Saturday, September 30, 2023

Doll-A-Day 2023 #262: Plastic Baby Doll

   Today's doll belongs to my sister. He's a simple plastic baby doll.




  You can see where he used to have a bottle on his chest, that disappeared many decades ago. It was a 'magic bottle':  a clear plastic bottle with white sand in it, that disappeared when the baby was laid down.

  My sister was born in 1956, so he is most certainly from the late 50's. He's about 8 or 9 inches tall. The poor kid has a melt mark on his leg, as you can see. This old plastic does that, often from being in contact with another plastic it reacts to.


He has a marking on his back, but I can't read it. I do know that he was made by Irwin though. He's wearing a molded and painted diaper, but the paint is mostly worn off on the back, so it looks like he just has a weirdly lumpy butt.

  That's today's doll. Sorry it's short, but I am still doing wedding clear up duty, and trying to go through the pictures I took. See you tomorrow, when I will almost certainly photograph something to post, because Ken got my camera working again.

Friday, September 29, 2023

Doll-A-Day 2023 #261: Oily Jiggler Dog

Well today I tried to photograph a doll from the recent doll shows, and my camera wouldn't come on! I had put a just charged battery in it, so it should have worked, but it didn't. So, I have to resort to some pictures I had on the computer. This is a childhood toy of mine, that I came across at the house recently. He's lucky he survived really, because the box he was in was on the landing, where so many things melted during the fire. He's what is known as an 'oily jiggler'.


  And why is he called that? He's made of a very floppy rubber, and has sort of a sheen to him.


I can't quite make out the letters on his butt, but he does say 1967, which sounds about right. A lot of the oily jigglers were made by Russ Berrie.



  I have him because when I was about 5, (which would be 1967), my sister brought home a green one just like him, only slightly larger. (My guy is about 6 inches long.) He belonged to a friend of hers. The friend had decided that he had died, and my sister was to sew him a black velvet funeral suit to be buried in. This bothered me to no end. I found it very distressing. I begged my sister not to let the friend bury him.  For one thing, I had fallen in love. I wanted that dog so much! Also, the thought of the poor guy going under ground forever really upset me. I had to rescue him! Also, my sister told me to shut up, and made the funeral suit. I still have a tiny stuffed cat she made out of the leftover velvet. 



  How she got a velvet suit on a sticky rubber dog with floppy limbs, I don't remember. I'm sure it wasn't easy. And so she took him back to school, and, I assume, to his sad fate. I loved him so much that I searched for one of my own. I couldn't find a green one, as I recall, and bought this orange one instead. 
  He's a bit worse for wear these days. As you might have noticed, I had to staple his ear back together. That's his fault, for being so pleasurable to bite. I think his tail suffered the same fate, except I lost the loose piece.
  The cigar box he's laying on has a story. It was my Monkees box, in which I kept all my Monkees articles and pictures, bubble gum cards, and the fake autographed picture my sister and I sent away for from a magazine. My sister decorated it for me with coloured construction paper, and put a huge thumbtack in the lid so it could be more easily opened. Sadly, at some point after I was grown, and it was stored in Mom's attic, she threw away the contents! This was especially disappointing for Emma when she was a kid, and became a big Monkees fan. 
  Also in the box with the Monkees box and the oily jiggler dog was a little jewelry box with these guys in it.


  The rats are Rat Finks. They were quite a thing in those days. These came from a bubble gum machine, and snapped onto a plastic ring, for wearing. The babies are very tiny, especially the orange one. He had a cradle the same colour as him, but it got lost. The red thing on the left is the magnetic bee, (missing the magnet out of the bottom), from a Tickle Bee game. You used a stylus with a magnet in it to drag the bee around a track. Ours had a chicken coop and other things you lulled him through, but I think there were different ones. The red thing between the two top Rat Finks is the jewel from a Haunted House game by Ideal. I don't remember ever playing it as a game, but instead of a board, the game had a three dimensional  haunted house. I just liked to play with the house. The jewel is all I have left. Mom threw the house away. Funny the bits I have from the Tickle Bee game and the Haunted House game are the tiniest pieces.

