Doll-A-DAy 2023 #236: Remco Mr. and Mrs. Mouse House

   You saw the Remco Elly and Andy Baby Mouse Twins 3 Story Treehouse  in one of my posts on my friend Lori's childhood Christmas presents. Today we're looking at the Mr. and Mrs. Mouse House. This is the smaller house, also made by Remco. Why do the kids have a bigger house than the grown ups?

Notice the Tv antenna on the roof! Those were the days of only 3 channels, or 4 when PBS came along.

The house was made in 1966. it includes Mr. and Mrs. Mouse, dressed for bed, bunk beds, and a table with two chairs.

They have their names on their nightgowns.

  Mr. Mouse has dark hair, but Mrs. Mouse's hair is fire engine red! Both mice are about six inches tall. They have moveable arms and legs, so they can sit at their table and...wave or whatever.

  I have a weakness for mouse toys. I would have liked these when I was a kid. 

  That's it for today. Tomorrow we'll have a very long, and I hope, not boring, post about what I've been up to with all those projects lately, and we'll catch up with the August Doll Book of the Month. See you then.

Doll-A-Day 2023 #212: Dune Buggy Baby

  I have really been having trouble with my shoulders. I believe it's called shoulder subluxation, which is described online this way: "A shoulder subluxation is a partial shoulder dislocation, which happens when the ball of the upper arm bone (the humerus) comes partially out of the shoulder socket." It used to happen with my right one occasionally, but lately it's been the left one, and worse than ever. It has become quite a painful problem. I can pop it back in, as I have always done with the right one, but this one won't stay popped. It's also a lot harder to pop in the first place. It's to the point now where it takes about three pops to fully go back in. And then it's still very sore. I didn't mow the grass last week, which gave me some time to rest it. It had been a lot better, and then I mowed the grass the last time and really aggravated it. So I skipped last week entirely, but it hasn't helped. I'm not sure if sleeping on an air mattress for the last six months has had any effect, but I really hope it heals up soon. In any case, I had hoped to get ahead with the blog, as with our anniversary and Emma's wedding coming up, I'm sure I'll need a few days off. Plus it would give the arm time to rest. (Of course, there's doing the posts in the first place, which is worse on the shoulder.), but I just can't seem to, especially when I'm trying to use the arm as little as possible. I don't type one handed. It's too slow, and just tends to then mean the other arm is aggravated!  So, I got about a week ahead with pictures, and about 4 days ahead with posts, and now I have almost used them all up! HUGE SIGH! 

  Today's doll is a little girl called Dune Buggy Baby.

  She was made by Remco in 1972.

  She gets her name from the fact that she originally came with a remote control dune buggy car. 

Of course, she was made in 1972, so her 'remote' control could only be as 'remote' as it could get on it's cord, which was connected to the car. She also came with a flowered beach towel, and a pair of yellow glasses. I'm guessing they were supposed to be sunglasses, but I haven't seen any with lenses in them.

She has a cute face, with big painted blue eyes and a nice grin.

This is her original outfit. It consists of yellow pants, a dark orange top, trimmed in yellow, and reddish orange shoes.

Her blouse would have originally had a flower decal on the chest.

Mine only has one. I swear these are the same shoes worn by Mattel's Talking Buffy doll. Maybe they aren't Dune Buggy's original shoes. I think they are though. Maybe they wore the same shoes, in spite of being sold by different companies, five years apart.

Her blouse snaps at the back of the neck, leaving the upper back uncovered. There's a reason for that.

She has a knob in her back.

Please excuse her sticker residue.

The purpose of the knob is that, when turned, it makes her wave with her right arm.

She's about 11 inches tall. Her articulation is the standard five points: neck, shoulders, and hips. My girl actually has a broken hip joint, allowing her one leg to fall off!

  That's it for today. See you again tomorrow!

Doll-A-Day 2023 #8: Li'l Winking Herby Hippy

  Today's doll is one I don't own. But he's on my wish list. He's Lil Winking Herby Hippy.

  Herby was made by Remco. 

  He has molded and painted teeth. (I love dolls with teeth.) He's jointed at the neck, shoulders, and hips, and had sleep eyes. But the gimmick to this doll, besides the 'hippy' image, is that if you squeeze his stomach, he winks. 

He's in the same catalog as That Kid, which was a one year only toy, sold in 1967. I know this because he's one of my favouites. I've done two posts on my three That Kid dolls, which I always wanted and didn't get until recent years. (You can read the That Kid posts HERE and HERE.) So I'm very familiar with him. Some things I've seen say Herby is from 1968, so maybe he was sold both years. 

  1967 was prime Hippy time. Sgt. Pepper came out that year. The summer of 1967 is called 'The Summer of Love', but other events that year included the ongoing Vietnam War, and the civil rights protests. (If we'd have had love in the first place maybe we wouldn't have even had those two.)

'That Kid is all boy'. I always hated that phrase. What does that even mean?! It's usually used as an excuse for why a kid tears stuff up, or is violent. That doesn't make you a boy, and being a boy doesn't mean you have to do that stuff. I had a friend whose only answer to why her son tore the roof off her daughter's Little Tykes house and destroyed it was, "He's all boy!" No. He's all brat. And by the way, so Herby winks...okay, and is a hippy. (Notice it says he has 'long rooted hair'.) Does that make him a mischief maker?

The catalog description above says Herby 'wears little sandals'. The box doesn't picture him with sandals. I have seen one picture of him with sandals, and that was a doll complete with box. So I guess he did?

