Doll-A-Day 2023 #235: Patti

   Today's doll is Patti.

  Patti was produced in 1964. She was a Montgomery Ward exclusive, which accounts for her price. She was made by Ideal.

 

  Her bangs should be longer. This girl's are a bit worn. Patti has long, straight, dark hair, but their are supposedly a few rare blonde ones. This one is wearing a Pepper ballet outfit. Her original dress had a red skirt over a one piece playsuit that was white with red polka dots, with two pieces of red rick rack down the middle of the front of the bodice. I think she also had a red elastic headband.

  As you may have noticed, Patti is displayed here amongst Tammy family dolls. That's because she was Pepper's friend. 

Surrounded by Peppers.

   You can see that they are the same height, but Patti seems to have a larger head than Pepper. I'm pretty sure they share a body though, at least, the 1964 Pepper body, not the Posin Pepper that's next to her.

  There was also a rare Pepper and Patti doll case.  

  That's today' doll. Sorry about the bad pictures. The next post will be better, honestly! See you tomorrow.

Doll-A-Day 2023 #234" Hansel and Gretel

     I had planned to take a day off yesterday, because I have been working steadily for the last couple of weeks on Emma's bridal shower cake and gifts. I'll show those to you soon. But on to the post.

  Today's dolls are movie stars. They're Hansel and Gretel.

Gretel kind of looks like actress June Lockhart.

   The dolls are 15 inches tall. They have vinyl heads with sleep eyes, lashes, and rooted hair, and hard plastic bodies. They are jointed at the neck, shoulders and hips with 'pin joints', which are a type of hinged joint.

   These dolls of Hansel and his sister Gretel were made in 1954 by Horsman. They were sold as either  Montgomery Ward or Sears exclusives, I believe. The dolls  were made to look like the characters in the "Hansel and Gretel" movie released that year. 

The movie, made by RKO, was a musical, based on the opera by Engelbert Humperdink. (No. Not that Englebert Humperdink. The original composer, born in 1854.)  It was a stop motion film, using puppets called Kinemins. Advertsing for the movie called the Kinemins "lifelike little people" that "walk,..dance...sing...they almost breathe!" 

  This was before all the wonderful Rankin and Bass stop motion specials, like "Rudolph" and "Santa Claus is Coming to Town". In fact, "Hansel and Gretel" was the first American feature length animated film not using traditional animation, (In other words, cartoon type animation.) It was also the first American feature length animated film not made by Disney since 1941.

  RKO put a lot into pushing the film, since they were about to lose their distribution deal with Disney, who had already created their own distribution company, Buena Vista. Lots of movie tie ins were licensed, including Nabisco's Hansel and Gretel cookies, colouring books, (as seen above, with the dolls), puzzles by Jaymar, etc.

  The movie features detailed sets designed by Evalds Dajevskis for Myerberg Productions. Unfortunately they were only made of paper mache and applied paper cutouts, and after the movie's production they were sold to an amusement park, where they were put on display. I don't think they still exist. The daughter of the lady who sang the part of the Dew Drop Fairy says that she and her brothers were given the witch's house, and played with it until it fell apart. So that is definitely gone. The Kinemins themselves are also gone. The year after the film was released, the animation studio was broken into and looted, and the puppets were destroyed, apparently except for the witch at least, who was still around at least until 1999. 

  There's a good article on the film HERE.  You can watch a clip from the movie HERE.

  See you tomorrow for more dolls.

Doll-A-Day 2023 #233: Polish Victims Relief Fund Doll

   Today's doll, seen at the doll show the other day, is a Polish Victims Relief Fund doll.

I love her shoes!

  

 She is about 11 to 12 inches tall. 

Some of the Polish Relief Fund dolls were much larger. She has a stuffed cloth body, center stitched face, embroidered features, and yarn hair. All these features are typical of the Polish Relief Fund dolls. 

Sorry these are a bit out of focus. I still need to replace my lens...or my camera.

 The Polish Victims Relief Fund was set up after WWI to aid displaced Polish women and children after WWI.  Dolls were designed and handmade by artists who were Polish refugees in Paris, and sold to benefit Polish widows and orphans. Famed pianist, composer, Polish Prime Minister, and one of the signers of the Treaty of Versailles. Ignacy Jan Paderewski helped to promote the sale of the dolls.

His wife Madame Helena Paderewski oversaw production and sales of the dolls. They are commonly referred to as Madame Paderewski's dolls, even though she didn't actually make any of them herself.

