Doll-A-Day 2023 #99: Timey Tell

   Remember a few days ago when I told you that when I was looking for that other shoe, for the Russian doll, at Goodwill, and in the process found a doll I bought to post? Well it was this girl.

She's Timey Tell. She's a cute doll, and if I had to guess, I would say she was sculpted by Martha Armstrong Hand,

 

Timey Tell was made by Mattel. 

The copyright on her back says '1964', but the look of her dress, and the fact that she's pictured in a catalog with other dolls from 1967, would make me think that the 1964 date is just a body mold date or something. I also see that she was available in the very early 70's, as she was pictured in ads with dolls like Playin Jane, and Crumpet, from 1971. The Strong National Museum of Play says she was 1970, so we'll go with that. She was probably made for a couple of years.

She talks, and has a pull string in her back and voice holes, (What do you call that?), in her chest.

 

But what does she talk about, and why is she called Timey Tell? Well, she has a gimmick. 

Her box looks more 1970's too.

On her wrist she has a 'magic' watch. 

No way is she going to lose that watch. It's riveted to her arm!

Like a dead parrot to a perch.

By setting the time on her watch, she is activated to tell you the time, and suggest an activity for that time. For example, at 4:00, she suggests a tea party. She came with a tea set for two to help with that.

She came with over 30 accessories. In fact, she came with an accessory 'for every hour'. That seems pretty amazing.  But when you take into consideration that she only has 12 sayings, and they figure a kid's not going to be up all night, she really only needs an accessory for each number on the clock. Some of her other accessories included a toothbrush and fake tube of toothpaste, a comb, a brush, a ring toss game, a hanger, and a dust pan. One of her activities seems to have been a nap, so I guess she didn't need an accessory for that, although I would prefer to have a blanket if I'm going to nap. She also came with a 'play watch' for the child who owned her. These days it could be a real watch. Of course, these days, nobody wears a watch any more.

  Timey's sayings included things like, "It's 6:00! Time for dinner.", and "12:00! Time to eat lunch."

  As you can see this timey has her original dress and shoes, but is missing her socks.

You can see what I mean about that dress. It definitely looks more late 60's or early 70's than 1964.

The suns have clock faces.

She has big blue eyes and one of those very Martha Armstrong Hand faces.

She has a big head of puffy blonde hair.

  She is variously described as being 17 or 17 1/2 inches tall.

She has the standard 5 points of articulation: neck, shoulders, and hips.

So she can sit down.

    As I said, I found her in the Goodwill toy department while trying to find Russian girl's shoe. I didn't want her for me, but she was so complete, in good shape, (except for she doesn't talk any more.), and she was cheap, and I thought someone might find her interesting enough for me to get  her for a post. So if anybody wants to take her off my hands for $5 and shipping, feel free. I keep being afraid I'm going to run out of dolls to post while I'm here. Things have been coming and going, so I've had stuff, but I am still about a week behind in my posts. One of these days I'd like to get caught up.

  And that's today's doll. See you again tomorrow for another one.

A Belated Christmas List

   I haven't been around for  while. As I've said before, it isn't as convenient to post when I don't have a computer of my own. (I have a cell phone, (without phone service) now, and everybody keeps telling me how I can do the blog on that. There's no way! I am terrible at typing on those things, and there's no way I can edit photos on there.) Also, I've been spending what time I can with Ivy, as she will be going back to college next month. As a consequence,  I am falling way behind in my posts. I never showed you my small doll show haul. I still will though. (I can't believe that was back in October! I didn't realize it was that long ago until I looked back to check on something!) I still need to show you Elasti Girl, from my Christmas presents, in more detail, and I made a very cool Goodwill haul recently. So I have a lot to do. But, it's like SNL character Middle Aged Man's gut: "I'm workin' on it!"

  I undecorated our Christmas tree, and I need to repack a few Christmas tubs to once again narrow down the main tub of things we put on the tree. I put even less stuff on this year than I did last time. I pretty much only put the following on the tree:

1. ornaments the kids made

2. ornaments with the kids' pictures, which are mostly ones they made at school

3. ornaments Unsentimental Niece made for me, or sold me when she was in Brownies

4. the ornament Emma sold for school

5. the Kermit ornament Lori bought me for Christmas about a million years ago, (70's or maybe early 80's)

6. ornaments our friend Kathy made for us when we got married, and our first married Christmas

7.  A couple of blown glass 'bubbles' that I love. I somehow ended up with two when Ken and the kids bought me one to replace one that got broken...but why are there two now?

8. mini stocking my mom gave me one year

9. sparkly ornament shaped gift tag Dad got on a Christmas present in the nursing home and gave to me. It was the last thing he gave me.

10. ornament my friend Lisa, (The one I visited in Texas), gave us when we got married

11. two ornaments I made in second grade

12. antique ornament Fuzz and I found on a thrown out Christmas tree on the way home from school one day when Fuzz was small.

13.our first Christmas together, first married Christmas, and first Christmas as parents ornaments

14. ornaments from Ken's sister Diane, including one that's a frame. I put a picture of Ken and all his sisters in it that was taken when we visited.

There's also the angel, and paper chains the kids made.

