Everybody has heard of Barbie and Ken – the iconic girlfriend/boyfriend dolls manufactured by Mattel that have been played with by young girls since 1959. But have you ever heard of Babs and Bill?
I haven't either. But they were more or less clones of Barbie and her boyfriend, manufactured and marketed by a Mattel competitor. And here they are, in this Penneys ad from the Lorain Journal of Dec. 13, 1963.
The whole Barbie and Babs thing reminds me of Stony Smith and G.I. Joe. Both were action figures that were soldiers (my brothers and I had both). But one (G. I. Joe) was the original and the other (Stony) was the less well-done rip-off. But we enjoyed and played with both of them – although Stony did all his soldiering standing up (his legs didn't bend).
Here's one on eBay right now. (I gave mine to my nephews when they were tykes.)
I remember we even used a black Sharpie magic marker to make Stony look like Adolf Hitler (!) so we could bash, shoot and destroy/kill him! I guess that's what happens when your father fought in WWII.
If you'd like to learn more about Babs and Bill, visit this link on a very interesting website called "The Vintage Toy Advertiser."
6 comments:
Poor Stony Smith looks like he spent time in a POW camp, and not Stalag 13, either!
One Christmas I got a GI Joe as a gift but my mom didn't want me playing with dolls so not to long after it disappeared.
We used to have Big Jim.
Babs and Bill - news to me. Thanks for teaching me something new!
My brother had Astronaut G.I. Joe, with the space capsule and all the gear. Still has it, in fact, in its original box, all in perfect shape. Might be worth some coin.
I preferred Johnny West.
"They're not 'dolls,' they're action figures!"
Alan - True about poor Stony, but he doesn't look worse off than Babs and Bill, who look like they have overdosed on Ozempic.
True dat!
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