Doll set:Tammy, The Doll You Love . . . to Dress

The phenomenal success of Mattel's Barbie doll in the early 1960s led several toy makers to release their own 12-inch fashion dolls and accessories. The Ideal Toy Company answered Barbie with its own Tammy doll which it introduced in 1962. Tammy, like Barbie, had a variety of ensembles and accessories which were sold separately. Ideal also offered companions and siblings for Tammy to play with, just as Barbie had Midge, Skipper, Ken, and others. But unlike Barbie, Tammy had a body pointedly proportioned as a teenager's compared to Barbie's more mature and, parents complained, unrealistic physique. In 1965 Ideal released a black Tammy, a bit before Mattel gave Barbie her first African American friend Christie. Tammy, a more traditional-looking doll than Barbie, could not change with the times as nimbly as Barbie. When Barbie donned her mod dresses, long tresses, and go-go boots, Tammy did not follow. The last Tammys were sold in 1966.