Doll-A-Day 2023 #54: Candi

   Today's doll is a little scary looking. She's Candi.

Candi times 3.

Candi was made by Mego in 1979. She always looks a little pale and weird. That's because she was one of those dolls you are supposed to do the make-up on, like Mary Make-up. Her vinyl had to contain less plasticizer than normal, since the plasticizer not only holds the pigment in the 'skin' of the doll, it also holds stains. Since you were supposed to be able to remove the make-up you put on Candi, the plasticizer had to be weak. That meant that, over time, her colouring faded. Some Candi dolls maintain their original skin tone, but most of them look like this.

This one looks like she has maintained her colouring. Unfortunately, she has one leg that keeps falling off. It snaps back on, but then will fall off again.

You could also colour her hair...her big hair.

Oh, here's that leg situation. 

Candi came in two sizes, these 11 and a half inch dolls, and 19" dolls. There were extra fashions and a fully furnished house.

 There was even a Candi styling head called the Color 'n Curl Make-up center.You can see a commercial for Candi's own house HERE.

  There was also a fashion doll sized Candi doll designed by Mikelman. This isn't it.

  These Candi dolls came from our house. They were downstairs, and were not smokey or wet. But Ken brought them back with a bunch of other stuff so I could see if they were wet. They are not part of my collection and just need to go. If anybody wants them, you can have them all for $10 and shipping. Leave a comment if you're interested, but don't forget your contact information.

  That's the doll for today. Of course, tomorrow there will be another one.

Doll-A-Day 2019 #187: Dorothy

  Today's doll is a very familiar girl.

She's Dorothy, from the Wizard of Oz.

At certain angles the resemblance to Judy Garland,who played Dorothy in the 1939 film,is quite good.

This particular Dorothy was made for two years, 1975 and 1976.

She was made by Mego. When most people think of Mego they think of their line of superhroes,or Star Trek figures. But Mego made a whole line of Oz dolls to go with Dorothy. Other characters made were the Tin Man, the Scarecrow,the Lion,the Wizard himself,the Wicked Witch and Glinda the Good Witch. There were also three Munchkins made: the Mayor of Munchkinland,a member of the Lullaby League,and a townswoman.

There was also an Emerald City play set,which included a folding yellow brick road,a witch's castle playset,with the witch's crystal ball and a cauldron,and a playcase that included Dorothy's house and Munchkinland. The Munchkins were smaller, but the other figures measure 8 inches tall.
One of the great things about Mego figures is their posability. They're jointed at the neck, shoulders, elbows,wrists,hips,knees,ankles,and two joins in the midsection,with a ball joint.

 

This allows for some nice posing possibilities.
 

But there are problems. For one thing she can't sit very modestly.

And then there's this.

These Mego figures are strung with rubber bands,and are often found in two pieces,from the stringing disintegrating over the years. Even if they're still together they can become very loose and lose their ability to be posed. They get floppy.
  Dorothy came in her trademark gingham dress.

Her dress closes in the back with snaps. Oh the good old days before Velcro!

  It's fairly screen accurate,except for the sleeves being too long.

She originally also had white ankle socks and ruby slippers too. Her hair is in braids,which is the way Dorothy dolls' hair is usually done.

 

That's not screen accurate though. She has a twist at the beginning,and then maybe a very short braided bit, and then just curls. Mostly curls.

That's the doll for today. See you again tomorrow for another one.

Doll-A-Day 2017 #257: Baby Sez So

    UPDATE: Thanks to our reader Rachael, all mysteries have been solved. For lots of great information and pictures of this doll and how she works, please go HERE. It's a page on vintage doll repair and they know all about her.

 The doll today is one I could use some help with. She's Baby Sez So.

This is her original dress.

 She was made by Mego in 1976.

She's 17" tall.

 

She has a battery compartment in her bottom.

She also has a speaker.

And there are prongs on the plastic decorations on her dress that fit into holes in her chest.

She must have had undies that had a prong too.

When the decorations are pushed I can hear that they are trying to activate some kind of sound mechanism,but there's no talking or anything.
There's also some do-dad in the back of her neck. It doesn't seem to push in though.

Her mouth looks like it might move too. I have been able to find out that she came with a spoon and a bottle,and that pressing the inside of her mouth activates her.

But to do what? Maybe she chews? Sucks on her bottle? Makes eating sounds? All of those?

If anybody knows, let me in on it. I put a battery in, but nothing happened besides the sound when I pushed the things on her dress.
  That's it for today. Come back tomorrow for the next doll.

Best Buy of the Summer So Far

 I just thought I'd share a good yard sale deal I got recently.I got all this stuff for $1!

 In case you can't see everything, the haul includes some Legos,unopened Disney Princess Mini Pets,some Littlest Pet Shop animals, wooden 1/6 scale furniture,unopened Girl friends 18" doll boots,the Bionic Woman, a Mego type guy with half an arm missing(If anybody can identify him, please leave a comment.),a few Barbie accessory pieces,and part of the booth set from the MiWorld Dairy Queen set.
  It was a pretty good bunch of stuff for a dollar. The Bionic Woman is even wearing shoes.The outfit is her original, but the shoes were from another outfit.I got all this at one place. Not much was priced. I just put a pile together and was ready to haggle a price. I didn't need to though, because when I took it up to the lady running the sale she just said, "A dollar."
  I haven't done nearly as much yard saling this summer as I have in previous years. I have just been too tired to get up early enough to make it worth it. My thyroid is off and my sleep/wake cycle has been off ever since I had to drive everybody to work and pick them up late at night. It's been quite a while since I had to do that, but I never got my schedual back on track. As it is, I'm just tired all the time. I'm also finding it hard to deal with the heat this summer. It makes me so lethargic. We don't have air conditioning, so there's no escape.This weekend there were several church sales and two of what I refer to as a 'Yard Sale City',(community yard sales). One Yard Sale City was the biggest one in town. So I made myself get up early on Friday and get out to the sales. I had trouble sleeping Thursday night, so I ended up getting about an hour and a half's sleep.On Saturday I was so tired from getting up early Friday after getting so little sleep, that I didn't wake up until late. I went anyway, and I did pretty well. I'll show you what I got this weekend in a few days.

Doll-A-Day 238: Cher

   Today's doll is Cher, by Mego.

Although Cher dolls came in various original outfits, this one seems to be the most common.

Cher was produced by Mego from 1976 to 1981.

 At 12 and 1/4" tall, the Mego women look kind of like Amazons next to Barbie and friends.

Look at the length of those rooted eyelashes!

Mego made dolls of a lot of famous people, including Sonny as well as Cher,most of the various Charlie's Angels, The Captain and Tennille, Suzanne Somers,Diana Ross,and Laverne and Shirley. Unfortunately, the likenesses weren't always that great.

It seems the culprit wasn't always the sculpts, but the paint jobs. I've seen artists repaints of some of the aforementioned Mego dolls,including this Cher, that look amazingly like the real people they were made to depict.(And much more like them than the original Mego paint jobs.)

This Cher looks a lot more like her than you would at first think, when you see the doll from certain angles.

She has jointed wrists, and her hands were actually molded with Cher's trademark long fingernails.

A lot of the Cher dolls I have seen have had their fingernails cut by the little would-be manicurists who used to own them.

The hair on these Cher dolls is usually frizzy, and often they have lost a lot of hair, leaving them looking bare around the face.
Tomorrow is Skipper Saturday, and I'll be showing you a special doll Ken got me as an anniversary present.