Barbie is “selling” her in famous Malibu Beach house!

It is now on Trulia going for an imaginary 25 million dollars which started last week, February 7th. Josh Altman is an agent in Malibu that works with all the celebrities in the area and is going to help Barbie sell what was once her “dreamhouse.”  Don’t worry though, Barbie is set to move into a whole new house which will be unveiled this Fall!

And that dining room Barbie….we have to get you some new pieces! We know you tried so hard to “mismatch” your table and chairs so it didn’t look like it came as a set, but it still looks very Pottery Barn. Please let us modernize this space! Is your chandelier colored murano glass? Looks like it and if so, bravo Barbie! The architecture is nice in here- let’s accentuate that!

Barbie’s kitchen is what you’d expect- pink, pink, pink but after all, this is 2012 and pink cabinets are just not the fad anymore (trust me Barbie, I just painted over mine!) I know the truth is harsh sometimes, but you really need to paint your cabinets white and install carrarra marble countertops.  No, the veining is not pink, it’s gray but I think you could live with that right? Ok, ok we get it- you only want polished pink Tenessee marble.

And now for Barbie’s bedroom! Barbie is just not as young as she once was (sigh). Though her old bedroom is cute, it is also juvenile and screams “I’m still living with my parents”. Barbie, we would give you something mature and feminine, but also stylish. Do you really think Ken will ever pop the question if he knows this will be his future bedroom?

Well, maybe he would if he sees this fantabulous blue hot tub/bath combo complete with a partial pergola, overlooking the beaches of Malibu- (and not to mention, it’s about the only “manly” thing in this house!)

 we will hand it to you- your bathroom isn’t too shabby.  It looks like you did some pink barbie subway tile with white beadboard above. We like this in theory, but I think you could switch this to 48″ high white beadboard below and wallpaper above.  There are so many great wallpapers out there, what’s stopping you? The heart towel holders though have got to go- that’s where we draw the line!

                                  Barbie's New Car and Barbie's New house

Barbie Selling 'Pinktastic' Malibu Dream House For $25 Million

What is bright pink, three stories tall and sits on the beach? Barbie’s Malibu Dream House, the plastic structure that girls everywhere have used to play house since 1971. Now, five decades and more than 10 remodels later, the mock Malibu spread is hitting the sales block.

Price tag: a whimsical $25 million.

“After 40 years living in Malibu, Barbie has got a lot of really great memories: she has had over 130 careers, she got back together with her boyfriend [Ken], she just finished her first season of a reality show,” says Lori Pantel, a vice president of global brand marketing at Mattel. “She felt there was no better time to sell the Dream House and see what else is out there.”

The reason behind the fanciful announcement: Mattel is discontinuing the Malibu Dream House and kicking off a marketing campaign that will culminate in the fall with the unveiling of a brand new dollhouse with a new back story tied to a new locale — just in time for the holiday shopping season.



Mattel has engaged a real real estate agent for the campaign: Josh Altman, a Los Angeles-area realtor with luxury brokerage Hilton & Hyland and a cast member of Bravo’s series Million Dollar Listing.

Aspiring bidders can check out the Dream House’s MLS page on Trulia.com, a real estate search engine that displays more than 4.5 million U.S. home listings. From the listing: “Designed as the ultimate bachelorette compound, it’s perfect for A-Listers, internet entrepreneurs, entertainment moguls and dolls of all ages who love to entertain yet want to relax and take in the never-ending ocean view.” The address is listed as “not disclosed,” as is often the case with high-end homes of rich and famous owners.

So what does $25 million in play-money fetch? It’s described as a scaled, three-story townhouse spanning 8,500 square feet and unobstructed views of the ocean. The one-bed, one-bath “pinktastic” home has a full-floor master suite with a balcony, a custom closet capable of storing hundreds of shoes and dresses, a rooftop outdoor hot tub, a pink elevator and oodles of glamorous finishes like diamond accents and crystal chandeliers. It’s also wired for sounds and lighting, as facetiously described on the listing page: “This is the only home in Malibu with a self-flushing toilet and fireplace that crackles even when it’s not on.” Current retail price at Toys ‘R’ Us: $170.oo.

Barbie could use a PR pick-me-up – it’s still the No. 1 fashion doll and No. 1 girls’ brand globally, but Barbie sales fell roughly 4% in the fourth quarter, Mattel reported when it released earnings last Friday, making for the third quarterly decline in 2012. The company is planning to milk the home sale campaign for all it’s worth – estate sales are in the works for when Barbie has to vacate the premises. “So this year at retailers you may see Barbie selling her furniture,” says Pantel. “You may find girls running to stores to get last pieces.”

