The Bionic Woman doll was made in the mid 1970’s to represent Lindsay Wagner who starred in the “Bionic Woman” TV series as Jaime Sommers. This show was a spin-off of the TV series “The Six Million Dollar Man” starring Lee Majors as Steve Austin (Lee was married to Farrah Fawcett of “Charlie’s Angels” at the time). Jaime was Steve’s girlfriend who had an been in an skydiving accident and received “bionic” legs, an arm, and an ear. Both Steve and Jaime became secret agents using their "bionic" powers to save the world from evil.
The “Bionic Woman” doll was 12 ˝ inches tall (an inch or so taller than Barbie). Her arm and leg had sections in which the “bionic” components could be viewed by moving a layer of rubber like skin and also by lifting the flaps on her clothing. Her head made a “pinging” noise when turned to simulate the “bionic” ear.
I believe two versions of the doll were introduced. The first wore a jogging suit with the white jacket and blue pants like the doll pictured above. The second version of the doll had a blue jumpsuit.
Many other “Bionic Woman” toy items were produced at the time to compliment the doll. Among these items were a sports car, dome house, and beauty salon. She also had fashion clothing that could be purchased separately. An evil enemy doll called a “Fembot” was also produced. This doll had a robot like face that could be covered with a mask so the doll would impersonate Jaime. Here are some photos of these additional items that I found on some recently closed Ebay auctions.
Of course, prior to the introduction of the Bionic Woman, Kenner also produced a Six Million Dollar Man Doll to represent Steve Austin. Steve had similar “bionic” components as well as a “bionic” eye. (You could look through it from the back of his head like a telescope.) A doll was also produced to represent Steve’s boss Oscar Goldman, as well as a doll similar to the Fembot called “Maskatron” that had a robot like face and masks to impersonate Steve and Oscar. Steve also had many accessories including a "Bionic Transport and Repair Station" that resembled a space-ship.(The character had been an astronaut prior to becoming a “bionic” secret agent.)
I never had the Bionic Woman doll when growing up, but I do remember the TV series very well and watched it all the time. I did have a Bionic Woman T-Shirt with Jaime Sommers on the front and my name printed in letters on the back of the shirt (kind of a 70’s sort of thing to do I think.)
My brother Marc had the Six Million Dollar Man doll as well as Maskatron and Steve’s repair station. They were pretty cool ! I remember that he used to play with them along with his GI-Joe dolls since they both were around the same size.