Rare Midge, Number One Barbie and Working at Mattel

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. I'm your host, Kelly, and this is Barbie Talk. [music] Barbie Talk with Kelly in Pink. Today's guest has been a Barbie collector of all eras since the age of three with a special love for Barbie's bestie Mitch. She's known as MIJF73 on Instagram, where she shares her passion for MIJ along with vintage Barbie history and licensed products. Please welcome Laura. Hi. Hi, Laura. How are you? I'm good. How are you? I'm fantastic now that you're here. Welcome to Barbie Talk. Yay. Oh, I love your background. It's It looks like you're in the dollhouse. Thank [laughter] you. Looks like you're look living with Barbie and Ken in their dream house. I wish. [laughter] Yeah. So, thank you so much for being on. I've been following you for for quite some time now. And um I just I like I like to get right to it. So, tell everybody a little bit about yourself. maybe where you're from and how your relationship with Barbie and MIJ started. Okay. Uh well, I'm Laura. I'm uh originally from the Bronx in New York. Then we moved to California when I was a kid. Um my uh my first love was Barbie. And I I got my first one when I was three years old. She was the fashion photo Barbie in the 70s. And my mom tells the story that I kicked and screamed for her

1:21at Kmart. We were on our way to a camping trip with some friends and I ended up seeing that doll and I had to have it was the little camera. That was what I wanted. So, um, that was how I got my first Barbie. So, that's when it started. And then since then, I've never stopped, which is why my house looks the way it does, which I can't show you. But, uh, I've been doing this since I was a little kid. And I never stopped. In high school, my friends would joke with me, uh, what do you want for your birthday? Let me guess, a Barbie. And I would say, yes, please. You know, and then in college, I I joined my first Barbie club in college when I was living in Arizona and Tucson, and we were we were the Arizona Barbie doll club. Then we had to change our name to the Arizona Fashion Doll Club because Mattel didn't want Barbie in anyone's club anymore. Um, so I've been doing this for a very long time [laughter] and um, you know, that's that's where I'm at now. I'm still doing this. Wow, that's fantastic. And the fact that you've been collecting straight on, like I know in myself included, a lot of my guests, there's a sometimes a point in life where you stop collecting either because you're like, "Oh, I'm too old for Barbie."

2:20But deep down you're like, "I still love Barbie, but I don't want my friends to know that I'm still buying Barbies." Or, you know, whatever. Life throws some curveballs and you kind of stop and then you get back into it later. But not you, Laura. You've been consistent all the way. I have no shame. Oh, good for you. And I'm not I mean [laughter] 100% I mean I was still getting them as gifts for Christmas from like my dad or what my parents and stuff but and I remember my my nephews and my niece once they were born they were like why is auntie still getting dolls and I'm like we don't judge kids. We don't judge. [snorts] So what is it about MIJ that kind of drew you to her? Because you said you started with Barbie first. So what why are you so passionate about her and collecting her? Well MIJ wasn't even around when I was a kid. So, growing up, I had the blonde army, and I had a lot of dolls, and most of them were blonde. I had Christy. Um, I had PJ, but I wanted one that looked like me. When I was a kid, the doll that looked like me was Strawberry Shortcake.

3:15Like, literally, I was her for Halloween winter because I had the red bangs and the the same haircut. And when that doll came out, my mom would say, "You look just like Strawberry Shortcake, you know, and I wanted to look like Barbie." So, that was always an issue. And then, um, one of my friends had, I guess they must have been her aunt dolls. Somebody gave her dolls and she had Francancy. She had MIJ. And I saw that MIJ and I'm like, "What is this doll? She has red hair. She has freckles like me." I'm like, "What is and I wanted one and I told my mom and we didn't never went to garage sales or uh you know, anything like that, a secondhand store." So, she's like, "Well, those dolls are old. You can't get those anymore." So, I was always like so disappointed. And I would see them in the um the old crochet magazines. My mom would get those occasionally and the knitting magazines. and they'd always use the they'd had these the older Barbies for they'd show how to make an outfit for your Barbie and they always had the vintage dolls in there. So, I was always aware of them and I always wanted an original Barbie. I was just always into that the older dolls and uh so it took me a long time. I my very first um Barbie convention I went to was in 97 I believe it was in San Diego and that was where I got my well my mom bought me my first vintage MIJ there and u before that I did have midgetes in um the 80s and 90s because they brought her back um California MIJ was the first time she returned to the scene and I remember being at the mall and I

4:37was with my cousin was visiting and I was with him in the KB toy store and I saw her on the show I go MIJ and I said, "I have to get her. I have to get her." And he's like, "Okay." And I cuz I think I was like 13 at the time and I was like, "I'm getting her." I'm like, "She has red hair. She has freckles. I need her to come home with me." And so that was my very first MIJ that that one. But my very first vintage one I got at my first Barbie convention. [laughter] So you said something that I'm going to park and we're going to talk about it later. But you your first Barbie convention was in 97 with your mother. My mind just blew. We'll talk about convention later, but we're talking a lot about like the old vintage dolls. What is the oldest doll you have? And do you have her there to share with us? Sure, I do. Um, do you want me to get her in? I do. [laughter] Well, my uh my very oldest doll is my number one. And obviously she's the oldest one you can have. Wait, breaks. You have a number one? I do. [laughter] It took me a long time to get her, but I do have a very special doll. She's very special to me. Um, she had belonged to my friend Ruth. I met Ruth at my very first convention. She was sitting at a table. Is your friend Ruth Handler? [laughter] No, not Ruth Handler. Like my friend Ruth. I'm like, um, does this are you going to surprise us with something?

5:51I did meet Ruth Handler one time, but no, she did not give me a number one. Um, uh, this had belonged to my friend Ruth Kron. Ruth Kron was one of the um, originators of the Barbie convention. And I just happened to be sitting eating my lunch and I was just I was by myself. I didn't know a soul at convention. I was just happy to be there. I didn't care. And this woman said, you know, "Young lady, would you like to join me for lunch?" And I said, "Oh, sure." You know, sure. Thank you. And I went and sat down with her. She's like, "Are you here for the barbecue convention?" I said, "I sure am. I'm so excited. It's my first time being here, you know." And um she said to me, um, uh, "Hi, my name is Ruth Kron." And I said, "Oh my god, I know who you are." I said, "Uh, you're the reason we're all here." Because I'd read about her in Barbie Bazaar and whatnot, and I knew who she was, and I was going to go see her give her presentation. So, I told her that, and she was all excited. So, anyway, we became friends after that. We were friends for many, many years. Well, she ended up passing away a few years back and um I had the opportunity to purchase her number one.

6:43So, this is my friend Ruth's number one. She means so much to me. I'm so happy that I waited. Sorry, getting clapped. I waited so many years. Number one, yesterday and the episode before, I got teeyed. Mary just does this to us. She really does. So, this is very She's precious to me because this had belonged to Ruth and Ruth meant so much to me. I I learned so much from her over the years. She she were just a wonderful person and great friend. So, I'm going to show you her now. Her box is very fragile. So, I'm going to put it over there, of course. So, this is my This is a Barbie talk episode first. Somebody actually has a number one. This is a first. It's a break. [laughter] So, there's my number one. We th Oh my goodness. I need She was a whole I mean, really was a holy grail. I mean, I'd wanted one since I was a kid. Like, I didn't even know how I'd ever get one. And then as a, you know, as an adult collector, I would look at them every time I went to um convention and I they were always like I'm like there's no way I could ever get one. I can't, you know, do this. And then um I ended up show her a little closer. Sorry. Can you like bring her a little closer? I mean, this is a this is a first time for Barbie talk, so we're very excited.

7:49You can see close. I could see her. So, did she not have any green in her ears? No. No. She's she number ones don't get green. That was another formula they used later that ended up greenier. Um, but are those her original earrings? Yes, as far as I know. As far as I've as far as goodness, she's all original. Um, you know, she's not perfect, but to me, she is. She's just beautiful. And I think she's perfect. I think she's perfect, especially for a doll that's from 59, right? the way that like I don't know her her the plastic is nothing's going nothing has spots nothing's sweating like the things that happen later on like it's just these don't get that the number ones whatever the formula was that they use with these these don't have that issue does she have the holes in her feet oh yeah she wouldn't be a number one if she didn't so she goes on her um I'll show you how her stand works so it has the little copper tubes and you just sloops just slide them in Yeah, they discontinued this stand. Didn't go in. Well, [laughter] anyway, put those in there. She stands on it, but they discontinued this because of these um the copper.

