A salute to Barbie Loves McDonald's

Another description of one of my favorite 80s toys

Hello--it's Kelly again!

One of my all time favorite pasttimes is searching thrift stores, antique shows, and antique malls for those elusive pieces of my favorite childhood memories.

Here we have Barbie Loves McDonalds circa 1982!!
I happened to find this awesome never removed from box specimen at the Kane County flea market in St. Charles, Illinois.

As a small child (I was born in 1976), I got one of these for Christmas--I was beside myself with happiness!!
One of the greatest, most unique aspects of the Barbie Loves McDonald's is its incredible attention to detail.

The Features? So glad you asked!
* It comes with its own separate McD's uniform hat and spatula. If I remember right, you could purchase a P.J. doll with a McDonald's uniform for a "crew member" for your junior franchise.

* This set has many little plastic pieces that you snap out of a sheet or form to create little hamburgers and shakes--yes--this bad boy had REAL tiny little burgers. Plastic clamshells came with to put your to go orders together!

* Trays! Paper fry boxes with pictures of the fries!!

* A fry station with basket for making fries!

* Don't forget the booth so Barbie and Ken can eat their food.

This playset of course had to be assembled: In this case, my Dad surely did that. Other loose pieces that needed to be assembled were the McDonald's sign on the Mansard canopy, and there was a sort of fence with a false paper garden backing.

With detail, late 70s Mansard style canopy, and colors like these--how can a girl like me NOT have hours of fun??

I did--so much fun, that I basically ruined my McDonald's playset. But then I found the glory of the NRFB Barbie McDonald's. It's all good now!! And no--I am not going to remove it from the box =)

For more information:
http://www.orangeslime.com/?p=803

(This shows the 1983 Mattel Dealer Catalog with Barbie Loves McDonalds)

Comments

Decent article, thumbs up. I agree that it should be a bit longer and maybe some more pics would have made it a better read. Or the commercial for instance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4W0f6U4N3wQ

I don't think this article was too short. It is nice the way it is.

I never like Barbie...

A good topic, but not much else. Needs to be a lot longer with more pictures. The back of the box would have been more interesting than that.

I agree about the article being longer and the back of the box picture would probably have also been nice to look at, however you're back again with your latest snob-comment. Critism is great, if you can do it in an encouraging way. At least praise them for a great picture - I'm a guy and even I spent ages staring at the image.

More constructive criticism: Needed approximately 4 more images. 100-200 more words. The writing was okay. The topic was new (at least to us here).

That's why there is a rating system and comment section on this site. Some articles get voted down and some up depending on their content and delivery. Otherwise retrojunk would be a bunch of gamecube reviews and 90's opinion blurbs. There are standards on the writers forum page to what an article should be. This is for the writer as much as it's for the site.

True, but the goal should be to encourage writers to improve, but you I've seen you make comment after comment which could potentially discourage people from posting again and wanting to improve. Remember "back page here we come"? How was that supposed to encourage the writer to make a better article. If I had seen that on my first article here, I would've thought retrojunk had a snobbish community. Quality is important but people would be better off hearing about quality from Captain Encouragement rather than Captain Ego.

There have been a few people who have took my feedback a little too personally. In that case, they deleted their account and said they'd never write again. However, even though I did give feedback in my own way. I also said some of his other articles were good (and even referenced which ones). And at other times, my feedback is a direct criticism on how people vote things on this site. Historically, Gamecube game reviews and the like do not do well. And just prior to that article, one did get moved to the backpage.

Anyway, I'm guessing writing articles on Retrojunk isn't Kelly's main hobby. So I feel no need to sugar coat anything. I've gotten tons of criticisms on my articles and I usually try to take something away from it (even if it is stupid and inane). I only really respond to direct insults.

Anyway, Kelly:
Pros: good topic and picture
Cons: too short, writing still needs a little work-- content and structure, more images would have greatly enhanced the article

It might not be Kelly's main hobby but you have done the deed to several editors, not just Kelly. As for taking feedback personally, people are sharing their experiences on a website that has a "community" and a reputation, what do you expect? The only reason a new user might not take someone's feedback personally is if they think they are a troll or something. If we give you the benefit of the doubt, you are not a troll but dude making "back page here we come" and similar comments is more likely to drive people away not bring them in.

Again, I've expressed that particular comment was a stab more at the community than the writer. There are much more inflammatory remarks I've said other than that. And it is not my intention to troll or be completely rude, just realistic and blunt. Where I heap praise on articles I think are great, I feel I have to honest with the ones that I don't. I've had people PM me before to elaborate on the feedback I've posted. And I'm only too happy to oblige.

Honestly, I want this site to succeed and have quality posts published week after week. This site has seemingly been through a few transitions and low points. We probably have the largest collection of "retro articles" on the internet and have probably hundreds of non-member page views.