Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by the American toy company Mattel, Inc. and launched in March 1959. American businesswoman Ruth Handler (1916-2002) is credited with the creation of the doll using a German doll called Bild Lilli as her inspiration.
芭比娃娃是由美国美泰儿玩具公司生产的时尚玩偶,于1959年3月上市。芭比的发明归功于美国的女商人露丝?汉德勒她的灵感来自一种叫Bild Lilli的德国玩偶。
Barbie has been an important part of the toy fashion doll market for fifty years, and has been the subject of numerous controversies and lawsuits, often involving parody of the doll and her lifestyle. In recent years, Barbie has faced increasing competition from the Bratz range of dolls.
芭比在近50年里的玩具界流行玩偶里一直占有重要地位,并且 也弓I发了无数的争议和诉讼案’大多是对这个玩偶本身及其生活方 式的戏谑。最近几年,芭比一直面临着来自贝茨玩偶的强烈竞争。
Ruth Handler watched her daughter Barbara at play with paper dolls, and noticed that she often enjoyed giving them adult roles. At the time, most children’s toy dolls were representations of infants. Realizing that there could be a gap in the market, Handler suggested the idea of an adult-bodied doll to her husband Elliot, a co-founder of the Mattel toy company. He was unenthusiastic about the idea, as were Mattel’s directors.
罗丝韩德勒发现她的女儿芭芭拉(Barbara,Barbie是简称)喜 欢玩纸玩偶，而且喜欢赋予玩偶成人角色，而当时大部分的立体玩偶 都是以婴孩或儿童的形象出现的。罗丝深明成人形象的玩偶有市场发 展空间,所以跟她的丈夫——美泰儿公司的其中一个创办人艾律特, 提出芭比娃娃的构想只可惜艾律特和公司的其他决策人都对此计划 兴趣不大。
Mattel estimates that there are well over 100,000 avid Barbie collectors. Ninety percent are women, at an average age of 40，purchasing more than twenty Barbie dolls each year. Forty-five percent of them spend upwards of $1000 a year. Vintage Barbie dolls from the early years are the most valuable at auction, and while the original Barbie was sold for $3.00 in 1959，a mint boxed Barbie from 1959 sold for $3552.50 on eBay in October 2004. On September 26, 2006，a Barbie doll set a world record at auction of ￡ 9,000 sterling (US $ 17,000) at Christie’s in London. The doll was a Barbie in Midnight Red from 1965 and was part of a private collection of 4,000 Barbie dolls being sold by two Dutch women, Ietje Raebel and her daughter Marina.
美泰儿估计在全球有10万多个芭比的收藏者，其中90%是女 性，平均年龄在40岁，每年要买20多个芭比。45%的收藏者每年花 1000多美元购买芭比。早期的古董芭比在拍卖中是最高价的，1959 年最初的芭比在当时售3美元,2004年10月一个完整的盒装的芭比 在eBay的售价高达3552.5美元。在2006年9月26日，一个芭比在伦 敦佳士得的拍卖会上以卯00英磅（1.75万美元)售出，创下世界纪 录。售出的1965生产的“午夜红”芭比，曾经是荷兰女士Ietje Raebel 及其女儿Marina私人收藏的4000个芭比之一。
Barbie has become a cultural icon and has been given honors that are rare in the toy world. In 1974 a section of Times Square in New York City was renamed Barbie Boulevard for a week, In 1985 the artist Andy Warhol created a painting of Barbie.
芭比成了文化标志并获得了玩具界的殊荣。1974年，纽约时代广场的一个区域在一周时间内被重新命名为芭比大道。1985年艺术家安迪?沃霍尔为芭比画了一
In recent years Mattel has sold a wide range of Barbie dolls aimed specifically at collectors, including porcelain versions, vintage reproductions, and depictions of Barbie as a range of characters from television series such as The Munsters and Star Trek. There are also collector’s edition dolls depicting Barbie dolls with a range of different ethnic identities. In 2004 Mattel introduced the Color Tier system for its collector’s edition Barbie dolls，ranging through pink, silver，gold and platinum depending on how many of the dolls are produced.
近年美泰儿出产多种特别为收藏者而设的芭比,包括瓷器版本、早期芭比复制品及以芭比作电 视片角色的绘画,如《怪物家族》及《星际争霸战》,此外收藏者系列亦有将芭比制作成不同种族的。 2004年美泰儿在收藏者系列加人颜色等级制度,根据娃娃的生产数量多少将芭比分成粉红、银、金及
In June 2001, MGA Entertainment launched the Bratz range of dolls, a move that would give Barbie her first serious competition in the fashion doll market. In 2004 sales figures showed that Bratz dolls were outselling Barbie dolls in the United Kingdom, although Mattel maintained that in terms of the number of dolls, clothes and accessories sold, Barbie remained the leading brand. In 2005 figures showed that sales of Barbie dolls had fallen by 30% in the United States, and by 18% worldwide, with much of the drop being attributed to the popularity of Bratz dolls.
2001年6月，MGA娱乐公司开始发售贝茨系列玩偶，这一举动使得芭比在流行玩偶市场遭遇 了第一次竞争的冲击。2004年的销售数据显示贝茨娃娃在英国卖得比芭比更好，尽管美泰儿保持 了芭比娃娃、服装和周边产品的总销售量,芭比依旧是领军品牌》2005年的数据显示芭比娃娃在美国 的销售下降了 30%,在全球下降了 18%，而下降的这部分大都是由于贝茨娃娃的大受欢迎造成的。
Barbie was one of the first toys to have a marketing strategy based extensively on television and advertising, which has been copied widely by other toys. It is estimated that over a billion Barbie dolls have been sold worldwide in over 150 countries, with Mattel claiming that two Barbie dolls are sold every second.
芭比是少数几个拥有以广泛的电视和广告市场为基础市场战略的玩偶,之后这种做法被广泛 地效仿。据估计在150多个国家内共售出了超过10亿个芭比娃娃，美泰儿公司宣称每秒钟就有两个 色比娃娃被卖出。
The standard range of Barbie dolls and related accessories are manufactured to approximately l/6th scale，which is also known as play scale. Barbie products include not only the range of dolls with their clothes and accessories, but also a huge range of Barbie branded goods such as books, fashion items and video games. Barbie has appeared in a series of animated films and made a brief guest appearance in the 1999 film Toy Story 2.
芭比娃娃及其相关产品的标准比例约是1比6,此比例被称为playscale。芭比的产品共不限于 玩偶和玩偶的衣饰，亦包括芭比品牌下的商品，如书本.时尚产品及电子游戏等。芭比曾出现一系 列的动画中，并在1999年的动画《玩具总动员2>〉中客串。