Barbie deBarbiefied (continuously updated)

The contrast is much more obvious with the original Sindy who was a woman with a pre-teen body and an oversized baby-head.

My (limited) experience with painting Barbie-objects, is that the paint won't stick very well. It can easily be scratched off. What can be used for primer to make it stick? Because I'd like to deBarbiefy my(/Lexi's) gardenset a bit.



Not needing to be deBarbiefied is a livingroom set I found. It''s composed of several items of Sindy, I believe. Since it's from the 70s, the white plastic has gone a bit yellowish, so it could use  some repainting.

MyTravelGuide -- for shiny plastics like those barbie chairs, you definitely need to prep and prime it before painting since, as you say, the paint won't stick otherwise. I use Vallejo model acrylics, and they make a special primer that is meant to stick to both metal and plastic models and make acrylic paint adhere better. But first, even before applying the primer, I suggest wiping down the objects you want to paint with some alcohol (either antiseptic or cleaning type). Then, wash them thoroughly with liquid dish soap and water, and let them completely dry. A lot of plastic toy items have this sort of oily layer on top of the plastic, and that helps to remove some of it. Once it's ready, use that Vallejo acrylic primer on it. Let it fully dry/cure (needs about a day), and then you can paint on top of it with acrylics.

Nice sets, TravelGuide, I do think they have good potential. I was going to suggest the same thing as Sky, start by going over the plastic pieces with maybe some alcohol but especially liquid soap, which is designed to cut through grease and oil. It is the oily finish (from plastic molds, etc) that gets in the way. Ultimately, you could always scratch acrylic off, but applying it to a dry, well-cleaned plastic will go a long way to helping it stick in normal conditions. Maybe the special primer will help a lot too, I haven't used it. You could also apply their (still talking about Vallejo) glossy or matte (not so glossy but hardly matte) veneer as additional protection on top, provided that will be appropriate for the surface's look.

Cool topic, thanks for all the suggestions. I've usually stayed away from this stuff because it seems too... pink and dolly. But it appears to have a lot more potential with a little bit of effort.

ZombieTestSubject wrote:Cool topic, thanks for all the suggestions. I've usually stayed away from this stuff because it seems too... pink and dolly. But it appears to have a lot more potential with a little bit of effort.

That is exactly how I felt about it, until I needed a thing or two for this diorama or that, and realized it had the potential with a little work. I have not gotten too much Barbie stuff in a long while, but it is something to consider. Some lines of their clothing work well on TBLeague female bodies.

ZombieTestSubject wrote:Cool topic, thanks for all the suggestions. I've usually stayed away from this stuff because it seems too... pink and dolly. But it appears to have a lot more potential with a little bit of effort.

Pink and dolly ?

A new paint job and the cars wouldn’t be too bad.

Umm, nice ladies, but that's almost what I meant by too pink and dolly except I was visualizing some more naive toy garments. But the first and third car might look good with a paint job, like Stryker2011 said.

The funny thing is that in this case the rosy colour is realistic for this kind of clothing.

Also some "stars" insist of having their real cars painted in a "Barbie" livery.

For those looking for the cars :

Chevrolet Corvette lookalike by Lundby for Petra. Made somewhere between 1987 and 1990.
A Mattel beach buggy which actually is a Mini moke for Barbie.
Porsche 930T convertible, probably by Simba for Steffi Love.

Petra, Steffi Love (and Karina) are Barbie clones made for the German market. Petra and Karina are gone, Steffi is still sold as a cheaper alternative for Barbie.

ZombieTestSubject wrote:Umm, nice ladies, but that's almost what I meant by too pink and dolly except I was visualizing some more naive toy garments. But the first and third car might look good with a paint job, like Stryker2011 said.

Yes, I know what you mean. I have used the term "dolly" before, and am on record that there is only so much pink a guy can take. DarthJ does have a point about the pink nighties (etc.) -- although applied to our scale they do not help realism in my opinion -- and his tend to be a bit more realistic than some others, like you said. And while someone might choose to paint their car this color, I expect those would be a few quirky exceptions and another color scheme would help a lot. Except maybe for the beach buggy, which is beyond help -- or perhaps I lack imagination.

No pink at all. Made with bits of everything, including an Action Man lorry.

This lorry works great, and the outfits are the opposite of pink! Maybe a little oversized.

After all this pink let's have some green. Such as lime green blocks of  ... cheese ? Meat ? Soylent Green ?

