Mattel Creations launched the 60th Anniversary Allan Vintage Reproduction Doll on February 14, 2024, at 9:00 a.m. Pacific time. The doll was a Creations Exclusive design for members, with a Silkstone body, the Allan face sculpt, a price of $55 and a limit of two per customer. Bill Greening is listed as the designer. Mattel’s page says that in 1964 Mattel introduced Ken’s buddy, Allan, and that the doll celebrates the 60th anniversary of that introduction with a reproduction of his beach look: a striped jacket in several colors, navy blue swim trunks and matching sandals. He has sculpted red hair and a vintage wrist tag, as the original did. Mattel states that Ken had no guy friend until Allan arrived in 1964, and that the updated outfit inspired the costume design for the character in the film Barbie.

Inverse reports that Allan was introduced in 1964 as Ken’s Buddy Allan, and that his main selling point was that all of Ken’s clothes fit him. It also says he was named after the son in law of Ruth Handler, Mattel’s co founder. Looper adds that when he debuted in the 1960s he was single, that he was renamed Alan in…