Who else didn’t know how to play with barbies (or any doll)?

[xudo]

I used to have Barbie and Sindy dolls. I used to play with them in a Barbie Camper van I had for them, just moving them about but rarely doing the voices. If I did, it was a monotone shy voice because I didn't feel comfortable with that sort of 'imaginative play' like others kids were.

 

[pax]

Hated dolls - I had stuffed animals.

 

[SusanLR]

Never liked dolls.
People would give them to me as presents when I was a child, but, I never played with them. Mom ended up with a collection of different ones in a luggage bag in the closet.

Stuffed animals were the only thing I liked truly.
I did have some plastic toy dinosaurs I pretended to have races with when I was very young.

 

[Suzanne]

I disapproved of Barbie and out of a sense of pride and companionship, I became friends with Cindy doll. To the extent that if anyone tried to get me into Barbie, I was got angry and threw her back.

Playing to me was dressing her up and acting out scenes ( with my brothers action man) and yes, occasionally it was a bit naughty ( but I was molested, so it is hardly surprising).

But I got bored easily. I mean: what on earth can you do with a doll, once she is dressed? Only so many times could I swap clothes.

I then got obsessed with paper dolls and would beg my younger sister of two years, to draw out her clothes. Despite me being the older one, she was more mature than me and an excellent artists. So, she would ( occasionally) draw out the clothes and I would cut them out and put them on my paper dolly, but again, there was a sense of: is this all these is to it?

I had a couple of big dollies and at 16, would hide in my bedroom and play with them. I sensed I should have stopped playing, but I felt that it was not the time, but also that I would be mocked.

Reading was my pleasure and soon took over playing dollies.

 

[Idahocalypse]

I had a couple of barbies when I was younger, though I much preferred plushies/stuffed animals. In my mind each stuffed animal had its own voice, personality and role in the story that I made up for them. My mom says that she remembers that I liked to line up my stuffed animals on the bed in a specific way too.

I still collect stuffed animals as an adult, though I don't play pretend with them any longer. I do however sleep with them and take some of them with me in my purse/bag when I go out in public.

 

[Ming of Mongo]

I had GI Joes, the male Barbie. Like some of you, I didn't really get the idea of role play, I just arranged them in a tableau, with their weapons and vehicles. I pushed the jeep around a bit, but never really "played" with the figures. I guess I didn't really get the "action" part of action figures.

 

[Ming of Mongo]

I, too, had GI Joe. I never played with him, but rather enjoyed collecting the accessories. I had the little footlocker and all the nifty things that one could get for him.

I also had the Evel Knievel "action figure" and everything one could get for him. I did play with him for a while, but then it became boring since there really wasn't anything creative about winding up his motorcycle and jumping it over things.

That's so funny. I also had the Eval Knieval bike . I was totally obsessed with motorcycle stunt guys. Grew up in the 70s. I liked to run it into stuff. Kind of like the GI Joes, I was much more interested in the vehicles.

 

[pjcnet]

Men shouldn't feel like this is a female only thread since there was plenty of dolls for boys that were widely accepted, one of the most popular were the "Action Man" figures which were constantly advertised on TV. I however had absolutely no interest in them or in fact anything that didn't actually do anything and involved just pretending, I made this very clear, but there was still times when I received Christmas presents from more distant relatives that I was very disappointed by, I also hated toy cars (E.g Corgi) or anything else that had no actual purpose except to pretend. When I was extremely young I enjoyed playing with Meccano because I could build complex models that were motorised. My best Christmas present when I was a little older, but still well in single figures was a 100 in 1 Electronic Project Kit (See image below), this helped me build radios and much more when I was only around 6 or 7 years old, it lead to a special interest in electronics before I was introduced to computers on the Commodore Pet at the age of 10 in 1979. I was the only very small child that used to spend all his pocket money in a hardware / electronic store, buying electronic components, batteries and wires in the 1970s.

↑ A Science Fair 100-in-1 Electronic Project Kit (1973) - this was my most favourite Christmas present when I was around 6 or 7.

↑ A classic "Action Man" figure originally from 1970, back in the 1970s it was more acceptable for boys to play with toy figurines and dolls that promoted guns and/or war, no-one thought anything of it. This was one of my most hated Christmas presents. It was, "what am I supposed to do with this?", "It doesn't do anything and I can't build anything with it", to me it had no purpose what-so-ever and I couldn't understand why they were so popular or why so many other boys of my age played with them or similar toys, I thought it was really pointless and stupid.

 

[tree]

Seeing these 'action figures' reminded me that I had
a set of knights & horses. I liked them because they
were fancy, but I didn't act out wars with them.

A couple boys I knew had soldiers attached to parachutes.
I liked that activity: tossing the thing in the air and watching
it come down. I didn't have any of those. I used a clothes
pin and a handkerchief instead.

I also liked to give my sock doll flying lessons.
That meant: throw it in the air as high as I could and catch
it when it came down.

 

[Ming of Mongo]

Men shouldn't feel like this is a female only thread since there was plenty of dolls for boys that were widely accepted, one of the most popular were the "Action Man" figures which were constantly advertised on TV. I however had absolutely no interest in them or in fact anything that didn't actually do anything and involved just pretending, I made this very clear, but there was still times when I received Christmas presents from more distant relatives that I was very disappointed by, I also hated toy cars (E.g Corgi) or anything else that had no actual purpose except to pretend. When I was extremely young I enjoyed playing with Meccano because I could build complex models that were motorised. My best Christmas present when I was a little older, but still well in single figures was a 100 in 1 Electronic Project Kit (See image below), this helped me build radios and much more when I was only around 6 or 7 years old, it lead to a special interest in electronics before I was introduced to computers on the Commodore Pet at the age of 10 in 1979. I was the only very small child that used to spend all his pocket money in a hardware / electronic store, buying electronic components, batteries and wires in the 1970s.

