Mini TLC Barbie Haul

A little luck at the Fleas this weekend and found a junky Barbie haul... must have been from sisters because there were doubles of everything.  Nothing particularly fantastic, but they needed rescued so I was glad to oblige.

Poor, poor, junky Bubblecut Barbie has a beautiful titian bubble, but her nose and chin are nipped very badly.  She also has a bad necksplit.  I thought I'd try to repair her nose/chin with "the nail acrylic method" and see how it goes.  She's messed up badly so nothing to lose, really.  Her hair is so pretty so it's a shame her face is such a mess.

Ponytail Barbie fared a little better, with a lip rub and chopped hair....

Oh dear, someone chopped her ear as well.

Only one Ken, but the presence of two Ken jackets indicate there were probably two of them once upon a time.  He's in fairly good shape, but his leg keeps falling off.

There were two of these fairly-hard-to-find cases but unfortunately they are both in pretty crappy condition with rust, though the zippers aren't broken, just hard to use.

Lovely doubles of multiple mix-and-match PAK items, which does that make me happy?  Yes it does, because I flippin' love PAK stuff.  Some of it is kinda grimy but it should clean up no problem.

More PAK goodness.. the floral top is stained but it should come clean, to be honest.  I'll let you know how it goes when I get a chance to clean it up.

The pants were in the best shape overall.

Two PAK sweaters...

Filthy PAK playsuit (where's the other one?) and a dirty PAK silk sheath that needs the zipper repair.  Both will probably come clean with some effort, and the silk sheath can be repaired.  Too bad there weren't two silk sheaths, they're somewhat hard-to-find  (White is harder to find than the colors in my opinion.)

One PAK apron with one lonely rolling pin.  I have so many rolling pins!  But where have all the other utensils gone?

One Wig Wardrobe head was included with two out of three of the wigs.  The inside of her head is totally green from earrings but it hasn't seeped through her head (yet.)

There were also two full sets of ecru luggage (3/4 pieces shown here) which if you've read my previous entry, you know was actually sold with Samsonite branding.

Also included were some cute clone clothes, again in sets of two.  A few shoes, a mirror, a few Ken items.. but nothing really special... still... I have to adopt them, haha.

Kinda fun, right?

Sunday's Flea Market Find - The Dirtiest Dolls Ever

Dirty Dolls, Bought Dirt Cheap

Got to the flea market really late on Sunday, so of course I wasn't expecting to find anything halfway decent, let alone any vintage Barbie stuff.. but low and behold I found

The dirtiest Barbie dolls I have ever seen.

Just look at these girls, I mean, wow!  They're filthy!

The Fashion Queen or Wig Wardrobe doll's face is caked with grime, one-arm Titan Barbie-Body Bubblecut has the grossest legs.  Clone head-on-Barbie/Midge-body is filthy, wearing Barbie in Switzerland #822, and equally-filthy Mary Make-Up only came home with me because she was wearing #1619 Fun N Games, and I hoped I could clean it up.  Plus, one slightly less dirty headless Barbie/Midge body, and a not-quite-as-filthy Ken shirt (1962's PAK Sport Shirt).

They were $2 each with the Ken shirt for free.  Now, they are so grimy that I was wondering if they were even worth $2, but I thought maybe I needed to rescue them.

A face only a collector could love.

Eesh!

They were so horrible, I did actually hose them off before I brought them inside.

After that, I let them soak in soapy water for several hours, and after that, started scrubbing with Soft Scrub, soap, and tooth brushes.  They are looking a little bit improved.

I gave the clothes a quick wash, too. I think maybe Barbie in Switzerland is a lost cause, but the Ken shirt cleaned up surprisingly well, as did Fun N Games.  Gonna let Fun N Games soak in some Biz for a few days and see how it goes.

If nothing else, the arms and legs surprisingly still have great nail polish, despite the dolls looking like they've been buried for about 30 years.

A work in progress...

Well, I'm sure they feel a bit better at least.

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.