Doll-A-Day 2023 #80: Marx Dolly Darling Clone

   Well, that title pretty much says it all! Today's doll is a clone doll, of Hasbro's Dolly Darling dolls.

  I don't know what this doll is called, so if any of you do, please tell me in a comment. She is made by Marx, but bears a great resemblance to the Hasbro Dolly Darling dolls. (You can see my Dolly Darling John dolls HERE and HERE, and my Dolly Darling Honey dolls HERE. You can see another Dolly Darling clone I've had since I was a kid, HERE.

She has similar arms/hands, and a very similar body.

There were some Dolly Darlings with molded painted hair, like this doll has, but the first series had rooted hair.

  One big difference between this doll and the Dolly Darlings, and a difference that allows me to be sure she isn't one, is the poor quality of her face painting.  Marx made a lot of small figures and the larger Johnny West dolls, (Sorry! Action figures!), but they weren't especially picky about their face paint.

She's the same size as a Dolly Darling too, 4 inches tall.

As you can see, her blonde hair has white streaks.

She says 'Marx  Hong Kong', and 1966 in Roman numerals, on her back.

I don't know what they were thinking with her dress! It's a bit revealing.

But she does have a pair of shorts on underneath.

Her socks and shoes are molded and painted on.

  That's today's doll. Tomorrow there will be another one.

Doll-A-Day 2019 #243: John Dolly Darling

  I woke up somewhere in the middle of the night last night, to find my shoulder/back/neck were going out on me again. I was having trouble turning my head and was having a lot of pain. It bothered me today,but Ken pressed on it for me and gave me a bit of a massage, and it's not as bad as it was. The problem is under me shoulder blade and up my neck.I don't know what I did that strained it,but it has gone out on me before. When we first moved here, 24 years ago, carrying furniture and boxes got to me. I was cooking dinner one night not long after we moved in, when, suddenly, my shoulder went out. I couldn't move without intense pain. That night Ken had to help me dress for bed,and the pain was so intense that my speech was affected. Ken said I sounded like deaf actress Marlee Matlin. I think he thought I must be having a stroke or something,and he was scared. Since then he has lived in fear of me 'turning into Marlee Matlin' again. I have been being careful all day not to do too much, because I don't want to go through the pain, and also not be able to move!
  Today's doll is a little guy you may have seen before. I got him at the flea market last summer. He's John.

John was part of the original Dolly Darlings line.

They were all tiny 4 inch tall dolls.

They were called 'hatbox dolls' because they came in round plastic 'hatbox' style boxes with clear lids. John was the only boy.

He was called 'John and his Pets', and was sold with 2 cats,two dogs, a duck,two pieces of white fence, a can of 'cat food', and a  fake book called 'How to Train Cats'.

He was sold in 1965.

He is the only original Dolly Darling to not be later sold in a rooted hair version. His molded,painted hair was painted with a variety of shades and colours,and has plenty of molded detail.

All that paint and they couldn't have spared some for his eye brows?!

 

John is wearing his original jacket and shorts.

He should also have a white shirt with red bow tie.
 

He has weird little fisty hands.

Hey! Come back here with my shirt!

His blue knee socks and brown lace up oxfords are painted on.

 He's jointed at the neck, shoulders,and hips,so he can sit down.

You may have seen my other John, who made do with some hand me down clothes. If not, you can see him HERE.

That's today's doll.

Tomorrow we'll look at another one. See you then.

Doll-A-Day 142: Dolly Darling Wanna Be

  Today I'm showing you another of my childhood dolls.

This little doll is obviously a rip off of the Dolly Darling doll, made by Hasbro in the 60's.

Particularly this one, Cathy. Not my picture, and I'll be glad to remove it if I'm asked.There's one with rooted hair too, with the same dress. But with molded hair, mine is much more like this one.

 She's about four and a half inches tall. Her bodice is velveteen.

 This doll is marked Miss Merry Hong Kong.

 Her vinyl and her painting aren't as good as the Hasbro dolls. In fact, her hair colour has crept into her face somewhat. BUT she has one up on the Hasbro dolls:

She has removeable shoes! They aren't just painted on like the Dolly Darling's shoes.

Even more amazing, I still have these shoes after all these years!

My sister and I both had one of these exact same dolls, only she bought one with a paint mistake: she had a dot of black paint next to her eye that looked like a beauty mark. I'm sure that's why she appealed to my sister!