Hmm... if they were yellow I'd say cheese.

Made from human remains you say? Sure I'll try a bite!

She's got a lovely dress.

TravelGuide wrote:She's got a lovely dress.

It's from China and won't be expensive but don't ask me which one it is.

Though if you want a dress with a little more "oomph" search for ZY5025, a black evening dress with stockings and panties. Costs about $18 to $20 from Chinese sellers.

I can't believe I find myself saying this, but I bought a Ken Doll! I had been hearing (and seeing) about the Barbie line coming up with more articulation, but this is pretty impressive. Double-jointed knees and elbows, great wrist and top-of-the-neck articulation, very good hips, an ab crunch (right under the chest), and pretty good ankles (they only pose in two directions but you can rotate the foot). If the cartoonish almost-Bieber-like head is your thing or if you figure out a good way of attaching another head on the body, this has plenty of kitbash potential, especially if you cover up the exposed joints. I'll let him show off for a moment:





But it was not, of course, Ken that I was interested in, it was his sweet ride:



It is difficult to find a decent wheelchair for a decent price in our hobby, as most are overly specific (Professor X, Game of Thrones) and certainly pricey. This one had potential. To be sure, it needed some repainting and sprucing up. Ideally, it would have had arm rests and especially handles for pushing. I didn't do the arm rests, but I did fashion handles with aluminium wires and electrical tape. The metallic color areas I covered with chrome Molotow acrylic marker, not worrying about perfect consistency, as I was hoping to make it a little lived-in. For the same reason, I dirtied up the green parts and the wheels a little bit with some Vallejo oily steel acrylic paint. I probably could have done a lot more, but didn't want to have it too messy.



The four wheels all work as expected (although ideally the little ones in the front should be able to turn around), the foot rest can be swung forward or backwards at a desired angle, and the little brakes for the big wheels can be rotated into on and off positions.

Here it is next to a higher-end custom figure, June from the neck stuffing tutorial.



And here it is in use...





Not too bad for something that costs less than $20 (USD) and a little bit of customizing. I forgot to mention (or illustrate) that wheelchair Ken also comes with a baby blue ramp to be used with the wheelchair.

More photos in the Neck Stuffing Tutorial thread, Post 21.

What do you think?

GubernatorFan wrote:I can't believe I find myself saying this, but I bought a Ken Doll! I had been hearing (and seeing) about the Barbie line coming up with more articulation, but this is pretty impressive. Double-jointed knees and elbows, great wrist and top-of-the-neck articulation, very good hips, an ab crunch (right under the chest), and pretty good ankles (they only pose in two directions but you can rotate the foot). If the cartoonish almost-Bieber-like head is your thing or if you figure out a good way of attaching another head on the body, this has plenty of kitbash potential, especially if you cover up the exposed joints. I'll let him show off for a moment: ...

It is difficult to find a decent wheelchair for a decent price in our hobby, as most are overly specific (Professor X, Game of Thrones) and certainly pricey. This one had potential. To be sure, it needed some repainting and sprucing up. Ideally, it would have had arm rests and especially handles for pushing. I didn't do the arm rests, but I did fashion handles with aluminium wires and electrical tape. The metallic color areas I covered with chrome Molotow acrylic marker, not worrying about perfect consistency, as I was hoping to make it a little lived-in. For the same reason, I dirtied up the green parts and the wheels a little bit with some Vallejo oily steel acrylic paint. I probably could have done a lot more, but didn't want to have it too messy.



The four wheels all work as expected (although ideally the little ones in the front should be able to turn around), the foot rest can be swung forward or backwards at a desired angle, and the little brakes for the big wheels can be rotated into on and off positions.

What do you think?

I've had this in hand in the store (before we went back to a complete shut-down of all "non-essential" sales) and I figured I would buy one eventually, probably waiting on the first Toys'r'Us "Barbies Go on Sale" after the shutdown lifts.  You took Ken through his paces in a way that answered my questions; well done and thanks.  

