Doll-A-Day 2023 #143: Barbie as That Girl

   Today's doll is one you may not be old enough to understand. She's Barbie as That Girl.

"What girl?", you may ask. And my answer would be, "That girl!" If you have ever  watched the TV show, "That Girl", you'll get the joke. Every show opened with someone referring to the show's main character as "That Girl", usually when she had just caused a disaster or done something stupid.

  The TV show "That Girl" ran for five seasons, from 1966 to 1971. It starred Marlo Thomas as Ann Marie, a small town girl who has come to New York City to try to make it as an actress. In those days Marlo Thomas was best known as the daughter of Danny Thomas, himself known for the TV series, "Make Room for Daddy"/"The Danny Thomas Show", and for being the founder of St. Jude's Children's Hospital. These days she's better known as the wife of TV host Phil Donahue.

  The doll has the usual Barbie head sculpt, not a special one to resemble Marlo Thomas. I don't think they did a bad job recreating her likeness though.

    The doll is dressed in a recreation of the outfit Ann Marie wears in the show's opening sequence, showing her traipsing around New York City being cute and personable. She has a huge hat, and a navy suit, consisting of a skirt and matching jacket.

She also has a little red purse, and a pair of white fishnet tights. And of course, whote gloves. Ann Marie was a well mannered lady, after all.

The shoes veer from the original a bit. Ann Marie wouldn't have worn such high heels, but they do have the ankle strap.

  Although the character of Ann Marie spent five years dating a stiff guy named Donald, as the show neared it's finish,  Marlo Thomas, who was one of the producers of the show, and who remained single until marrying Phil Donahue at the age of 42, decided to end the show with Ann Marie and Donald, only engaged, and not finish off with a big wedding. (Whew! That was a long sentence!)

  When we were kids, my sister used to pretend her Francie doll was Ann Marie, and Ken was Donald. When Francie wasn't busy being Ann Marie, she was Cher, to GI Joe's Sonny.

  Just as a note of interest for those old enough to remember Phil Donahue, when I was a kid, Phil Donahue was a reporter on one of our local TV stations. In elementary school there was a terrible car accident just down the road from my house, and Phil covered it on the local news. I watched it on TV and it was weird to see someone from TV standing in the yard of the kids who rode my school bus. Then Phil got all high falootin' and became a big TV star.

  This doll  and her box were perfect before our foyer flooded. Look at her now. The doll is probably good, but the box has seen better days. 

  That's it for today. See you tomorrow.

Doll-A-Day 2023 #142: Dora Dora Dora the Explorer(s)

    Today's doll is three: three versions of Dora the Explorer.

    The first is Dress Up Adventure Dora.

This doll was produced in 2003.  She's all vinyl, with jointing at the neck, shoulders, and hips. She has rooted hair, and removable clothes. There were six other outfits made for this doll too. They were sold separately. This doll came with a Backpack just her size, a dog, a hairbrush, and a book called, "My Special Adventure".

 

The hair barrettes are Dora's, but I'm not sure if they came with this doll, or one of the other outfits.

  She's 15 inches tall.

  She originally also had a bracelet.  

The next doll is Dora Knows Your Name, from 2004. 

She's supposedly rare. She's a pretty technical kid. Mattel describes her this way,  

  

"Dora Knows Your Name is a 12” cuddly plush character that incorporates your child’s name and favorite things into their friendly character phrases and songs. Plush comes with a USB cable, as well as a CD Rom for Mom to download the child’s name and favorite things into the doll. The plush also has an internal clock so that the content of what it says will change depending on the time of day (morning, noon and night). The character will sing several songs and tell stories that incorporate the personalized information downloaded into the plush."

  Sounds pretty cool. This girl doesn't have any of her stuff though, so who knows what she'd say if she had batteries in her!

  The final doll is Storybook Adventures Little Red Riding Hood Dora. 

She was made in 2005. She came with a hairbrush, but no basket of goodies for her Abuela. Gee Dora! 

  There were two other storybook Dora dolls produced, Rapunzel and Cinderella. They are 6 inches tall, vinyl dolls with removable clothing, painted on shoes and stockings, and the usual five points of articulation. 

  When Ivy was little she loved Dora. She was even Dora for Halloween one year. (This is before she specialized in being Vera Ellen for three years in a row.) Luckily I had saved Emma's old clothes to hand down to Ivy, because she had a hot pink t-shirt, a pair of orange shorts, and Ivy had a pair of yellow socks with fluted tops, and a pair of white tennis shoes. All she needed was brown hair and a Dora bracelet. The bracelet was easily obtained in a pack of birthday party favours. The wig was a little more difficult. I ended up making her a 'wig' from brown felt. It was the right shape at least, as Dora had that huge block of hair.

  Anyway, these dolls weren't Ivy's. They just ended up at our house in some Ebay stuff. They were rescued from The Room of Water, and are fine now. But they need to go away. Sorry Dora.

  That's today group of dolls. See you again tomorrow.

Doll-A-Day 2023 # 141: American Girl Wellie Wishers Camille

   Today's doll is one I found at a thrift store. She's Camille.

  Camille is an American Girls Wellie Wishers doll.

I have been wanting Wellie Wishers Willa, the red head. But you get what you can find if you're cheap.