8:58Yeah. And the holes in there. Yeah. She's be her and her ponytail is still perfect. Like, you know, little flat, but she's okay. She doesn't matter. Her bangs are great. You know, no one is perfect. It's the imperfections of her that make her perfect. Like that. I don't know how to else describe it. So, rest in peace, dear friend Ruth. will honor her right now. I miss her. I I'm so glad that I waited because there were times like I really thought, "Okay, this is the year. I'm going to get the number one. This is the year." Because I, you know, I don't buy a lot at convention. Um, usually I I try and buy one special vintage doll. That's pretty much what we do. So, that, you know, there were a couple times I came close and I was like, "Oh, I can't, you know, can't do not this year. I'm not going to spend that kind of money." So, I was glad I waited because the perfect one was out there waiting for me. So, yeah. And if you bought her today, she goes for a pretty penny. [laughter] Yes. That's crazy. It's a lot. Yeah. Can you tell us when you were looking for that number one back when you were, you know, before you got it from Ruth and you were kind of like contemplating, how much was she? Can I ask? Yeah. Yeah. Um the ones like the ones that I was looking at were anywhere from I think the cheapest would have been 3500 and then from there they went up to normal like I mean the average was like 45 5,000 then it went up to like 77 7500 8,000 and then if you went in Marl's room at convention you'd see 12,000 13,000

10:23[laughter] which is where she's about now. She's about maybe like 15 let's say. I'm just curious to know like what that's what I'm seeing on like eBay. Like I'm like that's just crazy. Do you have like your first MIJ or anything that you would want to share? Pulled her out. I just saw the back of her cute little red. Oh, I need to get one in. And then that outfit. I need to get one in my collection. Well, I'll tell you this outfit was the first vintage outfit I bought when I was 12 with my babysitting money. [laughter] That's such a cute story. So this What year? So what year is she? What year is this outfit? She's from 1963. It's one of the earlier ones. It's uh called Friday Night Date. It was the first one I bought. I had gone to the antique store and I'm so mad you like years later. Of course, there was a case of Barbie clothes. It wasn't a Barbie case. It was just a case and it had a bunch of uh vintage outfits in it. [snorts] And I was just like, I just wanted a vintage outfit. Like I, you know, and I saw this one and I was like, "Oh, I want that one." I'd seen it in the magazines. I was like, "That's the one I want." So, um, the whole I think you could buy the whole case for $25.

11:28I didn't have that kind of money when I was, you know, I was babysitting, making a$150 an hour or whatever. So, I ended up getting this outfit. So, this was my first vintage purchase when I was 12. And of course, I didn't have a vintage doll to put it on. But, um, but, you know, I kept it all those years. And so, now my very first mid, she ended up wearing it when I brought her home that day. And she's been wearing it since. [laughter] I love I love the flip. I love that color. I love My mom bought her for me at that 97 convention. I still remember we paid $45 cuz we we walked around and looked and my mom was like, "That's too expensive. That's too expens." So, we finally settled on the $45 one. [laughter] And I remember this man was selling his mom's collection. So, she had belonged to his mom. Yeah. That's always sweet when like even on marketplace like if you pick something up and someone's like, "This is my mother's or you know," and it's just like it's going to be taken care of. they're going to be loved and it's just nice to be able to or even if you're thrifting and you restore an old doll or something like you're just bringing back to life, right? If somebody was starting their collection today, somebody new and they wanted to add a mij to their collection, which one would you say that they get? I would get u one of the first ones. She came in um blonde, brunette, and red head. And of course, I wanted the red head the first. And it was funny, for a long time, I thought that's all I needed. Just have her. Um but then, of course, then I'm like, "Oh, now I want a blonde one. Now I want a brunette one." And so that was kind of how So that whole ball started rolling. Then I was like, "Oh, well now I have those. I want the one. I want the

12:52um the Ben leg." So then I was on a search for the Ben leg. And then it was, "Oh, I need, you know, Allen." Allan actually I think Allan was actually the first I think I already had Allan. He was my first vintage purchase. I bought him when I was in college at the antique store and I paid way too much for it. It was $75. And I remember when I joined that Barbie club and I brought him in for show and tell one day. Lady goes, "You didn't buy that at Christine's Antiques, did you?" And I said, "I did." And she's like, "How much did you pay?" And I told her and she goes like, "You paid way too much for that." [laughter] There he is. So, I actually don't have a vintage MIJ, but I have a vintage Allen. Well, you need Mitch for him. I do. You're right. You know what? You're right. And I do need to get like I've got some repros. I don't have I don't have like an original. And he is This was a gentleman. I don't know if it was his collection or his wife's collection, but got this as a gift from Great. I do like I like the old Allen in term like I no offense to Michael Sarah I'm just not a fan of the new Barbie movie doll like I'm just it's a little too rough but the play line that they came out with which is only at Target he's actually quite cute I like his face yeah he is cute aside from MIJ we talk a lot about MIJ what other eras or what other favorite dolls are you into because it's not just MIJ you've got quite the collection tell us a little bit about your other eras that

14:12you're interested in. So, from uh my childhood, I really loved PJ and which is funny because the original PJ, which they didn't use her headmold then. She had the Stephie headmold, but the um original PJ doll. They used this head mold for the original Mitch head mold for the um the talking PJ. I think she has um she has that head mold. And it's really interesting. But when I was a kid, I always liked the different dolls because like I said, I had the blonde army. I had all the blonde Barbies, you know, because that's all they were. And then um they uh they had PJ and Christy, you know, and Ken. So, I always wanted her friends. Um but I really did love PJ. PJ was one of my favorites growing up. So, I I I think I have all the PJs. I might might be missing one. I don't know. I learned I learned something new today. I didn't know that. I mean, let's I'll be honest, '7s and and mod is not really my my era, but I just looked it up. I didn't know that. See, like, you learn something new. I didn't know she had a different face mold. I've always But I've always known Yeah. So, so they used u her head mold um for that one. Uh I always liked PJ. I always had fun making up stories. I used to play with um my friend Angela lived across the street and there was a culde-sac across from our house and uh my friend Mickey also lived up there and Mickey loved Barbie too. So the three of us we just had the best time. We would play Barbies

15:32like literally every day like till I was like 14. we played like all the time and we were just using our imaginations and I've always loved to write like make up stories and she was just like such a great vehicle for that like uh making up adventures for and um you know we used to have like Barbie and the Rocker concerts on the lawn you know we used to do um these we had Angela had gotten this uh Barbie I think it was a Sears house but it was open it was easier to use than my I had the A-frame which was kind of harder to to play with her was wide open yeah so we could always go play there and we would play in her room and have these crazy stories cuz when I was a kid like my mom and my grandma always watched Dallas and Dynasty. So like we were used to those nighttime dramas and um we uh we would have these adventures and these just soap opera lives for these poor dolls. I remember my favorite doll to take over to our house was uh when Peaches and Cream came out. I just love that doll. She's my favorite. And I would take her and I would take Dreamlow Kent and Angela had a Dream Glow Kent. So we would pretend they were twin brothers and we take off their coat and they would have the they had a tux underneath but it was sleeveless.

16:38So we used to pretend they worked at Chip and Dales, like the Chip and Dalees dancers. I think I got peaches and cream for my 11th birthday. So we used to pretend that they were working at this place and and one night Barbie and Barbie, the two Barbies went to uh go to a show and they saw them on stage and there was all this drama because their boyfriends were up on stage and then of course Ken and Ken were mad that they were in the audience watching the show. Fantastic. That's hilarious. [laughter] That's hilarious. I mean, I can I can relate to like the Barbie and the Ruckers concerts like the Chip and Dales, not so much. But I mean, you know, you know, no judgment. You know what? That's what she's all about. She's about imagination. And I'm just going to pull up my beautiful Oh, yeah. There she is. A And I loved her. Her eye color was so different from the other dolls. I thought that was so pretty.

17:23Yeah. Yeah. She got a beautiful eye shadow. She's missing a ring, unfortunately. They're always then she's always missing something. But yeah, they need to put those back out. Like a pack of those 80s uh earrings and rings. Those would be great. They do like just something that we could like replace for because you know they still have them in their warehouse [clears throat] somewhere probably. [laughter] Well, come on. Although I don't know. I remember when I worked at Mattel in uh God, it was 98 and 99. I worked at the consumer affairs department and I came home one day to my apartment and my cat had chewed off Franc's feet and I was heartbroken because that Francancy doll I was like, "Oh my god, I can't replace her." And uh I remember I went into work the next day and I was telling my boss, you know, can you contact someone at the main headquarters, find out if they have like, you know, Francy's legs? And she's laughing at me. She's like, "What do you think? We keep that stuff laying around?" I'm like, "I don't know." But apparently they don't. [laughter] So, I just learned something else. You worked at Mattel. I did. Yeah. It was um their consumer affairs department was in Phoenix. I was living in Tucson. I'd already graduated from college and I was working as a I worked at Toys R Us. I worked as a DJ at night and then I was working at a TV station. So, I had all these jobs going on. And then I finally had uh um I had met someone about two years before that was the Mattel rep at the Toys R Us. I was in the Barbie aisle and she started talking to me. She goes, "You should think about working for Mattel." And I was like,

18:43"Oh my god." like I would love to, you know, I said I would I've dreamed of doing this since I was a kid. So then she started telling me they had the the office in Phoenix. So I knew they had this place up in Phoenix, but I was in Tucson, so I was like, you know, maybe one day. So then what ended up happening, one of my best friends said she was going to move to Phoenix and asked me, would you consider relocating? We could get an apartment together. I ended up doing it. So we went up there. So I knew right away what I wanted to do. So the first day I bought a paper because that's how you found a job back then. I looked in the newspaper and there was the ad Mattel looking, you know, hiring and it was the consumer affairs office. So, um, I called and I remember I went to the interview and I was I was so nervous. I just wanted the job so bad and I thought, do I tell them I'm a Barbie collector or will that be a turnoff? Like, I really didn't know. So, I'm sitting there at the interview trying to play it cool. So, then I'm talking to them and talking to them and I was getting more and more excited. I finally just burst out and I go, you know, this job would be a dream come true. And I started to tell them about my Barbies and my collecting and belonging to the Barbie club that you know in Tucson and all this stuff. And uh the the funny thing was they they started laughing and they go, "Well, here at Mattel, we love to make little girls dreams come true." And the lady looks at me and she goes, "Just so you know, you're hired, so don't worry." I was like, "Oh my, wow. Never been so happy in my life." And it was my favorite job I've ever had. Unfortunately, it was over, you know, within a year because they uh did all these layoffs in 99. April of 99 was when our job ended. And I was just heartbroken.

