A Collector Shares: Number 1-5 Barbie Details and Collecting Reflections

Barbies from the collection of Telisa Hodge Spain-Watson

Recently, Telisa Hodge Spain-Watson shared in-depth information about number 1 through number 5 Barbies and reproduction dolls that use #1 Barbie's head sculpt and/or body. With her permission, I am sharing the post here. 

The dolls she discussed are illustrated in the above photo and identified from left to right as, 2020 75th Anniversary Silkstone Number 1 Reproduction Black haired Barbie (which tries to imitate the pale skin that the original sometimes fades to); 2020 75th Anniversary Silkstone Number 1 Reproduction Barbie with blonde hair; 2020 Silkstone Number 1 African American Barbie; a vinyl Number 1 Reproduction Barbie with blonde hair; Number 3 Barbie with faded skin, brown eyeliner and blonde hair; Number 4 Barbie with black hair; and Number 5 Barbie with red hair.

The number 1 and 2 Barbies came out in 1959; the number 3 and 4 Barbies came out in 1960; and the number 5 Barbie came out in 1961. These numbers are numbers that collectors gave the dolls to distinguish the changes; these are not numbers that Mattel gave the dolls. All of these dolls came wearing the black/white swimsuit. Some collectors take the number all the way up to number 7; however, I don’t because after Barbie number 5, the Barbies no longer came wearing the black/white swimsuit.

Barbie number 1 is distinguished by the white irises, arched eyebrows, blue eyeshadow, a solid body, and she has holes in the feet because the first stands had prongs that went into the feet. She came with either black or blonde hair. 

The number 2 Barbie is identical to number 1 Barbie, with the exception that she is a little lighter in weight because she does not have the metal rods in the feet and legs because the stand was changed to one that goes underneath the arms. The number 2 is rarer than the number 1 Barbie because she was only made for a short period before the number 3 Barbie came out. 

The number 3 Barbie's look was softened, and she no longer had the arched eyebrows and white irises. The majority of these dolls had brown eyeshadow, although some had blue eyeshadow. The number 3 Barbie is the only one of the early Barbies that had the brown eyeshadow. Although rarer, the number 3 Barbies wearing blue eyeshadow are harder to distinguish from a number 4 Barbie, unless the skin has faded. The number 1-3 Barbies were made out of a material that often turned pasty white, or darker beige over the years because of the material that was used in the doll. 

The number 4 Barbie is identical to number 3 Barbie except that it was made out of a new material that didn’t fade. The eyebrows were a softer brown, and the eyeshadow was blue. The number 4 Barbie was the last Barbie to have a solid body. 

The number 5 Barbie was made out of a new material and had a hollow body, so she is lighter in weight than the previous Barbies. Her body is marked with Barbie ®, instead of Barbie ™. She is also the first Barbie that came in a red-haired version in addition to the black- and blonde-haired versions. Many of these dolls turn greasy because of the material used, and the later versions corrected this problem. There are also transitional dolls out there because Mattel often used whatever parts were available. That means that one may have a number 4 Barbie body and a number 5 Barbie head.

Sixty-one years after the White number 1 Barbie was made, Mattel righted a wrong and came out with the first African American number 1 Barbie in 2020. I considered this a legitimate number 1 African American Barbie because she is stamped 1958 on the head meaning that she uses the original face mold. The body is stamped 2019, because she is made out of Silkstone material, which is the first Silkstone mold to have the holes in the feet. This doll was also made in two White versions, one with blonde hair, and one with black hair and pale skin. There were fewer than 25,000 of all three made combined, so I do not know how many of those were African American. I have two of the African American Barbies. I was able to get them when they first came out, so the price was affordable. The price of the African American Barbie is crazy expensive now, although the price of the White ones is still affordable, especially the blonde one. 

Telisa shared that she still wants the original number 1 or number 2 Barbie, but if she can never afford them, she'll be fine with the ones she has. She continued by sharing the early beginnings of her Barbie and Friends ownership and her continued collecting throughout adulthood.

