Barbie as Marie Antoinette © Mattel

Every collector has one. The Doll that becomes the Holy Grail. You find yourself constantly google searching it, google image searching it and of course there are always at least three lined up in your ebay watch list… Usually they are either extremely rare or just very expensive. Sometimes both. For me, that Doll was Marie Antoinette.

I went to a collector’s club meeting once and the subject of wish list came up. I mentioned Marie Antoinette and received knowing, if somewhat pitiful glances. Apparently when Marie Antoinette was released, Mattel couldn’t give her away. I found this very hard to believe. Her original price was around US$250, a fortune in collector terms at the time. I had seen her selling on the secondary market at anywhere from US$800 up to US$2500. Crazy days….. But the detail in this doll is remarkable. Her pale complexion, her elaborate hairstyle, the details of her dress, the authentic underpinnings, tiny ribbon bow shoes and miniature replica of the tragic queen’s legendary, lost forever, diamond necklace…

This Doll marked a new era in Collector. No longer were Barbie collectibles just your basic Superstar doll with caricatured make-up and a Halloween costume style gown. Every last detail thought out! Set were made to shoot her in! What I wouldn’t do for some of the props from those sets…

I finally managed to track one down at a price I thought reasonable. The seller also kindly let me lay her aside and pay her off little by little. A very similar experience to Golden Dream. What a shame there is always more than one Holy Grail out there…