I Love Steffi Love

 

Have you ever heard of Steffi Love and the other Love family dolls? In 1987 Simba Toys of Germany debuted  Steffi, a Barbie clone, and the rest of her family: her boyfriend (also sometimes called her “partner”) Kevin, her little sister, Evi, (also sometimes her daughter) who is a Kelly clone, Pamela, who is a 9 inch Staci clone with the same hinge-jointed knees, but also sometimes just a Steffi doll who is inexplicably called Pamela too, and Timmy, her son. Then there are their friends, 12 inch Danny and 9 inch Bobby.

Simba also made various “ethnic” dolls like a Native American family, who are typically small dolls. They did make Steffi as a black doll, but she’s extremely rare. Unlike Barbie, who had had black friends with different names and sometimes face sculpts, black Steffi dolls are still called Steffi and have the same face.

I don’t want you to get the idea I am an expert on these dolls. Far from it, I learned everything I know just this week when I came across a black Barbie clone I didn’t recognize. I have been scrolling through reams of Reddit forum conversations and Pinterest pins and plumbing the depths of eBay. A bit of advice ~ don’t scroll all the way down on the eBay listings unless you want to see some really disgusting sex dolls… apparently a search for “Simba Love Family dolls” brings those up.

Anyway, my eyes now burned, I have learned a bit about Steffi Love and family. A lot of what I found comes from the Simba Toys manufacturer’s catalogues sent to various stores to sell the product and those are in German. I did take two years of German way back 1000 years ago in college and it’s not quite cutting it, so bear with me. And if you know a lot about these dolls please do drop me a line!

Steffi was designed as a Barbie clone and is so similar to Barbie, Mattel sued Simba Toys in 2004. Mattel lost the lawsuit, however, because the court ruled the concept of a doll with accessories cannot be trademarked. Steffi is still being produced to this day and is far more available in America than in the past~ I even saw one for sale at Lowe’s of all places!

Simba really did cut it close in terms of trademark violation though. Instead of “Glitter Beach” they had “Glitter Fun”. Instead of little Tommy they have Timmy. Instead of Ken they have Kevin. Like Mattel they made a variety of fashionable clothes for their dolls. Unlike Mattel they have a lot more “fancy” collections, such as a masquerade ball collection, a “New York Gala” collection and one called “Palace”, all featuring formal wear. Barbie did have a lot of formal clothes but ensembles like these were usually limited to holiday collectible dolls or designer collaborations, like the Oscar De La Renta Barbies for FAO Schwartz, and weren’t widely available or affordable enough for toys. Those were mainly collectibles but from what I can see the Simba fancy dolls are still toy-quality.

Steffi looks a lot like Barbie but she’s a cheaper doll. Her clothes and accessories are about the same in terms of quality except for her hair. These dolls have much cheaper hair that doesn’t hold up to play as well and isn’t very easy to revive. Like Barbie, Steffi is marked “Simba Toys” on the back of her head, but her body is not marked with a brand name, so they were probably saving money on generic “fashion doll” bodies rather than producing their own.

What really differentiates Steffi is the focus on family, and in particular, pregnancy. Unlike Barbie, who has only ever been a mother in the “Coming Home” collection produced exclusively for Chinese adoptees and distributed in China, Steffi has been pregnant many, many times.

Mattel had a pregnant Midge doll back in the 1990s but there was widespread outcry amongst prudish Americans so they discontinued it, just as they caved and pulled Growing Up Skipper back in the 60s or 70s (you could move one of her arms to make her go through puberty, grow taller, and develop breasts). I won’t get into why we, as Americans, have such a problem with the portrayal of natural things like pregnancy and childbirth, because I honestly don’t know. The same people who revel in profanity in the movies and a certain politician’s rallies are the very ones who don’t want us teaching girls basic facts about their bodies. But I digress…

There have been many pregnant Steffi dolls, including one called “Royal Baby” where both the mother and baby hilariously wear little crowns during delivery (can you say “difficult birth”?) and a pregnant mermaid Steffi family, with mermaid Steffi and merman Kevin and a tiny tadpole of a merbaby.

The baby is very realistically folded into Steffi’s stomach from what I can tell. You remove the pregnant stomach panel for the baby to be “born” and then I guess there is a flat stomach panel to replace it. Besides the pregnant Steffi sets you can, or could, buy packs of toddlers just called “cute twins” and unnamed babies called “Tiny Baby”.

In the beginning of the Steffi line Simba stuck very close to the Barbie story: little Evi was her sister, as was Pamela, and Kevin was her boyfriend. Later on Kevin is either still her boyfriend or partner sometimes but Evi becomes her daughter and they added a son, Timmy. Mattel’s Tommy is supposed to be Ken’s little brother I think, but I’m no entirely sure. Although Simba sold wedding dress collections it appears Steffi and Kevin never married.

As for variety, Steffi comes with various different hair colors but the same face mold. I have seen a few vaguely ethnic dolls with medium skin and dark hair who might be black or hispanic. I saw a photo of an Asian Steffi (same face mold but with black hair and painted almond-shaped eyes and light skin). I have never seen a photo of a dark-skinned Steffi. However, since I have this doll with the Steffi face mold I see they did make one in 1992 at least.

I gave Steffi the most-likely-looking Simba clothes from the big thrift store tub in which she arrived: a gold and silver metallic masquerade ball gown with mask and bag and a purple and white pace trimmed long gown. Neither of these is marked but they are both very similar to the catalogue photos I’ve seen. I also gave her a puppy that looks like the dogs from various Simba sets. It’s also unmarked.

A white Simba baby came in the tub with Steffi but I’m going to sell her separately. I have seen a “babysitter” set with a black doll babysitting the white Simba baby but that’s way too politically incorrect for America and it’s a more modern set. The black sitter doll isn’t called Steffi and has way lighter skin than my doll so I don’t think these dolls were from that collection. I suppose I could just say the baby belongs to Steffi and let the customer figure it out. I have two Chinese children myself, after all. But it’s more profitable to sell them separately. If you want to pick up the baby to go with Steffi just let me know or keep an eye on my shops.

So now you know more than you probably ever wanted to about the Simba Love family of dolls! I am so intrigued by the pregnant mermaid family I might have to buy myself one.

You can find Steffi and all my other dolls in my shops on the Shop page of my website by clicking here. And can we just take a moment to appreciate these AI-generated backgrounds from eBay? They can be a little weird sometimes but they give my dolls such a realistic environment and the photo editor is free to use with your eBay account.