By Gary Symons
TLL Editor in Chief
Mattel’s Barbie has released a collector’s edition doll portraying Queen Elizabeth II for her Platinum Jubilee.
And within hours of its release on Wednesday, the Barbie Signature Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Doll had completely sold out, while prices soared on eBay and Amazon and would-be customers fumed.
On Mattel’s online store, shoppers raged that the highly collectible dolls immediately sold out, and then showed up on secondary shopping sites for 10 times the original price.
“Was Mattel’s Ethics Committee Sleeping Through Yesterday’s Roll-Out Of The Queen Elizabeth II Doll?” asked one shopper. “Both Walmart And Target (In My Area) Never Had The Dolls To Sell Yet, They Are All Over E-Bay And Amazon Selling For 10x’s The Advertised Retail Of $75.”
Another disappointed consumer from the UK pleaded with Mattel to release more of the in-demand dolls, which depict Queen Elizabeth decked out in highly realistic royal finery.
“Any Chance Of Releasing More Queen Elizabeth II Barbie Commemorative Dolls?” the chagrined grandfather begged. “This Limited And Rushed Launch Has Just Created A Frenzy With The Average Grandfather Like Myself Standing No Chance Of Getting One Each For His 2 Granddaughters. 500 GBP (British pounds) On Ebay!”
In a way, Barbie and Queen Elizabeth are contemporaries. Queen Elizabeth had worn the crown for just seven years when Barbie, arguably the reigning queen of the doll world, was launched on store shelves.
This year the British monarch and the iconic doll finally came together as Mattel launched the doll to commemorate both this year’s Platinum Jubilee and the Queen’s 96th birthday this week. And after 70 years on the throne, it’s clear Elizabeth’s popularity has not waned at all.
Released as the second product in Barbie’s Tribute Collection series, which launched last August with a Lucille Ball doll, the QEII Barbie comes dressed in an ivory dress modeled after the royal finery the Queen wears for portraits and major public events. The doll is packaged in a replica of the throne room in Buckingham Palace, and the designers included several details to make the tribute doll as accurate as possible.
The product’s design team was headed by Senior Director of Barbie Design Robert Best whose first challenge was to create a gown suitable for Her Majesty. Best says the result was an amalgam of different outfits the real life Queen has worn through the decades of her reign.
“The gown is not a copy of any one dress she wears, but rather a gown inspired by the style and color of gown that she’s favored in royal portraits of herself for the past several years,” he explains. “If you look at those portraits or how she dresses for important events, she very much has a signature style and look—always a very simple design in white or ivory, which makes sense given that she must then wear all the accompanying jewelry and sash as befits her rank.”
That sash is a blue ribbon that is adorned with various decorations of order, and the crown is based on the crown from the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London, Best explained.
“I loved working on the accompanying jewelry, being a fan of the Crown Jewels myself,” he said. “I’ve been fortunate to see the actual Crown Jewels in the Tower of London Museum. It was a cool opportunity to recreate some of them in miniature. I worked closely with (Product Design Manager) Monica LaValle, who did the technical drawings that were then translated by our sculptors.”
Best says each of the pieces has a history and a meaning, which was important for Robert, Monica, and the sculpting team to get just right. “The tiara is based on Queen Mary’s Fringe Tiara, and the little medallions on ribbons are the Royal Family Orders,” Best says. “The pink ribbon was given to the Queen by her father George VI, and the pale blue by her grandfather George V. Creating miniatures of all the jewelry did have some challenges, as capturing the details becomes increasingly difficult at such a small scale. I think Monica and the sculpting team did an amazing job and I love the way they turned out!”
In a nod to five generations of Windsor women, the Queen is wearing the Queen Mary fringe tiara, which once belonged to her grandmother and her mother. The queen wore the storied tiara on her own wedding day and then loaned it to her daughter, Princess Anne, and her granddaughter, Princess Beatrice, on their big days.
It’s not the first time that the team behind Barbie has modeled a doll off of a British monarch. In 1995, Mattel released an Elizabethan Queen Barbie in their Great Era Collection. It wore a metallic ball gown, a Tudor-era ruff on her collar, and a crown.
The Queen Elizabeth II Tribute Collection doll became available beginning on Thursday, April 21, on the websites of Amazon, Walmart, Target, and Mattel,