My Barbie books. My Barbie library is far from being complete, but it's getting there.

Oh, I didn't add my coloring books from the 90's or the Barbie Grolier books, which I'm still working on to complete.

Since 2010, I've been buying various doll identification guides. I definitely plan to buy more in the future, but these are the ones I have right now. I have pictures taken of each book, including what some of the pages look like. I also wrote little "reviews" for each one last summer which I'll be including with each cover photo. My favorite author is Margo Rana, my second is J. Michael Augustyniak, so most of my books are written by one of the two. I bought the majority of these on eBay or Barnes and Noble's website for super cheap (less than $10 with shipping), but I have gotten a few for free and I even got one at my flea market.

Books in photo:

-Barbie Four Decades of Fashion, Fantasy, and Fun (by Marco Tosa)

-A Decade of Barbie Dolls and Collectibles 1981-1991 (by Beth Summers)

-Barbie What A Doll! (by Laura Jacobs)

-The Ultimate Barbie Doll Book (by Marcie Melillo)

-Barbie A Visual Guide to the Ultimate Fashion Doll (no author)

-Collector's Guide to 1990s Barbie Dolls (by Maria Martinez-Esguerra)

-Barbie Exclusives Book I and Book II (by Margo Rana)

-Collectibly Yours Barbie 1980-1990 (by Margo Rana)

-Disney Dolls Identification & Price Guide (by Margo Rana)

-Thirty Years of Mattel Fashion Dolls 1967-1997 (by J. Michael Augustyniak)

-Barbie Doll Exclusives and More First and Second Edition (by J. Michael Augustyniak)

-Barbie Doll Photo Album 1959-2009 (by J. Michael Augustyniak)

-Barbie Doll Collector's Edition 2008 (by J. Michael Augustyniak)

-The Barbie Doll Boom 1986-1995 (by J. Michael Augustyniak)

This book in the only one I know of that covers newer play-line Barbie dolls from the 2000s. J. Michael Augustyniak includes dolls from 1959 to 2009 in this book, however it is not intended to be comprehensive. Rather, this book was designed to show a sampling of Barbie dolls from over the years. Obviously he chose to picture his favorite dolls so it is rather biased. Augustyniak organizes by release date and doll line. It is convenient in many ways that this book shows entire lines together. Under certain cirumstances I know an outfit is from a particular line, but I am not sure which character it was packaged with. Since he pictures entire lines together, I don't need to flip through the whole book to identify an outfit, rather I only need to find the page with all the dolls pictured on it. On the other hand, since I always personally use box dates (when applicable), I find his use of release dates rather confusing.

This book lacks organization and consistency. Augustyniak randomly includes head shots for dolls, rather sporadically. Not every doll featured in this book has a facial close-up, which makes it inconvenient to use for identification. I find this terribly frustrating. But again, J. Michael Augustyniak did not intend for this book to be comprehensive which is why his photographs are not consistent. I also do not care for the fact that he included random dolls such as Marie Osmond and other celebrity dolls not directly linked to the Barbie line. This is after all supposed to be a Barbie photo album. I feel like he could have used that space for more Barbie dolls, especially since he already has a book which covers these random celebrity dolls by Mattel (Thirty Years of Mattel Fashion Dolls). Another downside to this book is that it favors the vintage dolls indefinitely. So many books are written exclusively about vintage Barbie dolls, so it is quite disappointing that the only book that covers newer Barbies focuses on the older ones more. With the vintage dolls, Augustyniak wrote entire paragraphs in great detail. He took the time to mention and picture many of the variations (to the point of redundancy). As the dolls become more modern, he simply states their model number, release date, and "price." Augustyniak does not even bother to mention the existence of Hispanic and African American variants. This makes identifying Barbie's ethnic counterparts more of a chore since I have to guess which dolls have multiple variations.

Sadly, this book is no longer in print, which makes it difficult to purchase. I believe it was only available for one year before it's publication was discontinued. The online prices can be pretty steep for this book, which is why I felt it was very important to discuss its pitfalls. This was the most expensive collector book in my collection, but for me, it was worth the price. I use it regularly because I find Augustyniak's complete lines and modern Barbie photos very useful. I also appreciate that the vast majority of the dolls in the Barbie Doll Photo Album are play-line Barbies, not collector dolls (although he does have several pictures of collector dolls). The photo quality is superb for this book, unlike all of the other guides I have that are written by Augustyniak, which have very small, grainy photos. For this book, he chose to use very large, crystal clear images. This book is very fun to flip through, and I have familiarized myself with many of the later 2000s Barbie dolls since owning it.

