For those who prefer their Barbies at a manageable 10 inches and want them glamorously clothed, Mattel and designer Bob Mackie have made two limited-edition Barbies. The $250 Empress Bride wears an antebellum tulle skirt, a beaded tiara and a floor-length veil that could double as My Size Barbie’s hankie. Neptune’s Fantasy Barbie is a miniature Vegas diva. For $170, she comes wrapped in green sequins and a teal velvet cloak whose spiked collar frames her head like a claw. What with the choker, earrings and skunklike green stripe through her big platinum hair, she could be the headline act at a Lilliputian Tropicana.
Better still, she could get a job at the Barbie Magic Talk Club (cover charge: $100, no drink minimum). This technologically wondrous disco is wired to make the dolls say things like, “Help me pick a hot dance tune.” And that’s just one of the 15 “unique conversations” Magic Talk offers-which is far more than you’ll hear at the average human club. Maybe Barbie can be a girl’s best friend after all. At least, until the arrival of a three-foot Ken.
