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The Evolution of the Barbie Dreamhouse

03182009barbie70s.jpg

We must confess- we had one. It was this one with the elevator from the 1970's. Over 50 years Barbie's home has gone from a cardboard studio to this one with a flat screen TV. And it's pinker than ever!

[Via: Ohdeedoh]

 
 

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Comments (20)

*sigh* I had a Barbie townhouse just like the one pictured. It makes me long for day of old.

posted by StudioStarter on March 19th 2009 at 3:07pm
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I had that townhouse! I also had a pink metallic corvette for her. It was hot!

posted by dnice on March 19th 2009 at 3:09pm
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I had a Big Jim and his Sport Camper...
...He was hot - his biceps even bulged!

posted by bepsf on March 19th 2009 at 3:19pm
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i had the one with the three different parts, big yellow front doors, flower boxes and i think the roof was sort of a terracotta color. a bratty kid from our church group broke the yellow doors off, so barbie had kind of a non-stop open house event going on. she had a groovy green & pink Panton-ish inspired sofa and chair set and a yellow fridge with food in it! it is still in my parents crawl space and it (along with barbie and all her friends) will be coming over to my house if my parents ever try to give it away. it was the best toy i ever got as a kid and i still have fond memories of it. im pretty sure i would still play with it even at the rip old age of 31.

posted by modkitten on March 19th 2009 at 3:29pm
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mine was a later version, much pinker. I totally pimped out with accessories from Jem and the Holograms. The waterbed that turned into a keyboard was the best piece. My cat later co-oped it for her own waterbed.

posted by Laurie on March 19th 2009 at 3:42pm
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Jem was a pretender to Barbie's thrown! "Truly outrageous" indeed.

posted by Lady J on March 19th 2009 at 3:45pm
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modkitten - we had the same one "1979" was a great year for the dream house. :-)

posted by creative*type on March 19th 2009 at 4:05pm
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Wow, I've never even seen that Barbie house! I had one of those small houses (actually, it might have just been a room) that folds up, but I don't think it was the dreamhouse; it was the Barbie on a budget house. I had to make my own dreamhouse- my bed was the second story. :)

And I've been in a house with an elevator, and I'd rather take the stairs- sooo slow!

posted by TrueTex on March 19th 2009 at 4:08pm
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my neighbor had that one. I remember Barbie tipping out of the elevator and getting her head stuck between levels. I had the pool, with the slide. I can't wait until my daughter is old enough, I will probably ask her to play with ME!

posted by Icanmakeit on March 19th 2009 at 4:17pm
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Wow is that what it really looks like? I too had the elevator model - but I recall it being much more elaborate.
Guess my imagination made it a palace!

posted by spinningscreen on March 19th 2009 at 4:26pm
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Oh my god.. I inherited that exact house from my sisters!!
I recognize that orange elevator....

posted by Alexis9 on March 19th 2009 at 4:27pm
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Lol, the elevator is because Barbie has problems with her knees... she can't move them. Ha ha ha.

I had a home made white mansion, tiled floors (faux of course lol), high ceilings, three floors with plenty of windows and a basement with no windows. it had everything including one of barbies "friends" dressed as a maid. Barbie had everything lol. Mostly though I didn't play with Barbie... I rearranged the dream house while Barbie sat by the piece of blue material that was the pool! :P

posted by venus_thames on March 19th 2009 at 4:34pm
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thank you for this post. it really brought me back and made me smile.

posted by boston_kyle on March 19th 2009 at 4:38pm
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I heard that it had to be redesigned once it was realized that wheelchair Barbie couldn't fit in the elevator.

posted by themonkrat on March 19th 2009 at 4:56pm
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I always envied my neighbors Barbie dream house....I had the Playmobile mansion. Now that I'm grown up (sorta) I realize my parents just had taste. :)

posted by Sengelke1 on March 19th 2009 at 5:24pm
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my best friend had a giant, hot pink barbie mansion (along with all of the other 'cool' toys). I always wanted to play with it when I was at her house, but she was tired of it. it was actually kind of hard to play with the dolls in there.

but I'm totally jealous of your playmobile mansion, sendelke1! I begged and begged my parents for it, but was told to just use my imagination...

posted by foodefafa on March 19th 2009 at 5:37pm
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As a child of the late 80s/early 90s I had the 1992 Barbie Fold N' Fun House, though it was so difficult to actually play with Barbie in there I just transformed my bedroom floor into a house with 'invisible' walls.

posted by bkk on March 19th 2009 at 8:03pm
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I had a vast array of furniture: full kitchen set, bath and shower, living room set, bedroom set, dining table, but no dream house. I made do with two shelves of the built-in bookcase in the family room. Oh, and I had two Barbie corvettes. Damn, I miss those toys.

posted by Erika in Seattle on March 19th 2009 at 8:29pm
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That frilly elevator is just so (wonderfully) early 70s like the decor (which reminds me of the New Zoo Revue where they had one of those elevators) - the later dream house was very Euro-American late 70s and lasted in style into the early 80s (very Cali or continental with those different siding directions). Ah, the golden era of toys.

posted by dn on March 20th 2009 at 9:17am
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