This book is my favorite Barbie guide written by Margo Rana. I am an avid fanatic for 1980s Barbie dolls, so this book is perfect for me. It includes all of Barbie's friends and family dolls as well as a few fashion packs that were released from 1980 to 1990. Margo Rana goes by box date in her books, but she smartly chose to include dolls box dated 1979 since they were generally released in 1980. This is great for people like myself who prefer box dates, but also for those who choose to use release date instead. This book is organized chronologically by box date and doll line, similarly to The Barbie Boom by J. Michael Augustyniak. However, compared to The Barbie Boom, this book has much higher quality pictures, more in depth descriptions, and integrated exclusives/collector dolls (Augustyniak has a separate section for collector/exclusive dolls at the back of his book).

My number one reason for purchasing this book was for Margo Rana's enormous pictures. She pictured many dolls from different countries of manufacturer as well as ethnic variants. 1980s Barbie dolls are notorious for looking vastly unique depending on their country make. This is why I applaud Margo Rana for writing this book--I have yet to see another collector's book which goes into such depth about these variants. Even under the circumstances when she did not have variants to compare, Margo Rana always states the country make clearly in the description. If she didn't own the actual doll to feature in the book, she borrowed stock images from Mattel. While the stock images are not nearly as great quality as her own, I'm still very grateful that Margo Rana included these dolls in her book.

Like with most of her books, the majority of the dolls featured are de-boxed. Margo Rana did picture the empty boxes with many of her dolls, which is great for reference. I personally prefer that her dolls are mostly de-boxed because I feel like it's easier to see what each doll really looks like. Plus, I feel like Margo Rana "knew" her dolls better because she had actually handled them, giving her the ability to assess fabric quality, hair texture, etc. To me, these loose photos of dolls really set Margo Rana's books apart from all other Barbie guides. The only setback to her photographs is the fact that in some cases, she only has a facial close-up and back of the box photo, but not a full body photograph of her loose doll (but this is an uncommon occurrence). I am also not sure why she included a few photos of Mattel's Spectra dolls who are not Barbie related. I feel that they are very out of place in this book, but they are the only dolls in my opinion that "don't belong," the rest are all Barbie dolls. Also, while Margo Rana's descriptions contain a lot of very useful information, she does definitely give many of her personal opinions and "flourishing" descriptions, which may not be everyone's cup of tea. I personally enjoy seeing her personal perspective, however that does make the book more biased.

Being that I'm a second hand collector for the most part, I was very interested to learn that most of Margo Rana's dolls also came from flea markets and second hand stores. While this is definitely a biased opinion, I do think it is something to appreciate about Margo Rana's books, and it is a unique quality which sets her apart from most other authors, who mainly photograph mint in box dolls. I feel that this aids in her ability to describe and show multitudes of variants, many of which are not even touched upon in other guides. The amount of detail and effort put into Collectibly Yours Barbie is truly impeccable, including the large facial close-ups, detailed descriptions, and de-boxed doll photos. This book is very affordable to buy, comes in hardcover, and on top of that provides a wealth of information not discussed in other books.

The first Barbie Exclusives & More book by J. Michael Augustyniak covers exclusives and collector dolls from 1959 to 1996. It is organized by store and then sub organized by release date (Augustyniak never seemed to use box dates). The highlight of this book for me is his inclusion of exclusive fashion packs. Fashions are very difficult to find pictures of, so I truly appreciate that Augustyniak featured them. I feel that this book, like Margo Rana's exclusives guides, lacks depth and focuses on "value" more than anything else. Personally, I find the "values" in all collector books useless since they vary from person to person and become out of date very quickly. Basically, an author will deem values based on his or her bias. On a positive note, like Margo Rana, Augstyniak photographed Barbie's friends and family as well as her ethnic variants. I have noticed that some of his other books fail to mention the existence of ethnic counterparts, so it is very refreshing that they are not only mentioned in both his exclusives books, but also pictured. However, his photographs are significantly smaller since he put a minimum of two dolls on each page (sometimes he put even more). As a result, the photo quality is not the best. It also does not help that he mainly photographed boxed dolls either, since it is even more difficult to see details when a doll is still packaged. There is also miscellaneous Barbie merchandise such as ornaments, mugs, and ceramics. Personally, I would have preferred if these items were excluded so the dolls could have larger photographs. However, these items may be interesting and useful to other collectors. Augustyniak also features a section at the back of this book dedicated to collector Barbie dolls and one of a kind dolls. While I do feel that collector dolls fit with the "exclusives" theme, I really do not know why Augustyniak included them in this book. He wrote several books with the sole emphasis on collector Barbies. I think one of the largest setbacks Augustyniak had as an author was his tendency to overlap information to the point of redundancy. He basically hurt his own book sales since his information was reused time and time again in multiple books, even when it was not appropriate. Sadly, he did include new information in each book, but the repetitiveness of the inclusion of previous dolls and information completely distracts from this.

