![]() ![]() Once the 90s rolled around Barbie was in her prime. ( I may be biased on the fashion because hate 80s fashion trends). But to me this when she slowly started to lose some realism and her fashionable element. Trust me I love pink and I’m not mad at all about this. The 80s is when she became Barbicore and everything was pink. She was very fashionable for the times and I wish they made more black dolls during this era, but I digress. Barbie was realistic during this era too. Barbie was a meant to be a fashion icon and these decades show this the best. Personally, I think the dolls from the 60s-70s were the “best” in terms of eras. this is all just what i’ve observed & my opinion tho I also generally think the 90s-2000s was the perfect storm for barbie production: they’d been at it for 30 years, technology was catching up with ideas, and with all the craziness and newness of the 90s-2000s the sky was the limit with the possibilities & it was such an excessive era already they’d jam the box full with items and details & try to hop on every single trend or fad. i honestly think modern barbies are overall too plain & careful and aren’t what barbie’s core was, but there seems to be a little bit of a return to that following the movie. everyone says 90s-2000s barbies are the best in part due to nostalgia, but it’s also in part due to the fact 2010-ish was the last time we saw the effort and quality, and overall “soul” of barbie that had been there since the 1960s imo. mattel has seriously cheapened out and has this “they’ll just buy it because it’s barbie, kids don’t care” mentality, so goodbye effort hello screen print dress. Quality & care has dropped with barbies, and they’ve been promoting a more “sanitized, clean, friendly” image nowadays. But let’s face it, there’s nothing glamorous about dressing a young teen. And is it just me, or do today’s playline Barbies look a lot… younger? 90s/00s playline Barbies clearly looked and dressed like young women (and even older in the previous decades), whereas today’s playline Barbies are depicted as young teens, probably with the view by Mattel to relate better to Barbie’s core target market. Her face is still pretty but her features look more realistic, with pared-back makeup and her clothes mostly look like items you and I would wear (in fact, yoga Barbie dresses exactly like us… and every other girl at the gym!) While it’s true that some kids and collectors actually prefer this, there’s no denying that it completely takes the fantasy element out of Barbie. Nowadays, playline Barbie is no longer larger than life…. Mattel really got it right in those days with creating and marketing Barbie’s glam fantasy life, and some of the most popular and memorable doll lines are still instantly recognisable and sought after today (such as Totally Hair, Benetton, Sparkle Beach.) It was in the 90s that Barbie became an icon. Now, this brings me to my main question - could it be that I and others who grew up in the late 90s and early 2000s (which seems like the time when Barbies were at their absolute peak of popularity) love the dolls from that time best not because the quality was better but because of nostalgia? And the kids that grow up with the dolls produced today are going to feel this type of nostalgia and preference over them? Just wondering what everybody thinks.ĭoll and outfit quality aside, for me the 90s/00s magic had a lot to do with playline Barbie being a larger than life fantasy back in those days, with her big eyes, big hair, OTT make-up and super glam wardrobe (I mean, 1991 Rollerblade Barbie wore a white leather crop top, matching white leather hot pants and hot pink hoop earrings just to go rollerblading in… with pink rollerblades that actually lit up!) There was nothing “real life” about Barbie. But still, my main issue is the actual quality of the dolls. ![]() Some dolls are super cute but it still feels like compared to what Mattel used to produce in the 90s and 2000, they lack something, both in how they are made and also, something in how they are perceived maybe? They just don't feel as magical. I have bought several newer dolls (from the past 1-3 years) and I just can't help but feel like the quality is not there. I am new to collecting Barbies so I have not really paid attention to how Barbie dolls have looked in the past 20 years. Like many here, I grew up playing with late 90s and early 2000s Barbies and of course, that is a huge factor why Barbies of that time are usually the most darling to me - there is a lot of nostalgia for me, those are the quintessential Barbie dolls in my opinion.
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