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History Of Barbie

Updated on October 22, 2011

Barbie is one of the most famous characters of the present era which has grown in popularity ever since it was first introduced in the market. Although most of the popular characters of this modern era either belong to some movie sequel or cartoon or may be some comics. But barbie is one character that has emerged out of a toy and has conquered all sorts of media since then.

The barbie dolls were first introduced in the year 1959 and at that time they were sold for $3. At that time the plastic material used for making these dolls had a strange smell which was some what common in most dolls made during those times. The doll was created and introduced by a female American business women named Ruth Handler.

The popularity gained by these dolls is unquestionable as now the barbie phenomenon is not just limited to dolls, in fact it has now grown in to a major fashion icon and a character that has evolved and conquered all sorts of media. Now we can see barbie games all over the place. So many different sites allowing us to play so many different free to play barbie games.

The barbie character started with its own story line but later on many different cartoons were made on barbie each showing a different picture of barbie. But all these cartoon stories had the same punch line, keeping the soul of the original barbie tale.

History

The barbie story has got some what the same punch line common in most of the children stories heard in those times. The full name of barbie is Barbara Millicent Roberts and the story starts with a young girl who has just completed her high school. She meets her soul mate during this time. The boys name is Ken Carson. The barbie doll character is a fictional tale of a girl who has a life which every girl would want to have. The barbie tale is inspired from the life of her parents Ruth and Elliot Handler who are shown as their parents and raise this extra ordinary character attractive to every girl.

The barbie dolls were one of the most widely marketed toy product during that time mainly because its co-founders came up with a unique idea and which to their luck gained enormous success and appreciation. Ruth Handler was the person who first came up with this idea when she saw her daughter Barbara play with paper dolls. During the 1940s most of the children's dolls were baby dolls. The imaginative picture which Ruth had in mind was to introduce a tall beautiful adult dolls which young girls would dress and change according to their thoughts.

Ruth told this idea to her husband Elliot who was the co-founder of the Mattel group. Her husband liked the idea and they decided to introduce a new concept based toy, into the market. Ruth visited Europe during the 1950s and during her visit she came across an adult figured German doll. The doll was a popular toy in the local market and had a name Bild Lilli. This doll was originally made for the elder ones but it gained more popularity among children. The children liked to dress up and change the appearance of these dolls. Ruth bought these dolls and brought them back to USA.

After this she and her husband redesigned the doll and came up with a much prettier looking and modern doll. The doll was named barbie after their daughter Barbara who actually was the person who allowed her mother to think of an innovation in the to industry. Since then the original barbie went through a number of appearance changes and it has always been up to date with the way girls dress up in each era.

Although the barbie character holds historic significance in the toy industry yet, as I mentioned its popularity gained momentum with the advent of barbie cartoons expanding the barbie family. Then the java games based on the dress up concept which Ruth Handler wanted to introduce, added a virtual revolution to the way, the girls played with barbie.


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