thebzine 2010 03 eng

This publication is not associated with Mattel Inc.

From the Gallery

Photo: Siáma

Photo: Täti Monika

Photo: Sebbie Girls knitwear: Tuike

theBdoll eZine 3/2010 3

During the month, I’ve worked hard to get the bilingual functions of the site working more neatly than it has done so far. Even though we’re having a blast amongst just us Finns, a lot of the areas on the site would be quite useful internationally, so I find it important to coax a bit more English speaking collectors to play with us.

As I’m writing this, the translation work is in pretty good nick, at least in the English stand point. A few more wrinkles to iron out on the Finnish side of things!

There’s a lot happening behind the scenes. We are working with two different top secret teams at the moment in different projects to bring some exciting new things for the site. In both cases it is a question of a competition, in which the prizes come from completely different sort of accomplishments. The prizes we’re working on will be such that it will make your knees weaken! I can hardly wait to tell you what we’ve been planning, but one thing is for sure: It’s mighty exciting!

In addition to that, I am working on a new area for the Bdoll. As far as I know, such service is non-existent for Barbie-collectors, but would be fantastic if it would work as I’m visioning it. I will keep this to myself as well for now, but hopefully next month I will be able to fill you in on some of the details.

This month’s news are kind of mysterious, but I want to let you know that there are things happening in the background even though the site has been looking like a complete mess lately! On the other hand, when the site is the biggest mess, it’s the best sign that the admin is busy working on a lot of mistakes! I’m glad to say that so far the mistakes have been fixed sooner than later... *Taking another backup copy* and all I can say: Let’s keep on going!

Have to share a story. My mother sent me a book about my home village history, and it included a story of a carpenter that was well known for his funny repartee. His neighbour had come up with a business plan that required the help of the carpenter, and he went in to ask him if he had ever built coffins. The carpenter replied: “No, no I haven’t, just fixed up some of the used ones.” I personally have gone through a lot of flea markets, but that’s one fixerupperer I haven’t come across to before!

Hey, have a great International Women’s day on the 27th of March!

Sebbie

Greetings!

The cover photo: Felicity Green

4 This publication is not associated with Mattel Inc.

Sebastyne: KiteCat, for once we get to interview you—normally we get to read your interviews of dolls. Scared? Kitecat: Maybe a little. I haven’t been interviewed about my dolls since 1999, when I gave one for Koululainen (The School Kid). I’m a bit nervous as I tend to be such a blabber, that I don’t know if there’s enough room in the paper for all of it! *laughs* Sebastyne: I’m sure there’ll be room and if not we’ll make room! I personally enjoy

blabbing interviewees, as it’s always easier to make a long story short than a short story long. Let’s start; How did you start collecting? Kitecat: We have to go back to my late teen years, when I was thinking of selling my Barbie dolls as I was Such A Big Girl then that I didn’t need them anymore. My big sister didn’t let me sell them, but told me to save them for the future. In 1995 I moved out from my parents and then my sister suggested that I could

KiteCat, in the real life Kati from Oulu, Finland, is responsible for the gossip

column of our eZine. She got her position uncontested by writing stories of the

plastic world’s Paris Hiltons, reality shows’ interesting personalities, and scandals

that can’t handle the light (which KiteCat will drag right into the Sun light without

mercy—be very afraid Lilah!) The life of a gossip columnist and a paparazzi can

be dangerous, so it wasn’t surprising KiteCat hesitated publishing her photo, but

agreed when her friend Heli said we could use the photo taken at her house

warming party.


display my dolls as decorations. The studio apartment I lived in was incredibly small, but in 1996 when I moved in together with my now husband I fixed up my old Barbie doll house and put my Barbies in it. I noticed my accessories were very limited so I updated the house resulting into the current situation that the stuff barely fits in the room that is specially reserved for Barbies! I bought my first adult age doll in 1995 at a Kiosk, because she was so pretty and inexpensive.

