit perfectly and gave a chic look on the whole. It’s all pink color scheme happened to be another major attraction for young girls. The original Barbie's Dream House was a portable playset that unfolded into an open-area home space which Barbie could stand in. Made out of cardboard, this playset came with a bunch of different cardboard interior pieces like chairs, sofas, tables, and the like that you could easily assemble. This playset particularly reflects the Mid-century Modern style that was popular during the year it was released (1962), and reproductions of it can be bought on the Mattel website.

Therefore, its popularity and success rate did not out-do Barbie’s Magical Mansion. The second reason is highly likely because Mattel launched a brand new design of Barbie dream house the very next year. When the doll debuted in 1959, she had nowhere to live at all aside from a child’s drawer, shoebox, or closet. It’s not just apparel but a ceaseless stream of accessories, from cars to pets to boyfriends.

In 2018, Mattel released a new “Inspiring Women” collection that features three ground-breaking, history-making women—Amelia Earhart, Frida Kahlo and Katherine Johnson. Earhart was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, and the first person ever to fly solo from Hawaii to the U.S. mainland. Kahlo was not only an inspiring and beloved painter, she was an activist who continues to influence women’s movements today. Johnson—who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015 by President Barack Obama—was a physicist, space scientist and mathematician at NASA’s Langley Center. She provided the calculations for Alan Shepherd’s historic first flight into space, John Glenn’s ground-breaking orbit of the earth and the trajectory for Apollo 11’s moon landing.

Gone are the hundreds of plastic chocking hazards that snap together, and instead, welcome the fun to build Barbie Dream House that our mothers loved. As the years went on, Barbie's houses got new looks every few years, but it's hard to forget the original. Well, luckily for us and all those lucky kids who are young enough to still play with Barbies without it being weird, Mattel has decided to bring back the classic Dream House. One lucky Barbie superfan will even get the chance the stay in the Barbie Dreamhouse, which will depend on which design duo wins the competition. Get HISTORY’s most fascinating stories delivered to your inbox three times a week. What’s intriguing to me are the ways in which the Barbie Dreamhouse has evolved — growing increasingly fantastical over the decades.

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