Friday, August 21, 2026

Another Doll Show and Guest Star Barb the Evil Genius

   This past weekend was the doll show in Strongsville. Strongsville is near Cleveland, and we all know who lives in Cleveland, right boys and girls? It's Barb the Evil Genius, of My Little Doll Corner



Barb, Tammy World, and me. Gotta stop taking pictures. I got two pieces of mail this week reminding me that I'm going to be 65 soon. Don't keep reminding me of that! 

  I met up with Barb at the show. Barb's husband, Mr. BTEG, was kind enough to put together a nice computer for me! Since this one has been turning to crap lately, I very much appreciate that! Thanks to Barb and hubby for the new computer. Now to just get somebody to help me put all my stuff on it. 

  The show is fairly big. I'm not sure there weren't a few less dealers this time though. I know my neighbour, China Cupboard Bears wasn't there this time. There were still loads of beautiful and interesting dolls though. Let's have a look.


The lady in the foreground had a nice dress, as you can see below.


  I liked this R&B Nancy Lee, but she was $425! Also, I tried, (Successfully!), not to buy anything big. I didn't even buy anything big when I found TWO 18" compo Shirley Temple dolls for $20 each. And they both had their original wig, in good condition. That's something I would have jumped on before.
 
  This is an Effanbee Whistling Jim. I think he's called that because of his mouth. I don't think he actually made any sound.

  I think these are all Deanna Durbin dolls.

  I liked this girl, and her clothes.

  Deanna Durbin again?

   $20 beauties.






  This one looks like she's going somewhere. I think she might be trying to escape the paparazzi.

  This was a beautiful German celluloid baby. Her colouring was so bright and new looking.

  As you can see, she was next to a Shirley. Two in fact.  

  These gorgeous kids look like Lenci dolls, but were labeled Nora Wellings.

  
They were next to these ladies, the one admiring herself in the mirror, and the other one who looks like she's condescendingly saying to the mirror girl, "Yes dear, you have put on a few pounds."




You know I have a soft spot for Raggedy Ann and Andy. These two are from the 1940's.

  This big girl is a Gotz doll. She was very nice, and only $25. There were some good prices at this show. And also some crazy ones.

  This weirdy was from Katherine's Collection. Katherine, what's the matter with you? Actually, I couldn't decide if I liked him or not.

  A whole shelf full of Ginnys,

  This guy had a jointed leather body, and a face that looks like he's seen some stuff.








  Some heavy duty make up on that little girl. 




  One table had three Dianna Effner dolls I've always admired from afar, but never seen in person.

  A Lil Dreamers...



...a Boneka...
                                                                             
              ...and a Heartstrings doll. I knew they were 8 inches tall, but she seemed so tiny.                                      


  I spotted this Baps doll. Pretty, but expensive. The dealer said she was Bo Peep, but she has a rake, and her tag says Mary Mary, Quite Contrary.

  Drowsy was one doll I always wanted as a kid, as you might know from reading the blog. It was cool to see this one in the box.


  She was next to a Dear One doll, a competitor to Baby Dear, but not as ugly!
                                                                                                                                         



  There were some real Lenci dolls too.

  This little girl with two teeth was cute.


 Baby Go Bye Bye has one of those classic Mattel Martha Armstrong Hand faces.  



  Betty's Beauty Parlor was made by Deluxe Reading in 1964.

  This was a pretty lady.

  These two were very unique hand carved wooden marionettes from Germany.


  This little Shirley or Shirley Temple type doll, was made in Japan. She was about  8 inches tall.  I'd never seen this one before.




  This Connie Lowe Steampunk Hazel doll was cute.


  These dolls were very unusual. They had wooden heads and chest plates, and wooden feet on some, but their bodied were some sort of thick straw type stuff.

  The puppet and the bunny were great. The Golly was cute. Ken still sees them as they were to him when he was a kid in England, just non human characters on Robinson's jam. I suppose if you think of them that way they aren't so bad. The dealer pointed out that in the original books, the Golly was just a playful scamp, and nothing bad. That's not the problem. 


  These felt dolls were made by an artist named Erica Daley.


  This little lady looks like a regular German doll house doll, but she's bigger, about 6 -8 inches.



This is Little Mister Bad Boy. He doesn't look like such a bad boy, does he? I found this description of these dolls online:  "a 1960s promo by the Bad Boy appliances and furniture stores, found across Canada - their slogan: Who's better than Bad Boy? Noooooobody!. The doll is made by Earle Pullan from hard plastic."


  Mr. Magoo was shadowing Snow White and the 7 Dwarves. ( I was taught that words ending in F, like dwarf, were supposed to be changed to end in the V sound when made plural. Like 'leaf' to 'leaves'.  What ever happened to that?


 Uneeda's Blabby is a crabby looking thing.


  This was a really pretty doll and dress. The colouring was wonderful.



  Aw. Isn't she cute? She's by Effanbee.

  This guy looked like he was trying to reach for something.

  I came across this big Betsy McCall.

  This doll in her original box looked brand new.  She's really a doll from the 60's named Celeste, and is a 'Portrait Doll'. I'm pretty sure this is the same head Horseman used for Mary Poppins.

  One dealer had this Triki Miki case. You mgith have seen my post on Triki Miki/Little Miss Dollikin. She was an articulated doll from the late 60's to the early 70's, about the size of a Dawn doll.


  I like the doll in green.


  There was a beautiful Dollikin right below her.


  An interesting bunch of older dolls.


  Okay, the girl on the right is Deanna Durbin again. But is the one on the back Jane Withers? Jane Withers was a popular child star in the 30's, a little older than Shirley Temple. She co-starred with Shirley in the movie "Bright Eyes", (The movie "The Good Ship Lollipop" comes from.), as the mean daughter of the family who take Shirley in after her mother is hit by a car, (On the way from picking up the cake for Shirley's birthday party no less!).  In one scene Christmas is being discussed, since it's near, and Jane Withers says, "I want a machine gun!" It was hilarious. Little Shirley was supposed to be the sweet one, so Jane Withers wanted a machine gun. In real life, Shirley was obsessed with the G-Men,(a G-Man being short for Government Man, especially the FBI agents), and wanted to be one when she grew up. J Edgar Hoover, the head of the FBI at the time, made Shirley and 'honorary G-Man.' 








  I think the creepy gnome put the whammy on that poor  soldier.


  This poor lady has a receding hairline.




  The one in the straw hat!











  This one has some attitude.










  This one is doing her big number, apparently. 




  I don't think I had ever seen the smaller version of the Daisy Kingdom doll before. Ivy has the 18 inch

one, and I have a tiny one. This one is in between, at around 10 or 12 inches tall.



  Well, that was it for the show. Did I buy anything? Well, even though I was very good, I did buy a few things. But they were so tiny I could fit everything in a pocket...albeit a vary big pocket. Like, Captain Kangeroo size. Stay tuned. The next post we'll have a look at what I bought. 

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm