TheBdoll

Barbie is the first fashion doll ever made. The idea came when Barbie's creator, toy factory owner Ruth Handler was watching her little girl Barbara play with paper dolls in 1950's. She got the idea of creating a doll with a grown female figure girls would be able to change clothes on and pretend being grown ups - in addition to just pretending to be moms while playing with baby dolls.

In the common language people often refer to 12" fashion dolls as "barbies", not realizing that Barbie is a trademark, and it is just as accurate to call a Fiat a "ford" as it is to call another fashion doll a "barbie". A genuine Barbie doll is always made by Mattel, and it has a stamp in her back as well as her neck (sometimes in an invisible spot) stating the manufacturer.

A vintage Barbie is a Barbie made before 1972, is the widely accepted cut of time between vintage and modern Barbie. The concept varies a little bit, some collectors accepting any doll over 30 years old as vintage. However, the official source of Mattel's BarbieCollector.com states the year 1972 to be the cut of time for vintage. What creates more confusion in the matter is the patent years shown in Barbie's body. Very commonly used Twist and Turn body was patented in the year 1966, resulting in a lot of auctions for "Barbie 1966" listed as vintage when in fact the doll could be as recent as from the 90's.

Clearly any clarity to the situation is not added by Mattel that launched a reproduction doll series "My Favorite Barbie" to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Barbie. Reproduction Barbie dolls have already been made of dolls from the 80's, which are well beyond the vintage era, and usually reproduction dolls are only made of vintage dolls (usually referred to as "vintage repro").

A keen Barbie fan can most often spot a genuine Barbie even if the only thing visible was a foot or a hand. The materials used to make a genuine Barbie doll are superior in quality to the copies made of her. The general difference and feel to a copy doll is cheap, not surprisingly, but what keeps surprising me personally is that some people can't see the difference with the first glance. To me it's like not seeing the difference between plastic and glass or polyester and silk. Even though Barbie is a product made out of different plastics and vinyl, the quality between her plastic is vastly different to the cheaper dolls.

In addition to playline fashion dolls, there is a multitude of other collector fashion dolls aimed solely for adult audience. With these dolls, quality has not been compromised on, and are usually a delight for even the most criticising eye... Personally though, I only have eyes for Barbie. :)