Doll-A-Day 2023 #329: Aimee

  Today's doll is this girl.

This is her original dress.

She's Aimee. She was made by Hasbro in 1972.

That period was all about hair play. Aimee originally came with extra hair pieces.

Her hair pieces included a fall, braids, and various hair pieces. Apparently, some of the hair pieces plugged into holes in her head. (For those of you who aren't a million years old, as I am, a 'fall' was a long piece of hair that made it look like a person had long hair.)

  Aimee also had a pretty good sized wardrobe made for her, which was sold separately. 

Aimee is 18" tall.

Aimee has what can only be described as a shag haircut, one of the most popular haircuts of the 70's.

She has a twist and turn waist, and joints at the neck, shoulders, and hips.

I told Ken to turn her for me, to show off her twist waist. But I think he carried it a little too far!

And sleep eyes.

  I don't think Aimee is very attractive. Maybe it's because I grew up in that era, but, to me, she looks like a middle aged rich lady. I do think they did a great job on her hands though. They are graceful, and detailed, and show a lot of life.

Palm and finger creases.

Nails and knuckles.

  I've had Aimee for years, but misplaced her. I then bought one at Goodwill, (They actually had two or three that day!) I've actually had this post in drafts since 2019! Then everything that's been going on occurred. But in storage the other day, I happened upon one of the Aimees! I thought it was a good time to photograph her, in spite of the background not being exactly interesting or attractive.

  You can see the commercial for Aimee HERE.

There is a great page that has tons of information and pictures of Aimee, her box, her fashions, and her accessories. You can see that page HERE.

  That's today's doll. See you tomorrow.

Doll-A-Day 2023 #318: Charlie's Angels Kris? or Jill?

                                       *****THIS POST HAS BEEN UPDATED*****

  Today's doll is Kris, from Charlie's Angels. Or is it Jill? Please see the conversation in the comments. I saw this doll, in package online, and she was a Kris doll. Then I saw many more, in the green suit, with this head, and they were Jill. The doll looks like Cheryl Ladd more than Farah Fawcett, but it is wearing the white suit that came on Jill, (Although I also saw the white suit on one of the other characters too! I think Hasbro played fast and loose with their character control.),and most of the Kris dolls I'm seeing have a different face, with a slightly more closed mouth. So, probably Jill? Did Hasbro maybe make the early Kris dolls using the Jill head?

The Charlie's Angels doll were first made, by Hasbro, in 1977, and based on the popular TV series of the same name. I never watched the show myself. I just got this doll in an auction box lot. She needs to go. I have another Charlie's Angels doll, so maybe we'll see her this week too. Kris, produced in 1978, was the first replacement Angel, after Farrah Fawcett left the show. She was played by Cheryl Ladd. The doll isn't a bad likeness of her. It makes a better Cheryl Ladd than Farrah Fawcett.

  There were three Charlie's Angels, but there were three replacement 'Angels' during the course of the series. I don't  think second replacement Shelley Hack, or third replacement Tanya Roberts, ever had  dolls made of them. 

The dolls were 8 inches tall. All four made wore the same knee high black boots, and the same outfit, just in different colours. Farah Fawcett came in a white suit. Cheryl Ladd came in a green suit, but I've also seen a never removed from card doll in the white suit. It may be another case of Hasbro initially using the last of their Jill stock to make the Kris doll. Anyway, Kris should also have a navy blue neckerchief. Jill would have had a green one. There's also a possibility that Kris had navy blue boots. And possibly the dolls sometimes had white boots? I've seen that too!

  There were also fashions produced for these dolls. They show up a lot less frequently than the dolls themselves, or maybe I just don't recognize them when I see them.

   Mego reproduced the classic Charlie's Angels women as 8 inch figures in recent years, but they apparently didn't own the likenesses, or were just really bad at sculpting them. 

  Some trivia for you: 

Cheryl Ladd was the daughter-in-law of  1940's/50's star Alan Ladd, of "Shane" fame. 

When the Mrs. Beasley doll was reproduced by Ashton Drake, it,(and the new 5.5 inch Mrs. Beasley talking ornament), was voiced by Cheryl Ladd.

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

Doll-A-Day 2023 #185: Real Baby

   Today's doll is this chubby babe.

  She's Real Baby, described on her box as 'wide eyed real baby'.

  She was made in 1985, by Hasbro. Her original retail price was about $30, which was nothing to sneeze at in 1985.

  She was a vinyl version of a porcelain doll, designed by doll artist Judith Turner, also known as J. Turner.

