Some of My Favorite Vintage Black Barbies

Live-Action Christie, Talking Brad and Super Star Christie are among my favorite vintage Black Barbie family of dolls.

"Top Favorite Dolls" was the July photo-sharing theme in my Facebook doll group.  On a daily basis most of us shared photos of our top favorite dolls and shared information about the dolls.   One of my posts featured some of my top favorite vintage black Barbies.  There are others that I was not able to photograph at the time (a better photo of Super Star Christie being one). The dolls I shared, in addition to one other, are shown below.

Talking Brad has a box date of 1970.  Look at that handsome face!

Now mute, Brad wears his orange swimming trunks with his orange and yellow jacket.  He has black molded hair and brown painted eyes.

Live Action Christie wears her original purple/orange/white psychedelic-print midriff top and bell-bottom pants with purple square-toed pumps and orange scarf.  Her box date is 1971.  She was temporarily removed from her original box to take this photo.  Her booklet includes images of other dolls and fashions that were available on the market at the time of her release.  Scans from the booklet can be seen here.

Malibu Christie has a box date of 1975.

Malibu Christie was released to the market in 1976.  Her box date is 1975.  This lovely ebony-complexioned doll wears a yellow bathing suit and has straight, long black hair.  I love her so much that I have two.  At one time, I owned three.  Sunset Malibu Christie, dressed in red bathing suit, was on the market from 1973 through 1977.  She remains elusive to me, but if she were here, she would also be a favorite.  

Cutie Patootie, Carla, 1976

Carla, made for the European market, has a box date of 1976.  She has bendable, posable arms and legs and the cutest little face.  She is all vinyl and, at only 6 inches tall, she is the smallest of my favorite
vintage Black Barbie family of dolls.
  

The back of Carla's box illustrates Tutti (I have my sister's Tutti), Chris, and Todd (Tutti's twin brother). Mattel would later reuse the name Todd for a taller doll (approximately 8-1/2 inches) that was released as African American and Caucasian.  I believe the AA version was always part of a Barbie gift set, one of which is shown here.  I also have Todd in another wedding set with AA Barbie and Stacey.

Super Star Christie has a box date of 1977.  Dressed in a yellow satin gown with a yellow lacy shawl, the doll has brown hair with golden blonde highlights and uses the Super Star head sculpt.  

There is a lovely illustration of SuperStar Christie's on the back of the box.

18-inch Super Size Christie, 1977

A doll stand and aqua pants are attached to the box liner.  The two-piece, shimmery-front bodysuit and skirt that Super Size Christie wears was originally the color of the aqua pants. It is, unfortunately, common for this to fade to tan/light pink. Aqua high heel shoes are be in the package attached to the liner.

Super Size Christie uses the Super Size Barbie head sculpt, which is quite lovely.

At 18 inches tall, Super Size Christie (1977 box date) is the largest of my favorite vintage Black Barbies.  Like Super Star Christie, Super Size has dark brown hair with golden highlights.  At one time I owned two of these.  The first doll only had her body suit, doll stand, and original shoes (no box).  After upgrading to the mint in box one shown in this post, I sold the other. 

Side panel of Super Size Christie's box illustrates a girl holding the doll and two additional images of the doll. Note the doll is illustrated wearing an aqua fashion.

The back of the box illustrates the doll wearing the aqua bodysuit with pants, with the skirt, and the bodysuit alone.

The other side panel of Super Size Christie's box illustrates the three ways the doll can wear the aqua fashion.

For me, box graphics are as appealing as the vintage dolls.  Super Size Christie's box, as illustrated in the above three photographs, does not disappoint.  The same holds true for Magic Curl Barbie's box.

Magic Curl Barbie (1981) with hair that can be worn curly or straight is the doll that was not shared with my doll group as one of my top favorite vintage Black Barbies, but she is.

The back of the box describes and illustrates how Barbie's hair goes from curly to straight using the Magic Mist solution included with the doll.

One side panel of Magic Curl Barbie's box includes a head shot of the doll with curly Afro and a full-length photo wearing her yellow peasant-style, full-length dress.

The other side panel of Magic Curl Barbie's box illustrates the doll with straighter hair.  She is dressed in a yellow spa towel in the full-length photo.

Magic Curl Barbie (box date 1981), a doll my daughter also owned, is probably not considered vintage by die-hard Barbie fans.  At 36 in doll years, she's vintage in my eyes and included in this post because she is one of my favorites.  I remember watching my daughter style her doll's hair using the Magic Mist and enjoying the fun she had in doing so.  I had once thought one of the dolls from my daughter's childhood that is now incorporated into my collection was a Magic Curl Barbie, but based on lip color, I am not sure (unless my daughter painted the lips of the doll on the far right in the next photo).  

From left to right the head sculpts used for my daughter's dolls are Teresa, Steffie, Christie (with the square face x2), and Steffie (the one that is possibly Magic Curl Barbie).  

See the before photos of my daughter's dolls here and their makeover post here.  

As indicated, I have more "vintage" Black Barbies, but those shown here rank among my top favorites and are the ones that were readily accessible to photograph.  

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Lovely Bride Celebrates Barbie's Black Friends

In 2009, Generations of Dreams Barbie entered the market as a tribute to 50 years of  Barbie's existence.  I purchased the deeply discounted black version during BarbieCollector.com's Dream Sale or whatever it was called that year.  Black Barbie's headshot is on the skirt of the dress, in the back.  I longed for a dress that pays homage to the first generation of dark-skinned friends of Barbie.

Tired of waiting for what would never become a manufactured reality, I made one version in July 2009, which Asha writes about in The Doll Blogs:  When Dolls Speak I Listen. Using a simple party dress and scanned images from Live Action Christie's booklet (1970), these were printed on T-shirt transfer paper and ironed onto the skirt of the party dress.  Adding images of Live Action Christie, Talking Brad, Talking Christie, Talking Julia, Twist Julia, and Twist Christie was a decent attempt at achieving the desired effect.  However, the knee-length party style dress was not exactly the dress style I wanted.  Soon after, I purchased a full-length bridal gown for Barbie (Asst. N8328 N7494) with plans to transfer the dolls' images onto it.

Ironing is not one of my favorite things to do.  So I needed an alternate method of applying the dolls' images onto the dress.  Avery's Clear Easy Peel Address Labels #18660 was the chosen alternative.  Finally (some two years later), I printed the images onto a label sheet and applied these to the gown. It did not take long for me to decide which doll would be perfect for the newly fashioned gown.

After scanning the doll room, I chose Princess of South Africa (POSA), who had already been redressed in a Barbie Fashion Avenue outfit some time ago. Her short curly hair and ebony complexion are perfect complements to the white bridal gown with or without the veil and bouquet.

With veil and bouquet

Without veil

Side panel

View from the other side

View from the back

POSA wants to know, "How do I look?"

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