Doll-A- Day 2023 #280: Dark Brunette Skipper

   I discovered today that I have been misnumbering my posts for the last ten days or so! It happens every time I do a year of daily dolls. At some point I mess the number up and continue on with the wrong numbers! At least I caught it this time before it had gone on for months! I am still ten days behind for the year, and I do still intend to catch up. But we're coming into what is always a busy time of the year for me anyway, writing Christmas cards, wrapping presents, making presents, etc., and this year we'll also be back at the house trying to get things straightened around. So we'll be extra busy. We should be getting the windows back in soon, and the house rewired, and then we'll be there, trying to get the house back in order, scrubbing soot off the walls, washing up all the bedding and clothes that got smoked, scrubbing down my ENTIRE LIFE that was blackened by smoke, and ripping up the carpet on the landing and stairs. I have a brand new carpet standing in a corner in my bedroom, that was going to go in the living room, but it may be too blackened now to put down. We'll have to see. I might also have to strip my wallpaper. That's another thing we'll have to see about. If I have to do that, I don't know what I'll do. I hate to just paint the walls. I wanted a bedroom with rose wallpaper ever since I was a kid, when my sister had a bedroom with rose wallpaper. (I also coveted her four poster bed and matching chest, and I have those now too. The bedroom of my dreams, up in smoke, so to speak.) Wallpaper is way too expensive for me now. I don't think I could afford to wallpaper  a bedroom any more. Anyway, we'll see.

  Hey! Good news though! You might remember I've been having trouble with my shoulders for months. My right one wasn't nearly as bad as the left one, and has been okay for quite a while now. The left one was still terrible, but slightly better. But I woke up Monday morning and it was BETTER! I thought it had been popping back into the socket before, but was easy to pop back out again, and very sore. I think it must have not been popping back in all the way, and/or that maybe there was a nerve pinched or something. This time it's really in, and only slightly sore in the muscle where I have been using it weirdly because normally hurt. There doesn't seem to be a pinched nerve or whatever any more either. Everything must have gone back into place, I don't know what I did. It's been good for a couple of days now, although I am being a bit easy on it to make sure it doesn't pop out again. I am trying to exercise it though, to make sure it doesn't stiffen up again.

  Today's doll is the last one I got at the recent doll shows. She's a bend leg Skipper.

 I hadn't bought a Skipper for quite a while. I  was trying to be good, because I figured I had enough Skippers. Well, I do. But this one has very dark brunette hair...is that black?

  She needs her eyebrows touched up, but I've done that before. But this hair colour is pretty rare, and I only have one Skipper with this colour.

  I got her for only $7, because she has a few pin marks in her ankles, and what seems to be some hair missing. I don't think it's hair loss though. I think she just needs her part rewoven. I have done that before, but I hate it. It's really aggravating.

  I'll do it though. I'll show her to you again when I do.

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

Doll-A-Day 2023 #148: Majorette Skipper

   Today's doll is this one. I bet you can guess what she's called.

She's Majorette Skipper. You can tell that because she's dressed in her majorette outfit.

She's got the hat.

Chin  strap and all.

Her uniform is made to look like it has the butttons down the front.

She was produced in 1992.

She has the majorette boots with fringy pom poms on them.

And of course, since she's a majorette, she has her baton.

Thanks to that little tan coloured gizm she can even twirl it.

Her hand fits into that slot so she can hold it.

Then it can spin.

This doll was in a box that got water in it. I dried the dolls out and cleaned them up. This was one that Emma said she had always wanted, so when she was dry, and I had photographed her for the blog, Emma took her. I collect Skippers, but this one really isn't my era anyway. She is Emma's era, since this is the Skipper head svulpt from when she was little. This big eye head sculpt is either loved or hated by collectors. It's less realistic than any other Skipper head sculpt. Mattel used it for a while though, on a lot of Skipper and Skipper friend dolls.

