In addition to the Barbie playline Halloween toys, there have been a number of Kelly dolls and friends of Kelly themed around Halloween. And of course, this makes a lot of sense - many of the best traditions of Halloween are for children.
Happy Halloween Barbie & Kelly from 1997 shows Barbie taking Kelly trick or treating while Kelly is dressed as a pumpkin. I did in fact see a pumpkin costume for small humans today while out shopping so I can confirm this is a longstanding tradition.
Halloween Fun Barbie & Kelly in 1999 had Barbie and Kelly in matching leopard costumes, as well as apparently shadow puppets for the kids to play with.
This 1999 collection also contained a Li'l Friends of Kelly collection. My favourite of these costumes is Tommy in the bottom corner as a skeleton.
Kelly Merry Monsters was a Target exclusive series from 2009; Kelly herself was a pink-themed vampire.
Her friends Kayla and Miranda were Frankenstein's Monster and the Bride of Frankenstein which I think is an odd choice. These weren't particularly topical in 2009 to my knowledge, and I think it's an unusual choice for Mattel to put two children of the same gender in a matching couples costume.
Even after Kelly changed her name to Chelsea, there have been additional Halloween themed dolls in her doll line.
We see a great many similarities in costumes again - for example, in these two sets pictured above, there are two different variants on a ghost costume. I would be tempted to say it's a reused costume, but the ghost has a different expression on the otherwise very similar costume.
My favourite is the middle one here where she is a cute little bee!
from the official sylvanian families' twitter
"sunsets are a promise that every day can end beautifully."
Halloween is around the corner, the villagers are planning their decorations, creating their costumes, and preparing for their big holiday party
Barbie's "Commuter Set" is another look that seems to be lifted directly from a Vogue cover:
It's a perfect look for a girl going into the city for a day of shopping.
kjp on ig 🍂
In 2000 and 2001, Mattel paid homage to the designers working on the dolls themselves with a two-doll series (perhaps originally intended to be ongoing longer) called the Grand Entrance series.
The first of these is in a blue and white ballgown, with a collection of white roses adorning her hip.
The second was elaborately dolled up in shades of pink. Both were packaged with a "guide to collecting", in a bid to encourage would-be collectors to become full-time collectors.
Each of the doll credits the designer on the front of the box, and provides a brief blurb about the designer on the back, including a brief list of other Barbies that they worked on designing.
One of the reasons I suspect this series might have been intended to be ongoing and then wasn't is because of the designer they picked to showcase for the debut of this collection, Carter Bryant. Carter Bryant is not exactly a household name, but it may be recognisable to people "in the know" in the doll world.
On May 21, 2001, only a handful of months after Carter Bryant was showcased as the second designer after BillyBoy* (and the first designer who was a regular employee of Mattel rather than a collaborator) to be credited by name on a doll, MGA Entertainment released a doll that was to become one of Barbie's big competitors.
And why is it relevant when Bratz hit the market?
Yes, the same Carter Bryant.
This became the crux of the lawsuit Mattel v MGA Entertainment, as written about by Orly Lobel in her book You Don't Own Me: How Mattel V. MGA Entertainment Exposed Barbie's Dark Side, which I read not long ago and highly recommend.
I don't know for sure whether this was relevant to Mattel not continuing the collectors series showcasing their designers, but let's just say I wouldn't rule it out either.
Chess
Hey there Deililah
New doll diorama is up! I went with the Christmas morning theme again, complete with this year's Target sweater ornaments (they're too cute to be called ugly LOL). Plus this is a great way to display some of my mini toys - almost all of them are from Mini Brands! :D Lots of kids in here, so I'm saying some of the adults are in another part of the house LOL
Ryan got a new popper!
Someone is big into the OMG dolls :D
Nothing says Christmas morning quite like toys and wrapping paper scattered everywhere:
This little one is eager to show off her new toy to her mommy on the couch from her daddy's lap:
We have a Bratz fan!
Can't forget the Disney Princess dolls! We need mini Barbies like those and the Bratz... just saying ;)
Someone couldn't wait to play with his new car:
Toys galore:
Decorations:
The tree has real working lights in three different modes!
Happy holidays, everyone!
SHARING HAPPINESS IN THE WORLD OF TOYS, DOLLS, MINIATURES & HAPPY THINGS
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