Barbie Restoration and Custom Dolls

This transcript was generated from the episode captions and lightly edited for readability. Names and product terms may occasionally be imperfect. Quoted dollar amounts retain the wording of the interview; the currency is not always specified.

0:00Hello dolls and accessories. My name is Kelly and this is Barbie Talk. Barbie Talk with Kelly in Pink. Welcome everyone to episode 1. I am super excited for our very first guest. His name is Ian and I am just so excited to have him on the show. He is so talented. I can't wait to bring him in. So, let's bring him in. Hello, Ian. Hi. Welcome to Barbie Talk. Thank you for having me. You are guest one of episode one. How does that feel? Feels pretty good. Feels really good. I kind of want to get straight to it. I'd love to tell everybody how we met. I'm going to save that for a little later because I really want to get into all the exciting stuff that you have to share. I'm going to give you the floor for just a bit. Tell us a little bit about how maybe dolls or Barbie got into your life and what it is that you do just to kind of give everyone a bit of a background on who Ian is. I grew up with my father's side.

0:59Uh, and his sister had two daughters and a son. When I when I was younger, I would play with my cousins, not the boy, the two girls, and they would make me play with like Polly Pockets and the Spice Girls and the Barbies. And specifically, the younger sister would be like, "Oh, would it be okay if like you, I don't know, cut up the Polly Pocket clothes?" cuz you know they were rubber, right? So I'd be like, "Yeah, sure, whatever. They're not mine." She's telling me to do it. So I'm cutting them up with her and like we're like, "Oh, these are better as as outfit pieces as opposed to like full dresses, you know? We play like dolls and stuff." And then like as I got older, like they moved uh to a different town also like still living in New Jersey. [snorts] And pretty much I was like, "You know what? The dolls were cool. I liked them.

1:57I was really interested in like the style aspect of them. So, I got back into them maybe like maybe 12ish, 11 or 12. So, I was like, "All right." And I started with the uh Barbie basic line because at the time they sold it at Kmart, which was like right down the street from my house. Kmart. Good times. Kmart was great. Kmart was great. Uh, no. So, so they were like 20 bucks at the time as you know now they're like mad expensive. Mhm. Because they're super sought after because again model muse I guess that's what they call them now at the time. Bar basics. Yeah. And the way I got back into them specifically to get them for myself was like I told my parents like oh I love fashion design. I sketch out these outfits and I want to make them. So you were sketching. Yeah.

2:47Okay. So, so that was my that was like my excuse to get into having them. And I was like, "Yeah, I it's for fashion reasons, not because they're dolls." Yeah. So, so you know, the rest of my family on my uh both sides got word, oh, like he's into fashion. He wants to do like design. So, my aunt on my mother's side gets me a dress form and a sewing machine. I'm like, what am I going to do with a dress form? Because again, the whole fashion design aspect was a cover to get Barbie 100%. To collect and like obviously I made outfits then. And I was like, "Oh, like this is so cool." Like making outfits, diioamas, whatever.

3:34Outfits and diioamas are still kind of a thing for me, although I do more like photography outside for my dolls more so than making diuramas. But regardless, whatever. But that's how I got into it. And then I was like, "Oh, I'd go to the flea markets with my mom and we'd like find a doll or something and I'd be like, "Oh, I would like her." And then she'd be like, "Okay, sure. Whatever. Take her." Would you say that's your fondest memory was like when you were younger? Like what would be like one of the memories you have, whether it's Barbie or making fashions for her that really stick in your mind? The most standout memory is when I was looking in the aisle at Kmart for the first time. And mind you, this is probably 2009, 2010. And I was like looking in the aisles like, "Oh, I really want one of these." And then I turn around and it's, you know, because the store had Barbie on both sides. And I'm like, I look over and I'm like, and I was with my dad and of course he's like a man. So I'm like, "Who's that?" And he goes, "That's Farah Faucet." And I'm like, "Oh." And he goes, "Yeah." And I'm like, "I like her." He goes, "Yeah, well, it's disrespectful because now she's dead." And I'm like, "It's a doll." He goes, "Yeah, but it's like she I'm like, they made the doll before she died, probably." He goes, "Well, it's a little bit uncanny that they have it for sale still." And I'm like, "All

4:56right." That was my most stickout memory because it was the first time I went shopping with my dad for those Barbie basics. And at the time, there was like none of the Barbie basics I wanted cuz there was specific ones on the back of the box that I wanted. doll. Like it's like like it's iconic, you know? Like it's totally iconic. Here she is. [laughter] Not even five feet away. Here she is. Oh my god. Okay, hold on. Did she come in that like that made to move body? No. So, she had a static body that she could only sit. I'm pretty sure we was in the box. She was kind of doing that poster pose, right? Like she was doing essentially this. I forget how her hand was positioned. There it is. There. It was like this. Yes. Tilting her head this way. That's right. Which you can't do anything with this once it's out of the box.

5:47The only way you could really make her do anything is if you set her like this. Yes. You can't really Yeah, for sure. Which is still cute. Oh my god. I love her hair. She's adorable. She I love her. I absolutely adore her. She's gorgeous. She's I got this one. Goodness. I think I got this one maybe August or September of this past year. Oh wow. I need to get my hands on one of those. It It's so funny because they range in price drastically. Yeah, for sure. Do you have any of the MIGO ones? Cuz Mig didn't MIGO make them too back in the I have I have one in box, not with me. Like it's it's in another room. Okay. Uh she's mint in box. And then I also have one in a Farah Faucet fashion called Visions. Speaking of Farah, I got my hands on a Farrah Faucet doll. Okay. A recent toy show, but it was actually from the back of somebody's car.

6:48Like this gentleman was like, "Hey, I'm selling dolls out of the back of my car." And I was like, "Okay, this sounds suspicious, but I'm totally gonna go check it out anyways." And he had a fair faucet doll. Now she needs some help. So maybe Ian, you can give me, you know, some assistance because she has no arms. She h I have the arms, but as you are familiar with the Mig. Oh, you have the arms. I have the arms, but they've completely come off because of the MIGO melt as you can see. Um, her hair I don't know. It's super like rigid. Like I can't really do Sorry, I'm just trying to get this. It's super rigid. Like I can't really do too much with It's not bad. Her hair. It's kind of thick. Like it's really thick. Um, and she's got some MIGO melts like, you know, in crevices here that just need to come out. But if you can help me fix her, that'd be She's definitely a uh a project. Yeah, she's from 1975. It's what is or 76 maybe, but that's the copyright is 75. Yeah.

7:48So, with the arms, [snorts] because I'm I'm relatively sure I had shared my growing hair share that had the same issue. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, I had to build up the inside using an epoxy sculpt. Would you have to fill the inside is what you mean? In a way, yes. But you have to make sure that all of the plastic that is still gummy, it has to be gone, removed completely. Yep. Yep. Got it. Uh for her hair that is just her hair. It is very It's traditional fair faucet, right? Yeah, it is. Especially for that time with the way they made the dolls at the time. Yeah. Yeah. Her face just needs a bit of um she's got the the lashes, too, which is really nice.

8:38I can't really zoom in here, but she's got the beautiful lashes. Um she does. They're brown. They are brown. Yeah, are black. Her face needs some some cleaning. I find her head to be like almost like it kind of like seems abnormally big for the rest of her body. Well, if you've ever seen a a Farah head with uh no hair, you would see why her head looks freakishly large. Okay, so you'll help me with this fixing this. Um let's get into the queen of all of it, Barbie. So, good. Let's see what you I know you've had some your hands on doing some restorations on some superstars and yes mod stuff. So, and I love I love the dolls you've got in the background there. So, I'll kind of throw the floor to you. Uh if you want to share some of your favorites that you've worked on. Sounds good. Yeah, absolutely. I know. Um I have quite a few that I've lined up.

9:33So, you took a winking doll and removed the wink. Yeah, I'm curious to see this. She she uh she has regular eyes now. Okay. Yeah, she has like a smoked out look like the original. So, you did like did you do did you do that to her eyes like that smokey look? Yeah. And how did you pastels? Yeah. Very nice. Yeah. I mean, I took the same sculpt I used to sculpt on the um eyelids for the winking dolls and I just made sure that it was flush with the face cuz even from the side you can't tell she was Yeah. I guess it's really difficult to see, but yeah. Yeah. No, like she's my friend had requested me to make her one like this because she cannot stand the western winking dolls because of how weird they look with like that. Yeah. Yeah. Cuz even even in the commercial she looks weird and that was what 46 years ago. Yeah. It's definitely an awkward um It didn't execute I think as they had hoped. Well, neither did Kissing Barbie. [laughter] Do you have a kissing Barbie? I have a bunch. Okay. And I have a bunch. Any any that you've

10:53worked on that you think would be really cool to share? So, every single one of the kissing Barbies I've owned, for the most part, have had to have their face taken off completely. To repair the uh kissing feature. Yeah. Wow. And it's such a ridiculously easy uh fix if once you get the face off because what happens is there's a rod that goes through the face uh inside the plastic little skull thing and then there's a little it looks like I don't know it looks like a switch and essentially it's just a two-prong switch that clips into the lips for the face and then another two prongs that clip onto the uh rod inside the head. And when you press the button, it's supposed to push the rod outward to give it that kissing motion. And it's such a tiny motion.

