First Ken Doll

First Ken Doll

Identifying Vintage Ken Dolls 1961-1976

Ken Carson was born and celebrates his official birthday on March 11, 1961. He is a 12" tall vinyl doll and
is Barbie's boyfriend. Ken is named after the Handler's (founders of
Mattel) son.

Ken, like Barbie is a slick dresser, with a fabulous wardrobe
that he shares with several friends, he also has a car, vinyl cases and many
accessories. The Ken doll like Barbie, also evolved over the years, but girls,
he's still single!

12" tall vinyl doll with straight-legs, flocked
hair (Fuzzy headed); blonde, brunette/black or brownette/lighter brown, a hollow torso wearing red trunks with a white stripe on side, cork
sandals with red vinyl straps, a black wire stand, yellow towel (the earliest produced dolls did not have the towel).

Doll mark: Ken ™ Pats. Pend. © MCMLX by Mattel Inc.

12" tall vinyl doll with straight-legs, new
painted hair in blonde or brunette, same body as earlier doll wearing solid red trunks either cotton or stretch jersey material, a
red/white striped jacket with the collar stitched on was added, cork sandals with red vinyl straps, black wire stand, no towel was
included. Same mark as 1961 doll.

Doll mark:
Ken ™ Pats. Pend. © MCMLX by Mattel
Inc.

1/4" shorter than previous dolls, loose legs,
pronounced kneecaps, fatter arms & hands. Rest same as prior doll.
New Markings. Doll mark:
Ken ® © 1960 by/Mattel,
Inc. Hawthorne Calif. U.S.A.

Red striped jacket now has the terry cloth collar
bonded on, rest same as 1962

doll. New marking;

Doll mark:
© 1960 by Mattel, Inc.
Hawthorne Calif. U.S.A.

1020 Ken Doll Bendable Leg (1965-1967)

New bendable legs, red trunks, blue jacket
with a "K" initial, blond or brunette molded hair, cork red sandals, black or wire stand.

Doll mark:
© 1960 by Mattel, Inc.
Hawthorne Calif. U.S.A.

Same muscular body as #1111, brown molded hair,
blue eyes. Now wearing a mustard open slit shirt,
multi-colored swirled print trunks (same print as

1142 Brad Doll Bendable Leg 1970).

Doll mark:
© 1968 Mattel, Inc.
U.S. & For. Pat'd. Other Pat's. Pending Mexico

All new head and body, Ken's been working out and
it shows, a much more muscular body, new solid red trunks and jacket
with bronze buttons, new clear X stand. In 1970 Ken got new
clothes now he came dressed in red shorts and a red jacket.

Doll mark:
© 1968 Mattel, Inc.
U.S. & For. Pat'd. Other Pat's. Pending Mexico

1111
Talking Ken Doll English (1970)

8372 Talking Ken Doll Spanish (1970)

New orange and turquoise jacket, same marks
as above Ken. Both the English & Spanish speaking Ken had the same
attire. Markings same as above doll.

Doll mark:
© 1968 Mattel, Inc.
U.S. & For. Pat'd. Other Pat's. Pending Mexico

Doll mark: © 1968 Mattel, Inc. U.S. & For. Pat'd. Other Pats. Pending
Hong Kong

Same doll mark as below, same doll just no
stage, instead this one has a posing stand. Brown molded painted hair,
jointed moveable waist, bendable legs, brown suede fringed vest,
multi-colored tricot shirt, gold satin pants and brown shoes.

1172 Live Action on stage Ken doll (1971)

Has a medium blue stage, microphone & a 45 rpm
record. Rest same as doll shown above.

Doll mark:
© 1968 Mattel,
Inc. Taiwan U.S. & For. Pat'd Patented in Canada 1967 Other Pats
Pending

New suntan skin tone, painted molded blond hair,
bendable legs, red trunks & a blue towel.

Doll mark:
© 1968 Mattel,
Inc. U.S. & For. Pat'd. Other Pats. Pending Hong Kong

1088 SunSet Malibu Ken Doll (1975-early 1976)

Doll mark: © 1968 Mattel,
Inc. U.S. & For. Patd. Other Pats. Pending Taiwan.

1088 SunSet Malibu Ken Doll (Late 1976)

Doll mark:
1088 0500 1 ©
Mattel Inc.1968 Hong Kong

New walking construction, brown

molded hair, blue short sleeve shirt, tan/blue plaid

pants & brown shoes.

Doll mark:
© 1968

Mattel, Inc. U.S. Pat. Pend. Taiwan

First to have bendable elbows. New

hands that can grasp and hold items, bendable legs, blue

jeans & red tank top, brown belt & white tennis

shoes.

Doll mark:
© 1968 Mattel,

Inc. U.S. & For. Pat'd. Other Pats. Pending Hong Kong

Doll mark same as

above Busy Ken, pretty much the same doll only talks

& different outfit: wore red corduroy pants, red/blue

plaid shirt, brown belt & shoes.

