Toy Show Haul, Including Pippi Longstocking

   Holy cow. I have missed the Doll Book of the Month Club for the second month in a row. Honestly, I can't find my books. I brought two from Emma's that I was going to do when we moved back to the house, plus one here, and I can't find any of them. I really need to sort some books out.

  And it has been a month and a half since my sister and I went to the toy show, and I still haven't shown you what I got. Today I am taking a sit down day because yesterday my bad leg and my back were hurting so much, and I was so stiff, that I could hardly walk. So, it seems like a good time to look at that toy show haul.

  This toy show has loads of dolls. It seems like it has more dolls all the time. That's good, because I collect both. However, it's kind of messing up my old thing about getting good deals on dolls at toy shows because the dealers aren't used to dealing with dolls. A lot of these dealers are.

  I didn't buy much, and some of what I bought wasn't dolls. For instance, the set of limited edition Beatles cards that complete my 90's set.

  This mini guitar isn't a doll either. but it can be used with one.

These are quite expensive, but this one came with the case and a stand, (which I forgot to photograph), and it was only $15. 

  I bought something that is actually a doll, but it's going to be a gift for someone, so I'm not showing it. But I will show you this tiny doll.

He's marked My Toy 1965.

  He's about Kiddle size, at 4 inches tall, only with a very similar body, but a larger head. He originally came wearing a blue and white striped one piece outfit with a neckerchief. (I'm not sure if it was attached to the outfit, but I think so.)  He might be a My Toy Half Pint doll. If not, he at least has the same head and body, but may be a different series.

  The last thing I bought was this very familiar doll.

She's about 11 inches tall.

She's a 1972 Horsman Pippi Longstocking doll.

  Pippi is a much beloved character, from the books by Astrid Lindgren.

The dealer sold her to me for only $5, because she thought Pippi was in really bad shape! I forget how she put it, but she shrugged at my saying I'd take her for the $5 she asked, and said basically, that she was rough or something. She seemed to think she was beyond fixing! I don't really see much she needs though, besides her hair combed. She has her complete outfit, including shoes, socks, and undies. She has all her hair. She just needs her ponytails done up again. This version didn't have her hair braided, or sticking up.

  I have a weakness for red haired dolls, dolls with freckles, (Both things I never wanted myself. At least I avoided the freckles.), and dolls with goofy faces. Pippi dolls usually hit three bullseyes.

  So that's what I got. Doll shows seem to be over until about August. The next toy show I go to is in October. But I'll be around.  

Doll-A-Day 2017 #118: Pippi Longstocking

  Today's doll is Pippi Longstocking.

Pippi is based on the books by Swedish author Astrid Lindgren.

Lindgren's daughter Karin asked her mother for a story when she was home from school sick one day,thus Pippi was born.

Pippi was an unusual character.

Karin also named Pippi.

She lives with her monkey friend and her horse,but no adults. Pippi's clothes are patched.

She always wears thigh high, mismatched socks.

The first Pippi book was rejected when first submitted to a publisher in 1944, but was finally published in 1945.

She has some bright bloomers.

Lindgren went on to publish a total of 11 Pippi books.

Probably Pippi's most famous trait is her crazy red braids. They aren't supposed to curl up this much, but this girls braids won't stay in place.

This exact design was made in several sizes, including a tiny Pippi about 5" tall. This particular Pippi measures 16 tall to the top of her head,but her braids add another 3"!

Wow! Those sunspots in the lower right corner are pretty cool!

There have also been several Pippi movies made,and probably even more dolls.

This girl is made by Omega Toy.

The Astrid Lundgren licensing,sign of an authentic Pippi.

I have mentioned before that when I was in 6th grade there was a poster from the Pippi movie on the board that stood where we all lined up to go to lunch. I was embarrassed standing next to it, because I thought it looked like me.

 Other than I didn't have the freckles. I had to grow into my big teeth. Ok. They're still pretty big.

Tomorrow is another doll. See you then. 

Doll-A-Day 270: Soft Dolls Week: Hap and Hope

  Well, the week started off with a bang...quite literally.Yesterday on our way to the post office, a high school boy suddenly stopped his car halfway through a yellow light and I couldn't stop on the rainy pavement, and, with my brake pedal down I still slammed into the back of his car. His dad is a policeman, and I hit him right in the Fraternal Order of Police disc on his license plate. The van is still driveable as far as we can tell. (We're doing it at least.)The insurance adjuster is coming to look at it today. I'm being held responsible, due to the fact that, in spite of the other driver stopping unexpectedly after going part of the way through the light, and the road being wet, I was behind him and theoretically should have been able to stop when he stopped in front of me. Luckily no one was hurt, and only the vehicles suffered damage.Whew! I still feel sick about it. The poor van is smashed in in the front and the other car has a smooshed rear end. Somehow, the van got the worst of the injuries.
  Today's soft doll is actually two.They're Hap and  Hope.

