Inside of the Mattel toy universe, there’s Barbie, there’s “just Ken” … and there are the dolls you totally forgot existed until seeing Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” motion picture.
“Barbie” capabilities a several these types of of Mattel’s most legendary flops, including Earring Magic Ken, Growing Up Skipper and Sugar Daddy Ken (it is a long tale, which we will get to below).
As narrator Helen Mirren said in the movie, some of these doll concepts ended up “just much too unusual.” In truth, viewers can spot many discontinued dolls residing in Odd Barbie’s home, a veritable Island of Misfit Toys.
From a pregnant doll to a canine named Sugar, listed here are some of Mattel’s most notorious discontinued dolls.
‘Happy Family’ Midge
As Barbie (Margot Robbie) can take viewers on a tour via Barbie Land, one doll’s overall look sticks out. Midge, performed by Emerald Fennell, sports a enormous little one bump as she eagerly waves to Robbie’s stereotypical Barbie. The character is performed for laughs, but relaxed “Barbie” followers could not know Midge’s extensive, controversial heritage in the Barbieverse.
Margaret “Midge” Hadley Sherwood was designed in 1963 as Barbie’s simple-Jane greatest pal. Considerably less glamorous than Barbie, Midge was intended to stand for a additional normal, accessible American lady.
For most of her existence, Midge led a silent, unremarkable daily life with her beau Allan Sherwood, whose packaging described him only as “Ken’s Buddy.” The plastic pair married in 1990, and liked a brief second in the highlight with a “Wedding Social gathering” set released the exact same 12 months.
Midge and Allan’s relationship opened up new avenues for the dolls, these types of as parenthood. Mattel released the “Joyful Relatives” established in 2002, featuring a expecting Midge with toddler equipment and a “3-in-1 crib, table, and cradle,” according to the box. “With this gift established, girls have anything they need to have to engage in out the arrival of a new child,” the box go through.
Probably taking the “Satisfied Household” thought just a stage way too much, Midge experienced a removable, magnetized expecting tummy that could suit her accompanying plastic toddler.
Midge’s fragile ailment sparked immediate backlash. Many serious-lifestyle mother and father worried that Midge would market teenager being pregnant, or even single motherhood — Allan and the couple’s other kid, Ryan, have been sold separately from Midge.
According to the Involved Push, Wal-Mart pulled pregnant Midge from cabinets by December 2002 because of to the controversy.
Mattel has under no circumstances returned Midge or her newborn to the doll lineup.
Allan
Allan, Midge’s partner, has been equally wiped from the data: The doll disappeared just two yrs immediately after his release in 1964, reappearing only in the 90’s. Performed by Michael Cera in “Barbie,” Allan has a substantially bigger job in the movie than he at any time did in real lifetime.
Even though numerous versions of Ken have been created around the several years, there has only at any time been one particular Allan. His main declare to fame remains that he shares clothes with Ken.
Earring Magic Ken
As seen in “Barbie,” Ken commonly takes a back seat to Barbie. The movie’s tagline says it all: “She’s almost everything. He’s just Ken.”
For a brief, shining minute in the early 1990s, although, a single Ken doll emerged as an accidental celebrity.
“Earring Magic Ken,” who debuted in 1993, was Mattel’s endeavor to jazz up Ken’s squeaky-thoroughly clean impression, allegedly in reaction to girls requesting a “cooler” model of the character.
The doll sported bleach blond hair, a see-as a result of purple mesh leading, a lavender pleather vest, a alternatively uncommon necklace, and of system, a single earring.
Reviewers were brief to stage out that Ken’s outfit bore a resemblance to rave use popular amongst gay men at the time.
“Ever because Mattel launched Earring Magic Ken a number of months back, persons have been wanting to know no matter if there’s a little something additional in the Desire Dwelling closet than a couple Bob Mackie originals and some two-inch-vast hangers,” journalist Frank DeCaro wrote in Newsday.
In the 90s, putting on a solitary earring was perceived as a way for homosexual men to secretly converse their sexuality to every other. While Ken’s earring was not on the ideal ear, which was the usual piercing area for signaling, Earring Magic Ken however evoked the exercise.
It certainly failed to enable that Earring Magic Ken’s necklace, which experienced a large silver ring as the pendant, bore additional than a passing resemblance to a sex toy.
In his now-infamous 1993 piece “Ken Will come Out,” columnist Dan Savage speculated about Earring Magic Ken’s sexuality and interrogated a Mattel consultant about whether or not the business was informed of the doll’s connotations.
“Absolutely not,” Lisa McKendall, a Mattel representative at the time, told Savage. “It’s a necklace. It retains charms he can share with Barbie. C’mon, this is a doll developed for very little ladies, anything like that would be entirely inappropriate.”
