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Pictured above from the left: Birthstone Barbie (Muse Body), Teresa (Muse Body), and Jewel Girl (also known as "Generations Girl") New Body Barbie. The Birthstone Barbie wears its original white lace dress with a white velvet bolero short jacket.
Muse Body Barbie
By: Roselyn Gadia Smitley
I recently acquired a nude Barbie from the local thrift shop in my town and noticed that the body of this doll is of hard plastic of the muse type body. Upon close examination against the "Birthstone Barbie", this newly acquired doll is almost identical to the former with the exception of the bent left knee of the Birthstone Barbie. Height was of the same size at eleven and a half inch.
The head sculpt of the Birthstone Barbie was of the Steffie Mold. The newly acquired muse body doll was of the Teresa (2005) head mold. This Teresa Barbie has streaks of purple hair on both sides of the head. The same head mold appeared on the playline Barbie called "Cali Girl". This is the "Surf-Beach" series (2005 stamp on back of head) with the flat large feet. The Surf-Beach series came only with a bathing suit, without shoes. Due to the oversize head of the doll, some collectors call these playline type as the "Bubblehead Barbie". I checked the connection of the head to the body of this Teresa mold muse doll, just in case the head was swapped with a different body. The head is anchored firmly and appears to have been factory manufactured. A check in the Ebay selling site also confirmed that a Teresa muse doll of this type has been produced as there is one for sale.
Body size comparison of the muse-bodied dolls against the new-body Barbie yield no size differences in measurements. Clothing fit both the muse-bodied Barbie as well as the new body (referred to by collectors as "belly button body", eleven and a half inch in height, and high heeled Barbie). The muse-bodied Barbie differed on the bent positioning of the right arm (which placed the right hand on the hip) and the bent positioning of the left knee. The regular new (belly-button body) Barbie has straight legs and straight arms. All three dolls featured in the photo are belly-button bodies.
One of my favorite pastimes is to design clothes for fashion dolls. Visits to regular stores, thrift shops, and online sites often yield excellent models for very reasonable prices. The two dresses featured in the middle photo (Muse Teresa Barbie) and at the right photo (Jewel Girl Barbie) were custom made for the dolls. All dolls were acquired for $1.99 each. Collecting and sewing for Barbie can be such fun, without breaking the bank! Happy collecting!
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