Doll-A-Day 2023 #324: Hong Kong Liddle Kiddles Clone

   Today's doll is another Fuzz rescued from someone's trash with a bunch of vintage things. She's this tiny girl.

She's obviously a clone of Mattel's Liddle Kiddles, and not a bad one at that. She's a couple of inches or so tall, and has a very Kiddles face and eyes, and the same style body.

Like the other doll Fuzz rescued, she needs a bit of a clean up.

She's obviously a clone though, because she's marked Hong Kong. If she were a real Kiddle she'd be Japan.

She has red hair in two ponytails, and a blue polka dot dress that's glued shut. To wash it, I'd have to rip is apart and take it off. Real Kiddles had removable clothing.

  Kiddles were rubber with wires armatures for posing. This girl seems to be the same, but she doesn't bend very well.

She has a strange tall pair of plastic undies.

  

Pardon my nasty fingernails. I've never been very good at having nice nails.

  That's today's doll. Tomorrow you may begin to see some bombardment of posts, in an effort to catch up for the year. Look out.

Doll-A-Day 2023 #289: Pee Wees Clone Doll

   This post officially catches me up to only ten days behind! Today's girl is this little Pee Wees clone doll.

   She's the size of a Pee Wees doll, and looks like one. I have found pictures of  a doll that looks almost just like this doll, outfit and all. That doll is a Uneeda Pee Wees doll. But there are a few differences between that one and this one. That doll is described as a 1978 Uneeda Pee Wees doll. She has straight blonde hair, the trademark Pee Wees side glance eyes with unpainted sclera, an almost identical outfit, the same weird feet, (Why does it look like she has more than 5 toes?!), and movable arms.

  This doll has a one piece body and limbs, curly blonde hair, and eyes with BLUE sclera, (the whites of the eyes.),

Her head is the only movable part of her being. Uh, sorry about the price sticker!

  She says 'Made in Hong Kong' on her back.

   That's why I think this is a Pee Wees clone, and not an actual Pee Wees. If someone is a Pee Wees expert, leave a comment with your opinion. If anybody wants to adopt this kid, a couple of dollars and shipping and she's yours. Just leave your contact information. 

  To see my previous post on Uneeda Pee Wees go HERE.

  That today's doll. If my camera battery hadn't run out, I'd have tomorrow's ready to go too. It's always something! See you tomorrow.

 

Doll-A-Day 2023 #282: Monster

   Well, we're coming up to Halloween soon. Emma and AJ have been watching what they are referring to as 'the modern horror classics', like "Halloween", "Nightmare on Elm Street", and "Friday the 13th'. Some they have thought are total crap, and some they have found to be better than they thought they'd be. As for me, I'll have none of that slasher stuff! Give me the old horror classics, like "Dracula", (The 1931 version, with Bela Lugosi. Even the  1974 "Bram Stoker's Dracula", with Jack Palance. But not the Christopher Lee ones. I saw some of those as a kid, and these days I just can't take it!), Frankenstein, and The Wolfman, (The original with Lon Chaney Jr.). Ken and I watched The Wolfman a few nights ago. (Although, I have to laugh often during it, as I wrote a parody of it years ago, and everything reminds me of my jokes. I kill me.) So since we're so close to Halloween, I found a figure amongst the 'sell stuff' a while back that goes along with the season. He might look familiar, but he isn't exactly who you might think he is.

I mean, it's pretty obvious who he is supposed to be. But the fact that the card only says 'monster', tells you that this is an unlicensed "Nightmare on Elm Street" 'Freddy Kruger' figure. (Note that the pink surrounding the package is some Barbie and Ken clothes underneath him, and not part of his packaging!)

 

  It has all the usual Freddy Kruger stuff, which even I know, and I haven't even seen any of the movies! That includes his fedora and scarred face, striped sweater, and bladed glove.

  This figure, which stands about 6 inches tall, was part of a whole line of rip off characters.

Some of the rip offs are a bit less direct than Freddy.

  There's no branding on the package, just 'Made in China'.

  I thought the casting for Freddy was weird when the movie first came out. Prior to being cast as Freddy Kruger, Robert Englund was best known for playing the gentle alien 'Willie' who sides with the Earthlings when his fellow aliens try to take over Earth and eat the inhabitants, in the original "V" television series. Willie would never kill anybody!

