Doll-A-Day 96: Susie Slicker

   The other day I told you about finding a replica of my stolen childhood Susie Slicker at Salvation Army. She fits right in with the theme I had planned for this month; April Showers. So here she is.

With only one boot, poor Susie has to be careful not to get her tights dirty. Too late!

She is wearing her original raincoat, tights, and one boot.She's missing her purple rain hat.

Susie Slicker also came with an umbrella.I remember mine was mint green plastic with a white plastic handle.The umbrella didn't actually  open.

The lilac buds are finally budding.Susie's coat is so stiff these days she can't raise her arms to touch them.

I still have my Susie's hat and coat,but she must have been wearing her tights and boots when she disappeared. I'm not sure I remember her actually having tights. Replacement purple Susie isn't wearing any, and I got her in her original box, so maybe they didn't all come in tights.

On the other hand, replacement girl doesn't have her umbrella either.(She does have her hat, but it's AWOL at the moment.)

Replacement Susie.

Susie Slicker was made in the 60's. Various companies put out Susie Slicker and Susie Sad Eyes, (the non-raincoat wearing version.), type dolls of varying quality. The look was based on paintings by Margaret Keane.

Susie Slicker in her original box. This one appears to be like my Susie. Replacement Susie came in a coloured hard plastic box with cut out flower shapes.

With auction Susie.Notice the big dark rings under auction Susie's eyes. I remember my original Susie didn't have those.I'm not sureif mine had the thinner bangs like new girl though. It was a loooong time ago!They both have the stiffer plastic raincoat though.

No one is immune to the dreaded One Hair.

 

As I said yesterday, we saw replacement Susie on line, and since she was wearing the purple raincoat and hat I assumed she was the same as my Susie. She has a softer vinyl rain coat and hat, and she's got a very red complexion. I remembered my Susie as being a much better quality doll.She was made of a better quality plastic,with nicer hair,and her raincoat and hat are a much stiffer, heavier, shinier vinyl. Some of that could have been idealized childhood memories, but I do have the hat and coat as proof it wasn't just that! Besides, this doll fits all those other memories, so maybe I was right.

See you tomorrow for another doll.

Doll-A-Day 37: Susie Slicker

  Today is Susie Slicker day.

She's wearing  the raincoat and boots, and cotton undies. She also has a matching hat to go with her raincoat.

This is a Susie Slicker that Ken bought me one year, after hearing (about a million times),my sad tale of loss about my childhood Susie being stolen. I was so excited when we found her online. She had the purple coat and hat that my Susie had.  (Her hat is elsewhere at the moment, as are my Susie's hat and coat.)

But when I got her, she was different.(I'm never satisfied, am I?) Her hat and coat are a soft vinyl, while my Susie's are a stiffer vinyl. I don't think I could even get mine on a doll nowdays, without the hat popping off and the coat being so stiff the doll couldn't keep her arms down.
  She was also a lower quality than I remember my old Susie being, but that could just be me not remembering correctly. After all, I was only about 7 when Susie disappeared. I don't know what the difference is though.Susie Slicker came in cardboard boxes, like this.

Unfortunately not mine. I'll be glad to remove the picture if asked. I wanted to show the different boxes.This doll is labelled Fun World.

But she also came in hard plastic boxes like this.

Also not mine. I'll also be glad to remove this if asked.

  The boxes were various colours. Mine is orange.
Here's mine:

This one is also marked Fun World.This is the one Ken's replacement Susie came in.
  One difference I see is that the cardboard box Susie has tights, which I think mine may have had, and the plastic box ones, including my replacement, has none.The solution to the question may be that several different companies made the dolls, even when they were sold by the same company, like these two Fun World Susies. The other thing is that it was much easier to get by with copying someone else's doll in those days. Look at all the clones of popular dolls that are so close they may even have used the same mold.
  Like this Skipper clone... 

 and this Francie clone...

Replacement  Susie also has a very red complexion.

I don't think she's really any shorter. She was just being photographed on a squashy surface.

Her plastic is a better quality and her hands are molded much better, but she's way more red faced than my childhood replacement "Sad Eyes Doll", that you saw yesterday.Her hair is more brown than Sad Eyes girl's hair. It's rooted much better though.

Her face seems a lot more round than Sad Eyes. It could just be an optical illusion though, due to the way  the hair falls on them.

  There are also alot of the Susie type dolls that have developed large black or green rings under their eyes. I guess the moral of the story is, if you're buying one of these girls, make sure you get to see her first, and look her over carefully.
  They never made a Sammy Slicker. That would have been cute.Food for thought if I ever find one that needs a redo I guess.

Another Margaret Keane painting.Awwww.

  Tomorrow we'll take a look at a couple of modern successors to the Big Eye title.