The Doll Book of the Month Club: Raggedy Ann's Mystery

   Sorry we seem to be heavy on Raggedy Ann recently. Right now I have to post whatever I have access to, and a few weeks ago I bought this book, Raggedy Ann's Mystery.

 It was, in fact, the same weekend I bought the boxed Raggedy Ann,  but not at the same sale.

  This book was published in 1962, so it's the same age as I am. I believe this edition is a reprint of a 1947 one. It's a story by Johnny Gruelle, the Raggedys originator, and not a later story by someone else. Gruelle didn't do the illustrations though. They are by Ethel Hays.

Now, before I get to the story of this...story, I have to say something. This story concerns a missing character, and the efforts to find him. What kills me is, the character, who has what looks sort of like dreadlocks, is called...wait for it! Snoopwiggie!

Is it just me, or is that funny?! Ken barely gave me a smirk, but Emma got a good laugh out of it. I just keep thinking of the name and the coincidence and giggling to myself. I mean, I suppose Snoopwiggie just has what Emma, (or was that Ivy?), used to call 'boingy curls', but come on! It's especially funny when you hear that Snoop Dogg is going bald, and is considering just being bald and wearing wigs all the time. Then he really will be Snoopwiggie! I kill me!

  Anyway, on to the book. The 'mystery' is that Snoopwiggie, (HA!) is missing, after inviting everyone to his birthday party. A guy called The Nice Fat Policeman, (must be the doughnuts...), wakes Raggedy Andy up in the middle of the night because of the missing...guy. 

Did this guy invite everybody to a middle of the night birthday party? Why is TNFP so worried and checking on him at night? Oh right: cake. So the Raggedy's get on the case, mainly because trying to think clogs up TNFP's brain. 

They come across Betsy Bonnet String. 

Apparently she's magic. She can twitch her apron and make things appear, like a birthday lunch for everyone, so they don't miss it. (The heck with Snoopwiggie. We don't need him and his birthday! We can have a birthday party without him! That's basically what Betsy says!) It's a lunch, in the middle of the night too. What's with that?

  Raggedy Ann notices that there are no footprints around Snoopwiggie's door, so 'someone must have carried him off'. Okay then. Where are their foot prints? She then guesses that the culprit who snatched Snoopwiggie, (Who said anyone snatched him? Maybe he went all 'wiggy' because he was having another birthday, and flew off on an age induced vacation.), MUST be the No Fun Elf, because of course it was. Sounds a bit...'elfist' to me.  She figures he used his magic cart. Maybe it doesn't leave tracks. Who knows?

  Raggedy Ann says that if they had red bicycles, because 'red ones go faster than any other kind', (Raggedy Ann seems to use the same logic as the Highway Patrol.), they could go to the No Fun Elf's house and find Snoopwiggie. 

  So Betty Bonnet String twitches her apron again, and two bikes with red wheels appear. They ride them to the No Fun Elf's house and find the door is locked.  Raggedy Ann says she knows Snoopwiggie is in there because she feels it in her candy heart But how do they get him out?

Wow. Raggedy Andy action hero. But isn't that a felony?

They decide to laugh, to aggravate the No Fun Elf so he will come out to try to drag them into his depressing house. Then Raggedy Andy can run in and get Snoopwiggie. It works, but the No Fun Elf notices and winks his eye, closing and locking the door, with Andy and Snoopwiggie inside!

  They struggle with how to get them out. Why can't Betsy wiggle her apron again? That's my question.  Then Raggedy Ann suddenly remembers that anyone with a candy heart that says 'I love you' can make one wish for someone on their birthday. So she wishes them out and the door springs open. (Why couldn't she have just wished for Snoopwiggie in the first place? 

  Raggedy Andy is carrying a black heart. It belongs to the No Fun Elf, and Andy found it in the house. So they wash it in the Laughing Brook, and the No Fun Elf gets nice.  

They all ride off to Snoopwiggie's, (HAHAHAHA!!!), for the party, including the now Fun Elf, and everybody has a happy ending.

Cake for everyone! Where's TNFP?

  Sorry for the lack of seriousness in this review. It was late and...Snoopwiggie! Ha!

Doll-A-Day 2023 #88: Raggedy Ann and Andy

   Today's dolls are both repeats, and not. I showed you my childhood Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls a while back. (You can also read the history of Raggedy Ann and Andy there.)These dolls are the same era, but these dolls haven't  been loved as mine have. They're still new.

