The Sunshine and Happy Family Grandparents

In 1976 Mattel introduced the Sunshine and Happy Family Grandparents. I believe it's the first time Mattel ever did an extended family for their dolls.

I loved the Grandparents so much! Probably because I only had one real set of grandparents who lived on the east coast who I never saw. Both sets of Grandparents had face molds that were designed to look like older version of the Sunshine and Happy Family Parents. Similar but different. Mattel really scored big with this decision. One of the best they made with these line of dolls. I had both the Sunshine Family and the Happy Family Grandparents.

 The Sunshine Grandparents are so cute. The Grandpa (who was always my favorite) has lots of curly white hair and a white mustache and beard and blue eyes. He wears brown pants, a plaid shirt and a vest and boots like Steve's. The Sunshine Grandma has white hair done up in a bun and brown eyes.She wears a one piece flowered dress and a blue apron with pockets and black shoes like the Sunshine Fun Family Stephie's yellow ones.Their bodies are the original Steve and Stephie ones. Although The Sunshine Grandparents hair is supposed to be white I have found a few of these dolls whose hair is blond. Not sure if this was a result of bad quality control or how the dolls were stored or what.

The Happy Family Grandparents were favorites of mine too. They are a little harder to find and the ones still in the box are in the best condition but expensive. The loose dolls that I've seen weren't in great condition and the ones that are get snapped up right away.

The Happy Family Grandpa looks similar to the Sunshine Family Grandpa except with curly black and white hair, mustache and beard. He wears light blue jeans, a red plaid shirt and a green vest and brown boots. Grandma Happy has lots of loose curly white hair, a long orange one piece dress, a floral print apron with pockets and brown shoes. They both have brown eyes.

Both sets of Grandparents came as an individual set but I have seen the Sunshine Grandparents boxed as a set with the Sunshine Family pets. More on the pets later.