20:06I really was so sad. I loved working there. We would have we had two big toy rooms and you could go into any toy room, you could pick what you wanted and put it in your cubicle. So, I used to always have Barbie stuff all over my cubicle. I had all the little uh the ads from they were doing the mailings uh at the time from Barbie Collector and I would put those up in my cubicle and I had dolls set up. And then the funny the funniest thing was they would always give me like a like secret assignments like cuz people would call or write letters about things they were looking for and they really didn't have anybody who knew anything there. I was like the the Barbie expert. So um like I remember one time they wanted to know about flat shoes and I said, "Yeah, tell them to go to Walmart." Cuz at that time they had just started making flat shoes. This was in 98. And I said, "They've got them. They're little uh art co-op packs. Pick it up, you know, tell." So So they were like so excited somebody could answer these people's questions. And then on Tuesdays, we always got two giant boxes of all the newest toys. And so I was like Vanna White. So I would go in, I got to open the box every week with the box cutter, pull out everything. Yeah. And show everybody what was coming out. And I'd be so excited. I just loved it. And then I I got to take the cataloges with me when I left. Like we had some old cataloges. Um I have all that stuff. My binders from when I worked at Mattel. Oh god, I loved that job. I was so happy there.

21:20Oh my goodness. First of all, this is another Barbie talk first. Not only do we have a guest that has a number one, we also have a guest who was employed by Mattel. Like, this is a what you're talking about is a dream. What an honor to have you on the show. I think I'd be the same. I'd be doubtful of whether I'd say, "Hey, I'm a huge Barbie fan in this interview." But at the end of the day, why wouldn't you want somebody who loves the product, right? Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. That's the biggest cheerleader. You're not going to get more passionate worker than that, right? Yeah. Yeah, the very first MIJ who came out, she wasn't out for very long, but she's the one who has the teeth. So, her box is actually different. I was going to show you the difference. The very first box. Here it is. So, you can Can you see the blue headband? Yep.

22:06I see it. She has a blue headband and the printing's a little different. So, that's the very first one. And she's the one that has the teeth. So, I don't know if you can see. She has a a toothy grin. And usually her eyes are wonky. One eye is going one way and one's the other. Can you Her eyes are wonky. I just noticed she got one eye looking left. And I'm trying to see the teeth though. The teeth. It might be too too bright to see. Yeah, she has little white teeth. Okay. And it's just two. Or is it like a bunch? No, it's just like they just painted like a line. Not as Did I pull any other ones? Cuz I have I probably have about a dozen. The the very first smidge. Um, and they have I don't know if I pulled any more in. And why did they change that? Um, I think because they noticed the the quality wasn't quite so good. Like um, you know, they were all hand painted, but you can see like one eye is going one way. So, I don't know if it was the like the the way the face mold like whatever they had done, it didn't seem to work because here's how she ended up they changed the box. So, like the difference in the box. This one doesn't have the head mold. Yeah. I mean the headband. The headband. And then you can see this one has like a white outline around the word MIJ. Yeah. And they wrote Barbie's best friend in white. So they did change it up a little bit. But the outfits on the sides are the same.

23:23Everything else is the same. What is the year like the year difference? Are they Oh, no. They're the same. They're from They She came out in ' 63. So here's just a regular like a regular old Oops. MIJ. She doesn't Let's see. Hopefully her eyes are not wonky. She's not supposed to have wonky eyes, but um yeah, they changed some of that. So, I think it was probably quality control to try and get uh the dolls a little more streamlined. Probably. Yeah. I have a dress box niche. Now, I don't know if you're familiar with dress box dolls. Um they were the dolls that Mattel would send to the toy stores to display. So, they were never meant to be sold. So, their boxes are different. So, this is my dress box mage. I have two of them actually now. I got one at con uh not convention. I got one from Marl actually within the last two months. Um so this is Oh, this is the one I bought from Marl. Okay. So this is my newest one.

24:20What's Marl? Um Marlon B. She's a doll dealer. She's like one. She's the one who has the very expensive number ones. So she sold me this one. So this is She's also very special to me because I love that um the Dressbox dolls would come with this gold. Do you see the gold sticker? So, they made they made these to go to the store so it would tell you the name of the outfit and the toy store could display them on the counter and um you know these boxes would get thrown away. That's why I love these are like one of my favorite things in my collection, the dress box dolls, because the the boxes are different. So, if you look at Where did I just put my It's got the headband though in that one. Yeah, this they use the the first box. But if you look at the box, if I can find where I just stuck it. Oh, here it is. Um, if you look at this box, do you see the stripes on the side? Do you see how they the white stripes? Yep. All the Dressbox dolls, they put these stripes on the side. So, the Barbie dress box dolls, I'll show you one of those.

25:18They have that. Ken's has it. Um, I also have a Skipper dressbox doll. Um, what else do I have? Do I have a scooter? I have a Ricky dressbox doll. And they all have these stripes on the side with their name. Um, the um the one I'm looking for is the Allen dress box doll. I don't have I can't find him. I've looked for him for a long time, but they're a little different. And um I'll show you the Barbie the Barbie one. They look like this. They come in this kind of box with the stripes. So this is how you know it's a dress box doll. Oh, okay. I didn't know that. Learned something new. Yeah, there's one in she's wearing uh orange blossom. So she's that's a old bubble cut. But I just these are one of my passions. So I always try to get one when I go to Barbie convention.

26:03And a lot of times the boxes are trashed, so I'm always excited if I can find a decent one and I'll I'll bring it home for my collection. But these are just things I just I love these. Yeah, those are like gold in a collection. And then something else I love I I'm really blessed that I have four of these. Now, I don't know if you're familiar with the pink silhouette box dolls. Oh, that's what you're referring to. These again, these were dolls that would go to the toy store dressed in the fashion and um these are very hard to find like these boxes and they go for for a thousand. So this particular one I got this is a MIJ and it's a Japanese MIJ and I noticed that the box was wider. Yes, there two dolls in there. It's just the because of her gown.

26:48So this is a very special doll in my collection. I have I have three Japanese midgetes. She used to be one of my holy grails. I got my first one in 2011. 2011 at convention I ended up shelling out and getting one. [laughter] And then uh I got a second one from uh eBay. My friend Bradley I was like that's how we actually met. My friend Bradley Hicks and I were uh chatting on eBay and he's like oh do you like Japanese exclusives? And I said well I don't have I said this is my second you know MIJ that's the Japanese exclusive. We actually became friends through eBay on there but this doll is very special. She's one of my favorite dolls in my collection. Wow. I've never seen a Japanese Mitchon. Her face obviously quite different. Very Yeah, I don't Let me see if I can show you her. And she comes with two uh hair pieces. This special one did. This is very The blonde one is very very rare, this one. And I bought this doll at convention. Um I want to say it was in Jacksonville. Not not 100% sure. Um came from um the Vintage Goddess. That's where I bought it from. And she's just Can you see how her face is very different? So different.

27:56She doesn't even She doesn't have freckles. Yeah, she's not at all. Where did Mitch go? Here she is. She's not at all totally different head mold. Wow. The Japanese did not find this doll attractive. They did not like her. [laughter] Right. A different That's a little strange, but that's okay. We love Mitch. She's much more sophisticated. Oh, yeah. Uh this one I paid 4,500 for. So, she's basically like a number one like Definitely. And I mean, she's definitely gone up in value like Yeah. three, four times. And her standalone is like $1,000. This is a very nice example of a Japanese MIJ. And like the box is like so pristine. It's such a nice I didn't mind. That's why I put her on. Took me I think almost a year to pay her off, but I did I never regretted it. She's like my favorite [ __ ] in my collection. She's just amazing.

28:47Listen, at the time I'm sure it was probably felt heavy and now it's like it's come and gone, right? Like that money has come back. Yeah. You work, you make your money back and it's I almost want to say priceless, but like look at her value now, right? Like it's just wow. That's first place in the Barbie convention one year for whatever it was. Whatever the [laughter] Sorry, repeat that again. At the competition room, she got first place for uh vintage friends of Barbie or something. So she's sure. [laughter] So that was Yeah. So those are like my favorite things are those boxes. Like I just love pink boxes and I love dress box dolls. Those are my favorite passions. Yeah, I could see why. I can see why. And like I have a very small vintage collection, but like you know because I'm like I could get a vintage for this price or I could get three dolls for that price.

29:36But again, it's not about like sometimes it's just about the rarity of it. And like that's where she started. Like this is the the beginning. Yeah. For existence. So, how do you put a price on that? Right. And that's my that's where my passion is. I love Mattel history. I always have. And I just that's where, you know, I get excited about the, you know, the silly I have like the things I really prize in my collection. You know, a lot of it's not dolls at all. It's like I have vintage uh Mattel phone directories from employees. I have like five of them. And they have like Ruth's extension, Elliot's extension, you know, um Jack Ryan's extension is in. I just treasure those things. I think they're so cool. And I I have like a a matchbook that was uh a Mattel employee.

30:22Like I guess they would have them probably at the counter for when you know uh business clients came in, they could get matchbooks. When I was a kid, you got matchbooks wherever you went, restaurants, stores, whatever. So Mattel had that and I I found one of those one day on eBay. I could not believe. I was so excited. So, that kind of stuff like gets me excited. The early stuff. Yeah, the Mattel fan club stuff. I love the early fan club. I have every issue of the fan club exits. I have some of the uh kits that the little girls would get in the mail. I just That stuff is just where my passion is. I love that stuff from the 60s. Yeah. This is an envelope [laughter] that they would get in the mail. Barbie fan club chapter kit. So, if you wanted to start your own uh little group of friends for a fan club, you would get one of these in the mail. So, this person lived in Brooklyn, New York. And this is from February 66. So, that's when they started their little their uh fan club. So, inside you would get you get one of these and you could write all your friends names. This one hasn't been used. I have some that are used. And I love that it has their names on it. I think that's so special. And um does this one have anything else? Oh, yeah, it does. Some of them you never know what you're going to get when you buy this kind of stuff, like if it's going to be complete or if it's going to have Sure. anything in it. Um, let's see.

