Tutti, Todd and their problems

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/#!

It’s something you hardly find information about but I think they are worth to be talked about even if they are out of production now for a long time. The little outfits have their very own charm and there are lots of outfits for Tutti and Todd around. By the way this Todd mentioned here has nothing to do with Todd https://fashiondollz.de/1977-ken-superstar/#!gallery-557-11415 from 1982, the groom of Tracy https://fashiondollz.de/1971-steffie-face/#!gallery-553-6993

The dolls are not related here. I know it’s sometimes a bit confusing. I hope you like this little article about Tutti, Todd and their problems.

Do you know Chatty Cathy?

To those of you who watch my youtube channel it’s not new that I’m repairing a Talking Barbie but do you know that there were more Talking dolls produced by Mattel? Did you know that Chatty Cathy is a bit older than Talking Barbie? No? She can also be repaired and has many fans around the world. Here’s her story.

First Mexican Barbie doll arrived

Last week I told you that I bought my first Barbie doll from Mexico. She has arrived in the meantime. Here’s Animal Lovin Barbie from Mexico. I assume she was there also produced in the late 1980s so that we can say that she’s approx. 30 years old. Their heads tend to become very pale. A part of the makeup is also pale. I don’t know why it happens but I have seen it on many of the Mexican Barbie dolls. It also seems to be like a disease.

A lot of work ahead of me

The next weeks are going to be very busy for me. I don’t if I find the time to do a Tuesday video for Busy B. I think it should not be a problem to do a Friday video but I don’t know if there is much more time. I’ve really some work to do in April and May. I’m currently reorientiating professionally and won’t be at home much for the next six or seven weeks. Of course that doesn’t mean that I stop collecting Barbie dolls. It’s just that I have less time in the next weeks for hobby stuff like youtube.

A visit at Tokyo Skytree

For Barbie dolls 60th anniversary you can visit an exhibition at Tokyo Skytree with different dolls from the last 6 decades and read about the dolls. There was also a one of a kind event for a Japanese designer. Everything ready for the 60th birthday huh ?

A funny video for Barbies 35th Anniversary

I recently learned that there was a video made by Mattel for the 35th Anniversary of Mattel. It’s very much skripted reality but it’s still nice and seems almost a bit historic. The reason I post this is because it’s funny. When you were a child like me back then you’ll remember lots of the dolls shown in this stage show. They made Barbie came to live for her 35th birthday and invented a stage show with the regular playline outfits and Barbie dolls from around. I’ve not known that a there was such a show. I’ve not known that they recorded the whole show for being able on VHS. A lot of the spirit from the mid 90s is here frozen in time. That’s what I like although it’s pure advertising.

Barbie doll sets you have never seen before

Do you have seen any set that appears in no book? Well I got a set many years ago that I’ve never seen in any book. This can be good since no burglar is going to visit you but this can also be bad because nobody knows that this set exists. Anyway, there is always a chance that you have something special because it isn’t shown anywhere.

A seller that I know offered in the last weeks something I’ve never seen before. I didn’t buy it but this reminded me that I also have something that a majority has never seen before.

Camp Fun Barbie

As far as I know the set was bought in Italy. I’m the second owner.



So many ideas and so little support

I’m really creative with so many ideas I could write down or tape but the problem is that I have a shortage of supplies at the moment. My list with things I could use is so long and I have problems to get the things I need for my next projects. If you ask me why …. sorry, I have no idea. Maybe it has to do with the winter because nobody wants to go outside and the wish to sell something is not as big as in summer? Who knows? I have no idea but the market in Germany is almost empty. 

Buying at Amazon Japan

Last week I saw the video I posted last week. I saw there a Japanese Barbie book which I have never seen before neither heard of. Although I can’t read Japanese it seems very interesting since this book was written by the Japanese seamstress of Charlotte Johnson ( first Barbie designer).  The woman has an interesting story to tell how to make prototypes for later Barbie doll dresses but I think it is far more interesting to learn how she saw the whole thing.

The only place where I could find this book was Amazon Japan. So I created my account. That was not as hard as I thought it would be. You can switch almost everything to English and need a credit card but that’s almost all you need. In my case I got a mail from the customer service which I misunderstood at first because it was all written in Japanese. Very funny and the google translator obviously did it wrong at first too. So several days later I got a second mail from the customer service that said something was wrong with my credit card. They were right. I had given them a wrong date. After I changed the date it was no problem to order and by the begin of the next week the book should already be here. So this was my adventure buying at Amazon Japan. If you get a mail from the customer service after your order you know what this means … check you credit card.