The second edition is set up just like the first, covering the same useful topics. He included everything from fashion packs, playsets, dolls, and other merchandise. It is also organized in the same manner. This book however covers from 1959 to 1999, so many dolls are newly introduced. Like I said before, Augustyniak does repeat many (perhaps all) of the same dolls featured in his first book (see my separate photo of his reused information for reference). In many cases, the pictures themselves seem to be identical. The descriptions are also mostly the same or vastly shortened. I also believe he removed many facial close-ups from this edition since much of the information is repeated. It is because of this fact that owning both books is needless as more or less of all the information is included in the second edition. There is also a third edition available, which is probably the most useful to own, although I do not have it myself so I cannot be sure. I felt very mislead when purchasing these books online because Augstyniak claimed that owning all the editions is vital. He did not say that the information was repetitive. Personally, I would have preferred it if like Margo Rana's books, each edition featured its own unique dolls. This would have sold more books, and made each one a more valuable edition to one's Barbie guide collection. On a positive note though, both his exclusives books feature commonplace play line dolls. I have identified many of my dolls and fashion packs using these books as a result. Even though I do not see a purpose in owning both the first and second editions, both my sister and I find ourselves constantly grabbing for one of these books when identifying dolls. We both recognize the wealth of information provided by them, and for that reason I feel it was money well spent. While both of Margo Rana's exclusives books are better organized and have much better photography, I feel that Augustyniak's books are more useful simply because he dedicated so much space to fashion packs, playsets, and other Barbie items, not to mention his books cover later dolls.

I thought I'd share some of my thoughts on the newest Barbie identification/collector guide in my collection, and since my pets got a few new things a month ago, included that footage as well. I hope you enjoy!

Video:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1c9XClqELuY&feature=youtu.be

All My Collector Books & Identification Guides video:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=63FTLmWbqPI&feature=youtu.be

This book showcases Barbie dolls and merchandise from 1981 to 1991, with the inclusion of Barbie's ethnic variants, friends, and family. This book is not remotely comprehensive though, and greatly lacks organization and consistency. It was actually sent to me by mistake when I ordered another doll book from eBay, but the seller let me keep it. It is definitely not a book I would have purchased myself, although it can be rather useful. The dolls have box dates, stock numbers, "values," outfit descriptions, and a single boxed photo. This book does not feature every doll marketed from 1981 to 1991, but includes a random sampling. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to which dolls were featured in this book--I'm not sure if this book simply covers several people's collections, or if there was some other way the dolls were chosen. It does not feature complete doll lines, and makes no mention of ethnic variations. In some cases, this book will show all the ethnic variants, but most of the time it only pictures one. The photos themselves are decent quality--they are fairly clear and bright. My complaint is that no doll has a facial close-up and inconveniently, some dolls' heads are turned in the package. Basically, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to conclusively identify a doll using this book. Some of the outfits are rather hard to see too.

My biggest pet peeve though has to be the complete lack of organization and consistency. The doll section is arranged in NO order. Most books are at least arranged in chronological order by release or box dates. However, this book is definitely not. There are 90s dolls crammed on pages with 80s dolls. This makes the book impossible to navigate through. Not to mention, I wouldn't be surprised at all if lines were split up. Also, there are times when there are roughly four dolls on each page, but in other circumstances, there might only be two. Therefore, the photos themselves are not consistent. None of the other sections are organized any better. In fact, the only real way this book was organized was by topic--dolls, gift sets, fashions, paper dolls, animals, activity sets, household, paper goods, publications, and miscellaneous.

Since this book lacks organization, is not comprehensive, and really cannot be used to conclusively identify a doll, I wouldn't suggest buying this book for its information on dolls. However, if you are interested in fashion packs, paper goods, and other merchandise, this book covers those topics. While none of the sections are comprehensive, I have not heard of many doll guides that cover things like paper dolls, coloring books, publications, etc. For me, I really only enjoy this book because it has fashion packs and playsets. I always appreciate photos of doll fashions since they can be very tricky to research online. I also like that she includes box dates and stock numbers since I like to document that information when storing my fashion packs. Generally speaking, Beth Summers only pictured fashions in their packages, and once in a while she included a photo of the back of the box. There are a few circumstances in which the fashion pack is modeled on a doll instead. While the playset section is interesting, I wouldn't say it is nearly as useful as the fashion packs. Sometimes the author included a photo of only the box, other times she featured both the box and the playset outside it. There are several cases in which she only pictured a fragment of the playset, such as a lone mirror or piano. I haven't seen this book too often while researching other doll guides, so I cannot say what it regularly costs online. However, due to the fact that it is organized in a very haphazard way, and can easily be supplemented by another, much better book, I would personally only recommend this for it's sections on assorted merchandise and fashion packs.

