I am continuing to get better. I'm still blowing my nose constantly,and coughing my head off,and I'm still sleepy. I don't think I'm going to be doing
very much any time very soon,but things are better.
As for today's doll, she was supposed to be yesterday's 'interesting doll'. But once I looked at her photos I realized that her time in a bag with a doll with disintegrating hair had left her with a strange golden 'five o'clock shadow' in her eyes and mouth that my blind old eyes couldn't see while taking the pictures. So she had a reshoot today. Typically,the first pictures were the best, so I still used some of them.
Today's doll is another from my friend Connie's collection. It's this lady
She's Hot Canary.
She's from a series of dolls made by Topper Toys.
The series was called Go-Go dolls.
As you may be able to tell, these dolls were made in the 1960's. 1965,to be exact.
There were eight dolls in the series.
Besides Hot Canary,there was Yeah Yeah,Private Ida,(a spy? Private detective?),Slick Chick,Tomboy, The Swinger,who obviously loves to dance,Cool Cat, a folk musician,and Brenda Brush,an artist,and Hot Canary,(a chanteuse).
The faces are all similar, so they look like a series,but different,
according to their theme. For instance, Tomboy has a blackeye, Brenda
Brush has her eye squinted and her tongue out in concentration, Private
Ida has heavy black eye make-up, Cool Cat and Hot Canary both have their
mouths open in song.
It looks like all the dolls except Swinger came with an accessory that fit their theme. Hot Canary has a microphone stand.
 |
| I swear this thing had two of those feet on it when I brought it home. |
The stand is held to her arm by a metal clamp!
The dolls came in plastic cases,with various coloured bases. I got these Go-Gos cases in some auction stuff. I kept them, even though they were empty,hoping to fill them some day! Of course the doll I got doesn't go to either case!
The case on the left goes to Private Ida. It still has the insert.
The case has a place in the bottom for the stand that Hot Canary is standing on.
The stand fits and locks into the slot in the bottom.
They all have bendy one piece bodies,with wires inside to make them posable.They're kind of like Barbie's sister Tutti.
And seem to have at least one of the same problems. Hat Canary's wire seems to be working it's way out her finger tips.
The dolls have rooted hair. Hot Canary has an interesting upsweep.
If I had to guess, I'd say that her hairdo is made from a middle parted long haired wig that's put on backwards and upside down!
Her red satin dress is very similar in style to Barbie's Solo in the Spotlight dress.
To go along with that, Solo in the Spotlight also came with a microphone stand.
Hot Canary has red high heeled mules,also similar to Barbie's shoes.
Hot Canary's matching jewelry is made from red and clear beads.
Apparently the dolls were also sold in a set, with a single doll, and six of the other dolls' outfits. I came across this online:
 |
| I don't use other people's artistic photos,only boxed things for reference,but I'll still remove it if asked. |
**UPDATE** I've learned that the dolls were also sold as 'The Luckies',after the Go-Gos run ended,before being dropped by Topper in 1967. (Thanks to Chris Timmons.)
 |
| Photo courtesy of Anthony Louis Alcaide. Thanks! |
My favourites of the series are Tomboy and Brenda Brush. Hot Canary is pretty cool though. She'll be staying.
Chris Timmons also contributes this information, (and the following photos):
"
My late auntie Leah also
worked for Topper Toys in Elizabeth New Jersey from the early 1960’s to
when the plant closed the end of 1973. She had a large rare collection of
dolls lots of rarities items never released... towards the end of the run for the
Go Go’s and The Luckies sets Topper had several prototype heads with
rooted not glued on hair. This is swinger ( some of these sets did manage
to get released to to public, not many though, making these sets
extremely rare htf and valuable.), rooted hair version... the rooted hair dolls are
pretty rare. Topper had prototypes for swinger, cool cat, and tomboy only
none of the others had rooted hair types. "
"My aunt received a few sets at
a Christmas party the plant had in 1966. They gave their female
employees Penny Brite sets, along with The Go Go’s and Luckies sets. The
males received Johnny Lightning sets, along with The Tigers sets as gifts."
Doesn't that sound great?! I want to go back in time and work for them!
That's it for today. See you again tomorrow for another doll.
