Down Memory Lane | 03/09/2009 8:16 am

Happy Birthday, Barbie! From Black Canary to Beach Bum, a Trip Down Memory Lane (Photos)

By The Staff at wowOwow.com

Can you believe she’s 50?! Today is the Mattel doll’s 50th birthday. Barbie’s always been a knockout, but in our favorite dress-up doll’s latest incarnation, she does it for a living!

Based on the classic DC Comics character, Black Canary Barbie comes complete with a super-chic-hero look: leather jacket, calf-high boots with gold detail and, of course, some splendid spandex fishnets. If we were a superheroine, this is how we’d dress. OK, maybe not in winter, but perhaps the summer months!

While the Black Canary’s kinda’ wonderful, we are a bit nostalgic for the Barbies of yore.

Take, for example, the 1959 "ponytail" Barbie:

And the classic Bubble Cut from the early 1960s — a rare "Ginger" model:

Or this mod "Twist and Turn" Barbie from the late ’60s, early ’70s:

And for those of us still playing with dolls in the 1970s, our most favorite Barbie of them all: Malibu Barbie. Imagine, this doll is more than 35 years old!

Thanks to the wonderful Barbie Fan Site, Barbiefanatic’s Vintage Gallery.

67 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

Sorry, but the new Barbie looks like a pole dancer or a prostitute. This does not look like a superherooine IMHO.

By Dab-a- do on 12/12/2008 2:49 pm

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What is Mattel thinking with this doll? What image are they presenting to young girls? Sorry, I just don’t get it.

By Frannie Em on 12/13/2008 2:01 am

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Oh for God’s Sake! Who would give that to their daughter??? When I was a pre school teacher, my classroom was a Barbie Free zone. I encouraged Dora The Explorer…but NO Barbie! In fact, most of my three year olds knew Barbie didn’t have a job…she just had a large wardrobe! Although I must admit…one of my favorite bumper stickers is…”When I grow up, I want to be Barbie…That Bitch Has Everything!”

By J B on 12/12/2008 2:54 pm

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My mother at one time worked for Mattel and I had every original doll and accessories imaginable! Also collected Barbies throughout the years. I passed them on to my daughter and she will continue in the same vein when she has a daughter. The Barbie doll was the only doll I would play with as a girl. I was never one for the baby dolls, they were big and cluncky and never had the fashion that the Barbie doll’s had. Barbie, IMO, was the greatest toy ever invented and the only toy I ever wanted for Christmas or Birthday’s.

By HA BIBI on 12/12/2008 2:59 pm

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I’m with you, Elaine! My Barbie wasn’t a glam clothes-hound, though. My friends and I acted out all sorts of adult adventures through our Barbies. They were pioneer women, astronauts, courtesans, Native americans, solvers of murder mysteries, and on and on … the social situations we explored and expressed were amazing. I had 2 Barbies, a Ken, a Scooter and a Ricky, along with a orange 2-seater roadster. Between my playmates and myself, we had a small community. My daughter played with my Barbies and added them to her own “family” and enjoyed the same kind of fantasies with her friends. A wonderful toy.

By Susan B on 12/13/2008 12:17 am

LOL Susan, We did that too. We made up all kinds of senarios and adventures and our barbie’s were the actors. I have to laugh as I had several Ken doll’s too but Ken’s hair was always blonde, so I had ton’s of wigs for Barbie and I always stuck one of the dark wigs on one or two of the Ken doll’s. One would be a little longer because he was going to be the rock star the Barbie’s were going to go see in concert, LOL. I also, believe it or not, used to take one of Ken’s suits and had my mom tailor it down to fit Barbie so it would look like a Flight Attendant’s uniform, my mom even sewed rick-rack on the cuff’s for the stripes. Ha, this article brings back such wonderful memories. I went back to the top of the thread to really take a look at this new Barbie’s outfit and I think that the fishnet stocking’s is the main article of clothing that would cause folk’s to think her to look like a hooker. But I don’t see it that way as,” whip’s and chain’s not included”. And it looks just like something that Madonna would wear. So, I’m thinking that hey, I like the leather jacket and this outfit would have given my Barbie’s the opportunity to be the rock star that my Ken doll’s, would have loved to have seen in concert, LOL. It was a fantastic toy indeed! :)

By HA BIBI on 12/13/2008 9:55 am

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Between me and my three closest pals, there was only one Ken!!! He really had his pick of the ladies. :-D It was a “community” where the women ruled the fantasy, and I think that’s a good thing … women ruled the world in Barbieland. I had one of those Barbies with three wigs: a blonde pageboy, a red updo and a black bubble. We’d put them on Ken to give him different personas, like you did. I forgot the rockstar scenario, we did that, too. What fun we had with those little dolls, spending entire rainy days esconced on the floor of one of our family’s livingrooms. Only came up for air to eat lunch. And in the summer, we conducted our adventures in different places in the yard. I remember one time in particular where the entire cast lived in a tree! No wonder my imagination is so well-developed.

By Susan B on 12/13/2008 12:32 pm

LOL Susan, you bring up yet another memory and that was we had our home on a large corner lot that had beautiful palm tree’s and tropical foilage. So when ever it rained, the gutter area at the one corner would overflow and become this super large area of water that, when one would stand in the middle, it was well above our ankles……Well guess what….Yep, the ole Barbie cruiser came out and the ocean adventures began. The water would last for about three days as there was no in street drainage. It remained until the sun would dry up our make believe beachfront. And, in winter, after the rain’s, sometimes the top surface would freeze and times like that, Barbie became became a member of the “Ice Capades” I totally relate to the immagination thing, I was never bored as a kid, too much to do and so much fun to have!

By HA BIBI on 12/13/2008 1:17 pm

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We did exactly the same thing with flooded gutters! There must be thousands of women like us with the same memories. I never hear about Barbie play in that context. It’s always the “sexy, rich Barbie” that are in the minds of many. Those dolls were the perfect size for that kind of play — Polly Pockets are way too small, and the American Girl dolls are too big. My daughter had all three, and Barbie got the most play time.

By Susan B on 12/13/2008 2:26 pm

Am I the only one who preferred action hero Ninja Turtles to Barbie as a child??? …………..

By Kryssi K on 12/12/2008 5:14 pm

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Yep Kryssi, you were, LOL. The Ninja turtles came out in the mid 80’s But, these definately were top’s with my son. He had everyone of them, including several outfit’s he wore along with his Ninja tennis shoes. :)

By HA BIBI on 12/13/2008 10:34 am