Bild Lilli: The Doll That Started It All 

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I feel so sad for lilys creator..he had his entire career taken away due to blatent theft , it being twisted into “lily was a sex doll” too just makes it sadder

The netflix "Toys that made Us" barbie episode was so disapointing to me(I wanted to learn about the actual doll itself not having a sex or plastic surgey joke every 5 minutes while undermining the cultural aspect that went into it). Glad to see that spite put to make this video. A much better history video of Bild Lili that she deversed!

I heard that a lot of people gave these dolls for their kids to play with, not taking her being a "novelty toy" into account at all. She literally was the first fashion doll and it's sad to see she gets none of the credit for it.

When you think about it, it is very sad how Bild Lillie was plagerized. Granted, without her or Barbie, we'd never have any of the popular doll brands that we know today. But no matter how many times I hear the tale of Barbie's ancestor,I can't help but feel for Lilli's creator. Having his brain child taken from under his nose without his permission and given an American makeover must've felt like a real slap in the face to him. Taking inspiration is one thing, but there really is no getting around how OG barbie was just a copy and paste of Lilli with more curls in her ponytail. If only he had gotten some sort of royalties for Barbie or something.

kinda weird that the english-speaking internet cannot fathom Lilli being an entirely safe for work sexy, flirty, illustrated icon when literally we've had Betty Boop since the 20's and she's still a fairly big pop culture icon to this day. This is nothing new or foreign.

I feel so sad for the german creator, getting your work stolen and then it get called a "sex doll" or "doll for men" is awful

Finding a Bild Lilli doll is incredibly harder than an original 1st Barbie.

She came off more like a Betty Boop character than anything else.

I had no idea that her legacy was so sad even as a german. I never knew about her up until recently. It's sad how much we forgot about her. And also, the fact that a big company like Mattel could just steal someone's character and leave them with no chance of defending themselves just shows how copyright never favors the small and poor artists. It is incredibly sad really.

The amount of misinformation spread around Bild Lilli and that many folks have taken them as fact is really frustrating.

Bild sounds like a vintage baddie, I wish Barbie and bild could coexists. I would love to read that comic .

as someone who speaks german fluently, i thought i’d translate some things i saw in the vid that where not translated:) 9:46 it says that the people in her office should be glad that she’s still in the office on time, even tho there is a traditional holiday going on, where most people dress up in costumes. 9:57 she makes a joke about being late to work. 10:03 she (probably, not rly sure about the context on this one) makes fun of her colleague by saying “if you get payed how much you are actually worth, how tf do you survive? 10:14 her saying her bf will buy her this fur coat for christmas, he just doesn’t know about it yet. so honestly, she’s an icon.

Omg I've actually had this conversation before. Someone I used to be friends with in middle school had a baby about 10ish years ago and suddenly morphed into one of those Facebook moms, you know the ones, and kept sharing outrage bait articles about the origins of barbie. I finally got sick of seeing them and basically said "how tf is lilli a sex doll, she's like 10 inches tall and made of hard plastic". She didn't like me challenging her 😂

It's so weird that Lilli is so often called a "sex doll" when there's a huge market for pinup style figurines right here in the modern day. That seems like the obvious comparison to me. Fans of different comics and cartoons and such will happily buy small plastic representations of their favorite cute fictional girls, but give her swappable outfits and suddenly that's weird, I guess.

My favorite part of many of your videos is when you point out how RIDICULOUS people become when writing about dolls. Always makes me giggle…

It's so sad that Lilli has ended up with this misappropriated legacy but I'm glad you did her justice.

I'd think if Bild Lilli dolls were supposed to be strictly sexual there'd be one molded to look like the pannel where she only has a tiny towel covering the front of her torso with a removable towel accessory. I've seen Betty Boop merch saucier than Lilli dolls

It is weird people call Lilli "a sex doll". She looks more like a "figurine" to me. She seems to be more of a collectors item to me.

There is an artist by the name of julian kalinowski. He makes Bild Lilli reproduction dolls called Lilli Lanka . He also do repros of Barbie and other vintage dolls. He does amazing work.

OMG, Thank goodness you made this video! I've been having arguments of Barbie's origin, and the nature of the "Bild Lilli" Comics for monthes with a close friend of mine who refrenced the often ostentatious headlines of the articles of Lilli. As someone who can understand German, i fail to see the risqué nature of Lilli who was more of a independent, attractive woman who had boyfriends, lived alone and had jobs. yeah, a lot of the humor was based of double entendre and word play, and she was far from the wholesome Barbie we have today, but she's barely a sexual figure when you consider that actual contents of the comics, which where more based of her revolving series of careers, her difficulties in finding a long-term partner, and how she was sexualized by onlookers, while doing something as mundane as walking down the street or going out for a swim.

