So What Show Did I Go To? And a Few Odds and Ends

   In my last post I mentioned that there were two other shows recently, a doll show and a toy show. I have been so tired lately that I debated going to neither, and just staying home and resting. But then I thought that there weren't going to be more than a couple more shows until next Spring. Why not hit the ones I could before then? I thought of going to both, since they were on different days. But in the end, I was too tired and achy to do both. I have been going to the toy show with my sister for the last few years, and it came first. So Ken and I went to her house the day before, so we wouldn't have to get up so early and drive to her house on show day. She's an hour and a half away, and the show is about 15 minutes from her house. 

  We went to the show, which is held at a fairground. It's huge, covering more than half a dozen huge buildings, with all of them being packed full of dealer's tables. There were so many people shopping it was hard to get through the aisles. Worse than that, it also made the buildings like large, toy filled ovens. A few years ago we went to the Fall toy show, and it was so cold we thought we were going to freeze to death. This year my sister was sorry she didn't bring in the little hand held fan she had in her car.

  I think there were slightly fewer tables with dolls this year than the last couple of years. Maybe they found that dolls weren't selling as well as they wanted, so the dealers are bringing more toys than dolls. There were still way more dolls than used to be found at toy shows. Here are some of the more interesting ones I saw.

  This is a Moni doll.

  I recognized immediately that this doll looked like a tiny Sasha doll. Sure enough, the internet describes them as 8 inch mini Sasha dolls, of lower quality than Sasha dolls, and made in Hong Kong. They are supposedly rare because there were copyright problems, and they stopped production I guess. I can see why. They look so much like Sasha dolls. She doesn't have the scary eyes or the weird hands though.

  This was a beautiful Teeny Tiny Tears doll, in her case, with almost all of her things. 

  I had never heard of a Barbie PTMI Birthday doll. I liked the look of this one, so I took her picture. In writing this post I looked it up, and PTMI Birthday Barbies are given to employees at the Mattel factory in Indonesia on their birthdays, and have been since the 90's. That's the only way to get one, so they are pretty rare.

  I found this doll, on the left, kind of interesting. She looks like Tressy, but she's small. You can gauge her small size by comparing her to the 70's Charlie's Angel's doll to her right. (Assuming, of course, that you are familiar with the Charlie's Angel's dolls...)

She also doesn't have Tressy's grow hair feature. The tag she had said only that she was a Japan rubber doll with painted on shoes.

I recognize that jacket. In fact, I think I have one. I can't remember who it came on, but it wasn't this doll, unless there were two dolls who came wearing it. I have no idea why she's wearing a bunch of plastic discs around her neck. Completing her ensemble is the ever popular sock dress.

  I have a small collection of... shall we use the term? Hillbilly dolls. You can see mine HERE, HERE, and HERE. There were quite a few...such dolls at the show. In fact, there were more of them at this show than I have ever seen at a single show, and they were not all at the same dealer's tables. Strange. I didn't photograph all of them, but here's one of them.

  I also have a weakness for sad dolls, and dolls you're meant to feel sorry for. This Poor Pitiful Pearl was mint in her mint box. Check out her original clearance price.

  I am familiar with Brooke Shields dolls, but not with this one in an evening gown.

  At the last doll show I was proud of myself for not buying anything. This time I did buy something, but it wasn't for me. I spotted two old dolls with definate limb problems in a box under the dealer's table. At a previous show I got a Pippi Longstocking doll from the same dealer. She was complete and nearly perfect, and only needed a minimal wipe down and her ponytails put back in. The dealer considered her too far gone to fiddle with though, and sold her to me for $5! She must not deal with anything she has to spend any time on making presentable, because the two girls in the box were the same situation. They were very nice, but doll number one, which is a vintage 1950's flirty eye Saucy Walker, with teeth, brunette braids, and her entire original outfit, including onesie, dress, socks, and shoes, and even hair ribbons, needed her head and arms out back on. 

Doll number two, a vintage Uneeda Susan Stroller, needed her arms put back on. 

I got these two dolls at an amazing price. I didn't need them, and promised Ken I wouldn't keep them, but I figured somebody would love them, and they needed rescued.

   The dressed one is definitely a Saucy Walker, because she's marked Ideal, and, as I said, has her original dress, with her original onesie underneath, socks, and shoes. (Even her shoes are marked 'Ideal'.) The other doll is marked Eegee, and is almost certainly a Susan Stroller. They are in really nice condition, other than just needing restrung. Saucy has flirty eyes that work well, and their sleep eyes work too  Unfortunately the crier box doesn't work in either. I think I should be able to restring them. I have put the arms back on a Susan Stroller, but I didn't have to put her head back on. There are kits you can buy with the rubber bands and S hooks to fix them. When I have them fixed they'll go up for sale. If anybody is interested in them, leave a comment with some contact information, and I'll get back to you.

  I didn't take many pictures at the show, so here are a few stray pictures I took at some of the places we went lately. 

  This pretty girl is roughing it outside at a local antique mall.

  The place has a habit of putting a lot of cool stuff outside, including dolls that I suppose it thinks aren't good enough for them to sell inside the actual building. This girl is in some rough shape, but I think she deserves better treatment than this, especially if they are still asking $45 for her! She isn't going to be worth anything before too long. I wish I could rescue her before she's completely ruined, but I can't afford to do that.

  We went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame while Ken's sister and brother-in-law were here a few weeks ago. You might not be expecting to find dolls there, but I did see this guy...

Okay. This marionette of Beck that was part of the Saturday Night Live exhibit, (which I highly recommend,), isn't officially a doll, he comes close enough.

  And if you saw my last post you will have seen these original 60's Beatles bobbleheads.

  And that's it for this post. You got two fairly close together this time! I am proud of myself. There  was another doll show yesterday, the last this year. Did I go? We'll see next time