  This doll would have originally had a medallion around her neck, identifying her as a Polish Relief Fund doll. This one appears to be without hers.

   That's today's doll. I took my day off today and relaxed. I even took a nap! Tomorrow it's back to work. Part of the day will be spent trying to find Ken a suit for the wedding. We spent all day searching yesterday, and nothing fit properly except a suit Ken complained about seeing the padded shoulders of in his peripheral vision! See you tomorrow.

Doll-A-Day 2023 #232: Kool Cuts Kara

   Today's doll is one I've posted a variation of before. She's Kool Cuts Kara.

She was made by Kenner in 1990.

This doll is way cuter than the other ones I posted, even though it's the same head sculpt.

  She's 13 inches tall, with molded and painted underwear and shoes.

Her gimmick was that her hair could be cut, and then replaced plug by plug, with hair plugs that were sold separately.

The removable plugs, (which I couldn't get out!) were a lot more visible on the other doll I posted, and I also showed a doll with the plugs removed. That Kara was the Caucasian version. That post can be seen HERE.

  You can watch the commercial for Kool Cuts Kara HERE.

  See you tomorrow.

Doll-A-Day 2023 #231: Posin' Cricket

    Today's doll is one I saw at the show on Saturday. I really liked her, but she was only being sold as part of a whole group of Ideal's Crissy and Family dolls and extras.

  I hadn't seen  her before, at east, not in person. I may have seen pictures. But in person she is quite cute. Her name is Posin' Cricket. The 'posin' aspect is her swivel waist.

She reminds me of somebody. I think it's a young Vickie Lawrence.

  Cricket was sold in 1971, thus the Jan Brady look of her dress. (It's actually the same style as the original Velvet dress. See the first picture, far left.)

  She was a Sears catalog exclusive, which may account for the fact that there aren't nearly as many of them around as the rest of the Crissy family. Crissy and Velvet are like weeds growing: They're everywhere. Mia was available in abundance at this same show.  I have even seen quite a few Harmonys in my life. But this is the first Cricket I've ever spotted.

  According to the site CrissyandBeth.com, there is a rare variation of Cricket with blue eyes, but that version will have darker red hair, more like Crissy's shade. Apparently the blue eyed doll is a variation, but an official one. She was supposedly sold in 1972, probably as part of a blue bridesmaid gift set. The blue bridesmaid was made to coordinate with the bride set that featured Ideal's Tressy, a large grow hair doll similar to the Crissy line. (Ideal had bought the rights to American Character's Tressy and Cricket dolls names and grow hair feature, although the American Character dolls were Barbie and Skipper sized.)  

  This week we'll see more dolls from the last two days of shows.

Doll-A-Day 2023 #230: Dolly Parton

   Here's a little preview of the doll show from today. It's a celebration of Dolly Parton. And why? Because it's aways a good time to celebrate Dolly Parton, because she's awesome.

As it says, she is a 12 inch posable doll.

  This Dolly Parton doll was made by Eegee/Goldberger, in 1978. It isn't nearly as pretty as the real thing.

Her outfit is pretty on point though, and typical of the kind of thing Dolly wore around that time.

She has Dolly's signature mole, but the hair isn't nearly big enough.

  In 1978 Dolly was seeing a new popularity, following her first million selling single, and her first pop chart top ten single, Here You Come Again", the previous year. She won a Grammy in 1978 for Best Female Country Vocal Performance for the album "Here You Come Again".

  There were other Dolly Parton dolls, made by Goldberger, and other companies. None of them are very good likenesses.

  That's today's doll. Tomorrow we'll look at another one.

Doll-A-Day 2023 #229; Cowgirl

   I know I keep telling you that I have been busy. Well I have. All will be revealed soon, but today was another busy day. I can tell you what I did today though. Today I made a very ugly cake, and mixed up the ...mix for the appetizer thingy, for Emma's  bridal shower, which is tomorrow evening. I know. That shouldn't take all day. Did I mention that I also did a load of laundry? Well, anyway, I'm dead tired,  and tomorrow I have to drive all the way to Cincinnati and back to a doll show, and then go to the bridal shower, and then go all the way to Cleveland for another doll show on Sunday. Well, I don't have to, but I want to! I am going to be very tired by Monday, when we have to do stuff at the house, and find Ken a suit for the wedding! Tuesday I am taking the day off. I am going to do nothing but ay around and watch YouTube all day. So sue me.

