As a child, the Barbie Malibu House would have been the thing of my dreams. The ultimate Barbie playset. My girls were very kindly offered the chance to test out the latest Barbie mansion - the Barbie Malibu House for it's family-friendliness and gift suitability this Christmas.
Barbie : Life in the Dreamhouse is the inspiration for the Barbie Malibu House - a relaxed, glamorous escape for Barbie and her friends. Lara likes to bring along all of her dolls including Barbie of all shapes and sizes as well as princesses and mermaids. Lara places them all on the semi-circle couch in front of the TV for their chill-out time!
The Barbie Malibu house comes with plenty of furniture - a dressing table with two chairs, a TV chair, toilet, bed, dining table and lots more. There are also lots of tiny accessories including cute little details such as Barbie's own tablet (!), toothbrushes, cosmetics and plenty of cutlery, crockery and food for the kitchen. Admittedly, this means lots and lots of tiny pieces so this toy isn't really suitable for a family with tiny members (I think Holly is just about old enough to be trusted with them) but the great thing is that all of the pieces of furniture in the house come with little push-in holes into which you place the accessories so that they stay in place and don't rattle around all over the place.
The Malibu house comes in four parts which either fold together to form a closed house, or open up to make a wide playset. The house is over two floors with an open-plan space downstairs and more targeted rooms upstairs. It really is a great way to let little imaginations run riot and both Holly and Lara enjoy playing alone, or together for quite some time, in their own little fantasy world.
At one end of the Malibu house there is a spiral staircase with a "lift" mechanism in which Barbie can stand while you winch her up or down the stairs. Gosh, it's a hard life for Barbie! Although this part of the house, with it's floor-to-ceiling aquarium looks very glam, actually I find that this is the one area of weakness in the toy - the clasp for the lift that holds Barbie in place has already broken and Lara finds it almost impossible to winch the thread up and down without help.
One of Lara's favourite parts of the Barbie Malibu house is the bedroom which comes with lots of space for Barbie's massive shoe collection and coat hangers for her to hang her dresses. Next door is a shower cubicle and the whole piece of furniture flips down to form a bed with pillows and a sheet.
In the TV room next door there is space for a big-screen TV (aka your iphone). I can't believe the luxuries that Barbie gets these days.
The Barbie Malibu house has been a big hit with both of my girls. It seems to take up a large amount of space in my living room but at least we can fold it up to make it more compact during the evenings.
The Barbie Malibu mansion costs around £99.99 and would be the Christmas present of many little girl's dreams! If you do plan to buy it for Christmas, I recommend constructing it before the big day as it took Mr. B. quite some time to fit all the pieces together around two over-excited little girls. There are also several stickers which need to be applied throughout the house.
Barbie : Life in the Dreamhouse is the inspiration for the Barbie Malibu House - a relaxed, glamorous escape for Barbie and her friends. Lara likes to bring along all of her dolls including Barbie of all shapes and sizes as well as princesses and mermaids. Lara places them all on the semi-circle couch in front of the TV for their chill-out time!
The Barbie Malibu house comes with plenty of furniture - a dressing table with two chairs, a TV chair, toilet, bed, dining table and lots more. There are also lots of tiny accessories including cute little details such as Barbie's own tablet (!), toothbrushes, cosmetics and plenty of cutlery, crockery and food for the kitchen. Admittedly, this means lots and lots of tiny pieces so this toy isn't really suitable for a family with tiny members (I think Holly is just about old enough to be trusted with them) but the great thing is that all of the pieces of furniture in the house come with little push-in holes into which you place the accessories so that they stay in place and don't rattle around all over the place.
The Malibu house comes in four parts which either fold together to form a closed house, or open up to make a wide playset. The house is over two floors with an open-plan space downstairs and more targeted rooms upstairs. It really is a great way to let little imaginations run riot and both Holly and Lara enjoy playing alone, or together for quite some time, in their own little fantasy world.
At one end of the Malibu house there is a spiral staircase with a "lift" mechanism in which Barbie can stand while you winch her up or down the stairs. Gosh, it's a hard life for Barbie! Although this part of the house, with it's floor-to-ceiling aquarium looks very glam, actually I find that this is the one area of weakness in the toy - the clasp for the lift that holds Barbie in place has already broken and Lara finds it almost impossible to winch the thread up and down without help.
One of Lara's favourite parts of the Barbie Malibu house is the bedroom which comes with lots of space for Barbie's massive shoe collection and coat hangers for her to hang her dresses. Next door is a shower cubicle and the whole piece of furniture flips down to form a bed with pillows and a sheet.
In the TV room next door there is space for a big-screen TV (aka your iphone). I can't believe the luxuries that Barbie gets these days.
The Barbie Malibu house has been a big hit with both of my girls. It seems to take up a large amount of space in my living room but at least we can fold it up to make it more compact during the evenings.
The Barbie Malibu mansion costs around £99.99 and would be the Christmas present of many little girl's dreams! If you do plan to buy it for Christmas, I recommend constructing it before the big day as it took Mr. B. quite some time to fit all the pieces together around two over-excited little girls. There are also several stickers which need to be applied throughout the house.