  That's most of the important stuff, right? I also snuck on a couple of my favourite ornaments, like the moon with a face I got at Harrods.When I find them I'll put a North Wind, and a snow fairy in the box. Those have always been two of my favourites.

Ken always insists on lots of lights. My rose shaped lights don't seem to work any more. I'll have to work on those. I do have the winged pig lights Emma bought for me because I love pigs though.

  I honestly didn't have any dolls on my Christmas list last year. I had recently fulfilled a couple long time wants with the Little Darling doll that kind reader Dorothy sent me, and the Savannah I got from TTBP Emily not long before Christmas. I really only have a few wants left. Most of those are hard to get or very expensive, so I wouldn't even ask for them. What are they? Well, if you have read any of my previous Christmas lists here on the blog, you'll know I wanted a Hamish, friend of Amelia Thimble. Well, I still do. 

He's quite pricey though. 

   I'd also still love to have a Helen Kish Lark doll. My favourite two are Creamcicle Lark, and Lark of the High Seas.

These are so far out of range I can't even see them!

  As I was telling Ken the other day, I still want a few more dolls to sort of complete a couple of collections. One collection is dolls made from the Drowsy head sculpt,(Like this one and this one and this one. There are also these ), and the dolls I still need are Teachy Keen and Baby Charlotte. The other collection is the talking, face moving dolls made by Mattel in the 60's. The dolls I need are Little Sister Look n Say, and Baby Secrets.

  I would love the Roldan doll I didn't buy at that last doll show,  and her Klumpe 'cousin', a girl with a suitcase. Of course, I would always love another Baps doll or Tiny Town doll, or more Caco dolls. I still haven't gotten my Animator's Collection Alice doll yet either.

I'm sure there are more I want if I think about it. (Of course there are!) Aready I'm thinking that I still would love to have Garden Patience, and I'd like to have a naked, bald Agnes Dreary to make into an Alice in Wonderland. (Look at the original illustrations. Alice was a grouchy looking kid.)

  I need to stop. I keep thinking of more!

  I promise there will be another post soon!

Doll-A-Day 2019 #199: Matty Mattel and Sister Belle

  My neck is a little sore today,but not too bad. It almost hurts more from my stretched neck muscles,(from having my head laid back so far while they did the biopsy,),than the needle punctures The bruise isn't as bad as last time either.

.
  Today's dolls are a cute little girl and boy.

He's Matty Mattel.

And she's Sister Belle.

Matty was Mattel's advertising mascot from 1955 to the early 70's.

From 1961 to 1963 Matty and Belle hosted a Sunday morning cartoon show called "Matty's Funday Funnies". The show included cartoons of Casper the Friendly Ghost and Beany and Cecil,all of which were also produced as dolls by Mattel. (You can see my post on Casper HERE.and my post on Beany HERE. And of course, in between the cartoons kids saw commercials for Mattel products.The Matty and Belle dolls appeared in 1961.

They measure about 17 inches tall,but of course, they can't stand unsupported. Both Matty and Sister Belle use the same head sculpt as...GULP!...Casper the Ghost!

"You never know what we'll say next." Well, we kind of do, because you only have certain sayings.(Ok,so you don't know what order they'll be in.)

 I've said it before, but Casper is kind of like the ghost of Matty Mattel! (You can see my post on Casper HERE.)
Matty and Sister Belle are talking dolls.
  

Her box REALLY wanted you to know that.

The box front manages to mention talking FOUR separate times!

The reason Mattel was so keen to push the talking aspect was because Casper,Matty,and Belle were their first talking dolls after the wildly successful Chatty Cathy,who had debuted the year before. You can watch a commercial for all three dolls HERE. All three dolls said 11 phrases, and were all voiced by legendary voice actress June Foray. June was also the original voice of Chatty Cathy,as well as a multitude of cartoon characters like Cindy Lou Who, Frosty the Snowman's Karen, George of the Jungle's Ursula, Mulan's Grandma Fa, Bullwinkle's friend Rocky the Squirrel,Tweety Bird's owner Granny, and Bugs Bunny's occasional nemesis Witch Hazel. June Foray passed away in 2017, just a few months short of her 100th birthday.
Matty and Belle are operated by pull strings on their necks.

It's really just the bottom of their hard plastic heads. The heads contain their talking mechanism.

 

They have firmly stuffed cloth bodies.

Matty's original owner decided her was Super Matty.

Matty is a little rough. He's also missing his red and white striped shirt,because my son really wanted Matty. I let him keep Matty and while he had him he changed Matty's clothes. The shirt has never reappeared, but these are his original shorts.

They have faint little stripes.

His shoes aren't removable.

He originally had a crown too. It kind of looked a Jughead style pork pie hat,but it was supposed to be a crown.The top of the crown resembled the jagged edges of the Mattel logo he appeared on.
  I got Sister Belle when Emma worked at Goodwill. She called me one evening while she was at work to let me know Belle had been put out for sale. I popped over and bought her. (Belle that is, not Emma.)

Belle has a red cloth body and a removable apron,with real pockets.

Her shoes aren't removable either.
 