31:39There's a lot of stuff in this one. Oh man. So, um, this one has here's special announcement. So, um, you can see there's Barbie, there's MIJ, there's Ken, and then they would write a little letter, dear chapter leader. So, this was the person who was in charge of the club, and it would, you know, give them suggestions of things they could do. Um, here's a letter that's answers your fan club questions. I mean, this is the stuff I just treasure. I love this kind of stuff. This is fantastic. Yeah, this it's so cute. I love that. What is a chapter? How is it started? How often should a chapter meet? Like things like that. It's just adorable. I love this kind of stuff. Then it tells them on the back how they should conduct a meeting. And I actually um I used this. I'm a teacher and I've been so lucky at my school that they actually embrace my Barbie obsession. [laughter] So I actually got to do a Barbie fan club of my own with um kids at school the last few years. And um we got we had gotten uh money to do after school clubs and I asked I said can I do a Barbie club? And they said yes. And I was like what I can and I was so excited. So I put one of these for our club every year. We would the girls would sign. I'd make a copy of it of course not using one of these course. And then I gave them copies of some of the paperwork that would come inside. So they would get one of these like learning about the club. And then every week I would do um a different PowerPoint

32:59because it was supposed to be educational. So we would do powerpoints. I I pick a topic and teach them about like the first week is always about the battel history and the number one. Um and then I teach them how to discern between a number one and number two and a number three. And then I'd show them like what four, five, six looks like. Um and then they would learn like different parts of the history. So um I would use this stuff for um for my plug and then I would uh make copies of the kind of things that they would have gotten in the 60s. So I I just love this kind of stuff. And how how old are these kids? Like what age are you teaching? I did um I would do one was for um TK through second grade and then I would do the upper grades which were 3 through five and I preferred the little ones because the upper grades were crazy.

33:45But I I was wondering I was curious to know about their interest because I've got a niece who was into Barbie because I made her into Barbie and by the time she got to like seven or eight she wasn't it? Wow. And I just there's so much other products out there that kids are just like and they run into it. So I'm glad that you're teaching our youth Yeah. [laughter] about the history of Barbie and that they can maybe go off and become future Barbie lovers when we're not around. Right. Yeah. We were really lucky last year because um right near my with less than a mile away we have a it's called the science cube and it's a little science uh science museum. They have like activities and stuff and they had brought the Barbie uh one of the Barbie exhibits was there last year. So, it was just perfect timing. So, like about a year ago, we went to on a field trip there and it was just so fun to get to show them like the different dolls because it had all the eras.

34:35You could see different dolls and it was so fun to see the girls go, "That's a bubble cut." Like, they could identify. I was so excited. They knew it was a bubble cut. They knew what a number one was. And I was so happy to see them like be able to identify those things and some of the fashions they knew. Oh, look, there's Poodle Parade. Oh, look. you know, whatever it was, they were like so excited and like just thrilled to that they got to see things that they had learned about. So, that was a really fun uh way to do that. It was a a nice connection. So, I'm really lucky that my my assistant principal loves Barbie. I actually gave her uh Rene's book for Christmas, the um uh let's uh let's call her Barbie. That's what it is. Let's call her. That's what it is. I had given that to my assistant principal for Christmas, and she loved that. But she's been really supportive. like she's asked me a few times to do I've done uh given presentations at school about uh Hispanic Barbie for Hispanic uh heritage month. I've done Dia de los Muertos display. She's asked me in the before to do like holiday displays, but I'm like there's too many. Like it's too much. Uh but uh but yeah, it's it's nice that they appreciate what I you know what I'm passionate about. So that's Yeah, you're very fortunate that way. I mean, if any of your students are watching this, you guys are very lucky to have her as your teacher. Barbie's just all positivity. There's nothing, you know, negative about, of course, she was, you know, when she first came out, there was a little bit of like controversy and whatnot, but like like she's got such a legacy and like I would love to

36:00have been in your class. Actually, I'd love to be in your class. Can I be there next week? I'll take a flight and I'll just sit in your class. That would be so fun. [laughter] Yeah. No, I've been lucky. And it's funny because I I used to use her. I mean years I've been teaching now this is my 26th year and I used to teach fourth grade and I taught it for 16 years until I couldn't do it any I went down to the little ones because I was just done but um when I used to teach fourth grade I used to bring in the dolls um the historical dolls for different topics in social studies and they always really enjoyed it. They thought it was really cool and the um the uh when I started teaching kindergarten which was I started that 10 years ago. So, when I went to kindergarten, I um would bring in the dolls for different even for science things because we do push and pull and I'd bring in like little Kelly with her wagon and I'd have them do that and that the uh what's that other one from the '9s? That one with the dog that the dog would move. Ginger uh that that set I would bring in and show them movement. So, there's different things you could do. And like for the holidays, I would decorate with them. And like St. Patrick's Day, I bring in my Irish dolls and show them picture of me and my uh I I used to do Irish dancing when I was little. So, I show them me and then I have the little Irish dancer, Kelly, next to each other and show them that. So, the dolls have always been We have right here, too, just peeking in the corner. Oh, where's [laughter] Oh, yeah. And there's Irish Barbie. Yeah. Yeah. There. That one. A Yeah. So, I've always used

37:24them. Even in high school, I remember we had a project. My My teacher did not like it at all. She's very feminist. Like, did not like Barbie. And I did this whole book about we I can't even remember what the topic was. It was something about was it teen drinking and driving. I don't know. It was something. And I did pictures with my dolls in the cars and like an accident and this whole thing. I made this book and I really wanted it back. And like when everybody else was getting their projects, I'm like, you know, I didn't get my my project back. And she's like, oh, I don't know where it is. And I'm like, how do you not know where my project is? I never got it back. And so that was really disappointing. So, I don't know what I don't know what she did with it, but I knew she didn't like it. [laughter] She didn't like it. She She should have just given it back to you, right? Yeah. Well, I didn't. It was kind of weird. But I knew I I I She was She was like, "Barbies?" I'm like, "Yeah." And I knew she wasn't going to like it, but I didn't care because it was what I liked. And that was what I did. I took photographs of my Barbies. So funny. Now, here all these years later, I'm still doing it. Uh, but took pictures of my dolls and I made this book and I wrote a whole story about it. So, it was like that was my project.

38:24My first doll that I got was in the late 70s. And then like my my childhood collection is my my favorite. I didn't pull any of those out. I have everything I've ever owned. So I still have my original uh A-frame house with all the furniture. It's all there. I have all the grill of mine. It wasn't my era, but it's still just a beautiful dollhouse. It was just that was my it's still my prized possession. I still love that. I had so many memories of just having happy times with that dollhouse. And then I had the the motor home. My mother hated it. She called it the yellow the yellow bus. The old the ugly yellow bus. That's what she used to call it. The big yellow one. Yeah. And uh I found it. I remember I found it in her closet before Christmas. I don't know if it was a birthday present or a Christmas present. It might have been birthday. And my birthday's right before Christmas. So I was snooping around and I found it and she came in. She goes, "Are you in that?" And I'd already seen it like three times. I was so excited. I'm like, "No." You know, and I'm running out of room. So she knew. And then she moved it to our guest room and then I found it back there. I was in the closet looking in there and I hide. It's a big box. It is very big.

39:25And then I kept that box. Like I was telling you, I love box. Even when I was a kid, I had all my Barbie boxes I kept and I had hid them in the closet. And then I got really sick. When I was seven, I almost died. And I was in the hospital for a month and like my mom found all my boxes and she's like, "Why are you keeping this?" I'm like, "I love the pictures." You know, because they had the photographs of the dolls on the boxes. And I used to keep the big bus box as a toy. I put all the Barbie stuff in it. So, I had all the Barbie stuff in there as like a toy chest. And my my first Barbie house was the hat, like this hat box that my mom had from the 60s, and that's where I would keep them. And then my grandpa made me a uh a cardboard house that I loved. But when I went in the hospital, she got rid of that stuff. She got rid of the cardboard house. I was so upset. I still wish I had that. And then uh the little the all the boxes. She made me cut out the pictures. So, I I remember cutting out. I had the um the mo motorbike and I cut out the picture of Barbie on the motorbike. I still remember having that and I cut out like the pictures from all the box. I was just so sad. I was like I want to keep them you know but she's like you didn't have room for this like now my house I do keep everything [laughter] but but yeah boxes do take up space and it sucks because it's like everywhere. Yeah. Yeah. I I I can sympathize. I didn't keep all the boxes but I mean I did want to be like mom don't if you're going to get rid of that box let me cut the pictures. That's good. Yeah.

