Saturday's Flea Market Find

Found for $5 bucks on Saturday morning is this cute Room-fulls Studio Bedroom set from c. 1974-75.  Too new to be considered vintage by some collectors, they've nevertheless become popular since they are so good for displaying your dolls.

Barbie on the box is wearing Best Buy #7814, also from 1974.  Looks like a Malibu Barbie to me. She has the old-style Japan arms.

The box is pretty beat up but the goodies inside are okay.

The back of the box has a cool 70s graphic, with a sunny sun smiling on Barbie's house.

Other sets included a living room and kitchen.  They are somewhat cheaply made like most Mattel items from this era, but the backdrops are amazing!

Close-up of the bedroom graphic.

Close-up of the other sets.

The chair is somewhat overstuffed and made with a thin felt-like fabric.  It doesn't stand up very well but does better when Barbie is sitting on it.  It's a little dirty so I'm going to attempt to spot clean it.

The studio bed/sofa is a blue plastic box (that oddly enough seems to have two "mounting screw holes" in the top of it for some reason... (picture later?)  The "bedspread" is a very tightly fitted cover that cannot be used as a blanket or anything, just as a cover to the plastic box.  The pillows are cotton fabric in a calico strawberry print.  The bedspread patchwork-esque fabric should be familiar to collectors of Best Buy-era fashions, because it was used in several outfits.  Barbie's Best Buy #7414 from 1975 used this fabric, as did Tutti's #7481 from 1976 Europe.  It's also likely this fabric appears in other outfits that Mattel used to de-stash, because I have a feeling I have several other items in this print.  

The radio/hi-fi/stereo cabinet is just a blue plastic shape with stickers making the graphics.

The backdrop is the best part!  Cool graphics and really good to encourage the imagination.  It can be folded in various ways to make a room-shape.  (The yellow card is just a carpet stand-in and was not actually included.)  I also like that they went through the effort to make the cushion on the stool match the print of the bed.

Sadly the stuffed elephant that is supposed to be included is missing.  If I see the flea market guy again I'll have to ask him to let me know if he finds it in with his boxes of various junk. :)

Anyway, that's the find of the week.

Weekend Doll Haul

Had a pretty decent doll haul this past weekend... but it came with a long and somewhat irritating story.

A few weeks ago I was at a big flea market that happens a few times a month in the summer.  A guy had a Barbie case full of some pretty good clothes and stuff.  He said he picked it up from another guy at the market that same morning (Argh, I was too late!)  As I was going through it, he quoted me a price.  As I was doing math in my head to decide if I wanted to spend that much or not, he changed his mind about wanting to sell it, and took it away from me and put it in his truck!

I was so upset.  I practically cried!  A few booths down, I found another Barbie case full of stuff (not as good) which I bought for a much lower price, and on any other day that would have delighted me, but since I had just lost that big ol' lot, I was still pretty depressed.

Fast forward a few weeks, the same guy has the same case full of stuff for double what he wanted before.  UGH.  Not to mention, this guy has given me a bit of a hard time on Barbie items in previous summers.

So, math in my head again and I decided to buy it anyway, since it had a lot of mod clothes and also as you can see London Tour (#1661) which I really wanted.  I was still steamed about him doubling the price and also being kind mean about it (not to mention repeatedly calling me "honey.")

I'm pretty stoked about the numerous complete Ken outfits that were included, London Tour, part of  Lamb and Leather (#1467), plus some rarer Best Buy stuff.  All in all, it had my money's worth, but I would have felt more comfortable if it was about $20 less than what I paid.  Plus, it smells like cigarettes.  Urgggh.

ANYWHOO, I spent a few days cataloging and ID'ing some stuff I didn't recognize right off the bat.  Here's a fun thing I discovered while I was doing it:

This is Best Buy #3206, from 1973, nicknamed by some (collectors?) as Simply Summer.  It features a skirt and hat made from the same fabric as Bubbles 'n' Boots (#3421) from 1971-1972.  It used to be 1973 wasn't considered "vintage era," but I tend to consider Best Buy outfits as "vintage" these days.

Anywhoo, while looking at other people's pics of  #3206, I noticed some of them have the thick/big bubbles at the top of the skirt, and others have them at the bottom.  It just depends on who made the dress or who cut out the fabric that day, I guess.  Or where the fabric was on the bolt, or the best way to use the most fabric the best/cheapest way.

I have no way of knowing which is rarer for sure, but it seemed like the "big bubbles at the top" version is slightly more prevalent than the "big bubbles at the bottom" version.

(*Side Note:  Bubbles 'n' Boots also has print variations, with the "big bubbles" sometimes being on the bodice part of the dress, and other times being on the skirt part of the dress.  I don't know which is rarer...)

I think this is such a nice Best Buy outfit as it comes with a belt and a really nice hat, plus it would display so awesomely with Bubbles 'n' Boots.  Even though it is a 1973 "Best Buy" fashion, it is nice enough to belong in the group with other "vintage era" fashions, in my opinion.

Also, I'd like to mention that the hat has an elastic strap which is usually stretched out / dried out / missing.

You might not know it was there from looking at pictures online, so you might not realize it is missing!  Even mint in package it's under the hat so it doesn't show.

I'll write some more about stuff in this lot soon!

PS:  Sorry about the quality of the pics, I kinda slap-dashed this together.