Doll-A-Day 59: Bend Leg Skooter in Original Box

Continuing with the monumental doll haul from one garage sale, we have bend leg Skooter.She was in her original box.

Her shirt is a bit more pink than these shirts usually look.(Compare it to the box.) They're supposed to be red with white dots,and the others I've seen have been red and white. There is supposed to be a rare orange with white dots. I don't know if mine is faded or rare!

Skipper's friend Skooter was introduced in 1965, as a straight leg doll.In 1966 she began to be produced as a bend leg doll. In both cases she came as a brunette, red head, or blonde.

The box tells you it's for a blonde.

 This blonde hair is a bit more perky than the straw like blonde hair she had previously been provided with!

Her original outfit was changed too, from a two piece bathing suit to a crop top and shorts.When I got her she was wearing her original outfit, including red hair ribbons.

She has a few hairs out of place, but I'm afraid to take her hair down. For one thing, I can't retie those tiny little ribbons!

She has her original box and stand.

I don't think the stand has ever been out of the box.

She had straight pins in her head to hold her hair ribbons in, so she has some greening above her left ear. Most of it is in her hair, so it doesn't show too badly. I took the pins out, so I hope it won't continue to spread.

Her original box is in very nice condition.

The box shows Skooter in various Skipper fashions, since she only had one gift set (of outfits you had to put together yourself) of her own. The outfit shown top right must be a miscoloured Chill Chasers, which actually only came in white faux fur.There isn't any other Skipper coat from this era that looks like that or comes with a beret.

This is a nice pink skinned Skooter. I love the pinker skinned Skippers and Skooters, although alot of the 'tan' skinned ones are nice too.

These days Mattel would have to add a disclaimer to the box, telling you that Skooter "Can't really float as pictured", because of course, people are that stupid... Also she can't point her toes like in the photo, which would be a more reasonable disclaimer.

Tomorrow we'll see another doll from this sale.

Doll-A-Day 58: Ken with Original Box

  Today we return to the Yard Sale Tale we started on Sunday. If you read Sunday's post you'll know I told the story of how I had gone to a garage sale and was met with a table full of vintage Barbie and friends dolls and clothes. On Sunday we saw the Chris doll I bought there. On Monday we saw the Francie. Today we're having a look at the Ken I bought there.

This guy has his original box. That's a rarity when you buy a doll at a garage sale.

The box shows some of the fashions available for Ken.

The box isn't too bad. The dolls were all pretty nice. Maybe this lady didn't play with her toys very much. Three of the dolls I bought from her were in their boxes.

Ken was just wearing his original striped beach jacket when I bought him. Today he's feeling a bit more modest. He's wearing the Dr. Ken smock from 1963, with a pair of black pants. (His white ones are in the wash. No, really.)

He's another of those blonde Ken dolls that I only ever saw in the catalogs. My sister and I both had crew cut Kens,but they were both brunettes.

  Tomorrow we'll see another doll from the same garage sale.

Doll-A-Day 57: A Doll of My Own Making: The Girl in the Art Deco Dress

  Somehow I screwed my days up again! It was the same day for about 4 days in a row---twice! I have now fixed the problem and gotten myself back on track.
  We're going to have to sidetrack from the dolls of the Yard Sale Tale,since the camera has gone AWOL. (Actually, it has gone with Ken and Emma to NOT be used at Ken's birthday present, a concert by Sting and Paul Simon.It will return late tonight.)To insure that I stick with my schedule of a doll every day, I'm resorting to something I already have pictures of: a doll I made myself.And here she is.

Her head is wooden.She even has tiny thumbs.

She's  just over 2" tall.

I don't know what's going on here. She's the right way up in my pictures, I swear.

She has a felt covered wire armature, so she is poseable.

Her knees and elbows bend too, just not in this picture!

Her shoes are painted on, but she has cotton socks.

I love the fabric of her dress. It's very art deco.

She even has matching undies. By the way, I made the chair too.

I don't have much of that fabric, just a scrap, so I can't make very many things with it. She's the only thing I've used it for so far.

Her sash ties in the back. She's wearing a lace slip.See, her knees do bend.

I sell these dolls under my business name, Tamsykens.(I wanted a name that sounded like something small. 'Tamsykens' is Ken's nick name for me, and it sounded small---maybe that's what Ken was thinking when he started calling me that. I'm only 5 feet tall.) 
Tomorrow we should be back on schedule with the Yard Sale Tale batch of dolls.

Doll-A-Day 56: George Harrison

Today we take a break from the Yard Sale Tale and celebrate what would have been George Harrison's 71st birthday with the George Harrison figure by Hamilton.

These dolls are approximately 10" tall. They're all pretty good likenesses.I've seen a lot worse.

They have a problem though, which you can see on George here.The legs sometimes turn red.

