Through computer animation, Barbie has become the nyota of several feature films, including “Barbie in the Nutcracker,” “Barbie as Rapunzel,” “Barbie of swan Lake” and “Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper.” And she has staked her claim on the Web with the maarufu Make Up Barbie Game, which allows girls to alter her hair, makeup and ujumla, jumla look.
In the late 1990s, computer technology boomed, and in 1996, Mattel launched www.barbie.com, the official Barbie website. In 1998, “My Design” was introduced on the site, allowing girls and collectors to decide what their Barbie doll friend would look like kwa choosing her hair/eye/makeup colors, fashion, accessories, and personality traits.
And Barbie’s reach has extended still further, to the vast sub-cult of adult Barbie worshippers, those grownups who collect, display, buy, sell and for whom the words “mint in box” have a freighted significance. Today, Barbie Collector has a website all its own, www.barbiecollector.com. The collector line now even has a dedicated online store at www.barbiecollectiblesstore.com.
Mattel estimates that there are zaidi than 100,000 active Barbie collectors, 90 percent of whom are women with an average age of 40. Forty-five percent of them spend zaidi than $1,000 a mwaka on their dolls. Vintage Barbie dolls are the most valuable: a mint-in-box from 1959 sold for $3,552.50 on eBay in October 2004. (It originally sold for $3.)
The highest price so far to be paid for a Barbie was at a Christie’s auction in London on Sept. 25, 2006. This was a 1965 Barbie dressed in Midnight Red, which had been part of a private collection of 4,000 Barbie dolls. The Barbie was sold for 9,000 sterling pounds (U.S. $17,000). She was sold kwa two Dutch women, Letje Raebel and her daughter, Marina.
In the late 1990s, computer technology boomed, and in 1996, Mattel launched www.barbie.com, the official Barbie website. In 1998, “My Design” was introduced on the site, allowing girls and collectors to decide what their Barbie doll friend would look like kwa choosing her hair/eye/makeup colors, fashion, accessories, and personality traits.
And Barbie’s reach has extended still further, to the vast sub-cult of adult Barbie worshippers, those grownups who collect, display, buy, sell and for whom the words “mint in box” have a freighted significance. Today, Barbie Collector has a website all its own, www.barbiecollector.com. The collector line now even has a dedicated online store at www.barbiecollectiblesstore.com.
Mattel estimates that there are zaidi than 100,000 active Barbie collectors, 90 percent of whom are women with an average age of 40. Forty-five percent of them spend zaidi than $1,000 a mwaka on their dolls. Vintage Barbie dolls are the most valuable: a mint-in-box from 1959 sold for $3,552.50 on eBay in October 2004. (It originally sold for $3.)
The highest price so far to be paid for a Barbie was at a Christie’s auction in London on Sept. 25, 2006. This was a 1965 Barbie dressed in Midnight Red, which had been part of a private collection of 4,000 Barbie dolls. The Barbie was sold for 9,000 sterling pounds (U.S. $17,000). She was sold kwa two Dutch women, Letje Raebel and her daughter, Marina.