Thank you so much for this video! As someone who speaks German, I always have to roll my eyes when I see people parroting that stupid misconception about Lilli's occupation. Now I finally have the right material to show if someone still keeps insisting that my sweet Mädel is an escort! Vielen Dank ❤

she's like a mix between a fashion doll and a bishoujo figure. it's really neat

it seems like the real dark truth was the integrity of ruth handler. its just another example of how life isnt fair . you can have a billion dollar idea and someone can steal that and reap the rewards . facsinating. great video.

I'm German and before discovering Darling Dollz, I didn‘t even know of Lilli and her history. I mean I'm not part of the doll community and that might be why, but I promise most people my age (born around the 90s) won‘t have a clue either and would be REALLY surprised to hear that a small German toy company inspired the famous Barbie. All of her history and the bad reputation she gets make me really sad… and it’s a bit infuriating too… so thank you for defending Lilli on Twitter. Fun fact, the Bild paper is - at least today in modern times - known for being pretty bad Yellow Press that uses dumb, shocking or/and distasteful headlines to gain attention and similar shenanigans. So when I first heard THEY published the Lilli comics I was pretty worried, but more than anything, they look really charming. They have a cute and witty tone and overall are… just really harmless. I‘m baffled why she and her doll would get international treatment like that. (interestingly though, those headlines shown by Darling Dollz in the video are EXACTLY the kind of news you would expect the Bild to publish! Maybe Karma just comes around… But Lilli and her creator definitely deserved so much better…) Thank you for the video.

oh my god it finally pays off to be on dolltwt. i witnessed the conception of this video in real time

This doll was made as a fun collectable for people who were "in the know", like pop vinyl figure, not as a sex object. I think the story in magazines (I know a bit of german) is okay and dosen't shame females in any way - it was even progressive from my perspective.

I think Bild Lilli should be classified as 50's Waifu, not a s3x doll.

This was really fascinating! Poor Lilli but honestly the socio/econimic/political history and influence of dolls always is fascinating and feels weird. "They're just toys" Okay, yes. But also, that effects a LOT. It's really interesting.

She was basically a german equivalent of betty boop

I am so glad that you are pushing back on the idea of Lili being a "call girl", etc. This is a drum I've been banging for years and it's likely you came across my work on this topic when researching your video. It is an absolute disservice to society at large to continue to parrot Bild's opinions on women. It's shocking to see people who claim to appreciate plastic women (Barbie) be so disrespectful of the real women Bild insult on the daily.

Imagine starting twitter beef and getting dragged this hard in response.

amazing video thank you so much. I always had an impression Ruth Handler walked by some messy or eclectic storefront and the Build Lilli was laying there, a one-off knickknack sleazy sex toy diamond in the rough waiting to be reimagined... and I am one of the people who needed to be called out for repeating this! So thrilled to learn she was actually a charismatic and glam cartoon... love your videos

Lilli reminds me of a Hungarian comic strip character called Jucika. They had somewhat similar personalities with the main difference in their comics being that Jucika's were 3 panels long and usually had no dialog.

Tbh Bild Lilli reminds me of waifu figures. Rolf Hausser's description of her and the fact that a lot of the art you showed is basically just cartoon pinups make her feel like a proto anime waifu lol

This is an obscure fact that I'm guessing most of you don't know, but several years before both Barbie and Bild hit the market, there was a short lived line of fashion dolls produced in Argentina, that very much set the basis for those two. These dolls were a part of the "Chicas Divito" line, inspired by the pinup illustrations from argentinian comic artist Divito. His female characters were a huge success at the time, because of their voluptuous, exaggerated features, very much in tune with what Jessica Rabbit would eventually become in the future. Because of how popular his pinup girls were, a line of fashion dolls targetted towards the male audience were released, based on his designs. They were available as blonde and brunette, and had bathing suits. There is only one image available of the blonde version of the doll, in black and white. So, there was a "sexy" blonde doll in South America already making noise, long before Bild and Barbie met the audience. And I only found about it just recently! .

imagine what fashion dolls would look like now if it had been Jucika instead of Lilli??

Jeez an american court ruled in favor of an american company. What a surprise. Pour Lilli never even had a fighting chance there. It's just sad, how they even tried/try to downplay it. Shady at best, something I'm too civilized to write down at worst.

