Thursday, July 31, 2014

Doll-A-Day 195: La Dee Da Cotton Candy Crush Tylie

  Today's doll is La Dee Da Tylie.

This particular Tylie is from the Sweet Party line and is Cotton Candy Crush.


I have looked at the La Dee Da dolls in stores. They're sort of nice, but I didn't like them enough to pay store prices for them. I thought I might get one if I found it marked down enough or even at a thrift store or yard sale.

I have seen some really nice repaints too, which I might like to try doing if I had a cheap La Dee Da.

This one I found at a garage sale last week for a quarter. She has her original dress and shoes and, of her main accessories, she's only missing her hair ornament, a cotton candy.

She did come with a few other things, which really don't interest me much, so I'm good with it.

So while I might like to do a repaint, she's too complete to mess with, I think.

My first choice of a La Dee Da doll might have been a red head, or one of the dolls with the REALLY red, (Like fire engine red.) hair.

Or even this one, Cyanne as Peppermint Pose, also from the Sweet Party line.
  But this one is nice. I like her fluffy dress.


This La Dee Dad has arms that go out to the sides as well as up and down, and jointed knees.

She can't stand up on her own because her head is so heavy and her spindly legs collapse on her.

So while this looks really good, here's what was really going on:

La Dee Da dolls are made by Spin Master, which brought us the fantastically poseable Liv dolls.La Dee Da dolls are based on the idea that 'Dee' and her friends started a fashion line called 'La Dee Da'.

I was planning on taking these pictures this afternoon, when Emma arrived suddenly to borrow the camera, on her way to see Aretha Franklin at the Ohio State Fair. So I had to take them quickly: like, in a couple of minutes!


They turned out pretty well, for being done so quickly.
Tomorrow I'll tell you what happened yesterday. It turned out to be my very lucky day.

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Doll-A-Day 194: Ratti Tjorven Doll

  A while back I showed a Ratti doll with a wicked grin.(Doll-A-Day 9, 9 January, 2014) I was told by one of our readers that she is a Tjorven doll, popular in Denmark and Norway in the 60's. Today's doll is her white-blonde cousin.

Here's what our reader said:  "This doll was very popular in Norway in 1960-1970. We really loved her.
Her Norwegian(and Scandinavian) name is Tjorven.She cames in light, dark and brown haircolors (and some other nuances), both long(most common) or short hair. And with orange pigtailes(Pippi). She is very popular among collektors in Norway and Denmark today."


I'm not sure if these dolls in the ethnic costumes are Tjorven dolls.For one thing, I don't know if Tjorven was the name of the character. Maybe it was, and the character appeared in different costumes. Maybe it's a different doll and just used the same molds. Maybe our reader Alice will give us some more information. Alice? 
I was stunned to find this girl at Salvation Army at the beginning of summer.

Especially since she's in her complete original outfit, complete with paper tag on the back...

...and her original price tag!

She has her bloomers, socks, and shoes.
There's even detail on her dress, under that lace shawl.




Her hat is stuffed with cotton to keep it's shape.

Her hair is a white-blonde.Her blue sleep eyes still have all their lashes.
Now that's a ton of freckles!
She has that same crazy grin as the other girl I showed, but her teeth are painted differently.

I think I like this doll's face better than my brunette's, but I prefer the other girl's hair and dress.

See you tomorrow for another doll.

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Doll-A-Day 193: American Character Sweet Sue or Madame Alexander Mary Ellen 30" Walker Doll

  Today's doll is another Salvation Army mark down. Here's what she looked like when I brought her home.

She went from her original Salvation Army price of $49.99, through several mark downs, all the way to $4.99! That's when I snapped her up.

 She has no markings of any kind, but from my research she's either a Madame Alexander Mary Ellen walker, (At least some of them were unmarked.), or an American Character Sweet Sue walker. Mary Ellen dolls are apparently often mistaken for Sweet Sue. If anybody knows for sure how to tell who she is, please let me know.
She has a beautiful face, but she needs her lips recoloured, and her blush repaired.
And I love her poseability!

Mary Ellen was made only in 1955.Sweet Sue came in different sizes, and with a hard plastic head or soft rubber head.

This girl is about 30" tall. It was kind of hard to measure her because she kept wanting to sit down. She's strung, with elbow and knee joints.



She even has little pointy elbows.

She has some damage, including her right knee won't hold a straight position, making her unable to stand without support.There's a big crack just below the knee joint, in the back of the leg. She is a walker, but her bad knee keeps her from being able to walk more than a few steps when led by her hands.Then her knee just bends, and she often squats suddenly!
She looks vaguely like she's thrown her hip out of joint, but it's because her right leg wants to bend at the knee.
She has medium blue sleep eyes. Her head and arms are soft rubber, but her legs and torso are hard plastic.
She has a beautiful full head of rooted brown hair.

She had a few ringlets left in the back when I got her, but when I combed her hair to tidy it up a bit, I combed them out. I suppose they can be brought back if I were any good at curling hair, which I'm not.
As you can see, the hostas are blooming.

 See you tomorrow for another doll.

Monday, July 28, 2014

Doll-A-Day 192:Beto Lily by Lily Ledy,formerly Just Slightly Scary Blonde Boy

  UPDATE:Thanks to a reader I now know that this doll is Beto Lily,made by the Lily Ledy company in Mexico. A listing from Ebay described him as 'Ultra Rare',but that could be their opinion and not fact.

Here's what he would have looked like in box. They came in different outfits though.

  Today is another doll that got a pretty good mark down at Salvation Army. I really couldn't, (and still can't!) decide if I like him or not. I figured I'd get him and if he continues to give me that slight creeped out feeling, I can always sell him!




He started out at $15.99, but he was marked down to $4.99. That's better, considering I'm not sure I like him.

I liked that he's a boy, because boy dolls are so few and far between. But then I began to wonder if he started out as a boy. He could just be a creepy girl with a hair cut.


He has freckles and pale blue eyes. I think it's the fact that they are so pale that makes him look so creepy.


He can be cute though.




Or somewhat menacing.


He's about 24" tall. He's wearing real baby clothes.



When I was buying him a customer at the register, and the clerk, both said he looked like Chucky from the Child's Play movies. Eww!




I wish I could identify a maker on him. The only mark was this one, on the back of his head.

Now I know it says Ledy.

His legs and body are a hollow plastic that's different from his arms and head.


His head is made of a strange vinyl that's doing something weird in places,like on and  behind his ear.


He also has these weird areas that look like they should do something, but they are just strange molded in places.

And no, it doesn't push in or do anything.

??????

  So now I know who he is. I'm still not sure what I think about him though.



 Tomorrow I'll show you another Salvation Army rescue.