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Japanese net users reminisce over novelty pregnant Licca-chan doll with unlockable belly

Meg Murphy Feb 26, 2016
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When the girls grew up and took their first sex-education class, they were shocked to learn that birth wasn’t quite so simple…

While Barbie may reign supreme in the United States, it’s little Licca-chan who dominates the market in Japan. Introduced by company toy maker Takara Tomy in 1967, over 53 million Licca-chan dolls have been sold as of 2007. Much like Barbie, the Licca-chan line includes her friends and family members, items for playing house, and more clothes and accessories than any young girl could imagine. There’s even a limited edition Doll Festival set to complete any Licca-chan collection.

But a photo that surfaced on Twitter a couple of months ago is still making waves, as girls – now mostly grown up – take a trip down memory lane to a particularly special version of the young doll that so many grew up with…

https://twitter.com/anya_mog/status/679316273935716353

@anya_mog writes: “This is the Licca-chan pregnancy system, where you mail in a post card that comes with the doll and they’ll send you a baby and a key to open her stomach. Pretty insane.”

The doll was released in 2001, and the mail-in system continued until 2011. We can imagine the anticipation of all the proud prego-Licca owners as they awaited for the literal delivery of their brand new bouncing baby boy or girl.

Well, we’re sure there are some out there who remember the doll fondly, though the general reaction to pregnant Licca doll seems to be that of confusion and distaste.

“I had this back in the day and got the baby, but the whole setup was so confusing I found it all rather strange.”

“So even though you’ve already bought it you have to mail in a postcard to get the baby and the key to open her stomach? How annoying, they could’ve just made it a set from the beginning.”

“So whose kid is it?”

“Don’t they also need to include a set to ‘make’ the baby too?”

“It’s pretty amazing they continued the mail-in service for 10 years, but I wonder why they didn’t just include it in the set from the beginning.”

“Warning: Father unknown.”

“My cousin had a Licca-chan doll. I chewed on its foot once and didn’t feels so good afterwards. It tasted like the green part of a green onion. Ever since then I’ve hated those green parts.”

It does seem rather strange that they wouldn’t include the baby already inside of her stomach, and have you then send away for the key so you could open it to “birth” the baby inside. But either way, we really enjoyed this look at an innocent toy from bygone days.

What weird toys did you grow up with?

Sources: Wikipedia, Twitter/ @anya_mog, Hachima Kikou
Top image: Twitter/ @anya_mog