Doll-A-Day 197: Stacey Week: Talking Stacey

  This is the first day of another theme week. This time it's Stacey,'Barbie's British Friend'.

Not to be confused with Barbie's little sister Stacie.

  To capitalize on the popularity of all things British, brought about by the 'British Invasion' of the 60's,( led by The Beatles success), Mattel made Stacey British. The Talking Stacey has a British accent, as her voice was done by an actual English woman. 

  Of course I've never heard the voice, because none of my Staceys still talk. By the way, the great British looking telephone box is a Bratz item. That makes it slightly too short for Barbie type dolls. They can't actually stand inside it. It makes a great background item though. (And unlike the real thing, it doesn't have pee in it.) It even lights up.

"This can't be the real thing. There's no pee."

  Stacey was produced from 1968 through 1970 or '71. (I've read both dates.) Although this was my childhood, and she would have been about the right era for me to have had her, I never even heard of her until I was an adult. Once I did she became my favourite Barbie family doll.

She's a bit pricey for me though, so I don't have very many.  (Skipper is another favourite, and straight leg Skipper is much more affordable than Stacey normally. The Mod Era Skipper that is my favourite is even more expensive than Stacey. Figures!)

 There were a couple of different Stacey dolls, the Talking Stacey and the Twist and Turn Stacey. Talking Stacey always had long hair, with a side ponytail and bangs.

  Twist and Turn Stacey came with long hair with a side ponytail, no bangs, and spit curls at either side of her face, and later with short hair in a flip style.

  Stacey only came as a red head, in a shade called 'copper penny', or as a platinum blonde.

  Like all Mod Era Barbie and family dolls, Stacey has rooted eyelashes and blushy cheeks.

This blonde Stacey kind of reminds me of actress Elke Sommer.

  Sears produced two gift sets for Stacey, which included the only 'Stacey' tagged clothing made.Both sets are hard to find and VERY expensive. There was so much collector demand that Mattel reproduced the Night Lightening set in 2006. I was lucky enough to get one for $20 at an auction, so I'll be comparing the vintage and the repro Stacey doll later in the week.

This Stacey is borrowing a dress from Barbie. It's Picture Me Pretty, from 1972.

It's supposed to come with fusia coloured Pilgrim shoes, but I like it with these boots. (Especially since these boots hide all the flaws on her legs...like the fact that she has no feet...)

Her head is absolutely beautiful, but, like most of the Talking Barbie and friends of this era, her legs fell off! (Even never removed from box dolls have this affliction. It's just their flaw.)So she has been switched to a Twist and Turn body. I would love to upgrade her to a really nice body, but until I do, this situation is working fine. She displays very nicely this way.

  I have mentioned before that I have a thing about dolls with teeth. (Ok, and teeth in general. That's how I first fell in love with Ken. It wasn't that I had an obsession with all things British----even though I did!: It was the teeth!) One of my favourite things about Stacey is that she has teeth.

 

Why does the computer do this?!

As beautiful as Stacey is, her head mold was later used for Malibu Barbie, which is one of the uglier Barbies. It was also used for a couple of European Barbies, which basically looked like a pale skinned version of the Malibu Barbie. The face paint was pretty much the same. There is also one with the Malibu style face paint in slightly lighter tones, and that one has strawberry blonde hair.There is also a rare Talking Barbie made using the Stacey head mold.Stacey's face got to see the light of day again in 2009 when Mattel reissued the Malibu Barbie as part of the My Favouite Barbie line.Even though they have the doll as being from 1971, they have included a reproduction of Barbie's Lemon Kick fashion from 1970. (Lemon Kick looks great on a red head Stacey though. I have one wearing it!)

That's it for today. Check out tomorrow's Stacey.