All My Favorite Dolls: October 2014

Friday, October 31, 2014

Holiday Hostesses with the Mostesses!

In 2011, the Barbie Collector Fan Club released as one of their club dolls, the first in a series called Holiday Hostess. It was a Halloween themed doll with a retro sculpt called Halloween Haunt. I wasn't aware of this as, due to financial reasons, I had dropped out of the club (hits self in the head), but came back to the club in 2013, so I missed out on the initial release of this doll. I obtained her through the secondary market for a steal (using gift cards obtained by doing surveys and such). I am still missing the Thanksgiving doll, the Christmas doll and hope to obtain the New Year's Doll before the year is out, though I was able to obtain the Valentine's Day doll. I've heard next year's doll is St. Patrick's Day themed, which I'm looking forward to with anticipation! This post will focus mainly on Halloween Haunt, as it almost Halloween!
Halloween Haunt Barbie was designed by Bill Greening, who also designed many of my favorite dolls. The doll itself is dressed as a witch in black and orange and comes with a broom and an invitation to the Halloween party. She looks so cute, I can't stand it!

Halloween Haunt Barbie

And with this entry, this completes my Halloween Barbie collection in total! I hope you enjoyed seeing all of the Halloween dolls and I hope you will join me again in my next entry!

Happy Halloween!

Monday, October 20, 2014

Secret Spells

      In 2003, Mattel released a line of Barbie dolls which coincided with Halloween, but weren't exactly Halloween related. They were called Secret Spells Barbie or Charm Girls and consisted of three dolls, Barbie, Kayla and Christie. The promos for the dolls read:

Secret Spells™ Barbie® Doll And Friends AKA Charm Girls
Barbie® doll and her friends Christie® and Kayla® are regular high school girls that have special powers! The dolls have a fashion transformation that turns each of them into an enchantress. Girls can help Barbie® doll and her friends create "magical" mixes for love, luck, or happiness. They can actually drink the magical mixes, too!

   I thought the dolls were GORGEOUS and bought all three of them (of course!). Kayla is my favorite as she has this mysterious look about her. All of the dolls came with spell books and "cauldrons" as well as potion bottles and a drink which could be made up out of a "magic potion".

   In looking up info on the dolls online, I've come across a couple of articles condemning these dolls for promoting witchcraft to little girls. These dolls are fantasy, nothing more. They are make-believe, just like the princess and mermaid dolls. They are a way for a little girl to act out being witchy or believing in magic, but are not a gateway to becoming a witch. To me, this is right up there with the claims of Barbie making little girls anorexic or uncomfortable with their bodies. I am a plus sized woman who has loved Barbie since I was a plus sized girl and never felt like I needed to look like Barbie to be beautiful. Maybe I realized she was make believe and it had nothing to do with me. I don't know. I've just never understood that claim.

Anyways, these dolls are some of my favorite dolls (I do have a thing for witches after all!) and I'm glad Mattel put them out. Here they are in all of their glory.


Secret Spells Barbie - everyday look


Secret Spells Christie - everyday look

Secret Spells Kayla - everyday look

Secret Spells Barbie - witchy look

Secret Spells Christie - witchy look

Secret Spells Kayla - everyday look

For me, these are dolls I would have wanted as a little girl, but I'm glad I was able to get them as an adult too. Blessed be everyone!

Monday, October 13, 2014

Haunted Beauty and Yes They Are!

In 2012, Barbie Collector released a Halloween collector doll called "Haunted Beauty Ghost". She was designed by Bill Greening, who's previous works I've liked, but I wasn't able to buy her at the time due to lack of funds. I've regretted this for a long time, since she was a collector Halloween doll. I was able to get the second doll in the series, last year's "Haunted Beauty Vampire". She was GORGEOUS! I was thrilled with her. This year's release is called "Haunted Beauty Mistress of the Manor" and I was able to purchase her as well as the Ghost, which I bought from a buyer on Ebay. Oh, the power of Ebay. If you wait long enough, whatever you want, will show up!
The dolls arrive in a black box, which is appropriate on many levels, and have a plastic cover, so you can see the whole doll if you don't want to remove her from the box.

Haunted Beauty Ghost box

Haunted Beauty Vampire box

Haunted Beauty Mistress of the Manor box

The dolls themselves use the Model Muse body type and have jointed elbows and wrists, but their legs don't bend. Of course since they are covered by long skirts, there's no need for them to be posed. Without further ado, here are the dolls!

Haunted Beauty Ghost

Haunted Beauty Vampire

Haunted Beauty Mistress of the Manor

These ladies are GORGEOUS! I love the face molds, the costumes and especially the "Life in the Scream House" book the Mistress of the Manor holds (a take off of "Life in the Dream House in the playline Barbies and Barbie's own "reality" show, which is a scream in itself!). I can't wait to see what next year brings to this series!

Monday, October 6, 2014

Halloween Barbies 2014 complete!

I now have all of the Halloween Barbie dolls released this year and my Halloween collection is complete again. I managed to find the "Grocery Store" version, simply called "Barbie" on Ebay as I wasn't having any luck finding it in the stores.

Halloween Barbie 2014

I also found two cute little Halloween Barbie dolls at Target. These look like they are the mini Barbie figurines, which I don't collect, but since these are Halloweeny, I had to buy them!

Mini Halloween Barbie dolls 2014

And finally, I have this year's Haunted Beauty doll, Mistress of the Manor, on the way to my house. I can't wait for this one to arrive so I can finish my Halloween Barbie display!

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Just Hanging Out in My Room

    The final line of the Generation Girl dolls featured the dolls in their bedrooms. This line included Barbie, Lara, Nichelle, Tori, Mari and brought back Ana. Blaine was a Toys R Us exclusive. Chelsie was missing from this line. The Generation Girl website explained this by having her move to China.
    The dolls came with accessories and furniture and the packaging also included floor areas and, except for Tori, an additional wall space. They also had one additional outfit, which also came with a matching bracelet for you.
      This line was interesting as it added to the personalities of the dolls. I mean, you can tell a person's personality by looking at their bedroom, which is the most private area of a person's house. There, they can decorate however they like, so their true personality shows through since people only invite those they want into their bedrooms. Barbie's showed off her love of movies, Nichelle's had fashion themed items, Mari was techno themed and Ana showed off her love of the ocean.
     Speaking of Ana, I always felt her additional outfit was meant for the Dance Party line. It seems more "party like" than the rest of the outfits and I came across a picture on BarbieCollector.com years ago that seemed to support this.


Possible Dance Party Ana?

This doll has her hair done differently, but the color of the outfit and the necklace seem to point to her additional outfit. I so wish they would have made this doll, but I was happy she was back in the My Room line.