Barbie Runabout

H

Henk Martens

True Classic
Ciao amici,

Now our 3 daughters are too old daddy takes his chance with the Barbie toys....is this for girls only? No sir....for X 1/9 friends only




saluti,

Henk Martens
Netherlands
 
My sister had one of these. Still at my moms house. I think this might be where I started my love of the wedge design

Odie
 
Cute as hell. Barbie had everything to go with her good looks.

I refer to my (actual) X1/9 as a "Barbie car". In my case it's not due to being a reduced-size replica doll toy, but because the prior/original owner was obviously a "Barbie want to be". The paint color, extensive pin striping, excessive chrome accents, interior color, countless installed accessories, various custom touches, etc, etc all look exactly like what Barbie would have today if she was real and drove a X (including the lack of keeping it maintained and clean). I'm still working on converting it back to a "normal" X1/9.
 
Dr.Jeff said:
Cute as hell. Barbie had everything to go with her good looks.

I refer to my (actual) X1/9 as a "Barbie car". In my case it's not due to being a reduced-size replica doll toy, but because the prior/original owner was obviously a "Barbie want to be". The paint color, extensive pin striping, excessive chrome accents, interior color, countless installed accessories, various custom touches, etc, etc all look exactly like what Barbie would have today if she was real and drove a X (including the lack of keeping it maintained and clean). I'm still working on converting it back to a "normal" X1/9.
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Jeff, You have to show us that :D
 
mkmini said:
Jeff, You have to show us that
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When I purchased the X it was dark by the time I got it trailered home (wasn't planned, but this way no one could see it), I parked it behind my shop and covered it (did not intend to work on it for awhile). When I finally uncovered it again I was reminded just how hideous it looked, so the first thing I did was began removing as much of the "Barbie" as possible. Therefore by now there is not much left to remind me of it (and nothing to show you). Naturally I did not take photos of the 'before' condition, not wanting to be haunted by it. Reading this post about the "Barbie car" brought all that back to memory.

True story: Back in the 1970's when the Mattel Toy company's "Barbie" doll was very popular, I was in high school and worked part time at a local store. This was in a rural Southern California town where many Hollywood celebrities owned vacation homes to escape the L.A. crowds. So it was not uncommon for a celebrity to come into the store I worked in. One day a woman walked in that I somehow felt like I knew but did not immediately recognize. As I was helping her she mentioned her name was "Barbie Doll". Suddenly I realized why I knew her, my sister had Barbie dolls and this was her. She actually was the live model that the doll was originally designed after (a German toy company first created the doll, then Mattel copied it). She was so proud of it that she kept all the appearances of the doll; clothes, make up, hair, and even legally changed her name to "Barbie Doll". Unfortunately it had been a few years since her modeling days, so not quite the same image, but definitely recognizable as Barbie. For what its worth, this is NOT the young Russian girl that recently made herself into a Barbie look-alike. I was about 15 when this happened and the Barbie doll had been around for about 15 years by then, so the 'original' Barbie I met would be well into her 80's by now.
 
Dr.Jeff said:
Cute as hell. Barbie had everything to go with her good looks.

I refer to my (actual) X1/9 as a "Barbie car". In my case it's not due to being a reduced-size replica doll toy, but because the prior/original owner was obviously a "Barbie want to be". The paint color, extensive pin striping, excessive chrome accents, interior color, countless installed accessories, various custom touches, etc, etc all look exactly like what Barbie would have today if she was real and drove a X (including the lack of keeping it maintained and clean). I'm still working on converting it back to a "normal" X1/9.
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Sure it had all that, but did it have fake eyelashes????
cbbd_1.JPG
 
Henk Martens said:
Ciao amici,

Now our 3 daughters are too old daddy takes his chance with the Barbie toys....is this for girls only? No sir....for X 1/9 friends only

saluti,

Henk Martens
Netherlands
Click to expand...

Henk,

That looks like a pretty close copy of the Runabout or whatever the Fiat prototype was called. It was a great choice for a Barbie doll with all the open access at the top. I don't recall my sister's Barbie's being really flexible. When then hit me with one, it felt more like a stick. :)
 
Ya, I've been beaten by a few Barbie dolls also....both as a child with the toy (my sister was older than me) and as an adult with 'real' dolls (I was always a sucker for a hot blond).
 
Jim, I can vouch for the Barbie doll being that flexible..... I had a found this one on Ebay last year. For $20 I couldn't resist.

20170414_193235_001.jpg 20170414_193248.jpg
 
Ciao,

This Runabout was produced by Mattel in Fuerth (Germany) in 1970.
It has become very rare but if somebody is interested: we stock 3 of these in our shop



regards,

Henk Martens
 
Tim North said:
sold by Sears in West Germany
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Germany has Sears? Are they going bankrupt there too?

Henk, these are cool. And that ad sure is a time warp. Notice Ken is driving all of the vehicles and Barbie is in the passenger seat.

Henk Martens said:
if somebody is interested: we stock 3 of these in our shop
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I see in the ad you posted they sold for $3.99 new. How do they compare to real X1/9's in terms of value appreciation? If the same, then the toys are worth about $1.00 now. :)
 
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