Cricket, Tressy's Little Sister

    First of all, welcome t our newest follower, Laila. Thanks for joining us!
  Back some time last summer I got a doll in a junk shop for 75 cents. She was wearing nothing but this  jacket to Barbie's Winter Holiday fashion.

 

I was pretty sure she was Tressy's sister Cricket, but Cricket is pretty unknown. I had to check it out when I got home to make absolutely sure, and was pleased to find she was, indeed, Cricket.

Somebody did a little work on her face. She needs darker eye brows and her nose is red. Looks like she has a cold.

  At this point you may be wondering who Tressy was. She's not super well known these days either. So we'll start there. Tressy was a Barbie competitor. She was developed by  a furniture designer named Jesse Dean, and his wife, Diana, and made by American Character from 1963 until 1967, when the company went out of business.

There's Cricket on the right.

 And why was she developed by a furniture designer? Well, there was something different about her. She had a feature Barbie didn't have at the time: her hair could be made to 'grow' by pulling the extra hank of hair while pushing a button in her stomach,

Tressy's belly 'button'.Unfortunately, my Cricket is missing the whole mechanism for cranking her hair in and out.

...and then retract back into her head so she could have short hair, by use of a T shaped key inserted into a hole in her back and turned.

Tressy's key hole.

This feature was later used on the Crissy line of larger dolls, (Except the key idea was given up in favour of a round crank.),when the patent was sold to Ideal, following American Character's demise.(For more detail on Tressy see my Tressy post HERE.)

  During Tressy's run she was popular enough to be: the basis for the Mary Make Up doll, (As if anybody would want to admit to that.Ew.), made in various hair colours,have her own extensive wardrobe,beauty salon...

That beauty salon looks pretty cool.

  ...and millinery shop!

Whoa! Make your own hats! This looks like fun!

 ...her own '4 and 1/2 room penthouse apartment'.

And a half?

...and her own little sister, Cricket. (Cricket was called 'Toots' in England for some reason, and was made by Palitoy.)

I'm not sure all Crickets came wearing this white ballet outfit, but it seems that at least most of them did. The little T shaped key you see hanging on Cricket and Tressy is the key that is used, in the key hole in their backs, to crank their hair back in.

  My sister had a Tressy doll when we were kids, and I was given Tressy eventually. I still have her.

My original Tressy on the left,with her pal Glamour Misty, The Miss Clairol Doll.

But as a kid I didn't even know Cricket existed. I have learned of her since, which is how I was pretty sure the doll I found was Cricket.

  Cricket was introduced in 1965, and produced until 1967. She's 9 1/2" tall, so she's just about the same size as Skipper.

Cricket has the same grow hair feature as Tressy,plus bendy legs. The original Tressy had straight legs, but later ones had bendable legs.


Cricket's bendy legs are rubber, with a wire armature, like Penny Brite, except her legs are easier to bend than Penny's.

 
She also had her own wardrobe. (Toots had the same fashions, but they were given different names, at least some of the time.)

'The most wonderful little girl in the world'.

  This girl was wearing the aforementioned Barbie coat when I got her, but I already had several pieces of Cricket clothing I had accumulated over the last few years.The checked dress in the above pictures of my doll is called Just Pals, and originally came with white flats and two little plastic poodles which were WAY out of proportion to be her real dogs.My dress needs some restoration.
  Sweet Treat was a blue dress with white organdy collar and bow, and came with white flats and an ice cream cone.I know I have it somewhere!It's pictured in the ad below,along with...

  ...this dress... 

...which is her original dress and coordinates with big sister Tressy's original dress...

...came with white flats, and a doll sized paint brush,set of paints, and paint by number book.

Fan Club Fun came with this blue jacket,a pencil and Cricket's scrapbook,as well as, what else? White Flats.

There is also a matching blue skirt, and a white blouse with lace. I swear I have them somewhere.
 

