Ken Carson

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Ken Doll c. 1961

Ken (lesser known surname Carson) is a toy doll in Mattel's Barbie line of fashion dolls.

Since 1961, this fictional character had been Barbie's boyfriend; however, Mattel announced their split on February 12, 2004.

Ken's best friend, Allan Sherwood, was introduced in 1963. He has also been marketed as "Alan." The first African-American male doll was introduced in 1981.

Ken featured straight arms and a head that could only turn left and right until the debut of Superstar Ken in 1977. Superstar Ken featured a dimpled smile, a head that could swivel, bent arms, a more muscular physique, and jewelry. He also had underwear permanently molded to his body.

In 1993 a version of the doll was released called "Earring Magic Ken". The style of the doll was said to resemble popular fashions among some segments of the gay community at the time, which caused the doll to attain a cult following. [1]

1 Movies
2 Additional information
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Movies

Ken in Barbie and the Rockers.

1987: Barbie and the Rockers; Barbie and the Sensations.

[edit] Additional information

The Ken gene in the Drosophila fly was so named because the gene, when deleted, caused the flies to form without external genitalia.

Mattel (the manufacturer of Ken and Barbie dolls) complained to the video game company Capcom over its Street Fighter game. The game contained a character called Ken, which Mattel argued could lead to confusion with its doll of the same name. In order to avoid confusion, the character in the Street Fighter game was renamed Ken Masters.

[edit] References

The ken and barbie gene encoding a putative transcription factor with a BTB domain and three zinc finger motifs functions in terminalia development of Drosophila. Lukacsovich T, Yuge K, Awano W, Asztalos Z, Kondo S, Juni N, Yamamoto D. Arch Insect Biochem Physiol. 2003 Oct;54(2):77-94.'