The New Barbie Dream Townhouse

April 17th, 2010
by misa1

Mattel’s new version of the 1970s “Magic Sounds Townhouse”, now called “The Barbie Dream Townhouse) is part of their current “Barbie: Now and Then” line of toys. The idea is to recreate classic playsets, with modern face-lifts and new features. Commercial for Barbie Dream Townhouse I am not typically a Barbie collector, although I do [...]

Mattel’s new version of the 1970s “Magic Sounds Townhouse”, now called “The Barbie Dream Townhouse) is part of their current “Barbie: Now and Then” line of toys. The idea is to recreate classic playsets, with modern face-lifts and new features.

Commercial for Barbie Dream Townhouse

I am not typically a Barbie collector, although I do own a few. My interest in the new Townhouse incarnation was brought about by my daughter. She saw commercials for the Dream Townhouse around the end of this past January, and immediately began her campaign to own one. My husband and I decided to make it a gift for her April birthday.

The Dream Townhouse proved almost impossible to acquire, at least at first. Every shop in our area, as well as seemingly all online retailers, were sold out. The one exception was Amazon, which boasted 9 Townhouses available from secondary sellers, at more than $50 over the retail price. Unwilling to play along with the price gouging, we decided to wait.  By March, Amazon’s stock dropped to only 2 available, going for – are you ready for this? – nearly $400 each! It was at this point that I was fairly certain our girl would not be getting the Barbie Dream Townhouse.  Then, a mere two days before her birthday, a family member tipped me off that Toys R Us had just gotten in two of the Townhouses. Within 24 hours, most other stores seemed to have gotten new shipments as well, and Amazon had lowered their price in response.

It’s unclear why there was such a shortage of this playset. One theory is that given the poor economy, stores were reluctant to stock up on such a large toy, right after the holiday season. This makes sense, but also likely is a user post on Amazon which reported problems with the electronic components. The unsubstantiated claim said that Mattel had briefly halted production to perform some small fixes and improvements.

All of that aside, how well does the Dream Townhouse live up to its name? Pretty well, all things considered. It’s a fun playset, with lots of neat extras. Perhaps not perfect, but attractive, and a fairly good value for the price.

The new Dream Townhouse looks very similar to the old Barbie Townhouses. A photo on the box even shows the 1970s “Magic Sounds” model and this one, side by side. Standing three stories tall, the Dream Townhouse is a bookcase-shaped affair, with an elevator on the left side.

The electronic components are as follows: On the first floor, the door bell rings. Opening the front door activates a hinge switch, which lights the chandelier. Pressing on the oven timer makes a “tick-tick-tick” noise, followed by a bell. The refrigerator lights up inside when opened. On the second floor, pressing a button on the fireplace surround will both illuminate the fire (complete with “crackling” sound), and raise a flat screen television. Moving into the bathroom, the toilet “flushes”, and pressing the floor of the shower stall lets you hear Barbie sing. Unlike the previous two levels, the third floor has no built in sound or light effects. The hot tub on the balcony is actually a separate piece which can almost act as a small playset on its own. The colored lanterns over the hot tub light up, powered by a watch cell battery (the rest of the house runs on Aas, installed in a compartment in the floor).

One negative of the Dream Townhouse in my opinion, is that some of the furniture and accessories included are bare minimum in quality. It’s fairly obvious that the chairs, tables, etc, were an afterthought. That’s not unreasonable I suppose, given that the selling point of this set is the lights and sound aspect. I will say however that the bathroom accessories are adorable! There’s a little soap pump bottle shaped like a cat in a bathrobe, and my personal favorite, a toothbrush holder shaped like Barbie’s silhouette. Extremely cute, with amazing detail. It’s the inclusion of a few tiny elements like those that make other things like the thin, cheap, dining room chairs more noticeable.

Reading buyer reviews on Amazon, it does appear that quite a few people had problems with the electronic bits not functioning properly. In our case, everything works – except the fireplace. It will not light up. I called Mattel, where a customer service representative was extremely friendly and helpful, though it didn’t sound like I was the first called she’d had about this. It appears that the fireplace in our house isn’t fitting as tightly against the wall as it should, thus the electrical contact is not being made. The service rep offered further help, and possible replacement. Since my daughter is happy with the set just as it is, I think we’re going to let it go. We’ve had the Dream Townhouse now for about two weeks. It gets played with everyday.  One thing that remains to be seen is how long those light and sound elements will remain functional.

The Barbie Dream Townhouse gets a qualified “thumbs up” from this dolly fan, all things considered. If you have this set too, I’d be interested to hear other impressions!