True story taken from a newspaper in 92 or 93. The guy was in the process of proving the hazards associated with "Rollerblade Barbie"
But what makes this Barbie special is that she's wearing two little yellow Rollerblade booties, each of which has a wheel similar to the kind found in cigarette lighters, so that when you roll Barbie along, her booties shoot out sparks. This seems like an alarming thing for Rollerblades to do, but Barbie, staring perkily ahead, does not seem to notice.
To ensure high standards of scientific accuracy, I conducted the
experiment in my driveway. Aside from Rollerblade Barbie, my materials consisted of several brands of hair spray and -- this was a painful sacrifice -- a set of my veteran underwear (estimated year of purchase: 1968). I spread the underwear on the driveway, then sprayed it with hair spray, then made Rollerblade Barbie skate across it, sparking her booties. I found that if you use the right brand of hair spray -- I got excellent results with Rave -- Rollerblade Barbie does indeed cause the underwear to burst dramatically into flame.
(While I was doing this, a neighbor walked up, and I just want to say that if you think it's easy to explain why you're squatting in your driveway, in front of a set of burning underwear, surrounded by hair spray bottles, holding a Barbie doll in your hand, then you are mistaken.)
So we can see why Mattel ceased manufacturing Rollerblade Barbie