But I love the guitars and the drum set.

The bases all have the name of the appropriate Beatle on them.A stand screws into the base. George gets short changed, as usual: John and Paul's stands both have a hole for a microphone stand. George's doesn't.(Ok, he usually shared with Paul, but still. What if you just want to display your George doll? They were sold separately.)

George Harrison was born on this day in 1943. Earlier this month was the 50th anniversary of the Beatles' first performance on American TV, which means George was just short of 21 years old at the time.

 He was the first Western musician to use Indian instruments in a pop song,when he played a sitar on The Beatles' "Norwegian Wood". Although he is always looked upon as the lesser of the three song writing Beatles, (Ok, so Ringo wrote a couple.), George actually wrote the second most covered Beatles song. Something,(which Frank Sinatra called "The greatest love song of the past 50 years", and wrongly accredited to Lennon and McCartney!), has been covered at least 150 times. It's one of my favourites.

 Although John is generally regarded as being the funniest Beatle, I think George had the best sense of humour.He was genuinely funny himself,and was a big comedy fan. He loved Monty Python, even funding "Life of Brian" just because he wanted to see the movie, and so becoming a movie producer. George once said he would almost have preferred being in Monty Python to being in the Beatles.

Well, he almost made it. (Scene from Life of Brian, with Eric Idle, George,Michael Palin, and John Cleese.)

Well, thankfully he was in the Beatles. But just to prove what a sense of humour he had, how many people would appear in a parody of their life?

George as a reporter in the Beatles parody "All You Need is Cash", with Michael Palin.

 George died of cancer on November 29th, 2001. He left behind his wife Olivia, and his son Dhani. Dhani is also a musician, and apart from being George's son,is most famous, (Well, around here anyway.),for saying my daughter Emma had "lovely coloured hair".(No, really, he has actually put out a couple of albums with a couple different bands.)

You have to love a man with a Muppet on his head. 

See you again tomorrow for more of the latest Yard Sale Tale.

Doll-A-Day 55: Francie in It's A Date

This is the second doll from the garage sale I told you about in yesterday's post. This is a bend leg Francie.

There's always that one hair, isn't there? The problem is, I can't use the camera with my glasses on,(They're for close up work only.) and without them I can't see the hair!

I got the It's a Date dress and stockings at the same garage sale, so they actually belong to her.It's A Date is supposed to come with blue Francie shoes, but I don't have those. So Francie has borrowed Barbie's yellow bow shoes.

I thought it would be nice for her to wear the outfit she's owned so long. She was naked when I bought her.She was $7, and the dress and tights were $2.

She has some green around her ears, but her hair pretty much covers it.(Usually.) I can't afford a mint Francie, and would feel guilty if I kept one. (Actually, I might have one...)

She has all her eyelashes.

I washed and conditioned her hair, and the curl came back,for the most part.She still has quite a good flip to her hair.

Francie was supposed to be Barbie's 'MODern cousin', and was introduced in 1966, in straight leg and bend leg styles. In 1967 Mattel confused the public, (And angered some, I'm sure.) by introducing what was then called 'Colored Francie', and what is now referred to as 'Black  Francie'.(Some day she'll probably be "African American Francie', but I haven't heard anybody call her that yet, so I'm sticking with 'Black', and I hope I don't offend anybody.) A lot of people freaked out, and wondered how White Barbie had a Black cousin, ( I have Black cousins, and I'm whiter than white.),instead of just saying, 'Oh. Francie comes as a Black doll too.' Get over it people. Some day I'll tell you the story of how I got a Black Francie for a dollar, but that's another "Yard Sale Tale"...

My sister had a Francie when we were kids. When she outgrew her she gave her to me.She conveniently forgot that as the years went by. As I mentioned in my Doll-A-Day 20 post, at one point my sister asked me to sell Francie for her. I stood at a doll show and watched Francie leave in the hands of a stranger. I told the lady Francie's crazy history at the hands of my sister. She was amused.

It was painful watching Francie 'walk' away, and she wasn't even originally my doll. (Although I probably played with her as much or more than my sister had.I only had three 'store bought' Barbie and friends outfits when I was a kid. One of them was Francie's Satin Supper, which I remember buying with my own money. I thought it was so pretty.It must have gone with the stuff my sister gave away.) I can't imagine how the lady I bought this Francie from could watch all her childhood friends do a mass exit. I bought 7 Barbie and related dolls from her, (3 of them in their original boxes),and some clothes,for $67.
  Tomorrow we'll see another of that lady's childhood dolls.

Doll-A-Day 54: Tutti's Friend Chris,Plus A Yard Sale Tale, Wherein I Buy One Woman's Childhood...

  Today we start a week of posts on a bunch of Barbie and family dolls I bought at one garage sale. It's another...