11:51Even you can barely notice it. I can barely re-root because I'm so nervous about like I can only imagine like taking her apart that way. Yeah. No. And it's so funny because the only way realistically you can re-root these western or winking dolls is you have to take the faces off. There's no other way, I guess, right? And I wouldn't have never known that. So, this is why like I wanted to do this episode with you because you just are super talented. You know, so much. You've done so much. You've got so much inventory that we don't even know like where to where to start. So, let's see the kissing one, right? You've got one of those. So, this is her. Oh my goodness. So, she still has the pout. She still has Okay, I had gotten her. She did not work. She didn't work. Her lips were missing. This wasn't even how her hair would came. Uh, she was a mess.

12:40But like, obviously, you can see that she did get her lips redone. Oh, yes, she did. And her head does turn. And I don't even know if you could see her face pucker. We could Oh, I could see a little pucker. It's very, very tiny. Yeah, but almost invisible. They look nice and full. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, she's really cute. I have the only real qual I have with her specifically is her part line. Who has a hair part like this? I honestly now that you draw drew attention to it, but I wouldn't have noticed. I think that's something you not but I would have never noticed. It looks like her hairline goes like this and then they just wanted to give her a little swoop. But I love the what you did to her hair in the back. It looks adorable.

13:31Well, this is how her hair was supposed to be in box. Yeah. Yeah. Adorable. But again, because the elastics disintegrate. Yep. It does. That it never works out that way. Ever. The box hair is the worst. Do you have like before and after pictures on your page on your restoration page of some of the work you've done? Oh, absolutely. I do. Wonderful. Absolutely. Yeah. No, I mean I I don't even know the last the last post I posted was actually uh a doll I had bought from an artist and the only thing I did differently was I had asked I had obviously asked the artist if it was okay. Granted, I had bought the piece. Yeah. But I'm going to ask out of respect. Sure. And I said I said, "Is it okay if I rroot her? I didn't like the hair you gave her."

14:20And he agreed. He didn't like the hair he gave her either. She looked like an egg. I mean, she had a center part and it was a bob to her chin. She looked like an egg. You don't know. And he was like, I rerooted her. I didn't get the right hair color. It didn't look right to me. The face is gorgeous. The face is perfect. Um, but that was the last post I posted and I didn't even share that the uh hair was rrooed because I've come to realization that with these particular dolls, they all have a specific hair color that I rroot them with. I was very inspired almost when I hear these stories from you where you're like, "Yeah, I'll see a doll." And right away you start like deconstructing like, "Oh, I'm gonna rip her hair out. I'm gonna fix her face. I'm going to like the fact that you that's quite a talent and you need a lot of patience to be able to do stuff like that. Something that I it's an area that I have not yet crossed into. I'm trying. I'd actually love to see one of the superstars that you were talking about. Oh, yeah. I do have [laughter] [clears throat] this one is a custom that I had done myself. So, this is this is a one of a kind. Ian, you've got one of a kind dolls. Yeah. I mean, she has a repainted face. She has a a customized outfit.

15:37I know a lot of people might be upset about this because it's a serious exclusive fashion. However, however, it was just the skirt and there was a huge hold on the middle. So, there's nothing I could do to save it. This is entirely I made the entire thing from just a single skirt. Oh my goodness. And it's two pieces. It's not a full dress. It's two pieces. A halter top and a uh So, what doll is this? Like the mold like the original. So, they call the sculpt Mo. Yeah. Okay. But she didn't have a name. The doll did not have a name when this doll came out in uh 1980. I want to say it was 1980 cuz she didn't have a name. She was just Hong Kong Barbie or uh on the front of her box was Oriental Barbie. Why? I don't know. Because it was the Dolls of the World series. Yes. Okay. And Miko didn't even get Miko didn't even get her name until the late 80s early 90s cuz she was what was what was her rocker name? Dana. She was Dana as rocker but then she's also like Kira. What else is Kira Marina in Europe? Yeah. So she got Marina. Yeah.

16:48Yeah. Very confusing. I don't even want to get on the doll names. I don't want to Yeah. No, the sculpt names like I still don't know why the uh PJ face is called Stephie because Stephie wasn't first. Well, Stephie was first, was she? No, she wasn't first. Sunset Malibu PJ from 71 was first. You know a lot of your stuff. I I I You're very educated on [laughter] that stuff and it's very impressive. Um, so do you have another superstar or is that Oh. Of course. I mean, obviously I have the original uh Oriental and her original outfit. Oh, beautiful. Oh, beautiful. So, she's really gorgeous. And it's really interesting to me because she has almost like this weird I don't know if you could see like she has a weird layer all throughout the top of her head that's the same length as her bangs. Yes. Straight. I don't know why.

17:44I'm assuming it's for volume. However, she has quite a she has quite a bit of hair. For a superstar, that's a lot of hair. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and she's gorgeous. I love that they gave her this uh almost mint shade of eyes shadow on her eyes. I also like that they gave her a really nude lip. Yes. Yep. Her outfit is okay. It's just okay, right? Like, but I like her, you know, her hair is good quality. It's nice and thick. Everything about her is great. Except in my in my head, I don't want the outfit because it's very uh ketchup and mustard, [laughter] you know? I mean, there's so much they could have given her. Yeah. Because the the same dolls of the same year from the line have so much more intricate fashions. Why did they give her this?

18:38It's it's kind And then this thing. It's a necklace, but like it looks like a ribbon. Like it's that's what it is. It's a ribbon. It's like a prize ribbon. Poor girl. Some of the quality is questionable on that. Oh, absolutely. Especially when you look at the fashion packs, like per se, like you have this night gown fashion pack. Cute. Like, and if this is a two-piece thing, you have a night gown and a robe. And ironically, you had it's another kissing Barbie. We're not going to talk about it, but we're gonna talk about it. It's an adorable outfit. Thank you. I got it. Oh my goodness. It came with the Barbie house. I have I have the 78 uh dreamhouse and it came with this fashion. It came with like I think $10 and almost all the furniture for that entire set. Like we're talking it came with the magical piano. It came with the bedroom set, the living room set, the dining room set, the kitchen. It came with all of that. Where did you grab this? Facebook Marketplace. All of that. That's amazing. That's such a score. And she it came also with a Cindy doll. A Cindy doll.

19:44A pedigree Cindy specifically. That's a score. That's awesome. 50 bucks. Stop it. I love hearing stories like that. I've had a pink and pretty and who? A pink and pretty. And it was she was in her box. Removed from her box, but she was in her box. I'm sweating hearing this that you got all this. It's like and this is like going on. Oh goodness. This will be it'll be four years in November or December that I got that. And this is in the New Jersey area. Yeah, I need I mean grant I drove an hour out of the way, but you can't touch that house for less than a hundred and that's with missing parts. Correct. The only thing this house is missing is one front light. That's it. Yeah. You know what I was actually when I was in Jersey um during the holidays, I do have family down there which we'll have to talk about when we're going for a margarita.