Sebastyne: How long have you been collecting, knowingly? Kitecat: Since 1996

Sebastyne: What was your very first Barbie (as a kid)? Kitecat: Western Barbie. I still have her. Sebastyne: Tell us some childhood Barbie memory. Kitecat: I had the most imaginative games with my cousin. She lived in the Southern Finland, and we only saw each other during the holidays, but we carried on our games from where we left off the last time. Once we decided to play in the family garage. We carried heaps of stuff into the garage (which wasn’t used for car storage) and built doll houses on the floor using books as walls. I remember screaming out loud when we were told we couldn’t sleep in the garage! *laughs* The garage actually reeked of, well, garage, so it wasn’t really the best place for kids to play in... Sebastyne: Those were the days when kids weren’t protected of every possible danger...

Sebastyne: Can you think of some funny incident as a collector? Kitecat: I have to give this a bit of thought... I think the funniest thing that happens is how the dolls have come to life during the Big Barbie house –photo story. That’s pretty boring but the only thing I can think of right now.

Sebastyne: What other hobbies and interests do you have? Kitecat: Crafts, movies, CSI-series, (Horatio in Miami is quite hot!!!) Cats, web surfing, and I should start swimming again. Oh and flea markets and Huuto.net-sales. (Huuto.net is equivalent to eBay in Finland.) Sebastyne: Will we see a Barbie version of CSI one day? If we did, who would play Horatio? Kitecat: I doubt it very much. It would take an incredible amount of accessories. I have my own version of Horatio here, my

own OOAK David Caruso. I’ll show you pictures sometime on theBdoll.

Sebastyne: What makes you hang out on theBdoll? Kitecat: For the longest time I was a very lonely collector. I didn’t know other collectors and I had nobody to share the hobby with. Vivi told me about theBdoll and it is the most amazing feeling to discuss and share about the hobby we all love so much. In addition the people on theBdoll are so fantastic, we get to share our happy stuff and the sad stuff alike in life in general as well as in collecting. Sebastyne: We know you do other stuff as well in addition to gossiping—you customize a bit and photograph—what other things do you do with Barbie?Kitecat: Do I ever! *laughs* I love decorating my Barbie house, and I’m always on the lookout for stuff that could fit in it. Have made some of the furniture and stuff in it by hand. I also love rerooting! I have tried repainting, but I’m not very good at it. I’ve made a couple of good repaints, but I lack patience. *grins* I make some clothes as well, but that too takes the kind of patience I don’t have. I’m fairly impulsive, and can’t stay focussed on one thing for too long. Sebastyne: I’m like that as well, I nearly fainted when I heard how much time some of our girls spend on repainting a doll. I thought that explains why my dolls faces are average at best!

Sebastyne: You have attended the meet up in Lahti at least, and you’re going to join the girls in Seinäjoki. Tell us a bit about your experiences and what you’re looking forward of Seinäjoki. Kitecat: The Lahti meet up was unbelievable experience! It was fabulous getting finding faces for the nicknames and fantastic personalities for the faces. I am so looking forward to the next meet up! The over-night cabin is getting filled with such a wonderful mixture of people that we’ll have a night we’ll never forget. I wonder if anyone is getting any sleep at all. I also went to Germany last spring with three collectors, 2 of which I hadn’t even met before, and had only met the third one twice. It was the best company ever! These meet ups are the best way to meet other collectors, and you’ll feel ”normal” even though you’re gone bonkers over some plastic figures. Sebastyne: What would you say to those of us who are hesitating to take part in the meet ups?

Kitecat: Please do come along! The people are fantastic, and even the shyest will be welcomed with open arms. Nobody will be left alone I promise! Everyone can be just as shy or brave as they like everyone will be taken as they are. I’m not one of the shy myself and I still was a bit scared to go, but the warmth I experienced and was welcomed made all my hesitations go away.

