Buy a Barbie Get $5.00 Off At Amazon

Amazon has a new promotion where you buy selected Barbies and get $5.00 off. The higher priced dolls will come with free shipping so if you would like order each doll separately for $5.00 off on each! You may have to combine to get the free shipping for the cheaper dolls. I think I am going to get the African American Holiday Barbie!

Happy Shopping!

5 dollars off at Amazon

Top Model Hair Wear Nikki On Sale

If you missed out on Top Model Hair Wear Nikki, she is now on sale for 9.99 at KBtoys.com. Use the banner below to go to their site.

Once you are there search for Barbie: Top Model Hair Wear - Nikki. This doll is great for collecting and has a matching skin tone to many previously released African American collector Barbies. For this price she is great to buy a few extra!

Barbie and The Diamond Castle: Liana

Today's Barbie and The Diamond Castle spotlight is on the Princess Liana. This doll retails at 29.99 and comes in both Caucasian and African American versions. Princess Liana sings two songs from the movie and wears a glittery gown that magically transforms with the flip of a switch! Her necklace lights up when she sings. When paired with the Princess Alexa doll, they sing beautiful duets.

New 2009 Dolls Announced

We interrupt our Barbie and The Diamond Castle coverage today to report on the new dolls announced by Mattel. They have announced the several new dolls in the Barbie Fashion Model Collection (Silkstone). What is interesting about the Silkstones for 2009 is that they will feature homages to vintage Barbies. There will also be an African American doll in the collection! There will also be a special 50th Anniversary doll designed by Robert Best. She will have a golden ball gown and is very regal. The My Favorite Barbie® Doll Collection will bring you the most beloved and iconic Barbies reproduced for her 50th anniversary. These dolls were designed by Bill Greening. The Dolls of the World Collection is back with four new offerings designed by Linda Kyaw. Other repro dolls to be produced will be Julia and Becky! That gift set features two extra outfits. A doll that was announced several months ago is the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Barbie. Photographs of her have finally been released. She has articulated arms and ballerina pointed feet. Finally for Model Muse lovers there is a set of 3 Corvette Barbie dolls with two straight arms and a Mackie face. There is a pink, yellow and red version with white painted on gloves. There are a few pictures and a lot more information at My Favorite Doll and Vogue 41.

I had the opportunity to see some of these dolls in the production stage several months ago. You will not be disappointed by the beauty and variety in the 2009 line! Go Barbie, 50 more very happy birthdays!

Barbie for President Teresa

While at TRU I had the chance to see the new Barbie For President dolls that are TRU exclusives. These president dolls have been released every four years for the last several years. Here you can see the TRU web page for this Teresa President doll. She has a dog and different packaging than he one I took the picture of. There is also a Barbie, Nikki and an Asian doll. I have not seen Nikki in person, only in photographs. I haven't seen any pictures of the Asian doll so far but she is advertised on the TRU website without any pictures. Click here for the web page.

2008 AA Holiday Barbie

I was at Toys R Us and had the opportunity to see the new African American Holiday Barbie. I think she is just striking. I do hope to get her in the future but for now I just snapped a quick picture of her in the store. Last year I bought both Holiday Barbies early on only to find them marked down at the Mattel Toy Store. This year I'll wait for this one.

Denim to Diamonds - 2007 Barbie Convention

The 2007 Barbie Convention was a grand affair held in Dallas, Texas. I travelled to Dallas once and I found it a super amazing cosmopolitan city with a great down home feel. I'm sure all the attendees had a wonderful time. There are many great pictures of this convention online. You should take the time to look them up. The convention doll for 2007 was designed by Mattel designer Bill Greening (yay Bill). I became very enamoured by these dolls for a few reasons. They are the first convention dolls with the model muse sculpt. They also feature the TNT head mold. Additionally, these dolls have a sassy red gown with a cowboy hat. Perfect for a Texas style soiree.

Here is the African American version of the convention doll. She was limited to only 250 dolls and is a Platinum Level collector doll.

Convention Week

I guess it's Barbie Convention week here at the Doll Cafe. For the next few days I will feature close-ups of the Barbie Convention dolls that I own. Here is the AA 2006 convention doll. As I mentioned, I sold her but I took several pictures before I said goodbye. Maybe some day I will replace her. She is rather stunning.

Still Cleaning Up and One More New Girl

I've been working very hard cleaning up the galleries for the grand opening. Looking through the various galleries and deleting many pictures also brought back some memories. The Mattel playline has really changed in recent years. It seems like the playline is really trying to separate itself from the collector line with the body changes and head mold and head size constantly changing. But then again, Mattel adds Model Muse dolls to playline with the Top Model collection. It's hard to know what direction Mattel will go in next.

On that note, there is always Ebay and I could always go back and buy dolls I missed out on! Speaking of new dolls, today I ordered the AA Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader. I'm really eager to get her. She's the last one I need from the set. I haven't de-boxed the Blonde or the Hispanic doll but I'm sure as soon as I receive the last one I'll have a little de-boxing party . . .

Here is another doll I worked on last weekend. With the Barbie Collector $12.99 sale I picked up two extra AA Birthstones. One of them was Opal. I thought she would perfectly match the Birthstone Opal from the last collection. I'm quite fond of this doll because she was the only one with this skin-tone in the entire collection. In addition, very few Hispanic or African American dolls are made with the Mackie mold and this is one of them. In addition, my birthstone is Opal. I'm quite pleased with the way she turned out.