You have probably never heard of Tutti and Todd. No wonder. I also never heard of them for a long time. Even after starting to collect Barbie dolls I was for a while not aware that these dolls existed.
What’s the problem? Well, they were stopped to be in production almost a decade when I was born and I think they were not as wide spread as Barbie and the grown up family members.
Tutti and Todd are twin baby sister and baby brother of Barbie from the mid 60s until the mid 70s and then they disappear from the family and were never seen or heard of again. For a first impression I would like to link to https://fashiondollz.de/1965-tutti-todd-and-chris/#!gallery-1176-9939
D has always nice pics of a ton of Barbie dolls. But what makes Tutti and Todd so special that I dedicate here an article to these two twins? I recently bought a package with repair parts and among these dolls was a Tutti with a green leg and an open arm. So I was able to show you the wire inside the body. It’s the wire that causes the problem concerning the green arms and legs these dolls have often.
The wire reacted with some kind of liquid, often water. I think this
problem is so wide spread because these smaller dolls were produced in
one step while Barbie was produced in several steps. For Barbie you
needed to produce the torso, the arms and the legs separately plus the
head. For Tutti and Todd you needed only body and head. Here was at
least a potential to save money and I think that these dolls now suffer
from. https://fashiondollz.de/1965-tutti-todd-and-chris/#!
Hi, everyone. It’s the crazy Barbie collector speaking. I have a new topic for this weeks blog post. Several weeks ago I posted about the first Kelly/Shelly dolls in the mid 1990s. Now I’d like to continue my previous article. The little doll is fascinating to me somehow.
I don’t have all sets
Let’s continue where we stopped the last time. I told you about the “Travelin Sisters”. I saw this set first in a book by Michael Augustyniak. He listed it as a Toys’r’ us exclusive set. I don’t know if it was only sold there because we had no Toys around. Anyway around the late 1990s some
cute special Kelly/Shelly sets were made. First example is the Travelin Sisters set. I know that there is a Japanese version of this set too with Barbie having the Bob Mackie face while the US version has a smiling Superstar face but hey that was normal in the 1990s and I bet that some of my readers have never heard of it.
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Another very cute set that I saw and found at Toys is the Birthday Fun Kelly gift set. I got it as a Christmas present in 1996. The Kelly and Chelsie were so cute I had to had them. No question and my aunt bought them for me. Today it’s not so easy to buy a Christmas present for an 11 year old girl. Surprisingly this set was never declared as official one from Toys R us. Never saw it anywhere else. I think the wishes are a bit more up to date.
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Target offered a blue Power Wheels Tommy and Kelly gift set in 1998 while the regular version was pink. It must be a very rare set since I’ve never seen it anywhere but in books. It’s even hard to find the pink version nrfb in box today. After many, many years I finally found one in 2018. The set is very heavy but I don’t dare to debox it. Good sources for special sets were Toys, Target, Wal Mart and Grocery. Some stores offered variants of regular sets like KB Tiny Steps Kelly in 2003 or the Love n Care Kelly in 2002. The regular version had more toys for Kelly. I think the idea behind these sets was a better number in sales since less toys costed less money and the doll could be offered for less money. What about you?
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Pink Power Wheels Kelly and Tommy gift set from 1997. #1997barbie #barbie1997 #barbiekellydoll #powerwheelskelly #barbiesuperstar #superstarbarbie #busybfromgermany #barbiedoctor #barbiedoctora
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Special Kelly dolls for every season
Target had some exclusive sets like Halloween Kelly line in 2000. Grocery had Holiday Kelly series for several years. Sears also had a very festive gift set with Barbie, Kelly, Tommy and Stacie called Evening Recital gift set. Instead of telling you what was available and what I don’t have I show you some of my dolls. I found some of my favorite sets over the years. I still have some wishes and not all the dolls I want but will it ever stop that you have wishes? What do you think about that wishes will ever stop? Will they? Won’t they?
I’d really love to show you some of the cute Holiday Kelly and friends but until now I have none. The good new is I have other sets and they are cute. So let’s concentrate of what I have. My sets can give you an overview over the topics covered.
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Tiny Steps Kelly, special version from KB, had less toys than the regular doll. #kellyclub #tinystepskelly #barbieshelly #shellyclub #kellyclub #barbiesuperstar #superstarbarbie #busybfromgermany
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Especially the Kelly Pretty Kitty gift set was hard to find and I had to do a long search before I eventually found one. Sometimes you need years to find certain sets.