Sebastyne: Tell us more about Heli’s bachelorette party (scheduled for the night of the meet up). How are you invited even though Heli must know the photos will end up publicised through you? Kitecat: Heli doesn’t know about her party of course. They are going to go look for a wedding dress in Seinäjoki with Suvi and possibly her cousin. The party will be a complete surprise for her. Hopefully a lot of dollettes will take part and Heli gets to meet more new friends. Sebastyne: Heli was one of the Big Barbie - house mates, so it must mean you displayed them in an honest light as you’re still welcome to Heli’s and Leo’s house, like their house warming party. How did you make friends? Kitecat: To start with, Heli was nothing to me but a pretty High School Musical doll. In Big Barbie, she got a personality that was scaringly real! Heli is my first doll-friend. When she first joined the house, she was very critical of herself, like I am of myself. There is a lot of commonalities in our personalities, and everything came by an accident, like for the other housemates as well. It feels like the dolls were actually talking to me (scary!!!). Heli and Leo are very emphatic, and Suvi has gotten a lot more depth through her friendship with Heli. At the same time as they’ve gotten more depth, they have also become more demanding. I might be looking at some doll clothes at a super market and think ”oh Heli would like that one.” EEK! Sebastyne: Isn’t it amazing when that happens? I am the same way with my Alex, I see something Alex would want, and what Alex wants Alex gets. It gets even crazier when people start buying gifts for your dolls because they think your dolls would like them! :D

Sebastyne: Thank you KiteCat for the interview and for joining our news team without putting up a fight! I love your gossip tremendously, and making the layout for them is my favourite part of making this eZine!

Heli and Leo redecorating


“ From the Board in Aurora’s story: (The jealous Scarlett beats up Heath and makes Feline, who is competing over his attention worried:) Faline: "Is he still alive? Because if he’s not, I’m not sure if I want him anymore." February 22, 2010

Nerd-Barbie If you’ve been following Twitter this month, you haven’t been able to avoid Barbie. The nerds are ecstatic, and that’s no wonder either. The voting campaign launched on Twitter carried results and Barbie has chosen a career reserved for brainiacks: computer engineering. It is crazy what a massive response the doll has gotten. The Barbie is hoped to inspire girls to select computing careers as professions when they grow up—because Barbie has. Certainly, as we are talking about intellectuals here, realistic doubt has been raised. The bloggers don’t think the doll has such a massive effect on girls that they would leave traditional girly careers to join classes with anti-social awkward teen age boys with a bad personal hygiene. I happen to agree—I did-n’t become an astronaut any more than a super model, even though those occupations were presented in the dolls of our childhood plays. It has to be noted though, that the nerd Barbie represents a lot of parents of these kids, be it the mom or the dad. It cannot go without effecting the child’s self-esteem and pride of their parent regardless their future choice of career. One thing is for certain—Mattel made the best move ever with this doll. The News Anchor released together with the Computer Engineer has been cruelly over shadowed by the gorgeous nerd, and she’s generally mentioned in some side sentence together with our engi-nerd. Even Mattel couldn’t have bought this publicity, as most texts come from bloggers and twitterers. By the way, the binary code on Barbie’s shirt repeats the word ”Barbie” over and over. Could she possibly be any cuter?! To me this doll is an absolute must have as soon as she is available, and she’ll be put on an honorary position on my computer table. - Sebastyne

Our Milli GroMilli is a 24-year old from

Lappeenranta and the

Woolling– editor of

theBzine. She makes sure

none of us makes it out of

the Barbie stores easy. If

you can resist the Woolling

column, you can resist

anything! On the forum

Milli is a veteran who has

been with us since the

dawn of times, when

theBdoll was still known as

BarbieScale.


