These stories about toys and how people played with them is very interesting! :)
My sister used to get Troll dolls as gifts from relatives. She never asked for them, but for some reason our relatives would give her Troll dolls. She would sometimes carry one around with her, but I don't know that she preferred them over any other dolls, other than that they were a lot smaller so easier to carry in her pocket.
I never had Barbies, but I had a lot of other dolls. My sister and I mostly played with these zoo animals that we bought in a pack from the Zoo where I live. There were a hundred or so animals in the pack, two of each type, and many of the animal types had a baby of it as well. Each of the animal types had specific personalities that we would use in our stories. We found that much more useful than playing with standard dolls, I think. Plus they were smaller, so we could make these large dioramas and give our animals a whole world. But we always knew, if we brought in any animal, what character he would play, which made storytelling much easier to do cooperatively. Because that's what we did when we played with toys, we made up stories with each other.
I've only owned three beanie babies; a unicorn, a dragon, and a pair of white tiger cubs that were playing together. (They were actually sewn together into a single toy.) I keep the unicorn on my monitor, as a mascot. The dragon is too large for it. Anyone who knows me well understands why I bought those particular ones. :)