↑ A Science Fair 100-in-1 Electronic Project Kit (1973) - this was my most favourite Christmas presents when I was around 6 or 7.

↑ A classic "Action Man" figure originally from 1970, back in the 1970s it was more acceptable for boys to play with toy figurines and dolls that promoted guns and/or war, no-one thought anything of it. This was one of my most hated Christmas presents. It was, "what am I supposed to do with this?", "It doesn't do anything and I can't build anything with it", to me it had no purpose what-so-ever and I couldn't understand why they were so popular or why so many other boys of my age played with them or similar toys, I thought it was really pointless and stupid.

Action Man was GI Joe sold outside of the US. The name GI Joe really only made sense in the US. It is weird how the names of toys changed between US and UK. We had Erector instead of Mechano. The Science Fair electronics kits were branded Radio Shack here. I loved that one. I had the 150 in one kit, same but it also had a 7 segment led, CdS sensor, resistor network IC...

The building toys were much more fun than figures.

 

[Mary Terry]

I'm NT and did the same things with my Barbies as described here. I never liked role playing or moving them around like they were dancing or talking or anything, but I loved building places for them to live like little tree houses in bushes, and camping sites for them down by the creek. I made clothes for them which my mother taught me how to do, and I would dress them up, then put them in the places I had designed for them to live. My Ken doll had a broken neck that wobbled so I called him "Bobble Head" and I used my brothers' GI Joes as the male dolls. My little brother built us a working, battery operated car out of his Erector set for my barbies and his GI Joes. It looked like the Lunar Rover. Good old memories.

 

[Gritches]

I never knew how to play with the other kids, still have no idea what the hell to do when I'm stuck in a situation where I have to entertain a kid, I avoid those situations like the bird flu.

But on my own, yeah, sure, but I remember being adamant about the difference between "dolls" and "action figures" after my dad caught me playing with my sister's old Barbies once. That line was very clearly drawn lol. Thing is, I saw nothing wrong with it, I guess that's just an example of society imposing gender roles or whatever on children from a young age.

 

[onlything]

I just remember “playing” by talking to a certain doll while I tucked her in, and then leaving her sleeping beside my bed.

But Barbies, I had absolutely no clue. I remember arranging the ‘setting’ , organizing the house or the town where they were supposed to live, but when I was done with that, and my sister wanted to play, I used to say I had to do something else (I didn’t see the point).

Playing with dolls was always so boring and pointless. I mean, so you make them wear weird clothes and go around - and what else? What's the story behind it, the plot, the life? The only doll I would 'play' with was a princess from Aladdyn and only to 'watch' the movie again in my head. Didn't do it much too.

Dolls are simply boring, just like people tend to be boring. Also, I can't stand the slick material their clothes are made of.

 

[Streetwise]

In my adult life I met another woman who was really into building dollhouses and she had a collection of them in her basement. She was a bit odd and possibly farther on the spectrum than I was. I had never even heard of the spectrum at the time though. I am not saying she was odd just because of her dollhouses; we actually got along very well together and it was certainly a novelty for me to be the "normal one". If I, as a kid, had known that building dollhouses was an option, I probably would have been more into dolls, though I'd probably be considered even weirder than people already think I am because no doubt I would have a whole city of dollhouses (I collect everything I am interested in).

Please please photographs

 

[isthisreallife]

I was too focused on how barbie was put together, and if she could be taken apart and reassembled (nothing creepy, I did this to everything)

 

[Streetwise]

I had Sindy barbie looked weird tried to play with them couldn't get into it ,
I had a plastic farm set , Loved it ,it was a British style It was a hay barn (which had no doors on it or walls ) A small house, some cows, sheep ,pigs, wooden fences( made of plastic )loved it Ive desperately tried to find a picture of it

 

[tree]

Since several people have mentioned 'Sindy'
& I don't know anything about her, I looked her up.

"Sindy's "girl next door" look made her more popular than Barbie in Britain"
Sindy - Wikipedia

She seems to have changed dramatically over time.
Sindy dolls back on the shelves after 10 years - as makers ditch curves, high heels and short skirts

 

[Bella Pines]

Yes, definitely.

I used to go around to friends houses (friends in the loosest sense of the word) create little worlds and move on. I couldn't engage with them and walk toys around making little noises. I decided that it was because I didn't have any toys of my own and simply didn't understand the rules. But now thinking back, it wouldn't have made any difference, even if I had toys I still would not have "played" with them. How fascinating!

 

[Cinnamon115]

I knew how to play with my toys, but sometimes not in the way they were supposed to. I remember having this polly pocket doll that was made of this rubbery elastic. I quickly discovered I could bend and stretch it in all sorts of crazy ways and that was what I did with it... till the head snapped off. I showed it to my mom asking her to fix it. And when I told her how I had been playing with it she said, "You're not supposed supposed to do that! No wonder it broke!" There was another time, in an effort to make me put away my toys, my mom bought me a closet organizer. I turned it into an apartment complex for all of my toys.

 

[Jennacide]

I always pulled doll arms and legs off and pretend they were alive and make the limbs chase other toys.. Like a big limb apocalypse..... Does that count?