Just when we thought Barbie couldn’t look any stranger than Kissing Barbie, along came Western Barbie of 1980/1. Using a variation of the Terminator-like inner skull arrangement that Kissing Barbie has (see here), this doll’s gimmick is a winking eye. And like Kissing Barbie, this girl tends to polarise collectors, some love her, while others find her completely fugly. In fact, even some who love her still find her a wee bit fugly.
I’d pretty much stopped buying Barbie dolls by the time this doll hit the shelves, and I don’t even remember seeing her back then. Of course, once I began collecting I became aware of her but she was never on my dolly wish list, partly because of her bizarre appearance and partly because, back then, I didn’t really think many 80’s dolls were worthy of collecting. However, a Western Barbie was amongst a huge lot of dolls sent to me by my dad, and luckily, mine’s in fairly good condition. Once I owned her, I started to appreciate her, in all her strangeness.
Western Barbie’s face is more like the Superstar sculpt, with wide smile, than the Kissing doll with her puckered lips, but it’s the eyes with their heavy, bright blue shadowed lids that gives this girl her strange appearance. To be fair, these dolls generally do not age well and the moulded eyelids often melt and droop or fall off completely. But even looking at the dolls in promotional photos and videos they look a little sleepy, at best. Most these days look well and truly drunk at the very least, completely deformed at the worst.
The inner skull mechanism is very similar to that of Kissing Barbie, but it’s minus the weird duck beak, and instead has the equally strange eyelids. The left eyelid is stationary while the right socket is cut out, allowing that eyelid to fold down, once the square panel in the doll’s back is pushed. The eyelids are made from a soft vinyl which is prone to breaking. Unfortunately, part of the winking lid looks to be missing on my doll, but perhaps that’s why my doll doesn’t look too strange. This doll’s vinyl face is, like Kissing Barbie’s, stitched at the back of the head, but this girls face has two slits above the eyes where the eyelids feed through from the skull, another reason perhaps why the lids tend to warp and break, the two vinyls impacting each other. There are also two moulded dots on the vinyl face, one on the forehead, one at the mouth, that slot into holes in the plastic skull, holding the face in place.
The inner mechanism with winking eye in unwinking and winking positions. Note, the stationary eyelid is missing.
This doll has had her hair and original face paint removed, ready for a makeover.
There seems to be a lot of variations in the hairstyles of these dolls. Mine looks to have had a lot of play, and I haven’t yet decided what to do with it, curl it or leave it as is, but the front still holds it’s original ‘Farrah flip’. Some dolls have a fringe (bangs) with long straight hair or shorter curls, others have long side parted hair. I’ve also seen dolls with both white and beige inner skull mechanisms.
Western Barbie’s box describes her as a ‘Gorgeous Western Star’ who ‘gives you her autograph and a wink’, so she wears a white jumpsuit with silver and black trim and white fringe, white boots and white cowboy hat with matching trim. Her accessories are a brush comb and mirror, perfume bottle, Barbie logo stamp and cardboard portraits for her to autograph with her stamp. Like a lot of the dolls in the lot from dad, my doll was without her original outfit and accessories, but with the exception of her cardboard photos, they weren’t hard to replace. In fact, I’ve come across several of her jumpsuits, most for under $1, so have been able to upgrade to one in fairly good condition.
Western Barbie didn’t hit shop shelves alone, Western Ken joined her in a matching black and white fashion, and there was also a Western Skipper in red and white fashion, although Skipper’s box is dated 1981, while Barbie and Ken’s are dated 1980, so I’m not sure if there was a bit of gap between their release (boxes are often dated the year before a doll is released, but not always). Two horses, a palomino called Dallas (after a popular TV show perhaps?) and a black stallion named Midnight were also released, with Western Barbie featuring in the their box art. Skipper also had a horse called Honey, but I can only find box art featuring the later Horse Lovin’ Skipper, so I’m not sure if it was released for Western Skipper too.
Just to confuse matters, the European version of Western Barbie is very different to the one from the US and Australia. This doll is a Superstar doll with busy arms and hands, wearing the same fashion, but without the accessories and the addition of a matching wrap skirt. There was also no mention of being a Western Star on the box.
A range of ‘Barbie and Ken Western Fashions’ were realeased, and one of these, #3578 ‘Westward Ho’ was included with my doll. It was missing the bag, belt, hat and boots, but I’ve managed to find a pair of boots and I was sure I’d replaced the hat too, but I can’t find it at the time of posting. It’s a rather nice fashion of long sleeved bodysuit and skirt in a dark blue floral fabric trimmed with tan suedette, with matching suedette vest. It’s sad that Mattel don’t seem to make fashions of this quality anymore, even in the collector ranges. I’ve seen a couple of the other Western Fashions pop up for sale occasionally, so I’m assuming these dolls and fashions must have been in wide release here in Australia. And love her or hate her, Western Barbie and her outfits certainly make collecting more interesting.
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