Doll-A-Day 161: European Todd

  First of all, welcome to IHime, our newest follower here at Planet of the Dolls. Thanks for joining us!
  Sorry to be sort of stuck on a theme, but today's doll is another Tutti spinoff, like yesterday's Chris. Today's doll is Todd, Tutti's brother.

Don't all kids love climbing trees? I know I did.If I wasn't so fat and old I'd probably still do it!

I just got him in the mail today so I thought, why not share him.

This is the 1977 European version. I can tell since he's wearing his original shorts. He should also be wearing a red short sleeved shirt with a checked collar, socks, and blue shoes.Oh well. The shorts are better than nothing,and it was hot today....

Gonna have to find this guy a shirt.

 

European Tutti, Todd and Chris dolls are a bit beefier than their American counter parts. This is due to the heavier rubber they are made out of. Their heads are thinner though.Strange...

Euro Todd on the left, American Todd, in his original outfit, on the right.Euros also usually have choppier hair and receding hairlines.The titan hair is much darker than the U.S. titian.

The line was discontinued here in the U.S. in 1971 because the wires in the dolls tended to poke through the rubber and were considered dangerous.The European Tutti and friends continued through 1980, but with the heavy rubber. It makes them harder to pose, but I haven't seen a European Tutti/friends doll with their wires poking out.

American Todd was only available for a couple of years,(1966-68.) and only in 2 editions: a single boxed doll, and with Tutti in the Sundae Treat set.

American Todd on the right is the single boxed doll version.

While U.S. Todd was only available as a titian haired (red head), doll,Euro Todd was available as a brunette or a titian doll.

While poor U.S. Todd had nothing but the clothes on his back (and the sundae he came with in Sundae Treat.), since no fashions were produced for Todd here, Euro Todd has quite a wardrobe.

This Todd was a lucky internet find. I've been wanting a Euro Todd for some time, and this guy was affordable.He's in nice condition, and I was so pleased to find he was wearing his original shorts under some grungy old jeans.

That's the doll for today. See you tomorrow.

Doll-A-Day 160: Tutti Friend Chris in "Flower Girl"

  Today's doll is Tutti's friend Chris.

Chris was produced by Mattel in the U.S. between 1967 and 1971, and longer in other countries.

She came as a brunette or a blonde. Most of the brunettes have hair that has oxidized over time to various shades of auburn. Today's Chris is one of the few who haven't oxidized.

This is probably the most accurate picture of her hair colour.

She's wearing Tutti's Flower Girl fashion from 1968-69.

Flower Girl consists of the dress,head band, white bow flats,and bouquet.

Her hair looks a bit auburn here, but it isn't really. It's nice and dark.

I was shocked and upset today when I took her out of my glass case and discovered that her head had started to yellow. I've seen this problem before with my childhood Buffy, so I immediately popped poor Chris's head off. Sure enough the wires that make her body poseable that were sticking up out of her neck knob had started to rust. I was furious! This Chris was so beautifully pink. Somehow she has gotten dampness in her body and her wires are rusting. Looking her over I saw that she also had spots on her leg and her arm. I will need to rebody her with a good body. For today's pictures she stole (No. Borrowed.) the body of one of my blonde Chris's.

 
Luckily I caught her before she was ruined.But she was sooo pretty and pink!
Chris fit her photo shoot in between rain showers. The rain keeps coming and the corn keeps growing. I'm the impatient type. I have planted this corn and I want to see results NOW! Waiting for vegetables to grow drives me crazy. "A watched pot never boils" as the saying goes. But does watched corn grow? It better, or I'll end up with nothing, because I'm sitting on this corn like a mother hen! I have lots of small tomato plants too, and a couple of big ones, but only two lonely little blooms that will hopefully grow into some big fat tomatoes.
  See you tomorrow for another doll.

Doll-A-Day 159: Gene 'Incognito'

  Today's doll is Mel Odom's Gene 'Incognito, made by Ashton Drake.

