Doll-A-Day 2023 #126: Tammy by Ideal

  Happy Mother's Day! Tammy World is having to be away from her mom this year, so she wanted to post this old picture of them together.

  And of course I don't have my mom any more. Here is a picture of my mom with our cat Tom, and me, when I was about 4 or 5. 

We had been picking apples in the orchard, and I am nibbling one.

  This is the last Christmas picture of my sister, and me, with Mom, taken our last Christmas with her, in 1985.

  Today's doll is Tammy.

Tammy was made by Ideal, between 1962 and 1967.

  This doll is sort of a relative of one you've seen before. You may have seen my post on my platinum Tammy, where I told the story of how I found her. 

In case you haven't, here's an abbreviated version:

  Years ago Emma and I went to a local yard sale run by a couple who frequented auctions. Shopping their garage we spotted loads of dolls. There was a big wire rack filled with dolls, doll clothes, cases. We could see a Tammy, and Barbie feet. Tammy's original gym suit and Ken's Sleeper Set pajamas were on little hangers hanging on a wire shelf. We asked about the doll stuff. We couldn't actually reach them because there was a lot of stuff in between us and the wire racks. We were told it wasn't for sale, because they hadn't gone through it yet. Made sense, but don't SHOW me the stuff!
  The next year. Emma, Ken, Ivy, and I went to a doll auction. Emma and I stood, watching the Betsy McCalls go for hundreds of dollars. "Oh, she is so cute! I want a Betsy McCall!" Emma says. "Yes, me too, but look at those prices. We'll never get one of those." I say. Emma tells me that she drove past the place that had the not-for-sale dolls last year on her way home from work last night and it looked like they were getting ready to have a sale. We make a note to get up early and check it out in the morning.
  In the morning, for some forgotten reason, we don't get out quite as early as we should. When we do we head straight for the place. Their sale is indeed on. We walk into the driveway and there sit the metal racks. They look untouched. Even the Tammy gym suit and the Ken pajamas are still hanging on their little hangers on the shelf. We start taking things off the racks and making piles. A Fashion Queen Barbie for me. The wigs for Emma. A Bubble cut Barbie for me, a case of stuff for Emma. Blonde crew cut Kens for both of us. Platinum Tammy's for both of us. A titian straight leg Skipper for me. A Toni doll for Emma. A Miss Revlon wanna-be for me, along with loads of gorgeous handmade clothes. Barbie accessories, including Barbie's dominoes, a few pieces of clothing, including the hat from Studio Tour, and the ever elusive Cap n' Crunch bosun whistle----for each of us. I took a paper bag off the shelf and looked in. Sleeping in the bag (On account of she was on her back so her eyes were closed.) was a sweet little brunette Betsy McCall. (You can see here in all her glory HERE.)She's missing the lower half of one leg, but when we go through the stuff I find we have both her barrettes, her bridal dress, veil, and white shoes, along with the vest from Pony Pals. (We realize Emma bought the rest of Pony Pals in the box at one of their previous sales.) Emma and I made pretty much a clean sweep of the shelves between us. Our final combined cost? $65.

  So, this Tammy of Emma's is the one she got at that sale. I'm looking at the pictures, and I think hers may be prettier than mine.

They're both high colour, with bright red lips, but Emma's has blacker eyelashes and darker red lips.

Mine has fluffier hair, but then, Emma's has been packed away for years. I'm sure she can be repluffed.

  You may be thinking that she doesn't look very platinum, but it's the lighting. She is definitely platinum.

I'm thinking the people we bought them from must have bought them at an auction where the people had had two little girls that they bought identical things for. They got these Tammy's and the blonde crewcut Ken dolls.

  Like all but Posin' Tammy, she has minimal articulation, just the neck, shoulders, and hips.

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  The thing about Tammy and old Barbies, is they have those scissor legs, and have a very unladylike sitting stance.

As my dad would have said, "Spread out like a pair of operatin' scissors."

  And for a teenager, she sure has baby hands.

She needs to clean her nails too.

  I actually cleaned this Tammy for Emma recently, but I was still not doing too well after the fire, and honestly, I could have done a better job.