New rooted brown hair, extra beard,

sideburns & 2 moustaches, bendable legs, brown/white

checked jacket, white turtle neck dickey, light brown

pants & brown shoes.

Doll mark :
© 1968 Mattel,

Inc. U.S. & For. Pat'd. Other Pats. Pending Hong Kong

Doll marked same as

4224 Ken Mod Hair. Dressed doll, in pale blue brocade

tux, black pants & bowtie, black shoes & red

trunks.

Doll mark :
© 1968 Mattel,

Inc. U.S. & For. Pat'd. Other Pats. Pending Hong Kong

Doll mark :
© 1968 Mattel,

Inc. U.S. & For. Pat'd. Other Pats. Pending Taiwan

7261 Gold Medal Skier Ken Doll (1975)

7261 Gold Medal Skier Ken Doll (1976)

Doll mark :
© 1968 Mattel,

Inc.Taiwan U.S. & Foreign Pat'd.

9342 Now Look Ken Doll (Early 1976)

Rooted hair is much longer, to his

shoulders, no bangs and no receding forehead like the

early version, paler skin tone than earlier doll and

the arms have the hands facing towards the back rather

than towards the thighs. Same outfit. Now made in

Hong Kong.

Doll mark:
1088

0500 3 © Mattel Inc.1968 Hong Kong

Ken has painted brown hair, free

moving tab on back of doll makes it very movable.

By rotating the tab the doll could appear to be bending,

twisting or swinging an accessory. Both Ken and

Curtis are wearing a one piece short suit, Ken's has

solid white shorts with a red and white striped knit top,

white shoes and socks, accessories are a golf club,

tennis racket and ball.

Doll mark:
© 1968 Mattel, Inc. Taiwan
U.S. Patent Pending
All trademarks are respective of their owners with no affiliation to this site

Doll Reference © Copyright 2004 - 2022
all rights reserved including photos & content

*First Published: Jul 6, 2017, 6:00 am CDT
More stories to check out before you go

Photo via Julius Seelbach/Flickr

(CC-BY)

Posted on Jul 6, 2017 Updated on May 23, 2021, 12:50 am CDT
Last month, Ken and his friends received a reality-infused makeover , making the dolls look less like plastic gods and more like the men they’re supposed to emulate. Between three different body types, seven skin colors, and nine hairstyles, Ken is putting down fewer “Come on Barbie, let’s go party” vibes and is instead looking like a guy we might encounter (for better or worse) on Tinder or even at a women’s march.
Ken’s latest evolution might be his most dramatic makeover yet, but it certainly isn’t the most iconic or buzzworthy. Here are some interesting facts about Ken before he got the license to rock a man bun.