I have wanted this Gene for a while. I got her at the auction last week.

I'm not crazy about blondes, but I love this outfit. Ivy does too, and wants a human sized version of it.

This is the Gene without jointed knees. Her arms can move outward from her sides though.

Gene is supposed to be a movie star in the golden age of films. This Gene definitely has that look about her. I could see Grace Kelly in an outfit like this.

 I was lucky enough to get this Gene in her box. The ribbon holding her in was untied, but she is mint. Her sunglasses and purse were still in the plastic.

Incognito is from 1998.

Gene is about 15" tall.

  I've always liked Gene, since the dolls were first introduced in the early 90's. I prefer this original Gene face to the later one.

Gene just got her photo shoot in before the rain POURED. It's been raining almost everyday lately. That's ok. My corn is coming up quite well.

Doll-A-Day 158: Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra

  Today I'm showing you a doll I have waited a long time for: Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra, by Mattel.

 I have wanted one of these for ages. They have become so expensive! My only hope was to catch one at an auction at a decent price. But even at that they have been too expensive for me recently. I got super lucky at the auction last week though. I had missed the Elizabeth Taylor in Father of the Bride Mattel doll in a box of other boxed dolls for $40. That was a great deal for that doll these days. So I was determined to get the Cleopatra when she came up. I had bought a few other things, but was holding out some money to bid on the Cleo. I still had to borrow a little from Emma to top off what I had, but I got the box with Cleo for $50!

 

I love this doll. As I have said before, I love dolls of famous people that really look like them. This is a great likeness of Elizabeth Taylor.

 

  As great as this doll is, I have seen some one of a kind repaints of this head mold that are really amazingly realistic.
  Elizabeth Taylor was so beautiful. I always wanted to have black hair myself.

 

This doll was still in her box, but I knew I wouldn't leave her in there.

  Mattel copied the Cleopatra costume pretty well too, without making it totally out of a regular person's price range, or being quite as busty as the original.

  This is the costume from the part of the movie where Cleopatra enters Rome.

  Cleopatra was released in 1963, after being a couple of years in the making. At the time it was the most expensive movie ever made, and today, taking inflation into account, it's still one of the most expensive.

  Elizabeth Taylor became the first actor to be paid a million dollars for a movie when she asked for a million for "Cleopatra" in an effort to get the producers to leave her alone! When they surprisingly said yes, she accepted, (Wouldn't you?!) After adding her share of the profits, which was also part of her contract, she made well over a million.

    The movie was originally considered a flop, but in the long run it was profitable.

  The Cleopatra doll was the first of Mattel's three Elizabeth Taylor dolls, The other two were Father of the Bride and White Diamonds. I showed you the White Diamonds doll during Oscar Week earlier this year.

    I have had this Egyptian throne for two or three years, just waiting to get this Cleopatra doll to go with it! (Of course, when she sits in it she totally covers it up, and it's far too neat for that!)

  I actually bought two different Egyptian thrones. I got them at a gift shop in a very small town near here. It was my birthday and when I saw them I loved them, so Ken bought me one for my birthday. We have taken the other to a few doll shows, but so far no takers. I may bring up the birthday thing and suggest keeping the other one too. Keeeen?

Three Stooges fans will know what I mean when I say that's King Rootin Tootin's sarcophagus.

  So, I love the throne. And the box even served as the backdrop for some of these pictures.

And the other back drop is a piece of tile I got for free when a local interior decorator was getting rid of all her tile samples. The big one I used for the floor in the pictures with the box back drop, and the wall in the tile backdrop. The smaller tile that I used for the floor in the tile backdrop pictures I normally use to bake polymer clay stuff on. It works great. I haven't burned anything since I started baking on the tile.

 The sarcophagus came from Hobby Lobby a couple of years ago.

I wanted these pictures to look all dark and torch lit, but that was never going to happen!

  That's all for today's doll. If it ever stops raining I'll show you another of my auction buys tomorrow.