Doll-A-Day 2017 #196:Shrunken Saturday:This Week's Yard Sale Goodies and Scottish Tommy

  Well,I only went yard saling one day this week,because the muffler fell off the car as Ken was going to work yesterday,and he had to take the car in this morning. I got in most of the places on my list though,so it was no problem. It's just as well, since for some reason I am so sleepy today I can hardly function.
  So here is the best of what I got yesterday.

That's the Avon Winter Splendour Barbie,the red haired Twist n Turn Barbie Repro in Smasheroo,a random lamp(Barbie I'm guessing),and a doll we'll concentrate on today...but later.

 
A cool rustic picture frame chair.

The Doughboy says "Hoo hoo!" when his belly is pressed,just like on TV. I love the Pillsbury Doughboy,and I have loads of different ones.(You can see my post on the Doughboy HERE.)  In fact,I may have this one...

I like this little plaque with hooks. The heads are moveable,so you can make the couple look at each other,mad at each other,or just ignoring each other.

The umbrella is three dimensional and actually hangs over their heads.

It reminds me of some bottle stoppers I have.
I got really excited when I found this.

I talked Ken into putting up the money for it by promising I'd learn to play chess. He's been after me to do that for years. But then he cheated and talked them down on the price by half! It was supposed to be missing one piece,a Statler. Once we went through the pieces, we found that, although we were missing a Statler,we had almost enough other extra pieces to make another set.  
I also got some free fabric with tiny prints,some books, vintage dishes,and a 'tap dance kit' for Ivy,that included a CD,instructions, and taps for your shoes. This will work a lot better for her than when I bought the tap shoes, which she wouldn't wear because they were leather. She can put these taps on tennis shoes if she wants.
  So on to today's doll. We'll start with the yard sale version.

It may look like a girl, but it's a boy.

I already have this doll.I got it when Ivy was small. 

Ivy was totally obsessed with Kelly dolls. This doll came in the 2004 Friends of the World:Europe set.

I split the set with Ivy because I really wanted this particular doll.

I bought the yard sale doll for $1,which is more than I would pay for most half dressed Kelly dolls at yard sales. But this doll is a special case.

I saw a beautiful repaint online though,which had made him into a girl and dressed her in regular,contemporary clothes. I wanted to try it,but I didn't want to mess my guy up.

He has a sprinkle of freckles.

And the fairest complexion in all Kellydom.

He's far more pale than the usual pink complected Kelly or Tommy.

Well, he is Scottish,and,according to Scottish comedian Billy Connolly,that makes a person,'naturally pale blue'.
He has very blue eyes,and that orange hair.

The outfit includes the tam hat...

It keeps creeping up in the back.

...coat...

. ..green vest/white shirt combo...

...sash...

short socks and black tassel shoes...

 

The shoes even have a tread on the bottom.

...and of course, that kilt...

His right arm is the typical Kelly arm, with only the up and down motion...

...while the left arm can go up and down and outward.

It has the Stop in the Name of Love/Hey.I'm walkin' here! hand.

Tomorrow we're done with fairies and on to something else. So come back and see what we'll have then.

Living Dolls Week:Doll-A-Day 183: The Muppet Show Scooter Doll

  I haven't really talked much this week about the original 'living doll': the puppet. Puppets have been around for hundreds of years. The oldest written information on puppetry dates from the 5th century BC. The word 'puppet' actually comes from an ancient Greek word, and means "drawn by strings", or "string pulling". This would refer, of course, to marionettes, which are figures operated by strings connected to various points. There are far too many types of puppets for me to go into them here, but the most common types that most readers will be familiar with are marionettes,glove puppets,(simple puppets that are worn on the hand of the puppeteer.)

Like these Punch and Judy characters, (which aren't actually Punch and Judy themselves.)

...
ventriloquist dummies...

Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd with 'Bergen', as they called him. (Otherwise known as Edgar Bergen.) Charlie's 'sister' Candice Bergen said Charlie had his own room in their house. Why not? He helped pay for it.

