Where can I find Barbie dolls in Huangshi?

There are shops and toy shops in Huangshi.

Let me tell you the birth story of Barbie doll!

1, The Birth of Barbie: Ruth Handler, the mother of Barbie.

Ruth Handler is the founder of Barbie, the longest-selling toy in the world toy market, and later founded Mattel Toy Company, which is one of the most successful female entrepreneurs in the United States. Now, Barbie dolls have been sold to more than 50 countries around the world, with total sales exceeding10 billion yuan.

On April 28th, 2002, major newspapers and periodicals forwarded a surprising news one after another: Ruth Handler, the 85-year-old creator of Barbie, passed away. For half a century, Barbie created by Ruth has almost become the darling of little girls all over the world. With the popularity of this doll with big eyes and long hair, Barbie doll today is not only a toy, but also a symbol of American women and American culture, just like McDonald's and KFC all over the world. As Ruth, who created this brand, she gave dreams and hopes to women all over the world with her life's efforts.

Barbie was born.

Ruth Handler was born in Denver, the capital of Colorado. Her parents were originally Polish. In order to avoid military service, they took a hot and dirty steamboat to the other side of the ocean, just like countless immigrants who came to the United States to find their dreams.

Ruth's father is a blacksmith and supports Ruth and her nine sisters on a small income. Her mother worked hard for her family all day, but the hardships of life didn't seem to bring much harm to this big family. Mom and dad never lose their temper with their children. Later, Ruth Handler once recalled that as the youngest child, she never lacked love when growing up. It is because there is so much love from childhood that she will have childlike innocence and design a lovely Barbie doll.

/kloc-When she was 0/9 years old, Ruth was only a sophomore. She is not tall, but full of curiosity. Curious about movies, she came to Hollywood alone, but she came to this tempting place not to be a movie star, but to study industrial design. Luckily, she got a job in the famous Paramount photo studio. Here, she met the love of her life, Elliot Handler. They soon fell in love and got married.

1942, ambitious Handler and his wife started their company in a garage. The original product was a wooden frame, Elliot developed the sample and Ruth was responsible for the sales.

By chance, Handler tried to make small furniture from the waste left over from making picture frames and found that it sold well, so the company added another business to design and manufacture furniture for children's playrooms. A few years later, the company began to make money, and its main business turned to producing toys. 1945, Mr. and Mrs. Handler and their friend Manson started a company, which later became the most famous and successful doll production company. The name of the company is MATTEL, MATT is named after Manson, and EL is named after Elliot.

At that time, Ruth had a daughter. As a mother and a businessman who makes toys, she attaches great importance to children's ideas. One day, she suddenly saw her daughter Barbara and a little boy playing with paper-cut dolls. These paper-cut dolls were not common babies at that time, but teenagers with their own careers and identities, which made her very addicted. "Why not be a mature doll?" Inspiration came into Ruth's mind.

Although inspired, the journey to realize it is arduous. Before Barbie was born, little girls' toys in the American market were mostly cute little angels, round and chubby, similar to the screen image of the famous child star Shirley Temple. This is an adult's imagination of children's toys, but judging from the interest of older children, such toys are slightly "naive". They need playmates their own age, not a baby.

What do you want your doll to look like? Ruth thought hard. Just then, she needed to go to Europe on business, so Ruth came to Germany. Here, she saw a doll named "Lily", which was very beautiful. It was first made in 1955, and it was based on a famous cartoon image in the beard in the West German era. Lily is made of hard plastic with a height of 18 ~ 30 cm. Her long hair was tied in a ponytail and dragged behind her head, wearing a gorgeous dress. The figure is impeccable, all kinds of signs are available, and the clothes are also "exposed".

So Ruth bought three "lilies" and brought them back to America. She told male colleagues in the company that she wanted to design a "mature" toy, but they thought that "Lily" clothes were too revealing, which was the product of satisfying male fantasies and not suitable for children.

Ruth was not discouraged. She thought, why can't I combine these two points? What a child needs is a doll that grows up but is not exposed. A little girl needs not only a doll of the same age, but also an ideal image when she grows up. As a result, Barbie's appearance became more and more mature in Ruth's mind. With the help of company technicians and engineers, Barbie was born!

Out of concern for women, Ruth then invited fashion designer Charlotte Johnson to design clothes for Barbie. 1958, they obtained the patent right to produce Barbie dolls. This kind of doll will change an era. She is different from the previous doll. She is an adult, with slender limbs, fresh and moving. Although he has a good figure, he is tightly wrapped in beautiful clothes, and his face is as mysterious as Marilyn Monroe's, although his height is only 1 1.5 inches. Finally, Ruth gave her daughter Barbara a nickname "Barbie" for this lovely doll.

Growing up with Barbie dolls

The first batch of Barbie dolls were produced in Japan and made their debut at the American Toy Fair on 1959. The name of the exhibition is "Barbie-a role model for girls". But to Ruth's surprise, "Barbie" was not snapped up, but was given a cold shoulder by toy dealers. After all, she is a brand-new thing and an adventure, and the dealers are reluctant to do so, but they just managed to get in a few.

But the market proved that Ruth's judgment was correct. Barbie doll in the corner of the dealer's shelf was warmly welcomed by the children. More and more people began to buy this fresh and gratifying toy, especially the little girl, who was very enthusiastic about it and sold 350,000 toys in the first year.

