If you were asked to think of a celebrity who would logically inspire the manufacturing of a Barbie made in their image, the 96-year-old Queen Elizabeth II might not be the first person to jump to mind. But that is a mistake on the part of your imagination, as the British monarchy and Mattel are two of the world’s strongest brands, and whatever your feelings about them, it’s an iconic partnership.
If you don’t believe me, the numbers speak for themselves. The doll, which retails for $75, went on sale April 20, and sold out within a matter of hours. As of the writing of this article, Queen Elizabeth Barbies are reselling for a minimum of $300 on eBay. One person is selling magnets printed with an image of the doll in her box. QVC, which isn’t even one of the retailers selling the doll, is hosting a five page-long forum of people discussing the doll’s design. (Many of the posters take issue with the doll looking more like Helen Mirren than Queen Elizabeth, though one person writes, “I find the resolute set of the lips of ‘Barbie/Elizabeth’ to be rather eerily accurate—I’ve seen that expression over the years, on the current monarch.”)
It’s difficult to quantify exactly how popular this makes the Queen Elizabeth II doll, in the scheme of all celebrity Barbies, but she seems poised to go down in history. British fashion model Twiggy was the first famous person to be made into a Barbie in 1967, and that doll is now a genuine collectible. Despite that, the now-antique Twiggy dolls are not currently reselling at the same prices as the Queen Elizabeth doll.
There have been too many celebrity Barbies to offer even an abbreviated list—Mattel has designed Barbie versions of everyone from Ida B. Wells to Bindie Irwin. The most expensive doll of a famous person seems to be the 2003 Marie Antoinette Barbie, designed by Bob Mackie, which routinely sells for over $2,000 on eBay. That long-gone queen is an outlier, though. With the exception of a relatively small set of celebrity dolls, most of these Barbies-made-from-people are still relatively affordable.
The taxonomy of celebrity Barbies is complex. The company’s “Role Models” line contains “Inspiring Women,” which are historical figures, and “Sheroes,” which are modern-day famous women—though the distinction between a “Sheroe” and a plain old Role Model is honestly lost on me. And the symbolism of celebrity Barbie dolls’ relative market value is disquieting. It does not make me feel great to see that Rosa Parks, Susan B. Anthony, and Maya Angelou—members of the Inspiring Women series—all cost only $35 and are readily available, while Queen Elizabeth is on her rise to eternal Barbie stardom.