There it is on the bottom right in this French booklet. The doll in the pink dress is wearing the clone of Skipper's red Sensation, which you'll see below.The checked dress is just above that, and the red and white dress is bottom middle. I'm not sure all of these outfits were available here though.

  This cute corduroy outfit, called Shutter Bug, came with a camera.

It's a cozy corduroy 2 piece.

There was also a dress for Cricket, made of the same fabric,but with white sleeves and collar.

    Like Skipper, a lot of Cricket's outfits were meant to coordinate with her big sister's clothes. Several Cricket fashions matched Tressy's in style and /or fabric. There was also a more direct connection to Skipper: some of Cricket's fashions were directly copied from or influenced by Skipper fashions. 'TV Time', with it's black and white checked tights and jumper dress, was a direct rip off of Skipper's 'Town Togs'.

Skipper in Town Togs. (You can see this whole post, including a short photostory and the story of this Skipper's make over HERE.)

'TV Time', top left.I'm wondering what the thing under the Coke, radio and red pennant is. Looks like a Cousin Itt mask...

Fun and Fancy was a pink version of Skipper's Red Sensation, and came with the usual white flats and a white vinyl purse.

Another Skipper clone fashion on the left, and the real Red Sensation on the right.This is from my post on Skipper clone fashions, which you can see HERE.

Skipper wasn't the only one influencing Cricket. Cricket's 'Happy Birthday', from 1967,

...seems quite influenced by Francie's 1966 fashion 'Fresh as a Daisy'.

Francie is 'Fresh as a Daisy'. (By the way, you can see her whole post, including her before and after restoration photos HERE. )

** Correction on this one, thanks to a reader, Cricket's Happy Birthday coordinates with Tressy's ;Surprise Party'. Both were produced at least a year before 'Fresh as a Daisy'. ** 

  Cricket and Tressy's clothes didn't have quite the quality of Barbie's, but they were well designed and used fabrics like corduroy and velvet.

Tressy in a tagged Tressy velvet coat.It's missing a couple of buttons.

French booklet. Somewhere I saw a picture from a French booklet that showed this red velvet coat in green. In France Tressy and her sister were made by Bella Poupees.

 The accessories to Cricket and Tressy's fashions were also imaginative and fairly well made. The accessories included with the fashions included a gift and cake for 'Happy Birthday',a score card, a trophy, and 'Bowling' ball and pins, a tiny telescope with 'Ship Ahoy',a bundt cake,mixing spoon, and cook book for 'Kitchen Cuties', a guitar and sheet music for 'Hootenanny',a milkshake, records and record player included with the 'jump on the bandwagon' outfit 'Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!', from, when else, 1964,the year the Beatles hit America.'Winter Weekend' included a cozy sweater and leggings, mittens, toboggan, boots, goggles, skis, and poles. 

  I'm not a full on Tressy collector, but in addition to my childhood doll I have a couple of others, including this gorgeous dark haired Tressy.

I took this picture today, and yes, that is ice on the bushes!

So it was nice to have a Cricket to go with them. Also, as a Skipper collector,I can add her to the few Skipper competitors I own.

More Amazing Barbie stuff today!

  This summer has been vintage Barbie Bonanza time as far as yard sales go. I have never run across so many vintage Barbie and family dolls, stuff,and similar friends in one summer. If you read one of my earlier posts you will have seen that I found quite a few vintage dolls and clothes at a yard sale earlier this summer. I also managed to get a Deluxe Reading Dream Kitchen, thanks to a friend,a Tammy's Ideal House at another yard sale, and today I made this find:

Sorry about the plastic nudist colony.

  These dolls were waiting for me at a garage sale where I was helping the lady drag her stuff inside out of the rain. I almost missed them, but I heard her confirm to another lady that there were 'antiques and collectibles inside' on her sun porch. These guys were just inside the door. I also got a vintage Ideal Thumbelina and another older doll, some miniature baskets, a set of Krazy Ikes wooden building toys in their original box,and a couple of very cute old framed prints, which turned out to be 1959 menus from a Holland America cruise ship. I got everything for $31. The Midges are really nice, with only some minor lip rubs (I could fix that.) and hairdos needed. They have completely different skin tones.

