The Year of Ken

Everything is coming up KEN, according to Perez Hilton, the celebrity blogger. 

In a recent post, Perez gabs all about Ken's new online reality show on Hulu. The hubbub and show are in anticipation of Ken's 50th anniversary in 2011. Apparently, a redesign of the plastic boy toy also is in the works for the big anniversary, according to Perez.

(Can we expect to celebrate Skipper's anniversary next with Mattel? What about Midge?)

In honor of Ken grabbing the spotlight, here are some fun facts about Barbie's on-again, off-again flame:

• His full name is Ken Carson.
• His official birthday is March 11, 1961 (which makes him roughly two years younger than Barbie)!
• His is from Willow, Wis.
• He sold for $3.50 in 1961. (Try getting a latte for that price now!)
• He and Barbie broke up in 2004.

Need more Ken in your life, you can "friend" him on Facebook.

Me? I appreciate Ken in my own way. Mostly with giggling.

Big Money, Big Money

Curious how this turned out?

The "World's Most-Expensive Barbie" sold for more than $300,000 at auction, with the proceeds going toward charity. A private collector in Asia won the auction.

Not too shabby. And it seems many people who otherwise would cry foul over that much money being spent on a doll are mollified by the charity aspect. A win for Barbie, definitely a win for the unnamed collector and a win for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

Read about the winning bid here, here, here and here.

Reading List

Here's something for the reading list, my fellow Barbie lovers: The Good, The Bad and the Barbie.

I'm usually not on to gravitate toward Barbie-related reading, but a recent interview with the author caught my attention. Check out the interview here.

What do you think? Will you read it?

The Blonds Barbie

Fashion designers The Blonds, favorites of Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and others, have created over-the-top outfits for Barbie, too. (Gaga and Perry only wish they could have the lasting icon status of Barbie.) The designers debuted their Barbies at New York Fashion Week.

The Blonds made three looks, which will go on sale November 16 along with some other one-of-a-kind pieces at BarbieCollector.com. The dolls will cost $5,000 each, according to this article.

Katy Perry loved the black-and-white corset Barbie wore down the runway so much, she picked up a version for herself. Read about it here and here.

Maybe Barbie can shock Elmo with her cleavage, too?

Divorced Barbie

I recently received this forward in my e-mail box, and I couldn't resist sharing it with all of you. Hee. Clearly, Divorced Barbie would be a collector item.

Divorced Barbie Doll  

One day a father gets out of work and on his way home he suddenly remembers it's his daughter's birthday. He pulls over to a toy shop and asks the sales person,  "How much for one of those Barbie's in the display window?"

The salesperson answers, "Which one do you mean,  Sir? We have Work Out Barbie for $19.95, Shopping Barbie for $19.95, Beach Barbie for $19.95, Disco Barbie  for $19.95, Ballerina Barbie for $19.95, Astronaut Barbie for $19.95, Skater Barbie for $19.95, and  Divorced Barbie for $265.95."   

The  amazed father asks, "It's what?! Why is the Divorced Barbie $265.95 and the others only $19.95?"  

The annoyed salesperson rolls her eyes, sighs, and answers: "Sir, Divorced Barbie comes with Ken's Car, Ken's House, Ken's Boat, Ken's Furniture, Ken's Computer, and one of Ken's Friends."

OH, YEAAHH

As I've mentioned, I did love to collect box tops and mail away for toys as a child. (I ate a lot of not-good-for-me-what-so-ever treats to get there.)

In addition to swiss cake rolls and the like, I also drank a lot of overly sugared drinks. This is the Kool-Aid Wacky Warehouse Barbie from 1994. Like Little Debbie, there are other Kool-Aid dolls, but I apparently enjoyed cakes more than sugar-water...er...Kool-Aid.

Her outfit is interesting. Just look at that hat and ruffled shirt. Did people really think that was high fashion in 1994?

This sort of behavior was not odd in my family. We drank enough Mountain Dew to win me a pogo stick!

Beauty Secrets

Most of us have to deal with the face and hair we've been given, but Barbie is a lucky girl. She has seven different skin tones and seven shades of blonde hair to use to achieve perfection. Mattel weaves the different shades of hair together to achieve different combinations of highlights and lowlights.

A special sewing machine roots the hair, and then it is professionally trimmed and styled, according to Mattel. A heating machine then sets the look.

Up to 15 artists work on Barbie when creating a new face. They use water-based acrylics and sable brushes to paint her, according to Mattel. Every color is applied in so no brush mark is obvious in a process than can take up to three hours.

Even though Barbie has sported a lot of different makeup combinations and colors (the 80s were a particularly colorful time period for her), brown is the eye shadow worn most frequently and Barbie has more than 300 shades of brown at her disposal (kind of like my beauty bag).

Get Your Paddles Ready

Feel like bidding on what could be possibly the world's most-expensive Barbie? If so, head to Christie's auction house in New York on Oct. 20 to put your bids in for a doll created by Mattel and jewelry designer Stefano Canturi.

The estimated price for the doll is between $300,000 to $500,000, which would make her the most-expensive Barbie in the world, according to Christie's.

This pricey doll wears a black strapless party dress, pink peep-toe heels and an oh-so-pretty-but-oh-so-expensive necklace featuring a one-carat Fancy Vivid diamond. It is a Canturi collar necklace that exemplifies the designers "Cubism" style of arranging carre- and baguette-cut diamonds in a signature geometric pattern. There are also three carats worth of white diamonds on the necklace.

Christie's is auctioning her without reserve, and all profits from the sale will benefit the Breast Cancer Research Foundation in recognition of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The doll will be on public view at Christie's Rockefeller Center galleries in New York as part of its pre-sale exhibition running Oct. 16-19. The Christie's auction and preview are both free and open to the public.

Mattel invited Canturi to design the doll for Barbie's 50th anniversary celebration last year. He spent four weeks designing her frame, hair style, makeup, dress, shoes, nail polish and jewels.

So...up to $500,000, huh? Gee... [rummaging through couch cushions]... looks like I'm a little short.

Get Your Motor Running

Did you know Barbie sponsors a Swedish all-girl rally team? The women, known as the Ramona Rallying team, drive a bright pink car.

Read about it here and here.

'Guest' Collector

Christopher Guest, the guy behind such off-beat films as Best in Show and A Mighty Wind, is getting ready to take on a new mockumentary topic: collectors. Or so this article claims.

This is what it says:

We're not talking only about the regular "collector's item" sort of fare, but "people who ferret out such things as old comic books, Barbie dolls, vintage magazine ads, vinyl 45-rpm singles, or even -- ick! -- Charles Manson song lyrics written on Kleenex."

 What do you think? Will you see it?