This book is a very small, useful guide that covers Barbie dolls from 1989 to 1997. Like Margo Rana, the author chose to use box dates but also included dolls from 1989 as they were generally released in 1990. This book only covers Barbie herself and her friends. It does not include any of Barbie's family members. Luckily, Maria Martinez-Esguerra does cover all of Barbie's ethnic variations, many of whom are not included in other books. I believe that this book only covers play line dolls, not collector Barbies or exclusives. This book is organized by blonde/red-haired dolls, African-American dolls, brunette/Hispanic dolls, and Asian/Native American dolls. Although this guide is very tiny, each doll has her own page, facial close-up, and doll in tray photo. This is very convenient since the dolls are in mint condition, but shoes and accessories are visible since the trays have been removed from the boxes. However, if you are interested in seeing packaging, this book does not show any boxes. This book also does not have any descriptions at all, but rather just states box date, doll name, model number, and "value." Any additional information that could be useful, such as repackaged dolls, gift sets, and other useful tidbits are not written about. The photo quality is superb though--it's easy to identify a doll using the facial close-ups featured in this book.

There really isn't much to "review" in terms of this book. It's very small and straightforward. It shows no bias or personal preference whatsoever. However I do feel like the lack of descriptions demonstrates less knowledge on the topic of Barbie when compared to other authors such as J. Michael Augsytniak and Margo Rana, both of whom seem to be an endless wealth of information. This book is very affordable and useful nonetheless. It's an easy, convenient way to begin identifying dolls from the 1990s. Plus, it's one of the few books I know of that features play line dolls made after 1995. I personally find this book very useful, and it's often one that I reach for when identifying 1990s Barbie dolls.

Of all the doll books in my collection, I would easily have to say that Thirty Years of Mattel Fashion dolls is the most unique. I find myself constantly pulling it off the shelf to flip through, not only for identification purposes, but also just for fun. This book covers Mattel Fashion dolls from 1967 to 1997. There are so many different dolls featured in this book, that I photographed the table of contents for reference. Personally, I use this book for it's information about Heart Family, Starr, Jazzie, Shani, Disney, and celebrity dolls. However, I have identified many rogue pieces of clothing that came with random Mattel dolls also included in this book. Each section is comprehensive, covering all the dolls, fashions, accessories, playsets, and variants. Augustyniak went to great lengths to explain each doll line and included a plethora of photographs. However, I wouldn't say that any of the pictures in this book are the best quality. They are all rather small, dark, and grainy. That being said, I do not feel that the photo quality takes away from this book's usefulness in any way, and it does not effect my recommendation.

Although I already owned the Disney Dolls Identification & Price Guide by Margo Rana, this book had other information that hers did not include. One of my favorite sections in this book is the one that covers the miniature Disney dolls. As far as I know, no other doll book includes them. He also pictured many different variations of Disney dolls and went into great detail explaining them. It is for this reason that I feel his section on Disney dolls can be used in combination with Margo Rana's book, making them both useful for collectors. I feel that all the dolls in this book, with the exception of Barbie, were covered with great care and effort. Every section seems to be comprehensive, the only set back being that he uses release date, which I'm personally not fond of. I really enjoy reading all his information, especially his introductions to each section. He even mentions other dolls, not made by Mattel, which influenced the dolls featured in the book (such as the Tyco Little Mermaid dolls).

Generally speaking, this book is arranged in a very user friendly manner. The only confusing way this book was organized occurs in the Disney section. For the most part, like Margo Rana, he sectioned the dolls by film. But for lines like the Signature Collection, Special Sparkles, and Princess Stories, which include dolls from different films, he arranged by line. I understand why he chose this approach, but I do feel it would have flowed smoothly and been a little less confusing if he had consistently arranged the doll by movie, rather than by line. My only major complaint about this book is the section he wrote about Barbie. Personally, I feel it was a waste of space. Firstly, because Augustyniak wrote so many other books exclusively on Barbie. Second of all, the Barbie section feels hideously out of place because it is not comprehensive like every other topic covered in the book. For whatever reason, Augustyniak decided to throw a random slew of Barbies in the book, without any rhyme or reason. I guess he featured the ones he deemed to be "iconic" or interesting. Truthfully, I don't spend any time using the Barbie section at all for this reason, and I feel the space would have been better used for other dolls.

