The Barbie Girl MP3
The Barbie Girls MP3 player device, first released in 2007, brought the combination of technology of the time with the aesthetics of a Fashion Doll, all inspired by Barbie. The MP3 players, all sold in a sturdy hexagonal box, came with outfits, hair and faces to costumize the "doll" that looked liked the avatars of the online world. Originally costing around 80$ (but the price was reduced with time), the buyer was paying for the MP3 player but also a V.I.P. subscription to the online world, which was the most advertized aspect.
In 2007 three different MP3 players were released, which were also the most common and broadly available, and to this day the easiest ones to find on second hand markets. In 2008 those same MP3 players got new color palettes and some different pieces from their 2007 versions. These were not as easy to find as the previous editions and are quite rare nowadays in second hand markets.
2007
2007 had the most popular and well known Barbie Girls MP3 players. They were available in 3 different color options which also had different outfits and hairstyles, plus the back plate. The faces were the same between all MP3 players and all of these came with one hair with sunglasses, all blonde. There was the Pink, Gold and Green versions (Gold could also be considered blue as it was it's main MP3 color). While they came with two outfits, mix and matching was not that easy because of some of the outfit pieces. These MP3 players could be combined and accessorized with the 2007 Fashion Packs and Deco Packs.
PINK
gOLD
Green
2008
The 2008 Barbie Girls MP3 players were in most part recolors of the 2007 versions but with brighter and more colorful color palettes. The painting of the pieces was more thick while the 2007 was finner and easier to loose paint while also being more pearlescent. The Pink MP3 player had a new pink / yellow and purple color palette and came with a Yellow box, it had the exact same pieces as the 2007 one. The Gold MP3 player was now fully blue with a matching blue box and had a blue / orange / dark pink color palette, it had different hairstyles than the 2007 version. The Green MP3 player came with a pink box and had a green / pink / blue color palette. It's stock photos showed a completely different color schemes that the released version. It also had the most changes compared to the 2007 version, having one entire different outfit, a recolor of a Fashion Pack outfit.
These MP3 players could be combined with some new accessory packs like the new PJ Party Packs (which pijamas matched the black plates of the MP3 players), Glam Gowns Packs and new edition of the Deco Packs and the Fashion Packs.
PINK / Yellow
Blue
GREEN / Pink
The CONTENTS
Each Barbie Girls MP3 player came with a storage case filled with content, on the first level had the MP3 itself and all the accessories and the back plate or the earbuds. On the interior it had the Installation Disc a bit hidden and all the other content. The Barbie Girls MP3 player could have 512 MB of memory or 1GB of memory. The Docking Station was not needed to connect the MP3 player to a computer, it was mostly used as an extention and a display stand (also the place where the unique V.I.P. membership activation code was added). The MP3 Player would turn on a red light while connected to the computer (matching the position of the face's mouth). The earbuds had special holes to add the "earrings" that came with the Deco Packs, Glam Gowns Packs and Day to Night Packs. The decorative beads available in Deco Packs could be added to the earbuds wires but could be used in another other type of wired earbuds.
Contents:
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1 Barbie Girl MP3 Player
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1 USB port Lid
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1 Barbie Girl body plate
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1 Barbie Girl MP3 Back cover
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2 Hairstyles
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2 Faces
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1 or 2 pairs of shoes
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2 outfits (could include tops, dresses, skirts or pants)
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1 Clip for the MP3 Player
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1 USB Docking Station (with the activation code under it)
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1 Installation CD - ROM drive
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1 Storage case
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1 pair of Earbuds with different sizes.
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1 fake SD card to protect from dust
V.I.P. Membership
The activation proccess of the V.I.P. membership was fairly simple. One just needed to install the the Barbie Girls software and connect to the registration page were they would create a new account or renew a old one (V.I.P. accounts that were expired only lasted around 6 months before being deleted). The activation code would be registred and then notified on how much time would the membership last, some MP3 players could give 1 year membership while others would give 1 month.
After that one could start playing on the website. The docking station and Barbie Girls MP3 Players could be used to register a Best Friend, where two Barbie Girl devices would be connected and both accounts to consider safe and they be able to have the Secret B Chat .