Funtime Skooter #7381 1976

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#7381 Funtime Skooter was sold in Europe in 1976 and came in a pink box. She is incredibly hard to find. This doll has a sidepart and auburn hair styled in a flip.  

 

It's almost impossible to find a Funtime Skooter doll without faded face and with long beautiful hair. The hair fibers are very soft and tend to break. Most of the dolls you can find have hair with grayish discolorations and “wooly” hair ends. 

 

There are actually several versions of Funtime Skooters, which differ slightly. Some have a very squishy head and the later version Funtime Skipper body with a TNT waist and shiny bendable legs. The other ones heads are harder and their legs are “heavier”. Some dolls have just one row of rooted bangs. Their bangs are long. Other dolls come with heavier rooted, shorter bangs. 

 

Funtime Skooter was dressed in a light or dark turquoise two-piece bathing suit. 

 

Markings: 

© 1967 Mattel, Inc. U.S. Pat'd U.S. Pats. Pend

Made in Korea

(there’s an extra Korea marking on her waistline)

 

Funtime Skooter with her original swimsuit pants only (both in medium condition) sold on eb.. for 465 US $ in November 2016.

Her original swimsuit only in good condition sold on eb.. for 240 US $ in October 2016.

Funtime Skooter is not shown in all of the European booklets, in fact, the only booklet I found depicting this doll is the 1976 Barbie booklet from Belgium (page 5):

NRFB: Courtesy of Lisbeth Ryné. Collection of Lisbeth Ryné.

Here you can see a wonderful example of an absolutely mint Funtime Skooter doll. She has hair without discolorations. Nowadays, it's almost impossible to find a doll like that. This is the prettiest Funtime Skooter I've ever seen.

Two Funtime Skooter dolls in very good/excellent condition. The left doll’s hair isn’t styled in a flip so you can see the difference in length. The left part of the hair is much longer than the right part.  Both dolls have only one row of rooted bangs.