 They also don't really unbutton at the sides. One of them has just come unsewn.
Matty was resurrected in 1979,when he began appearing on Mattel product packaging,calling attention to the product hotline number. Later he was used for a site called Mattycollector.com,which sold action figures for adult collectors. That version of Matty was grown and looked a bit grouchy and threatening.

Belle never reappeared.

    Those are today's dolls. I hope you'll come back tomorrow for more.

Score of the Summer

   This post is getting a bit out of date. The score of the summer took place a few weeks ago, before my demon neighbors started their...stuff. But it really deserves mention, because I may not get so excited about a find the rest of the year!
  A few weeks ago I had a short yard saling weekend because I spent Saturday with my friend Lori. I only went to three sales that weekend and one of them was the same place twice,BUT I made what will probably turn out to be the score of the summer. Technically my husband made it. That Friday morning I went to one sale, an estate sale I had seen the ad for the night before. I got some great stuff for great prices.

  

    
The Byers Choice Fence was $4, the Byers clock was $5, and the Byers fireplace,(My favourite!) was the best yet: $2! The Byers dogs were $1 apiece I think, and the Kindle guy was about $2.

  I also got some great stuff that will work great in my 1/6 doll house,especially the nautical bedroom I'm planning for the boys

  In the end they didn't actually charge me the real total, so the stuff was even cheaper! Plus they gave me the crate I carried my stuff in! Emma has been wanting one for her bike, so that works out great.
  They were telling people that everything would be half price on Saturday so before heading to Lori's I went back on Saturday morning to see if I could get some of the things I didn't want to pay so much for on Friday. My husband went with me that time, so we split up. I headed for the room with all the paper doll books, and the room with the beautiful Victorian celluloid and velvet photo album (with pictures!) that I showed in my basement flooding post,and the pretty antique lady print. The paper doll books and the print were gone, but the photo album was still there! Yeah!
    I also got a nesting doll for Ivy's collection, and some very pretty dishes. I got a really cute vintage porcelain baby bowl.I love antique children's cups and dishes.

  But while I was doing that Ken, who had gone down to the basement first, came into the room with only two things in his hand---but what a thing!! I nearly exploded. He had a Paddington, which didn't interest me,and Larry the Lion! A GORGEOUS Mattel Larry the Lion!

My new Larry!

Larry #2

  Larry is one of those things I have been after since I was a kid. He was on every Christmas and birthday list for I don't know how long. I think I was so obsessed with him because he was not only cute and unique looking, but he was on one of the TV screens included in the TV in our Barbie Dreamhouse. You can watch the original TV commercail for Larry HERE. (And you might recognize kid actors Pamlyn Ferdin, who was later on "Lassie",and Johnny Whitaker,who was Jody on "Family Affair".
 Larry is a Mattel Animal Yakker. 

From a 1965 ad for Animal Yakkers and Mattel talking dolls.

He's a pull string toy, and his mouth actually moves when he talks. 

Other Animal Yakkers were Crackers the Parrot,and Chester O'Chimp.

 He's really expensive, so I figured I would never get one.Then Ken actually got me one online years ago. I was glad to have a Larry, even if he was grungy and had no eyes.  He actually worked, and I thought I could try and rehabilitate him. But the kids and I were playing with him and his string broke, thereby silencing him forever. He was so grungy he wasn't worth having repaired.
  Then a few years later I found a nice Larry online for a really cheap price because they weren't calling him Larry the Lion. I think he was just listed as 'talking lion' or something. I don't remember how much he was, but it was affordable. Probably about $10.00.He was nice, missing a few partial whiskers, but clean and he worked and had eyes!

  I left him in his mailing box until I got a glass case to put him in. But when Ken walked in with Today's Larry he put Affordable Larry to shame! This new Larry is super clean and has silky hair and ALL of his whiskers. (#2 does have more of a beard.) He also works. I think his head may be a little droopier than Larry #2's. Ironically, #2 and #3 both have droopy heads, while #1 stands up straight and tall. I may make the poor guy some eyes after all.
   

As you can see, both #2 and #3 need to have their heads propped up.

  I'm keeping both of them. (Actually all three. Who has the heart to get rid of Larry #1, the poor blind mute. He was the answer to a life long yearning, after all.) And I can't believe not only that I hadn't found Larry the day before when I was there, but that he was STILL THERE! I did dig around a little in the top layer of the stuffed toy tub, but it looked like new stuff and I didn't feel like digging deeper. DUH! Ok, Ken found Larry, but he left behind this vintage Gund Pooh and this cute Knickerbocker Animals of Distinction musical lamb.

  

Ok, and here's another amazing part. Larry was half price, so he was...wait for it....50 CENTS!! Sometimes I dream stuff like this!! I might as well quit for the summer because if I find anything better than this Larry this summer I think I'll keel over.Oh, and they didn't charge for everything Saturday either, and they gave me one big tub, one under bed tub,and a smaller tub, all with lids. I love it when I get tubs.
  And the other garage sale I went to? I got a Mr. Peanut salt shaker for free, and a beautiful vintage mirror with an etched bird of paradise for $5.

   Now if I can just figure out where I can hang the mirror without making my plaster walls come down.