BOTLO For 40th Anniversary 1st Black Barbie

40th Anniversary First Black Barbie

I cannot describe my excitement when I saw the stock images of the upcoming 40th Anniversary First Black Barbie shown above and below.  I am happy the doll is not a replica of the 1980 doll that has already been reproduced as seen here.  Two almost identical versions are enough.

She's gorgeous!

This doll appears to use the Selma sculpt, which I will welcome warmly since I do not own a doll with that sculpt.

The doll is limited to no more than 20,000!

The 40th Anniversary First Black Barbie is described on the back of the box (minus a double-word error) as follows:

Making her debut in 1980, Black Barbie became the first-ever black fashion doll to actually have the name Barbie. She wore a stylish red dress and had her hair in a curly Afro hair style; she sparked a new era of possibility for girls everywhere. To celebrate her ruby anniversary, 40th Anniversary First Black Barbie doll wears a flowing, trumpet-styled gown with cut-away sleeves, inspired by her iconic original outfit.  Her hair is styled in a sophisticated up-do, a subtle nod to her original look.  Finishing touches include golden hoop earrings, necklace, and a matching clutch. Then, like now, this doll captures the original doll's signature statement: "She's black, she's beautiful, she's dynamite!"

Additional Stock Photos

The doll is listed on Amazon UK in what appears to be a pre-order as
Barbie GLG35 Playset. She should be available to U.S. buyers soon for $39.99. A Google search offered the description that will be on the Barbie Mattel website, but the link led to their home page at the time of this publication.  Amazon . com should have her as well.

According to Papusile Mele, the doll will be available at the Barbie Mattel website on 02/01/20. I will continue to be on the lookout (BOTLO) between now and then.

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There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.
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Teonnie's Quick Redress and Handle Repairs

Teonnie enjoys being redressed.

While looking through some doll clothes for doll shoes, I saw this Magic Attic fashion that was purchased over a decade ago and decided to see if it would fit Teonnie.

Teonnie models most of her new-to-her clothes.

I tried the navy blue-print skirt on her first.  The waist is only slightly wider than Teonnie's slender waist, but she can wear it without the skirt twisting around.

The white camisole, which snaps closed in the back, fits her perfectly as do the navy blue Mary-Jane-style shoes.  A pair of knit tights were stored in the same package with the fashion, but I am not sure if they came with it.  They also fit her perfectly.

Lastly, Teonnie tried on the denim jacket, which is lined in white satin-like fabric and tagged Magic Attic. The jacket snaps closed at the fur-trimmed cuffs, which makes it easy to put on and take off. 

Teonnie models the complete fashion that was Magic Attic Allison's 2003 starter outfit as seen here.

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The handles on two doll cases that I use for storing Barbie clothing and clothing for other 11-to-12-inch fashion dolls were broken.  I did not take before photos before repairing these.

One case is a 1963 double-sided Barbie case as shown above in a photo after the handle was repaired.

The other case is a 1970s fashion doll case by Miner, again photographed after the repair.  The image of the brown girl on the front of this case can be seen better here.

My first attempt at repairing the handles was with a hot glue gun.  The glue did not bond the parts.  I then wrapped and molded air-drying clay around the connected parts.  This was allowed to dry and harden.  The clay areas were painted after the clay dried as illustrated in the next two images.

The repaired area of the handle of the Barbie case was painted with black acrylic paint. Black enamel paint would have provided better aesthetics or sealing the acrylic paint with a glossy varnish, but I had neither of those available.

Repaired area of the Miner case handle was also painted with misty white acrylic paint.

Even though both cases are filled to the brim with doll clothes and accessories, which makes them heavy, I believe the air-drying clay will hold the handles together.  This was a quick way to handle an annoying problem.

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There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.
__________
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More About Hanna

A circa 1950s Hanna Fuhrer doll

This is Hanna, first seen and described in a blog post published on January 16, 2017.  As a refresher, Hanna was the first doll to be added to my collection in 2017.  This circa 1950s doll was made on the style of Sasha Morganthaler studio dolls.  She has a papier-mache-type mask face and brown cloth body.  She is very well made.  Her eBay seller described her wig as being made from an animal's hide.  Because the hair sheds, I made a cap for Hanna.  I named the doll after the Swiss artist who made her (the artist's signature and city are signed underneath the doll's shoes, Hanna Fuhrer, Zürich).

Other than her knit cap, which I made, Hanna is all original.

In October 2019, I received a message through my author page on Facebook that provided additional information about this doll.  The person who contacted me gave me permission to share the additional information in an update to my blog post about Hanna.  Instead of updating and adding length to the original post, I have created this separate post.  The initial message and the correspondence that followed are copied below:

"Hello Debbie, My name is Tim xxxxx and I’m sending this message regarding your doll by Hanna Fuhrer. She came from my ex-wife’s grandmother from Rottweil, Germany. She lived in Zurich after the war for a few years where she acquired the doll. She told my ex-wife that it was a very special doll but nobody in her family can remember why. We contacted a few doll specialists both in Germany and Switzerland and only received one reply from Zurich. This was more than 15 years ago and I don’t remember who they were but they mentioned Sasha Morgenthaler studio as a possible origin. We brought the doll to Denver from Rottweil in 2001 and sold her along with many other items probably in 2014.

I do hope you have better luck in finding out who Hanna Fuhrer is. Kind regards, Tim

I replied:

Thank you so much, Tim, for this additional information on my wonderful doll.  If you do not mind, for documentation purposes, I'd like to share what you've shared on my blog.  How in the world did you find me?

Tim replied:  I somehow stumbled upon your blog with the photos of her, I’m an antiques dealer and was just cruising the internet looking at doll sites and such because I recently came across some dolls from my mother's estate in Boston. Such a small world this internet has made! You are more than welcome to share any and all info. I have shared with you. I wrote my ex about this and she was delighted that you ended up with her, couldn’t have been a better place! Her grandmothers family name was Bilger, I’ve emailed my ex again for her first name, it may take a week or so for a response, she doesn’t have internet where she lives but goes to the city once a week or so.

I replied:

Thank you so much, Tim, for this additional information and for allowing me to include it on Hanna's blog post (I named the doll, Hanna).  The Internet has closed in our degrees of separation.   (I wrote more, but it wasn't related to Hanna... just some info to help Tim ID dolls from his mother's estate.)

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It is indeed a very small world here on the Internet.  More pictures of Hanna can be seen in the  original blog post about her:  https://blackdollcollecting.blogspot.com/2017/01/first-doll-to-arrive-in-2017.html 

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There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.
__________
Thank you for following, commenting, and sharing using the share button below.

Check out what I am selling here. 
Check out my eBay listings here.
Please follow my sister blog Ebony-Essence of Dolls in Black.
Donate here to support this blog. Thank you!