#astronaut barbie

[pinkfai]

[barbielore]

Over the years, Barbie has been an astronaut many, many times, so I am going to preface this by saying this is not an exhaustive list of the number of times Barbie has been to space. But Barbie's space explorer aesthetic has changed over the years and some of these are super interesting!

The original astronaut gear (and the rerelease in the "My Favourite Career" set) was very much informed by the actively ongoing space race. Barbie is packaged with an American flag and a relatively sedate spacesuit.

I mention sedate, because compare that to how the astronaut Barbies looked in 1985, 20 years on from the first time Barbie went to the moon!

Marketed as "packaged with sparkly skirt and tights", Barbie is combining space travel with runway fashion. Can't explore space if you don't look cute!

In 1994, Barbie is no longer dressed in bright pink, though her moon rocks do glow-in-the-dark. Interesting to note that though Barbie has a USA flag patch on her spacesuit on her left arm, the flag she is holding bears her own name and branding.

Come 2013, Barbie is no longer content with merely exploring space or landing on the moon.

In an official NASA collaboration, Barbie is now exploring Mars. Her spacesuit is now a combination of white and pink, though her accessories are now glowing pink.

2020 brought us the space discovery playset. Barbie is now in a muted blue suit with a pink headset but what I really love about this playset is that she has a puppy with her who has his own rocket ship.

Literally look at this guy!!

There is one more particularly interesting Barbie in space that I want to talk about but I will save that for a separate post as this is already enough to scroll past.

[barbiejewelle]

I'm extremely surprised the new 65th Anniversary Astronaut Barbie isn't getting any love on the Internet. I can't even find her on any of the Mattel websites!!

ETA: I just over the Mattel site a little bit ago (Careers section) and this beauty is now there! But sadly no reviews at all!! (As of 1/29/24)

[yours-stevie]

Trick or treat? 🍭

[itcamefromthetoybox]

DOLLLLLLS IN SPAAAAAAACE!!!

So continuing from last week’s review, we’re going to keep up our review on Barbie dolls. Why? Because the upcoming movie looks so great, so this is how I’m handling my enthusiasm, so I don’t talk my wife’s ear off! This week, we’re looking at one of my personal favorite dolls from the franchise, “Space Discovery Astronaut Barbie!”

The “Space Discovery” line, as you can probably guess from the name, is a line of Barbie products focusing on space. You’ve got space stations, small space ship playsets for child dolls to play in, and even science classrooms focusing on space. That’s a lot of space stuff, and as someone who loves him some space toys, I am thrilled!

The doll we’re looking at today, Astronaut Barbie, comes in two varieties: white Barbie and black Barbie. Both dolls come with the same outfit and accessories, and they both have the same levels of articulation, so let’s dive in!

Each doll is posed standing at attention, with slight bends in their arms. They’ve got the standard Barbie articulation: moving arms and legs, and ball-joint necks. So pretty much what you’d expect from a Barbie doll.

You would not believe how hard it was to get a picture without massive amounts of glare on the helmets.

The dolls have the standard Barbie bodies, like you’d expect. There is one big thing to note here, though. Normally, people think of Barbies as having big arches in their feet, like they’re wearing eternal high heels. In fact, one of the big scenes from the first Barbie trailer puts focus on Barbie’s foot having that arch, and a later trailer makes a big deal out of Barbie no longer having that arch. So considering how much I’ve been talking about the arch in Barbie’s foot, you can probably guess what I’m about to say: “Barbie has no foot arch.” Well, you’d be wrong. What I’m actually gonna say is that the arch, which still present, is slighter than what people would expect. 

That annoying moment when you misplace your shoe before work.

This is actually the case with a lot of modern day Barbie dolls. The reason is so your Barbie can wear different shoes and outfits without having to do a different leg mold for each Barbie. While some dolls do have the classic high arch and others have completely different leg designs, this lower arch is actually more common in modern day dolls. So if you haven’t bought the dolls for ages, this could be something useful to know. It also means you can grab most dolls and expect the different outfits sold separately to fit just fine.

The black and white Barbies do have different heads and hair textures/haircuts, which is great. The main thing I want to talk about here is the hair texture. The black doll has softer, curly hair, while the white Barbie has stiffer, straight hair. It’s a huge difference in texture, and leads to one of my few issues with Astronaut Barbie. The blonde hair feels like straw. It’s stiff and dry to the touch, like someone used way too much bleach for too long.

Barbies pose for their company photo IDs.

Now, let’s talk outfits. Astronaut Barbie wears a smooth spacesuit with a very nice amount of detailing on them. I love how the suits look and feel. They’re shiny, smooth to the touch, and covered with detailing that really adds to the look without being too much. It’s the right amount of detailing. The suits also have space program logos on the chests, which is a really nice touch.

Astronaut Barbie has a pair of large, plastic gloves and boots. The gloves have slits down the back to make it easier to put them on Barbie and to let them better go over the sleeves of the space suits, but the slits don’t close all the way and some of the sleeves can stick out of the slits as a result of this. The boots are very thick, which I really like, and even fit under the suit legs. Getting them on and off is a challenge because they are very stiff, which can be a little bit of a pain, but I do love the boots. They have a lot of sculpted details, which look really great will definitely excite kids. Also, the boots are treaded on the bottoms, which helps the doll stand on her own without the need for a stand.

