In addition to Barbie chocolates and Barbies dressed as chocolate, I'm sure it comes as no surprise that Barbie sells chocolate.

As part of a branded collaboration with hot cocoa company Swiss Miss (back in the days where a lot of Barbie releases had incidental branded products), the Barbie Chocolate Shop hit shelves in 1991.

This particular ad (which spells the product as "Shoppe") provides more details about how the product serves both as a cafe setting for Barbie and Ken to spend a romantic date together and a place to create hot chocolate or melt chocolate chips into candy treats.

It is worth noting that this was part of a wider ski themed release - the Barbie and Ken here are Ski Fun Barbie and Ken.

Surprisingly, there's remarkably few other Barbies as chocolate saleswomen - a plethora of pastry chefs and bakers, but very few themed specifically around chocolate.

Although there definitely appear to be some chocolate elements. (And an animal. In the kitchen. This Barbie violates the health code!)

And speaking of animals and chocolate... I do have to draw attention to another Barbie product that came up in my search because I feel like the branding is... off somehow.

Why would you theme a set with "milk chocolate treats" around a VET?! That seems like it is setting a dangerous precedent! Is that how Vet Barbie makes her money?!

Totally Hair Barbie was the bestselling Barbie line, but if I had to guess what the most well-known Barbie line is, I am fairly sure that would be Malibu Barbie.

Malibu Barbie first debuted in 1971. Not only that, but she also had a whole series of pals - Malibu Christie, Malibu PJ and Malibu Francie.

The line was released over the course of a few years, with different variations on packaging and oufits.

This became such an iconic part of the line that it saw multiple celebratory and anniversary rereleases over time.

Interestingly - or maybe this is only interesting to me, I'm not sure - this old Sears ad for the The Sun Set Malibu Barbie range advertises that the dolls originally went for under $2 apiece.

Malibu Barbie has become such an iconic part of the Barbie history that a lot of parodies of Barbie will specifically refer to her. For example, the famous Barbie parody from The Simpsons was Malibu Stacy.

Even though Malibu Stacy appears to be the name of the whole collection in this case, not just a single doll in an overarching "Stacy" line.

Doll designs for Barbie Rewind by Javi Meabe

Barbie Land in Barbie (2023) | Dir. Greta Gerwig

The Barbie Movie released exactly a year ago today💖💄🎀

July 2023 truly was Barbie's month! We all wore pink, Barbenheimer was a thing, you'd hear "Hi Barbie!" and happily say it back... It was such a fun time🩷 America Ferrera's iconic speech still lives in my head rent-free. I CRIED😭 and laughed, of course. Oh, and remember how the Barbie movie became a relationship litmus test on Tiktok? Ugh and who can forget some butthurt manchildren hating on Barbie😂

Girlhood was truly at peace while we were all hyped for The Barbie Movie! I think now's a perfect time to rewatch it😄

Art journal pages for my new piece, which was inspired by real life events, The Simpsons, and the Barbie movie.

Do you remember The Simpsons episode “Lisa Simpson vs Malibu Stacy” where a girl’s Malibu Stacy says “my spidey sense is tingling. Anybody call for a web-slinger?” This was a playful reference to the work of the Barbie Liberation Organization (BLO) who, in the early 1990s, switched the voice boxes of 100s of G.I. Joe dolls with voice boxes from Barbie dolls, and placed them back in stores.

This act of “culture jamming” was intending to make consumers reflect on the phrases that Barbie dolls were spouting (such as, “Math class is tough”) and voice their opinions in opposition to the questionable phrases.

I just thought it was a neat form of guerrilla art, and I really loved the Barbie movie, so here are those two phenomena jammed together!

🎀 Pretty Surprise Barbie - 1991

Back in the earlier days of Barbie, when the brand was only just developing, Mattel already had their eyes set on sets themed around characters and archetypes known to their audiences outside of Barbie as an aspirational figure herself.

We may think fondly about sets like 1999's King Arthur and Guinevere, for example.

But 36 years prior, in 1963, there was another Guinevere and King Arthur release: as a part of the Little Theatre series.

The Little Theatre series featured costumes, scripts, and a stage setpiece for Barbie, Ken, Midge, and any of their other friends to put on a show.

Not all of these are necessarily particularly culturally sensitive, as we can see by the inclusion of "Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp" and "A Thousand & One Nights". Perhaps sticking with Red Riding Hood and Cinderella was the better choice after all.