The side of a Real Baby box tells the story.

  She measures 21 inches tall, but being a floppy baby, she can't stand to show you. (Being as she's a baby, maybe I should have said 'long' instead of 'tall'.)

Or can she?!

  She has a soft, stuffed nylon torso, with a vinyl head, arms, and legs.

  She has inset  eyes, and 'real' lashes.

And very faint, almost invisible eyebrows...like I do these days.

This particular doll is blonde, but Real Baby also came as a red head, and a brunette. There were also   Hispanic and African American dolls.

  A lot of Real Baby dolls you will come across have lost their hair, and usually their eyelashes too. Although the box claims the doll has "wigged hair", I have seen dolls that still have a few straggly hairs on their heads, so they didn't lose an entire wig at once. Unsentimental Niece had a Real Baby when she was a kid. It lost all its hair, and got the disturbing nickname, 'Cancer Baby'.

  Another problem common to Real Baby is paling. The faces sometimes pale toa ghostly white. This girl only has some pale areas on her face.

  Her outfit consists of a gingham seersucker sunsuit, a bonnet, white socks, and booties that match her bonnet and sunsuit. 

The booties have a strap that velcros on the side. This doll is missing a sock and a bootie. (But she has her hair!)

  Originally Real Baby came with a bottle, a disposable diaper, 5 birth announcements with envelopes, and a booklet of baby names for you to choose from. She has a 'bottle mouth', so you can pretend to feed her. but she is  not a drink and wet doll, since she's stuffed.

    Real Baby has a heft to her, so she feels like holding a 'real baby', although she weighs a more child friendly carrying weight of 3 pounds . In fact, she is so realistic, that once my sister was selling baby slings she had made, at a street fair, using Unsentimental Niece's Real Baby to demonstrate the baby sling she was wearing. For some reason she had to run at some point. She tripped on the sidewalk and belly flopped...right on Real Baby. People came running to help her and ask if her baby was all right!

  Hasbro also made a Real Baby Newborn doll, which was 17 inches tall, and  was advertised as weighing 2 pounds. Newborn had a different face.

  That's today's doll. She came from the Room of Water, but she apparently stayed dry. Her outfit is a bit dirty, but she is smell free and in good shape. She'll be going on the sales page, so let me know if you have any interest in her. See you tomorrow.

Doll-A-Day 2023 #128: That Kid, One More Time

   Okay. Maybe you've had enough of hearing me go on about That Kid. After all, I've done several posts on him. I mean, he was a doll I had wanted since I was five years old. So I ended up with two of them. Then I found one online that worked, and had his box! So I bought a third. Well, he was a dream come true. He was wearing all of his original clothes, had his box and instructions, and most of his talk switches actually worked. But then our house caught fire.

   One of the first things Emma rescued from the house, while I was still in the hospital, was my working That Kid. He was in his box, on top of a shelf in the room below the room that burned. That room got drenched with water that came through the ceiling. So she went down there and brought him out. His box was soaked, and when I got out of the hospital and came here to stay, Emma had his box spread out on the floor with something pressing it, so that it would dry flat. Unfortunately, all the layers of the cardboard had permanently separated and the box won't really stay folded together as a box any more. But that's okay, right? What's more important is the doll, because he still works...or does he? Let me explain. That Kid has several switches throughout his body. He has a switch in his neck, a switch in one arm, one leg, his bottom, and in his back. When Emma got him down, his leg came off! His body isn't tightly sealed any more. It's a bit open. So I tried to see if I could stick his leg back in the socket. But the leg that fell off was the leg that was attached to the talk switch. And to get it back in I would have to pull the body apart a bit and fit it in. I haven't, because I'm afraid that if I do, I'll cause the other switches in the body that might still work to come loose. He might still have some working switches. Even though he got wet, that wouldn't affect his electronics since he didn't have a battery in, and wasn't activated while he was wet. I haven't tried him out yet. I'm almost afraid to. In any case, he now only has one attached leg, and his box is pretty bad.

  So as you know, my sister and I went to a doll show recently. Before we even got in the sales room, we shopped the tables outside the room. That's where I saw a That Kid on a table. I looked at him, and we were talking about him. He was in pretty nice condition, as far as he had all his original clothes, shoes, socks and hat, all his eye lashes and hair. He had red marks on his cheeks and lip, like my boy who came with his box. Then the dealer said he had his slingshot. The slingshot is always missing. It's the hardest thing to find. He was only $55, and the dealer wasn't sure if he worked. She said he had at one point, but she couldn't get his battery door off. I made a rash decision. "I'll take him!" She said she'd let me have him for $50...after I said I'd take him! $55 was an amazing price for one so nice that night work. Then she says, "He's got his box,,."   He has his box too?! So even though I have been trying not to spend too much money, and not get any more big dolls, I brought him back with me. Emma said, "Why?" Uh, because mine got flooded and his box got ruined...and you pulled his leg off? Seems like those are some pretty good reasons.

