🍍 Kiki The Fashion Tiki 🌺

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I bought this girl of mine around 10 years ago, as soon as I saw her I just had to have her.

She's put together in the same way my Betty Boop doll is - which a 11 inch standard Barbie type body (Circa. 1960's) - the only moving parts she has are her head, shoulders and the tops of her thighs.

These dolls were made by Drastic Plastic for Gobler Toys in 2004 - As a tie in with their book "Gobler Toys: The Fun We Can't Remember" published in 2003.

Gobler Toys is a spoof company created by Steven Fink and Steve Casino; a pair of toy addicts with a quirky sense of humour, the book and it's accompanying website features all manner of adverts for weird and crazy toys.

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They even produced a commercial for the original Kiki The Fashion Tiki Doll. Which you can watch on Ira Gobler's Youtube channel, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6tUGcjfsRQ

The top of the right side of her box bears the picture above, guaranteeing your doll is capable of keeping you safe from evil spirits and other bad things.

The left side of the box shows an image of a young girl kissing her "Kiki The Fashion Tiki Doll" which is a surefire way of keeping bad things at bay!

The back of the box tells the history of Kiki, just above that is a box which explains how Kiki can help you to keep the bad things away.

Kiki The Fashion Tiki's story reads as follows...

"Kiki The Fashion Tiki was first introduced to the world in 1966 by the legendary Gobler Toys.

Many grownups found her appearance to be unsettling,
but little girls couldn't get enough of her exotic looks and edgy fashions.

She became one of the best-selling dolls of the 60's and spawned
dozens of wannabees including "Birch Babies" and "Michelle The Dress-Up Gazelle".

 Drastic Plastic is proud to reintroduce this wonderful doll to the world.
Her looks have been changed a little to keep up with the times
and she is no longer made of wood, but the same magic is still there.

Learn more about Kiki and other Gobler toys in the book
"Gobler Toys, The Fun We Can't Remember".

Available at bookstores and www.yumfactory.com"

Below this is a disclaimer that reads: "Brushing Kiki's hair will not actually keep bad things away. That was a joke. Ha ha. Excessive brushing may cause something funny to happen to your hand. Please consult your horoscope before brushing".

 Kiki the Fashion Tiki is a 12" Vinyl Doll. Her body is Barbie size so she can always wear the same size clothes, her hair is Rooted like Barbie's and she comes wearing a pink boob tube, gold hoop earrings, a Flower Lei, a Hair Flower and a "grass" skirt. She also has long eyelashes under her brightly painted eyelids.

I recently managed to get my hands on a copy of the Gobler Toys, The Fun We Can't Remember book, it's quite large for a paperback and absolutely full of crazy toy ideas, from the Wiener Works, which allows children to turn table scraps into "Yankee Stadium" tasting hot dogs to Vinnie The Vulture - a unisex toy that can turn a plastic cow into a skeleton in seconds and shoots it from it's beak (up to 4 feet!) for boys or can be used as a styling head style toy for girls.

The book has 4 pages dedicated to Kiki The Fashion Tiki. The first two of these show Kiki in her "Original" wooden form, with a little extra information on how Ira Gobler's wife told him to make a toy for girls which led to her creation.

The 3rd and 4th pages show an alternative version of the doll - the "Pearl Diving Kiki" on page 3, according to the book, "one-upped her predecessor by having an action feature. Simply toss her into a body of water (with fishing line attatched)" and she was guaranteed to "snatch" you a pearl!

Page 4 talks about how Ira Gobler allowed his importer friend to use Kiki as an advertisement for his "Peli-Kan" - Pelican Meat from Guam, claimed to be a healthy alternative to similar products on the market"

The advertisement on that page depicts Kiki in the kitchen with her three daughters and reads "Kiki The Fashion Tiki, star of stage and screen, knows she can count on Peli-Kan pelican meat product to fill the wooden bellies of her three beautiful daughters. That's because Peli-Kan is the only canned meat that children ask for by name..."

As a side note on the page it states that while the Peli-Kan meat didn't quite take off, Kiki's daughters were given the toy treatment and became an instant sell out!

This also explains why a can of Peli-Kan meat appears on the back of Kiki The Fashion Tiki's box.

Kiki The Fashion Tiki is no longer available to buy as she was released as a limited edition, I've read somewhere that there were only 1000 made, don't quote me on that though as I cannot find any evidence to support it.

There is another version of Kiki which is still available at present, but again in limited quantities - a Wacky Wobbler version, she is smaller than Kiki The Fashion Tiki and closer in looks to the "original 1960's" wooden version. 

You can purchase her with the book direct from Yum Factory,  here's a link to the page:  http://www.yumfactory.com/yumfactmain.html

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