Being a collector of only two years’
experience, I think I have a tendency for … day dreaming. Let’s take the
gorgeous Beauty Secrets Christie for example. I dream that one day I’ll add her
to my collection. There’s a certain amount of realism to my dreams. Whenever I
think of the lovely, dark skinned Superstar I cannot escape the sour “dream on”
or “good luck with that”. There are, however, some dolly dreams that I don’t
even articulate. No use. That category of dolls includes also Takara and Ma-Ba
Barbie. I once saw them on Erynnis blog and fell in love in a blink of an eye. A
very detailed and informative post by Erynnis led me to believe that such a
Barbie would be a rather expensive piece to get and a quick look at the ebay
offer confirmed just that. There were just a few dolls available and they were
all costly.
I don’t want to copy Erynnis post, so I’ll just
give you the basic information in a nutshell. Japan didn’t fall in love with Barbie.
Japanese children didn’t understand her voluptuousness and didn’t like her wide
smile. Mattel didn’t realize that this was the country when women would cover
their mouths when smiling, and once they would dye their teeth black because
that was the paragon of beauty in the past. Barbie had to change and Takara was
eager to form an alliance to help that.
That was in 1981. Mattel and Takara gave Barbie child-like features, large,
brown anime style eyes, a gentle smile, a slightly oversized head. Barbie
became a girl, a bit more like Licca that Japan loved every since she came out
in 1967-ish. The Mattel-Takara alliance was short-lived and in 1986 the license
to produce Barbie dolls expired and it wasn’t extended. Instead of doing just
that, Mattel changed horses, it was Bandai’s turn to show what they could
offer. Ma-Ba Corp was created and it lasted till 1991. Meanwhile, it turned out
that Takara lost their rights only to use the name Barbie, but they could still
produce the dolls, exactly the same dolls, using the same head and body
sculpts, facial screening and articulation. They just had to change the dolls
name and hence Jenny was created.
In Polish we have a useful phrase that
translated into English would mean something like “Away from my eyes, away from
my heart”. I couldn’t afford a Takara or Ma-Ba Barbie, so I pursued my more
realistic dreams and I had a plenty of those. I would not read about Japanese
Barbie dolls, I would not even look at their pictures. But sometimes the
longing would prevail and I would put the dolls names in Ebay browser without
enthusiasm or hope. About two weeks ago I noticed an increased availability of
these dolls. A lovely Ma-Ba Barbie dressed in a bunny costume caught my eye.
She cost more than I was ready to pay, but I just checked out what the seller
had to offer. There was one particular doll that increased my pulse. She was
new in a box that spelled my favorite combination of words – Takara+Barbie. Her
price was just too good to be true and I was not deceived, but she did had the
face paint of a Takara Barbie/ early Takara Jenny and she was wearing a kimono.
That was enough. I thought to myself that no matter who that doll was, she was
MINE!
The doll arrived but instead of giving me
answers, I got more questions. Her box was that of a genuine Takara Barbie,
that was certain. The name of the series – Casual City Girl would suggest a
doll dressed in a European way. I browsed for such dolls and saw even more
Kimono Barbie dolls in the red box of a Casual City Girl. As to a doll wearing
a pale yellow kimono, I only saw the pictures of my girl and another one, very
intriguing. I pasted it below. You’ll notice the obi belt is a darker green
though. It’s very easy to substitute a Takara Jenny for Barbie as a doll is
held in the box with just two elastic bands, so a brand new doll still in box
is not a valid evidence of her authenticity. Ever since I saw my doll in the
Ebay listing, I believed her to be Jenny, the question was, which Jenny. She
couldn’t be Barbie as the price didn’t fit, there was no cellophane on her
bangs, no doll stand, no catalogue and the box had been opened – the seal was
broken.
the source: https://picclick.com/%E2%9D%A4%EF%B8%8FTakara-TOMY-Jenny-Tamaki-Kimono-Vintage-2005-105-202898587231.html
The doll herself was even prettier than all the
pictures I’ve ever seen. She was brand new, never played with, never brushed,
and I believe still wearing her factory outfit. The obi belt was secured with
sharp pins (ouch) and the obi bow was tied under the belt with a ribbon. The
obi belt closes with two metal snaps and it’s very ornate. The kimono itself is
incredible – it looks very authentic, it’s even got the slits under the
armpits. In the entire outfit there’s only one tag and it spells Takara Co.,
LTD and there’s some kanji that I cannot read. The doll’s also wearing a pair
of socks and sandals, and a pair of undies – so she’s decent. Her jewelry is
plastic and fit for a child.