  Emma is preparing to get rid of this Tammy, so if you like her, get in touch with me.

  That's today's doll. Have a great Mother's Day!

Doll-A-Day 2023 #47: Pos'n Pepper

   Today's doll is, again, borrowed from Emma. She's this little girl.

  She's Pos'n Pepper. (But she's wearing regular Pepper's dress.) You can see my Pos'n Pepper, who looks quite different, HERE, and HERE.

  Tammy's sister Pepper was produced from 1963 to 1965. She was the longest produced member of the Tammy line, other than Tammy herself. Pepper was originally produced as a straight leg doll. Pos'n Pepper, with her bendy legs and arms, was made in 1964.

Pos'n Pepper was 14 cents more than Basic Pepper.

Pos'n Pepper had two companions, her brother, Pos'n Pete, and her friend, Pos'n Salty. As with Tammy's brother and boyfriend, Pepper's brother and friend shared the same head sculpt, and are almost impossible to tell apart. Their clothes are the only clues. (What was up with Ideal? Your boyfriend looks just like your brother? Freud would have had a field day with that one.)  For some reason, and it's not just the hair, Pepper is bigger than Pete an Salty. (You can see my Salty HERE.)

   Pos'n Pepper's arms are like the standard rubbery Tammy arms, except that she has wires inside them so they can bend. They're still hard to bend though. 

They can move up and down too, except they move in unison.

Her legs are much easier to bend than her arms.

And they don't have to move in unison to move back and forth.

  Like regular Pepper, Pos'n Pepper has side glance eyes.

So she always looks a little suspicious.

Or like she's listening for something.

But straight on she has the faint hint of a smile.

And like regular Pepper, she has those cute freckles.

I think freckles are cute on dolls, but I was always glad I don't actually have any myself.

While regular Pepper came in various hair colours, I'm pretty sure Pos'n Pepper only came in shades of brown. Mine has a sort of light brown colour, while this one is sort of a medium brown. Here she is compared with the strawberry blonde Pepper I showed you recently.

Look at the difference in their eyebrows. I think one thing that makes this Pos'n Pepper look so suspicious is that her eyebrows are narrow on the inner part, and thick on the outside edges. Why would they paint them like that? It's like they're over the wrong eyes and should be switched.

 

    It makes her look a little angry.

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

Peddling Pepper

  A little while back I showed you my newest bicycle. It was being presented by Tammy World, but she couldn't pose very well on the bike. Well recently I found someone who looks perfect on the bike.

Ideal's Pepper is the perfect size for the bike.

To be specific, this is Pos'n Pepper.

She has wired arms and legs,making her bendy,so she's able to put her feet on the pedals, and her hands on the handlebars.

See? She looks perfect!  

Pepper's real flower is from the non edible strawberries that grow like crazy all over my yard.

This also gave me the opportunity to use my wire fence again,(You may have seen it in my post on vintage Ricky.),and this great mini trash can I got in Canada last September when we took an anniversary trip.

This is Pos'n Pepper's original dress.

It coordinates with the original outfit of Pos'n Salty,Pepper's friend.

You can see Pos'n Salty in my post HERE.

Pos'n Pepper's sister, Pos'n Tammy can be seen in THIS POST.

These pictures were taken a couple of days ago. I wanted sunny weather and waited all day for it. Finally the sun came out. I rushed outside with my stuff,only to realize that I had forgotten my fence! In the couple of minutes it took to get the fence,the sun was again covered by clouds! So I had to settle for these cloudy shots.

Pos'n Pepper is a lot easier to pose than Penny Brite,although they both have wired rubber limbs Pepper's are much softer. Penny Brite's are so hard that even though I've had a Penny since I was a tiny kid,I didn't realize she had posable arms until a couple of years ago!

That grass was freshly mowed when these were taken. We have a few days of rain, and now my mowing is behind again! I'll be back behind the mower tomorrow.

You have actually seen this Pepper before. She posed as an ice skater back in the winter.

You can see those pictures HERE.

And you can see regular Pepper,who doesn't have bendy limbs, HERE.

See you in a couple of days for another doll.