  Anyway, that's the 'doll' for today. Wedding details coming soon! See you tomorrow.

Wednesday, September 27, 2023

Doll-A-Day 2023 #260: Custom Black Panther

   Today's doll is sort of a one of a kind. He's Black Panther.


  I put this Black Panther together for my sister. He's a 12 inch figure. 

  His head is one of those rip off versions of a Hot Toys head, They look just as good, and the painting is amazing, but they can usually be obtained for about $30, whereas the actual Hot Toys figure is way over $100.




  The body of the original Hot Toys Black Panther has a rubber outfit, which allows the very posable figure to bend through the clothes. It look good, but I have read reviews that say it tears easily.  I couldn't afford to get my sister the actual Hot Toys figure, so I bought the rip off head, and a different Black Panther body that is very posable, but not nearly as expensive.



  This body comes from the Hasbro Legends series 12 inch figure. I got it second hand online. It still came with the masked head, and the unmasked head, and two extra sets of hands.


 It originally had a spear too, but we didn't get that. The body is really quite articulated. There are over 30 points of articulation, including the neck, shoulders, 2 upper arm joints, the elbows, wrists, upper body, waist...





...upper leg, knees, ankles,, and toes!



  To get the fake Hot Toys head on the neck knob of the Hasbro body, I had to dig out an attached insert in the head.


 It fits fine now, but my sister keeps it unattached. That makes it able to move and she can change it to the masked head if she wants. The unmasked head that came with the body isn't very good, especially compared to the Hoy Toys type head, which really does look like Chadwick Bosman, who played Black Panther.



It does sit on the neck a little weirdly from some angles, but from most angles it looks fine.



  That's it for today. I'm still sorting out wedding pictures, but I'll show you some soon. See you tomorrow.

Doll-A-Day 2023 #259: Cabbage Patch Kids Bracelet

 Okay. Technically this isn't a doll. It's a piece of jewelry. But it's made up of tiny dolls. Besides, I'm still taking care of wedding stuff. I have several tubs of dirty dishes and a few boxes of dirty glasses to wash. I already washed  one tub of dishes and all the table runners and napkins, and put a bunch f stuff away.  I apologize for the lack of posts the last couple of days, but I misjudged the number of posts I was going to need to take me through the wedding, and came up one short. Then I unexpectedly was away the day after the wedding. Ken and I went to lunch with my cousin and aunt, who I hadn't seen for literal decades. We followed that up by going to pick up the car from the hotel, where Emma and AJ stayed the night of the wedding, before going to the airport the next morning. By then I was so sleepy, I had to take a nap before I could drive back. (No kidding. I was still sewing and finally showering until the wee  hours of the morning of the wedding. I went to bed at 6:30AM and got up at 8AM to go decorate the venue. Then we stayed and cleared up after the wedding and then had to load  a couple of cars with the stuff, and tote it upstairs. There was a porch full of stuff here when we got here too. Thank goodness for the boyfriend of Emma's friend and bridesmaid, who was staying with her other friend and bridesmaid who lives downstairs. He did most of the carrying upstairs. He was a lifesaver, because Ken and I were so tired and sore from being on our feet all day that it would have taken us years to get it all up there. I still had to condense stuff so we could get across the kitchen and get around in here, and start a load of laundry, before I could shower and go to bed. So I had gotten to bed about 5AM, and then got up at 10:30 to go to lunch with them. So I was exhausted. Glad to spend time with them, but exhausted.) Today I did all those dishes and washed and folded a thousand napkins and put more stuff away and washed and hung our wedding clothes...and dragged because of tiredness. So forgive me for giving you a doll bracelet instead of an actual doll. 

  This bracelet is a licensed Cabbage Patch item, I think.


It's an oldie, from the original era of Cabbage Patch Kids popularity.


  I mean, I can tell it's old, but I can't find one like it online. I can't see any familiar markings on it though.


But it does look like real Cabbage Patch Kids.


  There is a little metal tag with markings on it.  There's nothing that helps though.


That's it for today. Tomorrow will be something more solid and doll like. See you then.