20:40I'll talk about Oh, absolutely. But when I was down there, I was actually like, you know what? I'm going to go on Facebook Marketplace and just like change my location because as Canadians, I mean, we there's limitations, I guess, like it doesn't really make sense for us to get things off Merkari. So, I thought, you know what? Let me shop around. And I was able to get my hands on a Oh, I'm trying to remember, a Totally Hair Ken Sparkleized Barbie. Um Oh, I love her. which I had, but like I played with her, so she's like still in decent condition, but like her dress is wearing off. Um, her hair is starting to like fall and be frizzy. So, it's probably 20 USD for Oh, that's not bad. For the to Well, for the totally hair alone. Um, yeah. No, I didn't break the bank. He had his outfit full. He's in box. He's in box. I forgot to mention box which actually kind of brings me like do you have any box dolls or are you kind you're the you're I've always been a box collector and I've always just been curious to ask people like some people have them boxed some people don't. What is your kind of opinion on so that uh I'm a predominantly out ofbox collector. Well based on what you do that would make sense. Yeah. No um I have I do have dolls that are in box like I do have amigo Farah in box. I have a growing hair share somewhere inbox. Uh I do have uh a inbox Kylie uh not Mattel Jack specific and it's only in box because she

22:06signed the box. That's it. That's the only reason why she's in the box and why I haven't ripped her hair out. Yeah. Do you tend to look for them in box or you don't really care? Do you look for box? I mean obviously the price will differ but yeah I prefer Well, that's a hard one because in box would be original, right? like it's the original from manu like straight from manufactured to the box versus other people kind of getting their hands on it. Yeah. I mean it depends on the doll. Like if we're talking a doll that's 30 plus years old. Uh chances are the inbox price will be very high. Uh and it just doesn't seem worth it. Especially if it's the dolls that have like musical mechanisms or they run on batteries or they have that pleather fabric which as we all know the that is infamous for flaking the moment that it touches oxygen you know like I can't like uh what is that doll that has the it's hot skate and Barbie I want to say it's hot skate Barbie she has a full like pleather outfit thing flakes bad. Oh. Uh, probably not hot skating. I think hot skating has um she's wearing something else. You're thinking of like like a like an

23:26earring magic where she has like the leather dress and it completely flakes. Yeah. Or uh or uh Uptown Chic from the not 1998, not not the not the uh the black doll in the purple suit, the doll from 1993. Love her outfit. looks very uh Madonna in True Blue music video. Yeah, but you have her. I mean, I have I have Mij. You have Midge. I do. And what this is the only thing that sucks as a collector who's trying to go back into the 90s to the 80s and there was that even like Derek from, you know, Barbie and the Rockers, his pants, they flake. Um Oh, the rockers are the worst for that. Yeah, it flakes. And this this one um I got her at a toy show and she was leaning on the box a little too much. So, I don't want to point to her private area, but it's starting to like fade there. Now, there are ways to fix this. I just am scared to. This might be something you may want to like try, but there are videos online of how you can restore this. It's like fabric paint.

24:29Um Oh, yes. Lodge podge or something. Um I've seen people like completely scrape it off and repaint it. I'm too scared to do that. I think like especially like earring magic, they just need a little bit of touching, right? There's just certain parts of the dress that that need it. Um I'm a little scared to do. I'm not gonna be I'm gonna be honest. Or even like I even have like the Catwoman, like the Halle Berry Catwoman. Yeah. And she's peeling and it's such an intricate outfit. Um that's something I'm trying to do. Like I'm trying to do more restorations, but it's a ve it's very new to me. I've always been a box collector. So um that's why I was very impressed by your work and why we're talking to you because I just thought like, man, I want to be able to do that. And I think a lot of like a lot of people would love to restore their old toys, right? Yeah, I would I would say so. I mean, how many people still have their dolls when they were kids and they don't remember the way they were left? Like I mean my cousin's mother-in-law, prime example here, she has a growing hair Francancy and she went to go show my cousin's daughter her dolls.

25:32Yeah. And she goes to show her the Francancy and she goes, "There's no arm. She's missing an arm. Don't know what happened. And it it's one of those things where you're like, "Oh, I don't remember this being in this shape. This is upsetting. I want to fix it." You know? It's It's like restoring your own personal nostalgia. 100%. Because it's something you had. Yeah. And I also feel like when I go to like, for example, if I go to a thrift store, right? It's no different than being at a thrift store and being like, well, I want to save these dolls. Like these poor dolls are, you know, sitting here and no one's I mean, depending what it is, like I'm no offense to Millie, but I'm so sick of the Millie. Oh. Oh, yeah. We're in the Malibu sculpt. I can't stand. Yeah. I'm so tired of it. But I mean, I've been really fortunate in what I found like recently at like I found the entire MIJ wedding party. Like it's just like, "Oh my god, let me take all of you. I've wanted you guys since I was kids.

26:35They had the whole set there. Um, and you want to save them. You want to give them a wash." You look at their dress and you're like, "Oh, you poor thing." Like you want to give these dolls life. They had a life before they gave somebody else joy. So you're kind of wanting to continue that, right? So yeah, absolutely. I totally understand. Yeah. I mean, I still have the the western winking that I gave eyelids, like physical eyelids to. Let's see this one. You gave physical eyelids to a winking western. Hold on. I'm trying to see a little closer. How did you do that? Epoxy sculpt. Interesting. Oh my god. I This is This is That's That's very impressive. I mean, they she doesn't work. I don't I don't care about the functionality. I wanted her to look as close as possible to the promotional work for her, which was the prototype, which we both know that Mattel didn't make a working prototype for that doll. We know this. Yeah, for sure. Mattel's weird.

27:31There's times where, man, they get it right on the nose and then there's other times we're like, what happened? What? Like, what? Who dropped the ball here? Like, I don't understand. Yeah. No, I mean, yeah, but they really dropped the ball with kissing in and western. How do you feel about some of the reproductions giving given that you are somebody who kind of restores? So, let's, you know, I'm going to think of something that just came out recently. Let's talk about the new day to night. How do you feel about outfit change, her sculpt? Give me a little bit of Ian's his 411. Are we talking about the the deluxe edition where she has like a long she's wear off the shoulder and it's long and she's got the boot the It's the first recreation in a long time of an iconic Barbie. I'll give it that. Um I don't know anything about the hair quality. I know she's on a model muse, which is fine.

28:30But what I I am unsure about is why they would pair a model muse body with a new superstar head. And I say new superstar because the original 76 sculpt was modified in 1990. Yep. And that original sculpt lost the time. So, the fact they gave her such a uh nostalgic '8s look and not like garish cartoony '8s like authenticish '8s Barbie look. Great. Love her. Mhm. But in in regards to the outfit, it's not her. She's gorgeous. Love her. great in her own regard, but it reminds me very much of the uh Terry Muglair suit outfit that was worn in uh 101 Dalmatians by Glen Close. Yes. Yes. But in pink. That's right. The off the shoulder kind of suit thing. Now, I don't know anything about Andrew Mukimal, which I think was the designer for the doll. I can't speak on like his work. I don't really know um off the top of my head just on other things he's worked on. But I almost feel like I hear you.

29:42I'm kind of in the middle because I'm also I'm also thinking like is it supposed to be like a modern day twist if Day Night Barbie came out in 2026? Is this what she would look like? That would be a no because we got a date night in 2009 and she was the the original. Vastly different. Yeah. From the original. She had a string in her back to pull her hair up into a bun for the business day. Her hair changed, her outfit changed. She had accessories just like the original from uh 85. Mhm. But she had more gimmicks. With this new collector series doll, the gimmick is almost completely gone. She doesn't come with that much extra accessories. Maybe. Maybe. What? Does she even have a briefcase? Uh she's got a purse.

30:29And that's the thing. Like for the original day tonight, she had a purse for the night time and a briefcase for the day. So we definitely lost out on that. Well, and the briefcase had stuff in it. She had a newspaper. She had a calculator. She had a second set of shoes. I wouldn't say that. She has a second set of shoes and a scarf. Yes. Yes. I mean, this one does have like you can take the jacket off and she's got a top underneath for like her night look. Yeah. But I'm wondering like what would a 2026 day toight Barbie look like? I mean, does she have a laptop? Does she have an iPad? [laughter] You know, like that. See, because what what is what is the look of a modern businesswoman? And and is that appealing to kids nowadays? I mean, do you think this I mean, this doll obviously would have been tailored, and this is the thing, this doll would have been tailored to people like us, the adult collectors, but I think we were looking for like the 1985, right? Like, we're kind of being like, how I feel like it is a drastic change.

31:25Yeah. don't know if it was targeted to children then I think I don't think this works for for sure and I don't even it doesn't really fully work even with uh I mean I've seen the doll in person she does have a beautiful face she's got that side glance not really like Odal but kind of like that side glance which I is really cute I haven't heard the about her hair though I've heard her hair is difficult to work with well it's because it's poly there you go all of I've come to realization that Mattel when they started cheaping out and we're Even before I got really into collecting, they were cheaping out, you know? I mean, I don't know when the cheaping out started, but I know what you mean. I do think that I mean, when you when you drop some of your designers like a Bill Greening Well, I will say this. After the controversy with the uh oil situation back in 1972 is when Mattel really dropped the ball.

