Dressed Box Japanese Market Dolls

I recently acquired a fun little Barbie item, a Dressed Bubblecut Barbie exclusively from the Japanese Market.   

 

 

1965 Dressed Bubble Cut wearing Fashion Editor from Japanese Market 

 

 

These dolls are very difficult to identify, unless they are still in their original box.

The Japanese market dolls were packaged in normal western style clothing as well as a western style box, with only two additional stickers affixed to the box that the U.S. boxes did not include.   



Western Dressed Doll Box sold in Japan

 

 

The first sticker is found on the inside of the bottom box inside flap, where Barbie’s head would be positioned.  It is a white Tariff Stamp Sticker with black lettering. 

 

 

Tariff Stamp Sticker

 

 

Western Box without sticker and Japanese Market Box with Tariff Stamp Sticker

 

 

The 2^nd sticker is a KB sticker found on the top outside end flap of the box which also has the fashion number of the dressed doll.  

 

KB Sticker on end flap box

 

Also in the box was a fashion booklet and stand.  The earlier dolls included a 2-piece black metal stand with plastic base with the lettering “Barbie” written on it.  The later ones had a gold one-piece wire stand.

 

 

 

 

A Japanese fashion booklet was also included with these dolls.  And I believe others may have included a western booklet.

 

 

 

There are also rare boxes that had these western dolls in packages that were very similar, but the photographs on the box were Japanese faced dolls rather than Western faced dolls.

 

 

Box Variation

 

 

There is very little written about these dolls, and I’m still learning, but they are certainly something to look further in to, and even to acquire! 

Let me know if you have any more information you want to share!

 

Happy Hunting!

 

 

Barbie of the Month: P.B. Store Barbie

If you have never heard of a P.B. Store Barbie doll it’s because these dolls are extremely rare and a scarcity on the secondary market.

 

P.B. stands for Pretty Bunny, and the Pretty Bunny Stores were located in Tokyo Japan. They sold the P.B. Store Barbie Dolls who were exclusively made for the Japanese market from 1986-1988. There were a very limited number of these dolls sent to the United States to a few select specialty stores. The P.B. stores were only open for a year and a half; from July 1986 to February 1988. 

 

 

In 1986 after Mattel ended its licensing agreement with Takara Company (a company Mattel teamed up with in 1982 to develop a fashion doll for the Japanese market), they immediately entered into an agreement with Bandai Co. Ltd. (of Japan). They named their company Ma-Ba, which is the first two letters of each companies name. Bandai was founded in 1950 and is now the third largest toy manufacturer in the world. Mattel and Hasbro are numbers one and two.  Mr. Komyia, an employee of Bandai, came up with the idea of these reproduction dolls. He wanted them to have the same high quality standards as the early Barbie dolls.

 

P.B. Store Barbie Barbie Doll

The faces of the P.B. Store Barbie dolls were made using two of the vintage face molds from the 1960's. They were the 1961 face mold from the Ponytail Barbie and the face mold from the 1967 Twist 'n Turn Barbie. The 1961 face came with either a Bubble Cut or Ponytail hair style. The Twist 'n Turn face was available with a ponytail or straight hair. Both styles had blonde, red, black, or brown hair. The 1961 face mold only came with blue eyes. The 1967 face mold had a choice of brown, blue, or green eyes. Some of the dolls had rooted eye lashes as well.

 

Shown: Brown, Dark Brown and Blonde hair colors

The clothes were recreations of the early Barbie era (the 900 and 1600 series fashions). Many of the same patterns were used, such as Lunch on the Terrace, Brides Dream, and of course Barbie in Japan, who wore the traditional Kimono. The designs used different fabrics than those used in the 1960’s. Rather than designing special fabrics for these dolls, the designers went out and purchased small amounts of fabric that would be suitable and the correct scale for these high quality outfits. Most ensembles were one-of-a-kind designs that were produced in a limited supply of forty, and are highly desirable to collectors. There were also some prototypes available. Attention to detail was extremely important.

 



My pretty ladies dressed in Pink Evening, Kimono, Black Evening, and Wedding

Hair color and clothing marked on the end of each box

These Barbie dolls came in pink boxes with the Barbie logo written in the middle of it. Also included in the box were pink tissue paper and a pedestal Barbie stand similar to the original black pedestal Barbie stand. On the bottom of the stand it reads © ma-ba Corp. 1986 Made in Japan (Later stands have the 1988 date).

 

P.B. Store Pink Barbie Boxes

The Bottom side of the pedestal stand

Pink tissue inside the box along with her stand

 

Little or big girls had such fun creating the perfect doll. They could go into the store and place an order for their doll. They chose the face mold, hair style, and eye and hair color. They also picked out the ensemble of clothing they wanted on their doll. This could be done my mail-order as well.  

The dolls turned out not to be as popular as hoped. During that time period customers didn't want reproductions, they wanted the originals.

 

It’s fun having these unusual dolls in my collection!  Maybe you will too!

Happy Hunting!




Vistit my web site to see more dolls: www.MyVintageBarbies.com