Hope is wearing her original outfit. Hap came in a coordinating outfit to hers, but at the moment he's wearing the pants belonging to the "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" mouse, a shirt made from a cloth book cover, and a bow tie, made from a pre-made fabric bow and a couple of long twist ties. He belongs to my son Fuzzy, and this is an outfit he put together for him a while back! He also still bears the sticky mark of a band aid Fuzz put on his left hand many years ago.

Hap and Hope are soft rag dolls based on the artwork of Susan Perl.

They were made in 1979, by Determined Products .

I often see people selling Hope online as a Pippi Longstocking doll. She's not one, and now you know who she is.

Susan Perl was an artist who illustrated magazine articles, books, and the ever popular ads for children's clothes made by Health-Tex.

The Health-Tex campaign, using Susan Perl illustrations and the theme of  "The Handy Answers to Hard Questions Asked by Children in the Health-Tex Years", was so popular that it ran from 1966 until the early 80s. I assume it ended because Susan Perl died in 1983, at the age of 60.

'Health-tex' was short for 'healthy textiles', because that's what the clothes were supposedly made from.

When I was a kid I used to save the Health-Tex ads. Apparently I wasn't alone. Even adults used to write to Health-Tex requesting reprints of their ads with the Susan Perl artwork.

Oh the 70s. Look at those pants on the left, uh, and right...and in the middle...Actually, I had some like those in the middle...

 I didn't know they even made dolls of Susan Perl characters until we were doing a doll show when my son Fuzzy was tiny. I spotted Hope's 'brother',the red haired 'Hap' doll, in his box, all the way across the show.

When I checked him out I saw that he was a dour faced little red haired boy, just like Fuzzy, and that I recognized his face from the old Health-Tex ads.

This guy looks like Hap...except for the smile.

He was being sold with several extra outfits, still in their packages, including pajamas, a shorts and shirt outfit, and, as Fuzz called his favourite pants: 'hook up pants', (Overalls), with a doggie pocket. I bought him for Fuzz, and he was one of his special dolls, along with his Elephant, "Elephant", and a bear named "Stuffy".

Hap has a lot of attitude.

I didn't even know there was a Hope doll until I saw her online one day.

When I found Hope online she was also in her box and had her matching outfits to Hap's, including a red and white striped nightgown to coordinate with Hap's blue and white striped pajamas, a shorts outfit with a red shirt with kittens, to coordinate with Hap's blue shirt with puppies, and her own 'hook up dress', with a kitty pocket.

Hap has a matching green shirt with his picture on it, that says, "I'm Hap"...

...and his name on his jeans pocket.

Hope's shoe straps have snaps. Hap has slip on shoes in the same faux leather fabric.

 Hap and Hope are completely soft, old fashioned rag dolls. Their printed heads are also printed on the backs.

 They can't stand on their own. There's a lot of leaning and hanging on going on in these pictures.

Their arms and legs look very like Raggedy Ann and Andy's.

If they have struck your fancy,there are actually about 3 Hopes and two Haps on Ebay right now!(They're not mine, by the way.)

I had to have Hope for the same reason I have small figures from Hey Arnold, Chalk Zone, Jimmy Neutron, Arthur, and Toy Story: They represent my children's childhoods to me.

Happy memories.
  Tomorrow we'll look at another soft doll.

Doll-A-Day 240:Red Heads Week: Georgette

  Update: I have replaced most of the pictures I borrowed with pictures of my own Teresa,which I bought after this post was done. To see the post on Teresa herself, go HERE.

First off: I have borrowed a few pictures for this post to help with identification and comparison. If the owners of the photos wish them to be removed I will gladly cooperate. If not, thanks for your help!
  For a while now I have been planning to do a Red Heads Week. Even though I was never crazy about my own red hair, I love dolls with red hair, so quite a lot of my dolls are red heads. I could do a few weeks. (Of course, if you're a regular reader, or someone playing catch-up, you will have seen quite a few of my red haired dolls already.) I finally decided to just do it. Our first doll of Red Heads Week is Georgette.

She was made by Eegee in 1971 I think.She's a little hard to find information on. (She's supposed to be kind of rare.)

