Angela’s Dolly Care – Identifying Barbies

Hello, everyone! So, we’ve noticed lately that a lot of people have been having trouble identifying their secondhand dolls, especially if the dolls aren’t wearing their stock outfits or have had their hair cut in the process.
So…I’m going to give you some helpful tips and resources to make your dolly identification challenges a little bit easier.

First, Kattis Dolls — Her website gives a catalog of body and face molds, and while she doesn’t list every doll that uses each mold, she lists quite a few — if she doesn’t have your doll listed, but you can figure out the face mold and body type, you’ll know roughly which time period your doll is from. That gives you 3 important keywords to use in your Google searches.

The next resource I have for you is this one – A Thousand Splendid Dolls — Shelley and Colleen have a Flickr guide. If you know the time period your Barbie is from (or anything about the brand your other 12 inch Fashion dolls are), you can find the corresponding album and potentially with a little searching, your doll. Shelley has everything from the face mold to the head and body dates, box date, country make etc. for each doll on her guide, it’ll not only tell you the line and character name but what her original clothes/accessories are and other such details.

For your more vintage Barbies, 60s-70s and Japanese Takara Barbie type of dolls – Doll Reference has your back, giving you release years and identification for each of the earliest Barbie dolls, including Skipper and friends, Ken, friends and family dolls etc.

If all else fails you and you still don’t know who your doll is, grab whatever key facts you’ve learned (body type, facial sculpt, sculpt release years), add in features like eye color, hair color, skin tone, anything special like makeup colors, earrings and the like, and especially gimmicks like differences in the body, color changing hair and makeup, molded bodices/clothing, things of that nature –And head over to Google. You’d be surprised what the right set of keywords will do toward identifying a doll.

Hint: Once she’s identified, take a photo and toss it into a Word document or something with the doll’s identification so you don’t lose track of who she is again.
I personally like to make an Instagram post where I identify the doll in the description to help me keep track. I can always scroll back and find her picture to figure out who she was. But if you need something more tangible, that’s definitely fine too!

In a pinch, if nothing else is working, you can feel free to drop me a line here at the blog or through Instagram DMs with a photo of your doll – I’ll do the best I can to find her for you!

Posted In: Angela's Dolly Care