32:23Uh, we are talking now. I'm not sure if you're familiar with the controversy of the original talking Barbie from 68. Oh, from 68. No. Okay. So, we I don't know. I never saw any information about this. I will say that the only reason why they had to reformulate the records for the Talking Barbie, the original Talking Barbie and Talking Ken, they had to reformulate those records because the factory that was producing those dolls burnt down in Mexico. Interesting. So, I don't know if that was an inside job with the company. I don't know if it was an employee that committed arson. We don't know. No one knows. Um, that was their first major hiccup and that was not even 10 years into Barbie. Um, fast forward to 72, there's fraud cases, there's the the oil stuff that's going on and like obviously with Ruth Handler tax evasion, correct? I mean I mean obviously the company was not doing as well, right? They were they were parading themselves as the best and that marketing worked, but obviously because of their dealings, quality suffered. Like we're talking we had full functioning zippers, we had class, we had all that stuff. And then you you fast forward. I mean,

33:49from the quality from 1970, and this is why I'm saying this, 1970, you have a really sturdy twist and turn body. I mean, you can't really break those bodies easily, and they stand up to time. The Quick Curl twist and turn bodies, they have worse melt than Neo Share Dolls. We're talking their limbs will just disintegrate and fall off. The the knobs inside will break. Even when they were new, kids broke those dolls. They were the most fragile dolls imaginable in in the line of Mattel's track record from 59 to 73 to 74. And would you find that this was the case with like all dolls across the country? Because I know that there's dolls like in Europe where their bodies or their um the materials being used were a little better than what we were seeing here or vice versa where we had like you know your Club California dolls for example where or the was it the sensations too. There's a bunch of lines where their legs were were staining yellow. They were getting the blotchy yellow stains. Oh those aren't even stains. That's uh plasticizer leaks.

34:59Right. So what? Yeah. Uh that so that that is prime example of Mattel cheaping out. Now with that, from what I've heard and what I've seen, the reason why that happens is because it's all different colors of vinyl that's being recycled. Oo. And it's being redyed. Interesting. So, I don't know if you've noticed uh I don't know I don't exactly know uh what years your your in your expertise with Barbie collecting is, but there's such things in the 80s starting in the 80s as sticky legs. Yep. Again, plasticizer leaks. That happens. Yep. They weren't as stable in the 80s as they were in the 60s. Again, uh that could be due to budgeting, that could be due to quality, that could be due to anything, you know, and every doll is different, but overall sticky legs aren't a major issue up until ' 80s, 90s. Even some of the 2000s dolls have sticky legs. I would say my experience is like late 80s and then 90s and then I was full like 90s, 2000s, 2000s. I also noticed in some of my um I'm trying to see if it's like a boxed doll issue and it doesn't happen all the time, but for example um I've got a few dolls that like even the Totally Hairken that I purchased in Jersey off we were just talking about that

36:23his face is super shiny. It's greasy. So, you know, I've looked up on like how to clean that, how to wipe it, and it it takes a couple times because I still from time to time still see a bit of a glare on his face. And everyone's like, "That's because he was in the box." Not just that, uh, Ken heads are notorious for shrinking, shrinking, shrinking. Uh, you'll see that as the first the first doll, mainstream Ken doll that has the head shrinking is Mod Hair Ken. Wow. Uh, his head shrinks. Never didn't know this. I did not know this. You don't notice it because he's wearing an ascot. Yeah. And anything neck is not visible. Uh after that uh you know who doesn't get it and it's the same doll essentially just different color vinyl uh the what's his name now look Ken which is the rebrand of the uh mod hair Ken um after that superstar Ken shrinks his head shrinks there were never supposed to be as hard as they are they shrink I need to see some of these before and afters of these shrinks. I've never heard of this.

37:33Yeah, if you look at the promotional shots for these dolls, you'll see the heads are bigger. Interesting. And it's not every Ken doll that has a shrinking head either. Um, for instance, I have I have had two of the roller skating Ken dolls from 1980 7980. One has an extremely shrunken head to the point where it's falling out of the neck peg neck hole because he doesn't have a peg. He has a hole. Right. Why? We don't know. He's We don't know why Ken's the way he is. But the other one, Squishy Head, like it was just made yesterday. So, you've got so much experience and like I've got a few dolls from the 60s. Um I think I have like maybe a number five or something. Like I've got a couple bubble cuts. Like I don't have a lot. My collection was really mostly like 90s and now I'm trying to expand on a lot of the 80s dolls that I wanted and didn't get as a kid or my sister had and they're where they are now. Um, but you've just got so much knowledge on like the mod stuff and anything like in the 70s. Like that's an era that I just am not as versed on.

38:37Um, going back to the shiny head thing, the thing that confuses me and I don't know if you've experienced this, but I picked up my mini me the other day and she had some sweat on her face. So, I don't know if it's like a a um like I have a humidifier that runs like I don't know if it's that damaging to dolls because my place is so dry. So, I don't know if that's a thing because she had on her face too and I'm like she's a mini me. use her all the time. It could um was she was she customized with face like face painting? Yes. Okay. Uh does do you know what the artist used as a sealant? I don't I can ask her though because in some cases Oh, in some cases, sorry. uh the sealant tends to not really seal or get you spray too close, it gets shiny. You spray too far away, it doesn't cover. Even even if it's been like a year or two, like I've got this I got that face touched up over a year ago, maybe two. It could be. [sighs] That's interesting. It could be. It could be a It could be a bunch of things. Um, is it is the doll that you used an older doll as a base? No, she's like um she's like a fashionista.

39:57She's nothing like it was a fashionista. I had my hair like I like match my hair great. So then she just touched up the face. She shouldn't have any issues. It's probably the sealant. That's interesting. So just something to note that like if you notice that because it's one thing for old dolls, but it's another for like this is the doll I have out of box. I use her for content like regularly. So I don't I didn't know how it happened. I thought, well, I have a humidifier in the room maybe. But it could be that. It could be. What is it? Close to the humidifier. Yeah. So she could be near a humidifier. Is that what you think it could be? Yeah, it could. It's not the condensation is the issue. It's the fact that she could be too close and the sealant could be breaking down. Okay. Well, that's good to know for anybody who maybe is noticing some of their dolls are randomly like even these, even the ones behind me, like they should not start to get this sweaty face. No, I mean same with mine. Not get sweaty face. Like that's what I call it. Yeah. Well, uh, greasy face, sweaty face, same thing. I mean, even the mod stuff, uh, and this is this is the case. Uh, I will say this, when it comes to a doll that has the greasy face or the face sweat, if you don't eradicate that and you keep them in a closed case, it has the potential to spread to other dolls. Correct. Yeah, that's I'm a little worried about my um I'm looking on my shelf. I do have the wedding day, the wedding party MIJ set. Like would

41:18that come like Ken and Barbie is like the you know the best man whatever made of honor and so I've taken out the Allen because his face is getting the sweat and I've wiped him a few times. I've looked up like different videos on what to do. Um someone said baking soda. I'm like I don't know. I'm just so worried about like ruining his face. But I baking soda won't do anything though, hun. It's just it's just a deodorizer. It naturally clumps with moisture. Good. So, I'll try that next because exactly that like he's in a box with five other dolls. Like I don't want the set to be ruined, you know? Yeah. So, as we're talking reproductions, I do want to talk about um I uh I think you have quite the Kylie Manog collection. Yes. Um but what do you think of the new Padam Padam? I'm I'm assuming you have her. I'm gonna make I do have her. Um I like her. I some hesitation in here for Well, no. The thing is I have three of her and I only have three of her because one I'm keeping original. I'm trying to create a Kylie doll from a different era. And with the Padam Padam doll, the face is too wide.

42:37her face. She has a thin face. If her face was just I've never seen a person like this, like out of box. Yeah, she's gorgeous. The outfit's really really for Mattel and that that should not be a a draw. Uh for Mattel, it's a really good quality outfit. Um the boots are a special sculpt. I know a lot of the fans were upset that they're plastic boots. Oh, okay. I mean, she's on a a standard fashionista body um stands and she can pose her, you know, knees and but only two 90° bend cuz it's only the one pivot. Okay. Uh but she cannot bend her legs because of the boot cuz it goes all the way up to her mid thigh.

43:30Um, I love her because it is uh a Kylie merchandise. I love her especially for the stand. Oh, cute. They kind of customized it. I like that. Yeah, it's her logo. Yeah. Um, which I like. Which she's had the same logo for god like 25 years. Yeah. Had the logo for 25 years. So, I mean, uh, the doll the doll is great. I love it. It's It's not really It's her, but it's not her. Um I I want This was the last project that Bill Greening did. Yeah. Um which again, love to have a Bill Greening doll. The only qual is that the face is too wide and she looks too young. Like, so you wanted her to look more like she looks now. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they didn't they they I'm not gonna say it dropped the ball with her. I'm not gonna say that.

