Barbie of the Month: Color Magic Barbie

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.

Happy New Year and Happy Hunting! 

Web Site: Color Magic Barbie Doll