Personaly as a german I do remember going thrue old stuff from my mother and even grand mithers toys and finding some of the Lilli caricatures! She was hilarious and most definetly child friendly!!! I have to addmitt (ofc bc that wasn't my time and when I still played with dolls new ones were out!) But I personaly always cared for her original story and the commics. Didn't even knew about the whole toy company drama and obvi as a child didn't care. I have to addmit that I would be happy if Mattel atleast gives some homage or credit to the original comics! Like idk barby talking about her grandma and its prettymuch a tie to the old storys.

As a comics/dolls cross over fan, I'm really glad in recent years people have brought the facts about Lili and her history to light. She's a very interesting character and deserves more recognition

because I haven’t seen anyone else translate the shown comic strips: 9:51 “you should rather give me a word of recognition, because I’m on time even though it’s carnival” (also, why she’s dressed like that) 9:58 “what, only 10 past 8? I haven’t come this early too late” 10:05 “your boss pays you by your word? Well, can you live by that-?” 11:58 “I myself would rather wait a little bit with eating - because I gathered the mushrooms myself” 12:03 “the best birthday present to you would be a kiss? Dang/sad - now I already bought you a necktie!” (I can’t read the one with four panels at once, sorry) 20:47 “wasn’t it awful to be a bachelor - in smoky pubs and cold beer as a drink?” Also, the Bild “newspaper” is at least nowadays very famous for being an awful newspaper. They always print headlines that aren’t quite true, have bad journalism and used to print naked women as a selling point

As a German, your pronunciation is quite good! If I had to nitpick, I would say that the way you pronounced Zeitung well, but the stress is on the first syllable. ZEI-tung, not Zeit-TUNG. But that's nitpicking because you asked people to correct you. You're doing great and I enjoyed the video! 9:45 is basically "You should thank me that I'm punctual even though it's carnival.", explaining her revealing outfit. 10:03 is my favourite, her asking the man "Your boss pays you by your worth? Can you even live off that (salary)?"

the lili comic reminds me a lot of jucika!! this really is a bit of a sad story, the lili doll is very cute and she deserves a lot more credit

Lilli sounds more like a pretty modern woman 😂. Mattel ripped off Lilli’s creator! Typical of large companies. Same problem remains today.

I’m at 15 minutes in. So Lilli is just German Marilyn Monroe but as a cartoon and fashion doll?

bild lillis history is sadder than i thought... i feel so bad for rolf hausser, i can't imagine the burden of the guilt and regret he carries

Would love a deep dive on strawberry shortcake dolls! A history video on all the doll eras would be awesome! :)

So what you're telling me is that Lilli was Madonna's character in the Material Girl music video (when she's getting jewels off all the guys on the stairs)

what a fun video to start my day! 'barbie's sexy grandma' is #elderlyselfgoals 😆👵👠💖

Now we can truly give credit for the first fashion doll and her creator! Darling, please please make a vid similar to this talking about history of Licca Chan!

I feel so bad for lili's creator. I can't believe they just stole his work and renamed it, I can't believe the iconic barbie was an art theft. This is way worse than being a sex doll. They stole someone's ORIGINAL IDEA and RUINED HIS WHOLE CAREER. THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!!! I wish he or his grandson would fight for his rights and get them back. I'm a 22 yo girl, always been a barbie fan. I feel so disappointed. I still love 2000's barbie because I feel like they found their own style and face. before that, even the 90's barbie face still kinda similar to lilli's face.

Been thinking about it and I think that in the ideal world people’s takeaway from Lili should have been „the original fashion doll that inspired Barbie was aimed at adult men, so it shouldn’t be considered weird or unmanly for boys to want to play with dolls”. But instead we got the „sex doll” misconception, because of course.

Even though Lilli and the first gen Barbie have striking similarities, Lilli looks a bit more “chic”. I think it’s her thinly high-arched eyebrows, more narrow side-gaze, and tighter ponytail. I can see her being the more mature, in her 20’s “Barbie”, since Barbie herself is supposed to be a teenager. Barbie is apple pie; Lilli is rich cheesecake.

I never understood how bild Lily was stated to be a s** doll…she’s like 7 inches tall🤦🏻‍♀️

This deep dive into Bild Lilli was really fascinating. Thank you. I knew about Bild Lilli, but not very much other than she was a German novelty doll based on a comic strip.

Because of your channel, I have become quite passionate in wanting to set the record straight about Lilli and how she's the origin of Barbie. So watching this video was such a treat! I will absolutely be sending it to friends who enjoy hearing about my love of fashion dolls.