44:23Uh, is she a favorite of my Kylie collection? No. You know, I've I've made many of Kylie uh using the Jack's Pacific doll. But as far as that doll goes, you look at her and um you look at her hair and you look at her face and you're like, "Oh goodness, she's kind of ugly." [laughter] I I mean, I have her. I have her. I have Show me show me like you one of your favorite Kylie's then like what would you say is like this is like perfect in terms of how she looks or close enough. Well, that's like that's what brings me to the Jack specific Kylie. She's an interesting one. Let's [laughter] see. Let's see some of these Jack specifics. I want to see them. Oh, so I've taken her boots off uh so you can see her entirety. She is advertised as a poseable doll.

45:19And uh she doesn't really pose. Uh I'll be honest. Her knees bend. That's about it. Uh you can you could twist her arm. Oh, you could look at that. You could twist her waist. Um but there's no seams on her body. There's nothing. There's no joints. Yeah. No, that's I was just But her face is much more Kylie than the Padam one. Yes, Padam Padam. Even with the hair. I mean, granted, it's the cheekbones. It's the cheekbones that they gave her there. Like that the cheekbones in the Jack Pacific look so much more like her and the jaw. The jaw. Yeah.

46:05and and the the mouth thing that she's doing. Everything with the proportions reads Kylie. I mean, yeah, that's just her. I mean, and I and I don't know anything about Kylie. I don't collect. I'm not a huge fan, but I mean, I can see just by you showing me that that this one looks much more like her. Yeah. I mean, I think since that they released the Padam, Kylie, uh, this doll has been more in demand. That makes sense. That makes sense. She is only a eur She's only strictly a European release. And when I say strictly European, we're talking Germany, not even barely Germany got her. Mostly the UK and Australia got her. How did you get your hands on her? I had to go on eBay. [laughter] We all We all have those moments are like, "Oh, I got to go to eBay." I I cannot even express and explain how many of the Jack's Kylie's I have. I do a lot of the customs for her because I love her a lot.

47:12You've got her records and all this that stuff. I see your Oh, yeah. Yeah. You I know. I got um I had made I don't know if you're familiar with that. It's not Dream Bride. Maybe it is Dream Bride. There's a Barbie from 1991 that has a lingerie set underneath her wedding gown. I'm not sure if you're familiar. I'm gonna look it up. She's either dream bride or she's she's dream bride because wedding fantasy is different. And she came with like a there's a long she came with a white lace teddy with attached stockings and uh a garter belt. I want to say she also came with a garter belt. Now, that lingerie is very similar to the lingerie swimsuit that Kylie was wearing for the one of the promo shoots for her album, Body Language. I think it's Dream Bride from 90. Was this from 91? Yeah. Okay. So, I have I I had that lingerie set and I had obviously I have Kylie. So, I said, "You know what? It looks very similar to the promo shoots for the body language era." So, I said, "You know what? We're going to modify the little lingerie set and make it look like the swimsuit.

48:26And I mean, wait, that that that's not the piece from Dream Bride, is it? It is. How'd you get it to be black? I dyed it. Cool. And I changed the straps. So, originally the straps are to here. Yeah. Yeah, they're I needed more of a lift. She needed to be lifted. Oh, wow. That's very impressive. I mean, like I love her. model. What body do you have on? Just like a regular regular made to move. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Matches. Awesome. I mean, they're they are Oh, wow. Yeah. They They look so much more like Kylie. They really do. Especially this one because this one I can't even without laughing at her. You're seeing side to side.

49:13For me, when I see them both like this, I feel like they both they both look like her. I mean, there's some eyebrow differences and stuff, but they really do both look like her. And then you have this one. Yeah. And now that you put them like that, you can see like the difference. Yeah. Yeah. Like I mean, has she has she changed her face? like how she has some work done and she looks a little different or she's still looking like she looks virtually the same from I want to say from about 1994 to now. Okay. Cuz some people do work to their face and then you know they kind of start to look different and maybe they were trying to come. But I listen you're the Kylie expert. So I Well, the only real difference I noticed with Kylie is just her getting slightly older. like we're talking she's been she's been around uh with music since 1987.

50:07That's 39 years. Some of the records I see you playing I'm just like um wow. Like I didn't even realize how way back her career goes. It really does. She really does have quite the disography, right? Like she's got a ton. Um, I will say that her sculpt for the Jack's Pacific doll could easily be turned into, and I say easily as if I haven't done it yet, because I haven't done it yet. Uh, with slight modification, like removing the the uh marks around her the cheek. Yep. Detailing. If I were to remove that, you're getting baby Kylie. Baby Kylie. Baby Kylie. Like, we're talking like locomotion Kylie.

50:54the locomotive. That's how that's what that's how I that's how I remember Kylie. Um, and then I just kind of don't remember her until she kind of came back in the 90s or like the early 2000s. But yeah, no, she's got some hits. Is there any other Kylie dolls that you want to share or do you think those are the Jack Pacific are pretty like bang on in terms They're the best ones. I I do have a plan. I haven't executed it yet. Oh, I haven't shared it with anybody. This is this is this is like hot off the press that we're sharing. This is like I had I had seen a post by uh Roly's Dolls. Yeah. On on Instagram and on I actually found the post on on Facebook and he had made uh a Katya doll and I wanted to know the scold for a very specific reason which I'll get into.

51:46So after a few days of searching and go going to Facebook and and and a and asking uh somebody had left me a comment on my initial post about asking because I had did uh comment on uh Roly's post but never got a response because again this person's busy. This person has a huge following. They're not going to get back and be like, "Oh, it's this doll." You know? Sure. Uh so I was on I was on the ID page on Facebook and I'm like, "Does anyone know what doll this is?" Someone said it looks like an ice skating doll. So I'm looking up celebrity ice skating dolls and I find out that it's a ice skater doll by the name of Nicole Bobc. I don't know who she is. I'm not an ice skating fanatic. I don't like I'm not into it. I don't know if she was an Olympic skater. I don't know. I look at her face and I say to myself, that's Kylie without the uh cheek details and more of a smile.

52:51So, my idea is I want to make an early years and not ' 90s8s Kylie. Oo, with that face sculpt with that Nicole Bobc. Yes. Um, with the Mattel Kylie, I have started formulating to make a '9s Kylie, specifically the Step Back in Time music video outfit. Oo. Which is this patchwork faux fur vest jacket thing with a sparkly uh bralette and like hot pants? Oh my goodness. Okay, so so here's the question. Are you going to document this process?

53:37I'm going to try my best for viewers to see. And where can they find this stuff? Ian's doll restoration on Instagram. Yeah, that's exactly where. Perfect. But now that you've kind of given this little teaser, people watching may want to see this come to life. So if you if and when just document it for the viewers, you know, people might want to see it. It's so funny you say that, too, because uh just this morning, I had I had gotten a package uh actually yesterday, but I didn't get to to examine it until this morning because I had a late day yesterday. Uh I said to myself, I'm going to look at this. And I it was a uh 1966 Straight Like Francie and I'm like, you know what? She looks rough. Let me take some pictures. Let me comb out her hair, see what I got going. 100%. 100%. You got to do the you like sometimes I forget to do the before and you did it. You're like, "Holy crap." Like I really did do a good job here. Like it's just the satisfaction of seeing like just how it was and what you were able to make it become. Yeah.

54:39Especially what you do. Like I'm talking like I do some simple TLC, clean her up, maybe fix her hair, you know, the boil wash, all that stuff. But you what you are capable of doing is such a talent and should be shared if as long as you're comfortable with that, right? But I think what you do a lot of people would just love to see and I'm learning from you because I'm so scared to do things like I'm scared to put baking soda on like an Allen doll. Like come on, you know, like as long as you take the head off, right? You know, you don't want soda in there. Even popping off heads lately. Like I that has been scaring me because sometimes I'm just like, "Okay, just trust the universe and do it." And I that's great. Sometimes I have to boil it first because I've had some accidents. Use heating pads. Yeah. And you're It's coming from someone who was a box collector and didn't like want to like touch their originality. And now I'm like, "No, like let's, you know, let's fix these up and how do we restore these and bring some of these back to life?" And you know, the quality like sometimes the quality like we've spoken about from Mattel is just not what it once was. No. And so we're there's so much talented people out there who are able to take something and make it into, you know, and and maybe now is a good time for stepping away from Kylie to talk a little bit about how you and I met. All right, sounds good. So for everyone who's like, "How'd you meet Ian? How did this happen? How did you have him as your first guest?" So um I was uh

56:01at a toy show, same toy show that I got that fair faucet and um I saw some Sunny and Share dolls. I had recently done a video about Sher because I got my hands on my very first Turnback Time, Sher Doll and she's an icon. I've always loved the song and um you know as a kid watching the music video I just thought she was like you know iconic and gorgeous and all the things and so cool and um I got an opportunity to get my hands on a share doll off marketplace really great deal and I'm just like now I'm interested. I want to get more. So, I started doing the research on the MIGO and figuring out, you know, how all how the 70s dolls were done. And I uh went to a toy show and they had Sunny and Sher for sale. She didn't have any fingers. She was missing a few fingers. And I was looking at it and I'm like, "That's unfortunate. She doesn't have any fingers."

