Doll-A-Day 2023 #232: Cool Cuts Kara

   Today's doll is one I've posted a variation of before. She's Cool Cuts Kara.

She was made by Kenner in 1990.

This doll is way cuter than the other ones I posted, even though it's the same head sculpt.

  She's 13 inches tall, with molded and painted underwear and shoes.

Her gimmick was that her hair could be cut, and then replaced plug by plug, with hair plugs that were sold separately.

The removable plugs, (which I couldn't get out!) were a lot more visible on the other doll I posted, and I also showed a doll with the plugs removed. That Kara was the Caucasian version. That post can be seen HERE.

  You can watch the commercial for CKool Cuts Kara HERE.

  See you tomorrow.

Doll-A-Day 2023 #101: Mary Makeup

   Today's doll is...ugh...Mary Makeup.

  I'm all for the natural look and  going without make-up. I almost never wear any myself. But Mary here could use all the make-up she can get. Of course, that's her purpose, isn't it?

  Mary Makeup was an 11 1/2 inch fashion doll, made by American Character between 1964 and 1967. She was described as 'The cosmetics doll'.

Must have been a bit depressing, to know that's all you meant to the world: just make-up.

  She has the same head as American Character's Tressy, (You can see some of my Tressy's HERE and HERE.), but Mary has been left pale and plain, because the idea was to be able to 'make-up' Mary Makeup. Her hair was also a pretty flat shade of blonde, because it was meant to be coloured, using markers for that purpose. Of course, Glamour Misty had hair that was meant to be coloured with her hair markers, and it still managed to be a decent looking colour.

Mary didn't have anything of her own. She was supposed to use Tressy's make-up and hair colour, and wear Tressy's clothes.  She even came in the same original dress as Tressy! (Or a navy blue version.)

"Change Mary's pretty face with Tressy's make-up kit! Change Mary's hair with Tressy's hair colouring kit! Make Mary even more glamourous with Tressy's high fashion clothes!" Holy cow! Give this girl something she can call her own! And if her face is so pretty, why is she so worried about changing it? Why does she need to change it anyway?!

Tressy must have gotten pretty sick of her. 

But aww. Look what good friends they are in Tressy's booklet.

  Tressy was sold as a regular grow hair doll, and as a make-up and hair colour doll, like Mary. Considering that they also shared a head sculpt, (And a body, {Except for Tressy's belly button hair extension feature.}Man! Mary really didn't have anything of her own!), I don't see the point of them being two different dolls. Mary didn't even have the cool grow hair feature. I will say that the make-up Tressy isn't quite as pale and colourless as Mary.

  Of course, I have to admit, these Mary's aren't that bad. 

I have seen waaaayyyy uglier Mary Make-ups than these. At least these girls have a pink complexion. Most Mary's I've seen are very pale, with faces that look like the kid washed off more than just the make up.

    As I said, Mary Makeup dolls generally have really colourless, washed out faces and horrifying heads of pale hair. The one in this ad has pure white hair.

Whatever it is, keep it a secret.

    Palitoy made a doll called Mary Makeup in 1980. That doll wasn't anything like this one though. She was a bigger scale doll, with a prairie type dress and a pinafore. 

  That's the doll for today. Tomorrow is a special 'tour'!

Doll-A-Day 2019 #68: Barbie's '60th' Week: Fashion Queen Barbie

  Today's Barbie 60th birthday post is a doll my sister had as a kid,and I loved her.

This isn't my sister's doll. She gave her to me when she outgrew her, but later gave her to her husband's nieces anyway. This is a random girl.

She's Fashion Queen Barbie.

Fashion Queen Barbie appeared in 1963. You can watch a commercial for the doll HERE.

She has a molded upswept hair style,painted brown,and a blue head band.

Most of the dolls found are missing the head band. When I was a kid, I didn't even realize it was removable. I thought it was painted on. It's like a blue elastic band.

In fact, the featured doll today was missing her headband when I got her. I found one of the blue head bands in my Barbie stuff just the other day. I was afraid it wouldn't stretch any more and would just break when I tried to put it on her. It was ok though.
  The gimmick with Fashion Queen was that she came with three changeable wigs. That was the part I loved!

She had a white plastic wig stand and a red flip wig, a brunette page boy, and a blonde bubble cut wig. The commercial claims the doll came with a 'bubble on bubble' wig, but I know my sister's didn't, and I rarely see the bubble on bubble wigs.