  That's today's doll. See you tomorrow for another one.

Doll-A-Day 2023 #70: Cool Crimps Skipper

   Today's doll is an unbelievable 30 years old this year. She's Cool Crimps Skipper.

 I say 'unbelievable'  because to me, 1993 doesn't seem that long ago. I was 31, Emma was 2, and Ken and I celebrated our fourth anniversary that Fall. Now Emma is 31, and Ken and I will have been married 34 this Fall. Where does the time go? 

  Well, nowhere for this girl. She hasn't aged a day since 1993. Back then, crimped hair was still a thing.

She still has her instructions.

And the tools to use with them.

SHe has a cardboard case full of cardboard hair equipment.

She has a comb and a brush, 2 heart shaped crimpers and two regular crimpers, and a fake bottle of...hair product? 

How to use said crimpers, for results like 'when Mommy goes to the beauty shop!'

And she has plenty of long hair to use the crimpers.

Her hair elastics have crumbled away over ALL those years.

She's still in very nice condition though. Luckily she, and the other dolls stored in the box she was in, were stored in ziplock bags, because the box got soaked by the fire crew, and the water was dark brown and smokey smelling.

Apparently, baby pacifier jewelry was also quite a thing in those days.

She is wearing her original outfit, consisting of a blue blouse, trimmed in the same pink and white and blue and white gingham as her overalls...

,,, and the aforementioned overalls.

Real pockets!

The overalls only reach to just below her knees.

She also has pink high top tennis shoes.

She has the 'big eye Skipper' , or anime' inspired head sculpt, which is just about the least popular head sculpt amongst Skipper fans, although it does have it's fans.

  There were two other dolls in this Cool Crimps series: Cool Crimps Courtney, who had a green version of Skipper's outfit, complete with the pink pacifier jewelry, and Cool Crimps Kevin, (You can see mine HERE.) Kevin had molded and painted hair, so I don't know what he was crimping. With all the stuff coming here to be checked over for moisture, I have been going through a lot of stuff. In doing so I discovered that I have two of these dolls. The other one doesn't have her accessories, or even her shoes. She does have her outfit and stupid pacifier jewelry though. 

She at least stayed clean where she was, and she doesn't smell like smoke. She needs to find a new home, so if anybody is interested, let me know. She's $10 plus shipping. And remember, if you want me to contact you, you have to leave your contact information. Most people seem to forget that,

Tomorrow is another doll.                                                                                                                   

Doll-A-Day 2023 #49: Dream Date Skipper

   I am well aware that I am still 6 days behind on the year. I have been helping around the house, doing most of the cleaning and laundry, to make life easier for Emma, since we are staying here with them, cramping their lifestyle and being annoying, and filling their fridge with our stuff. I've also been drying out wet things from the house, cleaning sooty things, washing sooty laundry. plus trying to take pictures and keep up with the blog. I am way far behind with the posts on our trip, and am starting to forget what we did. I have tons of pictures for a post on things we've saved...or not, from the fire. While I was on steroids for my lung inflammation all that was easy. I was pain free and could move easily. Climbing stairs was easy. Of course, as soon as the steroids ran out, the pain and stiffness began to return. Now it's going full force. My back is killing me, my feet hurt, it's become difficult to go up and down stairs again. And Emma lives up a LOT of stairs. There's a flight from the parking area to the level the house is on, more stairs to the sidewalk to her front door, and once you reach her door, there are loads of steep stairs up to her apartment. In fact, there's a big set of stairs, and a short set of stairs. The final set is short as far as number of stairs go, but the stairs themselves are very tall, (for me anyway). Plus, Emma has an old clawfoot bathtub, and I'm so short it comes higher than my knees. Add to that my stiffness, and I have to get in and out with a step ladder. (That's not funny!) We're sleeping on an air mattress. which is probably more comfortable than our real mattress at home, but hard for two old people in pain to get in an out of. I'm also afraid I'm going to run out of dolls to post if I catch up with those 6 days. I had enough posts predone at one point to catch up most of the way, but I figured I'd better hang on to them for the time being in case I needed them. And of course, things needed done and I didn't get anything else photographed until I had used all those up. So I was right. And now I'm low on dolls, and I can't fill Emma's house up with stuff. So I daren't bring any stuff here unless it's stuff that needs rescued from the house. That's one reason I have been posting so many of Emma's dolls. They're already here. 

