Review: Barbie Malibu House

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I’ll be completely upfront here, I may have been the most excited about this delivery, it’s a toy I always wanted as a child but never had.
 
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What young girl doesn’t love Barbie?
 
Thankfully this Barbie Malibu House arrived when Emmy was at school, so during Harry’s rest time I took it upstairs to unpack and put together. 
 
The instructions are very clear pictures showing how to assemble, but you will need to make sure you have a rather big chunk of time to complete.  Start to finish it actually took me 40 minutes, 1 temper tantrum and a husband to the rescue….now I’m not saying you all need a husband to rescue you but do give yourselves a lot of time.
 
 

Ours took so long as one of the what I can only description as long knitting needles (it’s actually a plastic pin which secures two house sections together)  kept getting stuck, we had to shave some off with a knife before forcing into place – it should have slotted in easily like the other 2 did.
 
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The integral pieces all fit in very quickly and most you will find the places for easily without much need for the instructions.  Very quickly it starts to take shape.  I did end up hunting around for the bed – the largest piece of furniture and I just couldn’t see it for looking.  I even enlisted the help of Paul to see if he could find him but alas it was nowhere to be seen – until we realised that Barbie has a space saving bedroom and the wardroom and shower cubicle we had both picked up twice and put down again is actually Barbie’s bed too.  It flips up to reveal the space saving design features that every house needs.
 
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Balcony Bedroom featuring a double sized bed which flips up to reveal a shower cubicle, wardrobe and a set of drawers
This house has everything Barbie could possibly need and a little more luxury added.  There is a master bedroom complete with en-suite shower and dressing area.  A luxurious bathroom a kitchen, entrance hall complete with chandelier, a TV room and even a spiral stair case and a lift!
 
After a hard day watching TV, playing with her friends and possibly getting her hair and nails done – Barbie can relax outside her Malibu House on her corner lounger sipping cocktail’s and eating lunch outside on the patio furniture.  This house comes complete with garden furniture as well as pots and pans for cooking up all the treats which are also included (there are lots of cups and saucers and with the aid of carefully placed stickers you have a feast ready to eat).
 
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Emmy adores this house, she loves everything from the opening doors to the ‘Magic Bed’.  She does however find the lift difficult to operate – this may ease up over time with use.
 
I found storing all the cutlery etc a little difficult when she had finished playing with it (I ended up storing them in the draw of Barbie’s wardrobe). This is a large house so I am very glad it folds into its self a little.
 
One extra added feature which I will NOT be showing to Emmy is in Barbie’s TV room.  The TV folds down by undoing the clip and you can slot a smart phone into the gap and then secure it into place so Barbie can watch real TV.
This feature will not be used in our house because the children watch enough television as it is, I will not encourage them the stop their imaginative play to watch more.  I feel it was a step to far and an unnecessary inclusion.  However because Emmy doesn’t know it’s there it’s fine infact I haven’t told her it is supposed to be a TV – she thinks Barbie is sitting down looking at her pretty picture!  I love kids imaginations – they are just the best.
 
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I love the little chats Emmy has made up for her dolls when playing with this toy, I like to listen at the door when she thinks I’m not listening although she did catch me when I giggled after she told Barbie off for not wearing sun-cream when sitting in the garden!
 
Barbie Malibu House costs £99.99 and is available from Amazon, Argos and other good retailers.
 
Amazon.co.uk Widgets

Disclaimer: We were sent this item FOC for the purpose of this review, all thoughts and opinions are our own and unbiased.

 

One thought on “Review: Barbie Malibu House

  1. My daughter has a Barbie house and plays with it endlessly. they are such a good investment for a few hours peace 😉

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