owls and Purrs Sebastyne: Greetings Milli, how wonderful we get to chat with you for a while! Let’s start with some warm up questions. ;) How did you start collecting? Milli: I’ve always kept an eye on Barbie-stuff, first as a child, then through my 8 years younger sister. My collecting started with a full throttle when I found theBdoll.com, (then BarbieScale) and I saw a picture of Sebbie’s (your ;) ) Raider Ken. I was stunned to find something so gorgeous! First I had to find out about what’s been happening in the Barbie world. The first dolls I bought were Silkies and flea market –finds, even though now I collect something completely different. Sebastyne: What is it that you collect now? Milli: Now I collect modern (2000’s) collectible and playline dolls and customize them as much as my limited skills allow me. Sebastyne: How long have you been collecting for? Milli: My dad buys me a Barbie every Christmas, he has done so for ten years. The gesture is lovely, but the sibling rivalry drama behind it is not as much! :D Maybe since the first time my dad bought me a collector doll? The official answer is for two years, but I’ve always been a Barbie collector in my heart. Sebastyne: What was your first childhood Barbie like? Milli: The very first ones were the late 80’s and early 90’s dolls, basic Barbies in pink frilly skirts and bathing suits. I have some of them left, but not in very good condition. I had the ”foam Barbie” and she also had the separately sold foams. Sebastyne: Tell us some childhood Barbie-memory. Milli: My friend brought some Barbie’s hair gel with her to our summer camping trip, we believed it would work as mosquito repellent. :D I also remember that I had the best time playing alone, normally my dolls had a Ballet Shop. The trouble was that I only had one pair of ballet-shoes, I have been working on that deficit now as an adult. I recreated a lot of scenes from the

books I read. Sebastyne: Your Ballet shop must have had a frequent reordering schedule given the amounts of shoes they had to sell! Can you remember anything funny that happened as a collector? Milli: Not of the top of my hat... I think the funniest thing must have been the expression on my face when I saw Vivi’s collection for the first time! It was the first real, big Barbie collection I’ve seen, and I, a constant babbler went completely silent. It was the coolest thing I’d ever seen. Sebastyne: Do you have other interests or hobbies besides Barbie? Milli: Currently, my time is consumed by my studies for the biggest part. I read a lot though, especially the kind of silly romantic stuff, I collect old Harlequin-novels from the early 80’s. I jog a bit. I hang out online a log and play computer games. (I sound like the new nerd Barbie...) Sebastyne: Oh, romance! That’s a bit of a surprise! On the forum you’ve become famous of your Naughty Barbie –productions, which are not exactly romantic, but which the rest of us lap up as soon as they’re up! Sebastyne: There are two constantly updated threads on the (Finnish) discussion board that are both named after you; Why is Milli Growling and Why is Milli Purring. Can you remember how they got started? Milli: Somebody started, I think it was Nina, ”Why is Milli Growling”-thread when I had changed my nickname from Milli to Milli Mur (growl) because I was agitated by something that happened on the board. The thread was supposed to be a place to vent out their growls when needed. I get often hissy about stuff that happens online and if I would write everything I get hissy about I’d probably be banned. :D Luckily I can restrain myself. The funny thing is that the more something makes me angry one day, the next day I might be completely in love with it, and with theBdoll, that fits perfectly. I think the other thread came up as a


natural follow up to the growls. Sebastyne: I think that having your name on a discussion topic must be pretty much as high of a compliment as having a street named after you, am I right? Milli: It did make me feel good! I was very much a newbie, I thought, (although the group was a lot smaller) and I was kind of looking for my place amongst others and wondering if I even belong there as everyone else had such fancy collections and a lot of knowledge and courage to collect toys! I was so taken by it! I felt accepted. I wish everyone had that feeling on theBdoll, but as I’m not very good at spreading good vibes I’ll just leave that task to Adalia! I’ll just keep growling. Sebastyne: I think it’s quite common for new collectors to doubt their place amongst others—I felt the same on the BarbieCollector.com fan club board, when I had just a couple of flea market finds and the Raider Gift Set in the mail. (The official fan club that at that time had an open discussion board that didn’t require membership.) Everyone there had such fantastic collections... But I believe, at the end of the day, that new collectors are welcomed with open arms just out of sheer excitement they’re interested! I know that’s the case on our site. Sebastyne: You are the Woolling-columnist on theBzine, so you’re pretty much in the loop of Barbie fashions. How is it otherwise, are you a fashion guru? Milli: I do follow a couple of fashion blogs on a daily basis and like to dress dolls, but as far as I’m concerned, I am more likely to pick sweat pants and army boots. :D I like comfortable clothes, even though sometimes it’s nice to dress beautifully and put on makeup and accessories. If I was more active in fashion, I’d like the 50’s style

