Kenner Products was founded in 1947 by the Steiner brothers in Cincinnati, Ohio, and quickly became successful with their toys. Their success continued through the fifties and sixties, with introductions like the Easy Bake Oven and Spirograph. The company was purchased by General Mills in 1967. In the '70s, Kenner got into the doll business. They continued to make dolls throughout the decade, but by the 1980's were concentrating more on action figures, including the Star Wars line, which was their biggest success story. In 1985, General Mills spun off Kenner and Parker Brothers into a new company, called Kenner Parker Toys. Two years later it was acquired by the Tonka Corporation, which split Kenner Products and Parker Brothers back into separate divisions. In 1991, Kenner became part of the world's largest toy company when Tonka was purchased by Hasbro. They continued to produce high quality dolls during this period. In 2000, Hasbro shut down the Kenner division and merged its product lines together. Although they still produce some of Kenner's products, including Baby Alive, the Kenner name is no longer used.

Kenner dolls include:

• Gabbigale is an 18" talking doll with a recording mechanism. When you raise her arm, pull the string and talk to her, she records what you say. When you lower her arm and pull the string, she repeats it back to you. Both white and black versions were made, copyright 1972.
• Baby Alive was hugely successful for Kenner. While there are many drink-and-wet baby dolls, Baby Alive is the rare "eat-and-poop" model. She is battery operated with a chewing mechanism. She was sold throughout the '70s and a new version was produced in 1990. There were both black and white models made. Baby Alive is still being made in an updated version by Hasbro.
• Crumpet, copyrighted in 1970, is a 19" pullstring, battery operated mechanical doll who pours tea and serves cookies. She has long straight blonde hair and blue sleep eyes, and was sold complete with her table and tea set.
• Madcap Molly, advertised in 1971, is an unusual wind-up walking doll described as "the do-it-all dolly." She is 12" tall and came packaged with a shopping cart, scooter and skis. Molly's construction is hard to describe: her head, arms and legs are flat plastic while her torso is more three-dimensional.
• Garden Gal is a series of three dolls: blonde Skye, Brunette Meadow, and Willow, a redhead. They came packaged with flower seeds, two plastic pots, peat discs and watering can. The dolls, from 1972, have white molded boots on their feet.
• Betty Crocker
was a lithographed cloth advertising doll sold with baking utensils. She is 13" tall with huge brown eyes, and her gingham dress and white apron with the Betty Crocker logo are removable. She has brown yarn pigtails in addition to her fabric hair. Dated 1974.
• Blythe was introduced in 1972. She is a very unusual 11" fashion doll with an oversized hard plastic head. By pulling the string at the back of her head, her eyes will close, and reopen a different color! Her eyes can be blue, green, brown and pink by turns. Blythe came with a variety of hair colors, either with bangs or in a side part style. Her vinyl body is the same or similar to that used for Hasbro's World of Love dolls. Many extra outfits were sold for Blythe, and there were wigs in wild colors available too. In the past few years Blythe has become very popular, particularly with Japanese collectors, and Blythe dolls have been reproduced by Ashton-Drake and by Takara in Japan.
• Jenny Jones and Baby John were a mother and baby set of dolls produced in 1973. Jenny is 9" tall and her drink-and-wet baby is 2.5". They were sold with a crib and accessories. There were also separate outfits and nursery furniture available for them.
• Dusty
has been called one of the ugliest fashion dolls ever made. While this may be unfair, it's safe to say that she is not a "girly" doll. Her niche was that she was an active sports-minded girl, busy with tennis, golf, skiing, swimming and other fun activities. Dusty has platinum blonde hair in a shag cut, a tan complexion and a big smile. She is 11.5" tall and jointed at the waist. Most dolls have bendable arms and jointed wrists, but there were some dolls made with straight arms. These were sold for $1.99 with the trade-in of any old doll. Dusty had separate outfits available for many different sports. She also had a black friend named Skye. While Dusty and Skye are the same height as Barbie, they have a stockier build, and Barbie's clothes will not fit them.
• Nancy Nonsense is an 18" pullstring talking doll from 1974. She has blonde hair in pigtails and painted blue eyes with lashes.
• Baby Yawnie is a 14" baby doll from 1974 with a stuffed cloth body; when you squeeze her hand she yawns and closes her eyes by means of a bellows mechanism. Black and white versions were made.
• Steve Scout (white doll) and Bob Scout (black doll) from 1974 are 9" action figures that wear offical Boy Scouts of American uniforms. There were several Adventure Sets and accessories sold for them.
• The Six Million Dollar Man, and The Bionic Woman were popular TV shows in the '70s, and Kenner's dolls of the main characters, Steve Austin played by Lee Majors, and Jaime Summers, played by Lindsay Wagner, were big hits. The company also produced dolls of Oscar Goldman (Steve Austin's boss), Maskatron (his robot enemy) and Fembot (Jaime Summer's robot enemy), as well as playsets and extra outfits for Steve and Jaime.
• Strawberry Shortcake was made by Kenner in a 16" rag doll version in 1980. She has yarn hair and her bonnet is attached to her head.
• Glamour Gals was a series of 4" fashion dolls with non-removable clothing, made in the early 1980s. There were several different dolls sold in a variety of outfits. In addition to the regular line, there was also a line of dolls wearing jewelry, and a line that came with accessories. They also had a Showplace Case, a car, and even a cruise ship.
• Hugga Bunch, copyright 1985, was a strange line of plush toddler dolls, like a cross between a doll and a stuffed animal. They came with smaller baby dolls for them to hug.
• Sabrina, the Teenage Witch was a 1990s tie-in to the popular TV show starring Melissa Joan Hart. She is a 10" fashion-type doll, and was sold along with her cat, a rabbit and hat, and book of magic spells. There was also a Bedtime Sabrina, who according to the packaging, could "magically levitate" from her bed.

Sources for this page include:

• Collector's Guide to Dolls of the 1960s and 1970s by Cindy Sabulis
• Collector's Guide to Dolls of the 1960s and 1970s, vol. 2 by Cindy Sabulis

Copyright 2006 by Zendelle Bouchard.

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