Merry Christmas to
me! I recently acquired the beautiful
and oh so rare Midnight Color Magic Barbie doll. What a perfect way to start
this New Year’s Day blog!
 |
| Color Magic Barbie Dolls |
In 1966 Mattel released these highly sought after dolls, and they were only available for two short years.
The
#1150 Color Magic Barbie doll came in two hair colors, golden blonde or
midnight. Both came with changer
solution packets to change the hair color and swim-suit. The Golden blonde dolls hair would
change to Scarlet Flame, and the Midnight dolls hair changed to a Ruby Red hair
color.
The
doll was on a bend leg, non-twist body. The first issue of the Color Magic Barbie doll had the same markings as the 1964 Miss Barbie and the first issue 1965 American Girl Barbie doll. All three dolls had indented letter markings. The later versions of the American Girl and Color Magic's used raised letters in their mark. All these dolls were marked the same “©1958/Mattel, Inc./U.S. Patented U.S. Pat. Pend Made In Japan”.
 |
| Color Magic Barbies - Golden Blonde and Midnight |
In 1966
she was packaged in a hard plastic box which doubled as a closet. In 1967 the packaging changed to the standard
open faced cardboard box. The cardboard
boxes are very hard to find because most were thrown away, where the plastic
boxes were saved for play.
In
either the plastic or cardboard box, the doll was dressed in a diamond print
swim-suit with an attached turquoise satin ribbon which tied at the waist, a
wide diamond print head-band, plastic blue hair clip, turquoise open toe
heels, a wrist tag, color magic changer packages A and B, a dabber, hair
setting net, extra gross grain hair-ribbons, extra hair clips, and a fashion
booklet.
 |
| Cardboard box and hard plastic closet box |
In 1967
these dolls also had five unique fashions made just for them that were sold
separately. These clothes could change
colors using the same process that was used for the dolls swim-suit and hair. Apply the magic color solution "A" to the clothing or hair and magically you'd have a new color. Apply solution "B" to convert the clothing or hair to it's original color. Each fashion ensemble included a dabber, color magic changer A and B, and instructions. They were #1775 Stripes
Away, #1776 Smart Switch, #1777 Pretty Wild, #1778 Bloom Bursts, and #1779 Mix n’ Matchers.
 |
| Stripes Away, Smart Switch, Mix n' Matchers, Pretty Wild, Bloom Bursts, |
Besides
the fashions, there were three Gift Sets as well; In 1966 the #4040 Color Magic Fashion
Designer Set, #4041 Color Magic Fashion Fun, and a Sears exclusive #4043
Color Magic Doll & Costume Set. The
only one that came with a doll was the Sears exclusive set.
 |
| Color Magic Fashion Designer Set,Color Magic Doll & Costume Set and Color Magic Fashion Fun |
There were two additional sets that included the color changing solutions. #4039 Barbie's Color 'N Curl set which came with a fashion Queen molded head, and four wigs that could be styled and color changed. Included in the set was a battery-powered hairdryer, and other accessories for styling hair. #4038 Barbie's Color "n Curl Hair Fashion Fun Kit, was a smaller version of #4039 that came with only two wigs and without a hair-dryer.
 |
| #4039 Barbie's Color 'N Curl Set |
In
1965, before the doll was released, some of the fashion booklets pictured this
new doll wearing a floral swimsuit instead of the diamond print that she
debuted in. This is one of many misprints made in the Barbie World. You can see more of these bloopers on my web
site.
 |
| This swim-suit was never released |
I’m
still smiling about my new doll, and hope you can add one of these to your
Barbie collections as well.