  Sandals notwithstanding, Herby came wearing a blue cotton shirt, orange pants, a beaded necklace, and an embroidered...necklace?  

  The Herby we photographed was at an antique mall. He'd been there for over a year when we took the pictures, and his price has remained the same. I don't think most people have ever heard of him, so the demand isn't great. I keep hoping they'll knock his price down.

  You can see lots of detail pictures of the in box Herby HERE.

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

What I got at the Doll Show, Part 3: Libby Littlechap

   For part three of 'What I Got at the Doll Show" we're looking at this Libby Littlechap doll. You may remember that I already have a Libby Littlechap.

 (See her HERE.) I was never really crazy about the Littlechaps, but what I do love is Libby's winter coat and boots, and the little school bag that came with them. 

Why? Because when I was in first grade, I had a very similar coat and schoolbag, and when I was younger than that, I wore red rubber snow boots. So I wanted Libby's coat set.

The main difference is that my coat was made of polyester, and had a hood. The hood was so stiff it didn't move with me when I turned my head, so when I tried to look out the window of the school bus, I was left looking at the inside of my hood!

Her belt looks to be dropping a bit.

  

The outfit also came with a little hat, red mittens, and of course, the school bag.

  I've been after the coat set, and Libby's school clothes,(I think it's called her 'blazer set'.(,  or red velvet dress, for her to wear under it, for a while now. 

But the ones I've seen were always  priced higher than I am willing to go. But at the show I found a Libby, wearing the blouse and skirt to the blazer set, the winter coat, and red boots. 

And she was only $15! I don't need the Libby, so she'll get a spa treatment and go, but I'm stealing her clothes. 

The blazer set also originally came with a blue blazer, blue knee socks, black loafers (shoes), and her school books. I actually have the school books. It took me ages to figure out whose books they were, because they are HUGE. I would never have thought they belonged to a doll this size!

I kind of feel guilty about that, but my Libby has better hair. Maybe after her spa treatment this Libby will be just as good, and I'll just keep her clothes and her. and get rid of old Libby. (Sorry kid.)

  So now all I need are the Blue blazer, blue knee socks, the loafers, the red mittens, the red hat, and the school bag. Okay. That sounds like a lot now that I have listed it all! But other than the school bag, I now have the most important parts. (To me anyway.) I need to replace one of the halves of the top snap on her coat, and it could do with a pressing or something, but I'm pretty happy with my purchase.

  Next time we'll see another doll show purchase. Oh boy. And Saturday is another doll show! It's the last doll show of my summer, if not the summer in general. The next doll show is in October, and then nothing else for me until Spring. Between that and how everything may shut down again soon, I am fitting doll shows in while I can. I am masking and sanitizing, so no fear. See you again soon!  

Doll-A-Day 2019 #260: Pretty Penny Chatterbox

  Today's doll is this kid.

She measures about 18 inches tall.

 She's Pretty Penny Chatterbox

 

She was made by Remco in 1988.

This is her original outfit. Her dress closes in the back with Velcro.

She also opens in the back for her battery box. She has a vinyl head and hands and soft,stuffed legs.

 Penny has two ponytails and a loose piece of hair that comes out of a hole in the top of her head.

 As you may have gathered from her name,and her battery compartment,Penny talks.

She is operated by pulling her piece of loose hair! No wonder she talks. I'd have something to say too if my hair was being pulled. Actually,Penny is meant for hair play,She came with spare hair ribbons,and the act of brushing that hank of hair pulled it enough to activate her speech.

Some of Penny's phrases include, "I love a ponytail.","I love ribbons in my hair", "Doesn't my hair look beautiful?",and  Hi! I'm Pretty Penny Chatterbox!" You can see a video of Penny in action HERE.
  That's the doll today. See you tomorrow for another one.
 

Doll-A-Day 2019 #100: Sweet April

    My fever has gone and I thought I was feeling better yesterday. But today I feel worse again. Last night I coughed so hard I threw up! I haven't been this sick in I don't know how long. I guess it never rains but it pours. This spring has not been good for me. Lori has been having a tough time too. Her house sale fell through. Apparently in Ohio you can renege on a realty contract without reason. So the house she was going to buy has sold to someone else. Worse yet, she left her job, and the position was filled right away. And now she can't get her job back. And she worked for her friend! I understand it wouldn't be fair to the new hire to take the job back, but they could surely use them both, at least for a while. It's a vet clinic.
  Anyway, even though I still felt awful today, I promised you an interesting doll. So here's an attempt at that promise.
  Today's doll is a little girl called Sweet April.

She was made by Remco.

Sweet April was made in 1971.
 

Apparently she lasted at least through 1973.

She's about 5 1/2 inches tall.

But she can't stand by herself.

This is her original sun suit. She also had a bonnet to match.

Those little straps should be attached to those snaps.

She has chubby little baby toes.

She has a gimmick. There's a button in her back that, when pushed, is used to make her raise her hands.
 

That came in handy because she had a bottle she could hold.

The bottle could be filled with water and she could be 'fed' the water.

 

Afterward she would 'cry' when her arms were raised, as long as she was sitting up or standing.

She had plenty of other goodies too, from a stroller, a swing, and a play pen, to a line of clothing, and an entire Playland.

Her bib has a cute little picture on it.

You can watch a video showing all of Sweet April's accessories and clothes from her booklets HERE.

There was also an African American Sweet April.

  That's it for today. Come back tomorrow to see if I'm still alive!