56:49And the gentleman was like, "Oh, that's really common with the MIGO dolls." And I was like, "Oh, okay." And me being like still learning about it, I was like, "I don't think I heard about the melt but not about the fingers." This gentleman next to me says, "I've got some dolls in my car. This is the guy who gave me the Fair Faucet dolls. And I'm And he's like, "I've got some share dolls." And I thought, "Okay, let's go look." And he had the 1976 poseable. This wasn't a um this wasn't the hair, the growing hair. It wasn't growing hair. Um and she's, you know, pretty rough shape, but I mean, she's from 76. She had the MIGO melt. Her dress is a little dirty. Her face is dirty. Her hair was all knotted. And I posted a real just saying, "Hey everyone, got my hands on my first like MIGO share doll. um trying to expand that collection a little bit since I just got the turnback time and I got a lot of comments from people telling me what to do. Somebody told me to use like um Armorall to fix her hair and I was like that doesn't sound right. And then this angel from above named Ian came and sent me a private message, super long. Like you took time to put the details on like step one D, step two, and you took the time out of your day to do that to help a fellow, you know, doll lover who wants to just fix this share doll. And I was just so like, that's so kind of you to be so detailed and take the time. Um, and also you were like, let me know how it goes. And then

58:12we just started chit cchatting from there and it just kind of kept going. We could talk for hours. So I'm still in the process of fixing her. I could show her to you because she's looking better. Um but when you and I started to talk, you were like, "Well, take a look at my share collection." And I was floored. So I don't know what you have there that you can show us. Oh, I have I have the fashions that you have. Like we're talking really hard to get fashions from the 70s stuff from MIGO. So I'll throw it over to you. Show me whatever you want to show me because I loved every single share doll that you had. I was just like, "Oh my god, I have I have a I have an outfit specifically that's hard to find. It's called uh dramatic drizzle."

59:00Oh, and so these are Mackie fashions, are they not? Yeah, they are. These are Bob Mackey fashions from the 70s. Not easy to get. No, not at all. Is that a Is that like a pososeable share? That wasn't like a growing hair, was it? No, it's it's just a standard uh share. And not even the hollow body, which I have the holo bodies, too, but we don't talk about those ones. Okay, we don't. No, because they're budget. They're the budget ones that they disintegrate over time. Sure. Let me see this outfit. Show this outfit a little more. I just love it's like a almost like um a lacy. Oh my goodness. Oh wow. And her hair, [clears throat] you know what? Her hair is really great to work with. It does take heat. I mean to an extent. I mean, but it does take the heat and it looks super silky and shiny. Mine is still looking like I'm actually going to grab it. Mine is still looking um I'm finding the ends of her hair like it's very smooth and silky and then when you get to the ends it's still a little poofy. It's hard. Well, that's how it is with this one.

1:00:00It's not It's not perfect, but I mean, she also had the cape on, so it doesn't really matter, but doesn't really matter. Yeah. Oh my god, that's stunning. Even with the cape off, what a beautiful dress. It reminds me of the um Happy Birthday gown that Marilyn wore, which I believe also was designed by Bob. It was It was designed by Bob. Bob's got the talent. So, here's what she's looking like. I still got to do a little Oh, you have a long hair share. She's Is this longer than usual? Yeah, there's there's like three main hair lengths of share. Okay. Uh I have only really been able to find the ones that fall to the butt until fairly recently where I had found one that falls down to the knee. So, as you can see, like the top, like if you saw in my short, I have it on my Instagram as um a real and then a short on my YouTube channel. Yes. The hair was very knotted and I can't just seem to get the bottom to just not puff so much. Is this the best I'm gonna get it, Ian? Like, I'm not gonna get this any better, right? Uh, it's possible you could. I mean, even it's just the issue is is the age? Yeah. Um, that you could definitely go with another pass through. Okay. Um, I mean, you're going to get you're going to get the puff. Yeah. Even on on this one, you're going to get the puff. Yeah. But if you see,

1:01:21it only starts puffing here. Yeah. Yeah. So, so the more you do it, the silkier it'll become. Um, but you're never going to get it completely perfect because that's separation. Yeah, that's the fiber separating. A lot of people have said they've also cut a little bit off of the ends to just not give her that split end sort of look, but I'm just scared I don't want to mess it up. And once you cut it, it's gone. In my experience with cutting Shar's hair, it doesn't matter what you do, it will always puff up at the bottom, no matter the length. Okay. guide length and it's not immediate. Okay? It's not immediate. What you're essentially doing is you could do a minor trim. Yeah. But if you're cutting like let's say I have puff, right? I have puff to here. Let's say if I cut it here and you know and I'm not I have no intention of selling her or anything. She's in my collection. Not only am I now losing length to her, right?

1:02:17So now she's a shoulder length hair doll. Give it about a year or so in storage or in display. Now the frizz is here up to here. And you can't keep cutting the hair unless you intend on r-rooting. I don't know if I'm going to I could probably keep going over this, get it a little a little bit better. I've also gone ahead and taken some advice um probably I think it was definitely from you because you I was looking at your notes um about some of the MIGO melts. So, I've gone ahead and like shaved it off. Like I've just gotten like an X-acto knife and just kind of like taken it off so it's not so visible. Um, yeah. So, done that as well. It's It's funny. I think this is the one Share doll that had there is a Share outfit uh called Goodness. It's called Cherokee.

1:03:09The dress melts to the doll. I'll show you what I mean. I have a swimsuit on her to keep her from from causing this any issue. You suggest I do that for like my next If you're gonna put any fashions on that you're nervous about ruining. I do have a fashion I've got the pink one arm uh jumpsuit that has the pink. Yeah, I just don't have the pink puffy hat. So, what I tend to do and I I'm just gonna we're just gonna show her undergarments here. Swimsuit. No, I don't. covers the joint on the crotch and covers the joint on the arm. Yeah. This doll has to wear this outfit. Yeah. She doesn't have a choice. Yeah. And I'll pull the front of her shirt off so you can see why she has to because the Cherokee dress melted its neckline into the doll and she can't wear anything backless because the back of the dress melted into the doll. My goodness. What? Took me 15 minutes to get the dress off of the doll. Well, I had the same issue with Farah, not to flip it back, but Farah had her cream jumpsuit on. Y there's parts where I was trying to take it off slowly and unfortunately I did pull a little hard. I made a little tear in her jumpsuit because the the the glue or the migle melt, whatever, was just so bad. Yeah. To the outfit.

1:04:32And that's a good little tip. I just I need to find some bathing suits because I don't have that. I know the pososeable dolls came with um like a red or a blue bathing suit. I think they had both. And yellow. And yellow. Yeah. So, like having that underneath is a great protector. And that's a great tip because I'd hate to do all this work and it's it can continue to melt and I'm going to ruin the clothes in the next couple years again. You know, it's fine if the doll like and this is this is the case here. It's fine if the doll body disintegrates over time. The doll body can be replaced. Yeah, you can easily get a uh clone integrity body in the shade honey and put Sher's head on there. The fashions are not hard are not easy to sort.

1:05:19I know that's the issue. The bodies can be like, you're right, it's the clothes that are just, you know, imagine like some of these fashions that you have are so hard to find and get your hands on or maybe for a pretty like a pretty penny. Yeah. I mean, even the custom fashion I did uh using Now, I'm I'm fairly certain you're familiar with the share booklet that came with the doll with fashion up and it had all the fashions on it. Yes. The last fashionist called Chocolate Mocha. Do you have a booklet? I have a bunch of the booklets. I think I have enough booklets. I have I mean I have the misprint booklet, too. Wow. Where'd you get that one? It came with my original share doll. Nice. I have They're all the booklets are essentially all the same. Yeah.

1:06:11Uh the fashion lineups are different on some of the fash on some of the dolls like on Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. I think I noticed this and I think you and I talked about this where the what's in the booklet is not exactly what made. So, I'm just going to share. This is my original booklet from when I was a kid. Okay. This is a booklet that was reissued, right? This is copyright 76. This is a copyright 76, but the texts are different. Yes, I see that in the So, this one says power limbs for easier dressing. It's supposed to say powder. This one says powder placed in boot will allow for easy fit. Don't ask me, ask me go. Uh, [laughter] I mean, prime example here, uh, the Sunny fashions in the booklet, that's the prototype Sunny.

