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From battery bunnies to toy cars, some copycats managed to outshine their inspirations! Join us as we explore brands that started as imitations but became household names. These knock-offs didn't just compete with the originals—they completely overshadowed them in the marketplace.
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00:00You can see Barbie was fashioned a lot like her.
00:03Welcome to WatchMojo!
00:05And today we're counting down our picks for even more copycat products that outsold the originals.
00:10I always thought they were the same.
00:11Nah, Sprint's one was funny.
00:15Number 10. Hot Wheels.
00:17Matchbox cars were all the rage when they first rolled out in the 1950s.
00:21We sell more cars than Ford, Chrysler, Chevrolet, and Buick combined.
00:30Matchbox cars.
00:33Introduced by British company Lesney Products, the toys were literally small enough to fit inside a Matchbox, hence the name.
00:39These tiny vehicles were crafted with love.
00:41The engineers used photos, and sometimes even blueprints of real-life cars, to make the Matchbox versions as detailed and realistic as possible.
00:49Driving down the highway to Matchbox Motor City.
00:52In the 1960s, Mattel co-founder Elliot Handler decided his brand needed to get in on this action.
00:58Mattel's Hot Wheels were slicker than their British counterparts, and designed to be much faster.
01:03Lesney then introduced the Superfast line of Matchbox in order to keep up with Mattel's sales, but the company was eventually bought out by another toy maker.
01:10Get ready for...
01:11Matchbox Superfast!
01:13And the ultimate challenge, you build them super fast.
01:17Matchbox Superfast!
01:19Number 9.
01:20VHS and Betamax.
01:21In the 1980s, a videotape format war was raging between the two most popular styles of VCR, the VHS and the Betamax.
01:29If you're looking at videocassette recorders, and you're confused by all your choices, just look at the most important feature of all, the picture.
01:39And Sony Betamax records a sharper picture than VHS.
01:42But neither of these products was the first home videocassette player.
01:45That honor goes to Sony's U-Matic.
01:47Introduced as a prototype in 1969, the U-Matic became commercially available in 1971.
01:53Now from Sony Research and Engineering, an exciting new generation of U-Matic videotape players and recorders.
02:01The first U-Matic VCR model was a beast, measuring 2.5 feet long and 2 feet deep, and weighing almost 60 pounds.
02:08Priced at around $1,400, or over $10,000 today, it was too expensive for the average consumer.
02:14Though it did become popular with TV and movie studios, VHS, Betamax, and some less well-known formats were developed later as smaller, more affordable options.
02:23New Memorex videotape.
02:25Even after 100 recordings, you'll wonder, is it live?
02:29Or is it Memorex?
02:31Number 8. Microsoft Word.
02:33Speaking of vintage technology, Word has dominated the word processing software market for so long, you might think it's the OG.
02:40Microsoft Word for Windows is so easy.
02:42It just takes one click to make your work look twice as good.
02:47But a long line of other programs came before it.
02:49The first ever word processing software for home computers was Electric Pencil, which was released in late 1976.
02:56WordStar, introduced in 1979, came next, followed quickly by WordPerfect in 1980.
03:02Each of these programs was basically a rip-off of the previous one, with a few additional features added.
03:13They even shared a similar $500 price tag.
03:17Microsoft Word came along in 1983, though it didn't surpass WordPerfect in popularity until the 1990s, when Windows became the operating system of choice.
03:25Terry is impressed with the ease of Microsoft Word for Windows.
03:30But more importantly, the office is impressed with Terry.
03:34Microsoft Word, the word processor for Windows.
03:37Number 7. Whiteout.
03:39Most of us don't do a lot of writing by hand anymore, which means the demand for correction fluid isn't what it used to be.
03:45If mistakes make you boiling mad, try the liquid paper line of correction fluid.
03:50But it was an incredibly popular product during the days of the typewriter, before the backspace key was a thing.
03:56The first correction fluid was liquid paper, which was invented in 1956 by a typist named Bette Nesmith Graham.
04:03Coincidentally, the mother of Monkees guitarist Michael Nesmith.
04:06That's me, Michael Nesmith.
04:07While I was making music with the Monkees, a very smart secretary was also coming up with another number one hit, Liquid Paper Correction Fluid.
04:14That secretary was my mom.
04:18That's right, my mom invented liquid paper.
04:20Whiteout was introduced about 10 years later by Ewen Johannecht, who was annoyed at liquid paper's tendency to smudge photostatic copies.
04:28Whiteout is now so ubiquitous that the name is often used to refer to any correction fluid, no matter what brand it is.
04:34Number 6. Energizer Bunny.
04:36If you live in North America, you might be surprised to hear that Energizer is not the only battery company to use a pink bunny in its advertising.
04:43Behold the power of Energizer Ultimate Lithium.
04:46Duracell created an ad campaign featuring drumming bunny toys back in 1973.
04:51When its trademark on the fuzzy pink mascot lapsed in 1988, Energizer swooped in and released a parody commercial with their own pink bunny.
04:58The fact is, Energizer was never invited to their playoffs, because nothing outlasts the Energizer.
05:07Duracell filed for a new trademark, launching a multi-year dispute that was eventually settled out of court.
