{"product_id":"1997-barbie-bead-blast-auburn-hair-doll-nrfb","title":"1997 – Barbie – Bead Blast – Auburn Hair – NRFB","description":"\u003ch3\u003e1997 Was the Year You Could Put Beads in Your Barbie's Hair and Also in Your Own — Mattel Noticed\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eBead Blast Barbie arrived in 1997 with a very specific cultural assignment: lean into the bead obsession. The mid-nineties had produced a generation of kids who were stringing letter beads onto everything — friendship bracelets, backpack zips, keyrings — and Mattel's response was a doll with super-long brunette hair, a spring-loaded beading tool, and 101 beads in letters, flowers, stars and hearts, the whole kit designed so you could write messages directly in Barbie's ponytail and then in your own. The year also gave us the Spice Girls, Tamagotchis hitting Western shores, and the first Harry Potter novel landing in UK bookshops — 1997 was not short on ways to occupy a child's hands, but the beading tool had a particular tactile satisfaction that kept this one on the floor and not the shelf.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe auburn version is the one collectors tend to seek out, partly because Mattel produced it in smaller numbers than the blonde, and partly because the dark hair makes the bead colours read more vividly against it. There were multiple Bead Blast variants including Christie (18893), but the auburn has a specific quality the others don't quite match. The dress, incidentally, is a rainbow-stripe shimmer mini that is entirely correct for 1997 and has not aged even slightly badly.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eManufacturer:\u003c\/strong\u003e Mattel\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCountry of manufacture:\u003c\/strong\u003e Malaysia\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eModel #:\u003c\/strong\u003e 18891\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eMelody Likes box condition grade:\u003c\/strong\u003e Pristine — \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0709\/4504\/6718\/files\/MelodyLikes-Doll-Box-Condition-Guide_05303af8-20b2-4137-8091-87f3c51d9668.png?v=1773150063\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eView our box condition guide\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Mattel","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47643693711550,"sku":"BARBIE-1997-BEADBLAS-AUBURNHA-DOLL0001","price":134.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0709\/4504\/6718\/files\/1997-barbie-bead-blast-auburn-hair-doll-nrfb-front.jpg?v=1781573363","url":"https:\/\/melodylikes.com\/products\/1997-barbie-bead-blast-auburn-hair-doll-nrfb","provider":"Melody Likes","version":"1.0","type":"link"}