midge's blue polka dots

I've figured out why Midge is wearing a blue polka dot sundress in the Life in the Dreamhouse episodes.  Not only did she and Barbie wear blue outfits with white polka dots in 1988, when Midge was re-introduced in the California doll line, but it's probably also because there were a number of outfits in the 60s and 70s with that look.  Remember these outfits?  This cotton fabric appeared a LOT!
Barbie: Little Red Riding Hood, Cool N Casual, Fashion Bouquet
Skipper: Nighty Nice
Tutti: Ship Shape
Buffy:  her Mrs. Beasley doll
Mattel must have bought thousands of yards of that fabric and had to keep using it!

barbies in a movie theatre

I visited the Ohio Theatre in Madison, Indiana, on Sunday.  This is a 1930s Art Deco downtown theater with a huge auditorium.  It is about 70 miles southwest of Cincinnati.
I went there for two reasons:  One was because it was showing The Lone Ranger and I HAD to see it AGAIN!  (viewing number 20).   The other was that I have long wanted to go to an old-fashioned downtown theater and there aren't that many left in existence on Earth.
The owners are Tony and Laura Ratcliff, who are restoring the building.  I discovered that Laura is also a Barbie collector.  In the lobby are glass display cases with her Bob Mackie and Byron Lars dolls.  Although I've seen most of the Mackies at doll shows and doll shops over the years, I had never before seen all of them deboxed and lined up in a display case.
In other words, I had a wonderful afternoon drive!  The weather was perfect and the drive was pleasant.  One of my favorite movies, plus Barbies and getting to do a bucket list item all at the same time!
http://www.ohiotheatremadison.com/

life in the dreamhouse comments

There are now 43 episodes of Life in the Dreamhouse, which began last year on Mattel's Barbie website.  They vary in length between 3 minutes 20 seconds and 3 minutes 35 seconds.  I think they are far funnier than any sitcom currently on TV!  I laugh out loud quite a bit at them!  Why?
These mini-epics aren't just for little girls.  There are, of course, slapstick and sight gags, but there are also topics that their mothers and grandmothers will remember and/or understand, and the best parts are all the inside jokes aimed at adult collectors.
I'm not going to tell you which episode has which of these topics. You'll have to watch for yourself.  Like I said, some of these jokes aren't ones that a little girl would "get" yet, (no, it's not adult humor), and some only a collector would know.
For instance:
1.  Chelsea being called Kelly.
2.  References to The Godfather, Forrest Gump and 2001: A Space Odyssey.
3.  Continual jokes about hair (even Ken's), and the characters use oversized combs and brushes.
4.  Barbie's huge closet and all her careers.   Note the contemporary outfit packaging!
5.  How old is Barbie, anyway?
6.  Her car and airplane have to be assembled.
7.  All the backgrounds are decals.
8.  Plastic pox, and numerous references to everything being plastic.
9.  Barbie sells her entire wardrobe to a collector, who then decides she doesn't want it because the outfits have all been deboxed.
10.  My favorite character is Midge, who is the most beautiful of all of the characters and also the nerdiest!  When she is introduced, she is black-and-white and wears a flip hairdo and Friday Night Date.  It's her episodes that have the most collector jokes:  Willows, Wisconsin (the comment about the weather is the funniest one of all), George and Margaret, Roberts, Millicent and 1959.
The only problem with these episodes is that you do need updated software to watch them.  You'll also notice that the older episodes play through nicely, but the more recent ones stop in the middle of scenes to continue uploading.  Or maybe too many others are watching them at the same time, and it's causing a backlog.
http://dreamhouse.barbie.com/en-US/
My favorite episode has been #31 "Let's Make a Doll."

wishbook web gone

One of my favorite websites, wishbookweb.com, has gone off line, seemingly permanently.

update on lone ranger blog

I continue to update The Lone Ranger discussion that I've started at
http://www.universalstop.com/hubs/forum/filmmaking/topic/positive-discussion-about-the-lone-ranger
I wrote about some more licensed merchandise that I've found and others have written about the symbolism.

queen city barbie show

Here is the flier for the Barbie show this Sunday north of Cincinnati.

Lone Ranger 12-inch figures

I have committed a mortal sin. I have taken the Disney Store 12-inch John and Tonto dolls out of their boxes. There is a special place in Barbie Hell for collectors who remove items from boxes....

I ordered Tonto from the Disney Store website, which still has plenty of them online for half price. The doll was $12.99 plus $4.92 shipping plus $1.39 for tax.

However, the John Reid doll was made in more limited numbers, and the Disney website no longer has them. I ordered mine from Toy Wiz for $36.99 plus $7.62 shipping.

In other words, the combined price on my credit card was $63.96. I figure that if I had purchased them both at the regular price earlier this summer from Disney online, the dolls still would have been about $31.98 apiece.

So here are the details about the dolls that the websites won't tell you. I took photos of both the fronts and backs of the boxes. The backs tell you a little about the characters, and include photos of the actors.

Getting the guys out of the boxes was quite a chore. Years ago Mattel listened to Barbie buyers' complaints (both from collectors and parents who struggled to debox dolls) about how tightly packed in the dolls were and how removing them from all the tape and twist ties ruined the dolls' hair. Disney needs to take some advice from Mattel because it took me 45 MINUTES TO REMOVE BOTH JOHN AND TONTO FROM THEIR BOXES! Nuking the boxes would have been more efficient!

So, as for the outfits: They are beautifully sewn. John's coat and vest are sewn together. Tonto's outfit is a soft brown felt. John's coat and Tonto's pants are tagged. The most elaborate piece is John's shirt. Although not what Armie wore in the movie, it reminds me of an incredibly realistic white shirt I once found for a Man from UNCLE doll by Gilbert. (DANG, I SHOULD NOT HAVE RESOLD THE THING! ARMIE NEEDS IT NOW!) Tonto's headdress is molded vinyl, and the crow is separate. The bird will not stay on Tonto's head at all, even though there is actually a little comb under the crow's tail that's supposed to slide into Tonto's hair.

Tonto's hair is beautiful and my Cher doll is jealous--it is better than hers.

Okay, so now for the big question. What do the action figures look like NAKED?

I nearly fell over laughing as I undressed the two guys. The ever-proper John has black skivvies. Tonto is going commando. I could not figure out how to get Tonto's breastplate over his head. Both are marked Disney/China on their lower backs, with the stock numbers stamped on them. The boxes do not have the stock numbers, so John's is 13065 and Tonto's is 13114.

As I mentioned before, the Tonto head looks like an effeminate Johnny Depp. John does not look like Armie Hammer at all. The hair is too dark and the face is too heart-shaped. The eyes are his--and I swear they follow you around the room--as is the nose. But I think John's entire head does not match the body properly--it's too big. The arms are jointed, but the knees are difficult to bend. Years ago Paul David told me that he always bends his dolls' knees because it puts less pressure on the inner wires when the doll is lying flat.

I am telling you all this because it is inevitable that when you go garage-sale-ing 10 years from now, you will probably find one of these guys stashed with a bunch of Barbies, all naked, in a brown cardboard box, and you will think, "That's not Ken!" but have no idea who he is.