In my opinion, this is probably Augustyniak's best work of all. I own several of his collector books, but none are nearly as great as this one. This book has seen regular, consistent use since I purchased it a few years ago. It's cover and pages are starting to show the wear as a result--I really wish it was hardcover for that reason. This book is truly a master piece and unlike any other guide I've read, it is truly comprehensive because it not only covers the dolls, but also all their fashions, playsets, etc. I feel that even though it has a few minor flaws, this book is still well worth the money and is among one of the most informative doll guides ever written!

Barbie Exclusives Book I is set up in the same manner as many of Margo Rana's other doll guides. She has amazing facial close-ups, mainly de-boxed dolls, and she uses box dates (although I've found a few errors with the dates). Unlike her other Barbie books, Margo Rana does not organize this guide by box date primarily, instead she sections it by store, and then by date. Since this book is only meant to cover exclusive Barbie dolls, this organization makes perfect sense. As a result, it flows very nicely and is easy to navigate through. This book covers department store specials, porcelain treasures, mail in dolls, wholesale club specials, Disney, Barbie's exclusive ethnic variants, as well as her exclusive friends and family from 1959 to 1995. There are also a few, but not many, store exclusive fashion packs and some shipping cartons pictured in this book. Each doll has an entire page, making the photos massive and clear which is ideal for identification. For the most part, each doll has a facial close-up and a full body photograph outside their box, with the back of the package behind them. There are a few stock photos, but the majority are taken by Margo Rana. Also, as with some of her other books, there are a few circumstances in which a doll does not have a body photograph, but rather only a facial close-up and a picture of the box. However, considering that each doll has his or her own page, I feel that the descriptions lack the detail and substance that Margo Rana's other doll books demonstrate. One of the things I dislike about this book is it's inclusion of Disney dolls that were store exclusives. I do not feel that Disney dolls should have been featured in this book as they are not directly linked to the Barbie line, for that matter, they have absolutely nothing to do with Barbie with the exception that Mattel reused some of Barbie's body and accessory molds. This book was not written about exclusive Mattel dolls, but rather about Barbie dolls, so I feel that the inclusion of Disney dolls is as extraneous as it would be if she had featured Monster High.

Margo Rana's Barbie Exclusives Book II is set up in an identical fashion as Book I. This book however features completely different dolls from the first edition. Unlike J. Michael Augsutyniak's exclusives guides, Margo Rana did not overlap any dolls between her two books. So buying both books makes perfect sense because you would require owning both in order to have coverage of all the exclusives. This second edition includes Toys 'R' Us exclusives, Dolls of the World, festival dolls, and customized dolls from 1959 to 1995. This book shares the same pros and cons and the first. The pictures are enormous and great quality, and the organization is superb. However, Margo Rana included random Disney dolls and Fashion Friends, and wrote descriptions that I feel were lacking the same interest and information that her other doll books provide. I also feel that there were far more dolls without full body photographs in this book than in the first. There are many circumstances where she only included a facial close-up and a picture of the back of the box. All in all, I personally recommend both books as they do a fabulous job of covering all of Barbie's exclusives up until 1995, and they are very inexpensive to buy.

This book is great for identifying Fashion Fever dolls. I believe he pictured all of them although I can't be sure.

I think Margo Rana did a beautiful job demonstrating the many variations of dolls. This page was very well done. She shows how the Dolls of the World Barbies compare when made in different countries.

One of the things I do not like about Margo Rana's Exclusives books is her inclusion of Disney dolls. Since they are not directly related to the Barbie line, I feel that they are irrelevant in a Barbie book. Not to mention, she already wrote a book exclusively on Disney dolls made by Mattel which is very comprehensive.

Maisie

Augustyniak organized the Barbie Photo Album by line, as shown here.

The author, Billy Boy, himself designed a Barbie, and she too is featured in this book. She was called “Feelin’ Groovy Barbie” and I have one, so I thought these additional pics might be nice. It was hard to get a decent close up as she’s NRFB, but I did my best. The artwork on the box is really lovely! The doll itself to me now has a very 80-ies feel to it, but she sports my favourite facemold (Steffie!) so I really love her.

By the way, in the early nineties the BBC did a documentary on Barbie, in which Billy Boy played a prominent role, although by that time he had fallen out of love with Barbie and had started designing his own fashion doll, called Mdvanii. To my surprise I found pics of this doll here on Flickr! Don’t know if she’s still being produced though.

