I have finally got round to setting up some of my displays to show off my Barbie's and above is a picture of the first scene I made for my Barbie Mermaids.  I used fishtank backing for the diorama of my Mermaid's Pool, some dried seaweed and some plastic fishtank weed for the plants.  Some large plastic sea animals were used as pets for the mermaids.  Seating arrangements are large stones from my garden and a gorgeous teaset made from shells completed the picture. 
The mermaid sitting on the left of the picture is a Creata Doll that lost its legs and had a seriously fight with a hairdresser.   I had the skirt from one of those cheap rip off dolls and after stuffing the skirt with some teddy bear stuffing, I glued it onto the doll.  Her "top" and jewellry are merely painted on with glitter glue.  Her hair was brushed up and secured by a tiara/crown - again from a cheap set of doll accessories and jewellry. 

The next mermaids from 2nd left to right are the Jewel Mermaid Barbie, Mermaid Barbie and Jewel Mermaid Teresa.  The little one is from another line of toys.
I have since changed this diorama around and in fact have moved it completely from one room to another.  Go to the next page to see the new photographs. This scene has also changed since these photographs were taken and I have also acquired the new 2003 Mermaid Barbie and Kayla  
I didn't start off as a collector of Barbie dolls.  In fact I wasn't really all that keen on dolls when I was little.  But sometime just before my 11th birthday, I went to my school bazaar and took some tickets in a raffle for a Sindy Doll and some beautifully crafted bedroom and lounge furniture.  I WON!  The principal of the school came into my classroom and called me up in front of all my classmates.  My first thought was Oh Oh!  What have I done now (I was a naughty little girl at school).... then she told me the BIG box on the table was mine and that one of my tickets was drawn to win the raffle.  Boy was I excited.  All the girls in my class wanted to see what was in the box - that ended lessons for the rest of that day - while we all sat and played dolls - teacher too.  Anyway this started the ball rolling.  For Christmas that year, my mom bought me a Sindy kitchen and some other accessories and thereafter every year for my birthday and Christmas, I got something of dolls as a gift. 
Then of course, in my late teens, boys became a feature in my life and then I started working straight after school and met my husband.  We married early in our twenties and were busy with work and getting our lives and future in order and the doll collecting sort of fell by the wayside (into boxes actually).  My daughter arrived in our late twenties and a few years after she was born, I opened a little second hand toyshop.  This is when I really started collecting Barbies with more vigour.  As they came in to the toyshop, I would buy them, refurbish them and feel too good about the cleaning job to want to give / sell them to another child to muck up again. 
Now I am 90% of my time into this hobby and 10% of my time into my husband's hobby of Show Budgie Breeding.
I prefer to collect dolls second-hand, and refurbish them - not restore (I have not explored this area yet). 
Once the dolls are clean and their hair has been brushed out completely to my satisfaction, I look them up in my reference books and try to collect the clothing they were wearing when they were boxed.  When they are complete, they go into my display cabinet with all the other girls. 
I have about 300 dolls on display in various cabinets around my home.  I also have some dolls displayed in dioramas - my Rocker dolls, for example are set up as tho they are on stage.  I have the 1985 Rockers on one side of the cabinet, busy preparing for the next show - I used the 1985 Rocker "Dressing Room" Play set.  The 1986 Rockers are on the stage doing their stuff. 

I started off collecting dolls from the 1980s to current only, but I have been acquiring some really nice dolls from years prior to this.  I have also acquired 4 Tutti dolls in their original clothing - these are the most treasured dolls in my collection.

Some of my dolls have been put on display wearing Barbie labelled clothing, but not that which they were boxed in.  And some of the dolls have parts of their outfits missing - eg:  Rocker Derek is missing his socks and glove.  But they are on display none-the-less. 
The picture below is one of my previous displays.
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