The paler girl has super curly hair (Which makes me think she might be one of the earliest Midges.) and all her finger and toe nail paint. The other has all her finger nail paint.  Ken and Allan don't even have any hair rubs.The Tressy dolls have really nice faces. I love the dark haired one. The other one will look nice once she's dressed. She's very like the one I have from when I was a kid. The Thumbelina doesn't work, but she has her original wooden knob. I don't know who the other girl is, but I'm hoping my friend Connie can fix her up a bit. She has most of her mohair hair, and her crier still works.
  The pictures are so cute.

 
  The lady who sold them to me was an older lady, (To me, and I'm 51.) and they belonged to her mother in law, Flora. Flora wrote lovely notes which she kept with all the things she had saved over the years. The girl  picture had this written on the back.

"I think this little lassie has a guilty look---could she have swiped the flowers she is holding back of her?"

  I was very tempted to buy the napkins and tablecloth to which Flora had pinned some notes, including one detailing how she had bought 2 yards of fabric and sewed it into the set of linens in 1921, and how proud she was of her work at the time. So sweet. I wonder why her family wouldn't keep such such things.I was also tempted to buy a gift card to Flora from her husband Zeke. It had a pretty poem which I have unfortunately forgotten now.I may have Ken buy it tomorrow since he has to take back a necklace that was accidentally put in my bag. I'd go myself, but I am doing a doll show tomorrow. It's a long drive, so Ivy and I have to be up super early in the morning and we'll be gone all day. I just hope it's worth it.
  I also got something in the mail today.

  When I was a kid we had this Barbie's New Dream House. My sister gave it to me when she outgrew it, but then later she conveniently forgot she had given it to me and gave it to her first husband's nieces.It's one of the more expensive Barbie houses, so I thought I would never get one. I happened across one online recently and although it was a bit more than I would spend on myself,there were mysteries in the closet! There was only a little showing in the auction pictures, so I'm dying to see what's inside!

I'm already getting excited!

  I thought if I could sell the mystery items (I identified a couple in the auction pictures, but there are more lurking!), I might be able to pay for the house. I always loved that house, especially the sliding patio door! That was my favourite part!

The sliding door! And the handle isn't even bent on the outside!

When we made Emma a dollhouse one of the things I made sure was included was a sliding patio door! 

I'm hoping that one of these fur stoles goes to the Junior Prom dress that I spotted in the auction.

  And it  was! I think I just paid for my Dream House!

  And the good stuff just keeps coming.

I spy with my little eye Junior Prom,Enchanted Evening, Barbie in Holland,a red sheath dress,and Sophisticated Lady!

And the rest of Barbie in Holland was in the cupboard above the sink.(And the Spanish Inquisition was hiding behind the coal shed.) That's where I always keep my clothes.

Well now we know which Barbie this kid had.

I have to love the kid that owned this house. Look what they were using as a tv screen!

The Beatles card is taped to one of the original tv screens that came with the house.

  About the only thing I that can tell is missing is the base to the living room lamp, and, unfortunately, the other tv screens, including the one that made me fall in love with Larry the Lion!

Super minty Barbie in Holland, red sheath, and Skipper hat. Slight fraying on the Barbie hat.

The paper rug, which is the only piece I have left from our childhood Dream House, has no tears or dog eared edges.

  There is a bit of water damage, but mainly to the flap that will be covered by the bed when the house is set up. Set up where? I have NO idea!

  The furniture is minty. No bent chair or table legs. There's some tape on the house, but that looks like it may have been put on when they put the house together. The house seems to have been played with very little. Some of the walls and doors appear to have never been folded open.
  So I had a pretty good day!