Today's doll is a doll from the first yard sale I went to that day. It was an amazing sale for vintage toys. I passed up a music box similar to the one I had as a kid for a quarter. (I should have bought it for that! You can see mine HERE. Theirs didn't come with a doll.) I did buy three Care Bears,a Popple,a somewhat worn Raggedy Ann from my childhood era,another couple of dolls I'll be showing you in the coming days,and this baby.
She's Tiny Tears.
 |
| She has a strange hairline. It looks like she's wearing a mask,but the hairline is just lower than her face level,in the same vinyl. The earlier dolls had woolly hair called caracurl. This isn't it. |
She was made by American Character.
Tiny Tears was first made in 1950 as a rubber baby with a hard plastic head. This girl is the version first made in 1958, made completely of vinyl. She's 13 inches tall.
This is her original dress and romper.
The romper is a wrap around arrangement. I'm not sure this would work on a real baby!
Here's what it should look like.
There was another romper that was similar.
 |
| 1959 |
The gimmick of Tiny Tears was that she could be fed a bottle of water and then squeezed around the belly, and she would cry through the giant tear ducks placed strangely on the sides of her nose. (And also pee.Mine doesn't seem to have,umm,the necessary arrangement for that.)
Her eyes look brown here, but they were green when I used the flash.
In 1959 Tiny Tears was given an interesting sleep eye feature. They were called 'rock-a-bye eyes'. When the doll was laid down, her eyes didn't close right away. They closed gradually. I read one description that said they would only close if the doll was rocked. In any case, they didn't automatically close when the doll went horizontal,like other sleep eyes. I think this girl must have those eyes,but not working correctly, because they don't even open all the way when she's sitting up.
She has dimples on her hands.
And dimpled baby feet.
That's today's doll. Don't forget to follow,and enter the Blogaversary giveaway,and check back tomorrow for another doll.
Linda bebê!! Muito bem conservada.
ReplyDeleteSim, ela parece apenas precisar de uma limpeza.
DeleteYeaaaa, a doll from my childhood! I had a Tiny Tears. She eventually rotted away from water consumption. I had fun playing with her.
ReplyDeleteIs this the one you had,or did you have the hard head one I posted today?
Delete"Tiny Tears was first made in 1950 as a rubber baby with a hard plastic head."
ReplyDeleteOUCH! How many little girls ended up with goose eggs from sleeping with their babies?? She's a cute doll and her malfunctioning eyes make her look like a baby fighting sleep.
What is the value of this doll?
ReplyDeleteThe value of any collectible is changeable. The best way to know is to check 'sold' listings and see what people are actually paying for them. Don't look at current listings, because people can ask anything they want. The only way to know is to look at what price they actually sold for.
DeleteI swear my TimyTears had brown eyes. Got her in 1960
ReplyDeleteIs this Tiny Tears for sale?
ReplyDeleteYes. Comment with your contact information, which I won't publish. I'll get in touch with you.
DeleteI was born in 1959 and I had a tiny tears doll, she was my best friend. And one day. I woke up and she was gone, and so were all my baby bottles. I cried and kept asking, my stay at home mother, where everything went, and she told me, " the Indians took them." AND IVE NEVER HAD A GOOD RELATIONSHIP with her my whole life
ReplyDeleteIt's hard when you lose trust in someone who is supposed to be the person you depend on. My mom was always throwing my toys away, and I was constantly rescuing them out of the trash. There was no lying or sneaking though. I knew she was going to throw things away randomly. When my pet rooster died, she told me the chicken hawk got him. Then in the Spring we went for a walk down the lane, and I saw him. He had died, and she had slung him over the fence. I can still see him in my mind. She told me years later when I was grown that the ground had been frozen, as he died in mid winter, and she couldn't dig a hole. I suppose she figured his body would be gone by Spring and I'd never see him. But she was raised on a farm in the 20's and 30's, and a chicken was just a chicken to them then. Things died, and they moved on. She didn't understand how heartbreaking it would be to me, I suppose.
DeleteI am so sorry. He was a little soul and you loved him. I feel your loss and pain.
ReplyDeleteThank you.
Delete