As for the next play set? Fans will have the opportunity to weigh in on where Barbie’s next home should be located and what it should include. A few features are a given based on modern-day home trends and the Barbie mythology, says Pantel: Expect state-of-the art technology, stainless steel appliances (and possibly pink-hued granite kitchen countertops), a big closet to house her amazing wardrobe, more space for her friends and pets, and loads of pink.

Mattel has roped in four high-profile designers – Jonathan Adler, Lulu de Kwiatkowski, Celerie Kemble and Trina Turk – to aid Barbie in planning her new home.

The very first play set debuted in 1962 as a Modern-style studio fashioned of cardboard with tiny pink plastic hangers in the closet and miniature records touting real-life band names hanging on the walls. It retailed for $8.00. In 1971, Malibu Barbie hit store shelves, and with her, the first Malibu Dream House. Over the next 40-odd years it morphed with the times: during the mid-1970s it was a three-story townhouse painted in turquoise, bright yellow and brown; in 1979 it became an A-frame, two-story structure with working doors and windows and vinyl and plastic furniture; in the ’80s a second townhouse debuted with a pink elevator; in the early ’90s it became a two-story spread with “working” telephone and doorbell and a “lit” fireplace; and in 1998 a bubblegum-hued version was launched sporting a porch swing, stained-glass windows and a balcony.

Barbie’s timing in putting the Dream House on the block is impeccable: it’s a seller’s market in Malibu, with a slew of record luxury home purchases in recent months, including a $75 million billionaire purchase in January. “In any market Barbie’s house would be a rare listing, but especially now when inventory is so tight,” quips Jed Kolko, chief economist at Trulia.

Just how close is Barbie’s real estate story to reality? Kolko dug into Census data to see how common it has been over the years for single young women (aged 25-34) with no children to own a single-family detached home. The answer is not very: currently only 1.6% of women in that demographic do. In 1962, when the first Dream House debuted, it was one in a 1,000. “Looking at her living situation over time, it’s still rare, but it’s about 15 times more common,” explains Kolko. “Looking at how rare or common Barbie’s living situation is actually tells us about the changes in homeownership that young women have experienced in the U.S.”

Taiwan's First Barbie Cafe Is Open For Business

 

The first Barbie-themed restaurant has opened in Taiwan, where Barbie dolls were originally manufactured. 

Barbie has inspired many things in her 54-year existence: little girls’ imaginations, artwork and feminist ire among them. Now Barbie Cafe, a restaurant dedicated to the doll, has opened in Taiwan and it’s as pink and plastic as one might expect.

The restaurant has been licensed by Mattel, the US toy manufacturing giant and creator of Barbie, and has opened in Taipei, Taiwan’s capital city. Mattel hopes that the café, located in the shopping district of the city, will promote Barbie as a fashion brand. The staff who work at the restaurant sport a not-entirely practical uniform of pink Barbie logo T-shirts, matching tutus, Barbie logo armbands and glitter and tiaras on their heads. The fashion lines available on the Mattel website include a similar pink tutu intended for toddlers.
Iggy Yip, a senior managers at Mattel’s Greater China division, commented on the café: “We picked Taiwan because theme restaurants are very popular and successful here. We are very confident that the Barbie Cafe can promote our brand image ." There are also hopes that the café will attract Barbie fans from China, Hong Kong and Japan. Taiwan used to manufacture the Barbie dolls until the 1980s, when Mattel moved its production lines to China.
The café is 660 square metres of pink dining space, furnished with fashionable illustrations of Barbie in a range of outfits on the walls and chairs, which have red corset-style lacing and tutus around the seats.
Local office worker Jessica Ho, who has a five-year-old daughter, approved of the venture. She said, “My child and I both love Barbie and this lovely and cute place is like a dream come true for us. I will take her here to celebrate her next birthday."
Mattel’s products include the Spa to Fab Barbie and the career-inspiring I Can Be Pancake Chef Barbie, as well as 22 dolls themed around the beauty industry. Barbie has consistently come under attack for presenting an unrealistic image of femininity to young girls.
Rhiannon Williams, editor of feminist website The Vagenda Magazine, commented on the café: “I cannot imagine anything less pleasant and more nausea-inducing than a Barbie themed restaurant. Not only because I prefer low-impact environments and none of the major food groups are pink for a reason, but also because Barbie is an outdated model of stereotypical femininity and needs to die a death.”
A Barbie restaurant opened in China in 2009 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the doll, but it was closed two years later amid reports that the outlet was unsuccessful. Theme restaurants are popular in Taiwan. Taipei has a restaurant based on eating in an airliner, complete with air hostess waiting staff and trolleys and a hospital-themed bar, where customers consume ‘medicine’ drinks from drips or are ‘syringed’ by waitresses. Curious tourists can also enjoy a meal at the Modern Toilet, where food is served from tiny lavatories, and customers sit on loo seats. The cat café phenomenon is popular in Japan, where customers can enjoy contact with cats after a drink.