Lili was more of a gold digger than a call girl. The doll would be more like official merchandise for fans of the comic character than a “sex toy”. The character of Bild Lilli was exclusively found in the newspaper she first appeared in, and so she would have been thought of as a mascot for the newspaper. The doll would probably have been used to promote the newspaper since she came with a little replica of the newspaper. Bild Lilli’s comic strip series was only written and drawn for one tabloid newspaper in Germany, so her legal copyright was probably exclusive to that particular German newspaper, unlike the comic strip intellectual properties that appear in American newspapers which are owned by corporate syndicates who sell the strips to multiple newspapers. If her comic strip was owned by a bigger and stronger corporate syndicate or a comic book company like DC Comics who would sell to multiple newspapers, she probably would have had more success in fighting off Mattel’s intellectual property theft. That’s probably just how corporate business and intellectual property worked back then. Global copyright laws were either too weak in the 1950s/1960s or Hauser just didn’t pick the right kind of legal fight against Mattel by going after the leg joint patent when he should have defended the comic strip character’s intellectual property. The Bild Zeitung newspaper and the original creator of the comic character should have also joined in the legal battle to defend the intellectual property of Bild Lilli.

Feels like Mattel made up the paper doll part. And even if they didn’t, it’s not really relevant as it’s obvious Barbie is Lilli. Insane to know the fashion doll industry has been f’d up all along

Thank you for sharing the truth. I've known this for awhile and it always frustrated me that people believed the lie Ruth and Mattel gave to the public. Bild lilli deserves credit for giving us the beginning of a true fashion doll. 💕

Yay!!! So excited for this. Thank you for your extremely informative and interesting videos! ❤❤❤

Somebody else has probably already translated these, but... anyways... 9:48 „You should really appreciate that I’m still on time even though it’s Fasching!“ (meaning, instead of criticizing her outfit he should be happy that she’s there even though everybody else is out there on the street celebrating in costumes) 10:05 „Your boss pays you for what you’re worth? And that’s enough money for your living?“ 10:16 „My boyfriend is going to gift this fur coat to me on Christmas, he just doesn’t know it yet.“

this is so well researched and brings to light a topic that I hadn’t ever heard about besides those gossip web articles you pointed out, and this is incredibly put together. the amount of time and research and digging this must’ve taken I can only imagine, and btw your German pronunciation is not bad!! it’s a difficult language and you did good!! I love this video, it’s super interesting!

It’s strange how people demonize and shame someone and or something who is Sex positive! Lili needs a reboot! I’d kill to see whoever owns the rights do a adults collectors addition of Lili! 💚

Lilli is indeed an icon. Although I feel for her creator, I don’t think Lilli would have lasted as long as Barbie has, or become as popular.

I don't see Bild Lili as a "sex doll" or a "prostitute." I see her more as the kind of characters Marilyn Monroe sometimes played (specifically Lorelei in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes) only German.

She served CVUNTY and I can't deny it 😒

same. i hate how the life of the Bild Lilli creator was ruined. I still love Barbie. I do hate greed.

Fantastic video. Anyone that takes the time to actually look up some Bild Lilli comics would see how light hearted it was! Even the wholesome Jucika could get spicier than that. Lilli actually reminds me more of a Mae West character, maybe crossed with Playboy's Femlin. Keep up the great videos 🩷🩷🩷🩷

It was the inflection of "fact-checking" for me. Amazing work, as always ❤

I feel so bad for lili's creator. I can't believe they just stole his work and renamed it, I can't believe the iconic barbie was an art theft. This is way worse than being a sex doll. They stole someone's ORIGINAL IDEA and RUINED HIS WHOLE CAREER. THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!!! I wish he or his grandson would fight for his rights and get them back. I'm a 22 yo girl, always been a barbie fan. I feel so disappointed. I still love 2000's barbie because I feel like they found their own style and face. before that, even the 90's barbie face still kinda similar to lilli's face.

Once again... The most interesting doll subject matter on social media delivered masterfully. You have such a gift. 💗💗💗

A similar story happened for American Girl doll's pleasant Rowland has an idea for a line of doll's after visit Williamsburg. She went to a store and saw the gotz doll's and went to Germany and asked and bought the doll's and got the okay to make the American Girl dolls in 1986 the 1st 3 dolls.were released then pleasant went to Germany and bought the addy facemold and bitty baby doll.facemolds I'm the 1990s. So for a long time, American Girl dolls were made in West Germany from the start of the company to then around the mid 90s. I don't know when doll's and iteams were made in China and Mattel bought American Girl in 1998 I believe.

