My Beautiful Bargain Skipper

   I'm still here, and the leg is on the mend. Whether it's because of the massive, (and extremely painful)  pop it did as I was climbing into bed the other night, or because I'm not climbing into bed the same way any more, or a combination of both, I don't know. To explain a little bit, I have an old four poster bed, and with the box springs, (These days they call it a box, because there are no springs in it.), and modern thick mattress, the bed is about waist high for me. (When I was a kid this bed seemed  like it was on a whole other plane.) I have trouble climbing in. So I had taken to climbing up on the side rail and jumping up on the bed, but to do that, I put my foot sideways on the rail, and then lifted all my weight on my sideways leg. That's a lot of weight. I knew it hurt after my leg started acting up, but the theory that that was what was causing the leg pain was something that was only a vague thought until the 'pop'. Anyway, I have stopped climbing in that way, and the leg seems to have gotten so much better so quickly. My new method of climbing into bed involves flopping up as far as I can and bracing one foot against the bed post and shoving. (I'm waiting for the post to snap.) It reminds me of the scene in "Only Murders in the Building" where Steve Martin has been poisoned, and is trying to get himself down to the lobby of the hotel, and ends up sort of upside down in the elevator, trying to push the buttons with his feet.

  But what you are here for is dolls. Today we're looking at one I got at the recent doll show I went to with my sister. I haven't added much to my Skipper collection for a while, but I did get Skipper's Sunny Suity play suit for a dollar at the show, and the girl we're looking at today, for $5!

  I should have taken before and after pictures, but as usual, I was so keen to get her rehabilitated, that I only took 'afters'. But when I got her, her hair was all bunched up on the sides of her head, and her bangs were really frizzy, which is a common problem with pre-mod era Skippers.

She turned out quite nice though. You can't really tell from these pictures, but she has a great shade of bright orange hair.

  She has a bit of an eyebrow rub on one eyebrow, but I could fix that if I wanted to bother. She still looks good.

Her hair is so bright orange that I thought at first she must be a color magic Skipper.

She isn't though, or she would have a brunette painted scalp, and not a red one. (If you don't know what I mean, click 'color magic Skipper' in the sidebar.) Oh well. She still looks great, especially for $5!

I have had a sinus headache for three days, so I am going to take a nap, before Emma picks me up to go to Detroit. I'm Emma's default concert going buddy, and tonight I get to tag along to see Florence and the Machine. I'll see you soon with another doll I got at the show.

Doll-A_Day 137:Skipper Saturday: 'Color Magic' Straight Leg Skipper in Tea Party

  Today's Skipper Saturday doll is one of my favourites!

Those little flowers are real.

I don't know what they are, but they're the perfect size.

She's a straight leg Skipper with something special.

She's what's known as a 'Color Magic' Skipper. These dolls were rooted with brunette Color Magic Barbie hair. Over time the hair on these dolls has oxidized to various shades of red, usually a carroty orange.

The way to tell for certain that you have a Color Magic Skipper, and not just an interesting red shade,is to look for the paint on the scalp. A regular red head Skipper would have a scalp painted a similar colour of orange, to match the hair. A Color Magic doll will have a brunette painted scalp with orangey hair.

This doll has beautiful colouring, a lovely face and bright orange hair.

Her hair is silky, but a bit thin. I'm not sure if it was rooted thinly or has thinned over the years.

She's wearing Tea Party, from 1966.

Tea Party includes the dress, with flocked flowers, and yellow flats.

 The accessories were a 'silver' tea pot,two 'silver' spoons, 2 each turquoise plastic plates, cups, and saucers, two pieces of styrofoam cake with pink 'icing' stripes, and two cloth place mats. I actually only have one plate, but I'm working on it.The cake and place mats are the hardest parts to find. The tea pot was also available as Barbie's coffee pot, and has the Barbie "B" on it.

