Midge - She's Barbies Best Friend

It was 1963 when Barbie's best friend Midge Hadley rocked into town, she had blue forward facing eyes, freckles, a cheeky smile and a flip hair-do, furthermore Midge was also available with no freckles, painted teeth and side glancing eyes (these versions of Midge are hard to find). The choice of 3 hair colours were available: blonde, brunette or titan. Each hair colour sported a different 2 tone coloured bikini: Blonde = light blue top, dark blue bottoms, Brunette = pink top, red bottoms and Titan = yellow-green top, orange bottoms. Each Midge doll came with white open toed shoes, a stand and a booklet.

 Teeth Midge

 Freckle-less Midge

Midge never had any official Midge clothing of her own, thank goodness for best friend Barbie whom she could borrow clothes from. In 1964 "Kens buddy" Allan Sherwood hit the scene as Midges boyfriend, he disappeared after 1965 and reappeared in 1990 when Wedding Day Allan was released. Midge got into the disappearing   act herself and vanished after 1967 only to reappear in 1988 when California Dream Midge was released. Midge and Allan were married in 1990 and later ended up having a family when the Happy  Family series was released in 2003 (more on that in another post).

Wedding Day Midge Giftset 1990

Happy Family Midge 2003

Midge celebrated her 30th anniversary in 1993 with the release of a reproduction porcelain Midge dressed in  a reproduction of vintage outfit Senior Prom. In 1998 the 35 anniversary Midge doll was released, this time it was a reproduction of a titan haired Midge in original yellow-green and orange swimsuit alongside with a reproduction of the Senior Prom outfit and a reproduction of the original box she came in. This year (2013) marks the 50th anniversary of Midge.

35th Anniversary Midge 1998

The Steffie Face

It was 1972 when the most beautiful face in the  Barbie doll world hit the shelves of toy stores, that face belonged to Steffie and since then has therefore been dubbed the "Steffie head."   It was designed by Martha Armstrong Hand and used for the first time in 1972 with the release of Walking Lively Steffie.

 Walking Lively Steffie

Martha Armstrong Hand

According to Barbie Collector magazine (spring 2008) Mattel scrapped head molds if not used for a period of time, the Steffie head mold has never been out of production since its release. Over the years many of Barbies friends and relatives have used the Steffie head mold, some of which include Barbie's cousin PJ, 

Malibu PJ

 Midge (who came out in 1963 and disappeared after 1967) reappeared in 1988 when California Dream Midge was sold. This doll used the steffie face mold  

California Dream Midge

Whitney, Kelley and Tara Lynn. Also Barbies African American friends used this head mold one of which was African American Barbie released in 1980

                    African American Barbie 1980

Today this head mold is still used and hopefully will be around for many more years to come! :)