  So here's my new boy. 

Complete with his box!

He's a happy boy!

Of course I love him. He has red hair, freckles, and teeth!

He does have that red stuff on his face though. It's a sign of a doll that's been kept in his box. They almost always have that.

It's from that red strip in the inside of the box lid. It rubs those points of the face and the ink stains the face. Emma said to try a Magic Eraser cloth very carefully. I haven't been brave enough yet.

 

He has all his original clothes. The shirt is no surprise. They almost always have the shirt because you can't get it off over their big giant heads! He also has his hat, and his original box insert that he was hooked to. My other box doesn't have that.

His original shoes aren't too bad, considering a lot of them have had all the toe rubber harden and chip off.

Original red socks and orange shoe laces too.

And the ever elusive slingshot is mine at last!

It is missing the rubber part. The dealer had it stuck in his pants. Actually there's a hole in the bottom of his pocket that it goes through, to fit in a slot in his bottom.

He doesn't have his instructions, but the other ones I have survived pretty unchanged. Emma dried them out for me when she brought him home.

He had a bit of a smoke and perfume odor. He smelled worse than the inside of my mom's purse. But he's airing out pretty well.

I haven't tried him out yet because we keep forgetting to buy batteries when we're out. And I almost never go out. I've been really sore and achy lately, and always have something to get done. So I hardly even want to go anywhere. I'm hoping we remember to get some batteries tomorrow.

If he does work, here's what he would say:

Right arm, activated when you lift it: Hey! That's my pitching arm!
Right leg, activated when you sit him down: Gee whiz, can't I come along?
Back (called the 'hug button'): Put me down. You're funny looking.
Neck,(activated when you tug his ear, thus tilting his head left or right):Let go of my ear!
Pocket (When the slingshot is removed):Put that back or the monster will get you.

  That Kid was made by Hasbro, and is considered the first interactive doll, since he said different things depending on what part of him was activated. He was only available in 1967, and he cost a whole $12. 

Or even $15.88!

That was nothing to be sneezed at back then. I saw him in the catalog and fell in love. Unaware that he was only available that year, I put him on every Christmas and birthday list for ages. I still have the picture of him I cut out of the catalog the year he was sold.

I think it must have been this one. The pose is the same, and the background is white. I cut around him and saved just him. I did get the Little Miss No Name I wanted that year. Luckily, since she was only sold that year too. From this picture I always imagined him to be about the same size as Little Miss No Name, but he's a big boy. He's the same size as Chatty Cathy, but comes off as much bigger, because he has a big head and a beefy body.

  So that's today's doll. Sorry for the repetition, but I have been very excited. And at least I haven't posted every Mrs. Beasley I've got separately!

Doll-A-Day 2019 # 262: My Buddy

  I have been clearing a lot of stuff out. In doing so I came across this guy.

He's My Buddy.

My Buddy was first made by Hasbro in 1985.

It was an attempt to make a doll that appealed to boys.  This was a big deal at the time. Dolls were considered girls playthings,so there was a bit of controversy.

The original version had removable clothes, shoes,and socks. This is the later My Buddy He has a non-removable shirt,removable overalls, and 'built in' shoes that were part of his feet.

He also came with a blue baseball cap type hat. This guy still has the remnants of his hat on each side of his head.

My Buddy also came as a brunette,and an African American. There was also a 'Kid Sister',which was a doll made to appeal to girls. In the 90's production of My Buddy switched to Playskool,who produced the version we're looking at today.
  You can watch the original commercial for My Buddy HERE.
  And if My Buddy reminds you of Chucky,from the "Child's Play" and Chucky movies. there's a reason for that. According to Chucky's creator, Don Mancini, "The director went out and got a 'My Buddy' doll, A Raggedy Ann, a Raggedy Andy and one of those life-size baby infants." But what he told the designer was that he wanted something like My Buddy. He described the character in the original script as "wearing red-buttoned overalls, red sneakers, striped sweater, with red hair, blue eyes, and freckles." He even originally named the character 'Buddy', but had to change it because it was too close to My Buddy.
  And on that note I bid you goodbye for another day. See you again tomorrow.