Sunday, December 31, 2017

Doll-A-Day 2017 #365:Shrunken Sunday:Littlest Pet Shop Blythe

  This is our last doll of the year, and the very last Doll-A-Day for a while at least! I suppose I should have been prepared with an extra special doll,but with Christmas,my back trouble,my friend's heart troubles, and some of my own,plus everything else that's been going on, I didn't even think  of that! I hope nobody is disappointed!
   She should have been yesterday's doll,and part of the Shrunken Saturday posts. She's just going to have to be a Shrunken Sunday instead.


She's a Littlest Pet Shop Blythe.


She's a fitting one for me to have because she's 'Fabulously Vintage',and so
 are most things I like.


She's dressed for a party,so I guess it's a New year's Party


She's only 4" tall.



Blythe originally appeared in the 60's, as much larger dolls,(They can wear Skipper sized clothes.)


While this little girl has plain  inset eyes, the original Blythe dolls had large eyes that could change colour by spinning to a different eye side with the pull of a string located on their backs.


Those Blythes are super collectible (and expensive!) these days,as are the more recent remakes. I'll stick with this girl!


As with the full size Blythe dolls, this kid has one big head!



It makes her top heavy. She couldn't stand on those tiny little feet with that head, even if she had her missing shoes!


Once again I'm using my really cool "Matrix" staircase. I love this thing!



 I originally intended this post for the day Ken and I went to Tiffin for Ken to see his all time favourite, Olivia Newton John,in concert.(We only got one ticket because A: I wanted him to have the best seat possible,which meant that, at almost $100,we couldn't get two like that! and B: She has never been my thing at all, so it would have been wasted on me anyway, and he might as well get the most out of it.) As it happened, we went into a collectibles shop, and they had this very doll,in her box no less.


   So, this marks the end of this year's Doll-A-Day. I'll still be around, and plan to do a Doll-of-the-Week. You just won't see me every day...unless I decide to do this again sometime!

Saturday, December 30, 2017

Doll-A-Day 2017 #364:Libby Littlechap

  I have just realized that I have been a day off since day 322! I noticed when I had no days left numerically, and yet I was not on New Year's eve. I've corrected the numbers now.
  We're almost out of 2017 posts! Tomorrow is the last day of the year. Before we run out,today's doll is this girl.


She's Libby Littlechap.


She's part of the Littlechap family,made by Remco in 1964.


Libby is the youngest child of Doctor John Littlechap, and his wife Lisa.

 

Their older daughter is Judy, who is apparently a teenager.


The Littlechaps are a weird bunch of dolls. They are much larger than Barbie and friends, or even Tammy's family. Libby is supposed to be 10 years old,and she measures 10 1/4" tall. So you can imagine how tall the doctor is.


They all have broad stances and arms that stand out at their sides in a weird way.


Libby has a ponytail and bangs.



The Littlechaps were supposed to represent a Kennedy-like family,(and were pulled after President Kennedy's assassination),and yet, while the Kennedy's had a very young son and  daughter and were known for their (supposed) attractiveness, the Littlechaps have two older daughters and are really strange looking.

Look at those faces. They're like The Aliens Next Door.

Seriously,what is the deal with Libby?


The Littlechaps were sold in terrycloth wraps.

How come only the Doc gets a real robe?!

That kind of limited their play value. They were also available as dressed dolls,so who was going to buy the bathrobe dolls? Who wants to buy a naked,or might as well be naked,doll,and then have to put out more money to buy clothes for it because it's such a weird size it can't share clothes with any of your other dolls,which you are more likely to have because they are more popular,(And don't look like some other planet's idea of what humans look like)?!


They did have some nice, well made clothes though. Well,he was a doctor. They had money.
I will give The Littlechaps this,there were some nice playsets sold to go with them.


Their 'family room' looks more like it could be one of the girls' bedrooms.

Oh. I guess there was a reason for that.

Check this out.The doctor's office counts as a 'furnished room' in their house. I guess the doctor works out of their house.

Speaking of the doctor's office, it is great! I want this thing!


