Sindy was far superior to Barbie

[LittlePotteryBird]

I feel sorry for girls today who don’t know the pleasure of playing with a doll whose arms and legs bent (sometimes resulting in a nasty open fracture but never mind). I loved my Sindys and the outfits and accessories were so much better and more conducive to imaginary play than the Barbie stuff I see around. Barbie outfits in particular look shite to me.

Does anyone know of a poseable doll like Sindy that comes with good accessories? I know my granddaughter would love a ballerina, or a police officer, or a doll that wore normal clothes.

We were a Sindy family. My sister and I only had a couple but my aunt sent my older cousin’s accessories that she no longer used, in immaculate condition. Loads of furniture, tiny little pieces of cutlery and crockery, a horse etc. My mum sent away for two Barbies by saving up the tops of Kellogg’s cereal boxes. They arrived in swimsuits and with beach towels. With unfeasibly tiny waists and big boobs and feet in the shape of skyscraper heels that gave me a weird feeling. My mum immediately knitted jumpsuits for them🤣 I never really took to Barbie at all. She seemed very insubstantial and less robust than Sindy. But she got played with for a while because she was new and different.

I was team Sindy and from recollection my mum didn’t want me to have Barbie (I feel she thought she was trashy 😱). Mum used to make Sindy incredible clothes, including a gorgeous wedding dress for her nuptials to my brother’s Action Man (she made AM a kilt for the occasion).

Seconding the Lottie Dolls.
Loads of clothes and accessories too

Sindy families were usually posher or the judgemental type. Barbie was lower class. 🤭 My brother enjoyed chewing on our Barbie dolls feet for some reason, if he was a child today, he'd be diagnosed.

My brother’s Action Men would go for anything…Sindy, Barbie, Disney princesses and Spice Girl dolls. Also Britney and Anastasia.

I had this one in the 90s.
So soft and lovely. Real down feathers at her waist.
Treasured and preserved perfectly.

My own toddler DD later dismembered her and scattered her effects to the four winds.

Can you imagine if the Barbie movie was about Sindy instead? Instead of the explosion of pink you would have this aesthetic. God I would love that movie!

Also note how her limbs actually bend and she can sit in a chair.

Sindy always had better accessories and houses too! And I loved Paul.

I had a Daisy. fuck knows why. I had absolutely no interest and her hair wash shocking

OMG she was my favourite!!! I loved that little bag!

You are definitely right! Barbie either looked like a cake or as if she was off to some sort of fetish club. Sindy actually did stuff! I had blonde ballet Sindy, one with beautiful coppery hair who came in a Laura Ashley style dress and another who was brunette. I had the whole bedroom suite, with the bed, dressing table and wardrobe, plus the horse, which was one of the best Christmas presents I ever received. My mum was just young enough to have an original 60s Sindy from when she first came out, and so I inherited her, and her very chic 60s wardrobe, so all mine were very stylish! They all still live in my loft 😁 (I am 54).

Definitely!

Thanks for the recommendations for Lottie dolls, I love them, but there seems to be a problem with finding many of them in stock? Their website and Amazon page are currently unavailable. I wonder if they’ve gone out of business ☹️

I had that yellow kitchen - adored it !!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/shop/lotties?_nkw=lotties

Sindy4eva. As were all my friends and cousins. We’d get together to pool all our gear, different outfits, one had the air hostess rig up which we’d have to scrupulously allot turns for it was so in demand, one had the horse and all the gear (ditto with turns), I had the house with the fancy lift, another one had the car. Happily spent many, many weekends living out the Barbie movie but with dozens of unbothered male and child free Sindys living their best and most interesting lives. Class

Oh dear, no. Barbie was not of the same calibre. Barbie gave Stepford vibes. Sindy might have gone to university.

I still have my Tressy, though hair is stuck.
And my Action Girl who was great. Nobody seems interested in them so they are stuck in a box!

I used to make them out of toilet roll, drove mum mad! But then I could draw on them, make patterns. The temptation was too strong to obey mum :-)

Sindy, for sure. I remember someone buying me a barbie and really didn't like it, she just didn't do anything.
But then, I had a bit of a dislike for all dolls, the only reason I liked Sindy was making clothes for her. Anything bigger, like Tiny Tears size, mum would take the eyes out for me and we'd give them to the dog to play with for a little while. Teddy bears all the way in my youth and it was always disappointing if someone bought me a doll :-)

I had Sindys who had straight arms and legs (bloody annoying as looked dreadful on chairs or the horse). I had action girl who I loved (she's in the loft - one of the handful of sentimental items I have). She was fully jointed and how fab did she look on the horse? She parachuted (using action man kit), drove the beach buggy and was generally very active! She also had a thing for action man 😂For a spell in the 70s we lived overseas and got loads of Barbies who weren't available in the UK. I sold them and their 'rare' playsets for really good money in the early 2000s. But action girl.....

Team Sindy here. My sister had Barbies (to avoid arguments over which doll belonged to who - quite a clever move on my mum's behalf, now I think of it) and I always felt my assigned doll was far superior. Hated that Barbie was always standing on tiptoes and felt that Sindy, although very slim, was a lot more realistic in terms of her body shape, with a smaller bust and wider waist. I must have been born across the generational divide in terms of the Sindy design because my first doll was very bobble-headed and sort of 60s looking? The rest were very much 90s dolls. I had the fold out house with the bed settee on one side and a wardrobe + kitchenette on the other and played with it for years. Ooo and a sort of Edwardian looking one in an old fashioned cream dress with a parasol, I called her Eliza Dolittle (I think I thought that was who she was meant to be - I'd probably seen My Fair Lady for the first time the Christmas she arrived) and never played with her like the others, just kept her on display and combed her hair from time to time.

For some reason I wasn't allowed to have a Paul doll so I used the mountain biking Sindy, who was quite butch, as the dad / boyfriend in all my imaginary play.

(okay so by "quite butch" I mean she did have pink earings and a lycra onesie, but her hands were bigger than the others)

I wasn't a doll person at all, I used to take the heads off my Barbies and wouldn't have babies etc however, I loved my Cindy doll!

I had a Patch(Sindys little sister) My, she had excellent RBF. She was "sturdy" and no nonsense. I may have fried her perfect chestnut bob near the electric heater. But I also had Barbies and their siblings. I suspect Skipper and Tommy may have been on sale.Barbie and Skipper often wore Ken and Tommy's clothes when there wasnt a female version of the outfit I wanted.
The clothes then were brilliant. Patch had a party outfit of a red velvet frock and a black velvet hooded cloak. Barbie clothes came with tiny zips and buttons. Little bags and jewellery. You could buy packs of them to make clothes, though mine tended to be dressed in tissue, scarf and handkerchief creations.

I had mostly Barbie as my aunt used to send me one every birthday & Christmas (in the middle 80s onwards, and my DD has them now), and I preferred Barbie's look/style/clothes (especially her pierced ears).
However, the Sindy house and furniture that I had was far superior to any of the Barbie ones that my friends had. The Sindy shower cubicle that could actually pump water, and the lift on the side of the house was mind blowing for me back then.
The Sindy beach buggy was also amazing! I remember actually taking it to the beach on at least one occasion.