Doll-A-Day 2023 #105: Japanese Midge

   Today we're looking at a doll you don't see often. I saw her at the doll show last Saturday. 

  Midge is, of course, Barbie's first best friend. She was introduced in 1963. She came as a red head, a blonde, or a brunette. She had freckles and a friendly face, much less sophisticated looking than Barbie. She was discontinued in 1967, when her head sculpt was turned over to Barbie's new best friend, PJ. But in between the introduction of Midge and the introduction of PJ, there was another Midge.  Her name was New Midge, but she's known to collectors as Japanese Midge.

That's because she was sold only in Japan, and only in 1964 and 1965. (I've also seen it as 163 and 1964.)

  She had the same body as U.S. Barbie and Midge, but her own unique head sculpt, which was never used for any other doll.

This doll has had her rubber head band replaced with a ribbon. The head bands on Fashion Queen Barbie and Wig Wardrobe Midge are actually removeable, (and can be put back on), but why would you do it?

   Another fairly unique feature was that she was a wig doll. She had a sculpted head of hair, like Fashion Queen Barbie, or the lesser known Wig Wardobe Midge. She had the same rubber headband they had, in blue, and she came with a brown wig.

  Most Japanese Midge dolls seem to have come in the brunette wig. This rare Japanese dressed box doll has a blonde one.

The box is unusually large, and she comes with a very rare black plastic stand with her name on it, like the earliest Barbie stands. Not all the Japanese dressed box dolls came with the blonde version of the New Midge wig.

   That's the doll for today. And that's the last of our posts on dolls from the most recent doll show, except for the few things I brought home. We'll see them starting tomorrow. 

DOll-A-Day 2019 #112: 35th Annversary Midge

  Today's doll is another anniversary one.She's this girl:

She's 35th Anniversary Midge.

Midge was Barbie's first friend,(besides Ken.)

Midge made her debut in 1963. The box date on this doll is 1997,but her 35th anniversary would have been 1998. You can also see her original price, $39.99. Not that bad really.

I think that, overall, Mattel did a great job with this Midge.

Her face paint looks pretty authentic,other than her lips being shiny.

Her hair is too silky though. 

 

Vintage Midge had sort of straw like hair,like Skooter. The doll they show on the back of the box appears to be a vintage Midge with her lips touched up.

 

This was a habit Mattel had with their early reproductions. The boxes and publicity photos usually showed the actual vintage doll,instead of the reproduction.This was misleading. I think they have stopped doing it now.
  Midge originally came as a blonde, brunette, or titian (redhead.) Most people think of her as a redhead though, so it was a good choice for Mattel to make the reproduction a redhead. My childhood Midge is a redhead. Modern Midge dolls have all been redheads.

Repro Midge comes with reproductions of her original booklet...

...white mules...

...and swimsuit...

Original Midge actually had three different original swimsuits, depending on her hair colour. Brunette Midge had a red and pink 2 piece,blonde Midge had a light blue/dark blue combo,and red haired, or titian Midge got stuck with this orange and chartreuse horror. Strangely enough,all the original boxes picture a red head in the blue swimsuit.

..as well as a wrist tag, which clearly says '35th Anniversary'...

'Clearly',although not in my photo!

..and a reproduction of her original box. 

Most people think of Midge in 'Senior Prom'. It really suits her,and looks great on a redhead. But Senior Prom wasn't actually Midge's. Midge had no clothes with her name on the label. (Although, after Midge's introduction,Mattel changed the name on the Barbie body mold to read 'Barbie and Midge'.) She shared Barbie's clothes. 'Senior Prom',like everything else Midge wore,(except her swimsuit), was labeled 'Barbie'.  It was still Midge's even to Mattel though,as that's the outfit they reproduced for her with this doll.

The dress is provided, along with the green mules with peal accents....

The pearls on these are flat on the back. The originals were round pearl beads.

...and the dimpled gold foil purse.

