Founded by three brothers in 1947, the Kenner Company produced several popular toys such as their popular building and construction toy sets in 1957 called the Girder and Panel, 1959's Give-A-Show projector, and 1963's the Easy-Bake Oven. Then in 1957, the company was acquitted by General Mills which also remarkably merged Kenner Products into its own Rainbow Crafts division wherein its first product after the merger was Play-Doh.
The first few dolls that Kenner produced were the 1972's vinyl Blythe doll which measured 11.5 to 12 inches. The doll came with different changeable hair and eye colors. This doll is one of the thought-after vintage collectibles which can reach several hundred dollars to acquire. Another doll it popularized in the same year was the 18-inch Gabbigale with a battery-operated talker. The doll was made of hard jointed plastic body with vinyl head, painted eyes, and rooted hair.
Still in 1972, Kenner also introduced the 6.5-inch Garden Gals which has a red watering can and then followed by the 18-inch tall Sweet Cookie. In 1973, 16-inch tall Baby Alive was launched which was a battery-operated drink-wet doll. It also introduced Stretch Armstrong which was composed of stretchable vinyl that can stretch as far as four feet and return to its original shape.
By the year 1977, Kenner acquired the license to manufacture action figures for Star Wars with the trilogy running from 1977 through 1985. The action figures measured 3.75 inches and became a standard in the industry that sells action figures. It also began manufacturing other actions figures based on the hit TV series The Six Million Dollar Man. The 13-inch doll characters were Lee Majors, Jamie Sommers, Oscar Goldman, Big Foot, Masketron Robot, Woman Robot, and Steven Austin. It also tried penetrating the toy car die-cast market by launching Fast 111 but it did not gain much of the market's response.
The Kenner dolls became more popular when it created action figures based on DC Comics' superheroes which were included in the series called the Super Powers Collection. Each action figure doll comes with an action feature such as throwing a punch when the doll's legs are squeezed. Other dolls that were also based on books and movies were 1978's Hardy Boys and 1981's Indiana Jones. Doll collectors who are fanatics of television series and movies will certainly appreciate collecting dolls from Kenner. Anyone who also has passion for unique action figures and dolls will find Kenner's battery-operated models amusing.