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| part of my collection in 2022 |
How did it happen that I decided to create my Barbie's stable?
I was born in the 1980s in Poland. There were times when many things were not as readily available as they are today. Every girl dreamed of a Barbie doll, but not every parent could afford such a toy. It could not be bought at any conventional toy store. Barbies were brought from abroad - if someone had such an opportunity or could be bought in the Pewex stores. But in order to buy anything in Pewex, you had to have American dollars, because only such currency was honored in these stores. Those were hard and strange times. Barbie was therefore the object of dreams and sighs. I remember some girls were getting Barbie clones from their parents, mostly Fleur dolls, commonly known as Flerks. They were not as perfect as Barbie.
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| My Fashion Play with trimmed hair |
Barbie! For a long time, I thought that someone other than my parents bought it on behalf of Santa Claus, because I was sure they could not afford it. I was so happy. I cared for her a lot, I still have her today. Only her pink shoes were lost. One day my little brother came up with the idea to trim her hair. Imagine my despair when I found my most precious doll without half of her beautiful hair. It was a tragedy. After a while, it seems to me that for my birthday, Grandpa took me to Pewex and I was able to choose my new Barbie myself. It was Bath Time Fun, she had a foam skirt, bracelet and a hair ornament that could be decorated with colored spray foam. This doll had earrings, a ring, and bent hands at the elbows. Mainly the latter feature was the domain of more expensive, more valuable dolls.
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| Pinkie |
In the meantime, I think Santa Claus also brought me a Barbie toy that was even more valuable to me than the dolls themselves. It was a dog from the Ski Fun series, Snowball, known in Poland as a snow dog. I called him Pinkie because he was wearing a pink sweater. Pinkie was more important than the dolls because I dreamed of a real dog, but my parents disagreed. Back then, I loved the Collie breed, Scottish Sheepdogs. I remember that my classmate had a doggie of this breed for Barbie. It was part of the Western Fun series. My Pinkie looked just like a Collie, only it was completely white. I didn't know then that he was also a purebred specimen and that his race was Samoyed.
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| My Bathtime Fun |
I took Pinkie with me everywhere. I played with him so intensely that I broke his head off. The base of his neck snapped. But it was okay, you could still play with him and hug him. And suddenly Pinkie disappeared somewhere. I've already come to terms with the fact that I lost him. Until a few years later, it turned out that he was at my aunt's, who found him while cleaning up, and he came back to me. His white face turned a bit yellow because he had been lying on the rear shelf of the car for a while. But it was found, along with a pink sweater and a severed head. For me he was already written off, so the joy was great when, like a real Lassie, he returned to me after this wandering.
This was my childhood adventure with Barbie and her pets. So let's recap - I had Diana, Barbie Fashion Play (with her hair cut by my brother), Snowball aka Pinkie, dog from the Ski Fun series and Barbie Bath Time Fun. All these toys have survived to this day as the basis of my collection.
In those days, there was no internet, at the beginning there were even no Barbie commercials on TV, but there were Barbie Journal - colorful Barbie catalogs where you could see all the dolls and accessories of that time. It was probably the first time I saw Sun Runner in these magazines, it was a horse from the Western Fun series. Totally unreachable for me. But so beautiful that I was literally in love with it, although I knew that even Santa Claus would not be able to fulfill this dream. In addition to Barbie, I also got a smaller doll with articulated arms and legs in my childhood, it was the ballerina Pamela from the Simba company. After some time, my mother bought me a horse for her. It was obviously smaller than the ones for Barbie, flocked, with a short mane and only a tail that could be combed. But he was very far from the coveted Sun Runner.
I dreamed about a horse for Barbie until the end of my childhood. Once it was very close for me to get first self walking horse for Barbie, the High Stepper. It was my special order for my grandfather, who then lived abroad. Unfortunately, when my grandfather brought him, he said that I was too old for such a toy (I was in fifth grade - eleven years old), he only let me see it and gave it to my little cousin. Even though my disappointment and despair were enormous - I kept them to myself. I did not have the strength to fight, my grandfather did not want to hear that it was my dream. I gave my coveted Queen (this wasthe name I gave her in the order) to my younger cousin.
So where did these horses come from ?!
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| My Sunny |
In 2005, I found Barbie horses in the mold in the type of Sun Runner. More precisely, the Sun Runner himself, unfortunately without accessories, with a trimmed mane and tail. The price was very low, so I decided to get it. And so the first Barbie horse in my possession showed up. I'm not sure which was the second - Farbenspaß / Color Me Fancy or the Sun Runner with full equipment - because I finally got it! Barbie Western Fun was unavailable or was beyond my financial reach. The western series Cali Girl was on sale - perhaps the commercials of this series reminded me of Sun Runner and my childhood dreams - unfortunately I don't remember what exactly prompted me to search and make these purchases. In order for my Sun Runner to have an owner who will be able to ride him, I decided to buy a Barbie Cali Girl from 2004. Horses from this series did not appeal to me much at the time, they were also quite expensive. Today I regret a bit that I did not hunt one of them, more precisely Pacifica - a horse for my Cali Girl Barbie, because today there are very few of them on sale and they are still not cheap. Also looking at the current Barbie horses, this was probably the last mold that looked like real live horses.
I took my horses with Barbie to my summer home. Farben and Sun without equipment were available for my brother's children to play. The complete Sun Runner stood out of the reach of the children, only to be admired, and the Barbie was deeply hidden away.
New specimens
This year, I spent the long weekend in may with my friend and my goddaughter, Dorota, in my summer house in t countryside. Dorota has been dealing with horses since childhood (the real ones, of course) and collects Schleich figures (and not only). Due to bad weather we were staying at home, they found a box with old toys and it came out that we are all into Barbies. So I took out my pearl - the complete Sun Runner and Barbie Cali Girl. After this weekend, I took my Cali Barbie and this Sun Runner to Warsaw to be washed and refreshed. Out of curiosity, I also checked what and if these horses are available on the Internet. And so suddenly my collection grew by more items. The history of each model, each of my Mattel's animal is different - that's why I decided to start this blog to describe it. Today, I am not able to recreate the history of buying my first horses - Allegro (internet auction site) deleted such a distant history, and e-mails confirming the purchase are also lost. I don't know how much I paid for them and where they came from. I would like to keep as much information as possible about my new purchases. There is also little information about Barbie horses in our polish internet, most collectors focus on dolls. I also think that old Barbie horses were really beautiful toys, today's are much worse quality. So are the dogs.
Therefore, I invite you to read and admire these beautiful objects of sighs of every girl whose childhood fell at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s - particularly in Poland, where those toys were out of reach.
May 2021
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| larger part of my collection in 2022 |
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