Monday, June 5, 2017

Doll-A-day 2017 #156:Puppetrina

  Ok. I confess. I bought this doll for myself and then justified it by telling Ken to give it to me for Easter. (Since I'm on a diet I was trying to go candy free.) I am awful. But I have been wanting one,and when I happened across this one in her original dress for a really good Buy It Now I couldn't wait for Ken to...forget to buy it. So I bought it myself. She's Puppetrina.


Puppetrina, as her name suggests, is not just a doll. She's also a puppet.


 

More on that in a minute.


Puppetrina was produced by Eegee in 1963.


 I bought my doll second hand and without her box. Here's how she would have looked in her box.

 

She measures about 22" tall.


Her head and arms are soft vinyl.




Her legs are hollow plastic.


She has  very striking eyes,with 'real lashes'.
 


Her eyes are sleep eyes.


Her cheeks are very blushy,her lips very bright and glossy, and she has two tiny molded and painted teeth.


 As pretty as she is from the front...



  

 ...she has a somewhat odd profile.



Kind of  like 'Henry', from the old "Henry" comic strip.



 She had a trip to the beauty parlor and laundry when she arrived here. I washed and ironed her clothes. Once she was unclothed I washed her, and washed and conditioned her hair.




The hair turned out pretty well. It's fairly smooth. She has a replaced hair ribbon, and is missing her shoes, but she does have her original clothes.


 She has a heavy cotton pinafore.



 Under her pinafore there is a dress with a cotton skirt and knit top half.
 

The whole outfit has sort of a nautical look. 

Maybe that's one of the reasons I like her. I love sailor suits. There were also several outfits, available separately,made for Puppetrina.
 Under the dress she has striped underwear/body.(the shoulders are connected to her arms,but the body of the underwear isn't connected.Her body is foam...

I rolled her underwear up to show this part of her body. The undies connect in the crotch with a snap.

...surrounding the plastic parts that are strung together. The upper half has springs that attach to clear plastic pegs under Puppetrina's shoulders.
 
Mine weren't connected, so I took her apart to fix that. I thought it would fix the floppiness of her head, but it made no difference at all.

She has a pocket in the back of her underwear which allows her to be operated like a puppet. One arm is operated by a thumb, and the head and other arm are operated by the other fingers.



 The back of the box instructs the owner how to operate Puppetrina.

 

What it doesn't tell you is that she is, in Ivy's words,"The worst puppet doll in the whole world". For one thing, neither my hands nor Ivy's were really big enough to properly operate Puppetrina. For another thing, if our fingers were any longer they still couldn't have operated her any better, because the cup shaped plastic bit in her head where the fingers go is extremely short. If the fingers could go in farther her head could be held up, and moved much better. But even though I have small hands, they are bigger than a child's.I wonder just how well little hands could operate Puppetrina, because their fingers are even shorter than mine,(although, not by much!),and I couldn't do much with her. It took the entire span of my or Ivy's hands to reach both arms with our thumb and fingers. She doesn't have a wide range of movement with those arms anyway.



 That's about the extent of it. Her arms are a bit long too,and with no bend in them, she can't do much that doesn't look awkward.


Not quite sure what she's doing to this guy.Looks like one of those very slappy massages.


In spite of the drawbacks, she is apparently 'loaded with play value'.

This ad is a little scary.
Let's have a last look at Puppetrina.


 
See you tomorrow for another doll.

18 comments:

  1. I've never heard of this one! She's a cutie.

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  2. no wonder you liked her, Ive never seen anything like her but being from the west coast all I saw on tv were baby dolls and I didnt have much interest in those. too bad about the shoes I hope you find some that fit her :)

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  3. I am on the lookout for a Puppetrina. When I was 6 in 1968, I was given a baby doll that I called "Baby Puppetrina". She had the finger holes in the back of her body so that I could move her arms. I cannot find the baby doll anywhere.

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    1. I had never heard of Baby Puppetrina until this. I Googles it,and there have been some sold on Worthpoint and Ebay. Keep watching for them. They'll show up eventually. If you want you can leave your contact information here. Maybe someone with one to sell will contact you.

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  4. Hi! I stumbled across your blog as it's very similar to my own! I love my doll collection. I recently did an article on my Puppetrina! One thing caught my eye about this article though.
    The Puppetrina photo you have shown in her box - is the EXACT doll I won off eBay. Not only did she come with her box, but she came with two different outfits, also in their original boxes.
    I love the fact theres someone else out there that has written about this relatively unknown doll. She is awesome and a definite staple of my collection.
    Keep up the good work!
    Siray
    www.crazymaisydolls.wordpress.com

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    1. I looked at your blog. Your photos are great.Looks like we've done several of the same dolls. Great minds think alike,eh? I envy you your 'new' in box Puppetrina! Now I want to get some more clothes for her,and change her headband to blue. So you had trouble operating her too? It wasn't just us! How odd that the picture of a doll in the box I found turned out to be yours.(For the record, I never use anybody's artistic pictures, but I wanted to show what her box looked like.)It must have cost you a fortune to have that shipped to the UK. We just mailed a birthday present to my sister in law in Yorkshire and it was about a million dollars...well, maybe not quite that much.But it was close!

