Meet Bettina Dorfmann, a 62-year-old Düsseldorf resident, whose passion for Barbie dolls has earned her a prestigious spot in the Guinness Book of World Records for owning the world’s largest collection.
“As a child I always played with Barbies. When I got my old dolls out to give to my children, they weren’t interested as they weren’t to their taste,” Dorfmann explains. Her childhood dolls from the 1960s, although they weren’t modern enough for her girls, reawakened memories and inspired Dorfmann to start collecting the toys once more.
28 years later, her collection is going from strength to strength, now numbering around 18,500 dolls. Dorfmann occasionally exhibits her dolls in museums and shopping centres, attracting thousands of visitors. “Now that the film has been released, I’ve had a lot more interest in my collection,” she says. Requests for her to exhibit the dolls are piling up, and her diary is booked up until 2024.
But Dorfmann isn’t just an avid collector. She also runs a “Barbie clinic” - no, not the pink plastic, white-coated toy hospital you’re thinking of - where she restores broken Barbies. Prices start from €10 for common fixes, but range up to €600 for rare models.
Incidentally, Dorfmann has already been to see the Barbie movie twice and thinks it is “super”!