  But since I am so tired, and didn't have a chance to photograph anything today,, (I actually have three dolls photographed, but I am going to do them three days in a row next week.), I m giving you only one photo today, of a mystery doll. I saw her at an antique mall a while back. I don't know if what she is wearing even belongs to her, but it looks like it probably does. She looks like a lesser quality fashion doll, from maybe the 70's. Let me know if you recognize her. I know she looks vaguely familiar to me.

  I know it's only one picture, but that was the original idea for Doll-A-Day anyway! It just sort of spiraled out of control! Well, okay. Here's one more. Her tag said 'Barbie Cowgirl', because you know how all fashion dolls are 'Barbie' to most people the way tissues are Kleenex, and the refrigerator was always the 'Fridgidare' when I was a kid.

  And anyway, I'm going to two, count 'em, TWO doll shows in the next two days, so you'll be getting a glut of doll pictures soon.

  See you tomorrow.

Doll-A-Day 2023 #228: Horsman Baby

   Today's doll is a cute baby. I swear I knew her name at one point, but now I can't remember and I can't find anything about her online.

She's marked Horsman and 1975 on the back of her neck.

  She has a peach coloured cloth torso, and a side body tag that also proclaims her Horsman-ness.

She has a really cute face, and that dry, coarse Thumbelina type hair. In fact, she reminds me quite a lot of Ideal's Thumbelina. A big difference is that Thumbelina has squinchy, grey, painted eyes, and this girl has big, bluey green pinwheel eyes.

They're sleep eyes, and she has black brush lashes. She does have Thumbelina's 1930's style pencil brows.

She has the same colour body as Thumbelina too, or at least, very similar. Her hands are similar, but not the same.

Thumb could move when her back knob was cranked. This girl can't move, but she can cry. She has a cry box inside, and when she's moved she cries. She still works great.

  Her yellow dress has white and yellow lace on the bodice, and a yellow ribbon that has seen better days.

 

And there's a matching ribbon in even worse condition in her hair!.

  I didn't measure her, but she's about 15 to 18 inches long I think.

  That's it for today. I will be able to show you what I've been working on soon. Saturday is a doll show and Emma's bridal shower. And Sunday is ANOTHER doll show! I will be going to both shows. The first one is the mostly fashion doll show that I go to with my sister, and the second one is a show I quite like for it's variety and good deals. I'll take my camera to both so you can 'go along' with me. Tomorrow will be just one regular doll though. See you then.

Doll-A-Day 2023 #227: Specs Reads-a-lot

   Today's doll is a Lalaloopsy. She's Specs Reads-a-lot.

  She's a Lalaloopsy Littles doll, from 2011. She originally came with her pet bookworm. He was a bilious shade of green and reminds me of the green tomato worms that my mom used to pick off her tomatoes in the garden when I was a kid. She used to put them on a rock and then throw a rock at it and run, because they sort of exploded messily when smushed.  

 Specs gets her name from the fact that she wears 'specs', or, glasses.

She has the typical nerd's tape on her glasses.

She has her full outfit, of one piece short and shorts with suspenders, (or, braces for our British readers), and both shoes with attached socks.

She's jointed at the neck, shoulders and hips. She can sit, but not sit up by herself. 

Her shoes have 'R' for right, and 'L' for left. on the bottoms.

Specs is the little sister of Bea Spells-a-lot. They must have different dads though, because they have different last names. As with all Lalaoopsys, her description tells us what she was 'sewn from'. In her case, it was 'pieces of a school uniform'.

 

  Specs was the first Lalaoopsy Littles with coloured eyes, and is one of only two with blue eyes. She's also the first Littles with a hair accessory, and one of only two with glasses. She's supposed to be a toddler, but a genius and a devoted student. Huh?

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

Doll-A-Day 2023 #226: Lissi Baby

   Today we're looking at this little kid.

She's about 15 inches tall, with a cloth body and vinyl head and limbs. That's about all I know about her, except that she's a Lissi doll, made in China.

She has short, thick blonde hair, and oddly purple eyes. I'm not sure they started life that way.

That's one thick head of hair for a baby.

She suffered no damage from fire or water, (or earth or air either, if we're speaking elementarily...) and she is anybody's for the price of shipping. I need to get rid of stuff, and I can't be bothered to try to sell everything. It's going to have to go one way or another, as we need things gone so we can redo and repair. If you want her, leave a comment with your contact information.

  That's all for today. Sorry it was so short, but I was busy with some projects I can't talk about just yet. I'll let you in on them later though. See you tomorrow.