40:45Got to have it. Yeah. a hot topic when we talk about storage in some of my episodes. It's like like people are starting to take their holiday dolls out of the boxes. The holiday doll boxes from late 80s, early 90s. They're gorgeous, but they're massive. They are. They take up so much room. And my mom has bought me those every year since the first one. So, I have all of those. They're in the They're They don't even fit in the Barbie room. They're in my second bedroom. And then I have like I can't get rid of shippers. It's so I've started throwing out some of them, but I have shippers all over the place. I love the shippers. Like, why what is wrong with me? I have all those. And so it's like all this stuff is taking up way too much room in my house and I've got to get start getting rid of it. The shippers I mean I don't keep the shippers but I'm I can almost I can understand because it's a piece of history from Mattel too. Yeah, exactly. Not right now but down the line like Hy M2 like it's got like of it. So I could see how you I'm glad you understand because that's my course. Of course I also have judgment in this community, right? Like we're all right. And I could see and you worked there so I can I can totally understand that I can get it. I have some vintage shippers that I love. I have like four or five vintage ones and those I I'm never getting rid of those. I love those. And even the shippers now, they're just cardboard boxes, but down the line that's a piece of history. So I understand why you keep them. But I mean, if you had to downsize, maybe the shippers can go first. That's what I'm

42:05thinking. I've got to start getting rid of some of this stuff. And but what's bothering me now is the new shippers. like they're putting the outline of the doll on the outside and I'm like, "Oh, that's so cute." Oh, great. Great. Thanks a lot, Mattel. Thanks a lot. [laughter] So, that's just crazy. I just have too much. But, um, I did pull some fun things that I thought people might not have seen if you'd want to see some of that. Of course, there's a lot you've shown us already. Like, keep it coming. This is so fun. I'll show you. One of my absolute favorite things in my collection is the fashion bar. I don't know if you can Can you see it? Not all of it, but we enough of it. be sure they're genuine Mattel dolls and fashions. So, this would go to the toy stores much like the dress box dolls and this was called a counter display and um get to the front. So, what you you would do it would show you all the fashions. So, you could go to the toy store and you could flip through and say, "Oh, what fashions do I want?" Oh my god, I love this. And you would see like you would see the different fashions, what what was available that year. Um let's see. So, this is just something I absolutely love. Like, this is one of my favorites. I love this. [snorts] And then, how did you get your hands on this? Somebody on eBay one year was selling it and I'm like, I'm getting that. So, um, yeah, I actually I didn't even know what I would search. Like,

43:26I didn't even know like these existed. It's hard to look for something when you don't know it even existed. It's called the fashion bar. I think it's a fashion bar. Um, I'll have to see if I can find uh a description of it in one of the cataloges. Um, but yeah, this was I I just think this is so cool. And they had ones that were even bigger. They had them on a whole display that would have the dolls and the fashions. And then something else I Oh, I can send you a video of is the fashion the Oh, no. That's the fashion bar. What is this called? The counter display. This is the counter display. The other one is the fashion bar. And I'll show you I'll send you a video of it. It has all the pack pieces and it's really cool. So, that's something I I absolutely just love. That is so cool. And like I wonder how that person got it. Maybe they worked for the retailer and they somehow got their hands on it. I don't know. People have like stuff just shows up every now and then. It's just incredible. Um I'm going to show you something else that's one of my favorite things in my collection. And I actually have this uh the little store display, but I didn't take it out of the cabinet. It's over there in the cabinet. But I love jumbo cards. So these are the two different boxes. So they had the Barbie jumbo fashion trading cards and then the um Barbie and Ken ones came out next. So these are called um Barbie jumbo trading cards. And this was the first set that came out was this one. And this one's just Barbie exclusively. And then this

44:50one is Barbie and Ken. And they're just so cute. I love the graphics in them. I actually my bathroom is all Barbie jumbo card. I have uh photos. My mom made them big and put them up in the bathroom. And then uh Mike Dawson from Dawson does Dolls made me a matching u shower curtain. So, I have that. And then I have a little cabinet in there that has some of the Susie Goose uh furniture from the 60s is in there. And I collect um the Barbie uh makeup from the 60s. I have all the little makeup pieces that's all in there. It's just crazy. So, I have all that stuff in the bathroom. But these I just love the graphics. They're so cute and so well done. It actually reminds me I have um a plate set on the plates. Yes. Yes, they did that. Yeah. So, this is these are just things I treasure. I just love the little pictures on them. Did they come with like a book that you'd put them in? Kind of like a sticker book or No, they were just They just came in a little uh card thing. Yeah. I I mean I got them later in the 90s. Like obviously they were different like and I put Yeah. Yeah. I have those too. Yeah. But those are bigger. Those are be And I just love the photography. Like it looks like it's handdrawn. Yeah. Right. So nice. Yeah. These are are graphics. The other ones are uh they have the photographs, right, of the Yeah, those are just they're just photographs and those are like drawn. So like Yeah. different times. Wow. Great stuff, Laura. Honestly. So that's some

46:11of the stuff I love. This is another thing that I love. I don't know how to show it though. Okay. So this is a View Master, but this is a View Master that would go on the counter like like this was on the counter at the toy store. And I'm going to try and pull this out. I don't know if you can. You probably can't see, but the lights I could see a little bit of a reflection of. These are the original Come higher. Come higher. Okay. I don't know if you can turn it around and maybe we could They're hard to see, but you could tell there's little pictures in there. Yeah. So, these have the dolls. These are vintage dolls in their original uh the fashions like the 20 20 What is it? 21 fashion, 22 fashions, whatever the original booklet has. So, these were in there and you could go to you could go to the uh toy store and you could look at the they would have this set up the view master. You'd sit there and you could look through it and click through it and see the different fashions that were available. Oh my god. So, this is just something I really treasure. Um does it what does it say on it? And they just had it sitting there like on the store shelf.

47:15Yeah, it would be like like you go to up to the counter and it would be sitting there. So, so something else I love are um they used to do early promotional items. So, um like the um I'm going to show you my Palm Olive soaps. Like the licensed stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, you can see this is just bars of soap. It sure is. Turn Barbie up. Barbie is like a collab with with Mattel. So, yeah. So they would do the this was a little thing and you would um you could so it says um send them three Palm Olive soap wrappers and for 2.98 and you could get a new twist and turn Barbie sent to you in the mail. So I I just love this kind of stuff. And here's the other one that was um tutti you could get a tuti.

48:05So this one is the green set. And again, is this on eBay you're finding this? These I found these years ago, but yeah, I think on eBay. Yeah. And I know there's some out there right now and people are asking ridiculous like $700 for these. I'm like it's soap but it's it's not the soap. It's it's so cool. Yeah. And I have I have actually the newspaper clipping uh that shows like uh 2D in it. And I have the um there's another one from a comic book. So the little ads for it. I love that kind of stuff. You know what? I didn't know this existed. So obviously thank you for sharing. I'm in marketing. So this I love this because I just second I went Pomolive made bars of soap they used to make because it's a dish soap. Yeah, that Yeah. So those are really cool. That's something I love. And then I have three of these carnian molted milks that would be uh Barbie promotions. So here's one that's it says Barbie doll offer. See back. So, you go to the back and there's a bubble cut and then it tells you, you know, if you uh send in, let's see, what was this one? Label from any Carnation malt jar with $1.75, you would get a bubble cut Barbie. 1.75. It says a regular $3 value for only 75. $3. When she first

49:25was released, she was right. My goodness. That one, this one has the same thing on the back. This it doesn't have the Barbie on the front, but on the back it has the same ad. So this one, new Barbie C back with lifelike bendable legs. The Barbie, [laughter] it was $2.30 this time. More expensive now. Yeah. I love that people kept this like this. They didn't use it. It's still there. And so what would come on top these these little things would be on top of the jar stuck to it. And um you look inside and it would tell you what you could order. So you could get, you know, different different things. So these are the Mattel for the, you know, boys and stuff. Yeah, the boy stuff. Um, so those were some of the things. And then you see there's scooter and there's little skipper outfits. Um, and then on the back side, let's see, there's MIJ Ben MIJ Merby and there's Skippers and then some fashions. [sighs and gasps] Those fashion those [laughter] So, it was really cool.

50:31And then when you got I actually have the um I have one of the dolls. Um it's a bubble cut, I believe. And I have her original shipper that she came in. And they would put inside they had little booklets and they're different. They say carnation and it shows you like the different years that they made that available. So those are I just love these. I think these are so cool. I love this stuff. I'm enjoying this very very much. So this is a old cornflakes box that has I don't know if you can see. Oh, this one's great. I have another one. I should have brought the other one over. I thought this is free Barbie in the corner. I brought the good one, but I didn't. I grabbed the wrong one. Um, free Mattel Barbie magazine. And then on the back, this cute graphic of Barbie, you know, holding this is the, um, the Barbie fan club magazine. So, uh, there's Maddie Mattel from the old Mattel history. And he's holding the Mattel games and puzzles. I have this actually this old book. Um, let's see what else is on here.

