Doll-A-Day 2023 #338: Marx or Miner Dollhouse Family

   Today's doll is a whole family.

I think they're by Marx, but, while these guys abound on the internet, most people don't seem to know who they were made by. I can see why: They don't seem to have any markings on them. Maybe those are under their clothes. I think they're from the 60's. They could be 1970's.

UPDATE: I found them online, in their original box. While they may have been sold by various companies, the boxed set I found was the 'Bend-A-Family' by Miner Industries of New York, and made in Hong Kong.

  They're standard dollhouse size. The adults are about 6 inches tall. The kids are about 2 and a half inches tall.

 The mom has teeny tiny buttons on the front of her dress.

  They're made of rubber, and have wires inside for posing.

Her legs are a bit wonky.

There are two kids, a little boy, in blue and white gingham, and a little girl in pink, (that might have originally been red), and white gingham.

 

The girl had a red skirt, and the boy had blue shorts.

He looks like he's saying, "Whaaatt?!"

The dad has a glued on shirt and pants, and badly done tie.

  I ran across these guys in storage the other day. They aren't the cleanest, so sorry for the grime!

  That's it for today. See you for the next doll tomorrow, or maybe tonight!

  

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 2023 #11: Marx American Family Dollhouse Boy

**UPDATE: Thanks to our reader, Beth, for letting us know that this boy is from the American Family Dollhouse Family by Marx. Thanks Beth!**   

Today's doll is another little fellow. He's this boy by Marx.

  I don't know much about this kid. He's about 4 inches tall.  

I know he's made by Marx, in Hong Kong.

He has books under his arm.

And as you may have seen, a slingshot in his back pocket.

So are the books just a ruse, to make him appear studious? While he's planning on shooting rocks through your window?

He has white 'sneakers', as they said in the Old Days.

He has some wear. I've heard of digging your heels in, but this kid appears to have dug his toes in. And off.

His hair is molded and painted.

But I have always wondered what set he's from. He doesn't look like your standard dollhouse or playset kid. He has a smart aleck look about him. He reminds me of a Chuck Jones character. (Chuck Jones was an animator and director, known for the later Warner Brothers cartoons, and "How The Grinch Stole Christmas". You know a Chuck Jones character when you see it!)

Looks like he's 'had his nose to the grindstone' too...

In fact, he reminds me a lot of the the animated version of the main character from the movie "The Phantom Tollbooth". 

Not enough hair on the doll though, and I'm sure they didn't make toys from the movie.

  "The Phantom Tollbooth" is a wonderful kids book by Norton Juster. I loved that book as a kid, and read it to Emma, I believe, when she was small. The movie I didn't like as much. (Apparently Norton Juster hated it.) It was directed by Chuck Jones, who had previously directed the Academy Award winning short film adaptation of Norton Juster's "The Dot and the Line", in 1965. "The Phantom Tollbooth" starred Eddie Munster...uh. I mean, Butch Patrick!

I guess Butch Patrick looked a little like a Chuck Jones character himself.

  The story concerned a crabby, bored kid named Milo,(Patrick), who comes home from school one day to find a mysterious package in his room. The package contained a build it yourself kid sized tollbooth and a kid sized car. With nothing else to do, Milo puts the tollbooth together, and as per the instructions, chooses a random place to go in The Kingdom of Wisdom, and drives through it. When he does, his room disappears and he enters into a different world. (In the movie, this is the point where everything becomes animated.) I always got a sort of Alice in Wonderland feeling from it. (The book, not the movie.) The previous "The Dot and the Line" used math to tell a story. 'Tollbooth' uses words. No. I mean it really uses words. It's full of imaginative word play. Unfortunately, not only kids, but most adults these days, might not get most of the puns, but that's all the more reason to read the book! 

  The movie was released in 1970, but filmed in 1968, which still means Butch Patrick was FIFTEEN when he appeared as Milo! No wonder he looks a little uncomfortable in that tiny car!

  A remake of "The Phantom Tollbooth" has been in the works since 2010. No recent word of the likelihood of it ever actually being made.

  That's the doll for today. I kind of strayed off on a tangent, didn't I? Sorry about that! If anybody can identify this kid, please leave a comment. See you tomorrow for another doll.

The Toys of Christmas Past: Lori's Photos Part Five:Christmas 1972, and Some Other Toys Besides

  This is the last post on my friend Lori's old Christmas photos. Since it's the last one,and there are very few things in the Christmas photos, I thought I'd throw in some of Lori's birthday photos and random pictures containing toys.
  To start with, here is a photo of Lori with one of her all time favourite toys. It's Marx's Tony the Pony.

