Doll-A-Day 2023 #68: Little Laurie

eala    Today's doll is another I got at the recent doll show. I'm pretty sure her name is Little Laurie.

She's a Penny Brite clone, as if that weren't obvious. She has the same face as Penny, and, like Penny, is 8 inches tall. Pennt was made by Topper/Deluxe Reading from 1963 to 1970. Little Laurie was made by Amsco, in 1969, right at the tail end of Penny Brite's run.

She's marked 'Made in Hong Kong' on her back.

One major difference between Laurie and Penny is the hair. Laurie has dark hair. Penny was always a medium blonde.

And she has cute ponytails, tied with what I'm pretty sure are her original white hair ribbons. 

Penny has sort of a bouffant bob.

Laurie has brown eyes! Penny's eyes are black, or sometimes a dark blueish grey. 

She also has the same molded, painted teeth as Penny.

Don't you hate it when you get lipstick on your teeth?

  Laurie has side glancing eyes, like Penny, but hers glance the opposite way. Penny looks to the right, and Laurie looks to the left. So if they were stood side by side, they could look at each other. (Or ignore each other, depending who was on which side!)

The weird thing about Little Laurie is, she came in a set that included furniture and accessories that were also direct copies of Penny Brite's.

Laurie's...

...and Penny's. It certainly was a lot easier to get away with ripping things off back then.

Laurie came wearing white hair ribbons, a green smocky sort of shirt with appliques and shoulder ties,  bloomer type shorts with elastic around the bottoms of the legs, and white shoes. (You can see her original outfit on the boxed set above.)  She was wearing a real Penny dress when I got her, so I changed her into this dress. I'm not sure if it's home made or factory. I would guess factory made.

It fits her perfectly. The dress was in the case with the dolls I think. I have had so much stuff pass through here lately, and I have been washing and reorganizing stuff. I'm losing track of where stuff came from. Did I already have that? Did I get that in that stuff I got recently? Some of the stuff I have looked over and dealt with so many times that I know for sure. But some of the stuff has been boxed up for a while, and I don't remember it.  

   As you can see from the picture above, Little Laurie is made of a much cheaper plastic than Penny's heavy vinyl. Her arms and legs don't bend like Penny's either.  Her fingers are more rough than Penny's.

 Her legs have snaggy flashing and her feet aren't quite foot shaped. You can really notice it in the full length picture above. Her feet are really stumpy.

But, like Penny, her head is on a ball joint, allowing it to be posed in cute, tilted positions, or looking a bit up or down.

She was in a vintage metal doll case with a real Penny Brite, the original Penny Brite plastic case, and some clothes, both generic, and real Penny Brite ones. I asked how much Laurie was, and was told the whole case full of stuff was $10! I'll take it! I certainly don't need another Penny Brite, but my mom threw away my Penny case, and there were a couple of pieces of Penny clothing I didn't have yet, and a really nice version of 'Flower Girl'. So I'll be getting rid of the vintage metal case, and the odd clothes. I was going to get rid of the Penny too, but darn it! None of these Penny's are the same! I'll show you this one, along with her case soon, and you can see for yourself.  

  There were other Penny Brite clones, most notably New Zealand made Little Tuppence, (sold in New Zealand, Australia, and some parts of Europe), and in fact, Little Tuppence had a friend named Posing Penny, who looks very much like Little Laurie. Posing Penny also had dark hair, in two ponytails. But it's easy to tell Little Laurie and Posing Penny apart. Posing Penny has blue side glance eyes, that look the same direction s Penny Brite and Little Tuppence. (So, alas, Tuppence and her friend Penny can never look at each other.) Posing Penny could also, do I have to say it? Pose. She had the same bendy arms and legs as Penny Brite and Little Tuppence. The palms of her hands face the back, as opposed to Penny's and Little Laurie's, which are side facing. 

  You can see my other Penny Brite dolls HERE, and HERE. You can see my other Penny clones HERE and HERE.

  That's the doll for today. Cute kid, isn't she? Tomorrow we'll look at another doll.