1:06:59That's not even the Sunny that was released. You're right. His original design was meant to be stoic. He was not supposed to smile because Sher didn't smile. And he didn't pose the smile with their photos. So, this is what he looks like. Yeah. They also gave him longer hair in the prototype of the doll of him. So, but he would smile. Sher wouldn't smile. But for the photos on their album covers, they didn't smile. Oh, even though I don't understand why they made a Sunny doll. I mean, because I guess it was the Sunny and Shar show, but that show ended in 74. You're right. And then these came out afterwards and they were already divorced which and these fashions that Sher's wearing for the dolls are all fashions either slightly before the share show came out or during the share show. I mean you have La Plume which is from 1975 Metgala.

1:08:07Interesting. The oldest fashion on this in this catalog. uh that a was carried over into the Share Show was Leverne. Yeah. And B Indian Squa, which is the outfit that Sher wore for Half Breed. That's right. The big the the big thing. Yeah. Everything on everything here was used. Actually, no. I think Bolero was in Sunny and Share. I think the outfit Bolero was in Sunny and Share, but everything else was post Sunny and Share, which So the out Did I show you the outfit that my Sunny came with? It's peeling, of course. Clearly, it's all over him. What outfit was that? I think it's in the book there somewhere. Bucks skin. Cool. Oh, it was a green shirt. Nope. Orange again. inconsistencies within MIGO. Yeah. Yeah. Mine didn't come with a shirt. It just had the jacket and the pants and it's completely peeling. Yeah. Mine it was in box and it was sweating and now it's out of box and it's on him and he's by himself. Uh where he should be. This outfit doesn't exist. Chocolate mocha. It does not exist. Okay. It never was never released.

1:09:25It was released under a different name under a different color scheme. Okay. Mint jeulip. That's so different from chocolate mocha. But for the sake of completing the booklet, I made my very own chocolate mocha from a mint jeulip. You Okay. So, you made this. You got the mint jeulip and you made a chocolate mocha. And because in true catalog fashion, kneelength hair share. Wow. Very nice. Look at her. I love that she is. She This outfit was really hard to to to color. The uh tinsel like cape took so much quicker than the fabric, which worked out in my favor. However, I had to do multiple sessions of dipping to get brown.

1:10:19And it still isn't as brown as I would like it. However, in the photo, it still has a green tinge to it. Yeah, it almost looks identical. Like I can't. And that's a that is a one-of-a-kind. Like legit, you took something that MIGO said they were going to do. They didn't do it. And you and they put it they put it in the freaking dressing room. Yeah. They put a They put the outfit card in the dressing room. Do you have the dressing room? Yeah. Of course you have the dressing room. We'll need another ep another episode with you. [laughter] That that dressing room costed me Oh my goodness. And it was complete. I think it was like $80. But it's like cardboard, right? It's like that like how they did the first Barbie house, right? Like it's No, it's plastic. Really? It's plastic. And it has furniture. It Yeah, that's awesome. And it came with the invisible magic outfit suit thing. Yeah, I saw it at the toy show and it was just really pricey. I was like, "No, can't do that." I've seen it. I've seen on eBay for 50 and even that I'm like hesitant. Someone who someone who bought it complete for 80 with two share dolls, I'm going to be very biased on purchasing something for extreme price.

1:11:37That's the kind of person I am. Like now that I had bought an inbox Farah Faucet doll for $14, I'm not buying a Farah Faucet doll out of box for more than 20. Yeah. Sorry. Yeah. And the thing is like I keep forgetting like I hear you say $50 and I was like, "Oh, that's not bad." And then I'm like, "Wait a minute, that's US dollars. For Canadians, it's going to be it's closer to $75 is what it's going to cost us." Yeah. Because the Kylie doll for you guys is like 80 Canadians still. Even all the rockers that came out, they were 60. They're not. They're 90. They're 90 here. And and and let me just take a moment. Although I'm very happy they remade them. Yes. Those dolls are still very easy to find. Granted, with the pleather issue, yeah, it's going to be harder to find ones in great condition, but we did get one in 2009 of just Barbie, but again, guess what? Peeling. Yeah. The boots. The Not just the boots, the skirt, the silver top fades. Yeah.

1:12:40Yeah. So, are we expected to believe that they're going to fix it for this anniversary? I mean, they have to fix they have to use new material. Like, I'm pretty sure they don't have that material, but they're going to source something. The thing is like it's got to be affordable. Got to it's got to be like, you know, so I don't know if we're really going to get something better worthwhile for our budget. No, I know we voted for the three, but part of me was like, wouldn't it be nice to get a Derek with proper pants that don't peel? I did not like the Dana. Her face is different. So, they used They used the late 90s Mo. Yes. Firstly, and they didn't go along with the original makeup. They didn't. You see, you'll notice these things like I don't I've only looked at photos. They gave her uh a 2026 approach to her face. Meanwhile, Barbie looks the same. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and Dee, I really like the way Dee looks. I think I've never had I didn't get a And I don't have a gen one Dee. I've got a Gen Two with the the dancing the the moving. I have a I have a I have a a dancing one also. Yeah, I wanted an original Dee, but like I Dee looks good to me, but like I noticed right away and I saw Dana. I'm like that's not the original face. No, that's She looks bloated. She sure does. And small. Small. is she's scrunched and bloated. So,

1:14:04where she's blown out Yeah. is where she shouldn't be blown out. And I just don't know why they would change it. I mean, I'm sure there's reasons, but I just I want to say it's mold fatigue. I want to say because you you and I both remember when they still had Mo on the Playline. Yeah. In the 90s to early 2000s. Yeah. Her face ballooned in the late 90s. Yeah. So somewhere along those lines, they tried to keep the sculpt as close as possible, but because the sculpt had been blown out, they're just like, "Oh, no one's going to notice." Yeah, for sure. Cuz even with the stuffy sculpt, even though that one's predominantly unchanged, Stephiey's the only one who's like unchanged. Yeah, I don't mind. I like Stephie. I don't mind stuffy. I'm not I don't either. I don't like her. Even like the Mackie Even the Mackie faces. The Mackie faces are very could be very cute or they could be very once they made them into playline.

1:15:03Yes. Unfortunately, what we're getting right now, the the Millie face is what the Mackie face is. You know, like Millie was never meant to be a collector series. No, Millie should. No. Never. Yeah. Like Millie, she got old in the first year she was produced. Yeah. There was just way too much of her. Way too much. Like it's been 10 years of her at least and I'm still seeing fashionistas that were from 10 years ago and they look so dated in the Walmart aisles with the whole the whole Chaser doll the whole Chaser doll thing. It makes it only exclusive for Americans. And this is why I said to you like sometimes I feel like Canada gets forgotten. Yeah. The Chase ones I had to go to Buffalo and Michigan to get them because we don't have a Target here.

1:15:50Oh, that's right. Y'all got rid of Target. So silly. A lot of the And that's the thing everywhere else now because of the stupid tariff thing which only affects the people. Yeah. It's messing up for all collectors. Even Mattel Creations like sometimes there's free shipping but it's like oh wait but you're in Canada and I know you're a Mattel Creations member but you still got to pay the shipping. Did you know doesn't become worth it sometimes? I paid and I this is my qual with Mattel and how money hungry they are. I paid over $80 for the Kylie doll on its release date. I found that they had it at Target and Walmart for 50 the next day. Yeah. Yeah. They essentially and that's before before the shipping which cost me $10. I paid $90 for a Mattel doll that I paid 55 for because of tax from Walmart. How about all the the movie doll drama? Like I can't stand it. I just it was so frustrating to be like we were also like first of all the money spent from collectors in 2023. Yeah. Is just crazy. And then still milking it and they still are and still like and I'll never forget the pre-order like pre-ordering the the hot skating

1:17:14ones like the Ken and the Barbie pre-ordered from Walmart. pre-ordered, got an email saying like, "Hey, it's delayed. It's delayed." Randomly went to go do my shopping and they're on shelf. You know what? You say that. Let's just take a moment. TLS with their Gem series rebooting the Gem dolls. How many setbacks have we gotten between the original Gem that they released, which was only available at Walmart in the US? You guys had to wait a whole like from what I recall four to five months before you got to have that doll in Canada. Yeah. And then they're like, "Okay, we're going to release Gem and Synergy. Purely online release, limited release, $120 American." I can't speak too much on Gem because I was not a like a Gem girl. I was a Barbie girl, which there's also that sort of um the story behind like did like you know did Barbie really and the rockers come out first or was it Gem and Mattel just got link of it and they were able to release it first. I mean, listen, Gem and the Holograms in terms of a cartoon, they did so much better than Barbie. That cartoon like that it was a good cartoon. Like, it just the show did much better, but some of the behind the scenes stories of like Mattel catching wind that Hasbro was releasing a Rockstar doll

