DOll-A-Day 2019 #112: 35th Annversary Midge

  Today's doll is another anniversary one.She's this girl:

She's 35th Anniversary Midge.

Midge was Barbie's first friend,(besides Ken.)

Midge made her debut in 1963. The box date on this doll is 1997,but her 35th anniversary would have been 1998. You can also see her original price, $39.99. Not that bad really.

I think that, overall, Mattel did a great job with this Midge.

Her face paint looks pretty authentic,other than her lips being shiny.

Her hair is too silky though. 

 

Vintage Midge had sort of straw like hair,like Skooter. The doll they show on the back of the box appears to be a vintage Midge with her lips touched up.

 

This was a habit Mattel had with their early reproductions. The boxes and publicity photos usually showed the actual vintage doll,instead of the reproduction.This was misleading. I think they have stopped doing it now.
  Midge originally came as a blonde, brunette, or titian (redhead.) Most people think of her as a redhead though, so it was a good choice for Mattel to make the reproduction a redhead. My childhood Midge is a redhead. Modern Midge dolls have all been redheads.

Repro Midge comes with reproductions of her original booklet...

...white mules...

...and swimsuit...

Original Midge actually had three different original swimsuits, depending on her hair colour. Brunette Midge had a red and pink 2 piece,blonde Midge had a light blue/dark blue combo,and red haired, or titian Midge got stuck with this orange and chartreuse horror. Strangely enough,all the original boxes picture a red head in the blue swimsuit.

..as well as a wrist tag, which clearly says '35th Anniversary'...

'Clearly',although not in my photo!

..and a reproduction of her original box. 

Most people think of Midge in 'Senior Prom'. It really suits her,and looks great on a redhead. But Senior Prom wasn't actually Midge's. Midge had no clothes with her name on the label. (Although, after Midge's introduction,Mattel changed the name on the Barbie body mold to read 'Barbie and Midge'.) She shared Barbie's clothes. 'Senior Prom',like everything else Midge wore,(except her swimsuit), was labeled 'Barbie'.  It was still Midge's even to Mattel though,as that's the outfit they reproduced for her with this doll.

The dress is provided, along with the green mules with peal accents....

The pearls on these are flat on the back. The originals were round pearl beads.

...and the dimpled gold foil purse.

  That purse was used by Mattel for years. Oddly enough,that same gold foil purse,sometimes in silver,is still appearing in generic fashion doll sets! These days it's made of vinyl,and the colour doesn't peel off.
  I have the same complaint about the 35th anniversary reproduction Midge that I have with the 35th anniversary repro Barbie. The legs are too shiny,and have a mold line up the front of them,and the hands have ragged mold lines.

  They were a bit sloppy with that toenail paint.

  There is some variety in early Midge dolls. Some of them had very curly hair,a rare Midge without freckles,and there is a rare Midge that had teeth painted in the gap between her lips. If you buy one, be careful. Some of them have been faked. When the American Girl Barbie came out, an 'American Girl' version of Midge was also released. She had a shorter hairstyle that curled under,instead of over,bend legs, and a striped one piece swimsuit.
 

  That's today's doll. See you again tomorrow.

Doll-A-Day 2019 # 109: 35th Anniversary Barbie

  Ken and I were talking recently about this being Barbie's 60th anniversary year. Ken said it seemed not that long ago that this doll was released:

This is the 35th Anniversary Barbie.

Obviously she would have been released in 1994.

Although her box date is 1993.

This doll came as a blonde,or a brunette.

This is actually the second edition of the 35th anniversary doll. You can tell that because she has the proper arched eyebrows.

The first edition came out with the wrong eyebrows! Mattel, what were you thinking? The first anniversary doll came out with rounded eyebrows,when everybody knows that the first Barbie doll, now known as the 'Number One',  has pointed eyebrows.So Mattel fixed the eyebrows. Then the other thing people complained about were her bangs. Number one Barbies have tightly curled bangs,while the repro has loose curls. A lot of people recurled the bangs on the 35th Anniversary dolls to make them right.

The box pictured a doll with curlier bangs.

Number One Barbie also has weird white eyeballs. They got that right on this doll.

She has the appropriate gold hoop earrings.

And of course, she's wearing the classic zebra striped swimsuit,although this one had clear elastic straps to maintain Barbie's modesty!

These clear straps have died from old age.

The reproduction even has it's own wrist tag,which clearly says 'reproduction'. Mattel have been very good about marking reproductions and repro clothing so it can't be mistaken for the originals.

Her classic sunglasses were also provided,as well as her white mules.

They aren't nearly as well made as the originals though.

A reproduction of the original Barbie box is included in the set. I'm pretty sure it is clearly labeled 'reproduction'.

One of my complaints about the reproduction was the mold line down the front of the doll's legs.

She has very shiny legs too,which just didn't look right. And the mold line around the hands is very ragged.

She has toenail paint,as well as fingernail paint. There's that mold line on the legs.

  That's it for today. See you again tomorrow for another doll.