Nonetheless, Earring Magic Ken grew to become a coveted merchandise for toy collectors who had been amused by Ken’s accidental foray into camp. On shelves for only six weeks, it grew to become the best-promoting Ken doll in Mattel record.
Played by Tom Stourton, Earring Magic Ken manufactured a brief visual appeal in “Barbie” alongside a further notorious Ken doll. Trace: his name is synonymous with “fructose father.”
Palm Seashore Sugar Daddy Ken
Whilst Mattel might have pled ignorance about Earring Magic Ken, it would be tough to contend that Mattel produced a doll referred to as “Sugar Daddy Ken” with zero know-how of the term’s implications. The doll was endorsed, satirically, by the web-site Looking for Arrangement, which facilitates “mutually beneficial interactions,” the web-site states.
Palm Seaside Sugar Daddy Ken debuted in 2005 as part of Barbie’s 50th-anniversary collection. He was dressed in a lime inexperienced damask blazer and crisp white trousers, and he arrived with a pet dog named Sugar.
Thus, Mattel argued, he was identified as Sugar Daddy Ken due to the fact he was Sugar’s … owner?
“He’s Sugar’s daddy, as a reference to the dog,” a Mattel spokesperson told New York Post in 2009.
The doll was portion of the adult Barbie Collector Line and not qualified at kids.
Sugar Daddy Ken, played in the movie by Rob Brydon, also built an look in Strange Barbie’s household alongside his plausibly deniable pooch.
Increasing up Skipper
If you imagined expecting Midge was the apex of bizarre Barbie anatomy, “Expanding Up Skipper” blows that plastic little one out of the drinking water.
Skipper, for track record, is Barbie’s little sister. The first Skipper doll was released in 1964. Developed as an 8-12 months-aged character, Skipper had a notably much more youthful, cherubic physical appearance than huge sister Barbie.
Mattel made a decision that even plastic is not immune to the ravages of puberty. In 1975, the corporation released “Developing Up Skipper,” a technological marvel of a doll that grew taller — and grew breasts — when consumers twisted her still left arm. Rotating her arm backwards reversed the improvements.
Escalating Up Skipper’s packaging described her transformation as going from a “cute, very little girl” to a “tall, curvy teenager.” The industrial named it “two dolls in 1.”
Despite controversy, Mattel established a further model of the doll idea called “Rising Up Ginger” in 1976.
The organization eventually discontinued the “Rising Up” dolls in 1977, but Skipper ongoing to develop in subsequent versions of the doll. “Super Teen Skipper,” established in 1979, retained the doll’s aged-up physical appearance. “Scorching Things Skipper” doll was produced in 1985.
Growing Up Skipper, played by Hannah Khalique-Brown, will make a brief look in “Barbie” in which she demonstrates her shapeshifting capabilities to a horrified Gloria (The usa Ferrara) and Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt).
Video clip Lady Barbie
To round out the lineup of discontinued and disgraced dolls, we have Online video Female Barbie, who has the exceptional distinction of getting the subject matter of a warning from the FBI.
Video Girl Barbie was a 2010 doll that featured a very small front digicam capable of recording up to 30 minutes of footage and a tiny video clip monitor on her back again.
The toy was ostensibly aimed towards “budding filmmakers,” but it uncovered its way on to the FBI’s radar.
The FBI despatched out a memo alerting legislation enforcement to the toy’s prospective for boy or girl abuse — specifically youngster pornography — because of to its concealed digicam function.
Even though the FBI asserted that no this kind of incident had nonetheless occurred with the doll, the inform was promptly picked up by media.
“The alert’s intent was to be certain law enforcement companies have been informed that the doll, like any other video-able equipment, could consist of proof and to not disregard these kinds of an item during a lookup,” the FBI explained in a statement.
Mattel also put out a statement clarifying the objective of the announcement.
“The FBI is not reporting that anything at all has occurred,” the enterprise stated. “Steve Dupre from the FBI Sacramento field business office has verified there have been no incidents of this doll being employed as anything other than as intended. Mattel solutions are developed with small children and their most effective pursuits in brain. Numerous of Mattel’s personnel are moms and dads themselves and we fully grasp the worth of youngster protection — it is our number a person precedence.”
The doll was discontinued in 2012, per Mattel.
Movie Lady Barbie seems in the movie alongside with the other discarded dolls in Weird Barbie’s residence.
She complains about her style and design to Gloria and Sasha.
“I have a Television set on my back again,” she explained. “You know who’s dream this is? Nobody. It is nobody’s dream.”
This story initially appeared on Today.com. More from These days