IMHO getting a Made-to-Move  Ken is a big deal for the actual Play-with-Barbies market but less significant to us in the "more serious" 1/6 world then when they created the Made-to-Move females.  The reason for this is that there are several mostly upscale Barbies that have nothing corresponding in the HT / DAM / etc. inventory but fill necessary gaps on the female side:  mostly Ancient Egyptian, Medieval and Renaissance.  Swapping them to M-t-M bodies was great.  The same is not true on the male side as I can't really think of anything that exists in a Ken version but not otherwise by a more "serious" manufacturer.  There would be a few outfits in supporting roles such as Pilots, Servers, Baristas but they started doing this thing where all the accessories and layers are just pictures printed on the fabric and for our purposes they don't look right at all.  GF you make me think though (heresy, I know) that in some cases if this M-t-M Ken body becomes more widely distributed, it might unapologetically be useful (concealed joints, swapped headswaps) as a cheap easy alternative on background characters.  Time to watch the thrift stores. And again there are going to be Ken outfits that fit on this now posable body where you couldn't previously put them on Power Team Elite or whatever.

The wheelchair here is much of an an improvement on the previous Barbie Wheelchairs (and the one Monster High gave their fish-man) which were previously the best cheap option.  Your improvements make it better still, especially the handles. But the "elephant in the room" remains that lime green plastic.  It would look quite different in any more sober colour with a matte texture, but it would probably be fragile as heck.  And I assume (going by previous Barbie Wheelchairs) that this one cannot be easily disassembled to facilitate that level of repainting?

Moonbase Alpha Male wrote:I've had this in hand in the store (before we went back to a complete shut-down of all "non-essential" sales) and I figured I would buy one eventually, probably waiting on the first Toys'r'Us "Barbies Go on Sale" after the shutdown lifts.  You took Ken through his paces in a way that answered my questions; well done and thanks.  

IMHO getting a Made-to-Move  Ken is a big deal for the actual Play-with-Barbies market but less significant to us in the "more serious" 1/6 world then when they created the Made-to-Move females.  The reason for this is that there are several mostly upscale Barbies that have nothing corresponding in the HT / DAM / etc. inventory but fill necessary gaps on the female side:  mostly Ancient Egyptian, Medieval and Renaissance.  Swapping them to M-t-M bodies was great.  The same is not true on the male side as I can't really think of anything that exists in a Ken version but not otherwise by a more "serious" manufacturer.  There would be a few outfits in supporting roles such as Pilots, Servers, Baristas but they started doing this thing where all the accessories and layers are just pictures printed on the fabric and for our purposes they don't look right at all.  GF you make me think though (heresy, I know) that in some cases if this M-t-M Ken body becomes more widely distributed, it might unapologetically be useful (concealed joints, swapped headswaps) as a cheap easy alternative on background characters.  Time to watch the thrift stores.  And again there are going to be Ken outfits that fit on this  now posable body where you couldn't previously put them on Power Team Elite or whatever.

The wheelchair here is much of an an improvement on the previous Barbie Wheelchairs (and the one Monster High gave their fish-man) which were previously the best cheap option.  Your improvements make it better still, especially the handles. But the "elephant in the room" remains that lime green plastic.  It would look quite different in any more sober colour with a matte texture, but it would probably be fragile as heck.  And I assume (going by previous Barbie Wheelchairs) that this one cannot be easily disassembled to facilitate that level of repainting?

Thank you for the detailed and insightful response on these different aspects of the set. I actually agree. If you need relatively cheap yet decently articulated characters that you will bash with suitably concealing clothes and accessories, these new (made-to-move) Kens will probably do nicely. Their slenderness would ease fitting into a range of outfits, and if it looks like the clothes are too big, they can always be stuffed a little with some padding.

I agree with you about the lime green plastic. If it had been pink or purple I would have done what I could to repaint it, but being green, decided to let it be. I actually saw examples of real (1:1) wheelchairs where those parts are painted in one color or another, when I was looking up the most basic handles (for pushing) design to model mine after. I confess I did not attempt to take the wheelchair apart before repainting and partial weathering (didn't want to break anything), but that would help, especially if one wanted to do a more thorough and even job of it. I'm glad you liked the improvements.

The MTM range are undoubtedly the best thing Mattel has done for Barbie in recent years, because god knows their overall quality has dropped outside of that line! The joints aren’t the most aesthetically pleasing, and I think they should have taken a look at Obitsu dolls to see how to make double joints that don’t stand out too much, but I digress!

The wheelchair is great, but I must point out something I wasn’t aware of when I posted on Instagram about customising mine with a different seat - this particular style is designed for folk who can control the chair themselves, hence the lack of handles, the rims on the wheels and the lower back to the seat. I had a few folk tell me that actually most wheelchair users really dislike ones with handles and they were really pleased to see a more practical and independent style depicted.