Saturday, September 23, 2023

Doll-A-Day 2023 #258: Furga Doll in Blue

   Last day before the wedding! We're all still working on various projects. My dress still hasn't been doctored!

   Today's doll is a beautiful Furga doll.



She's wearing her original outfit, minus the mob type cap with big organdy ties, that goes under her hat. She also had a white parasol.
This doll was made by Furga, an Italian company. You can see more Furga dolls by clicking 'Furga doll' in the sidebar. 
  She is about 22 inches tall. She has a really striking face.



  Her hair is dark auburn. Very pretty, but I resisted any temptation to buy her.

This doll was at one of the recent doll shows. I have more Furga dolls that weren't at the doll shows, but, instead, in my storage, which you may have seen this week. If this doll put you in a Furga mood, the others are available to buy, (Please!) Check them out, by going to the three previous posts, or by clicking on 'Furga doll' in the side bar, and if you're interested, leave a comment on their post with your contact information. See you tomorrow.

Friday, September 22, 2023

Doll-A-Day 2023 #257: Furga Doll in White and Feathers

   And yet another Furga. I got all of the ones you've seen in the past couple of days at the same time at a thrift store that was puking up Furgas like there was no tomorrow. (There is though, and it will be another Furga! But not from the thrift store.)

  This doll is a bit schnazzier than the previous two. She's all covered in marabou feathers. And I do mean covered. She was molting all over the place.

You can see feather bits in her hair.

She pretty much has the exact same face as the other two. She just has a fancier outfit.

See? Feathers in her hair.

  She has big hair, like the blonde, but it's dark, like the other girl's.




  Look at this outfit! It's a velvety fabric, and decorated with pink feathers. The other dolls that were in with her had to be cleared of feathers before they could be photographed, and her hair was full of feathers. They were going up my nose, and blowing all over the place while I was photographing her.


Under her dress she's wearing lace pants, ala Barbra Streisand at the Oscars. (Well, I guess Barbra's weren't lace, but they were see through and bell bottomy. I guess these, as my dad would have said, 'put me in mind of' them.)


  She's also wearing white vinyl boots. One of them has a small hole in the toe.
 

  Her nails are painted salmon, not pink to match her feathers.


She has those big blue Furga eyes and black lashes.


More feathers!

  Like the other two, she needs a home, preferably one with no bird allergies, that doesn't mind the occasional feather floating in the air. She's $35 plus shipping. If you're interested, leave a comment with your contact information.

  One more day until the wedding! We're all still putting the finishing touches on stuff. I hope we get everything done!

  Tomorrow is the last Furga, for the time being at least. She's a leftover from the recent doll shows, and no, I did not buy her. See you then.

Thursday, September 21, 2023

Doll-A-Day 2023 #256: Furga Doll in Pants

   It's getting close! The wedding rehearsal is tonight! I've got Ken's suit pants hemmed, and we're going for the jacket cuffs now. After that is moving the buttons on the shirt sleeves and somehow covering the sheer cleavage area of my dress! Then I have to glue flowers to my hair clip and finish a project for the wedding. The wedding is Sunday, so I have to get on the ball. Now on to the doll of the day.

  Today's doll is a Furga doll with a very late 1960's/early 1970's air about her.


  She has a very Furga face. In fact, she could be related to yesterday's doll, with her rosy skin, big pale blue eyes and black lashes, and that tiny nose and pursed lips. She seems to have a slight cleft in her chin too.
 


She says Furga on the back of her neck.


  She's wearing her original clothes, which include a red blouse, checked pants, and SHOES! She has her original red shoes! Few of my dolls have their shoes. But then, this one was never meant to be 'my' doll anyway.


  She has thick dark hair that goes almost to her waist.


She has a side part, and no bangs, so she looks a bit like she's staring.
 

  But her big staring eyes are sleep eyes, so if she gets tired of staring, she can close them.



  She's about 16 inches tall, with joints at the neck, shoulders and hips. You know the type.


  Like yesterday's girl, she's looking for a home. She's $25 plus shipping, if anybody wants her. Leave a comment with your contact information.

  See you tomorrow for another Furga doll.