Take a tour of the pink and fab World of Barbie exhibition in California

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Jun 9

When Barbie goes camping she does it in style, riding out in a customized pink camper van with sweet rims, purple front seats, pink headlights, plus a hammock, her own kitchen and TV.

Fans of the famous Mattel doll who attend the recently expanded World of Barbie immersive experience, which will now stay at the Santa Monica Place mall through Sept. 4, can hop inside her van, sit behind the wheel, honk the horn and pretend they're cruising down Pacific Coast Highway thanks to a famous local car shop.

"We got an actual Mattel Barbie camper, we 3D scanned it and then we essentially exploded it into this life-size Barbie camper," said Lorenzo Strong, vice president of sales and brand partnerships for West Coast Customs, which is famous for customizing cars for musicians, actors and athletes.

"This is super wild and off the wall for us because we're used to building real, actually functional campers and cars and trucks and all that," he added.

Lorenzo Strong, vice president of sales and brand partnerships for West Coast Customs, has built the Barbie camper van, part of The World of Barbie immersive pop-up experience in Santa Monica on Thursday, June 1, 2023.
(Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)

The World of Barbie interactive attraction opened on April 14 inside a 20,000 square-foot, two-story space that allows guests into the iconic doll's perfect pink life.

It's made up of life-size recreations of the interior of her beach house, complete with a view of the ocean. There's also a pool filled with plastic balls with a slide where kids — and even adults — can jump in and Barbie boxes that people can get into and have their picture taken as various versions of the iconic toy.

There's a Barbie Space Center, where guests can pretend they're about to travel into outer space and a theater playing animated Barbie films, plus other rooms filled with Barbie memorabilia.

But one of the biggest hits with fans has been the camper van, which is about the size of a 12-seat Mercedes Sprinter van.

"I think it's so neat to get to live something you grew up playing with and now you get to walk through it with your kid. I think the detail in this van is amazing, it looks exactly like the toy," said Allison Firey, who was visiting the World of Barbie from Santa Barbara with her 10-year-old daughter, Grace.

The two had just sat in the cab of the van, with Grace taking the passenger seat because she said she was too young to drive.

"It was cool," Grace said.

The entire process of creating the van took about a year. It's made up of foam, fiberglass, wood and there are a few real car components in the van like custom wheels and tires that could go on a car. It also has a working horn and headlights.

"There are lots of interactive features that really make the experience even that much more exciting," Strong said.

Behind the cab, which is decked out with LED lights and custom purple passenger and driver chairs, there is a hammock that people can relax in.

At the back of the van is Barbie's closet and a table and chairs under a TV screen playing animated Barbie shows. On the table is the actual toy van that West Coast Customs scanned for the build.

"Everything that's in that toy van is on here. If you open it up you'll see everything you see here," Strong said, referring to the custom built van.

And because you can't go camping without bringing some grub, on the other side of the van is Barbie's kitchen, which includes a fridge, stove and a sink.

World of Barbie is a traveling exhibit that launched in Canada before coming to Santa Monica, and because the van doesn't actually have an engine, Strong said the entire thing has to be disassembled and reassembled when it hits the road again.

"We couldn't be more excited to build this project. We're all kids at heart so it makes it that much more rewarding when you see kids actually enjoy it like this," he said.