Today someone was asking me about my blog and some moderately obscure parts of Barbie history so naturally, I talked about Barbie for a long time. But eventually, as a part of that, we got on to the subject of Barbie Bazaar.
Barbie Bazaar was a Barbie magazine for collectors, released between 1988 and 2006. It's a little tricky to find history about them, but according to a breakdown on the Mattel forums by a collector of the old magazines, the magazine was founded by a collector and an aspiring businesswoman who were connected by mutual friends and embarked on a project to provide a resource for adult doll collectors to share information about the doll. After some consideration, Mattel took on the magazine as a licensed property to avoid trademark issues, and the magazine became a hit.
Unfortunately, the tech boom and the increasing prevalence of fan sites rendered the magazine functionally obsolete by 2006. Nowadays, we use Mattel's own website, the social media presence of designers, and... blogs like this one, I guess, to share the same information.
The covers are fascinating to scroll through; many of them seem to be aping fashion magazines except with Barbie, and do the job very well. Others invite us to appreciate a Barbie tableau.
The Addams Family cover kills me because of the roses and Gomez's deep power stance... but absolutely no question, though, my favourite is this one.
What the hell is this. I love it.