  Today's doll is both. She's Emma's, but she came from the house and needed rescued. She was in a box of dolls that had gotten some water in it, but not everything was wet. Today's doll just needed the faint smoke smell aired out. She was in a ziplock bag and stayed dry, and fairly smoke free. Emma decided she wanted this doll, and even bid on one in an auction the other day. She lost that one though, and who am I to turn Emma down if she wants something at this point? So I gave her to Emma. She's Dream Date Skipper.

  She was produced in 1990. 

  This head sculpt, which Mattel began using in 1987, is usually referred to amongst Skipper collectors as the 'big eye' sculpt. The sculpt was used for several years, before Mattel changed Skipper's head to a more realistic sculpt. In the meantime they also used the big eye sculpt for a Tinkerbell, and a Peter Pan Wendy doll.

   She has HUGE hair. I suppose that even though that was an 80's thing, there was still some around in 1990.

She came with instructions on how to 'release' that giant hair from one of those stupid plastic strips they sew the hair to.

Yeah. Like it's that easy.

 Skipper's box stated that she came with "3 Pretty looks and a trendy hairpiece too!"

I'm not sure how trendy this hair piece was for teens in 1990.

 It also told kids to "Put on her hair piece and she's absolutely gorgeous!". Can't she be gorgeous without it?

I'm not sure if that band goes behind her head or under her chin, and the instructions don't tell you.

It doesn't sound easy, or even clear!

"How glamourous she looks for a party, dinner, or dancing". Because all early teens go out to dinner, or 'dancing' dressed like they're going to a ball.

Look at the combed back bangs part! This is without the big hair piece. I was afraid to ruin her hairdo. It's made it all these years and I have given her to Emma. It would be a bad time for me to try to deal with hair. You know how I am. I remember in the 80's when Unsentimental Niece used to have those huge stand up bangs that looked so stupid from behind. A Giant wall of bangs. Ivy think I had 'big hair' in the 80's, but it was nothing like this. 

As you can see, her bangs are the colour of the hair piece, and not her actual hair.

The instructions show two options for her outfit. The skirt is in two pieces: a short tutu looking thing, and along skirt. See that 'disc' it's telling you to tie the bow on to use as a bracelet of hair piece? Remember that.

The box tells you she has: "Glossy shorts for the ice cream shop!"

Because everybody wears shiny shorts to the ice cream shop. And what were they calling an 'ice cream shop' in 1990? Those weren't the days of Mickey and Judy going to the ice cream parlour!

The box also expected her to attend the movies in a giant tutu. "Fabulous mini for the movies."

She looks a little over made up, over dressed, and overhairdoed for a kid barely in her teens.

How old was Skipper supposed to be in 1990? I know they had aged her up a bit, but how much? I mean, they have her dating. But this outfit looks more like a prom dress of the day anyway.

Oh my goodness. Look at that hair.

Her accessories included a pair of blue flats...

 

...a hunk of tulle that's supposed to be that 'bow'...

...a brush, a heart shaped purse, and that disc you were supposed to use as a hair piece or bracelet. This thing would make a HUGE bracelet.

The disc and the purse came with stickers to decorate them.

She also has a bracelet that isn't that huge disc.

And there's a huge necklace to go with it.

And she came with this stuff. 

 This doll came in some I got at an auction. There were some in there that I liked, but this isn't one of them. She's a bit too much for me!

  That's today's doll. Come back tomorrow and see what else we have for you.