  They're still in their original boxes. And remember, I said these were the same era as my childhood dolls. And I'm 61 years old!

  I can tell these are the same as my dolls, (except my Ann is musical, and this one isn't. This is the Ann I wanted, when I got the musical one because she was the only one we could find.), because I still have my Ann's tag, (just like this one), and because Ann's dress changed fabrics over the years and the changes of manufacturer. This one's dress has the same fabric as mine. These dolls are by Knickerbocker, just like mine.

  Check out the J.C. Penney price sticker on Andy's box. He was originally $4.49! He was then marked down to $3.88, and finally to $2.25. Poor guy! I wonder of the reason they are still in their boxes is because somebody ended up buying them as potential gifts, since they were so cheap, and just never gave them to anybody. Andy's box is faded and Ann's isn't, so maybe they weren't purchased together, but I like to think they've been together all these years.

    Look how beautiful and new they are.

.

Ann still has her handkerchief in her apron pocket. 

 Not like mine!

   They both have their tags, of course.

Just like my Ann's tag. The date is 1971. I would have been nine years old, so Knickerbocker must have stuck with this style of tag and clothes for a while. I got my Andy earlier, but I think I got my Ann for my eighth birthday. 

  They both have a cardboard wedge between their legs which keeps them upright in their boxes, and not slumping. Hey! Why haven't their feet had blowouts like my dolls' feet?!

    Look at little Andy. He's so cute. Don't tell Ann, but he was always my favourite.

 Their boxes bill them as  'America's folk dolls'. It's very sad they have fallen out of favour and aren't popular any more. I guess everything has it's day. I just think the stuff that's popular today is cold and unloving. How cozy can a kid get with a Monster High doll? (Okay, even they aren't the 'in' things any more. But you know what I mean.)

   I can't even remember where I got these dolls now. I was thinking a yard sale, but it would almost have to have been an auction. What is the likelihood of finding boxed dolls like this at a yard sale?

  Those are today's dolls.  See you again tomorrow for another one.

Doll Book of the Month Club: Raggedy Andy Stories by Johnny Gruelle

   Last month, (Or rather, the beginning of this month, since it was late!), we looked at the original Raggedy Ann book, "Raggedy Ann Stories". This month we're looking at the follow up book, "Raggedy Andy Stories", by Johnny Gruelle.

  Raggedy Andy Stories first appeared in 1920. two years after the first Raggedy Ann book. 

  As the story goes, Andy was invented when a friend of Gruelle's found an old rag doll from when her mother and Gruell's had made their daughters rag dolls, and gave the doll to Gruelle. The story found in the Raggedy Andy book is slightly different. The person who gave him Raggedy Andy was someone who had played with his own mother when she was a child, and it their mothers who had made the dolls.

The whole tale became part of the stories themselves.

  Like the Raggedy Ann Stories book, Raggedy Andy Stories is a sweet, gentle book, full of stories about what toys get up to when people aren't around. 

Like pillow fights.

A nd running into Santa Claus. As in most dolls stories, the dolls collapse at the risk of being seen being alive, because no one can see them that way. By the way, the Santa thing is why I was going to use this book for December...forgetting it would be after Christmas when I posted this.

I hope kids these days still like things like that. (Oh, nd the illustrations are also beautiful.)

The original illustrations by Johnny Gruelle are bright and colourful, and full of life and coziness. 

Andy isn't as popular as Ann. I see way more Raggedy Ann dolls and other products than I do Andys. Traditionally boy dolls aren't as popular as girl dolls. But I always loved Andy best. Raggedy Ann and Andy aren't as popular in general as they used to be. The Raggedy Ann and Andy museum in Gruelle's hometown of Arcola, Illinois, closed down in 2009. The museum was run by Gruelle's granddaughter. When it closed some of the books and rare dolls were donated to the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York. The museum has 43 pages of Ann and Andy goodies on their website, which you can start perusing  HERE. 

  See you tomorrow for Doll-A-Day 2023!  

Doll-A-Day 2019 #43: Raggedy Andy Superflex Doll

  I think I may have sorted the problem with the day 35 Ashley Maxie friend post. Somehow it had back dated itself and was dated as last July! So it was buried in last year's posts. I have changed the date to what it should have been,and reposted it. So let me know if you're seeing it now. Does it show up, in the sidebar or search, for you? Does it show up between 34 and 36 when you scroll through the posts?
  Our weather has been crazy. Yesterday we had snow on the ground,rain coming down,and fog. Today,the rain had stopped, the snow was all gone,and tonight the wind is rattling the windows.
 Now,onto the doll. Today's doll is this little guy.