This guide is broken up by ethnicity and character. Shown here are pages from the Brunette Barbie, Hispanic Teresa, and Tara Lynn section.

This book is hands down my most used collector guide. Considering how many decades it covers, this book is comprehensive. While a few dolls were missed, I would say the majority of dolls from 1959 to 1994 are covered and a large number of those from 1995 (but certainly not all). I like how this book is formatted. Every doll has an in box photo and a facial close-up. Marcie Melillo also goes by box date, which I personally prefer since it can't be disputed (J. Michael Augustyniak always goes by release date). She also includes a list of accessories and clothing items packaged with each doll, which is quite handy although they are not pictured. Each doll has his or her head and body markings as well as body and arm type listed. She describes each doll's hairstyle and eye color, which isn't quite as useful since everyone has their own idea of color. Sometimes she describes repackaged dolls with different makeup although they are in fact the same (for example 1976 SuperStar and 1980 Roller Skating Barbie are identical, but she describes their eyes as different colors).

Since this book is organized so logically and straight forward, I feel that each doll is talked about fairly equally. Many other books show a great deal of bias towards vintage dolls, but lack any description or detail about more modern dolls, however this book maintains a level of equality. One of the best parts about this book is the fact that Ken, Skipper, Stacie, Kelly, and Barbie's friends (as well as random dolls like Jazzie, Tutti, etc) from '59 to '95 are included. It's really handy how I can identify just about any Barbie type doll from that era using this book. Marcie Melillo also organized the African American, Hispanic, and Asian dolls into their own sections, which is great for ease of identification. Many books don't even mention Barbie's ethnic counterparts, but she even pictures them (this also applies to all Barbie's family members).

The only pitfall I find with this book is how it is organized at the back. For whatever reason, Marcie Melillo decided to put all the store exclusives and collector dolls separately. I find this confusing, since I feel like this book was mostly designed for identifying second hand dolls. To a second hand collector, we would have no idea a random Barbie doll was some sort of exclusive, especially since many exclusives are playline dolls. I feel the book would have flowed much better if the exclusives were integrated with the rest of the dolls especially since there are books written that just cover store exclusives. I also dislike how she jumbled all Barbie's friends and family at the back of the book--they don't even have their own section if they are store exclusives or collector dolls. I honestly think it is a nightmare identifying any doll who is pictured at the back of this book. I would say I have memorized most of the dolls in this book fairly well by now, since I've had it for about five years. However, I still get confused by the exclusive and collector sections. Other than the organization at the back of this book, I highly recommend the Ultimate Barbie Doll Book to any Barbie collector, since it is very comprehensive and detailed!

This tiny book is not geared towards identification, but rather is written about how Barbie has evolved over time. I actually got this book for free when I purchased another one off eBay. It is pocket sized, and contains very small, but clear photos. I wasn't expecting it to be useful at all, but on the contrary, it contains a ton of information. The book is divided into five sections--"A History in Pictures," "Home is Where the Heart Is," "Fashion and Fantasy," "Be Anything," and the reference section. This book focuses mainly on Barbie's relationship with current fashion trends and how she evolves over time. The dolls are arranged in a playful manner, so each page is a slew of random dolls and fashions. It is still great fun to flip through, especially since dolls from 1959 to the early 2000s are featured. What makes this book so handy is the fact that EVERY doll, fashion, and playset featured is catalogued in the reference section. So if I recognize a doll or outfit while flipping through the book, all I have to do is look up the page number in the reference section and find out who/what it is. It lists out the box date (I believe), the official name, and the stock number for all items pictured. While this book is very tiny and geared more towards pleasure reading, I would still recommend it as it is so much fun to look through and is quite useful!

As you can see, Augustyniak did not include facial close-ups for all the dolls in this book. He did include many of Barbie's friends and family members though.

This book spans from 1986 to 1995, and is intended to cover the time when the Barbie line really took off. It is organized chronologically by release date and has sections for store exclusives, collector series, and Canadian/European exclusives. It is almost like having four books lumped together into one, so it does not flow smoothly in my opinion. The organization is rather confusing, so much so that I cannot tell if this book is truly comprehensive. The entire book reminds me of the back of Marcie Melillo's "Ultimate Barbie Book," which is extremely hard to navigate through. Augustyniak includes Barbie's friends, family members, and ethnic variants, however they are not subdivided into their own sections. Instead, he arranges all the dolls by line, which can be convenient. Most doll guides rarely picture entire doll lines together along with ethnic variations, which is part of what makes this one so handy.