with gloves and petticoats. Sebastyne: Oh yes, I agree. I think I heard somewhere that the 30’s to 50’s was coming back into fashion.. But then again, when have people really dressed according to fashion—like for real. *Checking out her own wide jeans that are out of fashion without question.* Sebastyne: Oh, one more thing, do you have a favourite doll, and if so, who is she, and why? Milli: Normally my favourite is the latest addition to the collection, which at this time is a Bond-girl head on a Fashionistas-body. All of them are important to us, I try to keep out the ones that don’t appeal to me anymore—I’m sure all collectors know the difficulty of not having enough room. Sebastyne: Quite certainly we do, and I know that the Fashionistas-body hasn’t gone unnoticed from any of us. My own girl favourite of the moment is a Fashionistas+Monte Carlo hybrid, so we’re very much on the same page there! Thank you so much for the chat, even though we’ve known each other for a long time online, I still learned a lot of new things! Milli is woolling us on the next page.

Barbie-news Mattel is publishing three One Of A Kind -dolls: The author J.K. Rowling, known for her Harry Potter –series is made eternal in the form of Barbie. Tennis star Kim Clijsters and the Swedish Grown Princess Victoria get their dolls too. The last mentioned is going to be a wedding gift for the princess herself, and won’t be put for sale. Barbie has gotten two new careers. The little girls think she is perfect for a news anchor, but the adults decided she must be a computer engineer. These are her occupations number 125 and 126. The dolls are available for a pre-order on Mattel.com; hopefully we’ll get them to our local stores as well. More about the Computer Engineer Barbie on the page 7 Adalia


In February

Barbie Basics-series just keeps on going. Now we even got them to Finland, in vinyl, on the store shelves, and that created a buzz! I believe that the availability of the dolls at the moment is 0, as the word trav-elled so fast. Would there be any hope to get the collector dolls back on toy store shelves? Who would be the brave one to contact a in buyer? Should we collect a list of names? One would assume free market-ing like this would be tempting. The new photos of the Basics series se-quel caused some squeals of delight. The big shoe box enchanted nearly everyone, over ten pairs of pink and black lovelies! But is it possible that the series has de-veloped too fast? The attraction of sim-plicity can be lost a bit, even though the dolls and accessories seem glorious. The Woollies have now been offered some male company as well. The long-awaited Harley Davidson Gift Set is still elusive, even though the incredible world wide web has offered some photos of the new jointing of the doll. Twistable wrists and ankles are tempting with all the pos-sibilities despite the high price and changed looks. The first promo photos often promise one thing and give an-other, a lesson often learned through ex-perience. Of course, sometimes the sur-prises are pleasant. The Woolling points of the month are taken home by Hilja on the basis of the New Dolls thread with her new photos of an fairly old release Kate Spade Barbie. The Woolling points, also known as Crook points are a great honour, so congratula-tions to Hilja of her great buy (and sorry for the rest of you for having to pull up to dough for the doll). What will we be dreaming about in March? The spring Sun is already peaking

on the Northern side of the hemisphere and is threatening to reveal the dust on our fabulous collections. What will be the story from the meet up in March? There’s bound to be some woolling points to go around as live dolls are even more dangerous than photos of them. Who will take the cake? - Milli

Verb: to get woolled (a new expression that we decided should also exist in English). Definition: getting overly excited and urged to buy something another person has, based on their photos or description of the item. ”I need, I want, I lack”. See: to wool

We get woolled:


Elphaba World Traveller

Elphaba, Elphie to her friends, is a Barbie-doll that won’t be easily forgotten. The green skin is hard to ignore: Elphie is grosely beautiful. Elphaba was the Wicked Witch of the West Barbie. There’s no shortage of travel mates when a witch leaves her broom in the closet and decides to fly planes instead—the seats are so much more comfy than a broom stick on a long haul—and when you fit into someone else’s suit case the travel expenses won’t break your budget.

