Playing With Barbie® Dolls
Many modern Barbie® doll collectors seem to be,
well--afraid of their dolls. They keep their Barbies NRFB because they
fear the dolls will lose 
their
value as collectibles if they are taken out of their boxes.
This article is NOT written for the NRFB (never removed from box) Barbie collector. This article is written for collectors that want to have FUN playing with their Barbies--collectors who like to free Barbie from her box, and buy her clothes and accessories, and, well, PLAY!
Storage Of Modern Barbies, Clothes and Accessories For Play
The modern Barbie storage
alternatives are NOT very appealing--the only "official" modern Barbie
storage units available are hard plastic cases, usually in the hot-pink Barbie
color, found in the aisles of Toys R Us. What is a sophisticated lover of
Barbie and her fashions to do? Well, ONE solution, which is pictured in
this article, is to find vintage vinyl cases made in the 1960s in excellent or
near mint condition! The vintage trunks are especially suitable for
this--they generally have two clothing bars, and room for one
or two dolls, with accessory drawers. They have nice metal locks to close,
and sturdy handles.
Despite what you may think, vintage vinyl cases are NOT expensive, since even when most of a vintage Barbie dolls' clothing or accessories were lost, the case was the only thing to survive! A nice vintage trunk can be purchased from between $10 to $50, depending on style and condition. I have pictured in this article a white World Of Barbie vintage trunk from the late 1970s, and a black patent leather trunk from the early 1960s. I paid under $20 for the white case, and $40 for the black case (top picture) because of the great condition.
I use vintage Tammy-style hangars to keep the clothing organized. These hangars are larger than vintage and modern Barbie hangars, so the clothing doesn't fall off as easily, and the hangars stay on the rods better.
Which Dolls To Choose?
Choose
your favorite Barbie clothes horse! For my "play" Barbies, I use
a BMR (Barbie Millicent Roberts) doll, a Ralph Lauren Barbie, an Ann Klein
Barbie, and several 35th anniversary vintage reproduction dolls. You can
use anything you like--many modern play line dolls work extremely well.
For instance, Corduroy Cool is available in stores now for under $10, and with
her closed-mouth face mold and stylish short hair, she looks great in
anything. Another popular option is the Bead Blast Barbie (under $10 on
eBay) also because of the face mold and long, easy-to-style hair). 
Outfits and Accessories
There are many options for realistic, fashionable Barbie clothing and accessories. Some of the Fashion Avenue outfits are wonderful, and quite inexpensive (the 35th anniversary doll in the white case, above, is wearing a fashion avenue, as is the 35th anniversay doll pictured by herself, in pink and black) and several Fashion Avenue outfits are hanging in the cases). Fashion Avenue outfits can be found at most toy stores, usually for under $5. I also highly recommend the BMR clothing, which you can find all over eBay (comes with great accessories) for under $20 an outfit (well under initial retail). Other good, fashionable, well-made clothing (no velcro!) clothing are the Audrey Hepburn Breakfast at Tiffany's outfits and most of the vintage reproduction outfits.
For
accessories that are realistic in scale and in look, you need to have an eagle
eye and scour Barbie play sets, Fashion Avenue accessories (a great source) and
also eBay for the fantastic BMR accessory sets (BMR sets have excellent purses,
shoes, and scarves, all color-coordinated as in the "Red Hot" BMR set
shown above, available on the secondary market for about $10). Below
are pictured part of the tea set from the Holiday Treasures Fashion Avenue
play/accessory set shown at left (under $20). This play set also has a realistic
box of Godiva chocolates, a cute gingerbread house and some excellent gifts for
Ken including a mini hot wheels car and a shaving set! Also pictured below
are food items (spaghetti-o and Pepsi cola) from the no longer in production
Kitchen Littles sets (absolutely great, realistic, in scale food items.
Kitchen Littles have a growing collector following, and some items, such as the
large, deluxe breakfast set, can sell for nearly $40. The last item in the
unpackaged accessory photo is a McDonalds
Happy Meal from the early-1990s Barbie McDonalds play set. Play sets are
very hit-or-miss for good accessories; right now, I recommend the Barbie Toy
Store which has some excellent, realistic toy packages.
When you choose accessories, look for brand names such as Godiva, McDonalds or Pepsi (as opposed to Chocolate, Burger Place and Soda as labels) and quality of materials. Scale is also all important when picking out play accessories--think how the item will look when its in Barbie's hand--does it look just right, or WAY too big or small?
How To Play
Obviously, HOW to play when you get your Barbie case all assembled is up to you. Dress and redress the dolls, have another Barbie collector over to play, or play with your kids (my daughter and I play together--she has her Barbie cases with dolls, and my dolls are the neighbors. We have a great time, except when we argue over ownership of an accessory ("mommy, that's MY tea set for Barbie!"...."No, Katie, you lost yours, that's Mommy's!"....). Or, you can spend your play time redoing your dolls' hair. Just today, I dyed one of my Barbie's hairs orange with Tabasco Sauce, but I'll talk more about that in a whole OTHER article on how to customize your Barbies, which, actually, is another aspect of play!
As the eBay auction prices for the wonderful Barbie accessories, dolls and clothes show here, now may not be the best time to be a NRFB modern Barbie collector, but it IS a great time to find items to "play" Barbie with.
What are your favorite dolls, cases, clothes and accessories to "play" Barbie with? How do you set up your play items? Discuss in the Dolls Forum!
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©Denise Van Patten 2000
All Rights Reserved.
