Aspiring Equal Oppertunity Feminist Granola girl.

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.

A gimmick in toys that feels particularly 90s to me, even though I have no evidence to suggest whether it actually was more popular in the 90s, is being scented. Especially artificial fruit scents that smell more like colours than fruit.

I'll be honest - this post was partly inspired by a Reddit post I read a while ago and kind of can't stop thinking about, where someone found a 1993 Paint n Dazzle Barbie that was mysteriously grape-scented and they weren't sure if this was intentional.

(There's also a whole other post in Paint n Dazzle Barbie and other customizable dolls of that ilk - but right now I'm thinking about scents.)

When I think of scented Barbies, my mind goes immediately to my buddy Blaine and the rest of the Cali Girls line, who were sunscreen scented.

But naturally, this wasn't the only one. Back in the 1980s, when Barbie still hung around with PJ, there was a rose-scented PJ.

Remarkable to me specifically because you don't get a lot of rose-scented children's toys.

Mixing the two conceptually was Tropical Splash Barbie from 1994 - like the 2000s Cali Girl line she is a beachy fun Barbie, but like Sweet Roses PJ she is floral scented.

Sweet N Pretty were a series of fashion packs from 1994 featuring a variety of different outfits in either peppermint or tutti fruitti scents.

(It took me three tries to spell tutti fruitti, and I was looking at a picture of the product in question.)

The 1998 Fruit Fantasy Barbies lean more into what I think of as the classic fruity flavours.

But I think Fruit Style Barbie and her friends from 2002 really round up the gang. I can practically smell the fruity scents and I don't own one.