We love dolls with costumes depicting cultures from around the world. Our father traveled a lot for his job and he would bring back dolls from the various countries he visited. Although these dolls were for display and not for play, we had as much fun just admiring them.

Growing up in the Philippines, our family of five children did not have many dolls to play with. Our earliest memory was of a vinyl baby doll that the three of us sisters shared. Our two brothers also played with it, but mostly to stomp on or to hurl around. We also recall playing mostly with paper dolls and making clothes for a Barbie® clone fashion doll that our father brought back from one of his overseas trips.

Rowena in kimona (blouse) and patadyong (skirt) for school dance program (late '60's)

Jennifer (right) and our youngest brother Lorenzo, circa 1960's

We discovered Barbie® in 1997 and have focused our collection on cultural and historical themes. In April 2001, we started this website as an informational site devoted to Filipina Barbie®. Encouraged by the response from visitors to our website, we brought some of our duplicate Filipina Barbie® dolls to display and sell at local area doll shows. Since then, we have added other foreign exclusive dolls -- in both ethnic and contemporary fashions -- to our ever-growing collections! In 2002, we added the "Marketplace" section to our website. In August 2004, we became Manikà, Incorporated.