Sometimes little girls just didn’t have the nimble agility needed to quickly dress a Barbie Doll at the drop of a hat. Luckily, when playtime beckoned and time was of the essence, there was an easier alternative, a line of dolls from Fisher-Price called My Friend.

Introduced in 1977, My Friend dolls were giants in a world inhabited by Barbie dolls, with a stature of 16 inches of huggable glory. A little more modest than their famous rival, they came with a permanently affixed floral patterned cloth torso, protecting them from the embarrassment that plagued Barbie at every turn. Protruding from the torso were vinyl, flesh-colored appendages and a rosy-cheeked head. Mandy was the first My Friend to be released, complete with a head of golden-locked hair. A redhead named Jenny and Becky the brunette soon followed. But who says that My Friend has to be a female. For a little gender diversity, one could also purchase Mikey, complete with his boyish blue jacket and cherubic freckled face to join in on the fun.

If you had any seamstress abilities, instructions were included to create your own original clothing fashions, as well as tips for styling hair and keeping your cloth friends clean from dirt. And if you couldn’t sew, not to fret – a complete line of pre-made fashions were also available (sold separately, of course) that included a line of Winter Wear, a Valentine’s Day dress, and for the more active doll, some exercise apparel to keep that cloth figure in shape.

The original line of My Friend dolls stayed on toy store shelves until 1985. Six years later, Fisher-Price introduced a new generation to these lovable tykes with the My Friends Classics” line, although they didn’t quite make the same splash on the market as their predecessors.