Barbie: Princesses of the World

It has recently come to my attention that Barbie has been producing "Princess" dolls for years. Princesses, you say? That´s old! Well, yes. Who hasn´t played with a princess doll/barbie when they were young? I know I have! There must be thousands of princess versions wandering around.

What has made me feel interested in Barbies once more, after so many years--I really thought I´d outgrown Barbies by the time I was 15, excluding babysitting contexts--is that they have been releasing special princesses: "Princesses of the World".

So, we get to see Barbies with different ethnic characteristics. Yay! That´s not new either, though--there is a "Barbies of the World" series! Well, yes, but these are World Princesses, I tell you. Any 4-year-old would accept that as an unrefutable argument as to why they´re better, but I see that you require more than that!

Here are images of some of my favorites:

Princess of Imperial Russia

Princess of China

Princess of the Korean Court

Princess of India

Princess of South Africa

Princess of Japan

All of the princess outfits have a lot more detail and (theoretically) better construction and quality in cloth and details than the regular "Dolls of the World" Barbies. Which is good, in my opinion. I´d actually buy quite a few of these. The term "Princess" is used oh-so-loosely, though!

The only ones that miffed me a bit were:

Princess of Holland

Because she supposedly hails from 17th century Holland in her official profile, when Holland didn´t even exist until past half of that century (80 Years war with Spain, anyone?). I´m nitpicking, but still....

Princess of the Portuguese Empire

Because, really, Portugal? If you´re going for an Empire go with Spain (or Rome). We´re next to each other, after all, and during the time this dress seems to be based off of, we were probably mid-unification with Portugal anyhow. We sure shared the same fashion. Offended Spanish pride speaking here, but still...we always get left out. *frown* In the Dolls of the World we get:

It´s so incredibly ugly and misrepresentative that I´ll just continue denying its existence after this line. So, that last Princess Doll, if I ever buy it, will get the following new name: Princess of the Hispano-Portuguese Empire. Because it doesn´t specify a timeline in her "profile" and it really happened (Look up Philip the II of Spain if you´re curious).

I´d like to finish off this princessy post with a rather interesting (if admittedly stereotypical) Princess doll. It, in my opinion, adds a rather whimsical note to all of the princess talk.

Princess of the Vikings

What can I say? She reminds me of Thor, I love her helmet and I want her armor. At the very least, it´s quite innovative of Mattel. I´ve never seen a Barbie with battle armor before this one! (and I love it) I could totally picture her riding a white horse (hm, that´d be a Valkyrie, though, wouldn´t it?). A shame that her level of dress detail is inferior to that of the other Princess Dolls. Though the armor almost completely makes up for it.