Barbie and Sindy in the 80s

[mnahmnah]

Hi

I’ve been reminiscing with a friend about our favourite Christmas presents as children in the 80s. We both loved Sindy and Barbie and both got the three-storey townhouse one year for Christmas and a swimming pool. But we remember the swimming pools differently. Hers was the one that shows up on Google images now, whereas I can’t find any trace of mine. I’ve checked with my mum and she confirms I remember it correctly.

Did any of you have the same one I wonder - it was free form style, with a graduated Rocky/grassy edge to it and a plateau for a sun lounger. I can’t remember if it was Barbie or Sindy.

Also, did any of you have a pink and purple Barbie nightclub, with a revolving dance floor and a disk shaped backdrop with flashy lights? Another I distinctly remember, but doesn’t show up anywhere on Google!

Pippa was not related to Sindy or Barbie!

She was pocket sized (I had 3 of them including Mandy and Tammie)

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pippa_(doll)

What a great thread!
I had the cardboard Sindy house and then was lucky enough to the 3 floor house. I had the pool on the top!
So many happy hours spent playing with my Sindys and Barbies.
My mother sold the house to the local playgroup for a fiver, as she felt I was too old to play with it. I think I was 12... (am now 46 and obvs still bear a small grudge 😆)

@feathers7

What a great thread! I had the cardboard Sindy house and then was lucky enough to the 3 floor house. I had the pool on the top! So many happy hours spent playing with my Sindys and Barbies. My mother sold the house to the local playgroup for a fiver, as she felt I was too old to play with it. I think I was 12... (am now 46 and obvs still bear a small grudge 😆)

Oh god, I had that house, I always thought it was a fake one (as I coveted my friend's townhouse style one), what a bitch I must have been!

This thread has really been lovely, I'm going to have to get in my mum's loft now aren't I...

Fuuuuckit- yes you are! I kept all of mine and got them out of my (parents) loft when my daughter started to play with Barbies.
It was brilliant seeing the dolls and the outfits again, so familiar but so many years since I'd seen them!

@Legoisthebest

DixieSun was your Barbie McDonalds in french too? I vaguely remember the girl down the street's Dad was the kind of bloke that bought toys from some geezer round the back of the pub - which is possibly why her McDonalds was French

No it was American Lots of mini patties for the burgers and cute little boxes to put them in

I’d love a dolls house full of mid century furniture that I don’t have room for full-sized. It might stop me lusting after an Ercol giraffe and daybed

QueefofSheena I have a dolls house, it’s such a fabulous hobby. I had a mini replica made of my house!

QueefofSheena it’s great as you can mini things you may never have in full size, so I have a mini pink Smeg fridge, it helps get these things out of my system.

MY mother thought Barbie was a tart I was only allowed Sindy. Used to take Sindy to my friends house she had Barbies and all the sinful accessories 🙄

My late DF was a bit of a hoarder, when we were clearing out his house we found the dismantled Sindy house in his loft along with some of the furniture. Unfortunately most of it wasn't salvageable apart from a couple of bits of furniture, which DD now uses with her Barbie sets (pics attached!)

I loved my Sindy dolls. I wasn't allowed a Barbie but I had a few different Sindys; the horse and cart; the bathroom (although I didn't have the Sindy house).
I saved up my pocket money and bought an action man and a tank at the local jumble sale. Then Sindy went off to war and on humanitarian missions a lot. Plus she got to date Action Man instead of having to 'date' one of my cuddly toys)

Pippa! I had about 5 of them i think. Brit had long white hair iirc. I had the red car and a brown pony. One of my Pippa's had 'real' eyelashes can't remember what her head hair was like though.

On our annual sea side hols my parents would take me to a toy shop in Bournmouth and i could chose one new toy. One year (i think i was 7/8ish) i chose 'Pete' to go with my Pippas. I'd never had a male doll - no Action Men or anything. I clearly remember the moment i was alone with him in the back of the car i took him out of his packaging and immediately had a look down his trousers ... nothing much to report

@justasking111

MY mother thought Barbie was a tart I was only allowed Sindy. Used to take Sindy to my friends house she had Barbies and all the sinful accessories 🙄

I was never allowed a 'Girls World' head. I think my mother thought if got my hands on some make up i'd instantly turn into Lolita.

I wasn't allowed an Etch a'Sketch either ''You can use a pencil and paper and drawer properly!!!''

Ye gods. I just used to play with my mate's ones at their houses.

I’ve only just found this thread! I also had the leisure pool, the three storey Sunday House and the TV Studio. And did anyone have Mark, the Sindy version of Ken?

I absolutely loved Sindy. I liked the fact that she felt “more realistic” than Barbie, who was all pinks and purples whereas Sindy was what I thought were “natural” colours - a lot of orange and brown! My entire collection is still in my parents’ loft and they keep badgering me todo something with it. I just can’t bear to part with them....and my son has no interest.

Love this thread. I had Daisy with the bendy legs and her horse Archie. I spent hours making him rugs etc (pony mad). I also had a Black Beauty horse which was ridden by another Daisy but she was rubbish at riding as her legs didn’t bend and used to pop off all the time! Happy Days

Looking at that link my Pippa wasn’t a Pippa? She looked nothing like that. Wonder who she actually was.

I had a Daisy too. Wasn’t she dressed by Mary Quant or something.

This thread is giving me flashbacks!. I had a Dusty doll like a pp, I also had the Sindy house with the cardboard floors, it was bought second hand for me, and setting up the furniture (especially the wardrobe) it was like bloody Jenga, the floors were so warped .

I also was bought the newer Sindy bedroom extension with the plastic rigid floor (no toppling wardrobe), the red Range Rover, horses, Barbie boutique, and was given a Barbie? aeroplane set iirc.

Did anyone have the Arco fashion doll office set? I bought it for my dsis when I started work with a decent wage, and would spend ages setting up the furniture and multiple accessories play dolls with her for the odd half hour occasionally

@DobbyTheHouseElk

I had Pippa and Sindy. I thought Pippa was Sindy’s relation?

I had lots of furniture but no house. All Sindy. I did eventually have a Barbie.

Skipper was Barbies teenage sister.

Pippa dolls were different and were our dolls a full decade before Barbie was fully available in the uk. Released alongside Sindy in the 1970's.

They were 6 inch mini fashion dolls.

I had Jem.
She was truly outrageous 😁 her earrings flashed.

[quote mnahmnah]@Fuuuuuckit

Mine was this exact one. I had the pink kitchen unit. The wardrobe with big S on each door. The white fancy dining table. The fluency pink bed.[/quote]
Yes, that was the one I had too.

beautifullymad

I know. I had Sindy and someone I believed to be Pippa. But she didn’t look like that Pippa so was possibly a generic doll.

I had one Barbie, but I was a 1979’s Sindy girl. Had all the Sunday furniture. The wardrobe with the big swirly S on it.

Argos & Sainsbury's are selling the new Sindy dolls, I have four, Ballet Studio, Pony Club, Sweet Treats & Fashion Blogger who is the first black Sindy since Gail in the 1970's. There are supposed to be some more coming out later this year. I get the feeling that they are stereotyping women in to jobs that women are expected to do, why not a scientist or a soldier?

I might have to get myself a sindy doll.

I had the house with the lift, also a car, white Mazda convertible style and I think you got the sides wet and it came up with the dolls name if anyone remembers if that was Barbie or Sindy?!