Doll-A-Day 2023 #262: Plastic Baby Doll

   Today's doll belongs to my sister. He's a simple plastic baby doll.

  You can see where he used to have a bottle on his chest, that disappeared many decades ago. It was a 'magic bottle':  a clear plastic bottle with white sand in it, that disappeared when the baby was laid down.

  My sister was born in 1956, so he is most certainly from the late 50's. He's about 8 or 9 inches tall. The poor kid has a melt mark on his leg, as you can see. This old plastic does that, often from being in contact with another plastic it reacts to.

He has a marking on his back, but I can't read it. I do know that he was made by Irwin though. He's wearing a molded and painted diaper, but the paint is mostly worn off on the back, so it looks like he just has a weirdly lumpy butt.

  That's today's doll. Sorry it's short, but I am still doing wedding clear up duty, and trying to go through the pictures I took. See you tomorrow, when I will almost certainly photograph something to post, because Ken got my camera working again.

Doll-A-Day 2023 #145: Hard Plastic Twins

   Today's dolls came from a doll show a couple of years ago. They were so cute, and so cheap, that I couldn't resist. And of course, they had been together for so long, I couldn't separate them.

  They're just very simple little hard plastic dolls. I'm guessing them to be from the 50's, or early 60's.

They have very gluey seams and not the best of paint jobs, so they were cheap even when they were new, I'm sure.

  They have sleep eyes, which don't line up with their eye holes very well.

That is worse on one of them than the other.

But they still manage to be so cute. with their curly bobs and pretty dresses.

Look at that swirl in the front.

Cute little heads, and more molded detail than you would think.

Her dress has a kitty cat!

And kids playing.

They even have matching bonnets.

And their shoes are painted on, right? Well, yes, but...

They didn't bother to mold any shoes! They just painted their bare feet!

And before you say it, no, it looks factory.

They're about six inches tall.

  When I got them, I thought they would be such fun to photograph, because they would be so cute in a Spring setting, with some tiny flowers.

Well they weren't fun to photograph!  They were awful! They have very floppy legs, and they couldn't stand up even when they were propped.

This took an inordinate amount of work!

 Plus the gravel was hurting my butt...

  But they are cute, and it took me ages to photograph them because my autofocus is not working, so I'm going to show you more pictures. 

  And some good news for a change, I found my phone today! So everybody can stop scolding me now, I have the pictures on the phone back at least. and Ken can stop threatening to change the service over to his crappy phone.

  Tomorrow is Emma's birthday. I will still be back with a doll, and the book I still owe you. See you then.

Doll-A-Day 2023 #108: Sweet Sue or Nanette?

   Today's doll is one I got, not at the last doll show, but at the one before. She was from the same dealer who had the Alice looking doll I turned down because it smelled like it might have hard plastic disease. Sooo...  Anyway,  I'm not sure if she's a Sweet Sue, or maybe a Nanette.

  She has no markings, but then Sweet Sue often doesn't. My other Sweet Sue isn't marked, but she's wearing her original dress, so I can tell that's who she is.

  Sweet Sue was made by American Character for ten years, starting in 1951. Nanette was made in the 50's too, by Arranbee (otherwise known as R&B). The reason Nanette and Sweet Sue look so much alike is that at one point Arranbee, American Character, and Madame Alexander shared factory space, and all used from the same stock of body parts.

Her hands are blushed on top.

  This doll is a walker doll. When her legs are moved, her arms move in unison, and her head turns. Both Sweet Sue and Nanette were walkers, so still hard to know. 

  She's about 17 inches tall.

  Her hair is a wig, not rooted.

  She has very long strawberry blonde hair.

I'm sure it was meant to be curled, which would take up some of that length.

But I love that it's this long! It kind of looks like my hair.

It's a beautiful colour.

And she still has both of her metal barrettes. (I guess they're original. They don't look like they would go back in if they came out.)

They're kind of like giant staples.

  She has had a little accident in which she lost most of her right eyebrow and some of the colour on her forehead. I didn't do it! I thought I had though, for a second, when I was cleaning her face.

She has blue eyes, with a little gold in the middle. That's kind of the way Ivy describes her eyes; green with some brown in the middle. He hair is a bit lighter than Ivy's, but she's still a red head.

They're sleep eyes, and have brush lashes.

Her lips are bright red. Kind of mature for a doll that looks more like a child, but it's pretty on her. Maybe her lips are just really chapped.

  This dress doesn't fit her perfectly. It's a little loose through the waist. So it's probably not her original.

  It may be homemade. It's a nice little schoolgirl dress.

Yes, that waist piece is supposed to be up, but it kept turning down.

The dress closes in the back with hook and eye closures.

  If anybody recognizes the dress, leave a comment.

  I didn't even think about her possibly being a Sweet Sue until I'd had her a while. I was just sort of taken by her cute clothes and boots and that long red hair. She looks so different from my other Sweet Sue, because that one still has curl in her hair, and is wearing a light, pastel outfit. Even though they're similar, it's their differences that make each of them worth having. Also, this one has much brighter face paint than my other one, and she isn't missing as much lip paint, as well as the paint that's there being more red.

  I love the little boots she is wearing. How cute are these?

Does anybody recognize them?

 

They're lined, and they have shiny plastic soles.

 

  She's wearing a strange conglomeration of clothes: a summer dress, wooly thigh high socks, and cozy boots. I assume this was the dealer's doing.

  I got the sweater at the show too. It was only a dollar. When I bought it I didn't know who it was going to go on, but I couldn't resist it. Then after I got back here, I realized it would fit her perfectly.

  It has little diamond like stones set in. It's really well made and looks like a sweater for humans, only tiny. I have a thing for coats and sweaters, and cozy clothes, so for a dollar, even though I didn't know who it was going to go on, I had to get it.

  That's the doll for today. Tomorrow we'll see some dolls I nabbed at a show a while back, who have been waiting for their day.