I got this beautiful doll online in a lot of 11 Skipper dolls, a case, and a few pieces of clothing.Tea Party wasn't in the lot, but it suits her so well.

She has a little bit of a lip rub, but she's so nice otherwise that I'm hesitant to fix her and ruin her originality.

I was hoping to get to keep 3 or 4 of the dolls that really stood out to me in the auction photos, by selling off some of the other things until I made my money back. The first thing I sold turned out to be a vintage Betsy McCall cowgirl outfit.It paid for all but $7 of what I spent on the lot, so I let myself keep everything else! Yay!

The other dolls were of varying quality: chewed noses, cut hair, etc. But besides the Color Magic Skipper there was also a beautiful brunette Sample Skipper, with a pretty powdery complexion. I'll show her to you in the upcoming weeks of the summer.

That's all for this week's Skipper. See you tomorrow.

Doll-A-Day 25: Skipper Saturday: Two Tone Sample Skipper

  Today's Skipper Saturday doll is this straight leg Skipper.She has two unique things about her. Not only is she a 'Sample Skipper', she is a 'Two Tone Skipper'.

It's Saturday morning and Skipper is up early to watch cartoons.

  A 'Sample Skipper' isn't actually what would be commonly be thought of as a 'sample' doll. The Sample Skippers are simply the earliest issued Skippers, before final changes were made. There are fewer of them than standard original Skippers, but they were actually released for regular sale.These dolls are supposed to  have resin legs,(but this difference is hard to tell),slightly bigger, more arched feet,(They stand on their tip toes and can't stand unaided.),and slightly chunkier legs.

Sample Skipper on the left, regular straight leg Skipper on the right.

Their stance is also a little wider, and the word Japan is from heel to toe (instead of side to side) on the bottom of the right foot.

Sample Skipper on the left, regular straight leg Skipper on the right.

Her hair looks like a dark auburn in these pictures, but it's actually made up of both brown and titian fibers.

She has the long straight hair with bangs style of all straight leg Skippers, but she has a very interesting hair colour.

It's pretty chilly this morning. Better get that robe.

 Skippers with this mixed hair colouring are typically referred to as 'Two Tone' Skippers.Sometimes they're called Color Magic Skippers, but that really refers to the dolls that were rooted with leftover 'Color Magic Barbie 'hair that changed over time,or the dolls with brunette painted scalps  and hair that oxidized, usually to a red colour, as I have talked about recently.

Whatever the name, it's pretty hair!

You can see the mix a bit better in this photo.

 Normally two tone dolls have much thicker hair than regular Skippers, but this girl has the mix without the extra thick hair.

Officially Skippers came in blonde,titian (red), and brunette (usually a medium brown colour, and rarely a dark brown or black.)There were shade differences amongst those colours. The two tone hair is a mystery colour: It's not an official Mattel colour, but it happened occasionally. 

Her pajama outfit is called Loungin' Lovelies, from 1966,and includes the two piece pajamas,slippers,and quilted robe.

Skipper heads to the kitchen to grab something to eat. 'A glass of orange juice and  this cinnamon bun. Barbie was saving that bun for herself, but...'

These quilted robes were pretty popular in the 60's.My Mom used to have a light blue quilted robe very similar to this one when I was a kid.

Finally Skipper gives in and gets a bowl of cereal so Barbie can't complain she only ate junk for breakfast. (Ok, yes. That's the bowl of dog food from Dogs and Duds! Can't you just pretend?!)

Skipper turns on the TV before sitting down with her food. Always commercials!

'Barbie's still not up. She got in pretty late last night.' thinks Skipper. She wonders if she should tell their parents. Then she remembers she can't remember what her parents look like or the last time she saw them...Oh look! Go Go Gophers is on!

  I was wondering what background I could use for the photos when I remembered: Oh yeah! I have a Dreamhouse! I haven't done anything with it since I got it. This was a great excuse to play with it!
  See you tomorrow for another doll-a-day!