1:18:38and then uh they kind of went to market on Barbie and the Rockers much quicker. Like, that's what I heard. They caught wind and then they kind of went to market first and it looked like Gem copied them when really they just somehow pulled at like, you know, material they already had in stock. Yeah. You know, turned a doll around in four months. Like that was I mean, as much as it's like that sounds a little crooked, it's actually from a business standpoint like good for them that they were able to turn that around and do that. Exactly. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of gem experience just because I didn't really collect. Yeah. It's just I find it crazy that a independent company like uh TLS and I'm saying independent because they're not as well known as you know like MGA or Mattel whatever. Yeah. For a company that personally bought the rights from Hasbro. Yeah. For sure. You're you're really jerking the chains of the fans. Yeah. And that's what Mattel does. Yeah. What those Why are we getting the guy who played Allan? What is his name? The guy played Allan. Oh, uh, Michael Sarah that we're getting a Michael Sarah doll now.

1:19:51I know. And even the fireplace, like I'm gonna I'm gonna be honest with you. The fireside scene, like I with the guitar, like I ordered it and then after 18 months I'm like, "Wait a minute." Like I can get $180 back. Like that's Canadian what I spent. I'm like, "I don't know if I even want this anymore." And it doesn't look like either of the actors. I requested a ref because it was they were said to me like I was like you know what I'm going to request a refund. They were like well if you change your mind like this is a this is a made to order. You can't then say I'm like no that's fine. I don't want it. I just kind of it's old news. The movie is old news. I've spent we've all spent enough money on the dolls, right? So yeah. Yeah. Interesting. We talked about the movie a little bit but um because I've bought I've and this is the only the really unfortunate thing in terms of uh pososeable Ken dolls. The only thing you're going to be getting is the movie Ken anymore. 100%. Yeah, that's another thing that's just there's not enough of. No. In terms of being able to get it in affordable manner and I'm not spending $200 on a looks Ken, right? I'm also not going to spend I'm sorry. $50 for essentially a body donor is really excess. Really excessive.

1:20:57I mean, if you have the money and you you want to do that, be my guest. But Yep. I'm not gonna my money that. Yeah. It doesn't make it easier for like the average no collector. I do want to talk about there's somebody who's been she's an icon. She's been in the news again recently. Okay. And that's Miss Britney Spears. Yeah. Um poor Britney. Let's not I mean I I feel for her. Let's not to talk about Britney. This is talked about the icon that she is. And you sir have some some dolls that you've restored. Do you not? I have. Yeah. I've got about Oh my goodness. Every single one of them has been a project. Uh, even the brand new ones in box have been a project, which I only have one.

1:21:43Okay, this one is the last. This is the last revision of Britney's face that we got. Um, this one is uh she's customized. I did customize her face. Gave her more of a smoky look. She is um in the process of being made into the Me against the music outfit. Yep. Which she also wore when she met Kylie. This is why I'm making her to go along. Oh, that makes sense. Yeah. So, two worlds collide. Yes. [laughter] Yes. So, she has a really interesting face. It's more her. Yeah. It's Britney. It's It's not kid It's not kid Britney.

1:22:30Sure. Okay. Like adult like more like adult. It's how she looks in her in her 20s, not how she looked because we both know what Britney looked like the doll when we were kids. Sure. She had huge smile, huge eyes. Yeah. But I mean this one untouched aside from being rebodied and reboxed. Essentially same face. Yep. um just without the smoke on her on her eye and her teeth are adjusted. But [sighs and gasps] the quality that we got with Britney, excluding the oops red jumpsuit and the white outfit dolls, the red jumpsuit's nice.

1:23:16It is, but it flakes. Of course it flakes. [laughter] I would uh there's there okay three qualms with Britney dolls. The two that have the leather they flake. The singing doll there's four. Okay fine. Four. The the two singing dolls. The initial one time dolls both of which have horrible hair. They polyropylene disintegrates. Uh the first ever singing Britney doll has a butterface. looks nothing like Brittney. Um, but in terms of quality for the clothing, amazing. Okay. I mean, we're talking this outfit is on a made to move. And we know that the Britney doll uses a standard Barbie body from the 90s. Yeah.

1:24:06The silver has not flaked good. Not the silver applique going down her pant leg. Not everything. The straps for her suspenders aren't even elastic. They're actually just thick cord. Okay. You would never get that with Mattel. No, you get elastic and it would be dead in like five. [clears throat] There are other options. So why are we not exploring those options, Martel? [laughter] Because they're cheap and they they know what they're used to. And again, this is a Mattel fashion. Yeah. Putting it out there. This is the power and pinstripe suit. It's wonderful. And not plastic snaps. This came out in 1997. Metal snaps. Metal snaps. Those are so much better. So much better. And the fit. They lined up the pinstripes almost perfectly for the sleeves. Very nice. Unheard of. Unheard of. We'll never see that quality again. Definitely not. I think these two are the peak ones because they're the ones that most collectors look for.

1:25:11Okay. Do you have like a doll that like one of your rarest dolls or one of your, you know, one of the ones that like is your favorite or Oh, I have hardest to find or something. I did find an American Girl Barbie head at an at an antique mall. There we go. You wanted to talk American Girl, so maybe we can $30. Let me see her. $30. The body was free. I got the body for free. This gown was missing all of the uh streamers. Yeah, I hand dyed all the streamers that I had made from tulle. Sewed this whole gown back together. Look at that. The doll is from 65. The outfit is also from 65. It's called brought it back to life. Campus sweetheart. Yeah, she and her face paint is untouched. Stop. It's great. And the thing with her is cuz she's a low color, the lips turn butter yellow. Oh, wow. But I just love that short blonde haircut, too.

1:26:15And I purposely picked her because we were talking repros earlier, right? Yes, we were. I got the 2025 uh reproduction of the astronaut. Okay. That's astronaut wearing poodle parade. Yes. Um, the poodle parade outfit. The poodle parade is is the repro from 95 regardless. It's just so cute. Like it is. I love they matched it really well. Do you see what I mean? Like they they did versus like switching something up or it just looks so identical. Well, that's I had to change the outfit for Mstronaut because of so many plastic accessories that they didn't have even for the 2009 repro. The 2009 Pro had actual leather boots that zippered.

1:27:01Wow. Yeah, they she didn't have that. They were plastic. Wow, those are great finds. Those are awesome. This was on this doll, the astronaut doll. Uh I don't know if she's still on sale on Amazon. She was 25 American. That's probably uh I love the repro. However, uh the quam is I had to style her hair major because it was cut it was cut and styled uneven. Oh, but wasn't it the helmet, too? That kind of makes it a little [sighs and gasps] I don't know if she was Was she wearing the helmet? I don't remember. Wasn't wearing the helmet. You're right. She's not wearing it. But it's so It was flat. It looked like they took a crimping iron and just Yeah. And it it was bad. I mean, granted, we're She's modeled after a long hair American while this is a short hair American. Oh my god, I love it.

1:27:47But I purposely did the blondes so you could see side by side. Yeah, that's awesome. She's She's definitely good. They're beautiful. Well, personally, I think you and I could probably talk for another couple hours. So, I think definitely. So, I think we're going to have to have another guest appearance by Ian's Dolls Restoration in the future. So, thank you again, Ian, for joining. Everyone, please follow Ian at Ian's Doll Restoration on Instagram. You can follow me, Kelly Pink, on YouTube. Any closing comments you'd like to make? Um, other than thank you for having me and taking the time out of your day to to uh have this talk with me. I really appreciate that. It was a pleasure. You have a beautiful collection. I cannot wait to meet again and see some of your work on Ian's doll restoration. I can't wait to see that.

1:28:36Thank you so much. I don't even have I don't even know how to leave. [laughter] Just close it. We'll talk. We'll message each other. We'll be in touch. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Of course. Anytime, hun. Thank you. Okay. Enjoy the rest of your weekend. You too. Okay. Bye bye. It's amazing how one doll can bring people together to [music] celebrate a shared interest. In this case, one doll turned a conversation into a story. [music] Thank you for watching episode 1 of Barbie Talk. Make sure to like, subscribe, and hit that notification bell if you love all things