Finishing Touches Accesory packs for 1978 Barbie Dreamhouse

I dont think many people bought these. I am not crazy about them. It has alot of pink on the packaging, another thing I think is best left in the eighties. Its best redeeming quality is that it is associated with the A frame smallhouse for Barbie. I think it was Mattel's way of saying, Okay you rich folk who spent over $100 on the house itself, plus dolls, clothes, accesories, etc, here is one more way we are trying to squeeze you for a few extra bucks. I think they go for about $6 bucks on ebay now. Notice the food paper cut outs.

Living Room Furniture with Green Desk for Barbie A frame Dollhouse

Here is a nice example of the Barbie A frame dollhouse living room furniture. I love the green, not so crazy about the peppermint candy stripes, but the green contrasts nicely with the house colors and makes sure you remember what decade it is. I dont love that the chair and couch resemble bean bag chairs, I prefer more crisp mid century shapes, but it is what it is. You very rarely find the box for this. If I had the TV i would change the chanel though, no offense B! I recently puchased a vintage yellow dish set and it included the vases/pitcher and cups seen here. I am still hunting for a complete desk set. The living room set came in combinations of green and orange, the German version is yellow with a brown, yellow and white fabric pattern (see variations from across the pond). ANd naturally was regruged as Pepto Abismal Pink for the 1985 re-issue of the orange, yellow and white A Frame.

How rare is that for it so have its original packaging still? Let's hope the buyer doesn't get too excited and remove the plastic parts trees and set it up. 

I am guessing this is a German issued set. Love the lamp and plant, not sure why these parts didn't make it to America. 

It is still possible to find 'never removed from factory packaging boxes online with accessories still on the plastic mold trees:

How Now Brown House? A Little Bit about Fading

This is what happens when the Barbie A frame is left in the attic for 25 years or direct sunlight। Everything turns a creamy brown-the yellow, the white and the orange. BROWN BROWN BROWN-bad bad bad. I brightened my Strawberry Shortcake Gazebo with soft scrub with bleach, but that didnt work on my A frame. You have to bath it (and yes it left a ring around my tub, ew!), clean and dry it really good with toothbrush and q tips, then spray paint it. I used a high quality Krylon all in one safe for plastic white spray paint. I have used primer and clear coat on past projects with disastrous results. something with how the different chemical layers react to each other leaving bubbling and crackling. The A frame I painted came out great, a bit powdery and not factory smooth but it went from brown/beige to bright white. I always buff out the texture to almost as smooth as before with an old tee shirt or extremely soft cloth. Totally worth it. You can see here how some windows fade to white while others are still yellow. if you want that crisp factory color for your A frame, after painting all the main structure parts white, you can simply reverse the windows and doors for the non-faded side (or apply yellow hardware/craft store tape trimmed to fit, see replacement parts post). You can get a crisp minty house for the price of a faded uncared for one. Suzy Orman would approve you! (for more detail on this check out the Brown vs White post)

Unfortunately, the windows are not immune to yellowing. Obviously, for the solid doors you can repaint, but for the clear all I can recommend is to cover the trim with yellow detail tape (as outlined in another post), if the pane yellowing is so bad then perhaps a complete custom replacement is in order. 

This house is a prime candidate for a color change.

1978 Mattel A Frame Barbie Dream Doll House Red roof yellow floors mod groovy 1970s 1980s custom OOAK

Substantial Pool Playset

The rare A frame pool with slide and shower. I guess they really were into the white railing with planter boxes. I would like to know what this cost originally. I dont own this one yet, but think it would go great between the main A frame house and the guest cottage house. In the factory photo, you can see the usually lost yellow side panels. UPDATE: top photo is the rear cover of a coloring book from unknown year.

The 1982 Cottage (Casita for those in California)

Here is a great example of a furnished A frame cottage. I like to think of it as the guest house rather than the house for poor kids who's parents couldn't afford the big house. Here is a link to a european cottage furnished with european issue furniture. http://www.flickr.com/photos/33359755@N00/2419187956/ and check out the german brochure pictures... http://www.flickr.com/photos/barbiecreations/3791337999/

The best feature of the larger house: making villas from side pieces. I wonder if the popularity of that sparked the idea for Barbie's 1982 Cottage doll house. 

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The Boxed Barbie DreamHouse

The huge box for Barbie's huge house.

Occasionally a MIB still has its original shipping carton, up top you can see the shipping label to the ToysRus that received it.

There were several incarnations of the box for the house. The first one is decidedly 70's complete with Ken's bell bottoms and the little girls turtle neck shirt. The later ones featured models wearing early 80's Laura Ingall's/Holly Hobby style dresses, the transitional photo of yellow/orange house with pink/white furniture and finally the pink house's box. These came furnished and unfurnished. On Feebay you will still occasionaly find houses never before removed from the factory packaging generally going for upwards of $300-$400.

Sorry the quality is not great. As ebay is disallowing right clicks on photos these days, I have to literally take a picture of the screen in order to capture the image. See they are earning their nickname Evilbay more and more every day. ;-)

The rarely kept unfurnished Dreamhouse box. Looks like a '78. 

The back of the 1982 oven box. 

Crisp minty parts, though not immune to bromine related fading. 

1978 Mattel A Frame Barbie Dream Doll House Red roof yellow floors mod groovy 1970s 1980s custom OOAK 

Finally!

Finally a website /blogsite devoted to the classic barbie A frame dollhouse. =-) I am excited to see the new pictures and info being published as the site gets established.