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Fab-Lu Randy and Mary-Lou

Clone Dolls - Fab-Lu Randy and Mary-Lou

Images are mostly embeds from Flickr - they link to their source streams.

Fab-Lu Limited, otherwise known as Luften Ltd or Faber-Luft Ltd were a New York based toy company. They are perhaps best remembered today for their 1960s clone dolls, which were sold through Chad Valley in the UK - the company who bought out Fab-Lu after legal troubles got the better of them...

First up was Babs, who was proud to be known as a cheap Barbie copy. There are excellent pages about Babs and her fashions HERE and HERE.

Hong Kong Lilli * Babs by Fab Lu Ltd

Then there was Babs' boyfriend, a Ken clone doll named Bill. Bill had his own range of nine outfits, including Baseball, Cheerleader, Golf, Trench Coat, Tuxedo and Uniform. You can see the back of an outift pack HERE.


Next came Babs' little sister, a Tammy clone named Randy. Fab-Lu even used an actual Tammy with drawn on ink spot in their clothing booklet - and were sued by the Ideal Toy Corporation accordingly. You can read the original legal notes HERE, and those from the 1966 appeal HERE.

Fab-Lu Randy Doll

Randy from Fab-Lu, Ltd
Randy came with an updo...

Randy by Fab-Lu
...or a bubblecut in black, brunette or blonde.

Randy had 18 outfits, including her basic Bermuda shorts and overblouse:



Queen of the Courts, Special Occasions Only, Flair For Fun, Snow Fun.

Everybody's Sweetheart, Low Tide, Jumping Jiminy, Tea For Two.


Outdoor Girl, Sleep Tight, Home Alone, Clam Digger.

Beauty and the Beast, Park Avenue, Let It Rain, Bull's Eye.

Hip, Hip, Hooray! and Bermuda Bound. You can also see the back of an outfit pack HERE.

In the UK Randy was renamed Mary-Lou, to avoid the sexual connotation of her real name, but kept all the Randy outfits.

Fab-Lu Mary-Lou Doll

But, just to make things more confusing, Fab-Lu had also issued a 9" Pepper clone named Mary-Lou, who came as a blonde or a brunette. Fab-Lu also made a range of even cheaper looking clones, called Ronnie (Barbie), Boyfriend (Ken), and Peggy (Midge).





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Comments

  1. BouDicca1 April 2016 at 20:54

    Hello! Those are my dollies,the brunette and the raven haired.

    I was actually doing a search for Fab-Lu as I got today what I think is a Peggy. She has Randy's face on a Babs body...I love these girls!x x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jessica Powell1 April 2016 at 21:16

      Awesome! I just realised I'm not following your Flickr stream - it's an embed though so it is linking there. :)

      They're really pretty dolls - and even Bill has his charms! ;) x

      Delete
    2. BouDicca1 April 2016 at 21:27

      I've got a Mary Lou as well...I am a Sindy collector primarily but I do love some clones. Well...to be fair,I like most vintage fashion dollies. Have far too many...but aint they fun? x x

      Delete
    3. Jessica Powell2 April 2016 at 15:44

      I keep saying I'm going to downsize my collection, yet all I seem to do is add to it!! x x

      Delete
  2. Unknown7 August 2016 at 03:46

    Can you tell me what a NIB outfit for Mary Lou is worth? Hard to find any info out there.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jessica Powell10 August 2016 at 19:23

      I really couldn't say to be honest - ebay seems all over the place on prices for dolls stuff lately.

      Delete
  3. AndyMac9 March 2019 at 14:49

    I am thinking about putting my Fab-Lu Mary Lou up for sale on Ebay. Do you have a picture of the back on one of your dolls with the Made In Hong Kong that I could see? When I put a Randy doll on last time, everyone said her body was not a Randy as the words just didn't come together as one long word. I can send you a picture of my doll as well. Thanks.
    Andrea

    ReplyDelete
  4. AndyMac13 March 2019 at 15:25

    Please let me know about the Mary Lou doll. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete

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