In 1967 my two favorite Mod Barbie Dolls were released;
the twist and turn Barbie and the Standard Straight-leg Barbie. They both had a
new youthful face with beautiful long unevenly cut hair.
The Standard Straight-leg Barbie, stock #1190, came on
the same body as the later Bubblecut dolls, but her new body has a pink skin
tone color rather than the tan tone color found on the Bubbles. She has
painted on eyelashes and is marked “Midge T.M. ©1962 Barbie® ©1958 by Mattel, Inc. Patented”.
Over the five years she was sold (1967-1971), her
swim-suit and box changed once, and her eyes changed from a side glance to a
center glance in 1971.
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Here are three of my Standards: 1967-1969 in two-piece suit, 1971 with center-glace eyes, and 1970 side glace eyes | |
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The Standard Barbie dolls came in boxes similar to the early
Barbie dolls, which I prefer because they make a nicer display box. Kids
could use the box for play, pretending they were bathtubs, boats, or even a
car. The early “rose” colored box, which was for sale from 1967-1969,
featured the doll in a bright pink two piece swim suit with a white vinyl
flower on the left side of her swim-suit bottoms. In 1970 and 1971 her
swimsuit transformed to a green and pink one-piece style with a pink vinyl rose
on the left side towards the bottom.
The box graphics weren’t a perfect description of what
was in the box. The later box shows a picture of Barbie with real
eyelashes (which she didn’t have) and even reads “with real eyelashes”. After the error was discovered in late 1970 and the wording “with real eyelashes” was omitted. the picture remained the same.
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1970 box (with real eyelashes) and late 1970's and 1971 box |
Both versions of Barbie came in four pretty hair colors;
blonde, ash blonde, light brown and dark brown. The Standard didn’t
assign fancy names for their hair colors as the twist ‘n turn dolls had, such
as Chocolate Bon Bon for dark brown. Sometimes you may see a red head,
but they are usually light brown dolls that have oxidized over time to a red
color. Nevertheless, in the Barbie world there are rarities, and you may find
yourself a true red head!
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End flap on box marked with the hair color |
Just like the twist ‘n turn dolls, the Standards pulled
up a little bit of hair on top of her their head and tied it with a cute little
pink hair ribbon (the TNT dolls used a salmon colored ribbon). In the box with the Standard doll came a clear X stand
and her fashion booklet.
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The Standard Barbie with her beautiful hair and pink ribbon |
This fabulous
new modern head mold could be found on another doll besides the Twist n’ Turn
version in 1967. The Hair Fair Barbie head featured it as well. This was
the first head mold change in eight years.
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Hair Fair Barbie (1967) |
The first of
three gift sets that featured the Standard Straight-leg Barbie was available by
mail-in only in 1967. It is the rarest gift set of them all!
“Barbie Loves the Improvers” was an Inland Steel Gift Set promotion, which was
extremely limited. There are only a few that have ever been found. Barbie
wore the same pink two-piece swim suit and had the pink ribbon in her
hair. She’s been found with blonde and red hair. She also came with hot pink shoes and a cool
metallic silver cardboard dress that looks like a tin can, that has a cut-out for her belly button (which she doesn't have!). Also, there
was a flier showing an actual model wearing the “Warrior
Women” tin can dress. All of this was packaged in a brown mailing
box marked “Barbie Loves the Improvers”.
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Photo from eBay Community Page |
This
hip doll was fashioned after a design by Paco Rabanne, who was a Spanish
Fashion Designer. He was born in 1934. He and his mother fled Spain
in 1937 and moved to France, just after the Spanish Civil War broke out.
Paco studied architecture in Paris. He began his career in the 1960’s designing
jewelry for big names like Givenchy, Nina Ricci, Pierre Cardin, and
others.
In 1966 he started his
own fashion house, and created controversial fashions using mediums such as
paper, hammered metal, fluorescent leather, and plastic, to name just a
few. His designs were wild, but they fit right in with the 1960’s teenage
culture. His first couture collection was named “12 unwearable dresses”.
As
he was designing this unusual clothing, he was also working on the wardrobe for
the movie “Barbarella”, which is a French-Italian sci-fi flick that was
released in 1968. It was based on the French
Barbarella comic strip, and starred Jane Fonda as Barbarella. The clothing in the film was made of hard
plastic, metal, and other uncomfortable fabrics, and was also quite revealing.
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Barbarella Movie |
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The comic Book (Left) and Jane Fonda poster and cover of Life Magazine |
There
isn’t a lot of information about this very limited edition doll. It is believed that it was never released to
the public and it was probably available for Inland Steel’s larger clients since
there are so few ever found. I read somewhere that Inland Steel also thought of
themselves as “The Improvers” at the time.
There
are other rumors out there that say this promotional doll was based on the obscure
band “The Improvers” and that the record label gave her to clients and others
who played their record on the radio or employed “The Improvers” to play.
If that’s the case, here’s a little history on
that for you. Don Mercedes (his real
name was Rob Van Bommel) was a Dutch singer who began his career in the 1960’s
with a band called The Improvers. It certainly wasn’t a well-known band, as
there is very little information about it.
Don reached the Dutch record charts twice, first in 1965 with his #32
song titled “Just a Soldier”, and again in 1976, with his #12 hit “Rocky” which
he recorded as a soloist. Either The
Improvers is a band that Barbie really, truly loved, or someone from the Inland
Steel Company or Mattel thought this band was super groovy. Otherwise, I’m thinking the box should read
“Barbie Loves the Beatles”!
Whichever
version you wish to believe, it’s a known fact that there are only a few of
these special dolls in existence, and having one in your collection is like
finding the Holy Grail!
In 1968 the
#1544 Sears Exclusive Travel in Style Gift Set was released. It contained
the doll in her pink two-piece swimsuit along with a print
coat, matching skirt, knit shell, travel hat box, sheer hose, blue one-piece
swimsuit, and blue bow shoes.
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Sears Exclusive #1544 Travel in Style Gift Set |
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From 1968 Sears Christmas Catalog |
The 1969 #1592
Twinkle Town Sears exclusive gift set was available and also contained the
standard-straight leg Barbie. In the set she wore a blue two-piece
swim-suit exactly like the pink, which included the white vinyl rose on the
left side of the bottoms. She had rare platinum hair color, and wore a
blue hair ribbon. The set came with the outfit #1866 Movie Groovie, which
consisted of a hot pink skirt, long sleeve pink and silver top, hot pink hose,
and pink shoes.
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Sears Exclusive 1592
Twinkle Town Gift set & 1969 Sears Christmas Catalog Ad |
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At the time
these dolls were sold, they were considered the inexpensive version of the new
“Mod” Barbie because they didn’t have the twist waist, rooted eyelashes, and
bendable legs.
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1970 Standard with light brown hair |
Too bad I didn’t pick up a few hundred of them back in the
day! Buying one of these beauties mint in box now is rarely
economical!
Happy Hunting!