The pictures in this book are very poor quality, as is the case with many of Augustyniak's books. They are very small and grainy. There are also many dolls featured on each page, which effects how visible each picture is. None of dolls have facial close-ups. In fact, Augustyniak only chose to show boxed photos for each doll. In many ways, this book reminds me of "A Collector's Guide to 1990s Barbie dolls" by Maria Martinez-Esguerra. Like the 1990s book, Augustyniak did not write detailed descriptions. Instead he only wrote the release date, doll name, the "value," and once in a while he included a random fact about the doll. Therefore, there is not nearly as much information in this book as with Augustyniak's other works. I'm actually surprised that this book does not go into more detail since it was intended to cover a very specific time frame (from 1986 to 1995). Usually books that focus on a shorter span of time go into more depth, but that isn't the case with this one.

Honestly, I feel that Augustyniak tried to do too many things with this book, but failed to do any of them well. He decided to feature exclusives and collector series dolls, when once again he already wrote books (which are much more detailed) on them. He did not include a single facial close-up, which is very valuable when trying to identify dolls. He provided virtually no additional information. The only consistent information he provided was boxed photos and release dates (which is inconvenient for me since I prefer box dates). Therefore, I would say that this book is a starting point for research, but generally one would need to use the internet or other collector books for more in depth, conclusive information. Personally, I feel that "The Ultimate Barbie Book" is far superior, and not only covers the same information as this book, but it also incorporates much older dolls, contains facial close-ups, and provides more detailed descriptions. It is for this reason that I hardly ever utilize "The Barbie Doll Boom" for doll research--it's only advantage, other than it's affordable online price, is it's display of complete doll lines.

This book exclusively covers collector edition Barbie dolls including her friends and family members. Augustyniak features all of Barbie's various ethnic counterparts, and even included facial close-ups for them. I find looking at all the many variations very interesting, and extremely handy for identification purposes. I do feel that his photograph quality lacks in that the pictures are very small and the dolls are boxed generally speaking. As I've mentioned before, I find it hard to see what a doll truly looks like when photographed in his/her box. I am pleased that Augustyniak included facial close-ups for every doll in this book though. For the most part, it seems like he didn't picture more than three different Barbies on each page (not including variations), so I feel that everything is spaced out nicely. He also included many pictures of packaging for those who are interested in boxes. This book is organized by series and then subdivided by release date. Each item has a decently lengthy description, a "value," a release date, and a stock number. This book also features a multitude of one of a kind dolls at the back. I appreciate how Augustyniak also included pictures of collectible fashion and accessory packs in this book as well, not just dolls. However, like with several of his other books, he chose to include random Barbie related merchandise such as mugs, ceramics, purses, and posters, which are jumbled with the dolls. To me, I feel that these random items interrupt the flow of the book, but to some they may find these pictures useful.

One of the major pitfalls with this book is the fact that Augustyniak covered many of the dolls in his other books. As I have mentioned several times now, he always had the tendency to include redundant information in his books, making it somewhat pointless to purchase them all. I own two of his Barbie exclusives books, and I can tell that he pictured many of the same collector dolls in all three books. This repetitiveness of information makes me very wary and hesitant to purchase anymore of his books. I believe there are several Collector Encyclopedias available written by Augustyniak. I believe this 2008 edition is the newest, which is why I purchased it. I cannot say for sure if his previous editions contain all the same information or not, but I would assume they would.

Being more of a play line collector, I don't use this book particular often, especially since many of the dolls are featured in books I prefer more, such as his second edition exclusives book. I think that this book would be incredibly useful and interesting though for the individuals whom are very interested in collectible Barbie dolls and one of a kind dolls. This book is very thick and comes in hardcover, so it is definitely worth the price if these dolls are the type that interest you. Since it spans up to 2008, it includes many dolls that have not been featured in any other books, because it seems that the most prevalent time for Barbie books ended in 1995. All in all, I would say that this is one of Augustyniak's finer books since it is well organized and he seemed to stay on topic for the most part, and although his pictures are on the small side, they are much brighter and crisper than those in his other books.

Margo Rana pictured many country make variations in her book. This page demonstrates how she not only shows facial variation, but also differences between outfits.

As you can see, Margo dedicated each page to one doll. The photographs are very large and crystal clear. She also included pictures of the back of the doll's box.

Philippa

Some of the pages only contain one large photo of a doll. None of the dolls in the book are labeled, and neither are any of the fashions.

Shown here are two pages of the activity sets section. Basically, this part of the book features a few playsets, as does the household section.

While this book is not geared towards identification, each doll pictured is labeled on each page, as shown here.