As to the doll’s identity, I’m almost sure it’s
Jenny, possibly an early one. Mattel would sign their products and I’ve scanned
the doll thoroughly, even the inside rim of the head. No evidence she’s
Mattel’s and the only signatures I could find were TAKARA Japan above her waist
and K119 at the back of her head – this stands for her headmold, the number is
common for both Takara Barbie and Jenny as well as quite a number of other
various dolls amongst whom only Ranze sounds familiar. My Jenny has a limited
posability. Her head rotates but there’s no vertical movement. The head itself
is made of a very soft vinyl and it’s squishy. The body mold suggest a twist
waist but she has no movement there or else something’s stuck and I don’t want
to force it. Her legs and arms have a wire inside so you can bend them. The
legs are made of vinyl and the arms are hollow inside. When you bend them, it
looks a bit weird but at least they’re not stuck in one position at the elbow.
The feet mold is very detailed and there’s an hole in the heel. In the
excitement I forgot to take photos of the feet but Ma-Ba’s on Erynnis blog
looks identical as far as her feet are considered. In terms of the doll’s
height, she’s of course shorter than a standard Barbie, but she’s taller than
Skipper 1987.
My favorite part of the doll is her face paint.
She’s so adorable. I’ve analyzed every spot, every line of her very detailed
and accurate paint work and I compared that to the photos online. Once Takara’s
license on Barbie production expired in 1986 they went on making identical
dolls- they could do that after all. Later on the eyes changed a bit, the
difference is slight and hard to notice but you can see it when you look for
it. However, the very first Jenny dolls were identical to Barbie. The same
number of spots in the eyes, the same shade of brown, the same amount of white,
the same number of eyelashes. It’s fairly easy to differentiate between
Takara’s and Ma-Ba’s dolls but Takara Barbie and Takara Jenny just look the
same to me. In fact I have the impression that throughout the years Jenny
remained rather consistent, unlike Barbie. As to the body sculpt, I can infer
very little from the photos online or the sparse information. The Takara Barbie
/ early Jenny remain a much undiscovered area. Erynnis blog shed much light on
this topic, but other than that, I remain in the dark.
Whenever I prepare an entry on my blog, I put a
lot of effort in making it as much informative as I can, but this time I’m
writing in a hope of being provided with information rather than giving it. I’ll
be very grateful if you can tell me anything about the origin of my doll or her
identity. Meanwhile, I’m very fond of the doll and I intend to purchase more
clothes for her. Mattel has much to offer of late and I like most of their
recent fashion releases. Jenny will appear in my future posts. Take care!
Further notes:
Oh dear, I’m behind with my English blog again,
I need to improve it because I’ve managed to publish the Polish post and even
update it before I even translated it into English and I even don’t have time
to proofread it. Anyway, I hope Flickr survives. I’m definitely going to get
the PRO subscription. Flickr has helped me so many times in the past and now I
identified my Jenny thanks to the photos that I found there. My doll is indeed
Jenny and a very early one too! One collector has posted pictures of Jenny
Fashion Journals. These were Barbie’s catalogues until vol. 11 but vol. 12 and
the subsequent ones (I’ve counted 21 in total) advertised Jenny. I found my
Jenny in vol.14 dated 1986 – the first year of Jenny’s production. She belongs
to the Kimono Jenny series and though you can hardly see her face, let alone
the details of the face paint, I’ve recognized her by the kimono which is
identical. The only difference is the obi belt which seems to be darker green
and the protruding element is orange and mine is purple, but other than that,
it’s the same outfit.
