Steffie of the day: Miss America

Miss America, a photo by alington on Flickr.

Originally produced in 1973, Miss America is an early version of Steffie. There are many variations of this doll.

Walk Lively Miss America is shown above. You can find this doll with longer hair or short hair (mine above has short hair). Some include the walking stand, but others don't.

The following year, when the Walk Lively Miss America dolls had sold out--they were a special Kellogg's exclusive--they were replaced with Quick Curl Miss America, first as a brunette, and then as a blonde.

I find the brunette Quick Curl Miss America is the most difficult to find of the three.

The blonde dolls came with many variations:

• short or tall crown (the short one is hard to find)
• pale blonde or golden blonde hair
• the dress has a textured bodice or lamé bodice
• the dress has a silver lamé or gold lamé bodice (the silver is more rare)
• the cape has an ermine border or a plain white border (the white is more rare)
• the doll has intense facial screening or more natural facial screening (the intense facial screening is harder to find)

The Canadian-issued dolls, in the orange box, are harder to find than the American pink boxes.

You can have lots of fun collecting these dolls!

Steffie of the Day: Sun Lovin' Malibu PJ

Sun Lovin' Malibu PJ, a photo by alington on Flickr.

From 1978, this lovely variation is a harder to find version of the original. She is also manufactured in the Philippines. But she differs in the following ways:

First, her bent Superstar style arms--most Malibu dolls have straight arms.
Second, her legs are a soft rubbery plastic instead of hard plastic. (They still don't bend at the knee, however.)
Third, her facial screening is a little darker around the eye lids and brows.

You can see a few more photos on Flickr, and if you like, you can compare them to a straight-arm version here.

Steffie of the Day: DOTW India

DOTW India, a photo by alington on Flickr.

This Dolls of the World India is a harder to find version of the original 1981 issue. I believe this version was manufactured in smaller numbers.

She differs from the other version (also made in 1981) in the following ways:

• Her eyes are even larger and lined a little differently.
• The gold fabric of her top is lamé, like the fabric used in Golden Dreams, rather than mesh.
• Her hair is very dark brown, not black.
• The red fabric is shot through with a brighter red metallic thread. The other version uses a metallic burgundy.

These little variations make collecting Barbie quite fun and special--like a treasure hunt!

Here's a quick photo of the more common first version I had in my collection.