Brandon

One of my favorite aspects about Augustyniak's Exclusives books is his inclusion of fashion packs. This is extremely handy when trying to identify doll clothing.

One of my favorite sections in this book is the one that features playsets. While it's not intended to be an identification guide, this book does contain many useful pictures, all of which are indexed in the back.

I really don't have anything to review in terms of this book. I bought it several years ago under the pretense that it contained many Barbie fashions. However, it is honestly nothing more than a glorified picture book. It contains zero information and in the four years I've owned it, I've never identified anything using it. Basically, it is intended to be a fun book that demonstrates Barbie's evolving fashions through the years. The author writes as Barbie and tells her "story." The pictures do not appear to be her own--they all look like stock photos taken by Mattel, or ones used for trading cards. None of the dolls or outfits featured in the book are labeled. Not to mention, some dolls are repeated multiple times. While the pictures are rather large, since they are not labeled, they are useless for id. Laura Jacobs did put a date next to each picture, but I'm guessing she used release dates, and very vague ones at that. I would definitely never repurchase this book, and if I needed the room, I would feel no pain donating it.

One of the most useful sections in this book is the one that covers fashion packs.

As you can see, Margo Rana did not fail to picture all the ethnic variants of exclusive Barbie dolls. She kept all the variations of Barbies together in the books as well, as long as they were both exclusives made for the same store.

Ethnic variants are not pictured together as shown here, meaning the two versions of Ocean Friends Barbie, for example, are separated. African American Barbies are organized with Christie.

1. snowman......., 2. pyrex xmas ad 2, 3. halloween pin up, 4. vintage halloween, 5. rope, 6. alec-baldwin3, 7. #3 blonde in box, 8. mario lopez,

9. dress shirt, 10. xmas3, 11. muscleman, 12. strippes, 13. steve_kelso, 14. ripped, 15. cub the builder, 16. superhero,

17. cubby744, 18. tom dixter, 19. Colton_Ford_5, 20. under the tree, 21. pyrex, 22. botany ties, 23. oh gawd, 24. gay santa,

25. Titanic newspaper, 26. daddy hunt, 27. latino, 28. cubby7-14-10, 29. uncut bed, 30. hairy-chest, 31. Mr and Mrs clause from Mary, 32. #3 Brunette in box,

33. cop, 34. Tea with Santa, 35. hotness, 36. billy darnell, 37. tightey whiteys, 38. cubby742, 39. lady in red, 40. halloween postcard 1,

41. lilac prom 1, 42. 1924 designer, 43. johnathan logan, 44. after the shower, 45. val8, 46. spiegel 4, 47. wow, 48. dolce,

49. weissmuller11, 50. lifeguard, 51. 50s organdy formal, 52. Jantzen swimwear, 53. Ellie the Elephant, 54. trick or treat, 55. colrs, 56. wetbear,

57. little black Dress, 58. cloud speedo, 59. sept1946, 60. sleeping beauty, 61. pyrex, 62. true colors ad, 63. christmas with kfc, 64. barbiebook,

65. page3, 66. Calendar Girl June, 67. Jan1946, 68. eve, 69. Pink Valentine, 70. spiegel 7, 71. colton_ford_1, 72. page1

Created with fd's Flickr Toys

As you can see, the author did not arrange her book in chronological order. Rather, she simply place random dolls on every page.

This book includes an astounding number of assorted fashion dolls produced by Mattel. Here is a glimpse at one of these sections in the book.

Augustyniak wrote about a variety of Mattel's celebrity dolls. He also included all of the fashion packs and playsets made for them.

While Augustyniak did include some Barbie dolls in this book, it was by no means a comprehensive section. In fact, he included random Barbie dolls without facial close-ups. This section is not useful, and would have been better off used for some other Mattel fashion doll.

Margo Rana not only included a wide variety of ethnic and country make variations, but she also pictured all of Barbie's friends and family members from 1980 to 1990, as well as their variations.

The author, Billy Boy, himself designed a Barbie, and she too is featured in this book. She was called “Feelin’ Groovy Barbie” and I have one, so I thought these additional pics might be nice. It was hard to get a decent close up as she’s NRFB, but I did my best. The artwork on the box is really lovely! The doll itself to me now has a very 80-ies feel to it, but she sports my favourite facemold (Steffie!) so I really love her.

By the way, in the early nineties the BBC did a documentary on Barbie, in which Billy Boy played a prominent role, although by that time he had fallen out of love with Barbie and had started designing his own fashion doll, called Mdvanii. To my surprise I found pics of this doll here on Flickr! Don’t know if she’s still being produced though.