- In “Barbie,” Allan appears as a kind but lonely man who just wants to hang out with the Kens and Barbies.
- He didn’t interact with Midge in the movie. But he was actually the father of her unborn child.
- Allan, who first hit shelves in 1964, was “Ken’s buddy,” named for
Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” paints a picture of Allan as a kind-hearted but lonely man who is craving attention and just wants to hang out with the Kens and Barbies.
But in Mattel lore, Allan was actually married to Midge and had two children with the doll, despite him not interacting with her in the movie.
Mattel started manufacturing Midge, introduced as “Barbie’s best friend,” in 1963. A few months later, in early 1964, the toy company began producing a red-haired boyfriend for Midge, Allan Sherwood, named for Handler’s son-in-law. He was known as “Ken’s buddy” and he worked at the soda fountain.
“Allan shares wonderful adventures with Barbie and her friends,” including going on double dates as Midge’s partner with Barbie and Ken, a advert from 1964 proclaimed. “Sometimes, when the weather’s nice, they all go skin diving or they go on a picnic in the country.”
Allan was the same size as Ken, meaning that he could share his clothes, as was the case with Barbie and Midge. Allan’s debut outfit, as worn by Michael Cera in the movie, consisted of blue shorts, a multicolor striped shirt, and sandals. And like Ken, he was half an inch taller than his girlfriend.
A version of Allan with bendable legs was released in 1965, but the doll didn’t last long. and replaced with Brad.
Midge also wasn’t commercially successful. Ruth Handler, wrote in her autobiography “Dream Doll” that Midge was “dead” on the market “within a few years” and production stopped in 1967, perhaps because she had a “much more girl-next-doorish” look than Barbie.
Allan reappeared in 1991 – with a spelling change.
Alan, as he was now known, had used the interlude to develop his relationship with Midge. Mattel sold wedding day versions of Alan and Midge, with Alan clad in a white suit with a pink flower pinned to the lapel and a pale pink shirt. Ken was the best man and Barbie was a bridesmaid.
The next time Alan hit toy-store shelves, there had been even more developments in his personal life. As part of the Happy Family series, a picnic set with Alan and his son Ryan in a stroller was released in 2002. A birthday version of Alan and Ryan came out the year after.
But more controversially, a Happy Families pregnant version of Midge was released, with a detachable magnetic stomach into which a small plastic baby could fit. Alan was the child’s father. Shoppers didn’t like it, and Walmart pulled the sets.
Mattel went on to release another version of the doll postpartum, with no trace of pregnancy and a cut out of Alan and Ryan in the background of the box.
A few more versions of Alan have been released over the years, but compared to Barbie and Ken he received very little of Mattel’s time and energy. A Hometown Fair version of the family – Alan, Midge, Ryan, and daughter Nikki – was released in 2003, and a collectors’ sweet shop Allan and Midge set hit the shelves for $199.95 in 2008 to celebrate Midge’s 45th anniversary.
In 2014, to mark 50 years since Allan was first produced, Mattel released a gold label double-date gift set consisting of Barbie, Ken, Allan, and Midge, reverting to the previous spelling of his name and dressing the dolls in their original.
But Allan was brought back in Gerwig’s box office-smashing movie, and some viewers have called him their favorite character. “One of the most relatable parts of ‘Barbie’ was watching Allan quietly struggling with heteronormativity the whole movie,” TikToker @nathanmychael said in a video.
Social-media users have urged Mattel to bring back the doll, and almost all of the dolls Mattel released styled on characters in “Barbie” have sold out. Prices for preowned Allan dolls have soared online following the movie’s release.
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