1960, the dealer completely changed his mind and the order flew to Mattel like a snowflake. It took the company several years to meet the demand for Barbie dolls. 10, the amount of Barbie dolls purchased by the public reached 500 million dollars.

However, while Barbie is widely welcomed by the public, it has also been criticized from all sides. American women's organizations first said that Barbie was too sexy and perfect, and set unattainable goals for the little girl. The final result is to hurt their self-esteem and make them feel inferior to their appearance and figure, so she is not a symbol of women's liberation, but plays the role of "persecuting women". Ruth doesn't think so. Barbie is a girl's idol. Idols are naturally perfect, and little girls will not feel inferior because of idols.

To prove that Barbie is not a vase with an empty heart, but a professional woman. Ruth designed more kinds of Barbie dolls. She has more identities, such as a doctor, an astronaut, a businesswoman, a policeman, an athlete and even a UNICEF volunteer. So far, she has engaged in more than 80 occupations. She can be China, Indian or black, and she represents 45 nationalities. She has more than 40 kinds of pets now. The first pet was a horse named Dancer. She has a boyfriend "Ken", named after Ruth's son. She has three sisters herself, namely Qiao Bi listed on 1964, Stacy listed on 1992, and Little Kelly who appeared on 1995.

This is an ordinary toy, but it is so real. On the one hand, she is incredibly beautiful and a "thousand-faced girl". On the other hand, she is so close to us because she has her own preferences like any little girl.

Opposition will still ring, but as a market image, "Barbie" is so successful. According to Mattel's statistics, an American girl of 1 1 may have 10 Barbie dolls, while a French girl of the same age has five. Besides children, millions of adult women also buy Barbie. "To them, no matter how old they are, she is not just a doll," Ruth said. "She has become a part of them." Barbie collectors are even more gender-neutral: a Barbie doll that costs $3 for 1959, if well preserved, may now be worth $5,000.

From dolls to cultural symbols

Since the birth of the first Barbie doll, it has been constantly improving and innovating. Barbie's appearance has been modified and improved more than 500 times, and it has become what it is today. The latest appearance is based on the famous Chinese American athlete Michelle Kwan. In order to make Barbie have beautiful fashion, from 1995 to now, about 1000 million pieces of clothes have been produced, and about100 pieces of new Barbie clothes are introduced every year. Now Barbie sells well in 150 countries all over the world, with total sales exceeding10 billion. This American girl, between a little girl and an adult woman, is the longest-selling toy in the world toy market and has become the favorite thing of all men, women and children in the world.

Now, Barbie is 49 years old, but she is still young. She outlived the once popular broccoli dolls and teddy bears. No one knows why, even her creator Ruth Handler can't explain it. Whether in the toy world or in real life, longevity is a mysterious thing. Someone once asked Ruth Handler: Why did Barbie behave so well? She just smiled and replied, "I am a marketing genius." However, Mattel also produced many other types of toys. Not only did none of them have better performance than Barbie, but many of them died young. It should be said that Ruth's initial inspiration gave the doll eternal life. She was close to life and really created Barbie for her children.

Barbie has gone far beyond the definition of toys and become an immortal cultural symbol. She caught the attention of andy warhol, a master of pop music. His love for Barbie is no less than his infatuation with Marilyn Monroe. For a period of time in the late 1990s, "Barbie" appeared on American radio almost every day, although the Danish singing group sang "Barbie" loudly. She is a representative of life in the 20th century, a symbol of American women, and a modern Mona Lisa. Even serious universities have to condescend to study Barbie phenomenon. Students have to finish this assignment in sociology class: How has Barbie been criticized for becoming a role model? Do you think manufacturers should consider these criticisms? Although there may never be a "right" answer to these questions.

No matter what kind of discussion and praise it has caused, one thing is certain: "Barbie" is the first living woman born in the doll design industry, not a passive child. The adult design of "Barbie" has opened the eyes of little girls. They can perceive the world outside the kindergarten through "Barbie" and experience all aspects of adult life with "Barbie". From beach girls to politicians, Barbie's ever-changing image has inspired children's imagination, and they hope to be like Barbie when they grow up.

Barbie's success has brought Mattel a lot of wealth. 1966 By the time Ruth was 50 years old, Mattel had dominated the highly competitive toy world, controlling 12% of the $2 billion toy market. Ruth said, "I already have my career, my husband, my children, Barbie and Ken. I am on top of the world. "

But after that, Ruth's life was not smooth. From 65438 to 0970, Ruth was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent mastectomy. At the same time, Mattel's new director began to diversify the company's products and no longer focused on the production of toys. This policy eventually led to Ruth and her husband being forced to stay away from the company business they founded. 1975, Ruth resigned as president and left the company founded by herself and her husband.

2. Barbie Yearbook: How much does Barbie know?

1959, at the new york Toy Fair, a gorgeous and moving idol was born. She is Barbie. One of the important reasons why she has swept the world for decades is that Barbie is full of imagination. Barbie is by no means a simple toy. This beautiful doll is endowed with the concept of dream. She leads people to play various roles. She can give full play to people's imagination and realize people's pursuit of dreams. Whether it is for family, friends or clothes, she can always change with the changes of girls and the world. Some interesting things have promoted your feelings for Barbie ... Idaho (short for Idaho)