  Tony was a ride on toy that ran on one gigantic battery.
 

You can check out a video of a little girl riding a very noisy Tony the Pony HERE. Lori remembers her mother had to order a lot of replacement batteries for her Tony!
  Lori tells me she loved horses as long as she can remember. In fact, she told me that her first word was 'dog' and her second word was 'horse'. No word on when she said 'doll',but chances are it was much later. In spite of that,and probably greatly influenced by her own love of dolls, Lori's mom, Norma bought her loads of dolls. In the photo above you can see Lori also had the first Barbie Dreamhouse. (On the right.) 
  I guess the cowgirl outfit went with the love of horses. I had one too. Mine was a hand me down from a cousin, I think. I was always very into costumes and being other people. I loved being characters,so the cowgirl outfit was just my thing. Of course, I also had a trench coat and a real felt fedora. (I have no idea where the hat came from.)

  Lori apparently had two cowgirl outfits. And in this photo you can see that she also had a toy German shepherd.

But, as I said, Norma bought Lori dolls too. Here is Lori, dressed very out of character in a sort of hippy outfit,with her Crissy doll.

Crissy was a grow hair doll made by Ideal. There was a whole line of Crissy and family dolls. She had a couple of cousins,Cinnamon, (You can see my post on Cinnamon HERE.),and her sister Velvet,and friends like Mia. (You can see my post on Mia HERE.) I once found a whole wall full of shelves full of Crissy and friends dolls at BOTH Goodwill and Salvation Army. You can see a couple of posts about that weirdity HERE, and  HERE.

Crissy is wearing a fashion called Fun Fur Cape, and underneath it what appears to be an outfit called The Peace Poncho,which had a pale green knitted poncho,short sleeved top of green, chartreuse, or floral print,a peace sign necklace,and tan coloured bell bottom pants. Both outfits were sold with black shoes. The weird thing for me in doing these posts has been seeing grown up Lori's face on this little kid. I've known her since middle school, and she really does look exactly the same as she looks in this picture,only with gray hair now.

Lori had a very familiar chimp doll. This guy is Zippy,or one of the many Zippy lookalikes. You still see similar chimp dolls sometimes. I saw one as a prize at a fair just a few years ago.

  This is one of Lori's birthdays. It's 1968,and the doll is Tippee Toes,made by Mattel.

Tippee Toes came with a tricycle and a horse.

There's Lori's Tippee's tricycle.

You may remember from one of the previous posts in this series that Lori had Dancerina too. Well guess what: she also had Tumbling Tomboy.

That's Lori in the red and yellow shirt, and her mom Norma helping with the toys. Tumbling Tomboy's box is on the left. If you look on the far right you'll see 'Tumbling' herself,face down on the floor. I wouldn't mind having a Tumbling Tomboy. Looks like somebody else got the Fisher Price Schoolhouse.

 Also in the second Tippee photo above you can see Lori's Krazy Kar,and a horse, of course. The Krazy Kar,made by Marx, was round and was operated by cranking the handles on the big wheels. The wheels could be moved independently and the Kar could be made to go in circles,backwards, and forward. I found one at a yard sale years ago and Ivy LOVED it. She nabbed it right away. I suppose she was the only one of the kids small enough for it at the time anyway, but she did really love it and claimed it for herself. It's in our basement now, waiting for those grandkids I'm never going to have.
  In the picture below,it's Lori's birthday in 1969. She got a Super Spirograph. Spirograph is another of Ivy's favourites. I only had a Spirotot, and a Spirofoil,but Ivy has a load of Spirograph toys,including a Spirotot,several different vintage Spirograph sets, a Spirofoil, a Twirlograph and a Magic Designer,the latter two being early Spirograph type toys. She's 19 now, and still likes to Spirograph sometimes. She even took some Spiro pieces and her gel pens to college with her.

The Barbie fashion in the striped box seems to be Firelights.

If anybody knows what any of the other things are, please leave a comment.   Now we come to the Christmas pictures. This seems to be the Christmas of 1972.               

I can't quite make out what the box under the tree is,and there seems to be a styling head at the front right. But look at that row of horses front left. She used to get Breyer horses. I may have even bought her some way back when. She still has a bunch of Breyer horses.

  

Looks like Lori got a sleeping bag this Christmas,and maybe a pair of ice skates to the left of the sleeping bag?

