Oh, man. This is so fantastic. Someone has videos posted on youtube of Bangles music videos they made with their Barbies when they were kids. This is absolutely something my sister and I would do. Half of my childhood was spent playing with Barbies. We had a great collection.
My sister and I would start out and first decide what genre of Barbies we would play: adventure, space, old-fashioned, modern day... sometimes we'd take them on camping trips upstairs to the living room with our Barbie motorhome. Then we would decide who got to act which doll that day and then we would dress and style them.
They all had elaborate histories, some Barbies and Kens had better chemistry than others. One couple that was always great together were Stacey and Tom - otherwise known as Pretty in Pink Barbie and Western Ken - they had a long history - the funny thing about these two though is that they were older dolls so Stacey's scalp was coming off and you would have to hold her hair onto her head and Ken's hip was broken so you would have to hold his leg and groin together, but these problems didn't slow us down, they were still great together.
I still have vivid memories of glancing over at my sister across the room with her Ken and Barbie couple, while I was with my Ken and Barbie couple and seeing her mouthing their dialogue quietly to herself and then inevitably making them kiss. When you were in the midst of an intimate scene with your dolls it felt perfectly normal, but looking at it from a distance it was, and is, absurd. But my sisters and I did grow up watching All My Children which I am sure influenced our play time. We had our own intricate soap opera going on with the barbies in the basement.
I have so many Barbie stories, I could probably fill a book, but I'll spare you. These videos I have linked made me laugh so hard, they're actually pretty good. And I did think of my sister and I making our own music videos with Barbies, we just didn't have a video camera to capture any of it. It also reminded me of the time we acted out all of The Phantom of the Opera musical with Barbies - it was epic. I love my sisters and I love Barbies. I miss it.
Glitter Years is just great classic 80's Barbies:
Darling Ones, so serious and great:
What I Mean to Say, I just like this song, my sister had it on the B side of a Bangles cassette single:
1 comment:
Heidi-
I forgot how I used to play with my Barbies until I read your post. It takes me back. It's amazing what a child's imagination can come up with. I miss it. I still do have a few Barbies if you ever want to play...
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