  The weirdest thing about the Freddy Kruger movies is that they were based on the actual true events of young men from Laos, Cambodia who died in their sleep. They died when their hearts gave out in their sleep, in what was referred to as Sudden Unexplained Nocturnal Death Syndrome, or SUNDS. "Nightmare on Elm Street" creator Wes Craven read four articles about the occurrences of the deaths of  Cambodian refugees who had died in their sleep in very similar ways. One was a young boy who believed he would die if he fell asleep, by being killed by someone chasing him in his dreams. He would stay awake for days, fearing to go to sleep. One of the deaths was of a man who was found to have a coffee maker in his closet. Most of the deaths, including dozens in Cambodia, were young  men between 20 and 30, and 98% of the deaths were between 10PM and 8AM. You can read and article about the movie's basis HERE. Pretty weird, huh?

  See you tomorrow for a more traditional doll!

Doll-A-Day 2023 #182: Baby Gregg

   Today's doll isn't mine. I came across him the other day, and he sparked my interest. I had never heard of him before, and I can't find anything about him online. You know you can find anything online these days, if you look hard enough. But not this doll! He's made by Uneeda, and even the Uneeda page of the Doll Reference site doesn't mention him. He is an obvious clone of a doll I love, that I have never seen a clone of before. Look at this guy!

  Does he look familiar to you? 

You know you've seen this face and receding hairline before!

  His name is Baby Gregg, and, as I said, he was made by Uneeda.

But he's a very obvious clone of Tiny Chatty Brother! 

My childhood Tiny Chatty Brother. 

  At 20 inches tall, Gregg is a full 5 inches taller than Tiny Chatty Brother. He's the same size as Chatty Cathy.

  You may have seen my post on my own Tiny Chatty Brother, one of my favourite childhood dolls. This little guy is so similar, right down to his outfit...

Gregg's outfit is in red and white, instead of blue and white, like Chatty Bro's is. 

His hat actually seems better than Chatty Brother's, whose hat is so tiny that it doesn't stay on his head very well.

HIs outfit appears to be made of a heavier fabric than Chatty Brother's, and Gregg has an applique, as well as his name ribbon.

His outfit fits him much more loosely than Chatty Bro's fits him. His booties appear to be made of non stretchable cotton, unlike Chatty Brother's stretchy booties.

...and his hair...

The same style and colour.

...and my favourite thing about Chatty Brother, the teeth!

  The major difference is that Baby Gregg's teeth are not a separate piece. Tiny Chatty Brother was made by Mattel. Mattel had more money than Uneeda, and the materials their dolls were made of were of higher quality generally. Tiny Chatty Bro was made of a hard plastic, but not the thin, brittle kind. His was heavy duty and thick. His teeth are a separate piece of plastic, just like Chatty Cathy's teeth. That's why you can find dolls who are missing theirs, and you can buy replacement teeth! Baby Gregg appears to be made of a couple of different things. His head and arms seem to be rubber or soft vinyl. His head, including his teeth, is molded all in one piece. So, his teeth are a painted feature, and not a separate piece of something installed in his mouth. 

  Gregg's legs and torso seem to be made of the thin hard plastic a lot of baby dolls from the 60's were made of. Not the very hard stuff that almost seems like celluloid. The tougher stuff that a lot of drink and wet dolls were made of, like Fuzz's baby Sake, who was made by Eugene.

You can see the mold seam. Chatty Brother's legs are seamless.

  Unlike Chatty brother's very straight legs, Baby Gregg's legs are slightly curved, like a lot of baby dolls. 

One of the reasons Chatty Brother had to be made of, shall we say,  sterner stuff, than Gregg, is that Chatty Brother, as his name implies, had a feature that Gregg doesn't: He talked. Gregg isn't a talking doll, so he didn't require the heavy plastic to protect his voice mechanism.

  Gregg has sleep eyes, with lashes. like Chatty Bro, but his eyes are green, not blue.

  You'll also notice from the picture above, that Gregg has pinwheel eyes, and not decal eyes like Chatty B. 

 Gregg even has the same profile as Chatty B.

  You could get away with a lot more back in the 60's, as far as directly stealing someone else's product!

  I would love to see this guy cleaned up, with his outfit laundered, and see how beautiful he looks! He appears to be in nice condition, other than some mildew freckles that might clean off. Think how great he'd look in a Chatty collection! I think he's fascinating, because he's been out there looking Chatty this whole time, and I never knew about him!