51:25What magazine is that? The Fan Club magazine. What was it called? that magazine. It was just the Barbie magazine. Barbie, it was but it came with the fan. You know the uh envelope I showed you before. The magazine. You would get get these um was it every month or every there was a lot of them. Maybe it was every two months. Uh I think it was bannual, but I have all these and these are a treasure. I love these. I use these all the time like when I'm doing research if I have to give a presentation or something. They're just awesome. They have so much information in them and um they're they're really fun. So I really enjoy those. So, that's one of the one of the How much do those magazines go for now? Cuz I'm on the hunts to try to get They're not that expensive if you look like the like there's some people who are crazy. Like I saw the number one issue of it. Like somebody wants $17,000. Nobody's going to give you $17,000 for it. Give me But you can find them. Yeah. You just have to you might have to do a hunt for a little while. Like they pop up from time to time. And um I was able to get the entire collection. Recently have been trying to get all of my magazine for girls that I was getting. Oh yeah, I have some of those too. I don't have a lot of them, but I have some of those. I have I started like getting them like let's say late like let's say $89.90 or maybe 1990 and so now I'm like well I want to get all the ones I didn't get before. Like I didn't have the premier issue from 84. So I just got this. It's still in the plastic. Oh wow. That's I didn't know about these. I didn't know about these Barbie club magazines from the 60s. I'd love to add those. That would be amazing. Yeah. Yeah. just

52:49do a search on eBay um and sometimes I even see them on Etsy u for a Barbie fan club magazine or just put in Barbie magazine. You might have to kind of scroll down but you'll see them. They come up. They come up quite often because like we said earlier and especially someone like I said I was in marketing like this is where we would get the advertisements for things, right? Like this is where advertisements for Pretty Expressions and getting Barbie accessories and things like this number to order. Like this was our internet. This was it. Exactly. It right. It's funny because I asked my my class like I teach TK right now so they're four-year-olds. Some of them they're turning five but they're four and five year olds and I'll ask them about commercials and they really didn't understand what a commercial was because they don't watch them anymore. It's not a thing anymore. And I I I was showing them what was it we were oh I know one of the little girls this week she said I want you know my birthday's next month and I want makeup. And I go makeup. I go you're too young for makeup. And she goes no I want makeup. And I said yeah I know when I was little I wanted makeup too. And I was telling them, my grandma used to dress me up in like her old fur coats and stuff and put my hair up and do all this stuff. And I said, um, I said, I I always wanted makeup, too. And I told them, I said, you know, when I was little, they put out Barbie makeup when I was in like first grade or something. And, uh, I I still have the little eyeshadow kit and the, uh, lipstick and the they had this cute little makeup sets and perfume they had. And I was telling them about that and I said, "Oh, I can show you the commercial." And so I went

54:11on my phone and they were like so excited. They're like, "Oh my gosh." And they're like, "Yeah, they used to show all the toys, you know." I said, "There wasn't a lot of programming for kids, so Saturday mornings, you had to watch if you wanted to see something, you know, and they were like fascinated, but they loved the commercial. They thought it was so cute." And it's so It was so fun to see it again because I hadn't seen that commercial in years. How times have changed, right? Like I just It's crazy. I mean, I knew they had like makeup like in the 90s and stuff, but I didn't know about the vintage stuff that you're talking about. I didn't know they released it. I went and bought like MAC Barbie when she came out and I went to Mac and I went, I'll take every eye shadow. I'll take every lipstick. I barely use them. Like [laughter] they're just sitting there. I don't use them either. It's so silly. They're sitting They're in a the Barbie room in on a shelf and it's like why am I not using this stuff? Some of the colors I don't know. Like pink. Sure. We was like some blues and some greens. Wear this. Like I don't know if this is my thing, but just to have it. I kept the packaging that came in the little like the sleeves. Oh yeah. Yeah. So again I can understand why you keep I do understand. Yes. 100%. because I keep everything and it's so silly.

55:13But I wanted to show you one last thing I have is the um this is another thing. Now it's Mattel's Miss America doll and I was fortunate enough to I found the box and then I was able to find an actual doll in her shipper this doll. So I have it displayed over on my with this and the doll and the shipper box. So it's kind of a cool piece of um you know Mattel history too. This Miss America and look at that artwork on the back of a cereal box. [laughter] Oh my goodness. $3. [laughter] She's gorgeous. And she's a beautiful doll. Yeah, she is. She's got that Stephy. I love Stephy face. Great. I think that's probably why I was I loved PJ when I was a kid because she had that face. I think that's why I like PJ because it's that face mold, right? Yeah. Such a That was a lot of stuff you showed us. Some of the things you mentioned while you were kind of showing everything was uh you mentioned convention a lot. So, you've got quite the experience. Tell us a little bit about how long you've been going, what you enjoy about it. Like for someone like me who's been trying to go for years, never been. Um, and then to add to that, I don't know, I look like I don't know where you've met these legends, but you've met some legends. Oh, yeah. [laughter] I was going to mention Carol Spencer and of course Bill Greening, but then you also mentioned Ruth.

56:28So, take us through kind of your convention experience and you know, and maybe some dolls you got there if you have if you want to show cuz a lot of the convention dolls, they're only one of a kind. It's for the people that are there. That's it. Yeah. Barbie convention is my favorite week of the year. It honestly is. It's like I look so forward to it. I get so excited. I get, you know, you get ready for it. You buy your outfits that you're going to wear for everything. You buy table gifts for the people going to sit at your table. Um some years I've given presentations, so I've had to get things ready for that. Uh the if you're chairing something, I've been um a chair for programs before, so there was a lot of work involved in that. Um and it's just like it's just the best time. Like we have um a competition room. I used to really enjoy like doing that. I haven't done it for the last few years. It's just a lot of stuff to bring. Like if you want to enter things in competition, they have different categories. That's always fun. Um the fashion show is always fun. Um I'm not doing up as day to night for that. I did last year. Yes. Yeah.

57:25Great. Halloween. I didn't I was Candy Striper MIJ and Allan not um Rustin dressed up as Ken I think Dr. Ken. That's what we did last year. The year before we did uh pregnant MIJ and uh Allan and we did the happy family. We had the little baby dolls as the so sweet. It was fun. That was really That was I think that was my favorite. I love that one. Um what else have I done before? But I love pregnant mij. I don't know why people were so like and that was just that whole thing was so silly. That was because the the U media had gotten a hold of it and then all of a sudden the Walmart people were all up in arms about it. But I mean they were still sold because she's not the only version of pregnant MIJ. They went on to sell the uh one in the cute little flower or strawberry print pink. She's a pregnant one. Is she a Christie? She's like African-American, right? Is she like the African? Both both versions. She came in both uh Caucasian and African-American. And it's it's MIJ. And then um they did uh what's the other one? A denim one. There's a denim version that I think was a Kohl's exclusive where she's also pregnant. So that there that's nonsense that they pulled them off the shelves. They didn't they continued to make them for at least I think about six years. And um that was a very popular line. People loved it. You know, there were people who made us think about it, you know, and they weren't people who were going to buy it anyway. So give me

58:46a break. I just don't understand. It's also teaching children it's a real thing. This is reality. this is life and like it's a baby and then they have little baby dolls to play. I mean kids were getting baby dolls before Barbie was around. So what where do babies come from? Like I don't get it. It didn't make any sense. And it was I was so excited for that set because the uh which doll the 91 the Barbie wedding not Barbie the MIJ wedding set the one that on the back had a little picture. I think it was on the back. Was it on the back of the box? The there's a little picture or maybe it was in the booklet. There was a picture saying, you know, coming soon, uh, MIJ and Allan and their twins. So, I was so excited for that and then it never happened. They didn't make them. I had been looking forward to that set for so long. So, when Happy Family came out, I was so excited. And I remember the first time I saw them at the store, I was like, "What is this?" I didn't even know what they were. And the, you know, the house, the Happy Family house, because it didn't say Barbie. And I was like, "Are these Barbie dolls? They're made by Mattel.

59:45Are they friends of Barbie?" Like, what are like I had no idea. And then I finally saw not because the house I think was by itself and then I saw the dolls but I was just so happy to have a new MIJ. I was was excited about that and that just never happened. So I was happy that the happy family actually did did happen and that was such a great line. I mean there were so many cute things in that. The playsets, the little grocery store, they had the nursery. They had the grandma and grandpa kitchen. I mean it was just such a well done line. I loved it. I have everything from it. The one thing from it I don't have is they had a in Europe they released a happy family house that is much smaller than the happy family house I have. It's a like a it's like a little European small apartment or whatever. I found it one time and somebody on eBay was selling the house with all of their happy family collection which I did not need. I was like no I don't need all this.

1:00:35Um I probably should have bought it now that I think about it but they wanted $1,000. I was like no this is crazy. Yeah. Never seen that house again and I've never been able to to find it anywhere. So, going back to convention, tell me a little bit about the legends you've met. I've seen your photos with Carol Spencer more than once, Bill as well, and Barbie's mother, Ruth. Oh, yes. Well, I met Ruth. Ruth I met in 96 at uh we used to have uh they were called the Barbara Peterson shows. She ended up selling to Sher Gore, who does our shows now, the Sher Gore shows, the Barbie shows we have every few months. Uh, but they used to be the Barbara Peterson shows and they were I mean the first time I went to one of those shows I thought I'd literally died and gone to heaven. I walked it was in a ballroom at Disneyland Hotel and you would go like I don't know if it was every month or every two months. It was crazy. You could go to them all the time and they had uh like you'd walk in and like every doll imagine I mean now granted this was till 96 so there weren't as many dolls with now but there were still lots and lots of dolls. Sure. every single doll you could imagine would be in those shows and I couldn't believe it. I'd be like, "Oh my god, there's Kissing Barbie," a doll I'd wanted as a kid. Or there's, you know, uh what was another one I loved? I I always wanted the ballerina doll in the 70s. I did get her, you know. So, there were dolls that I had wanted and I'd see them there. I'm like, "Oh my god, there's that doll. There's my, you know, there's my beauty secrets doll. There's Christy, you know,

1:01:58whatever it was." And it was so fun to see all that stuff in that room. But at one of the shows in 96, uh I think it must have been summer of 96. It must have been after I just graduated from college. Um I went and Ruth was signing and so I brought my Bob Mackey Platinum doll and I had her sign that doll for me. So I have that doll signed um from Ruth. I did get to meet her that day and I asked, "Can I shake your hand?" And she's like, "Oh, sure." You know, and I shook her hand and I just told her, I said, "You mean so much to me. You you know, you're Barbie's been my lifelong obsession." And and so it was it was you know I think she was like okay you know crazy lady probably hears this all the time. Yeah. I mean the line was huge. So she sure did. When you have that moment you don't know what to say. You're starruck. Yeah. You want to thank her for the joy that she's brought into your life and she's like this. I've heard this.