This is my first time hearing what happened to Lilli's creators; thats so incredibly sad and undeserved

LORD am i autistic about dolls

The whole thing sends me like working girl in translation meant she has a job not a s@x worker 😭

I found out about this years ago but after that I could only look at the Barbie founder with scorn. What gall to replicate the Lili doll 1:1 & commit what is essential intellectual property theft and then pretend it was modelled after your daughter. I wish this woman suffered repercussions for her actions but alas the world is not fair and the biggest thugs end up lining their pockets.

I think you forgot one funny information in the begining of the Lilli's story. After the idea of a Baby was rejected, the cartonist decided to kept the baby head but draw her a grown woman body. What result with Lilli a grown woman with the really round and delicate face of a baby. And the barbie doll obviously still had this baby head on the first years.

Bild Lilli is an icon.

the bjd community being incredibly vicious about recast dolls is so funny considering the bestselling doll of all time is a recast. also i can't believe (but I do) that some PR agency got to slut shame the Lilli doll just so that barbie looks more innocent and less of a rip off made by a literal criminal 🤣

It is interesting to see who LIlli really was, and as to theft of the doll, well I can't help put wonder about many dolls today which are very similar to each other but are from different brands. I don't think Ruth was intentionally thinking of destroying this man's career. She was just using Lilli as inspiration. It is sad that he wasn't able to make a new path for himself when all of this happened or think of another inspiring doll though. Anyhooo, I enjoyed learning more about LIlli and I hope this video helps clear her name :)(

Bild Lilly the ICON 🤩

I'm sorry but the comic strips are so funny to me. She seems like the typical femme fatalle in a humourous way and i can't help but stan her!!! I also want to add during the Lily doll's popularity Spain was still inmersed in a dictatorship that controlled culture which micht explain why bootlegs happened

Omg its her.. the Material Girl (material is plastic)

Lilli and Barbie were not really innovative. They have plenty of great grand mothers in French fashion dolls that started the adult luxury doll craze.

it is sad that there was no justice for lilli's creator. even sadder that he lost everything he and his family built when he was in the right. people with money can get away with everything 🙄🙄

Such a freaking cute idea for the outfits 😭 if my Tia panchi heard of this doll Ik she would’ve gone all out like she did with Barbie

We Stan a petty queen 😂 i love the documentary “I, doll” that talks about this

👋 a comment for the algorithm.

I had heard about the origins of Barbie's "inspiration" before, but it was only recently that I saw a video from a doll show of a Bild Lilli. I had to look twice to see it wasn't an original-style Barbie. Ruth Handler and Mattel did Lilli and her creator dirty! Hopefully things would be different today.

In the comics of newspaper Bild Lili was working in an office, very self-assured, single, bit cheeky and looking for a suitable husband. Nothing to blame. She was maybe an early feminist, but sure not a prostitute. Maybe the latter suited the lies of Ruth Handler better.

Lilli and her creator really got done so dirty :( Love the movie poster tbh it says a lot about what she was really supposed to be. it says roughly "Millions to get to know, millions to love, millions of experiences" (my german might be a little rusty sadly)

I feel like Netflix should take that Barbie episode down there's a lot of wrong information there. Also thanks for making this video because I didn't know much about Bild Lilli

Lilli was published in a Finnish magazine in 60s. Yeah, she liked gifts and rich men, but nobody thought she was a prostitute. I doubt I saw Lilli doll once in the window of tobacco shop (another name for porno shop that time, even little children knew it). My mother wanted to go fast away that window - "it´s not a toy shop"

I remember doing one of my final school assignments about toys over the years, and getting really frustrated when i was researching barbie. Normally i research in English because it has a big array of sources compared to my language. But for Lilli, everything i could find was different and only shared a weird point on Lilli being "a sex doll". Germany isn't my first language but my god did i do my best to research it in german instead 😭it's crazy how even today, english sources site Lilli to be nothing but a sex doll made for men when it really wasn't. It's sad to hear that the creators of the Lilli dolls basically had an awful life thanks to Mattel casually ripping her off for Barbie. Nothing against my girl Barbie but annoying how much Mattel nowadays downplays the event

As a german person, that makes me sad. On the other hand, thank you very much for this video. I did not know about it

Fascinating and interesting video on the History of a unknown and forgotten Doll Line from Germany 🇩🇪

If I was a German woman in the 50s and my bf got me a bild lili doll for Valentine’s Day I would marry immediately

WOW justice for Lilli! I knew parts of the story, but this is just so sad.

This is so messed up, he lost so much thats so unfair.

I love these kinds of videos! You should do one about how the Jenny dolls were born out of Mattel’s attempt to market Barbie in Japan.