Unlike today, my generation only knew two genders. Boy or girl. And if you were a boy, the rules were simple. Toy guns. Cars. He-Man. Robots. GI Joe. That was the list. Full stop.
Pink and Barbie was for girls. Everyone knew that.
Fast forward to 2011. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides hit the cinemas. Johnny Depp playing that crazy pirate captain, drunk on rum and full of humour. And quietly, on the shelves of toy stores everywhere, something else arrived alongside it. A Barbie Pink Label Collectors Edition. Captain Jack Sparrow. A Pirate Barbie.
And there was the dilemma. Should I buy a Barbie doll???
But this one was different. This was not a Ken doll in a pirate costume. This had the full likeness of Captain Jack — the goatee, the bandana, the layered costume, the sword, the boots. The rings. The swagger. If you looked closely enough you could almost hear him say Savvy.
I found him at Big W. $75. I stood there for a moment. Picked it up. Walked the isle like I was walking the plank. I put it down. Turned away, walked. Turned again picked it up again.
And walked to the register.
My first Barbie doll. And I have absolutely no regrets.
Because at the end of the day, a great figure is a great figure. The box it comes in does not change that. Captain Jack Sparrow is one of the most iconic characters in modern cinema — unpredictable, charming, impossible to pin down. A Barbie box was never going to stop me from bringing him into the collection.
He stands in the collection now. I made a few mods to him to give it that full cinematic feel. A Collectors Pink label in my glass curio. And every time someone sees him, they do a double take. Then they smile. Because they get it.
Savvy.
Sharing my piece of Neverland…
Figure This Out 