    If Gregg has stolen your heart and you want to own him, he is an active auction on Ebay right now. I would love to own him myself, but neither the budget, nor the space are cooperative at the moment. Thanks to the seller, yurraus2014 for allowing me to use their pictures and bring Gregg to you. 

  See you tomorrow for another doll.

Doll-A-Day 2023 #68: Little Laurie

eala    Today's doll is another I got at the recent doll show. I'm pretty sure her name is Little Laurie.

She's a Penny Brite clone, as if that weren't obvious. She has the same face as Penny, and, like Penny, is 8 inches tall. Pennt was made by Topper/Deluxe Reading from 1963 to 1970. Little Laurie was made by Amsco, in 1969, right at the tail end of Penny Brite's run.

She's marked 'Made in Hong Kong' on her back.

One major difference between Laurie and Penny is the hair. Laurie has dark hair. Penny was always a medium blonde.

And she has cute ponytails, tied with what I'm pretty sure are her original white hair ribbons. 

Penny has sort of a bouffant bob.

Laurie has brown eyes! Penny's eyes are black, or sometimes a dark blueish grey. 

She also has the same molded, painted teeth as Penny.

Don't you hate it when you get lipstick on your teeth?

  Laurie has side glancing eyes, like Penny, but hers glance the opposite way. Penny looks to the right, and Laurie looks to the left. So if they were stood side by side, they could look at each other. (Or ignore each other, depending who was on which side!)

The weird thing about Little Laurie is, she came in a set that included furniture and accessories that were also direct copies of Penny Brite's.

Laurie's...

...and Penny's. It certainly was a lot easier to get away with ripping things off back then.

Laurie came wearing white hair ribbons, a green smocky sort of shirt with appliques and shoulder ties,  bloomer type shorts with elastic around the bottoms of the legs, and white shoes. (You can see her original outfit on the boxed set above.)  She was wearing a real Penny dress when I got her, so I changed her into this dress. I'm not sure if it's home made or factory. I would guess factory made.

It fits her perfectly. The dress was in the case with the dolls I think. I have had so much stuff pass through here lately, and I have been washing and reorganizing stuff. I'm losing track of where stuff came from. Did I already have that? Did I get that in that stuff I got recently? Some of the stuff I have looked over and dealt with so many times that I know for sure. But some of the stuff has been boxed up for a while, and I don't remember it.  

   As you can see from the picture above, Little Laurie is made of a much cheaper plastic than Penny's heavy vinyl. Her arms and legs don't bend like Penny's either.  Her fingers are more rough than Penny's.

 Her legs have snaggy flashing and her feet aren't quite foot shaped. You can really notice it in the full length picture above. Her feet are really stumpy.

But, like Penny, her head is on a ball joint, allowing it to be posed in cute, tilted positions, or looking a bit up or down.

She was in a vintage metal doll case with a real Penny Brite, the original Penny Brite plastic case, and some clothes, both generic, and real Penny Brite ones. I asked how much Laurie was, and was told the whole case full of stuff was $10! I'll take it! I certainly don't need another Penny Brite, but my mom threw away my Penny case, and there were a couple of pieces of Penny clothing I didn't have yet, and a really nice version of 'Flower Girl'. So I'll be getting rid of the vintage metal case, and the odd clothes. I was going to get rid of the Penny too, but darn it! None of these Penny's are the same! I'll show you this one, along with her case soon, and you can see for yourself.  

  There were other Penny Brite clones, most notably New Zealand made Little Tuppence, (sold in New Zealand, Australia, and some parts of Europe), and in fact, Little Tuppence had a friend named Posing Penny, who looks very much like Little Laurie. Posing Penny also had dark hair, in two ponytails. But it's easy to tell Little Laurie and Posing Penny apart. Posing Penny has blue side glance eyes, that look the same direction s Penny Brite and Little Tuppence. (So, alas, Tuppence and her friend Penny can never look at each other.) Posing Penny could also, do I have to say it? Pose. She had the same bendy arms and legs as Penny Brite and Little Tuppence. The palms of her hands face the back, as opposed to Penny's and Little Laurie's, which are side facing. 

  You can see my other Penny Brite dolls HERE, and HERE. You can see my other Penny clones HERE and HERE.

  That's the doll for today. Cute kid, isn't she? Tomorrow we'll look at another doll.