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    2. Thank you for your kind words about my blog. I need to update it but I'm trying really hard to gain inspiration and get the oomph to do it! So coming across your lovely blog has definitely inspired me!

      It's really lovely to know there are others out just a passionate about their collections as I am. Many of my peers have a very confused look on their face when I spend money on another doll.

      And yes, it makes me laugh because I just about managed to squeeze my hand in her back - and I have small hands! Oh don't worry, I just saw the picture and thought "hang on a second, my box has that stain and that tear - omg!" It's a small world, but I'm glad I saw it on here :)

      In all fairness, my Puppetrina was a bargain. There were about 9 bidders on her and I put in a maximum bid of about £200. I won her for £145 and could scarcely believe it. The p&p I think was about £40 so the seller was very reasonable as I expected to pay a lot more!

      Being in the UK is a struggle when I always see so many gorgeous things for sale in the U.S!

      Thanks for taking the time to reply, I'll be sure to revisit your blog :)

      Siray xx

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    3. I am coming to the end of my year of daily posts. Maybe you would like to take up the slack?! :)Whoa! Your Puppetrina was way more expensive than mine! I keep to the cheap end of things and buy what would be called 'fixer uppers' if they were houses! Maybe we could do a trade some time. We might be coming over in the Spring,so I could save you some postage at least.

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    4. I am very impressed that you do daily posts - that's amazing. My ultimate aim is to document every girl in my collection but I just never seem to have the time! Maybe that can be my new years resolution. :)
      Blimey, do you mind me asking how much yours was?? I wanted Puppetrina SO badly that anything under £200 I considered a bargain! Especially as she was being shipped to me from across the sea! Plus, she never seems to come up for sale!
      Bless you, that's really thoughtful. Do you come to the UK often? I'm trying to curb my eBay spending but occasionally I come across a gem which I simply can't brush aside! xxx

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    5. I had forgotten and had to look, but my Puppetrina was just short of $23, and that included shipping! Sorry! But yours is so much nicer than mine, with box and extra outfits,and brand new! Mine needed some work when I got her. I had to completely wash everything and condition her hair and try to whiten her dress. Her dress did come out pretty nice though. I hadn't been to England for 29 years when we got the chance to go in 2015. We're trying to get to go over in the Spring. My husband is almost certainly going,and my oldest is going to go with him. I'm still working on it! I recently saw 60's Sindy's little sister,the brunette. She looks really cute. How common are they? Do you have one?

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    6. Even if she's in poor condition - that means she's been loved!! And so she should be! Is your husband English? I have never been to America, but my fiancee has family there and we're hopefully going to Universal Studios in May for our honey moon, so I'm very excited. :)
      Sindy is becoming more and more popular here, for collectors anyway. I have about 5 now and my mum also has several. Her little sister is called Patch - she's lovely but sadly she is not part of my collection...yet. I'm a bit fussy when it comes to my vintage dolls, I have to find one in near perfect condition and so far I've struggled with her. Each day, more and more Sindy family dolls are cropping up, and fetching rather high prices. She is definitely on my list though, along with more Tammy dolls and family (I think Tammy is my favourite!) If you can find a Patch doll in good nick with her little outfit then she is definitely worth a buy! xxx

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    7. Yes.Ken's from Hull. Universal Studios in California? that'll be quite a long journey for you. It's about as far for us to go to California as it is to go to England. I only recently saw Patch online. I've never seen one in person. I collect on a budget, so I have to usually buy dolls that aren't mint,but sometimes I make a lucky find. All my Tammy dolls have been like that. I find them at yard sales and thrift stores and I think the most I have ever paid is $4. That was a beautiful black cherry haired Tammy. I ended up selling her out of necessity,and I really wish I could have kept her.I have paid more for Pepper and my Posin' Salty,but they were all still really cheap.I've been tying to find a carrot Pepper,but they are so expensive.

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    8. Yes California - it will be a veeeerry long journey! I always forget how big America is, compared to teeny tiny UK. You're very lucky you've found Tammy at yard sales and thrift stores. That never happens here. Only ever have managed to find them on eBay and they go for over £50. If one does crop up in a shop for under a tenner I think I'd keel over. (It's still my dream to find a Kenner Blythe in a charity shop for under £30... if only!) I would love a Pepper and Salty and Tammy's mum. One day!!

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    9. Pepper isn't that expensive here,not comparatively anyway. If we do get to come over maybe I should try to get you a Pepper!

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  5. My puppetina doll is not attached at the springs either. How did you attach your's? My spring just slide off. Thanks, Candy

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    1. My springs stuck for years, but recently popped off. maybe you need to put some glue on the pegs the springs slip onto, or maybe wedging some fabric over the pegs and into the springs would hold them.

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  6. I got this doll for Christmas when I was 8 or 9. I am 67 now. I played with her and used her for a bed ornament for years. I don't know what happened to her but I've always remember her as my favorite doll. So glad you wrote about her!

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    1. Aw! I'm glad to bring you some happy memories!

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Thanks in advance for your comments.