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Very cute is the Tommy and Kelly soccer set. I suddenly found one last year although I never saw one of these sets in Europe before.
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Tommy and Kelly soccer gift set from 1999. It’s a Target exclusive set. #kelly1999 #barbiekellydoll #barbiesisters #kellyclub #target? #barbie1999 #busybfromgermany #barbiedoctor #barbiedoctora
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In spring 2019 I found this cute set here. It’s the Shelly and Pony set. I’m not sure if this was a Europe exclusive or not.
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Very cute is also the Love n Care Kelly set where Kelly comes with chickenpocks in a bed.
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Love n Care Kelly from 2002, special edition with less toys and the dress is lacking. She was sold at KB. #kellydolls #kellydoll #barbiesister #kelly2002 #barbie2002 #barbiesuperstar #superstarbarbie #kb #specialedition #busybfromgermany #barbiedoctor #barbiestagram
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We shouldn’t forget the “Tea for three” Kelly gift set, which was one of my early sets. It came soon after its release into my collection.
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A very cute Toys R us exclusive set was the “Tea for Three Kelly gift set” from 2003. She comes with two plush friends, chairs and a table so that they can have tea immediately. #barbiekelly #kellyteaforthree #kelly2003 #barbie2003 #toysrus #barbiesuperstar #superstarbarbie #busybfromgermany #kellyclub #kellystagram #barbiestagram #barbiedoctor
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Let’s stay at Toys r us and see another set. Again very cute, to fall in love with.
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That’s the Kelly & Liana dress up friends gift set. Very cute and a Toys r us exclusive from 2002. #kellyandfriends #kellyandfriend #kellydoll #barbiedoll #kelly2002 #barbie2002 #superstarbarbie #toysrus #kellystagram #barbiestagram #dollcollector #busybfromgermany #barbiedoctor #barbiedoctora
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And we shouldn’t forget the interesting foreign sets with Kelly and Barbie. I have only one at the moment but it’s quite interesting. Wedding Barbie & Kelly from the Philippines.
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I hope you like my little article about the many versions about Shelly/Kelly. Of course I don’t have all sets but if you see one let me know. I’m still searching for some of the sets. Maybe I can write another article when I have enough new sets to write a third part. I hope you enjoyed my article and like the little dolls as much as I do.
I’d like to share another article about my Barbie wiki today on another sister of Barbie called Kelly. Kelly is in variation still today available on the market but I’m not so much interested in the new doll called Chelsea. The name was changed to Chelsea in 2011.
I’m going to give you all information I found and know about Barbie’s baby sister Kelly and her early years. Baby sister Kelly was available in 1994. She was developed by Carol Spencer, a longtime Mattel employee, who started her career in the 1960s at Mattel. As far as I was able to find out Kelly her very own project. She wrote about this time in her recently published book called “Dressing Barbie“.
Love at first sight with Shelly
I really loved the doll the first time I saw her in a catalog. She was so cute and I decided that I wanted to buy everything I could find for and about Kelly. That was in 1995. And from the early years I have almost everything in my collection.
Carol designed all her clothes. Kelly was known as Shelly in Europe and Canada. Maybe a decision for better sales figures? I have no idea why they changed her name for the European market but in 1995 she was also available in Europe too. I would estimate that she was approximately three or four years old in 1995. The first edition of Kelly “Bedtime Fun Kelly” included a Kelly doll with a pink pyjama and a baby bed. She also came with a Sunday dress made out of black velvet and lots of toys . A short while later she got three friends. They were called Susie, Chelsea and Melody.
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They reminded me of a comic
I’m not sure but I think in 1995 there was also a very big gift set with Barbie, Skipper, Stacie and Kelly having fun on a big sleigh known as Winter Holiday gift set. This set it very special because Skipper is one of the few dolls with the back then recently newly introduced Pizza Hut face mold which is lovely but different from the mold that was used before. Kelly in her snow suit always reminded me of character of a Japanese comic series inspired by Louisa May Alcotts “Little Women”. Maybe that’s why I wanted the set but I’m not sure. I had no set with all four sisters until then.
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Many sets and dolls became available
Later in 1996 there was the first Barbie Kelly gift sets called Strolling Fun Barbie and Kelly this set came with a stroller. Shelly was able to move her on arm while sitting in the stroller. In 1997 there was another Kelly Barbie gift set called Shopping Fun gift set. In this set Kelly sat in her shopping cart. She had magnet in in her hand. She was able to hold a pair of prepared boxes (also with a magnet). In 1996 she was also produced as Bathing Fun Shelly. I found two variations in pink and yellow for the trim of her towel and bathrobe. I also found variations in the dolls themselves. One of my Bathing Fun Shellys has Saran hair and the other one has Kanekalone hair.
