Barbie - American Girl Collector Doll
- wingedmermaid
- Mar 6
- 4 min read
Updated: Mar 26
It's pretty fitting that my first American Girl Collector Doll would be the Classic Barbie. I've been a Barbie fan pretty much my entire life -- thanks to my mom, an equally obsessed doll lover -- and although my excitement for collecting Barbie or consuming Barbie content has ebbed and flowed over the years, I don't foresee me ever outgrowing the brand.
When I was a kid, I asked for Barbies or Barbie items for practically every birthday and Christmas. I had a lot of the classic '90's Barbies, like Totally Hair, Jewel Hair Mermaid, Butterfly Princess, Bubble Angel, and Hot Skatin' Barbie. When I was older, I began gravitating more toward the collector dolls, with my first being the original Barbie as Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz doll. I remember it feeling like an especially big deal because I'd saved up for her for what felt like forever and I was a few years shy of the recommended "14 years and up." I still remember taking the paper slip from the display at Toys 'R' Us, proudly handing it to the employee, and waiting excitedly as they went to the back and brought out my first "grown up" Barbie. (Man, I still miss Toys 'R' Us...)
In addition to the toys, I've loved playing the Barbie video games -- from the (actually pretty questionable) Barbie Commodore 64 game to PS2's Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses game, and I've seen most of the movies over and over (sometimes to my husband's dismay lol).
For years, I kept my love of Barbie mostly to myself, only allowing small visible nods like my keychain, because even as a teenager, most people I encountered were of the mind that dolls were for little girls only. Imagine my surprise when the Barbie movie was released and suddenly, practically everyone was a fellow Barbie fan! (Well, except the people who were offended when the movie depicted the Barbie world in pretty much the exact way most girls played with the dolls. My Barbies were always powerful and successful women and my singular Ken and Aladdin dolls were always trying their best to be noticed by the ladies lol).
I also didn't expect the sheer number of collaborations with Barbie, including one I wouldn't have guessed would happen in a million years -- a collaboration with Lionel Trains to produce boxcars and an upcoming battery operated train! I'm sure my dad was laughing at the shock on my face when I first saw the announcement. As I've mentioned before, he was to model trains as I am to dolls. I think I preordered the Classic Barbie boxcar that same day!
When it came to the preorder for the American Girl Classic Barbie, I knew it wouldn't be quite as easy. Not only would my mom and I (because she definitely wanted one, too) need to contend with other American Girl collectors, but some of the stock would be sold via the Mattel Creations website, and no one knew how things would be split. I think I was up at 5-something a.m. the day they went on sale -- but it was absolutely worth it!
Then, almost a year later, our dolls finally arrived!
Overall, I'm SUPER happy with my doll. Her face paint is beautiful, her costume is well-made, and I love the stand, the shoes, and the little additional accessories. The only thing I think could've been done better is her wig. It's hard to tell when she's in the box, but Barbie's ponytail almost feels like it's meant to just look good in the box, not from all angles when she's out of it. When I unboxed my doll, her ponytail fell lower than it had been in the box and the wig had smaller pieces that stuck out here and there.
I decided to try redoing her hairstyle, pulling her hair into a higher ponytail and trying to get the shorter hairs to hide under the longer hairs of the wig. I even re-sewed the loop of hair that hides the rubber band. I'm hoping I did a good enough job that it'll hold, but I wonder if I should've used a tighter band. I might eventually add another loop of thread to help the ponytail stay in place.
Barbie looks amazing in some of the historical outfits. I have her in Nanea's bathing suit right now and it looks like it was made for her! My goal for Barbie is to dress her in some 18" versions of some of my favorite classic Barbie outfits -- though I'll probably start with something easier, like a sundress. I actually wanted to wait to make this post until I'd completed a new outfit for her, but now that we're into March, I figured it might be better to make her intro post now and just add on to it later.
I know the American Girl Barbie isn't everyone's cup of tea. Some people think she looks way too old. But I really love her. I think American Girl did a good job translating the original Barbie doll into AG form. I just hope I can make her some vintage outfits that do her justice!