As Elphie lives in Hobart, TAS, Australia, she really needed to go see Sydney for once in her life. She took the trip with her sister, who, judging by the look on her face, didn’t enjoy travelling nearly as much as Elphie dos. They were guided by a young lady named Jennifer, another Hobartian. The building in the background is familiar with everyone, I presume? It’s some sort of an opera house. Pretty nice.

Still in Sydney, they found some suspicious looking characters. Elphie’s sister is SO NOT finding any of this amusing. Do make a note of Elphie’s T-Shirt from Sydney Olympics!


Sydney’s famous amusement park entrance. Elphie was insisting they’d go and stand in front of the en-trance for a photo now that they were in Sydney, even though nobody was really up to the rides.

Here’s another building that you are quite likely to recognise. The Colosseum is a must see for everyone travelling to Roma, such as Elphie. Her guide this time was a lady named Felicity, who took all the photos in Rome and Lon-don. The symbols of the Roman empire are found elsewhere other than just in Paris, for example, in Rome.

Elphie got to go to London on the same trip! (Makes you wish you were 20 cm tall too, doesn’t it?)


Queen Victoria Memorial

So that the reality wouldn’t be forgotten, let’s go back to the home land. Here are Alex and Elphie—good friends—posing in front of the Melbourne railway station. I want to make a note that all photos are genuine and they haven’t been photoshopped. Elphie travels around the world with her owners friends’ when the opportunity comes. Elphie is currently visiting the USA. She promised more photos upon her return.

We all have just one ques-tion: “Was the Queen home?”

Are you an ELPHIE FAN:

Address: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Elphaba-World-Traveller/62452774970 Or search: Elphaba World Traveller (You can also find Elphies page amongst the Bdoll page favorites.)

theBdoll eZine 3/2010 17 From Aurora’s photo series ”Grudge”


The ezine was cleverly renamed by Rachel,

who receives the prize points and

our congratulations and our thanks!

Next Issue To send material to theBdoll Newsletter, please do the following: For articles: Send in email body, no formatting is required but can be helpful. There are no length restrictions; the newsletter is in e-form so it will be made to fit the content, not the other way around. I might edit the articles in order to streamline them a bit though. For photos: Send the original size file, if editing is needed (for cartoon-bubbles for example) please do that before resizing the photo for the web, and send the bigger version of the photo. I may do some additional editing to get the photo colours balanced and the like. If you are confident that your editing is spot on, please let me know and I won’t touch it! To become a team member: Send me your idea for your column, pages or whatever you want to call them in an email or as a private message through our forum. Contact: [email protected] Deadline: Tuesday 30.3.

News: Did you find a news article about Mattel or Barbie? Let Adalia know. Gossip: What are your dolls up to when the lights go out (or the cameras are flashing)? Tell KiteCat! (Great opportunity for people with poor cameras. The worse the photo, the better it works with Gossips! Off the forum: Did you read something funny or poignant on the forum? Let Sebastyne know. Introductions: Has one of the members tweaked your interest so that you’d like to learn more about them? PM Sebastyne. Gallery: Did you find an unusually fabulous photo on the Gallery? Send the link to Sebastyne. (Shown below the photo, not on address bar.)

thebzine 2010 03 eng

Documents

i havent

short story

im writing

lot of mistakes

im glad

im sure therell

sima photo

gallery photo