Pic shows: Mauricio Galdi is the new human Ken. A new real-life Ken doll has appeared on the scene just one year after the old one died - and he is also Brazilian. Last June, Celso Santebanes, 20, who spent 30,000 GBP on surgery to turn himself into a human version of Barbie’s boyfriend died after losing a five month battle with leukaemia. He started his transformation into manufacturer Mattel's iconic toy after winning a modelling contest at the age of 16 and was catapulted to fame after being spotted by a talk show in his native Sao Paulo. Now arch-rival Maurico Galdi, 27, has stepped into his shoes. The two had a falling out after Galdi posted a photo on his Instagram profile of himself holding a poster declaring he was the the real human Ken. Santebanes, who was then seriously ill, had reacted angrily accusing Galdi of being "an opportunist". Santebanes posted: "Shut up, fool, you do not have even a little respect, I know you posted the picture to offend me." "It is very ugly and false. He believes that if he has blue eyes and make up he is the new Ken, but he is an opportunist." He also threatened to take Galdi to court and compared him to Michael Jackson. But the pair later made up on a TV show. Now Galdi has taken over as the new human Ken after a survey carried out in Brazil voted him the most popular. Galdi, who is the son of a film distributor and a housewife from a middle-class neighbourhood of Sao Paulo, in east Brazil, said he always envied girls at school. He said: "I saw them playing with dolls and I wanted to do the same, but I never did for fear of prejudice." When he was 17 he began acting classes at a local drama school where he realised he wasn’t considered beautiful. So he started having plastic surgery, starting with his nose. He said he also had polymethylmethacrylate put in several parts of his body to fill them out and make him more round and smooth. He said: "I never sought to be the Brazilian human Ken. "It was something that came to me, television sought to give me the title." And he paid tribute to his predecessor saying Santebanes was the "real Ken." He said: "He was and always will be the first Brazilian human Ken, let that title be for him". (ends)