1:02:46What else are you supposed to say to her? You know. So so yeah. So I got to meet Ruth. Um now Carol Spencer is kind of funny because I had loved Carol Spencer. is the first I don't know when I read about she was the first Barbie designer I had ever heard and ever I'd read some article or something about her and I was just like obsessed. I'm like oh my god I Carol Spencer I have to meet her. How did she get this job? I want to know everything about her. So by the time I got to working at Mattel I had told my boss I'm like can you hook me up with Carol Spence? They had no idea who she was. They didn't know anything. We were in Phoenix. They're like what do you know? And that was the last year she ended up retiring that year. And so like I didn't know, you know, and I'm asking about her. And my boss used to tease me. She'd always say, she goes, you know, you talk more about this Carol Spencer than you do about the doll. You should start a fan club for the Carol Spencer. You know, she used to tell me that and it was so funny. So anyway, that was when I was in Phoenix. So then, you know, here a few years later, I end up joining Tickled Pink here uh in California and I actually had been asked to join them at uh the 2006 Barbie convention. So, I ended up joining and they had said to me, they said, "Okay, well, um, this month we're doing our our anniversary party and it's going to be at Carol Spencer's house, so you can't come to that, but you can come to the next one." And I was like so heartbroken. I'm like, "You're going to Carol Spencer's house?" I'm like, "What?" [laughter] So, it turned out Carol is a member of our club. She still is. Um, so I see her, you know,

1:04:10quite a bit during the year. You know, she comes to our events and, um, I got to know her over the years. She actually came to my big birthday that I had uh two wait what year? Two years ago in 2023. I had a big Barbie birthday cuz it was a big one. Carol came and it was so funny. We had Barbie Carol Spencer at your birthday party. Yeah, she came and she was the cutest. If you go on my Instagram, you'll see a picture of her playing drag queen bingo at my birthday. And um I didn't realize this was your birthday. I thought it was some Barbie event and she was You have to go back. It's like two years ago. So, she's sitting there and it was so funny. And she ended up, you know, how like the drag queen has her paddle. So, of course, Carol ends up screwing up and saying she has bingo when she doesn't. Oh no. My sister-in-law volunteers my brother to go up and take her punishment. I'm like, "Oh my god." So, Carol, my course has no idea what's going on, but she was like, "Of course thought she had bingo." So, she's so confused. She's like, "Why?

1:05:07I have bingo." Oh my god. I would have just been like, "You won. You won. You won." Well, that that was the funny thing. The drag queen's like, "No, she'll beat me up. I'm not [laughter] Exactly." But it was it was just such an honor to have her at my birthday party. I I just loved that. That was so cool that she came. I was like, "Wow." You know, very special. So, um so she is a special member of our club and I love when whenever I get to do anything with her. um several years ago she did a fashion show at Barbie Convention with her designs and um she had me wear um cafe society so I got to wear that in her fashion show at Barbie convention which was really spe it was such an honor to be included in that so I was really happy to get to do that and then one time I was at her house we were getting when we were oh we went to the I I picked her up we went to the fashion uh district in LA to go pick up fabric to make this gown for me.

1:06:04And um we were we were leaving and so like she's coming out and she had her walker with her. So I was trying to be helpful. So I reach around her and I close the door and she goes, "Oh my god, what did you just do?" And I'm like, "Um, I closed." She goes, "Did you close the door?" I go, "Yes." She goes, "I can't get back in the house." And I'm like, "What?" She's the door automatically locks. And I'm like, "Oh no." And I felt so bad. So I climbed over her fence. I went around and found her spare key and went back around and got her door open for her. But yes, I locked Carol Spencer out of her house one time. [laughter] That's quite the story. But I mean, in all fairness, again, I'm going to sympathize and say you would have never known that. You would have never known that her door was going to like Oh, I know. I didn't know that. It's a It's a It's a very I would have closed her. You were being helpful. I was trying to be helpful.

1:06:53Apparently, I wasn't. Of course, you have to climb her fence. This is Carol Spencer. Of course you're gonna climb her fence and get the spare key. I felt so bad. This is my literally my idol for all these, you know, decades and I'm locking her out. I felt so horrible. I was like, "Oh my god, God." And then she made us sandwiches and she was so cute. She made us chicken salad sandwiches and she brought them in in my car and I don't eat in my car and I've never eaten in any of my cars. And I'm like, "Okay, it's Carol Spencer. It's okay. It's okay." And then I felt so bad because she made me one and I I'm vegetarian. I've been vegetarian since I was 15. And I'm like, "Carol, I don't actually eat any animal." And she's like, "Oh, okay." [laughter] And in honor of Carol Spencer, we got to show off this. Oh, yeah. Yeah, definitely. You know, so much for giving us the bestselling doll. Yeah. Isn't that Which was a total accident. Yeah.

1:07:46You know, like and and look look what came look what came to be. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, Carol. And she made my first my first Barbie that fashion photo. I didn't know that for years. And then she told me that she had made uh she had made that uh doll. And I said, "Oh my god, I had no idea that, you know, that that was one of her creations was that fashion photo ared up in our toy chest and she she had a big split like in her face like the plastic like totally crushed." And so I used to pretend this poor doll had an accident, like a really bad accident and that's why she like my mom would put super glue like that's what we used to use back in the 70s. Didn't work. we couldn't get her face back together. So, my friend John actually bought me um a fashion photo Barbie for for my other big birthday 10 years before. Um he got me her in the box because he knew that was my first Barbie. So, I have her in the box with the damaged one in my Barbie room. [laughter] Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. What What stories? You know what I was actually thinking? Do you think there would ever be a chance that maybe down the line we can have a Laura and Carol Spencer episode? Oh, that would be cool. You think she'd be open to that? I bet she'd love to. She She loves to talk about her career and her her book. You know, she did a lot of press when she had her book coming out. Tell her that I would eat her chicken salad sandwich.

1:09:03Tell her I will eat it. [laughter] If that's what we need to do. Yeah, that would be fun. I heard a rumor that you've got enough Barbie cars that could fill a dealership. Is this true? Yes. It's insane. Like I have way too many [laughter] cars. I mean I I love car. I love cars. like real cars. Sure. I also love Hot Wheels. I've collected Hot Wheels since I was a kid. Not as bad as Barbie, but I do still buy Hot Wheels. Um, but the um the I have so many car. I have all the vintage cars. Then I have like cars from my childhood that I I love like the Corvettes. I really love all that stuff. I have the 57 um Chevy in both pink and there was a pink Chevy. Yeah. Yeah. I thought it was just in the blue. So, this my brother actually got me this one.

1:09:52Oh my god. Shout out to Laura's brother. What a gift. I didn't know they had a pink one. Yeah, this was the second one that came out. The the blue one was the first one or the aqua one. I'm I'm sweating over here with all this stuff. [laughter] And between your love for Barbie and Mattel and you're keeping Mattel lights on. You're keeping her lights [laughter] on. What [clears throat] a beautiful car. That is beautiful. So, that's really a cool piece. Um, yeah, I love the cars. I have so many. Like, it's just it's crazy. And different I have rare uh some of the vintage ones are really rare. Like, I have a red Austin Healey. I have the lavender Austin Healey. I have some of them that are still in their boxes. Um, and all that stuff was made by Irwin and the Ken Hot Rod. I have that. Um, yeah, they're just there's so much of that stuff. It's so crazy. But I don't know how to display those cards. I really don't. And some of them have gotten smashed over the years, like the windshields, which is such a shame. Um, yeah. So, [sighs and gasps] I don't know. Those are hard to hard to replace. Yeah. But that that's another thing I have a passion for are cars. I always love dolls, cars, and music. Those are my three passions. That's wonderful. I love that. Even with all of like your vintage passion, I see that you still are very much like you've got all the Barbie movie dolls, you've got a modern dollhouse behind you. How do you pick where to invest? like when a new doll comes out on Mattel

1:11:12Creations, but you've been eyeing that vintage piece on eBay, like how do you decide what you what you do? What's Well, you know, I was really good for a long time because like from the time the Silk Stones came out in 2001, I I loved the Silk I have every Silk Stone. I was like, "Okay, I'm just buying Silkstone and vintage." And I really did for a long time with a few exceptions. I pretty much avoided most of the early 2000s collector dolls except for like I I had to get all the happy family mitch stuff and um you know unless there was ones that I really loved and my mom always got me the holiday dolls. So I have all the holiday dolls. Um but I was really focused. I was like okay I'm just doing silk stone. I'm just doing vintage. And I used to have like when they came out um Joe Blitman the dealer would he would I told him just keep all the silk stones coming. So just when one comes in just send it to me and bill me.

1:12:03And um so I have all those. I love the silk stones. Those were one of my favorite things. Um and uh I was really good about that. But then like the last I want to say 10 years, like things got really out of hand. I mean they were already out of hand, but like the last 10 years I started going back. I was buying fashionistas again because they were different. You know, they looked different. They were different ethnicities, skin, hair, everything. And so I started body shapes. body shapes in 2016, whatever that was, you know. Yeah. So, that happened. So, then I started buying those again. And then, um, they've just made some really cool, beautiful dolls over the last 10 years that kind of really I I was like, well, I have to have that one. I have to have that one. I have to It's just gotten crazy. I bought that new that tall $300 doll. Yeah. Tillier, the bought I got her. She came on April 1st, which I was shocked because it said she wasn't coming till May 1st. So, I was really surprised. And I really haven't taken her. She's still in her case. Um, but she looks really cool. She's really pretty. She's different. She doesn't look like Barbie to me, though. That doesn't look like Barbie. And she's a little taller. I like I like the fact that she's taller, but to me, she doesn't fall under the Barbie, right? Barbie. She's got a really cute dress on with a big bow. So, how do you decide? Like, it's really hard.