05:11Energizer was given the rights to use the bunny in the U.S. and Canada, and Duracell was given the rights to the rest of the world.
05:17Our unique power check shows how much power is left, so you can use your battery to the fullest.
05:22Number 5. Diet Coke.
05:24The first sugar-free soda on the market was Diet Right, which was introduced as a medicinal product by the Royal Crown Company in 1955.
05:31You have the right to a one-calorie cola with real cola taste. Diet Right!
05:36A few years later, they began marketing it as a beverage for people watching their calorie intake, and it became pretty popular.
05:42Coca-Cola decided to jump on that bandwagon, launching a knockoff of Diet Right in 1963, called TAB.
05:48It's crisp, refreshing.
05:53It's really satisfying.
05:55If you haven't tasted new TAB, you gotta try it.
05:58Diet Pepsi soon followed, and it was also a hit.
06:00Coke eventually realized that it needed a sugar-free product with a more marketable name, so it created Diet Coke in 1982, the new drink outsold TAB by 1983.
06:10After Diet Right switched to using 100% aspartame as its sweetener in 1987, Coke copied it yet again, adjusting its formula to match.
06:18Just for the taste of it.
06:20Just for the taste of it.
06:22Diet Coke.
06:23Number 4. Google Chrome.
06:26Like the VCR wars of the 1980s, an internet browser war between Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer started in the mid-90s.
06:41Explorer soon garnered a huge percentage of the market share.
06:43As Netscape declined in popularity, it reached out to the Mozilla Foundation to create a new product based on Netscape's code, and Firefox was released in 2004.
06:52Google Chrome came out in 2008, and it wasn't just a copycat of earlier browsers.
07:10It was literally built with free software components taken from Firefox and Apple Safari.
07:15By 2011, Chrome was more popular than Firefox, and today, it commands two-thirds of the market share for internet browsers worldwide.
07:22Number 3. Monopoly.
07:33In 1903, Lizzie McGee created the Landlord's Game, which she intended as an educational product to teach people what happens when wealth is concentrated in just a few people's hands.
07:42While most board games, at the time, were simply used for entertainment, Lizzie McGee decided that they could also be a perfect way to teach people about Henry George and single tax.
07:54She called her invention the Landlord's Game.
07:57She got a patent in 1904 and published her game in 1906.
08:01In the 1930s, an unemployed salesman named Charles Darrow straight up stole it.
08:05He was introduced to the game by some friends, and immediately began selling his own copies under the name Monopoly.
08:11Charles Darrow was introduced to this version of the game in the 1930s, and he quickly stole the idea, adding his own artwork and sold his invention of Monopoly to the Parker Brothers.
08:21He sold it to Parker Brothers in 1935, claiming it was his own invention, for $7,000 plus royalties, which eventually made him a millionaire.
08:29When Parker Brothers found out about the Landlord's Game, they bought Maggie's patent for a measly 500 bucks.
08:34A furious McGee went to the press in 1936 to explain the game's true origins, and in an effort to keep her quiet, Parker Brothers paid her a measly 500 for the rights to the Landlord's Game.
08:46Number 2. Sprite.
08:48The Coca-Cola company seems to like honing in on other beverage brands turf.
08:52The lemon-lime-flavored soda 7-Up was invented by American businessman Charles Grigg in 1929.
08:58It's a clean, crisp change from the everyday.
09:03Caffeine-free 7-Up.
09:05For decades, it was the only major lemon-lime soda in the U.S.
09:08In 1959, Fanta, which is owned by Coca-Cola, released a lemon soda for the German market.
09:13Seeing an opportunity, the company began distributing the flavor in America, renaming it Sprite.
09:18Now more than ever, it's Sprite!
09:21By the 90s, Sprite had surpassed 7-Up in popularity, possibly because Coca-Cola played dirty.
09:27In 1992, 7-Up sued Coke, claiming that Coke was convincing distributors to switch from 7-Up by using manipulated data showing that Sprite was in higher demand.
09:357-Up lost that lawsuit, and the appeal.
09:38Without a lemon, it's not happening.
09:40So sorry, 7-Up!
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09:58Number 1. Barbie.
10:00That's right, even your favorite fashion doll was a brazen rip-off.
10:03Anything is possible when Barbie beats, beats me!
10:07Prior to the introduction of Barbie, pretty much all toy dolls in the U.S. were babies or children.
10:13Ruth Handler, one of the co-founders of Mattel, had toyed with the idea of an adult-shaped doll for years.
10:18While traveling in Switzerland, she came across Bild Lili, a German doll based on a racy comic strip that was typically treated as a gag by adults.
10:26Bild Lili was a doll made in the 1950s through 1964 by a company called Greiner & Hosser, and she is actually fashioned after a cartoon character.
10:37Handler bought a bunch of them, brought them home, and retooled them into the first Barbie dolls.
10:42They were introduced at the American International Toy Fair in 1959, and the rest is history.
10:47Hollywood hair! Hollywood hair! Barbie!
10:51Which of these copycats do you think was the most shameless? Let us know in the comments.
10:55Man, that's Great Hill!
10:56Great Hill!
11:00Great Hill drinks Sprite?
11:01Great Hill drinks Sprite!
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