Doll-A-Day 2023 #61: Squishies Witch

   Yesterday we saw some Hansel and Gretel dolls. Today we're sort of stuck on a theme I guess, as we're looking at the other side of the story: a witch. This is one of those things I saw as a kid, and wanted really badly, and never forgot. (Or got.)

  This witch is one I saw as a kid, in 1971, in a J.C. Penney store I think. My mom was doing something at one of the counters, and sitting on the ledge were a couple of, what I have learned since, were called 'Squishies'. 

I have no recollection of the other one, (He was a pale, bald, ugly guy named Oddbod.), but I remember the witch quite clearly. She was about 6 inches tall. I did a little playing around with her while Mom did her business with the clerk. I wanted that witch so badly! (Mom said no, and I never saw the witch again. The Squishies witch, that is. Not Mom!) She was wonderful! She had a weird and unique look, she felt good in my hands, and she had a cool feature. She was stretchy! She was sort of an early version of the Stretch Armstrong idea. But, while Stretch was filled with corn syrup, the Mattel Squishies were filled with wax. The wax inside their rubber outside made them able to be stretched and mangled, and yet, they always returned to their original shape.

The wax made messes too, I guess. And worse than Stretch's corn syrup, it stained things.

Energine contained naphtha, and was highly flammable. It is no longer sold.

'Filled with harmless wax'. But if it leaks, clean it up with that toxic flammable stuff.

I've wanted to talk about this toy for ages, but since I never got one, I had no pictures. I spotted this one on Ebay a couple of days ago, looking for a birthday present for myself. (my birthday is Friday.) The auction had some great, clear photos, and she has her tag! So I asked the seller if they would mind contributing the photos for this post. They kindly obliged, and here she is! Thanks to the seller, perrystoyexchange for providing the pictures for this post. Here's a link to the listing, if anybody has a hankering for this lady: Squishies Witch. I would love to have her, but she's out of my price range. And let's look at her some more.

She's nothing but head and feet...and hat. Mostly hat.

Okay. And nose.

Is it bad that this picture made me think of Jamie Farr?

Of course, there's a pretty good concentration of mouth on this witch too.

I found this page selling what seems to be an original brass mold for the Squishies witch. I thought it was pretty interesting to see, since these things are barely even remembered these days.

  So that's it. This is one of those toys that got away, something wonderful I saw as a kid and never saw again, but still long for. Tomorrow we'll see something I actually have on hand. Thanks again to Perrys Toy Exchange for the photos.