Barbie deBarbiefied (continuously updated)

I do like her hanging out on top of the machinery during a lunch break, or something.

This mailbox is an old Debarbiefication. A rough red paint layer as for a box that has been repainted several times

How pink it is! The "Barbie size" plastic play sets marketed under the "Gloria" brand offer excellent action figure furniture and accessory possibilities at a bargain price. The sets can usually be found on eBay; search for Gloria Play Set for an overview.

The gloriously gaudy Gloria brand plastic piano...
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... might benefit from a dash of rattle-can paint...
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... to better serve in a classically retro smoke-filled cocktail lounge setting
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The Gloria Dining Room and Fireplace play sets definitely need a bit of dulling down!
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Krylon and Rust-Oleum spray paint to the rescue:
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And then, of course, there's one of the best action figure play sets evaaar, the Gloria Happy Hour Play Set:

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This set is so cool it actually looks passable straight out of the box, pink plastic and all:

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The bar set is quite effective as-is if the images are processed as monochrome (black & white):
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But it starts to look even better with a bit of paint here and there to tone down the PIIINNNKKKK! Because, yeah, it's a Gloria set, so it's plenty pink.
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(Note the "textured" spray paint on the countertop to simulate a classier surface than plain white plastic.)
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If you wanna get all fancy, bust out the hot melt glue and resurface the cardboard facades of the bar and backbar:
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Online contacts tell me there are a variety of images on Pinterest and other websites featuring renovations and de-pinkifying of the Gloria Happy Hour Play Set.

Excellent work, Dave, beautiful examples on how much one could get out of these Barbie and Barbie-related sets. You've made all look realistic and that bar is unrecognizable (and infinitely better).

I love the piano! I've been looking into ways to get one for a diorama-sans-walls for my action figure, to compliment his baton and manuscripts and to have a place to pose him. This is such a creative idea, [and likely more affordable than certain alternatives,] I may have to take a leaf out of your book.

Through what means I will make it look more like this specific piano, kept in his composing hut, perhaps use clay to alter the shape of the legs, replace the chair, paint the grain on by hand after an initial coat.

helianthus wrote:I love the piano! I've been looking into ways to get one for a diorama-sans-walls for my action figure....

The Gloria piano is slightly undersized for a true full-size grand piano, but it's also cheap: usually around twenty bucks or so on US eBay, and for that price, close enough is good enough, at least for me.

Here are a couple more photos to give a better idea of the size as compared to 11-1/2 inch size action figures:

davidd wrote:

helianthus wrote:I love the piano! I've been looking into ways to get one for a diorama-sans-walls for my action figure....

The Gloria piano is slightly undersized for a true full-size grand piano, but it's also cheap: usually around twenty bucks or so on US eBay, and for that price, close enough is good enough, at least for me.

Here are a couple more photos to give a better idea of the size as compared to 11-1/2 inch size action figures:

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Ah, good to know - thanks so much for the additional reference photos.

Either way this may not render it inaccurate, it's not the one pictured, but another piano he had, which was of a smaller size, and had 6.5 octaves rather than the modern range of 7 (although the 7 octave range was common at the time, he could not afford a piano of that quality).

Perhaps I could model it off of that one, although the lighter color of this one is very characteristic and I quite like that.

(fun fact, he added strips of metal to the hammers of the keys around the lowest register to give it a weightier timbre, which, given the character of his orchestral and sole chamber work, makes a great deal of sense)

Great work on the scene, it's very atmospheric and homey in a way. Especially with the lights

helianthus wrote:

(fun fact, he added strips of metal to the hammers of the keys around the lowest register to give it a weightier timbre, which, given the character of his orchestral and sole chamber work, makes a great deal of sense)

I have heard stories of people who inserted metal thumb tacks in to the felt hammers of old upright pianos to give them a "tin pan alley" or "old west saloon" type sound.

Ah, I found a page about Mahler's pianos: https://mahlerfoundation.org/mahler/the-man/instruments/

It appears that, until he could afford a Bluthner, his earlier pianos were relatively small in size; smaller than the "concert grand" style of today. The toy-grade Gloria piano would not, then, look out of scale in a historical setting.

