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Ruth Handler (creator of barbie) saw the adult doll, BUILD LILLI on a trip to Europe. This inspired her to create a child friendly doll.
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Ruth Handlers daughter "Barbara" inspired Ruth Handler further, when she saw her playing with paper dolls. She mentioned the idea of a child friendly doll to her father who was the creator of the toy company "Mattel"
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Ruth Handler introduced Barbie to the world at the first international toy fair.
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The 1st Barbie ever made wore a plain black and white zebra outfit.
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During the first year of production Barbie managed to sell 350,000 dolls.
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The Ken Doll was introduced for the first time. His full name was Ken Carson
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There was a book called "How to lose weight" featured with one of the barbies. This created a lot of contrevorsy. The advice was to not eat.
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Barbie bought the rights to their biggest competition,Build Lilli. This elliminiated their compeition.
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A barbie set was introduced with a weight scale that was set at 49 kilograms.
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Coloured Francie, the first black barbie, made her debut. She was the first African-American barbie. They didn't alter any of her features, rather they just painted her black.
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A section of Time Square was dedicated to Barbie for a week. It was called Barbie Boulevard.
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Mattel and Nabosko joined together to lauch a cross promotion of their products. "Oreo" Fun barbie was a barbie that came with oreos. It was a barbie that girls could play with whilst eating oreos.
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Mattel also made a Oreo Fun Barbie that was black. The black community thought this was racist as it meant that the oreo was black on the outside and white on the inside. After this backlash the doll was deemed unsuccefful and they were recalled. They are now considered collectors item.
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The first talking barbie was introudced in 1992. She stirred alot of contreversy as her phrases included "Math class is tough" and "Will we ever have enough clothes?". People thought it was a bad depiction of women and what they stand for. Later in that year Mattel announced they would take the phrase "Math class is tough" out.
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Media claimed that the hard vineal in vintage dolls could lead to toxic chemicals causing danger in childrens. The claim was later rejected by technical experts.
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Saudia Arabia made Barbie illegal as she didnt conform to the ideas of Islam. Her clothes were too revealing, she had a shameful posture, and her accessories were dectant.
In the middle east there is a Barbie alternative called "Fulla". She is of similar look to Barbie but she is more accepted. It should be noted that she is not made by Mattel. -
In 2004 Mattel announced that Ken and Barbie had broken up.
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During Ken and Barbies 2004 split, Blaine was introduced. Blaine was Barbies Aussie surfer lover.
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After Ken had a makeover Mattel was hoping for a reconciliation between Barbie and Ken.
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Andy Warhol celebrated Barbies 50th birthday by having a Mercdes Benz fashion show at fashion week.
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The Totally Tattoos barbie included the barbie having a lower back tatooo. Controversy arose as parents believed that the tattoo on barbie would influence children to get tattoos.
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Barbie Video Girl was released in 2010 by Mattel. Video girl had a camera just above her chesy. Barbie Video Girl could take up to 30 minutes of recording and then would be put on the computer via USB.