I am quite charmed by the whole set, cultural insensitivity aside, and I think they show a delightful creativity.

Of particular interest to audiences might be this old print ad which reminds us that all of Ken's clothes fit Allan, and all of Barbie's clothes fit Midge. Just in case we forgot!

Scary part all the older people in the 90’s told us that time flies by fast! Haha…..I laughed.

HELLO the last 30 years are a blur! One of the only reasons I know time was actually slower are my giant trees that were planted 1995/2001.

Hear hear to a life well lived! ❤️😘❤️

Reblog

Barbie - Dress to Impress 1989 Holiday Barbie

Thinking about the Barbie fairytopia live costumes again

Hunted down a few more pics

And a clip!

Please note that I am not Hindu nor from any culture that celebrates Diwali. If I say something culturally insensitive in this post please feel free to bring this to my attention.

Diwali is the Hindu festival of lights, and a cultural celebration for Hindu, Sikh and Jain diaspora. According to my admittedly very limited knowledge, it is a five day festival, with the midpoint of the festival taking place in 2024 from the night of October 31st to the evening of November 1st.

In 2024, Mattel made the decision to release a Barbie in celebration. This was described as "for the first time ever" and the "first Diwali designer collab", which seems to imply without saying outright that they intend to create these annually as they do with the Dia de Muertos Barbies and Holiday Barbies.

This Barbie was designed by Anita Dongre and Edna Vogel-Amezcua. Anita Dongre is a fashion designer, who founded the Indian fashion label House of Anita Dongre in 1995. In 2017 she opened her first international store in Manhattan; and she has dressed such celebrities as Beyonce, the Jonas Brothers, and the Duchess of Cambridge. She is also a vegan activist.

Edna Vogel-Amezcua, on the other hand, is much harder to find any information about; all I can find is that she is credited as a co-designer on this doll.

Although this is the first designer collaboration for Diwali, this is not the first Barbie that has been themed around Diwali. As part of the Dolls of the World: Festivals of the World collection, Mattel released a Diwali Barbie in 2006.

I've seen various references to "Dream Halloween" but been able to find remarkably little information as it pertains to Barbie.

The Hot Wheels community comes in clutch for me here (haha), as I found an article describing it as "a Mattel-sponsored charity event to benefit the Children Affected by AIDS Foundation (CAAF)".

The Barbie collectors community is slightly quieter on this front, but I have cobbled together enough to know that there were OOAK Barbies for auction at these events also.

OOAK Barbies from years past can be somewhat hard to come by even in picture format, so trying to find more information is heavily about cobbling together information from multiple sources and hoping that it is reliable.

For example, SilkstoneReferenceList.com cites this Marie Antoinette Barbie as being from the 2003 Dream Halloween.

Whereas this Showgirl doll, attributed to Bob Mackie, I have found on Pinterest and on the Mattel Community forums being described as a OOAK Dream Halloween doll, but no references that I can find to what year it may have been released.

She is an absolute delight. I think she rules.

There's several references to an Elvira, but mostly people asking if anyone else has ever seen one or has a picture of it.

According an archived webpage, another Bob Mackie OOAK went for $15,500 at auction in 1996.

Although I can't even begin to imagine what this doll is or what the concept behind this design was.

Genuinely this is a call for information, if anyone knows anything more about any of these Dream Halloween OOAKs, it has piqued my interest and I am fascinated!

Pin up Barbie is official my favorite line

Got a cute collector-edition Barbie doll at a yard sale

When people compare the greatness that is The Simpsons to other animated shows like Family Guy it makes me want to set myself on fire

I went on a date last year and jokingly said “Don’t ask me I’m just a girl” and giggled at a 35 year old man thinking he’d get the reference and instead he said “that’s what I like to hear.”

#that is when you start shoving breadsticks in your purse

This episode aired in 1994 and was a direct response to Mattel issuing their first talking Barbie which said phrases like “Will we ever have enough clothes?” and “Math class is tough”

A group that dubbed itself the Barbie Liberation Organization tried to create awareness of gender stereotypes by switching the voice boxes of a few hundred Barbies with those of G.I. Joe dolls, which made G.I. Joes that said things like “What kind of wedding will you have?” and Barbies that said “Vengeance is mine”

I want a barbie that craves vengeance.