Doll-A-Day 2023 #331: Dawn

   First of all, I have to apologize for not posting for the last several days. I had set the posts to go on before I left for my sister's house, but they didn't go on! So I have posted the two I had ready. I was supposed to come back Sunday, and I had a post planned, but due to circumstances beyond our control, I didn't get back until yesterday. Then Ken and I had stuff to do, and when we got back, I just wanted to relax with him a while before we fell asleep. So now I am 15 days behind for the year, and there are only 19 days left in the year! So it's going to be post, post, post, for the rest of the year! 

  A little note, some of you may remember my Mrs. Beasley post, where I talked about how much I always wanted a Mrs. Beasley, and how I found the perfect Beasley at a yard sale for $3, glasses and all. Well, I have been rummaging in our bedroom lately, and it looks like my Beasley is probably pretty blackened from the smoke. I will clean her when we get back in, but I'm not sure if her little face will ever be peachy again, or the dots on her clothes be white. As for her glasses, they were on the vanity, just inside the door. I checked them the other day, and they appear to have shrunken a bit from the heat! They didn't exactly melt, but one leg is now way shorter that the other one. On the plus side, the broken spot appears to have fused back together! Someone left a comment and an email address on the post a couple of weeks ago, saying they wanted a Beasley for their daughter, who just turned 55. I have a spare Beasley I was going to sell. She is perfect too, all her clothes and her glasses as well. I had just happened to come across her in a tub at the storage right before I got the comment, so I knew where she was. Her glasses had been in the dollhouse for  'safekeeping', but the dollhouse got jostled and most of the contents were removed and packed up. The whole dollhouse was moved. But, amazingly, the glasses were still in there, and still perfect. So I offered the Beasley to the person. I haven't heard from them though. I told Ken  that if they don't want her, I have decided to keep her, since mine may never be the same.

  We're going to start off the post-a-pa-looza with a sequel to the last post. In that post we saw Dawn's boyfriend Gary. So what's more fitting to see next, than Dawn herself?

  Dawn was made by Topper Toys from 1970 to 1973.

  Dawn was a mini fashion doll at 6 1/2 inches, with tiny rooted eyelashes and a twist waist. She was so popular during her three year run, that one year she outsold Barbie.

   The dress she's wearing here is called Gold Glow. It's from 1970. Originally it came with yellow shoes, a yellow hanger, and a dress stand. 

  When I tried to button it, with the thread loop and the tiny pearl bead, the bead popped off! I decided to not even try the other one, and I was lucky enough to find the bead that popped off. Before I really did lose it, I popped the bead into the ziplock bag with the spare boot, purses, hanger, and Gary's one shoe.

I also have Dawn's Shocker Frocker dress, from 1970.

It originally came with a fancy telephone, a dress stand and pink shoes.

  Dawn's not in the best shape. She's missing some hair.

Her body isn't as bad as some Dawn's. Most of them have melted places where the harder plastic body has reacted with the softer rubber legs. This one has a bad melt place on her thigh. She doesn't have a twist waist.

  I have a few Dawn purses and a boot and a hanger, as I said.

The Dawn hangers came in various colours to match the outfits they came with, and they have Dawn's name on them.

I thought this dress was homemade, but the other day I saw the same dress online somewhere. Of course, now I can't find it again.

  This poor Dawn has a twist waist, but she also has even more problems than the other doll. 

She has a better face, but more of a haircut.

As you can see, she has some bad leg problems. That's why it's good they have long dresses.

Twisty waist.

  All of this stuff, and Gary, are ready to go, if anybody wants to pay postage and rehabilitate them.

That's today's doll, but don't be surprised if there's another doll or two...or more, posted today!

Doll-A-Day 2023 #330: Gary

  Today we're going to look at Gary. Sorry for how much of him we're looking at! 

 Gary is about 6 1/2 inches tall, the same as Dawn.

I just don't have any of Gary's clothes except for one brown shoe that I think is his. (I think he came in black shoes though.)

Too bad he doesn't have the other shoe, to cover up his injured foot.

  Gary was the boyfriend of Dawn, Topper's mini fashion doll, sold between 1970 and 1973. I never had any of Dawn and her friends as a kid, but I remember seeing plenty of them at school. (Kids don't seem to be allowed to bring toys to school these days, but we did  it all the time back then.)

Poor Gary isn't in the best of shape.

  Gary came in a wild, multicoloured shirt. It was a bit hip for a guy with a somewhat Robert Goulet-like appearance.

"If ever I would leave you..."

  The long sideburns were a thing of the times, and I still hate them.

He does have a lot of detail on his tiny little head. I will say that.

This Gary doesn't seem to suffer from the problem a lot of Dawn dolls do, which is the reaction between the soft rubber arms and legs, and the harder plastic torso, which causes them to sort of meld together. Other dolls have the same problem, like Kenner's Dusty.