The Ken doll was first introduced in 1961 and was named after the son of Ruth and Elliot Handler, the inventors of the Barbie doll (incestuously enough, Barbie was also named after the couple’s daughter :eyes emoji:). According to fansite Keeping Ken , Barbie’s full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts. Ken, however, was never given a middle name.
Ken Handler ended up marrying a woman named Suzie. The couple lived in Manhattan together with their three kids, where Ken wrote music and plays for fun. He died at the age of 50 in 1994 on the afternoon of his daughter’s wedding.
Meanwhile, Shaving Fun Ken allowed kids to lather up Ken’s face and “shave” his beard, making it disappear with warm water.
Though Ken has had many professions, “Beach Bum” has been reproduced into 12 different versions between 1962 and 2002. Following in a tie for second are “Escort,” and “Tourist,” with 10 boxed dolls each. And at third is “Prince,” with six boxed dolls.
The Ken doll in question was dressed in a purple tank top with a lace-covered polka-dotted skirt. After Toys “R” Us employees at the Florida store confirmed the box’s seal hadn’t been tampered with, Carina Guillot and her 12-year-old daughter Jocelyn took the doll home. “Cross Dressing Ken,” as the media dubbed the doll, went viral (by ’90s standards) and was featured on The Arsenio Hall Show and The Joan Rivers Show , and in Fortune and Newsweek . Collectors offered Guillot up to $4,000 for the doll, but the family didn’t bite. Meanwhile, Mattel had no explanation for the doll’s dressings other than it being a “production error.”
As it turns out, a Toys “R” Us evening employee admitted to redressing Ken and said he carefully resealed the box as to give the appearance the doll arrived that way; it was a common store prank, the employee explained. The employee was fired four days after confessing.
“We always did crazy things like that,” Ron Zero told the Associated Press at the time. “We’d hang dolls in the aisle or put Ken and Barbie in the Barbie house with Barbie spanking Ken.”
The Ken doll, which was released in 1993 as an accessory character to Earring Magic Barbie, came with a purple vest, a pink mesh shirt, a pierced left ear, and two “hoop” accessories—one worn as a pendant, and another attached to Ken’s vest. Mattel’s marketing and communication manager explained the company had surveyed young girls to see if Barbie should get a new boyfriend, or stick with Ken. Girls voiced that they wanted Ken to stay, but thought he should be more cool.
So, as columnist Dan Savage put it for Seattle’s Stranger at the time, Mattel went after what’s “cool” and capitalized off gay culture—or the “homoerotic fashions and imagery” girls watched on MTV, from Madonna’s dancers to raves. The most telling detail? Ken’s “necklace charm holder hoops” looked a lot like cock rings.
“On closer inspection, Ken’s entire Earring Magic outfit turns out to be three-year-old rave wear. A purple faux-leather Gaultier vest, a straight-out-of-International Male purple mesh shirt, black jeans, and shoes. It would seem Mattel’s crack Ken-redesign team spent a weekend in LA or New York dashing from rave to rave, taking notes and Polaroids,” Savage wrote at the time.
While Earring Magic Ken became Mattel’s best-selling Ken doll of all time, much thanks to gay customers purchasing the unintentional gay icon, Mattel discontinued the doll and recalled the rest.
All good things must come to an end. After 43 years, Ken and his beloved Barbie parted ways . If that wasn’t a big enough bummer for Barbie fans, mere months later Barbie began dating an Australian surfer doll named Blaine.
To promote their new Cali Girl doll line, Mattel had Barbie stans vote on Barbie’s next suitor in an online poll. Barbie could get back together with Ken, nature boy Steven, adventurous Steven, Blaine the Aussie, or stay single. After more than a million votes, Blaine won the throne as Barbie’s new beau.
This time, Mattel used Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, and YouTube to launch an ad campaign for Ken’s efforts to win Barbie back. Social media accounts for the dolls updated fans on Ken’s grand gestures and Barbie’s indecision with getting back with her longtime boyfriend.
Mattel even launched a web series on Hulu called Genuine Ken , where eight men competed to become “the Great American Boyfriend.”
How serendipitous and not totally planned!
The cake was originally thought to be a transgender Ken or a political cake, but someone who attended the party where it was served said the party host was neither transgender nor attempting to make a political statement.
Today, Freeport Bakery frequently pays homage to their original Ken cake.
It's a pool party! Ken's ready for a swim.
Happy 4th! Check out how Caitlyn did the buttercream work on the skirt. It's amazing.
Quentin Dehar, a 24-year-old France TV personality who aspires to be like Ken, broke up with his Barbie-like girlfriend Anastasia Reskoss in February after she dyed her blonde mane brown. The two allegedly began dating in 2013 over their shared interest in the doll couple and even had matching Ken and Barbie cars .
https://twitter.com/DeharQuentin/status/681486060984102914
Rodrigo Alves, a 33-year-old flight attendant from the U.K., has spent more than $400K to achieve his Ken-like look and has allegedly insured his body for $1 million .
He had his first nose job four days after his 18th birthday and has since spent reported millions on plastic surgery. However, many of his procedures, including custom back implants, shoulder implants, and multiple nose jobs, have been paid for by male fans. Jedlica is a subject in the upcoming, aptly titled documentary The Human Ken Doll .
A post shared by Justin Jedlica (@justinjedlica) on Mar 29, 2017 at 10:49am PDT
Jedlica and Alves are set to star in a plastic surgery reality show called Plastics of Hollywood , where they and 10 other “human dolls” will vie for careers under the world’s first agency for the most body-modified personalities. They’ve also both been featured on E! Entertainment’s Botched .
Fashion shopping site Lyst introduced a series of hip, balding, and dad-bod-esque Ken dolls. Meanwhile, realistic-doll-maker Lammily created a Ken doll equivalent with the average proportions of an IRL male 19-year-old.
