1988 Island Fun Christie
Christie is a face sculpt patented in 1987 and first introduced with Island Fun Christie.
Overview[]
The sculpt was introduced towards the end of the 80's as a fresh new face sculpt for Barbie's friend Christie and for AA versions of Barbie, replacing the previously used Christie (Face Sculpt ©1965) and the Spanish / Hispanic (Face Sculpt ©1982) faces. The sculpt was originally created for only playline dolls but soon saw use in collector dolls, most commonly for AA counterparts of collector Barbie dolls and some Dolls of the World dolls. The sculpt saw frequent use until the mid 90's, where more Afrocentric face sculpts were introduced as competition including Shani (Face Sculpt ©1990), Asha (Face Sculpt ©1990), Nichelle (Face Sculpt ©1990), and Goddess (Face Sculpt ©1998). Towards the late 90's and 2000's, the sculpt saw less use and was officially retired in 2000 with Spring Day Barbie and soon replaced with the aforementioned Asha and Goddess sculpts for Barbie's black friends and AA versions of Barbie along with the then newly introduced Adria / Desiree (Face Sculpt ©2001) and Mbili (Face Sculpt ©2001) faces.
Outside of a one-time use for the University of Kentucky Barbie in 2013, the sculpt wouldn't see frequent use again until 2018 where it was reintroduced with the Barbie Fashionistas Doll (FJF5) and the 2019 Birthday Wishes Barbie.