1:13:17And she was a hard one because at first I was like, "No, I'm not going to do it." And, you know, I'm on this group chat. We talk every day about Barbies. And my friend Jim was like, "I'm going to get her." He's like, "She's cool." He goes, "You can always sell her." Like, I've never sold anything in my life. Anyway, he goes, "You can always sell her." So, I was like, "Yeah." He's like, "She's different." He goes, "You love tall dolls." Which is true. I have I have a dozen of the my size Barbies. I have three of the in the 70s they had a super size Barbie that was I think 28 in. Um, I have three of those. Um, and then I have three mannequins. I have a Ken mannequin, a vintage Barbie mannequin, and a modern-day Barbie mannequin. So, it's like I do like the different sizes. Yes. Do they fit regular clothes? Okay. Like the vintage and well and the other one too. Like they're they're so small. Although the vintage one she's wearing um busy morning. I got it uh when unique vintage was doing the Barbie line like that just like oh my god that's perfect for these mannequins. So you know and I bought all the original ones like because I love the 60s stuff and I love 60s dresses. I mean I only wear two different things like I have t-shirts and jeans or I'm wearing a vintage dress. That's pretty much it. So, um, I love Unique Vintage. I'd already been shopping there for years, and I was so excited when they did the first Barbie collab, so I ordered everything. It was just so crazy. And I ended up buying some for my mannequin. So,

1:14:37she has a few outfits in uh, like I have Suburban Shopper for her. Um, she has um, Solo in the Spotlight. Uh, this one, Busy Morning. Or actually, I think that's mine. I think I pinned it in the back. So, [laughter] it has double use, right? Like, she'll she'll wear those. I have my modern mannequin over here is wearing a pink vinyl dress and it says Barbie. Has a Barbie logo on it and that's what she's wearing right now. Um, but she has a few outfits that I'll put on her too. Um, and at Christmas I have the Ken wears a Santa suit. [laughter] Yeah, she has her little Santa suit and then the modern one over there wears a pink Santa suit. So, she was the first one to get. She was the first one I had that one. Um, and she's one of 12. The modern one was made for Barbie's 50th in um, 2009. And we had been to convention and oh my god, they had one on display at convention and I was like, "Oh my, I have to have this." And Robert Best is standing there. He's dressing the doll and he he was putting on that generations, what is it called? Generation. It was the the Barbie birthday that year had that dress with all the dolls, the different dolls on it.

1:15:49Generations of dreamed. Of dreams. Yes. that. So, he made a life-sized one of that and I go, "Robert, you need to make me one of those." And he's like, "Laugh asked Robert Best to make." Poor Robert. Another legend. Another legend that you met. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I've known him for a long time. So, I said, "I need this dress." I'm like, "You need to get He goes, "Do you have $50,000?" [laughter] He goes, "Because that's how much it costs to make." And I'm like, "No, no." So, that went out the window. But then I was like obsessed with that mannequin. I'm like, "I have to have one of these mannequins." and they had made 12 of them for fashion week that year. So, if you go back and look, you probably can find pictures online. They had them for fashion week um in New York City. They had the fashion week and they had these mannequins. And then the mannequins were in uh Bloomingdales. So, they were on display at Bloomingdales and I was just like I came back and I had told everyone I need one of those mannequins. I got to get one. And so, I had um I had put a search on eBay when I got home. And then one of my friends in my Barbie club, she like sends me a message. She goes, "Laura, go on eBay. That mannequin is there." And I'm like, "What?" You know? So, I go on eBay and I'm like, it the the beginning bid was $2,100. I was like, "Oh, jeez." So, I like waited till the like towards the end of the week and I'm like, "Okay, I'm just going to bid. I'm just putting the minimum bid." And I won. And I couldn't believe I was so excited. God, how do they ship it in pieces? No, she Yeah, you had to put her together.

1:17:12She came in this giant box and the the man who had her said that he had gotten her from a friend who worked fashion week and he sent me pictures of her because I said, "Well, what size is she?" He's like, "Oh, she's just like size zero." I'm like, "Okay." [laughter] And um so I remember my mom took a video of me putting her together. I don't know where that video is now, but um you know, I put her all together and I put her in my living room and she's, you know, always been in that corner over there. And um I just love her. She's so beautiful. She's one of my prized possessions. And then like the like I was telling you in the Barbie bazaar, they used to always have those ads for these vintage um vintage Barbie and Ken mannequins. So this the one over here, the modern one, she's um Rootstein. She's a Rootstein. Those are like the top-of-the-line mannequins. These are um by Goldsmith and they were made for Barbie's 35th anniversary in 1994. They had a huge thing for her 35th and that was like this whole revival. That's when they first started making uh reproduction nails, right? So, uh they had these listed in Barbie Bazaar. You could order them. They were like $500, I think, each. Maybe it was 500 for the I can't remember. I just know 500 was in my head. And I was like, I can't, you know, I can't afford that. And you know, I was like I think when that that year I was in my second year of college, so like it wasn't even an option. I was like, you know, forget it. There were some other ones that they made for different

1:18:33department stores like Montgomery Ward had a similar one. Um, and I don't know if those are I think they're a little different. Um, and there was another place that also had one. The Ken I ended up getting at my first the first year we did Ken Convention. I went to all five years of Ken Convention. We're doing it again this year. So, I'm very excited. Ken convention is in Chicago. Um, it's right near the airport and it's in the same place we Well, one year we did it in Milwaukee, but it was the other years it was always at the same hotel in Chicago. So, we're going back to that hotel this year in the fall. And um, how does it operate? Is it like convention? Is it open to the public or list and all that? But it's very small. There's only like I thinkund and something people maybe 150 maybe. I think when we used to do it was like 120. Um but I think they're allowing more this year. So um I got that mannequin in was it the silent auction?

1:19:23I think it was the silent auction. Um so my Ken my vint I'm pointing like you can see him. He's behind me. Um, my vintage can I got the first year and um, it was so funny because my friend Jim had he he got the Barbie and we had to go to FedEx and they did a contest at FedEx every week apparently with the other stores about who had the craziest shipment to do. And so they said they were taking pictures of ours because they said we're going to win this week with this. And so they took pictures of us putting the the Barbie and the Ken in these huge boxes to ship home. Um, and it was so crazy. So, um, so that was how I got Ken. And then Barbie I ended up buying from some car dealership. God, on Craigslist, they had listed her and I didn't realize they'd been trying to deliver to me for over a year. I had no idea because they kept saying, "We don't know when we're going to deliver it though. Is that okay?" I'm like, "Yes, it's okay. I don't care whenever it's coming." So, I didn't I just wanted her. And so, so like the the dealership, whoever it was, I I would get like, you know, when you get a number you don't know, you block it. Of course. Oh no. I didn't realize I had blocked this poor driver. They had like him he had a big rig and he would make deliveries. He would bring cars out here to California. So he would bring the mannequin with him. And it was so funny. So finally I I contact them and I'm like, "Have you guys ever made it out to California?" And they're like, "Oh my god, we're so glad you

1:20:43contacted us because yes, we've been trying to deliver the mannequin." I'm like, "What?" And he goes, "We'll have another shipment in a couple of weeks. Can we make this work?" I'm like, "Please, please." They drove out and I met them in Valencia and I remember my dad's going, "You're meeting some truck driver and [laughter] I was like, "No, Dad. I'm getting a Barbie mannequin." So, they insisted on going with me. So, my parents went with me and um of course it's this giant box we had to put in the back of my bag, my dad's truck. And then uh the guy was so funny. He's all that girl's been riding around with me for like 18 months. I'm like, "Oh jeez, [laughter] had it much sooner, but you know, I didn't know." Oh my god, that's so You know what? Do you ever consider like opening a a museum or something? Like an exhibit of some sort. Let's be honest, all collectors were like, "We really wish we all wish we had the more space to display the stuff we love." You know, if you had like this exhibit, I'm sure people would pay to come and see. I would I would be flying out of California to be able to come see all this. Ah, yeah. Maybe one day. I don't know. We'd have to get it organized because it really is a mess. [laughter] There's so much I've learned from you today. You've shown me so much history. You know, your passion for MIJ, your passion for the doll, your passion for Mattel really overall. Uh your eye for like unique pieces and the way that you showcase them, your knowledge, just all of that adds something

1:22:03really special to the doll community. So, I want to thank you for that. You've definitely given all of us a new appreciation for a character that deserves to not be behind the spotlight. She deserves to be forefront. Again, I just want to thank you for everything you've shared with us today. You're positive, you're outgoing. I I love your personality. Everyone who's watching, please make sure you follow MitchFan73 on Instagram. If you're not already, you need to do that. So, thanks again, Laura, for your time and I'm forever grateful for everything you shared with me today. Thank you. Thank you so much, Kelly. This was so fun. I love getting to share my passion, so this was an enjoyable afternoon. Thank you so much for including me. No problem. Take care, Laura. You, too. Bye. Bye. Bye. It's amazing how one doll can show you the importance of [music] being seen, included, and appreciated for exactly who we are. Make sure to like, subscribe, and hit that notification bell if [music] you love all things Barbie.

1:22:54And if you enjoyed this episode, click here to see one of my other episodes. Thanks for watching.