Very cool stuff Dave! The pink stuff has a lot of potential especially after a coat or two of pain and imagination! Top work.

These are looking quite... glorious! Makes me wanna buy all of them. (I shall not, since I tend to keep my displays pretty reduced and simple.)

I, too, am glad to see the extra images for reference.

Excellent work on all that stuff. That bar is gorgeous.

davidd wrote:How pink it is! The "Barbie size" plastic play sets marketed under the "Gloria" brand offer excellent action figure furniture and accessory possibilities at a bargain price. The sets can usually be found on eBay; search for Gloria Play Set for an overview.

The gloriously gaudy Gloria brand plastic piano...
.

... might benefit from a dash of rattle-can paint...
.

... to better serve in a classically retro smoke-filled cocktail lounge setting
.

The Gloria Dining Room and Fireplace play sets definitely need a bit of dulling down!
.

Krylon and Rust-Oleum spray paint to the rescue:
.

And then, of course, there's one of the best action figure play sets evaaar, the Gloria Happy Hour Play Set:

.

.

This set is so cool it actually looks passable straight out of the box, pink plastic and all:

.

The bar set is quite effective as-is if the images are processed as monochrome (black & white):
.

But it starts to look even better with a bit of paint here and there to tone down the PIIINNNKKKK! Because, yeah, it's a Gloria set, so it's plenty pink.
.

(Note the "textured" spray paint on the countertop to simulate a classier surface than plain white plastic.)
.

If you wanna get all fancy, bust out the hot melt glue and resurface the cardboard facades of the bar and backbar:
.

.
Online contacts tell me there are a variety of images on Pinterest and other websites featuring renovations and de-pinkifying of the Gloria Happy Hour Play Set.

That's next level.

Agree, that's some transformation you've done on the Barbie sets. Fantastic work!

Well... as it happens, I won't have access to my tiki bar diorama or to my smaller pub diorama during the approaching holiday season.

Rather than miss the upcoming One-Sixth Scale Holiday Pub Crawl ... errr, have you heard about that? Anyway, I turned to eBay for yet another Gloria Happy Hour Play Set:
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Some glue, some sticky-backed shelf paper, a few quick print-outs, and a splash of spray paint...

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... is enough to make a start on a small, quick, and good-enough-for-a-few-photos nightclub setting for the holiday festivities.

I hope.

So far it is still a work in progress.
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Here it is after adding some artificial foliage (Dollar Tree store - YAY!) and quickly stringing some neon EL wire after the string lights that I painstakingly built in to the bar stopped working.

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And a reminder: there's plenty of time (not really) for y'all to get your pubs, clubs, bars, taverns, and other social establishments in shape for the upcoming One-Sixth Scale Holiday Pub Crawl!

Thanks for the reminder about the pub crawl, I won't have time this year, but maybe next year if it happens again?

yours is shaping up really nicely!

Nice work! Those plants work really well. I've been thinking about making some as a backdrop for my shamans, but I might just look for some dried/plastic plants instead and see how they scale.

Very, very cool. Turned out great.

Oh nearly missed it. What a transformation! I think I've been in bars similar to this one in my life.

It works so well with your Explorer figures

Wow, now you're going to have multiple bars, all the more appropriate for bar hopping. Worked out beautifully. Well done!

Excellent work Dave!

Again that's one heck of a transformation! Excellent work.

Before deBarbiefication there was Barbiefication.

Behold this horrible example. At left the original Pedigree Hostess Trolley for Sindy in typical 1970s chocolate brown with a glass cover and finished with gold accents. Classy. At right the Hasbro Barbiefied 1980s version, all pink, no glass cover. The plastic must have warped as the trolley doesn't stand firmly on its 4 little wheels as the 1970s version does. Hasbro was trying so hard to copy the Barbie world that in the end they got sued by Mattel.

Those Barbie pieces are a real treasure grove! Aleays fun to see before after shots.