My first Barbie doll was a Skipper, which I got for my kindergarten graduation in 1966. After that, I got a White Francie doll and a color Magic Barbie. I also got the PJ, Stacey, and White Talking Barbie. I wasn’t fond of Francie at the time because she couldn’t wear Barbie's clothes. I was crazy over the Color Magic Barbie, and quickly used all of the packages of hair color to color her hair. My friend, Aquilla (who I am still friends with today), my cousin Bridget, and I spent hours playing with our Barbies. Bridget had a Julia doll and a White Barbie, and sadly other than thinking it was cool to have a doll that was made after a TV character, we didn’t really like playing with her because she had short hair that was too short to style. We would sometimes use Aquilla’s older sister’s Barbies as props—she probably had a number 3 or 4 Barbie—but we didn’t like playing with them too much because they looked old, their legs didn’t bend, or their waists didn’t turn. We pretended they were the parents. Even though for the most part, our dolls were White, they were never White to us, because we weren’t White. Our dolls in our child’s mind were the same race we were. We just considered them light-skinned with good hair or long hair. But Barbie had boobs and a butt, and looked as much like a Black person to us as she did a White person. Later, when Christie came out, we got her, and it was only then that we saw that she was Black in comparison to the others. Plus, we were older and more aware of race. As a kid, I never saw Barbie racially. I believed that Barbie represented all women and what they could achieve, and not just White women. I loved the fact that when I was in the Army, they came out with an Army Barbie.

I asked my mama why did it take her a while to purchase Black Barbie dolls for me, and she told me that these dolls were harder to find and often she was not even aware of the fact that they were out. She said, because we lived in the South, many of the stores did not even carry the Black dolls until later.

Today, I think it is great that Barbies are much more inclusive and representative of all races. As an adult collector, I have strived with Barbie to try to get most of the African American versions of Barbies that were made, or at least, a version of that face mold. But I also believe that there is a sacrifice in the quality of playline Barbies. They have gone from vinyl to hard plastic, which is cheaper. The packaging is cheaper, and the clothes are much cheaper. One has to pay quite a bit of money to get a quality Barbie when you used to get quality in a playline Barbie. I know this is not just me showing my age, lol, because when I go on eBay to get used Barbies to redress, the newer plastic Barbies are very cheap, but the price of the Barbies with the classic or older bodies is much higher. I lucked up and found one Julia doll head for $15, but I had to pay $45 for a second Julia doll head, which was still a good price. 

The cool thing about the older Barbies is that almost all of them that were made from 1966 until around 2000 (except for certain dolls that do action stuff, Silkstones, or Shani Barbies) the bodies, which may have 1996 on them, use the 1966 TNT mold. So when I purchase an older head doll like Julia, I will put that head on a 1966 Barbie body that is the same complexion. In doing so, this doll suffers no depreciation because of this, other than normal depreciation it may have had through child pay. I also have replaced the bodies of out-of-the-box Barbie dolls I had that have had green spotting, broken legs, or necks, etc. so that the dolls would stay mint. I also enjoy what I call "righting wrongs" in that dolls that I believe should have come out in a Black version, I make my own. I do not do this by repainting the doll; I do it by redressing a mint African American doll in the clothes of the White version. When I do this, I also keep an original White version as well. 

Because Barbies were the primary dolls I played with as a child, Barbie is still my favorite doll to collect. Barbie is also the reason I have branched out into collecting other dolls and the reason I collect dolls in general.

About Telisa Hodge Spain-Watson: Telisa is a diehard Barbie collector. She also collects other dolls. Collecting dolls began during her childhood with very few interruptions. She retired from the military after serving for 20 years. When she was an Army drill sergeant, she even kept some dolls in her office. She has loved dolls all her life, and said, "I promised myself, as a child, that when I got grown, I was going to buy all the dolls I could afford. I collect other dolls besides Black dolls; however, my Black dolls are special to me because of what they represent."

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Thank you so much, Telisa, for allowing me to share your detailed post. 

Reference Links

#1 Barbie

#2 Barbie

#3 Brunette Barbie

#4 Barbie

#5 thru #7 Barbies
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There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.

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