  I have become  skeptical about people who advertise that they have 'Barbies' at their sales. When you get there they are always modern Barbies, usually naked or wearing icky homemade clothes,and they want too much for them. Well, not always. One Saturday, 2 or 3  years ago, I went out with my list, which contained a listing for a sale with 'Barbies'. I was in no hurry to get there. I had a church sale on my list, and with so many different people donating you never know what you'll find. (Found a Glamour Misty once.) Besides, these were probably new crappy Barbies anyway. When it was nearly noon I had been out for a while and still hadn't gone to the Barbie sale. I decided there was a sale I needed to go to and started to turn that way. Then I realized I was actually very close to the Barbie sale, so I figured I might as well go there first. I pulled in the driveway and got out. As I walked toward the garage door I saw a table in the garage lined with vintage Barbie and family dolls. I went directly to them, picked them up and started making a pile on the table of  the lady who ran the sale, who will, as usual, be known as TLWRTS. I don't remember all the individual prices, but I'll do my best. Here's what I got:
  crewcut Ken in his box
  straight leg Skipper w/original swim suit in her box
  bendleg Skooter with pink skin, with stand and original outfit and hair ribbons, in her box. These three were about $10 each.
  titian bubble cut Barbie  was a little more because, TLWRTS said, "she's old." (Lady, they're ALL "old"! This was a later bubble cut and was probably the same age as the Ken and not more than a couple of years older than the 'youngest' doll there.)
  Twist and turn Barbie with summer sand hair $7
  blonde Chris in her original outfit, no shoes for $2

  She's today's doll.  I bought her some shoes. I can't remember if she was wearing her green undies or if I bought them too. I know I outfitted a couple of Chris dolls with green undies.She's supposed to have two green hair ribbons and a green metal barrette. We'll see more of Chris after I finish my story.

  brunette bend leg Francie $7
  ziplock bag of Barbie Pak knit separates pieces about $2
  Skipper's Sunny Pastels dress and purse for $1
  Francie's It's a Date dress and stockings for $2
  And I passed up Skipper's White Bright n' Sparkling coat for 10 cents because I didn't know what it was. (This is why I needed that Skipper book.)
  I bought a couple of other very small things.In all my total was  $67. I had to go get $7 more  from Ken, leaving $7 Francie behind as collateral. Ken was at work and don't think he wasn't thrilled to find that I was spending $67. To allow myself to keep most of the dolls, I let go of most of the Pak knits, the bubblecut, and I think the Twist and Turn.Ok, so Skooter had had straight pins stuck in her head to hold her hair ribbons on  and had a little green. It doesn't show and I did take the pins out.. Francie has some pale green under the edges of her hair too, but she looks nice in her Its a Date. Chris was perfect, as was Ken, and Skipper was pretty nice too.These dolls belonged to TLWRTS as a kid. I pretty much bought out her childhood. And to prove my other point, at this same sale there were boat loads of modern Barbie furniture and accessories and TLWRTS wanted a fortune for them. I went to her sale the next year and she still had the modern stuff and still wanted a fortune for them.

 Chris is so perfect! No chews, all her bends, no hair cuts, no green.

 

Tutti's friend Chris was produced from 1967 to 1971 in the United States, and longer elsewhere. She came in blonde and brunette. These days most of the brunette's have oxidized to various shades of red or auburn.You've seen these girls before.

Unoxidized Chris on the left, oxidized Chris on the right.

She was the only Tutti size friend produced as specifically that. (You can count Buffy and the Pretty Pairs dolls, but they weren't actually marketed as Tutti friends, just that they could wear her clothes.) 

 

"Nice Kitty Kitty.Can I pick you up?"

"You're a good kitty. I'll sit here, ok?"

"Darned humans. I fall for that one every time!"

I definately do NOT own this set. I have the vinyl top and pants pictured second from right, but that's all. This set is REALLY expensive.

Her original dress has a 'Chris' tag inside.She even had her own gift set,the Chris Fun-Timers Set,and Tutti had a couple of houses and a couple of cases, and a combination case/picnic setting, (the patio picnic case), that also pictured Chris and used her name.

Thanks to my friend Connie I have both of these.

  If you think about it, it's kind of amazing that Mattel could keep milking their original character's success by creating all these spin off characters.Barbie begat Tutti,who then had to have a friend and begat Chris. It could have been never ending: Did Chris need a friend too? Or a brother? Now of course the doll companies produce a zillion characters, and also a zillion of the same doll.When I was a kid the Barbie universe was a lot smaller, and only one or two versions of each doll were produced at a time. Now there are countless versions of each doll put out. If you want different outfits for your doll, alot of the time you have to buy a whole new doll.No wonder kids don't seem to get as attached to their dolls as I did when I was a kid. They have so many! 
  Tomorrow we'll look at another doll from this garage sale 'family'.