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The Ken visible in this 3D model is a Ken from the early 2000s and looks different from older and newer Kens. Ken’s physical characters have significantly changed overtime, most notably his hair and his body shape.
This Ken has voluminous blonde, middle-length hair, which looks like human hair [click next step]. Like the Barbie dolls’ hair, the plastic saran texture does not only give it a human-like look and feel but also enables children to change the hairstyles of these dolls. However, the hair of the original Ken from 1961 was shorter and made from a different type of plastic. Mattel describes the original Kens hair as molded plastic hair that is styled in a crew cut (Barbie media, n.d.). Furthermore, Ken was originally only available in blond and brunette. In the 1970s, then however, the Mod Hair Ken doll was introduced (see image below) (Barbie media, n.d.). This was the first Ken with this rooted hair, making him look more natural (Barbie media, n.d.). In later years, Mattel alternated between molded hair and rooted hair dolls (Korbeck, 2011). The latest Kens Mattel released have diverse hairstyles that are painted onto the molded plastic of their heads (Weaver, 2017). A few examples of such hairstyles are a Ken with cornrows, a fade or a man bun (Wu, 2020).
Furthermore, the evolution of Kens body shape is interesting [click next step]. The Ken in this 3D model has a rather classical body, he is slim but muscular with broad shoulders. From the image below it is visible that the 1961 original Ken, however, did not look like this. He was much slimmer and less muscular, notably his very small waist. Although Ken’s torso changed over time, all Kens always have had and continue to have a small waist-hip ratio and a large chest-waist ratio (Norton et al., 1996, p. 293). More recently Mattel launched Ken dolls with 3 body types: original, slim, and broad (Wu, 2020). Thereby aiming to represent more life-like body types. With regards to Kens body, his articulations have also changed over the years [click next step]. Whilst the Ken in this 3D model can only slightly bend his knees (see annotation with video), newer Kens have articulations in their arms, wrists and legs that enable more realistic flexibility (Bainbridge, 2010, p. 831).
However, not only Ken’s hair and body have changed, but more overarching changes have also occurred that represent significant changes in society. As such, we will discuss how Mattel has created more diverse Ken dolls in terms of skin colour and disabilities, and how Ken’s clothes have changed in line with fashion trends.
You can find further information in this YouTube video.