When will Barbie learn - playing dress up is just fine for toddlers and little kids, but when you're in your mid 20s (a generous age adjustment on my part) - playing dress up is well, the kind of thing that gets you a one way ticket to your local psych hospital or Oz (and not the good kind of Oz with friendly little Munchkins - I'm talking about the kind of Oz you go to when you're convicted for identity fraud/theft).

I need to pause here to say - everything I know about witches I learned from watching and reading the Wizard of Oz. I learned that there are good witches and bad witches. Bad witches wear black, good witches wear tulle and pink. Bad witches are out to get you; good witches want to get you home. Bad witches are killed by houses dropping on them and buckets of water, good witches are helpful, so who'd want to kill them.

In March of 2002 my world was shattered when I realized - water does kill good witches, and once they "melt", there is no bringing them back.

Flashback to December 2000. As the holidays came closer and closer I was bombarded with the usual mile long wish list from each child. At 3 1/2, much to my horror, my youngest was quite schooled in the art of list building and asking. Many things were quickly eliminated from her list and when push came to shove she knocked in down to a few "must have" items.

One of them was a "Princess" Barbie doll. Now, if you know Barbie, like I loathe Barbie, you also know that there are quite a few "Princess" style Barbie dolls out in circulation at any given point in time.

I pulled up picture after online and could not fine the "Princess" Barbie she was talking about, we went from store to store and as my patience thinned we still could not locate the Barbie doll Claire was ranting about. One day a slight "exchange" occurred between the two of us as I pumped her for info about this elusive "Princess" Barbie she needed to have.

Finally she says, "DUH, don't you know anything? I want the Princess Barbie I saw at the market." After we discussed how she shouldn't talk like her older sister, we headed to the market to look for the Barbie. Of course the whole time I was counting to 100 and trying not to lose my temper - that little market tidbit might have been nice to have during the first conversation we had about the doll.

Turns out, the Princess Barbie was really Mattel's Barbie as Glinda from the Wizard of Oz. She had quite a hefty price tag, about 20 dollars. Recently I have seen her for about ten. Since it was one of the only things left on Claire's list, I decided to go back without her and get one.

I can understand her confusion, Barbie as Glinda comes dressed head to toe in pink and tulle. If a child can't read the visual image would make them think Princess. Glinda wears a long pink satin ball gown which is covered in pink tulle that has butterflies and silver stars on it. She wears a tall hard plastic lavender crown, which does come off. As a side note, of all the things I have stepped on barefooted at 3 am, that crown has to be one of the worst.

Glinda has long strawberry blonde hair that is curled at the bottom. She has the more wiry kind of Barbie hair - which makes it worse for combing, but much better for holding the curl in place. I find with that type of hair, if a child gets brush happy the hair can easily frizz and look bad real fast.

To this point we a doll and a dress and that doesn't add up to 20 bucks in my book. So just what does Glinda have that pushes her over the top? Does she have the power to send you back to Kansas, the ability to cast spells or the fact that she talks and makes noises (ding ding ding, we have a winner).

Charming Glinda comes with 3 button cell batteries that can be replaced. I think they are the AG13 type. Ours ran for the whole time she worked on the original batteries, despite my constant wishing that they would run out.

Glinda comes with a long magic wand that fits in her hand. If you raise up the wand she either says, "Tap your heels together three times" or makes that "bring bring" sound that has come to represent a magic wand working. Never fear, should you choose to help the wand get "lost", the doll will still work, there is a button on her back that can be pushed to make her talk and make noises.

I will admit that Claire loved and played with this doll for about a year and a half. That "bring bring" road my last nerve and at times I think she did on purpose just to watch me make my famous eye roll and face of disgust.

In March 2002 all that changed, and I swear this time I didn't encourage the accident. One night I was filling up the tub for Claire's bath and she was going through her nightly ritual of picking who would be in the tub with her. My back was turned and she started pitching Barbie dolls into the water. All of a sudden I hear crackle, crackle, "bring", "your heels", hiss, hiss and then nothing.

Claire had accidentally pitched Glinda into the tub - let's just say water and talking Barbie dolls don't mix. I think it would have been funny on Mattel’s part to have a default message that would say, "I'm melting" should the doll ever get wet. From that point on Glinda became an average Barbie and hasn't been played with very much.

So,is she a good witch or a bad witch? As a Barbie, she was pricey, but if you can find her marked down it might be worth it. She's also a good collectible for any Wizard of Oz fan. Claire used her a lot until the voice died. I'm just not sure 20 bucks for a Barbie is money well spent - there are a lot of other things she could have for that same amount of money.


Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 19.99
Type of Toy: Other
Age Range of Child: 6 to 8 Years