As you can see from his pants, the paint gets funny after a while.

He's obviously Raggedy Andy..minus his nose!

He did originally have one, but from what I found in researching these dolls, they frequently have lost their nose. I may have to paint him one.
  

"What's the matter with my nose?!"

He stands about 6" tall.

 Andy was made by Lakeside in 1967.

He's a 'Superflex' doll.

This Superflex doll display reads 'Twists and bends into 1000's of funny positions!'

 The package for Raggedy Ann and Andy read,'He sits, stands, bends, and twists, in thousands of lovable positions'.

Raggedy Ann and Andy are just so lovable. Even their bendy positions are 'lovable'.

"Why can't I be funny?"

Lakeside made a lot of the 'Superflex' dolls, including Raggedy Ann, Gumby and his horse pal Pokey. (You can see a post on my mini Gumby and Pokey HERE.),Popeye, The Green Hornet, Captain America, Smokey the Bear,and Disney characters like Donald Duck. In 1968 they made Super Mini-Flex figures. Those were about 2 1/2" tall. I have a Mini-Flex Raggedy Ann I'll show you some day.

He has molded hair and clothes in the back as well.

I always loved Raggedy Ann and Andy, and wanted the dolls for years when I was a kid. This guy kind of reminds me of the Raggedy Andy I got for Christmas one year. I had been longing for a Raggedy Ann and Andy, and that Christmas  I got...a Raggedy Gretel and a foam rubber Raggedy Andy! The Gretel was at least a rag doll. I still have her and she still looks fairly new...because I could never love her. She was cold feeling and she just wasn't Ann. I didn't hate her, I just never really had any affection for her. I kind of liked the Andy. He wasn't what I wanted, but he did at least resemble the real thing, and he was kind of neat. He was made of foam rubber, and had wires in his body so he could be posed all sorts of ways. I had learned my lesson from a lot of my previous toys though, so I was afraid to bend him too much and make a wreck of him. If he hasn't melted away to nothing he's still in my attic. I need to rescue him. Gretel's up there too. I did finally get a real Raggedy Ann and Andy. You can see them in their post HERE. I even made some miniature ones you can see HERE.

That's all for today. See you tomorrow for another doll.

Doll-A-Day 2017 #7 Shrunken Saturday: Cynthia DeHoff Raggedy Andy

  Anybody who remembers the previous year of Doll-A-Day will remember that Saturdays were Skipper Saturday. This year I've decided on Shrunken Saturday,where we will explore the world of tiny dolls.Along the way we'll see some vintage dollhouse dolls,tiny play dolls from the past and the present,and even some teensy dolls I've made myself.
  Today's doll is one I recently received in the mail. It's Raggedy Andy, a handmade doll by Cynthia DeHoff.

I've mentioned Cynthia and her dolls before. The last time was when I had just ordered Andy.

That was last year at the formerly big doll show in Columbus. Remember that Barb The Evil Genius?

Cynthia at her table at the doll show.

Cynthia is a very nice lady. We've been seeing her at the doll show for years, and Ivy and I have always wanted to order one of her dolls. It was just something that never got done. For one thing, we could never decide which one to order.

 I finally decided that I should go ahead and order a doll from Cynthia when the doll show lost it's venue and was cancelled a couple of times, and then finally happened at a tiny place. I figured the show was liable to never happen again and I would never get another chance for one of Cynthia's dolls.

 Of course, they can be ordered online,but I would much rather hand pick and have it instantly. It didn't happen that way because Cynthia was behind on orders (She's very popular and she had had an order for 100 dolls for a doll club.) and wasn't selling her examples, only taking orders.

  Andy was supposed to take a couple of months to arrive,but when he did arrive there was a note from Cynthia explaining that she has developed shoulder and neck problems and numb hands from making so many little dolls. I can relate! I have had the same thing happen to me! She's being forced to take a year or two off from making dolls to let her problems work themselves out. I wish her the best and hope she gets better soon. I know how awful that kind of pain is. You can hardly do a thing, and whatever you do is torture.

He's made to be worn as a pin, but I think I might remove the pin and keep him as a doll.

  Andy is only 3 1/2" tall. His little clothes are sewn, but not removeable.
  That's it for our first Shrunken Saturday, and for soft dolls week.  Tomorrow starts a new theme, so come back then and see what the week brings.