How it All Started

This was the first: My First Barbie, 1982. Creative name, eh? She came with long blonde hair, a pink gingham skirt, pink swimsuit, and these weird lace things that "customized" Barbie's look. They could decorate her legs, arms, or even her pigtails. (Hey it was the early 80's, they did lots of interesting things with lace.) I am sure they got lost the minute the doll came out of the package. This particular doll seemed to suffer from some sort of leg separation anxiety, and had to be replaced at least once after those legs popped off.

A couple of years ago, I purchased this doll mint in the box from eBay. I wonder about the person who had this doll stored away somewhere for the past few decades....
The second doll that I remember Mom purchasing for me was Peaches 'N Cream Barbie; this time for my 6th birthday. The doll came with an appropriately overly-ruffled dress, true to high fashion in the mid '80s. The faux-crystal beading on the top of the dress was worn to a nub by the time I outgrew playing with that doll, and both straps on the bodice disintegrated pretty much immediately in the eager, grubby hands of a child who liked to play with her dolls outside, in the bathtub, and everywhere else.

Mattel reproduced this doll in new packaging for their 2010 line, and when the doll was first sneaked on the collector website, I have to admit I got all geeked out about it. And of course I got my eager, grubby hands on one as soon as I could.

But THIS was the doll that really started it all, and I plead total innocence, because it was given to me. This was clearly another case of family members urging me into Barbie collecting. I was powerless to resist, really.

At Christmastime in 1998, I saw this Snow White doll in a toy store and was seized with the impulse to take it home with me. As a poor college student/newlywed, the $20 price tag for "something I would just LOOK at" seemed out of the question. It had been YEARS since I had been given a Barbie or bought one on my own, so Barbie was securely in my past.
But.
I didn't forget about this doll. I couldn't. I didn't know why! The next year, the exact same doll came out again (this NEVER happens, by the way) and I saw it in one of those Black Friday circulars. I not-so-subtly mentioned to my husband that the doll was available again, for some rock-bottom price, and it would be ever-so-wonderful if he would wait in some insanely long line at KayBee Toys, bleary-eyed and delirious at 5 a.m. to see if he could get it for me for Christmas.
He told me they were out....but somehow that doll was under the tree on Christmas morning.