  The center of the picture shows something called a Vertibird. Made by Mattel,Vertibird was a tethered electronic helicopter. (A 'vertibird' is a vertical take off and landing aircraft.) You can see a commercial for it HERE. On the right you can see a game called Manhunt. Manhunt was an electronic board game made by Milton Bradley. It's described on the box as 'the electric computer detective game'. You can see a video about how to play the game HERE. 
  The best thing under the tree, to me, is the game at the front left. It's open and you can see part of the game setting on the left, and the inner lid on the left. It's Seance by Milton Bradley.
  Seance looks so cool! I think I would have loved it, and I think doll people can appreciate it. The game didn't have a board. It had more of a setting,or scene. There were cardboard pieces to build a drawing room, with walls, a 'wooden' floor with ornate rug,a parrot cage on a stand,and a set of chairs. For the center of the room there was a large plastic desk with 'carved' legs. The players of the game vied to inherit the most valuable objects from 'Uncle Everett'. There were tiny stock certificates and jewelry and a painting of Aunt Zelda. The gimmick was that the desk contained a little record player! A two sided record played random messages from Uncle Everett, telling the players what they had inherited,or maybe that they had inherited nothing,when a switch on the side of the desk was activated. When all the objects were inherited the record was turned over and Uncle Everett would tell the players the value of their objects or how much they owed in taxes. Whoever ended up the farthest ahead was the winner.
  The game is considered a 'sequel' or companion game to Milton Bradley's earlier game, 'Voice of the Mummy', which featured a record player in the mummy's sarcophagus.
  You can see a video showing all the game components HERE.You can see and hear the game working HERE. And if you're really interested,you can read a post about the game HERE. It sounds like fun,but it's very expensive to buy these days!
  Well, that's it for Lori's photos. I may not be back until after Christmas, but when I do come back,it will be with a review if the newest doll from Maru and Friends. And don't forget to check back New Year's day for the first Doll-A-Day of a whole new year of a different doll every day!  

The Toys of Christmas Past: Lori's Photos Part Four: 1965 and 1966

  There are only two photos in this post,but there are still some interesting toys. We'll start with Christmas, 1965.

  In this photo four year old Lori is holding her Baby First Step doll. You can see my post on Baby First Step for a better look at one of the dolls, HERE. The gimmick for this Mattel doll was that she operated on batteries and actually walked. You can watch a video of the doll walking HERE. There were later versions of Baby First Step, including a talking version. Lori's is the first version though. You can see a commercial for the original version HERE.
   That's the only photo from 1965.so let's move on to Christmas, 1966.

  On the left is the Budding Beauty Vanity and matching stool,by Marx. I remember seeing those in the Christmas catalog when I was a  kid.

You can see the commercial for the Budding Beauty vanity HERE.
  On Lori's right there's a Hasbro Talking Telephone. It's the red one, which was the Mickey Mouse Talking Telephone. You can see a commercial for the Mickey Mouse Talking Telephone HERE. There were several others,including Snow White, Jungle Book, and Mary Poppins. You can see the commercial for the line of Hasbro Talking Telephones HERE.  The phones ran on batteries and used records to make them talk. There were 8 two sided records included with each phone.
  The green cube also on Lori's right is a Suzy Homemaker washing machine. Suzy Homemaker was made by Topper. There was a whole line of Suzy Homemaker
 appliances, like stoves that really baked, washing machines that really washed clothes, and a blender that really blended. I had the Suzy Homemaker blender. You can watch a commercial for the Suzy Homemaker line HERE. You can watch a video of the washing machine at work HERE. Note that it was referred to as a washer and dryer, but the only thing it did to dry was spin the water out. That's what's known as the 'spin cycle' on a washing machine, and not a drier!
  The doll Lori is holding is also made by Topper.
 

She's Baby Magic.

Baby Magic had a gimmick. She had several actions, all of which were operated without actually touching the doll.

'She does all this without touching her.' But is she 'the greatest doll ever invented'? Come on. Isn't that a bit of a huge claim?

 To say she did it all without needing to be touched was a bit misleading. She didn't have to be touched, but the actions did require a magnetic thimble to be waved over her in certain ways.

For example, to make her cry you waved the magnet over her eyes in a horizontal direction. To make her eyes open and close the magnet was waved up and down in front of her eyes. You can see her wink HERE. You could also make her riase her arms, which made her smile. Then you could press her arms down, which would change her smile to a frown. Sears offered a bunch of exclusive accessories and a nightie. Not sure if they were actual Topper Baby Magic things, or if they were just generic things Sears offered as part of their bundle.

 
  There's one more post on Lori's Christmas photos. After that we'll see my review of the newest doll from Maru and Friends. And soon we'll be off on a new year of Doll-A-Day!