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Barbie & kelly strollin fun Th. 1995, rare.. dus rusak tapi isinya bagus, new ya masih segel (kenangan anak 90an) sold . . . #jualbarbievintage #barbie1995 #barbiestrollinfun #barbiekelly #barbie90s
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My two Bathtime Fun versions ( Kanekalone hair in box, Saran hair below)
In 1997 she got her potty training set. The Potty Training Kelly has a bottle you could really fill with water and then push on the heart button on her belly to make her pee. I think it was a similar mechanism like used for the drink and wet dolls but in a much tinier execution.
More functions
Carol Spencer produced several very sweet clothing sets for her in in the first years. I have made lots of pics of early outfits which you can find here https://barbie.final-memory.org/my-shellykelly-fashion-show/. These sets very not only available for Kelly but in in a combination for Barbie and Kelly. They got matching styles.
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There was also Pool fun series shown in advertisements. I had a long time problems to find out if this series was produced or or if it was was only a prototype shown in the advertisement (like often in catalogs in the 1990s). In 2007 or 2008 I finally found her and her friends and I know this series was produced and I got mine. https://barbie.final-memory.org/a-first-impression-of-my-shellykelly-collection/
Pool Fun Kelly
Kelly goes abroad
Eating Fun Shelly/Kelly was introduced in 1997 but I can’t tell you how the mechanism works since mine is still in box. After that came in 1997 there was another set with all four sisters called “Travelin Fun Sisters” https://images.app.goo.gl/Cj4XFoZgRGVNEkh48. Last year I furthermore found the Power wheels Jeep set with Shelly and Tommy (male baby counterpart for Kelly). In box this set is hard to find and it’s often very expensive. So I had to wait a long time until I found one.
I have for example many sets of early Kelly/Shelly sets. I’m going to divide this article in at least two parts. Next part is coming soon.
My post from last week inspired me to write more about Barbie dolls friends and family. In my article I’m talking about Stacey and Stacie.
Stacey had her first appearance in 1967 as Barbie’s Talking friend/Barbie’s friend from England. The Talking Stacey doll was spoken by Gwen Florea, who wrote a very nice book about her time at Mattel in the 60s and 70s. I was unfortunately too late to talk to her. It was only a short while before she died. Bad luck …
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Two TNT Staceys. #barbiestacey #modbarbie #stripesarehappening #barbie
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Stacey was designed as a friend of Barbie from England. She had the same size like Barbie doll and of course they were able to share clothes. Stacey brought lots of MOD(ern) clothes from the Carnaby Street in London, England to her friend Barbie. Maybe that’s how to crazy and colorful MOD clothes came into Barbie dolls wardrobe?
Stacey was available as blonde version and a red haired version ( I love this version but I don’t have one at the moment … hope that’s going to change one day..) . She was available until 1971. In 1972 she was sent to retirement… so sad … I wish they had produced her for a longer time. I can’t imagine that the sales figures were that bad.
Anyway in the early 1990s Barbie suddenly got a sister called Stacie. I would say she was approx. 10 years old in the good old time. She was a twin and had a twin brother called Todd ( who somehow reminded me of the Todd from the 1960s, Tutti’s twin brother). One of my thoughts was that she should maybe present a kind of a modern Tutti. Stacie could first be seen at the time Midge became a bride. She was sold at Toys r us together with Todd as flower girl and ring bearer. There was also a big gift set for the Midge Wedding with Stacie, Todd, Midge, Alan, Barbie and Ken. I think she reappeared one or two years later a steady character of the Barbie family and got an own clothing line, friends Janet and Whitney and disappeared around 2000. So one could think she was sent into retirement before she became a teenager?
Obviously she came back in the last decade but her character was changed. She became older and appeared in the Barbie movies. In the meantime she was sold as a doll again.
Today I have the chance to show you two versions, an early Kelly and a late one from one set produced by Mattel in the mid 1990s. I had the idea that there are two versions of one doll but I only owned the early version. In December I found the late version with the pink border ( bathing gown and towel) and canecalon hair. The early version has the yellow border (bathing gown and towel) and saran hair ( much shinier and easier to comb).
So here you can see that there are indeed two versions….
