Doll-A-Day 2017 #235: Dusty

  Well,today I was going to show you another doll known for her suntan. Unfortunately I couldn't find that version in my stuff! So instead I'm showing you the less tanned, less cute,less fun version.She's Dusty.

Dusty was made by Kenner.

She has a cute little open mouth smile.

She was introduced in 1974.

Dusty had a shag haircut which seemed to vary in length form doll to doll. This one is particularly long.

Original Dusty has freckles,a twist waist,click bend knees, and,like the Tuesday Taylor and boyfriend Eric dolls we've seen the last couple of days, jointed elbows covered with vinyl 'skin', and jointed wrists. She also has hands in a gripping position, a spring action arm and waist, so she can play golf and tennis.

Nothing like a little barefoot golf...on cement.

The Dusty I'm showing you today was available in a trade-in promotion at one point for $1.99.

Any doll could be sent in as trade.Trade-in Dusty has click bend knees,a twist waist, no freckles,straight arms, and pinker lips than standard Dusty.

I had to hold her bangs down!

Most regular Dustys have whitish lips.

Dusty was promoted as a a sporty girl who was sold with several different activities, like golf,tennis,baseball,and skiing.

This is original Dusty, with all the joints and gripping hands. And those freckles!

There was a line of fashions for Dusty.

That was a good thing, since Dusty was a husky girl who couldn't share clothes with most other dolls. She has a bigger body than Barbie,and way bigger feet.

Also,she has flat feet instead of high heel feet like Barbie,Tuesday Taylor, and the somewhat-larger-than-Barbie,Cher.

Since the only actual Dusty clothes I have are a couple of pairs of shorts and a halter top,all of which have been ruined because Dusty is notorious for melting to her clothes,and even her own joints, I had to settle for putting her in clothes of the right era that look like she might have worn them.

I don;t know who these clothes belong to, but below she's wearing a Montgomery Wards dress made for Kenner's Bionic Woman doll.

 

Dusty had her own horse, named Nugget.

And let's not forget the Bubblin' Bath 'N Shower. (Can you believe they pictured a naked Skye in the tub?!) There was also a Gymnastics Set and a Volleyball Sports Set.

Dusty had a friend named Skye. Skye looked exactly like Dusty,except she was African American and had a smaller head. Her neck seems unusually long too,but she's really cute. I found one at a yard sale once, but had to let her go to help finance bills and Christmas presents one year. UPDATE: I thought I had let her go, but I found her! You can see Skye's post HERE.
There was supposed to be another friend named Cliff.

I think Dusty and Cliff are a little uncertain about their relationship. They go on 
 'movie dates', but the poor guy is only described as her 'friend'. Dusty! Don't leave Cliff hanging!

There seems to be some doubt that Cliff was even made. Nobody seems to be able to find him.There were even fashions advertised for Cliff, but he seems to have never materialized.

You can watch the commercial for Dusty and Skye and some of their accessories  HERE.

Here I am trying to hold those bangs down again!

There was a British Airways Dusty available.

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There were also extra various international costumes.

A lot of people think Dusty is ugly, but I think she's cute.

There are actually some Dusty dolls that are prettier than others. The one I can't find is the cutest Dusty I have ever seen.It's a shame she is hiding at the moment! The reason she's misplaced is the same reason those original Dusty clothes are ruined: Dusty has a problem. As I mentioned yesterday,Dusty dolls have a tendency to melt! Wherever the soft vinyl of the body meets the harder plastic of the head and limbs, there is a reaction that causes the plastic to melt. For those of you afraid of naked plastic:Look away!

Where her hard plastic butt touches her rubber legs:Melting! But note her twist waist. Both halves are plastic,and no melting.

Where her arm meets her body...

...where her head meets her neck,her arms meet her shoulder, and where her legs meet her hips: all melted.

Look at that mess!

You may have seen this occurrence when taking old toys out of storage. Hard plastic toys stored with soft rubber toys will seem to have melted and the two may have stuck together. If you stored the toys in a hot attic you may have assumed that the heat from the attic melted them. But you could have stored them in air conditioned comfort and had the same thing happen. It's because of a chemical reaction between the two materials. The plasticizer in the softer material,(The stuff that makes it flexible.),attacks the harder plastic,dissolving it. I read this somewhere ages ago, and now make sure that my old toys I have stored are segregated into two categories:soft or rubbery, and hard or brittle plastic. I make sure they don't touch!

Dusty has been misplaced because I had to put her somewhere she wasn't touching anything she could damage because, inevitably,she's going to melt and make a mess on whatever she's laying on. Likewise her clothes. The girl in this post was wearing a pair of white shorts last night. They were covered with what looked like ugly dirty grease stains wherever the body had melted. I couldn't even get them off her without ripping them because they were stuck in the melted plastic. That's why I don't store Dusty with clothes on. Just a warning to anybody who has, or thinks they might want a Dusty doll.

But let's end with a nice picture of Dusty, and not think about her melted parts!

See you tomorrow for another doll!