Barbie At 50: Still One Of The Best Selling Toys On Earth

O.K., this isn’t the most earth shaking news you’ll read today. But for millions of girls still young at heart, it’s a major milestone. Barbie, the doll that single handedly saved the Mattel toy company, turned 50 years old on Monday.

And while she’s changed a lot over the years, she certainly doesn’t look her age.

The doll was created by Ruth Handler, whose husband co-founded the toy company. How she did it has become the stuff of legend. She first noticed that her own daughter like to play dress-up with paper dolls and wondered if a more permanent facsimile would work.

And then on a trip to Germany, Handler bought her kid a doll called Bild Lilli, a popular plaything in that part of the world.

But as virtuous as Barbie may be – despite Ken’s best efforts – her inspiration may not have been. The original German model was based on one of that country’s most popular comic strips about a well built young adult female who was more than willing to use men to get what she wanted.

The doll was sold as an adult toy but when kids began dressing it up in available suits – and Handler saw her daughter doing the same thing – she begged her husband to consider the idea.

The company wasn’t that interested but agreed to try the idea. It debuted at a toy show in New York on March 9, 1959 – now Barbie’s birthday – and became an instant hit, backed by a huge advertising blitz. It sold some 350,000 pieces the first year alone.

After that, the floodgates were open. Barbie – named after the Handler’s daughter – soon had gowns for every occasion, including the prom, fashion shows and the endless professions she’s worked in. (You’d think such a successful woman could keep a job. But apparently not.)

She got her own car and numerous incarnations of homes. She’s had more than 40 different pets (all sold separately.) And then came her endless series of friends and relatives, including Skipper and Midge, all with their own accessories, worth mega millions to Mattel.

She’s also been the centre of controversy for her impossibly perfect body size (encouraging anorexia in young girls?); her bust size (which was toned down in the 1970s); her sideways glance (which was adjusted to make her look forward); her bathing suits (too revealing said some prudes); and her 1992 pronouncement that “Math class is tough!” which sparked criticism from some women’s groups that she was a role model for the quintessential dumb blonde.

Whatever the controversies, the product has stood the test of time. It’s estimated one of the dolls is sold every three seconds somewhere in the world and that the average girl owns 12 of them.

But Barbie sales have fallen in recent years as kids turned towards more interactive computer games. The solution? Put her on software and create the virtual Barbie, keeping the cash flow coming.

There aren’t a lot of products that have hit the market that still sell so well half a century later. And her success may be proof that the simplest things in life last the longest.

Mothers are anxious to give their daughters the Barbie experience they had; the variety of ways to access the character have exponentially increased; and there’s no shortage of ads aimed at kids to get the message across.

But in the end, Barbie’s success may be most attributable to something not even technology can replace – the limitless imagination of a child and the desire to be a grown-up in a kid’s world. And that may be something even money can’t quite buy.

Here are some other Barbie facts only a true fan would know:

Full name: Barbie Millicent Roberts
Age: 50
Hometown: Willows, Wisconsin
Original measurements: 36-18-38
Number of careers (so far): at least 100
First pet: “Dancer,” a horse
Favourite colour: pink
First belly button: Appeared in 2000

Who was Ken based on?: Handler’s son, also named Ken.
Ken’s last name: Carson
Their status: They broke up in 2004 but got back together two years later.

First model: sold for $3
Present value for an original 1959 edition: About US$27,550, but only if it’s mint in a box.

Satirized on the Simpsons: As Malibu Stacy, which means you know you’ve made it.

Photo credit: Alli Harvey/Getty Images