  I loved that she could change her hair. My sister liked to use the wigs for other things. Her G.I. Joe frequently wore the brunette page boy, and he and Francie were Sonny and Cher.

Francie and Sonny, uh, I mean, Cher and Joe, uh,you know...

She is definitely not the most attractive of Barbies. She has a pretty crabby looking face. A lot of the Fashion Queen dolls look jowly.  

And somewhat judgmental too.

   She was certainly more attractive than the similarly wig themed and somewhat alien looking Miss Barbie, from the following year. And there were some Fashion Queen dolls with very pretty, high colour faces. However, she usually looked haughty, and sometimes downright angry.

  Some of those Fashion Queen dolls with high colour faces are quite beautiful. My girl isn't a high colour, but she isn't jowly either.

The hats from the earlier ponytail Barbies don't fit very well with the wigs, or on Barbies with rooted bubble cuts either.

  The doll originally came in a swimsuit with white and metallic gold stripes, and a matching 'turban'.
 

Ok. Those aren't the wigs she came with, and she didn't come as a blonde. So much for accuracy in advertising. But there is that elusive Bubble on Bubble!

It's a somewhat Egyptian look, inspired no doubt by the movie "Cleopatra', which was released the same year.

  The Fashion Queen head and wigs were available without a body too,as 'Barbie's Wig Wardrobe'.
 

"You can change Barbie's hair color and style to go with her different fashions...the way real fashion models do". You know, by popping their heads off and putting wigs on.

  Tomorrow is my birthday! I'll be a whole 57 years old. I'll be spending the day with Ken and Emma, but I'll be posting our last Barbie 60th birthday post. See you then.

Flea Market VS Thrift Store Part 3: Tiffany Taylor

  Here we are, finally getting to the end of a day that happened weeks ago! It's taken a while. Apart from the fact that I have had other things I had to do, I have been dragging this summer. I am always really tired. At first I thought it was the heat, but I have been that way even when it's cooler. It's not quite as bad when it's cooler,but it's always like I haven't slept or sat down for about two days.
 To take up where we left off in the last post,we're going to look at the other doll  bought at the thrift store that day. She's this beautiful lady.

I think she needs her tooth space painted though.

She's Tiffany Taylor.

She was made by Ideal in 1974 and 1975.
 

She came in both Caucasian and African American versions,although both had the same head sculpt.

Tiffany is 19" tall. Like the smaller Tuesday Taylor,(which you can see HERE.),Tiffany Taylor had a hair gimmick: her hair colour could be changed by rotating her scalp. The Caucasian Tiffany had hair that changed from brunette to platinum blonde.The African American version has brunette and auburn hair.

Tiffany has rooted eyelashes.

She originally came in a sparkly gold bathing suit with a long chartreuse skirt cover up,and chartreuse mules.

 

This doll is wearing the right shoes, but she's wearing the dress that originally came on Country Fashion Crissy in 1981.

The other weird thing is her hair. It's in curlers!

I wouldn't think so much about that except she's not the first I've seen in the curlers and plastic.In fact, it's not even the only one I've seen with the hair curlers and the Country Fashions Crissy dress! After I got her I looked her up to see how rare she might be. One of the first things I found was one on Ebay who was nude, but wearing the curlers and plastic. After that I found one in the curlers and plastic, wearing her own shoes and the outfit from the Electraman doll. It was on this very informative site about Crissy dolls,which also has a lot of information about Tuesday and Tiffany Taylor: Crissy and Beth,The Ultimate Guide on Crisy Family Dolls  According to that site,the doll was sold at an Ideal employees store to liquidate the last of the Tiffany Taylor stock.You can see the Tiffany dressed as Electraman HERE.
  During further research I found another in curlers and plastic. She was wearing the wrong shoes, but she was also wearing the Country Fashions Crissy dress! This is a sale listing from 2011,so I don't feel bad about showing you the actual photo here. The blog it's from is no longer active and I'm sure you can't still buy the doll.

So it seems that the dolls sold in the employee stores were also dressed in the Country Fashions Crissy dress. The weird thing is,Country Fashions Crissy was sold in 1981 and 1982. As far as I can see, Tiffany was long finished by then.
  Whatever the case, this doll is absolutely beautiful,isn't she?

She's so original that it seems a shame to take her curlers out. But wouldn't she be gorgeous with her hair down,and a nice outfit on?

  Next time we'll see what I got in my trade with my Flickr friend.