This looks so much like the doctor's office I went to as a kid,right down to the checked tile floor,(My doctor's was black and white though.),except where is the swivel stool? That's the best part of any doctor's office decor!
I ended up with Libby because she was in a load of auction stuff.

 

She isn't a doll I would have bought on purpose, and yet, I have kept her and plan on buying her outfit because, not only was she naked when I got her,but this is pretty much the same outfit I had as a kid!

Her hat is not a hat,but more of an ear muff thing I guess.
There are some slight differences, like my red and blue plaid coat had a hood,and my school bag had red and blue plaid on the front of it,but otherwise,she's wearing my clothes and carrying my school bag. Plus I had red snow boots at one point, but they had buckles on the sides. I wore some ugly brown boots with my plaid coat though.One thing Libby avoids with her coat that I had to deal with? When she turns her head it doesn't go into a stiff polyester hood that doesn't turn with her so she can't see!


  I missed getting a really affordable lot with Libby's red velvet dress and the winter coat,hat, boots,mittens, and school bag. Since then I have been watching for another lot. But nothing has come up that has the combination of clothing and price I want.

 

I was holding out doing this post on Libby until I had snow and the coat. No coat so far, but we definitely have snow!
 

 There is a load of it! So Libby has had to resort to borrowing this vintage Hong Kong red velvet coat and hand made knitted tam o' shanter.



The sleeves are a bit short for her. That's because she has long monkey arms!
  Tomorrow is our last day for every day posting.Check out our final doll of the year then.

Doll-A-Day 2017 #363: Bendy Holiday Dolls

  Two more posts until the end of the year! Wow! We are deep in snow at the moment,and VERY  cold. If you read yesterday's post you'll know my best friend Lori has been in the hospital with her heart problems again. She is doing fine now. They shocked her heart back into rhythm today. She is going to have another ablation to correct her A-flutter,but it's supposed to be less complicated than the one they did for her A-Fib,so that's good. I spent the day at the hospital and then took her home,so,for the last time,I promise,I'm giving you a quick post on some holiday dolls. I may have done alot of these lately, but they've all been different. At least I gave you some variety! So here are today's dolls.


They aren't your typical Elf on the Shelf types either. They're more like pose dolls.


They have stockingette faces,and wired bendy bodies.
 


This guy has Jean Harlow's eyebrows.


Tomorrow we'll see a doll that isn't a holiday elf. Really!

Thursday, December 28, 2017

Doll-A-Day 2017 #362: Mistletoe Pose Dolls

  Today I'm going to bore you with at least one more day of holiday dolls. But these aren't the floppy legged Elf-on-the Shelf/knee hugger type of elves we've mostly seen so far. These are bendy legged dolls more like Japanese pose dolls. Plus I have a good reason for going with these dolls today.


My best friend Lori is in the hospital again with her heart problem. She has Afib this time,instead of Aflutter,which is supposedly easier to fix and not quite as serious. She feels better this way too,so it seems less worrying...but I'm doing it anyway. I spent the day at the hospital with her, so I'm using some more pictures I took before Christmas. She gets her heart shocked back into rhythm tomorrow morning,and will have to have another ablation to fix the problem. (It sounds gruesome. Google it.) So anyway, these dolls are all affixed to mistletoe balls,as you can see.


The little ones have very similar faces.


The tiniest one has yarn hair. I do have some that look like this one that have feather hair.


The middle sized one looks like she may have had feather hair at some point,but it's gone now.



They all have bendy wired arms and legs,felt bodies and sort of stockingette faces with painted features.

 

The biggest one really looks like a pose doll,(If you don't know what a Japanese pose doll is,you can see some of mine HERE, HERE,and HERE,where you can also see Easter versions of the traditional knee hugger elf.)


The biggest doll here looks the most like a Japanese pose doll.


While the other two have stockingette faces with just stuffing behind them,this one has a pressed cloth face.




Her big blank blue eyes remind me of "Jessica" from the Rankin and Bass Christmas special "Santa Claus is Coming to Town."

Mistletoe girl is marked Napco,Hong Kong. Napco were famous makers of  ceramic nick nacks and salt and pepper shakers,etc.


That's it for today.See you again tomorrow.