GubernatorFan wrote:Thank you for the detailed and insightful response on these different aspects of the set. I actually agree. If you need relatively cheap yet decently articulated characters that you will bash with suitably concealing clothes and accessories, these new (made-to-move) Kens will probably do nicely. Their slenderness would ease fitting into a range of outfits, and if it looks like the clothes are too big, they can always be stuffed a little with some padding.

I agree with you about the lime green plastic. If it had been pink or purple I would have done what I could to repaint it, but being green, decided to let it be. I actually saw examples of real (1:1) wheelchairs where those parts are painted in one color or another, when I was looking up the most basic handles (for pushing) design to model mine after. I confess I did not attempt to take the wheelchair apart before repainting and partial weathering (didn't want to break anything), but that would help, especially if one wanted to do a more thorough and even job of it. I'm glad you liked the improvements.

For the wheelchair alone, the other color choices are blue, red and pink but those come with female Barbies.  The first M-t-M Barbies with wheelchairs were blue and gave a choice of a blonde Barbie or an interesting Afro-American with hairbuns.  As you know from the back of your box this present wave has two more, the interesting one being a Barbie Afro-American with crimped hair and a red wheelchair.

Since moments ago I've been kind of rethinking the usefuleness to me of a fully posable Ken body since I'd forgotten to take into account various Barbie "Famous Couples" sets that I own, where actually it would be great to have a non-shampoo bottle posable version of the male outfits of Arabian Nights Sultan, Romeo (of Shakespeare), Merlin, King Aragorn and Frank Sinatra.  Gone with the Wind Rhett Butler, too.  And I haven't used him much since QMX, but I suppose Barbie Captain Kirk could be rescued also.

Lynkhart wrote:The MTM range are undoubtedly the best thing Mattel has done for Barbie in recent years, because god knows their overall quality has dropped outside of that line! The joints aren’t the most aesthetically pleasing, and I think they should have taken a look at Obitsu dolls to see how to make double joints that don’t stand out too much, but I digress!

The wheelchair is great, but I must point out something I wasn’t aware of when I posted on Instagram about customising mine with a different seat - this particular style is designed for folk who can control the chair themselves, hence the lack of handles, the rims on the wheels and the lower back to the seat. I had a few folk tell me that actually most wheelchair users really dislike ones with handles and they were really pleased to see a more practical and independent style depicted.

Thank you for the info. Good to know they are in fact based on reality. When I did my little bit of research before customizing, I saw plenty without arm rests, but none without the handles for pushing in the back, which is why I fashioned those. In fact, there are plenty of supplementary handles for pushing that one could add on for greater convenience (the standard ones apparently being too low), often resulting in two sets. But anyway, I can see how someone capable of self-sufficient operation might not need either. (I suppose Mattel could have provided handles one could plug in or take out.)

Part of the history here is that the guy who did Lammily the realistic bodyshape doll started pushing for a realistic chair, pointing out that Barbie hadn't done one since 1997, and doing his own wheelchair on Kickstarter (don't know how far that got): https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/teleplay/bring-back-the-wheelchair . Mattel evidently was listening.

That's quite a lot of sets, MBAM. Yes, these bodies would be useful. Thanks for the backstory/history of the wheelchair.

The Lammily wheelchair is actually for sale :

https://lammily.com/product/lammily-wheelchair-first-edition/#

At $19 + shipping costs + sales tax for USA citizens.

Overseas will be another story, for example to Belgium (and other EU countries) :

$19

+ $25.95 shipping (a normal cost)
-------------------
$44.95 subtotal

+ $ 9.44 VAT 21% (in Euro) on subtotal
+ $28.56 (actually 24 Euro) handling charge.
-----------------------------------------------------------
$$$ 82.95 $$$

If you don't know it yet, the waiver exempting goods up to 22 Euro from VAT and handling charge is gone forever.

Of course I didn't buy the wheelchair. If only Lammily had a EU seller.

Great work, GF! Glad you have discovered the fun of the Made-to-Move line! Agree with Lynkhart that it is definitely one of the better things that they have done in ages. Though I also agree with MBAM that the printed layer clothing they do for a lot of those figures is really annoying.

The green is a bit bright but not too terrible. I think it kinda fits for Andy to have a slightly garish looking colour on his wheelchair, lol. ;p