...rod puppets,(similar to glove puppets, with the addition of rods that control arms, etc.), and shadow puppets,(usually jointed,  flat rod puppets that are performed behind a back lit screen, like those from Indonesia and China.)

Like this guy.He's a shadow puppet and a rod puppet.

  As a kid I loved watching ventriloquists on TV. I even bought a Howdy Doody dummy, as I mentioned recently, and tried to learn ventriloquism.(In spite of what Ivy thinks, I'm really not that bad!) I did a puppet show for my 3rd grade class using hand or 'glove' puppets, which I ended up performing for all the other classes too. (The subject was Conservation, quite a big thing in the early 70's, when I was in 3rd grade.) I also considered being a puppeteer, brought on by my love for a group of puppets I had been watching on TV almost as long as I could remember.I'm talking, of course, about  the crowned heads of 'living dolls', The Muppets.

Muppets creator Jim Henson, (Uhh, he's the guy in the front, center...) with Muppets from Sesame Street,and The Muppet Show/movies.Henson was born in Mississippi in 1936.

The Muppets were the creation of Jim Henson.The name is a combination of 'marionette' and 'puppet'.("Muppet" that is, not "Jim Henson"...) He named his puppets that because that's what he considered them to be.

Muppet performers left to right: Back row: Richard Hunt with Scooter,Jerry Nelson with Floyd Pepper,Jim Henson with Kermit,Dave Goelz with Beauregard,Frank Oz with Animal. Front row: Kathryn Mullen with Camilla or a random chicken, (since she didn't perform Camilla), Louise Gold with Piggy Sue (No! It's not Miss Piggy!), and Steve Whitmire with...my eyesight's not that good!


The Muppet characters are a mix of types. Some of the larger Muppets, like Sweetums, are actually a costume, with an operable mouth and eyebrows.

Muppets like Fozzie, Rowlf, and The Swedish Chef are 'two man puppets', with one puppeteer performing the mouth and one arm, and another puppeteer performing the other arm.

 Fozzie amazes Rowlf with his piano playing.

Kermit, Miss Piggy, Scooter, and Gonzo are rod puppets:one performer using the body as a glove puppet, but using the other hand to operate the rods that control the arms.

Scooter is keeping his rods to himself, but his uncle, J.P. Grosse apparently doesn't care who sees his rods! These days, even The Muppets use CGI, to digitally remove the rods from scenes where they show.

Which brings me to today's doll. It's Scooter. (Not Skipper's friend Skooter!)
 

This is the Fisher Price Scooter doll, made in 1978.

He has velcro on his hands so he can do...this?

He can also do this.

His orange yarn bangs are worn down quite a bit.He's a hard to find character though, and one of the few Scooters made, so I was really excited to find him at Salvation Army recently.

Cool Muppet Show logo on his jacket. It's supposed to be on his back, but , oh well.

I love his tennis shoes.

He can't really stand unsupported. He's doing a lot of leaning.

He's about 14 or 15" tall.

Tomorrow is another Skipper Saturday.See you then.