Sorry about the sideways thing...

She is actually Georgette, but a lot of people refer to her as Pippi Longstocking. I'm not sure if this is because Eegee used the same basic doll for a Pippi doll, just because she has red hair in braids, or because she bears a great resemblance to this girl:

Although Georgette is slightly less alien looking than this Furga doll.
(Same weird hand positions.) 

This is an Italian doll named Teresa, and made by Furga. However, Furga used the same doll to make a Pippi doll.

 

Georgette on the left and Teresa by Furga on the right.

Crazy alien eyes!

  It's a little confusing. Were Furga and Eegee related? Eegee is the same company as Goldberger. (Eegee, as in E.G. for Eugene Goldberger.) What's the connection between Furga and Eegee though? Did one of them just sell the molds to the other? (But the eyes are waaaay different, so is the mold exactly the same?)Hmm...

There is quite a size difference.Georgette is about 19" tall. Teresa is 24" tall.You can read about and see more of Teresa on her day HERE.

Those eyes can be a little scary when the light hits them in a certain way.

She has a soft, huggable stuffed body, with vinyl arms, legs, and head.

She also had a brother named George. I'm not sure if they were sold as a pair, but I know they were sold separately.

 Look! She's wearing the same dress as Teresa!
My Georgette has been redressed, because her dress is a bit tight. She's wearing matching bloomers though, that fit perfectly.

Her hair has no part in the back. The choppiness is original.

"Hey, I think I dropped my contact."

George and Georgette were both sold as 'the Flippety Floppety doll', as was this girl:

She is like Georgette, with the same hands, but a different head mold.

"But I'm cuter, right?"

With that hand I see her winking and making that 'click' sound in the side of her mouth: "You got it buddy."

I saw Georgette and George as a pair at the local doll show a couple of years ago, but didn't buy them. At the most they were $65, which was too much for me. Now I know that's actually a pretty cheap price for the pair, especially since they were both in their original clothes.

My Georgette has replaced shoes and socks too, and the shoes are way too small.

"Are you saying my feet are big?"

"Ohh, maybe you're right. My feet are killing me."

"Reach for the sky!" Not really sure what they had in mind with these hand molds. What are you supposed to do with that right hand?

Didn't anyone tell her it's impolite to point?

Apparently not...

 Georgette has sleep eyes with 'real' eye lashes.

The origins of red hair have been the subject of some wild theories over the years. Throughout history red heads have been feared, hated, tortured , and even killed because of the colour of their dead cells. (That's what hair is made up of.) We now know that red hair is caused by a rare mutation on the MC1R gene,a recessive gene.That means that it can lay hidden at the bottom of your family gene pool until one day it suddenly floats to the surface and produces a red haired child where there were none before. The only way that can happen though, is for both parents to have the recessive trait. A family can go for generations without red heads, and then all it takes is for one family member to find a mate with the same recessive gene and boom: red haired kids. This is why my family had no red haired people for generations, until my Dad's grampa, and then Dad. Then Dad had me, and I had two red haired kids. Ken was born with red hair, but his mom wished it off of him. Too late. The gene had been passed on.
   Redheads are known for having bad tempers.(I know this one is true for me.)In ancient times red heads were burnt as witches. In medieval times red heads were considered untrustworthy, and their bodily fluids were thought to have magical properties.It was believed poison could be made from the fat of a red-haired man,and his blood could be used to turn copper to gold.The urine of red-haired boys was used to make paint for stained glass windows.(Eww...) Most of these beliefs seem to stem from the rarity of red hair. It was considered not 'normal', since so few people had it. That's still true. (Although the recent claims that red heads are going extinct are considered by scientists to be ridiculous, mostly due to that 'it can crop up unexpectedly any time' thing I mentioned. Sorry folks, but you're never really going to get rid of us.) Only 1-2 % of the world's population has red hair.

And a portion of that came directly from me.

In spite of the popular belief that Ireland is full of red heads, it's Scotland that actually has the largest population of red heads of any country in the world: 13% of the population has red hair, and around 40% carry the recessive gene.(Which is why they have so many red heads. All those recessive genes marrying other recessive genes. It's bound to add up.)
The Irish Redhead Convention is held in late August. Redheadday is a Dutch festival that takes place each first weekend of September in Breda, the Netherlands. (Sorry, you just missed it.) It's a  two-day festival, and is a gathering of people with natural red hair. Both attract people from around the world.
  During the week we'll look at some other facts about red hair, and see lots of red haired dolls.