The dolls of my generation... I'm happily a child from Barbie's Mod Era!

"Who's your favorite Barbie?" A question I am often asked, and honestly it's hard for me to answer. I mean, I have sentimental favorites like the 1970 Talking Ken and 1971 Malibu Ken (below) because these were the Ken dolls I played with as a child; or the 1987 Barbie & the Rockers (above) because they put me on the path of Barbie collecting when I received them as a birthday present in 1987.

Honestly, my "favorite" Barbie is always changing. It changes from day-to-day, week-to-week but I do have quite a few that continually reign as favorites—I think of them as the jewels in my collection.

Here I share 25 of my favorite Barbie and Ken dolls with photos of how they stand in my collection. Because my favorites are always changing they are not ranked in a "most favorite to least favorite" order but listed chronologically. Also I narrowed the favorites down to the dolls my older sister, younger sister and I actually played with as youngsters. As you can see by the abundance of dolls from 1967 to 1972, I'm definitely a Barbie kid of the Mod Era!

#2 1962 Ken

#20 1972 Miss America

#24 1977 Superstar Barbie

#13 1970 Brad

Francie with Pretty Growin' Hair is often cited as the favorite Francie doll for those children who played with Barbies in the early-70s (like me).

#16 1971 Barbie with Pretty Growin' Hair

#23 1975 Growing Up Skipper

#10 1969 New Good Lookin' Ken

Behold The Valley of the Dolls

A Barbie History in Portraits

Thank you for visiting Behold the Valley of the Dolls. The photos are all original to me (David James Mansour), my collection and are copyrighted to © Behold the Valley of the Dolls. I don't mind if you share but if you do share, please give me and Behold the Valley of the Dolls credit. I'd really appreciate it.

#9 1969 Twist 'n Turn "Marlo Flip" Barbie

#25 1981 Golden Dream Barbie

Barbie Talks! And so does her friends Brad, Ken, Christie, Stacey, P.J., Julia, and Truly Scrumptious!

#14 1970 Living Barbie

There's a variety of hair colors to choose from with the TNTs but I'm very much in love with the "Chocolate Bon Bon" (right). Although I have a Titian Reproduction TNT (left) an actual vintage doll from 1967 tops my "most wanted" list!