  I'm not sure if other Garys also escaped the problem, or if this guy just got lucky. Or maybe Gary was made of a sightly different plastic than Dawn.

  Gary was released in the second series of Dawn and friends, along with another guy named Ron. Ron had brown hair in a swoopy, across the forehead style. Later there was a third guy, an African American named Van. 

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

Playsets: Cookie Topper's Cozy Kitchen

  I have to apologize for the lateness of this post. It was scheduled to go on while I was gone, but it didn't publish. So I'm publishing it by hand. My hand, as you can tell, is back home from Georgia, which I'll tell you about soon. I'll catch you up on the Doll Book of the Month Club tomorrow. But first, this month's play set is, I think, Topper's Cozy Kitchen.

   It looks very similar to the Deluxe Reading Dream Kitchen. (Click the link to see mine.) The colours and design are similar. There's a good reason for that. Topper and Deluxe Reading were the same company. Deluxe Reading was the parent company, and they sold toys under various names, including Deluxe Topper, Deluxe Toy Creations, Deluxe Reading, Topper Corp., Topper Toy Group, and Topper Toys.

It says Topper right there.

  There is one major difference between the Deluxe Reading Dream Kitchen and the Topper Cozy Kitchen though: size. The Deluxe Reading Dream Kitchen is 1/6 scale, or Barbie/Fashion doll size. The Topper Cozy Kitchen is tiny. It's more 1/12, or dollhouse scale. The pieces are 4 1/2 inches tall.

Cookin' Goodis Tutti, forsaking her own white stove for Cookie Topper's Cozy Kitchen. You can see Tutti with her own stove in my post, HERE.

  It makes a good play kitchen for Tutti, or a regular kitchen for dolls like Dolly Darlings or something else short. I'm pretty sure it would be too short for Dawn though. What confuses me is, I've seen it on line as Penny Brite's kitchen, and it's way too small for her. She's even bigger than Tutti. Besides that, Penny Brite had her own kitchen set. (Oddly enough, Dawn's Apartment used the same stove mold as  Penny's kitchen, even though Dawn was way too small for it. You can see my post on Dawn's Apartment, which also shows you Penny's kitchen, HERE.)
   Here's a picture of the Cozy Kitchen set in the box. As you can see, the set originally came with the stove, sink, fridge, a table and chairs, and  a chandelier.

You'll notice that the pieces aren't always the same colour, although the same colours are used in the set. 

    And who is 'Cookie Topper'? As you can see, it is called 'Cookie Topper's Cozy Kitchen'. I assume there was a doll called 'Cookie Topper'. I can't find anything on such a doll though. If you Google 'cookie topper' you get sprinkles and icing decorations for topping cookies!
  I bought this set second hand. I originally had the table too, (Mine was pink.), but it had gotten separated from the set. I didn't know what it went to, and it was broken. The corner was missing, and it only had three legs, so, in a rare moment of common sense about such things, I threw it out or put it in a bunch of things for donation.
   Unlike the Dream Kitchen, none of the doors open. They're just hollow plastic pieces.

   The 'chrome' is worn on all the pieces.

The stove top, (and sink top), is a solid piece, although it is a separate piece from the rest of the stove. 

The hole and piece of plastic on the upper shelves are where there used to be non-removable plastic plates, as you can see in the picture of the boxed set, above.

 That's the playset for the month. I'll see you back here tomorrow for the Doll Book of the Month Club.

Doll-A_Day 2019 #124: Brenda Brush

  Today's doll was a gift from a Flickr friend. She was part of a 'pay it forward', and she just arrived recently.

She's Brenda Brush.

You may recognize her from my recent post on her series mate, Hot Canary.If not, you can see Hot Canary's post HERE.

Brenda Brush and Hot Canary are from the series of Go Gos dolls by Topper toys.

They were made in 1965.

The Go Gos came in plastic cases.

The top can be removed,and the doll can use the case bottom as a stand. 

 There is a small clear plastic piece that holds the doll's feet that slides into place in the base.

Brenda is obviously an artist.

And she's very intent on her work!
 

She has her brush and pallet,and the cliche artist's smock, floppy bow,and beret.

 And she's pretty messy, as artists tend to be.

Her brush is clamped to her wrist with a big metal thing in her arm, like Hot Canary has for her microphone.

But her pallet is held on with a stitch sewn to her sleeve.
 

She has red tennis shoes.

Like Hot Canary, Brenda stands about 8 inches tall, and is posable,with wires in her rubber body.

She just can't hold that brush in a useful position!

I love this doll! Brenda is one of my two favourites in the series. The other is Tomboy.

I had mentioned this recently in a comment on someone's Flickr photo of Brenda. The next thing I know,one of my Flickr friends had contacted me and offered to send Brenda to me!

 

She had gotten a gift from someone, and she was continuing the 'pay it forward' by sending a doll to me. Now I'm trying to find someone to send something to. 

  That's it for today. We'll see you again for another doll.