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| Talking Busy Steffie |
The Talking Busy set consisted of Talking Busy Steffie, Talking Busy Barbie, and Talking Busy Ken, who were all released in 1972 and discontinued after one short year. These are the only Talking Busy dolls Mattel released, and are extremely hard to find on the secondary market. Mattel called these dolls the “The Doingest Fashion Dolls Ever!” Is “doingest” even a word?
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| "The Doingest Fashion Dolls Ever" |
Talking Busy Steffie arrived in stores wearing a pink and
white checkered shirt with matching knee high socks, light blue cuffed short
shorts, a navy blue and white tiny checked wide belt made out of fabric with a
matching checked hat, and she finished her outfit with white squishy closed
square-toe low heels.
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| Steffie in her original outfit |
Also in her original packaging she had five accessories she
could hold with her busy hands. They were a telephone, television, record
player, soda set (brown tray with two glasses), and a travel case.
Busy hands are hands that can grasp items. In Mattel’s advertisement, it said:
“Now Barbie and her friends can hold things with their brand
new kind of hand! It can bend and turn at the wrists. Open and
close! Clasp and Carry, too! Do almost everything your hand can
do.”
When you pulled on her string located on the back of her
neck she would talk like “real teens” about all the fun she has. She
could say:
“I love to wear my hair in curls.”
“I am having dinner with Barbie.”
“Let’s call Barbie now.”
“I dig having my own TV.”
“The new fashions are wild.”
“That music is groovy.”
Her set included a white plastic “X” stand that could double
as a seat. She is marked: “©1967 Mattel, Inc./U.S. & Foreign/Pats. Pend./Hong Kong”.
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| White "X" Stand |
Even though Talking Busy Steffie was around just a short
time, her famous head mold was used on numerous other dolls over the years such
as the Quick Curl Barbie dolls, Yellowstone Kelly, Quick Curl Kelly, Walking
Miss America, Quick Curl Miss America, Sunset Malibu P.J., Free Moving P.J.,
Gold Medal Olympic P.J., Quick Curl Cara, Free Moving Cara, Hawaiian Barbie,
and Walk Lively Steffie. And, that’s just to name a few!
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| Faces of Steffie: Free Moving P.J., Yellowstone Kelley, Hawaiian Barbie, & Walk Lively Miss America |
Happy Hunting!