  That purse was used by Mattel for years. Oddly enough,that same gold foil purse,sometimes in silver,is still appearing in generic fashion doll sets! These days it's made of vinyl,and the colour doesn't peel off.
  I have the same complaint about the 35th anniversary reproduction Midge that I have with the 35th anniversary repro Barbie. The legs are too shiny,and have a mold line up the front of them,and the hands have ragged mold lines.

  They were a bit sloppy with that toenail paint.

  There is some variety in early Midge dolls. Some of them had very curly hair,a rare Midge without freckles,and there is a rare Midge that had teeth painted in the gap between her lips. If you buy one, be careful. Some of them have been faked. When the American Girl Barbie came out, an 'American Girl' version of Midge was also released. She had a shorter hairstyle that curled under,instead of over,bend legs, and a striped one piece swimsuit.
 

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

Doll-A-Day 2019 #62: Talking PJ

  Today's doll is Talking P.J..

   P.J. was Barbie's Mod Era friend.

P.J. first appeared in 1969,as a talking doll.

This doll is Talking P.J.,but unfortunately,she no longer talks. She does still have her pull ring though.

She also has a malady common amongst Barbie and her talking friends: her legs have fallen off.

Hanging on by a thread. Or,should I say, a rubber band...

Many Talking Barbie and friends dolls have had their legs fall off, even in boxes that have never been opened. They are the standard click bend legs of the era. 

I don't know why the talking dolls are prone to losing their legs. It might have something to do with the talking mechanism taking up space inside where a better leg joint should be.
  The Midge head sculpt was used for P.J.,which was fine, since Midge wasn't using it any more. Midge was discontinued in 1967.

These are P.J..'s original dress,shorts, and sunglasses.

The sunglasses are still attached to her head.

P.J. also came with beaded hair bands wrapped around her ponytails.She has very long rooted eyelashes and brown eyes,. (Yay! More brown eyes!),and some heavy duty blue eye shadow.

The next year,1970, Twist and Turn P.J. was introduced. She wore a bathing suit instead of the mini dress and bloomers that talking P.J. wore.

She had her own Sears exclusive gift set too,which included the doll, and an exclusive outfit called  Swingin N' Silver.

Live Action PJ was sold in 1971,and still used the Midge head sculpt. There was a gift set for her, called The PJ Fashion 'N Motion Gift Set.

   All further PJ dolls had the Steffie head sculpt.

Tomorrow we'll take a look at another doll.

Whoo Hoo! Recent Goodwill Finds

  I have made some really good finds at Goodwill in the last two weeks.

I got these three girls for a dollar each!

The Barbie and the Midge I got last week, and the Little Miss Revlon the week before.

Midge and Barbie have perfect face paint and all their hair. (Oh, I got some great old 78's at Salvation Army too: Cab Calloway and Billie Holiday for me, and Betty Hutton and Judy Garland for Ivy.)

They even have all their nail polish.

But as you can see, there are a couple of problems with Barbie.

The fairly small problem.

And the great big whopper problem.

The green ear is such a shame, considering how perfect she is otherwise. Her face is really pink...where it's not green.

These pictures were taken when I first got home after buying Barbie and Midge.I did actually manage to clean some of the green off. (And of course, I removed her earrings.) Luckily she has big pouffy hair. I washed her and managed to bring a side curl over to hide most of the green. Someday I might try to remove the green, but I've heard the stuff that removes the green can also start taking off the face paint and change the hair colour if it gets too close. With my luck she'd turn out even worse than this. For now I can use that side curl and turn her a bit sideways!

Little Miss Revlon has some mild green ear herself. Her dress is pretty, but homemade, and has never even had the snaps put on. She is wearing real Little Miss Revlon undies and bra though.
  I went back to Goodwill the day after I found Barbie and Midge to see if their clothes had shown up. No such luck. After I bought them I began to wonder if they were Barbra and Mardge McDorm. I figure they have to show up someday, and when they do, I'll be there to find them!