Barbie also comes with a space helmet that’s made of two pieces that clip together over the doll’s head. The helmet looks great, but it also brings us to the second issue I have with the doll. The helmet doesn’t fit tightly over the doll’s head, so it’s loose and flops around. The other issue is from how the helmet clips together. Since the dolls have hair, the hair can get caught in the helmet and stick out of the top and sides. It can take a good amount of fiddling to get the hair completely in the helmet.

Barbie comes with four accessories: a small flag and three astronaut ice cream sandwiches. The flag has a little clip on it that lets Barbie hold it in her hand, but it can be a bit of a challenge to fit the clip on the gloves. I often just wedge it onto the glove’s thumb and hope it doesn’t fall off. 

We claim the moon in the name of the Barbie Empire!

The astronaut ice cream sandwiches actually bring us to my third and final complaint: Barbie has no way to hold those at all, so you’re probably gonna lose them like I did. That’s a shame, because astronaut ice cream is one of my favorite things ever. I would kill for an astronaut ice cream sandwich right now, in fact. So delicious.

Behold, one of humanity’s greatest achievements!

“Space Discovery Astronaut Barbie” goes for about $17 and can be found at most retailers. She’s recommended for ages 3+, but do keep in mind that both versions of the doll come with very small accessories that can fit in the throats and noses of both kids and very dumb adults, so use your best judgement there. Would I recommend this toy? Absolutely. Space is freaking awesome, and the idea of a Barbie that explores space is really awesome. I feel like this doll and the theme itself is one that everyone, kids and adults alike, would love. Definitely don’t be afraid to grab this doll. Next week, we’ll be looking at a more collector-aimed doll as we continue our look at Barbie. So come back and take a look at what’s happening! This is JS signing off and wishing you Happy Toy Hunting!

[bellllladonna]

1985 Astronaut Barbie is one of my favorite Barbies

[thedepartmentofdiscoveries]

[lorengray1]

halloweek day 4 - astronaut barbie 💫

[yukadelavega]

Hi Conspiracy Barbie 🛸

This Barbie is a conspiracy theorist! She isn't crazy, she just knows aliens are real. That is why she became an astronaut, to find proof of their excistence!

[hikkokoro]

I KNOW IM LATE FOR HALLOWEEN BUT BUT BUT-

I don't celebrate it but this is fun

The recent episode is kool :D

[p0ssym1lker]

Jason with his wonder Woman inspired Barbie: we should have brought them seats

Danny with his astronaut Barbie: I brought two little pillows and we have hands to hold them, be a man

-

Jason buying the tickets: okay our seats are-

Danny, with his helmet on in a 'hi Barbie' standoff: they don't even know I'm ken

[barbielore]

Over the years Mattel has really tried to push that Barbie "Can Be Anything" -- there's multiple doll lines with that very branding. But there's been a few missteps over the years when it comes to STEM - "math class is tough", the computer engineer Barbie who needed help from her male colleagues, and so on.

So I thought I'd go back and look at some of the early Barbie STEM careers, to see how she has evolved over the years.

Depending on how you define STEM, the first STEM Barbie may have been Nurse Barbie in 1961. This is a tricky one because I cannot think of a reason why nursing would not be considered a STEM field, except for the fact that it has historically been a female-dominated field since before there was a bigger push for women in STEM. Sexism in action, really. Anyway, here's Nurse Barbie (1961).

The collectors edition rerelease in 2009 shows the same outfit on an actual Barbie.

The earliest STEM career that seems completely unambiguous as a STEM Barbie was astronaut, back in 1965 - making Barbie technically the first American to walk on the moon, but who's counting?

Naturally this was also historic enough to see a rerelease in the My Favorite Career series in 2009.

Barbie explored other fields of medicine in 1973 as Doctor Barbie - who appears to be wearing a surgical gown.

(Note this is also a rerelease, as I can't find a picture of the original 1973 Barbie.)

There were a few more over the years after this but it wasn't really until the 2000s that she started regularly seeing STEM careers in her history. (There are several from the 90s - but the 2000s is really when it began to pick up steam.)

One of my favourites among the more recent is Astrophysicist Barbie, released as a tie-in with National Geographic.

[barbiejewelle]

My favorite Barbie's as a child:

1983's Loving You Barbie

1986's Astronaut Barbie

From 1986

Barbie and the Rockers (Real Dancing Action aka Hot Rockin Fun)

For some reason the Barbie and the other female dolls had their boxes marked Real Dancing Action, while Ken and Derek had theirs marked Hot Rockin Fun.

I almost forgot this beauty, she kept getting exchanged because her leg kept popping off! (I was trying to make her do a split...the wrong way)

1985's Tropical Barbie

[prommytheus]

pov a pair of college sophomores walk into a theatre and ask for two tickets to the barbie movie

[haveamagicalday]

Battle of the Barbies! Round 4: Career (Sub Round 5)

This is round 4 (sub round 5) of the bracket. All other polls in can be found here.

[orvcoded]

yjh would feel™️ some things watching barbie, especially as the what was i made for scene comes in lol

rewatched barbie just to cry at that song fr. the way yjh would feel so Seen with barbie. stereotypical doll vs stereotypical protagonist. both manifestations of ideas serving a greater cause, losing their own agency and autonomy in the process until they both decide to gain back those rights. barbie by becoming human and yjh by finding out why he exists. both gain liberation in the end. cuz they're both human.