Yup. Real humans don’t look like that! Just like real puppies don’t have giant sad eyes the size of saucers or like real horses don’t have rainbow manes and tails and silver stars or whatever on their backs. 
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I played with mine until I was about 12. I could tell my Dad was disapproving and felt foolish, so gave them up.
I just loved them, and there was some major Soap Opera kissing going on with her and Ken.
I also had a Julia doll. Remember that TV show with Diane Carrol as a nurse?
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I can still sing the jingle “Open the door for your mystery date”
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I don’t really have an opinion. As a child, I had a Sindy doll - I really wanted a Tressy - because her hair grew! These days, I wish more girls played with Barbies and wore dresses.
My grandniece (18m) plays with gender neutral toys: stacking cups, balls etc, and wears muddy browns / greys & khaki colored overalls and tshirts. I’d love to buy her a dress and give her a Barbie!
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@momo2x2018 - we could probably start an entire thread on that topic. I have an 8 month old GD and while both I and D (her mom) are feminists, GD wears gender neutral clothes some days and feminine/pink clothes on others. We saved D’s baby dolls, AG dolls and dollhouse (alas, we gave the Barbies to my neighbor’s daughters) and those will be for GD along with other more gender neutral toys. Neither D (and SIL) nor I have an issue with her having both. Of course GD might end up preferring the non girly toys and clothes which is fine. Too soon to tell.
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I loved Barbies. My favorites were Malibu Barbie and Malibu Ken. I was so lucky to have the camper and the airplane. My step-daughter also loved Barbies, so I was glad I had saved them and she was able to enjoy them.
I was definitely too old, but sooo happy when my mom surprised me with a Cher doll for Christmas one year. Nice memory…
Oh, I also had Mystery Date game 
My friends and I played that for countless hours.
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Oh, sis and I played with our barbie’s all the time. If remember mom had medical (or dental?)appointments when we were not in school, she’d set us outside the office at the big landing at top of stairway. There we happily played with our Barbies. It was a different time.
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My first one was Magic Curl Barbie. Her hair situation was basically a science project…complicated instructions and all that. Very high maintenance (perhaps appropriate for Barbie…?) Now, thinking back to it all, I wonder if that choice, by my mom, was deliberate? (She’s a scientist)
Next one was some kind of fitness Barbie (I recall the name being “fun and fitness Barbie” but Google tells me not a thing). That was, at the time, much more my speed…very eighties! IIRC even had leg warmers (possibly a false memory).
Do you guys remember a mid-nineties news story when they changed Barbie’s body to better fit the fashion of the time? Specifically the waist area?
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I got into them kind of late (I remember a friend coming over in 6th grade making me promise not to tell anyone we played Barbies that day). And I was usually on my own to play, so it was mostly changing their clothes, trying to make clothes, brushing hair, etc. instead of pretend play.
My girls on the other hand had their Barbies involved in complicated story lines with detailed setups with props and such. Same with their Build A Bears.
Yes her body style was changed- we found that clothes didn’t fit universally between the older and newer.
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My sister and I had Crissy and Velvet dolls whose hair grew. We liked them almost as much as Barbies. We had a fireplace in our den that we pretended our Barbies were going camping. We had hours of play.
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I’m glad I grew up in the 60s when (my) childhood was far less complex, and far less complicated! My Cindy was all GoGo boots and mini-skirts - haha!
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I got a Crissy doll for Christmas in 2nd grade. My best friend Ellen got one for Hanukkah, and I must have begged to have one too. (Which is really funny because I was just today doing declutter and reading a high school essay talking about how I never did that kid of thing.)
I was given Tammy, too (and I think the reason was that her body was more realistic). I don’t remember getting the whole family, though.
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I loved Barbie because she was a woman and could go out and have adventures, like drive GI Joe’s jeep or ride in his space capsule. My Barbie never married. Ken was an accessory. I contrasted her with baby dolls, which were fine, but I did not want to pretend to be a mommy all the time.
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I don’t know why, but this totally makes me laugh!!! Pooooor Ken!!! 
Was Ken always a blonde? Cause I feel like I remember a male doll like Ken but with brown hair.
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I hated all dolls but probably especially Barbie. Just had no use for them or that type of play. I liked stuffed animals and playing outside, climbing trees, and running through the woods.
I definitely never gave my kids a Barbie. They liked stuffed animals the most, too, but also liked My Little Ponies and Littlest Pet Shop. They had a few baby dolls and some wooden people for their wooden dollhouse.
I do think the Barbie movie looks silly and like it could be funny.
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I have to imagine many of you have seen this movie, but if you haven’t it’s a perfect funny, a bit of sarcasm, a bit of realism, take on a Barbie type doll becomes “real”. This was definitely one of my kids (2 girls and one boy!) top 5 movies growing up. We watched it oodles of time.
(stick with Life Size 1, NOT the sequel!!!)
https://www.amazon.com/Life-Size-Lindsay-Lohan/dp/6305870179
I loved Barbie as a kid, still have mine, her case and lots of her clothes. But, I ended up with 2 boys, so all that just remains tucked away in a closet. Maybe I’ll get it out and take a look! I have a Barbie game too (I liked Poindexter!).
I had Tammy too.
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Loved Barbies when I was young. I had all the regulars like Barbie, Ken & Skipper but also loved my Donny & Marie barbies in their purple unfits with holes in their hands for the microphones. I was jealous my friend had the huge dream house but I loved my convertible car with the cassettes that popped in and out and have a great memory of when my grandmother gave me the big camper for Christmas because she was not a big gift giver.
Now I have a relative in the Barbie movie so I really thin you should all go see it! 
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Very cool!
In addition to Barbie I had a doll called “Misty” (maybe Glamour Misty?). She was like a Barbie except she had white hair and came with multiple washable markers so she could change her hair color. I loved her. She was the same size as the Barbies so she was part of the group.
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