No new Fashion Paks were produced for 1965, but Mattel released some really lovely Ensemble Paks, including my all-time favourite Holiday. Some older outfits were slightly modified for 1965: Going Bowling and American Airlines Captain were given extras, Roller Skate Date had an item swapped, while Tuxedo and Goin’ Huntin’ had accessories removed.
For more information and many more detailed photographs see THE ORIGINAL KEN® BOOK.
THE ENSEMBLE PAKS
AMERICAN AIRLINES CAPTAIN #0779
American Airlines Captain now came with a travel bag, but still had no shirt or tie. In keeping with the other outfits for 1965, this version of the suit is cut slightly looser than the more tightly tailored version from 1964. Ken’s travel bag is navy blue to match his uniform, and is now exceptionally hard to find. A close-up photo of the bag can be seen in THE ORIGINAL KEN® BOOK.
TUXEDO #0787
Tuxedo now came without the cummerbund and corsage, and was packaged slightly differently from the previous versions, and in a smaller box. The cut of both tux jacket and trousers is much looser-fitting.
GOING BOWLING #1403
Going Bowling now came with socks and shoes. (The original 1964 version of this outfit consists of shirt and slacks only – see section 1964 The Outfits). The shirt shown here is made of a much softer fabric than the 1964 version. These trousers also use a slight variation fabric, and are cut much looser than the original version from 1964.
ROLLER SKATE DATE #1405
Roller Skate Date was reissued with white trousers instead of a cap. In the 1965 Mattel catalogue it is shown with white wheels on the skates. I’ve yet to find a version like that NRFB, but this is quite a rare outfit, so I’ve only ever seen a few. Considering that the 1964 version came with either colour of wheels, it is highly likely that this did too. The Roller Skate Date slacks are unlabelled with a sewn-on back pocket, like the ones from Victory Dance, but are looser-fitting. They are made from the same type of fabric as the slacks from College Student and Rovin’ Reporter.
GOIN’ HUNTIN’ #1409
The 1965 version of Goin’ Huntin’ came without boots and socks. A NRFB version can be seen in THE ORIGINAL KEN® BOOK.
HIKING HOLIDAY #1412
Beware of online sellers who flip this sweater inside-out and try to pass it off as a ‘rare variation’. The genuine shorts fasten with a zip and a snap, and have a Ken label inside, so also beware of sellers offering clone shorts. There is however a genuine slight variation of the shorts: they are identically made, but use the fabric from Ken’s Rally Day coat.
OFF TO BED #1413
The Mattel Fall ’65 dealer catalogue pictures this outfit with the book HOW TO GET A RAISE, but all the NRFB versions I’ve seen so far (and I’ve seen a lot) had A TALE OF TWO CITIES as shown here.
HOLIDAY #1414
Later versions of this shirt (with the booklet for 1965) were made with a variation white fabric. It can be seen in THE ORIGINAL KEN® BOOK.
MR. ASTRONAUT #1415
The space suit comes with a button and loop to fasten on the outside collar, but also has an inner collar which fastens tightly around the neck with an additional button and loop.
COLLEGE STUDENT #1416
The booklets and catalogues only mention this outfit coming with brown shoes, and for sure most versions did. However, the bottle-green ones shown on the dressed doll below left came with this version of College Student I bought out-of-box. They definitely seem genuine Mattel, as they are marked Japan and made identically to all other Ken shoes. Obviously I can’t be 100% sure until I find further documentary evidence or a version NRFB, but this discovery has been corroborated by other collectors who have found similar green shoes with an out-of-box College Student.
ROVIN’ REPORTER #1417
Online sellers often mistakenly put red socks with out-of-box versions of Rovin’ Reporter: all the MIB versions of this outfit I’ve ever seen, as well as the Mattel catalogues and Barbie booklets for 1965, all have black socks.
THE GIFT SET
The PEP RALLY GIFT SET #1022 was the only 1965 gift set to include a Ken item: the Drum Major outfit from 1964. This set had already been available through Sears in 1964 – presumably as an exclusive, as it features nowhere else that year, not even in Mattel’s own advertising material. Note the slight variations to the text of the two box lids below. It is quite possible that one of these was the Sears exclusive version.
