Doll-A-Day 2019 #182: Sample/Test Market Skipper

  Today's doll is yet another Skipper. Some of you may know that I collect Skipper specifically,so I have a lot of them.

 

This doll is what is known as a 'Sample Skipper', or 'Test Market Skipper'. She's wearing a vintage Skipper fashion called Let's Play House. It's a dress and pinafore and blue flats. There should be three coloured hankies in her pockets, but I forgot where I put mine!

Test Market is more accurate.'Sample' suggests that they were made in extremely small numbers and given away, which isn't true. Test Market tells you they were sold early on as normal Skipper dolls, but maybe in smaller numbers than later dolls. That is really what these dolls are. They are the earliest Skippers,sold at the very beginning of production before some final changes were made. So there are a few differences between these girls and the common Skipper dolls most people have. This one is even a little different for a Test Market Skipper.

For one thing, the word 'Skipper' is printed heel to toe on the bottom of the foot,instead of across the width of the foot,like later, regular Skippers.

The Test Market dolls are supposed to have legs that are made of resin,not plastic. I can't feel the difference. They have a slightly wider stance than later Skippers,and shorter,thicker legs. There are a couple of different stance widths even amongst Test Market dolls. This one doesn't have a super wide stance as some Test Market dolls do.

Regular Skipper on the left, Today's girl on the right.

Regular Skipper on top. Test Market on the bottom.

Another difference is the size of the feet. Test Market dolls have bigger feet. The thing is, this doll has slightly wider feet, but they aren't that much bigger overall.

Regular Skipper on the left,Test Market on the right.

With the feet mixed up here,regular,Test Market, regular, Test Market,it's hard to see much size difference. But the word 'Skipper' is printed the right direction for each doll.

Regular left, TM on the right. See what I mean? Just a slight width difference, barely enough to notice.

The Test Market girl does have the typical non-flat feet of the TM dolls though. Regular Skippers have flat feet.
 

The TM Skippers have slightly tippy toed feet,like maybe they were originally going ot make her shoes with short heels.

Test Market dolls typically have what I describe as a 'powdery' complexion.
 

My leeks are once again seeding before getting big enough to eat! Why do they always do that?!

They also have a double row of bangs,sometimes more, and the hair is a different type of fiber than the standard Skipper dolls too.

  The body is marked '1' on the right cheek.

There is no printing on the inside of the neck rim of these dolls. That's a way to identify the heads. Be careful when trying to remove the head on a vintage doll though. Kids used to head swap all the time, but with age the vinyl has sometimes become weak,causing the neck to tear or split when removed or returned to the neck knob.
 

  There's a great page for identifying vintage Skipper dolls,which you can see HERE.
  That's today's doll.

Doll-A-Day 246: Skipper Saturday: Brunette Sample Skipper

  This week's Skipper Saturday doll is this Sample Skipper.

Sample Skipper's aren't really samples. They are the first Skippers on the market.

 So, they are a little different from the common Skippers that are usually found.

Oh! The One Hair!

The main difference that you can see is that Sample Skippers have a wide stance,much wider than ordinary Skippers.

The other difference is that the word Japan on the bottom of her foot runs from toe to heel, rather than across the foot like common Skippers.

And they have bigger feet.

I showed a foot comparison in Doll-A-Day post #25, if you want to see.

And slightly bigger legs. They are supposedly made of resin rather than plastic, but I can't tell much difference.

Sample Skippers also commonly have more thickly rooted bangs.This girl certainly does.

I had planned on having this girl pose on the skateboard that came with the 'Skipper on Wheels' gift set from 1965, since she's wearing the clothes and hat from it. (The clothes are the same as Skipper's Fun Time fashion from 1965. The hat was only available with the Skipper on Wheels gift set.A blue version was available in a Skipper Pak.)

In addition to the skateboard there was also a scooter,a red yoyo, a pair of red skates,a pair of red sunglasses,the jacket from Fun Time,and the blouse and skirt from Fun at the Fair.

The scooter and skateboard,and as I said, the red hat, are exclusive to the gift set.

The shirt has some beautiful embroidery.

The problem with putting her on the skateboard is, her stance is so much wider than a regular Skipper that she can't get both feet in the foot spots at the same time!

I had to make her lean her one foot on a rock so she could stand up!

This girl is actually one of my favourite Skippers that I own.

She has a beautiful powdery complexion.

I got this doll in an Ebay lot, along with 11 other Skippers in various states of wear. I showed another doll from this lot, a Color Magic Skipper, on Doll-A-Day 137.

The lot also contained  a Skipper case, a few pieces of Skipper clothing, and a felt cowgirl outfit. I thought I would sell whatever it took to pay for the lot so I could keep some of the dolls. I hoped I could make back enough to keep, not just this girl, but her Color Magic Friend as well. I started with the felt cowgirl outfit. I wasn't sure who it was for, but it looked like it might fit a Betsy McCall. As it turned out, it was a Betsy McCall outift. I made back all but $7 of what the lot had cost me, including the shipping, so I let myself keep everything else. I love that story!

She needed a little hair conditioning when I got her, but she's very nice.

Ivy and I named this girl 'Personality Girl' because in her auction pictures she was looking at  the Color Magic doll and showing lots of attitude.

  See you tomorrow for another doll.