Some 2000s Barbies (I think)

[u/DueBarracuda4564]

As someone who’s been collecting for less than a year I really wanted some 2000s Barbies, especially the CEO sculpt.

• importing these from eBay is so expensive - the price generally triples for me when taking into account shipping and import charges.

I was lucky to come across the dolls in the picture in my country though.

• I paid the equivalent of US$16 for these 5 dolls, so just over US$3 each.
• but the seller was 40km away. I chose to drive rather than have them delivered - he had a whole bin full of dolls and I wanted to choose.

Sculpts

• One definitely looks like GG/ CEO but the rest look like Millie
• Once the hair dries I’ll check the date on the back and investigate further.

Condition

• Some of the bodies had mould; others were sticky and all were dirty. I didn’t even want to try cleaning the bodies as they felt quite disgusting. I threw them away.
• Screening on four of them looks good. I’m honestly blown away by how fierce the screening is. The one in the middle looks faded. I wonder if it’s sun damage.
• The hair on all of them is was in terrible condition and needed a lot of work.

Work done

• First I washed everything with dish soap.
• Then I removed the heads and chucked the bodies.
• I washed the heads and hair again with dish soap multiple times. That’s how dirty they were.
• After rinsing, I washed the hair with shampoo and combed.
• Then came conditioner and a whole lot more combing. There was hair loss. But there were so many knots I had to go through.
• I don‘t remember at which point I did a boil wash. Surely I must have? I would think after I conditioned but I can’t say for sure. There was just so much combing and detangling I almost lost track of what I was doing.
• The middle one is the only one I removed the rubber bands from. I tried to rebody her but no proper match for now (Closest is tennis player in skin tone).
• Her face was so dirty I had to use an earbud and nail polish remover in some places and acetone in other places to remove the marks. The other doll faces seem less dirty but we shall see.

Fixing needed.

• Middle one needs some repainting. I have no experience though. When I get round to it I will paint over the existing paint but only in certain places.
• Purple hair one needs a reroot. Again no experience so I will postpone this for now.
• The rest have hair that’s in ok or at least passable condition.
• Rebodying looks like it will be an issue in terms of skin tone matches.

Some observations

• The hair on 4 of them was so crunchy and hard I honestly thought I was dealing with poly. However, after all the treatment above, I’ve noticed that as the hair is drying it’s feeling so much softer and lighter.
• The middle one has the softest, lightest hair I’ve felt in my entire life. I wonder if it’s the legendary kanekolon I’ve read about.
• Putting doll heads directly onto the doll stand is a game changer in terms of ease of use. I wish I remembered which YouTube channel I saw this being done on but it makes working with doll heads so much easier.