A post shared by Lammily (@lammilyofficial) on Apr 5, 2016 at 11:37am PDT
In a true testament to modern times, these updated Ken dolls are now the butt of your new favorite ex-boyfriend ( and ex-girlfriend ) memes. Here’s to hoping that Ken will continue to provide us more awkward cultural moments for the next 50 years.
In 2009, Mattel released the doll for pre-order as part of its exclusive Gold Label Collection, a collectible line for adults. For $69.99 collectors (or, you know, iconic-doll fanatics) could be the proud owners of this chic Floridian Ken doll, complete a stunning lime green-decorated sport coat, pastel pink button down, and white pants and loafers. His accessories also featured sandals, sunglasses, and swim trunks.
“At the end of the day, this collection is targeted toward adults,” a spokesperson told ABC News at the time. “While the name of the doll does refer back to the dog, I think people are going to interpret it as they want to interpret it.”
In the 2010 film Toy Story 3, Ken, who is voiced by Michael Keaton, wasn’t just a fictional doll.
“Grab your binoculars and join Ken for a safari! A swinging bachelor who’s always on the lookout for fun, Ken sports the perfect outfit for his eco-adventure: light blue shorts and a leopard-print shirt with short sleeves sure to keep him cool in the hot sun,” boast the doll’s description.
Despite the iconic blue cheetah-print shirt, matching ascot, and shorts, Ken doesn’t shy away from his Dream House closet in the film, and wears 21 different outfits throughout the film.
“ She should care about more than going to the beach…She should care about poverty and suffering in the world. I wish she would work in a soup kitchen, but then she would never sell,” Handler told writer Denise Gellene for People magazine and the Los Angeles Times in 1989.
He never bought his two daughters Barbie or Ken dolls, but not because he was so morally against them—they just never asked for the dolls, and always preferred stuffed animals.
“Ken is Malibu,” Handler said. “He goes to the beach and surfs. He is all these perfect American things. I was the kind of kid who played piano and went to movies with subtitles. I was a nerd—a real nerd. All the girls thought I was a jerk.”
While Ruth and Elliot Handler might have named Ken after their son, Jack Ryan, Mattel’s chief designer and self-described “third-in-charge” through the ‘50s and ‘60s, is credited with designing the Ken doll other famous Mattel toys. Ryan, an engineer who began his career developing missiles for the Pentagon, developed these Mattel toys and built a “sordid” life filled with parties and orgies out of the hundreds of thousands of dollars he earned as a result.
In his 2009 book Toy Monster , which details Mattel’s hidden greed and public controversy, novelist Jerry Oppenheimer refers to Ryan as the “Father of Barbie.” (However, Ryan and Ruth Handler fought over Barbie’s credits for decades, from the doll’s physical creation, to her name—Handler continued to argue Ryan’s role in Barbie’s success even after his death in 1991.)
Oppenheimer’s book expands on the exciting lifestyle led by Ken’s creator, but perhaps the juiciest of descriptions comes from actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, Ryan’s second wife: “My knight in shining armor, the inhabitant of a fairy-tale castle, Jack…was a full-blown seventies-style swinger into wife-swapping and sundry sexual pursuits as a way of life.
Handler’s mother Ruth put aside her shock help her son seek “natural” AIDS treatment, but the syndrome was far too developed to be treatable, according to Ken’s primary doctor, Dr. Pamela Harris.
Oppenheimer also wrote that the real-life Ken Handler grew up “embarrassed and humiliated by having an anatomically incorrect boy doll named after him [with]…no hint of genitalia.”
In her novel Barbie and Ruth , author Robin Gerber repeated these allegations, writing that Handler had once denounced the dolls to his parents in a letter he had written in 1970. Handler argued that the dolls were “cow-towing [sic] to those who can’t accept the issue of their own sexuality.” Gerber wrote that Handler also told Harris, the doctor, that believed he had contracted the disease from another man.
When Ken died, the Handlers allegedly told friends and Mattel associates various stories, never revealing the true cause of death. Gerber wrote that both the New York Times and Los Angeles Times reported that Handler died of encephalitis, or of a brain tumor, in his mother’s obituary eight years later.
“I don’t think any one of us knew what the truth was,” Derek Gable, Mattel’s Director of Preliminary Design for male action figures, told Oppenheimer. “Ruth and Elliot never talked about it.”
According to Gerber, Ruth Handler said the design team lacked “the guts” to give Ken even a “suggestion” of a penis, though she argued there should have at least been a bulge to suggest realism. The research and design team, however, made the decision in respect to whether Ken’s “physique” would help or hurt the company.
“They decided it was better for Mattel if he was neutered, and that was the end of it,” Marvin Barab, Mattel’s manager of packaging and graphics at the time, told Gerber.
While Mattel has attempted to make Barbie somewhat of a feminist hero with her myriad occupations, some of her Ken companions seem to solidify the gendered double standards impressed upon children.
In the Good, the Bad, and the Barbie: a Doll’s History and Her Impact on Us by Tanya Lee Stone, Stone’s points to 1965’s Slumber Party Barbie. The doll included a miniature scale set to 110 pounds (um, holy s**t) and a book titled How to Lose Weight that advised, “Don’t eat!” Slumber Party Ken, however, came with a glass of milk and a bedtime snack. The doll’s 1966 reissue came without the scale. In the 2006 reissue, the title of the book was removed, as was a silhouette of Barbie stepping onto a scale.
Of all 247, the rarest and most valuable of the Ken Dolls are the collectible Dressed Box Kens. According to Collectors Week , the Dressed Box Kens were released between 1963 and 1965, with 14 different dolls in the series. (One of them, Ken Arabian Nights, came with a turban and an oil lamp.) However, the first collector-targeted Ken
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First Ken Doll

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