Saturday, November 15, 2014

Doll-A-Day 293: Clone Wars Week:Skipper Saturday: Skipper Clone

  This is the beginning of another theme week. This week's theme is not Star Wars.The Clone Wars in the title refer to clone dolls.This week we'll be taking a look at 'wanna be' dolls, dolls that are copies, rip offs, if you will, of other dolls. We'll look at some old dolls, and some current ones. Since this is Skipper Saturday today's doll is a Skipper clone.

There were several Skipper clone dolls. Some of them seem to be made directly from the Mattel Skipper molds.I think this is Miss Kitty by Cragstan.

The freckles are a tip off. She might also have been Miss Gwen, but I don't think Miss Gwen had freckles.

She's marked Hong Kong on the back of her head, and the small of her back.

She is obviously a cheaper doll than the real Skipper, but she's not badly made.
Although her face paint isn't done nearly as well as Skipper's.
She has the same jointed areas as Skipper: neck, shoulders, and hips.She has a weird neck knob though.

It allows her to tilt her head a little upward...

...and a little downward...

...to the left,and to the right.




A strange thing happens when she tilts to the right though.

 Might want to just stick to that left side tilt...

The face is very like real Skipper.


The hands are fairly direct copies.

Real Skipper on the left. Clone girl actually has more pronounced knuckles. Notice the extra plastic around clone girl's fingers.
But the arms are made of a soft vinyl. It's like the difference between Barbie arms and Glamour Misty arms.

The feet are way different though. They look like a much cheaper doll than Skipper.

Once again, real Skipper on the left.

The clone has obvious mold lines and stray plastic.
They are super narrow, and don't have a 'foot shape' like Skipper's do.


The major difference from Skipper, other than the quality, is the freckles. Real Skipper never had freckles until Quick Curl Skipper.
Quick Curl Skipper, a previous star of Skipper Saturday.

Our Skipper clone today is also wearing a Skipper clone dress.
The quality of the fabrics isn't too bad, and the design is really close to the original. There's no built in lacy slip though, like with the Skipper dress, and in a sure sign of poorer quality, the hem is on the outside of the skirt!

  It's a copy of Skipper's Silk 'n Fancy from 1964.
 See you tomorrow for another clone.
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6 comments:

  1. AnonymousNovember 27, 2014 at 7:29 AM

    I just bought one of these dolls (cheaply) so thanks for helping me identifying it! She is pretty well done apart from the feet and dates from the same time so I'm happy enough!
    K

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    1. TamNovember 27, 2014 at 11:38 AM

      It's king of neat to have at least one example of a clone of your favourite doll. There are several Skipper clones out there. This is one of the best.This doll is one of those that are so close to the original that they must have used a real Skipper for their mold.Amazing how people got away with that kind of thing back then. It still happens though. I have seen some Frozen dolls from China that are really close to the real ones, and even have the Disney logo on the box, but the quality, like these older dolls, is so much lower than the real thing. I just wonder why a giant like Disney hasn't stopped them by now.

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    2. AnonymousDecember 1, 2014 at 5:22 AM

      It's pretty funny really. I was trying to buy a Pippa doll and got a Skipper clone for my trouble!
      I guess Disney would be in litigation all the time if it were to follow up on all the imitations. Maybe they just do a 'sweep' now and again.

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    3. TamDecember 1, 2014 at 10:57 AM

      You have a point. Disney couldn't possibly spot every copy of their products. There are far too many of them. Maybe they only follow current things. I know when the Harry Potter rage first started Warner Brothers watched everything sold on Ebay to make sure if you used the words 'Harry Potter' that everything in your listing was a licensed item. But after a while people were selling anything and everything.

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  2. Frau S. aus B.January 3, 2016 at 3:17 PM

    China always did this, and China is much to far 'outside', there is no possibility to make a lawsuit against a Company there. China is a separate world somehow :)

    I would have thought your doll is the first Plasty-Peggy, she is unmarked and looks exactly as the first Skipper, but Plasty made no freckles. So I think she is just Hong Kong-made.
    I love Clones, especially Skippers, because we loved the Skipper-kind most back then. They had all the adventureswhich we had (or wanted to have). The adults made their work, and the smaller dolls lay around, while we played 'Petra' (you remember, Petra is the german Barbie, and 'playing Petra' meaned the same as 'Play Barbie'). The Peggy changed around 1968, and around 1970 she got breasts; this was the Peggy which we bought several times, because we were old enough, to buy alone a dioll, but not too old to play with it. I was 7, my sister 10, and our friend was between us. And two or three years later Peggy got high-heeled feet, but her face did not change. But as far as I remember, did we never have this Peggy back then. The Peggy around 1980, which I did not buy back then, because I was too old, looked like Francie from Mattel.

    A year or so from now I bought a Clone Skipper, which had freckles, too. I think she was made, when Mattel sold the Quick Curl-Skipper. She has still the sweeit face as the first Skipper, but her eyes do not look at the side.

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    1. TamJanuary 5, 2016 at 3:42 PM

      I have the Skipper identification book, and from the pictures and information from that, I would say she's almost definitely Miss Kitty by Capstan. Miss Kitty even had the freckles.

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Thanks in advance for your comments.

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