BOOKLETS & CATALOGUES
There were four Exclusive Fashions booklets for 1965. Books 2-4 came with the Ensemble and Fashion Paks. Book 1 contains more pages and came only with the dolls.
Click on each of the three booklets below to see all the pages featuring Ken.
In the 1965 Simpsons Sears Christmas catalogue Holiday is called Vacation Time and Off To Bed is called Sleeper Set.
The Western Auto catalogues for Spring Summer and Fall Winter 1966 offer 1961-1964 outfits (despite the ‘New Outfits’ claim in the Spring Summer Part 2), using the earliest promotional images, sometimes even showing prototypes (Dreamboat for example). Casuals not only has a prototype photo, but it is described as coming with a ‘white tee shirt’. Most of these earlier outfits were no longer officially in production, so Western Auto is almost certainly just selling off old stock.
The 1966 Continental catalogue supposedly sells “Saturday Date”, but the description mentions no exact tie or colour of suit, and the photo clearly shows Special Date, so this was probably just a printing error.
Mattel also produced sewing kits with McCall, which had outfits for Ken.
In 1965 there was a European booklet available in Belgian, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Swedish and Swiss versions. With the exception of the Danish booklet (which uses the English names), all booklets give the outfits different names in the various languages. Click on the French booklet below to see all these European versions.
In Germany they produced brochures in a lavish magazine style using great colour photography and set design.
1965 saw major Barbie promotions throughout Europe. The first is from German magazine ‘Für Sie’ (‘For Her’ or ‘For You’, possibly meant as both). The advertisement below right mentions that 1000 Barbies will be available to win in the following issue. The pages below left are presumably from a separate competition, as they mention only 800 dolls in total, which include 150 Kens and 50 Allans. Note that Ken is pictured wearing Allan’s beach top.
The French and Swedish also had their ‘Win Barbie & Friends’ competitions this year. The French competition to win a whopping 2000 dolls is a cooperation between jouets rationnels and the magazine l’Echo de la Mode. Each week for a month 500 dolls could be won by spotting (and naming) the three dolls hidden somewhere in the magazine. Theoretically the winners could choose which doll they received. The Swedish Hemmets (Home) magazine features a Barbie & Ken ‘Win a bride & groom’ competition. It would be interesting to know how they were packaged – whether Brio in Sweden produced a special presentation box. The 28 runners-up could also ‘choose’ between a regular Barbie or Ken (there were only 14 of each available). I have also seen a Barbie & friends competition in a 1965 copy of the Swedish magazine Året Runt (also with 500 dolls available to win for 4 consecutive weeks).
The Danish magazine Hjemmet (Home – Danish version of Swedish Hemmets magazine above?) gave away 1000 dolls in 1966, again spread over a couple of issues. In this issue from 15 February the magazine had 250 Midges and 250 Allans. All you had to do was send in your name and address on the coupon provided (which someone obviously did from the copy below).
In the Swedish Christmas postcard below Ken has borrowed the Fun On Ice trousers, so Allan has a pair of black trousers, possibly the ski pants from Ski Champion. The greeting (Merry Christmas – Happy New Year) is in Swedish, Danish, Norwegian and Finnish.
The 1965 Ensemble Paks were available as follows*:
HIKING HOLIDAY 1965 (Sold until 1966 in Europe).
OFF TO BED 1965 (Sold until 1967 in Europe).
HOLIDAY 1965 (Sold until 1966 in Europe).
MR. ASTRONAUT 1965 (Sold until 1967 in Europe).
COLLEGE STUDENT 1965 (Sold until 1966 in Europe).
ROVIN’ REPORTER 1965 (Sold until 1968 in Europe).
*Based on information taken from US, Japanese & European Barbie booklets 1965-1968, Mattel Toy catalogues 1965-1967 and Mattel Employee Order Forms 1965-1967.
REVERSE OF PACKAGING
Now that Ken had a buddy who could wear his clothes, Mattel designed new illustrations for the reverse of both the Ensemble Pak packaging, and the Fashion Paks. The later packaging is also noticeably different from the front, as the stripes are much thicker and more brightly-coloured.