Doll-A-Day 90: Kermit the Frog by Palisades

  As I said yesterday, the girls and I went to see The Muppets Most Wanted on Saturday night.While I didn't think it was quite as funny, or quite as accurate to the old Muppets as the last movie, it was still good. I would recommend it for all ages. The Muppets have always been for everybody, and that's still true.The humour works on different levels for different ages.
  The voices, now done mostly by performers new to the characters, were better than ever this time.(During the last Muppet movie Fozzie seemed to frequently forget which voice to use.) I also liked that the movie relied less on human lead actors, allowing The Muppets to be the stars of their own movie again. (The tendency to believe comic characters can't carry a movie on their own brings to mind the unnecessary romantic leads in Marx Brothers movies, or the later,non-Hal Roach Laurel and Hardy movies. They're not needed, and not really what you came to see.)The human lead characters in the last movie actually worked well, but then, they weren't exactly like regular people anyway. (He really was a "Muppet of a man"!)
  One of only two 'complaints', (If you can call them that.), that I had with Muppets Most Wanted was that during Miss Piggy's big solo number, she was repeatedly  'bested' by Celine Dion. Miss Piggy would never have stood for that! (Hey Celine! Can you say "HIIII YAH!") Also, I was expecting Miss Piggy to whack herself in the chest Celine Dion style, and it never happened. My other 'complaint' was that new character Walter took over some of the lines and action that would normally have gone to Gonzo or Scooter. Walter is ok, and I don't dislike him. But he's just there. He's not funny. I know kids who were introduced to the Muppets with the last movie will think of Walter as a lead character, but really, I don't think he has it in him.(What he has 'in him' is an arm, but you know what I mean.)
  There were still plenty of references to past Muppet adventures and habits, so lots of inside jokes for us old Muppet fans. Younger kids may not be familiar with the older Muppets shows and movies, but if yours aren't, GET BUSY! Get those kids watching some Muppet stuff! You might find you enjoy it as much (or more!) than they do!   
  It may seem old fashioned to use actual Muppets instead of CGI these days, but I think it's still better to have 'real' Muppets. Star Wars started using a CGI Yoda instead of an actual puppet, and you can tell. It's just not the same. Sure, he can do a lot more stuff, and move better, but he looks like an animation.Real Muppets look like real Muppets.There's still something to be said for living, walking, talking TOYS. It's still cool!
  Today's doll is a 'real' Muppet. It's the 25 Years of The Muppet Show Kermit action figure by Palisades.

Technically, this Kermit is an action figure.Kermit is about 4 and 1/2" tall. He came with his 'Kermit' coffee mug, a Muppet Show TV camera, and a Muppet Show base.

He has limited poseability. His head turns,his left arm can move more than his right (you may not know this, but if you watch you'll see that all Muppets are left handed. This has something to do with how it looks to the muppeteer in performance.), and his right leg moves.He can stand on his own though, even if somewhat precariously.

I HAD to include this picture. If you read this blog at all, you'll know that I always have trouble with what I have come to call "the one hair". That one hair that's always out of place.I should have been safe with Kermit, right? He has no hair! But after I took this I noticed that at the base of the camera: the one hair! It's mine!

The accuracy to each character in the Palisades toys was great. (They even textured the figures to look like the felt or fur of the particular Muppet, rather than just making them of smooth plastic.) To someone who isn't a Muppet fan, it may seem that it wouldn't be difficult to make the toys look like the real Muppets. It's harder than you think though.There's real personality in those felt and furry faces.

Kermit's collar is a soft rubber.

They also had loads of really cool little accessories. Kermit has the TV Camera, Beauregard came with a great mop bucket,(The kind where you pull the handle to squeeze the mop.), Scooter with a popcorn cart,etc.

I started collecting Muppets when I was a kid. I bought the Bert and Oscar Sesame Street puppets, (They must have been out of Ernie.) with my birthday money one year, when I was far too old for Sesame Street.(Is anybody ever completely too old for Sesame Street though? I enjoyed watching it with my kids!You have to love the old Grover and Bert and Ernie sketches!)I also amassed quite a collection of little rubber Sesame Street finger puppets when I was even older. I still have all of them. Emma played with the finger puppets quite a lot when she was tiny, and started a collection of her own.I always say I had to have all three of my kids so I had somebody to enjoy all of my interests with me. Fuzzy was my partner for Johnny Quest, dinosaurs,pirates, and knights. Ivy was my Shirley Temple kid. Emma was always my Muppets kid, and she still is. (She spent most of the winter wearing her Kermit hat, until she  got her Regular Show hat.)
  I also have one somewhat embarrassing but funny Muppet story which I'll relate someday...

   And yes, I eat my cereal out of my Kermit bowl every morning!