As a Wellie Wisher she would probably have come wearing a pair of rubber boots, or 'wellies'. ('Wellies' is short for Wellington boots, named for Arthur Wellesley, the first Duke of Wellington. Apparently he wanted his boots to be a little shorter, so they would be better in warmer weather, and he could wear them with his evening clothes. So, he had his shoe maker make him a pair to his description, and the Wellington boot was born.

  Anyway, I got mine naked from the thrift store. She's instead wearing a dress that was on a Tiny Tears when I bought it. It didn't fit Tiny anyway.

  The Wellie Wishers debuted in 2016, for kids who were not old enough for the regular 18 inch American Girl dolls, but not toddlers anymore.  

  Wellie Wishers are 14 1/2 inches tall, and all vinyl.

Early Wellie Wishers had vinyl limbs and a hard plastic torso, and a raised 'W' logo. Later dolls, post 2021, were all vinyl with a sunken 'W' logo, so I think this doll is a later version, .

She has the standard articulation of neck, shoulders, and hips.

  Her blue eyes are inset plastic eyes.

She has a mark next to her eye that wouldn't come off with Magic Eraser,.

  She has painted on lashes, and brows that are individually painted hairs.

  

The best part about this doll, and the line in general,(besides those cute boots, which

I don't have), is the teeth. They all have two cute little front teeth.

  I think my girl has had a hair cut. Her hair would have originally been longer than this.

  That's today's doll. See you again tomorrow.

Doll-A-Day 2023 #140: Mystery Barbie, and My Wonderful Mother's Day Presents

   I do have a doll for you today, but first, I haven't told you about the great gifts I got for Mother's Day this year. To preference this, about two years ago Ken and I were out on Fun Day. We went to an antique mall, and I saw a really amazing tiny roll top desk in one of the glass display cases. It was just the right size for Tammy World, but it was a bit pricey. I mean, it wasn't over priced for how great it was. It was just more than I pay for stuff for myself. I kept my eye on it. Over the next two years we went to that antique mall a few times, and it was always there. It was almost covered with other stuff in the crowded case, so maybe people didn't really see it very well. For the last few months before  Mother's Day I had been thinking about it, and thinking, I should see if it's still there, and if it is, I should leave an offer for the dealer and see if they accept. Of course, once I decided to do that, I couldn't find it! We went first to the antique mall I thought it was in. Nope. Then we checked the other one in the same town, because if it wasn't in that first one, it must be in that one, right? Well it wasn't. I couldn't remember where the other antique mall we had been to several times was.

   Finally I remembered, and we found a day to go check. And there it was! I had never asked to actually see it out of the case before, because it was too expensive anyway. But this time I was going to check it over and make an offer. We got somebody from the mall to open the case. They were talking about how there was so much stuff in the case. I commented that the desk had been there for about two years. Suddenly someone next to the case piped up, "But I'm here today and I can mark it down for you!" What?! Yay! What were the chances she'd be there the day we were there?! She said she only comes once or twice a month because she lives in another state. She marked it down, but of course, Ken is a cheapo who tried to talk her down more. He said what if we bought more stuff? He asked me to see what else I wanted from the case. I didn't see anything I really wanted, but she had brought some new stuff. I looked in the box she had brought, and it was full of dollhouse stuff. I said, "Is this Renwal?" She said yes,and I asked, "Do you have the...you do!! The pedal trash can!" 

  That was the only other thing I found, but she still knocked off another $5 in the end. So I got my...I mean Tammy World's, roll top desk!

  The front really rolls up and down.

Tammy says yes, she is still wearing the Veggiesaurus shirt, but she did get some other pants, and new shoes. The pants are homemade and vintage. The shoes are from a Kelly Club Belinda clown outfit from 2000. It's the same one that Fuzzy the Doll stole the nose glasses from.

Look at all the little cubby spaces in it!

The front rolls down.

  Tammy still needs an appropriate sized chair to go with it.

For now a spool will have to do.

A better view of all the little storage spots in it.

It even has one of those slide out writing spots.

And all the drawers and  the door open.

I got the hankie too. I thought it would make a great bedspread.

The weird thing is, there is a piece down the back of the drawers that, when in position, keeps the drawers from opening. Unfortunately, it's in position when the desk is sitting flat. Shouldn't that be when you should be able to get the drawers open? You want them to not slide out when you're carrying the desk around or something. Anyway, Tammy and I love her desk!

  My other gift, from the kids, was, wait for it! A Nordic Sleep Foss Flakes Medium Low pillow!!! 

You might remember me raving about the pillow I slept on in Iceland, the only pillow other than my old feather one I had ever been really comfortable sleeping on. The kids pooled together and bought me one! My neck crick is no more! So comfy, and the fitting successor to my 50+ year old feather pillow. I told Ken I feel like I'm cheating on my old pillow though! We've been together since I was 11!

  Now for today's doll. She was in a case full of 70's and early 80's dolls that was brought from the house for me to check. They were all dry and fine. But I don't know who she is. I want to get rid of her, and knowing her name would help. She may not be wearing her own clothes. But if anybody recognizes her, please let me know who she is.

  

I don't generally like this Barbie face, but I think this girl is quite pretty.

 

 She has super long, very silky hair. It falls and moves like real hair.

The outfit is faux suede

It has big fake buttons on the front.

And a big collar.

As you can see, she had earrings at some point.

  From the looks of her, I'm guessing her to be about mid 1980's. Anybody?

  That's today's doll. See you tomorrow.