Doll-A-Day 2017 #6 Aunt Sally from Worzel Gummidge by Pedigree

  Today's doll is Aunt Sally by Pedigree.

Aunt Sally is approximately 19" tall. She has a soft vinyl head and a soft stuffed body and limbs.

Her dress is a one piece dress/apron combo. Her shoes are part of her legs. Her clothes and bonnet are removable though.

 Her hair is fairly thinly rooted. I think it was originally in a bun or some sort or something. If it were done that way the thinness wouldn't be as noticeable.

 Aunt Sally was a character in the "Worzel Gummidge" children's books and TV series. 'Worzel Gummidge' was the first book in a series that eventually ran to 10 books.

The books were written by Barbara Euphan Todd, and the first was published in 1936. Today's doll,Aunt Sally, was made in the early 1980's, to coincide with the TV series "Worzel Gummidge".

An Aunt Sally in her original box.

'Worzel' was a live scarecrow,made by a mysterious man known only as 'The Crow Man'. He was also loads of trouble. The Crowman was constantly having to get Worzel out of trouble, and send him back to the field to do his scarecrow duties. Some of the threats he threw at Worzel if he didn't behave were pretty horrifying,such as throwing Worzel on the compost heap, burning him, or making it so that he couldn't come alive any more!Pretty rough stuff for a kids' series!
An 'Aunt Sally' was originally an ugly wooden head on a stick used in a fairground game.

There's a link to this site below. Go there for an explanation of the Aunt Sally game.

 The description of the game and it's origins is pretty long and detailed, so I am going to direct you HERE and HERE  if you want the full story. I'll just say that the head had a clay pipe in it's mouth,(and later in holes in it's ears and nose.), and the object of the game was to knock the pipes out. Later 'Aunt Sally' became a dressed wooden figure. Then 'Aunt Sally' was simplified to just a blank piece of wood. After being quite a popular, if localized game,(Centered around Oxford,England.), the game of Aunt Sally eventually went out of favour.
 In "Worzel Gummidge" the character of Aunt Sally was a wooden fairground Aunt Sally doll who could come alive.

Aunt Sally as she appeared in her wooden form.

 

 The doll resembles the wooden Aunt Sally more than the live one.

Not bad likeness to Una Stubbs either though.

 She was both Worzel's love interest, (His opinion.) and nemesis,(Her opinion.). (In the books she is a minor character and Worzel is not in love with her, being married to someone else.)
  We know about Worzel Gummidge in our house because Ken,who had watched the show when he lived in England, introduced the show to Ivy when she was small, and she loved it. We ended up with the entire original series, the later New Zealand series "Worzel Downunder", and a Christmas special on DVD. So owning the doll is a connection to Ken's life in England, and Ivy's childhood.
  The series starred Jon Pertwee as Worzel,and Una Stubbs as Aunt Sally.

Other than the print, I think they captured the dress pretty well. The thing is, the real fabric design is very simple and would have been easy to recreate. I guess they didn't want to have to make their own fabric and used something readily available.

If Jon Pertwee is familiar, it's because before being Worzel, he was the third doctor in Doctor Who, from 1970 to 1974.

Jon Pertwee,(top) as the third Doctor,pops out of the Tardis with Patrick Troughton as the second Doctor.

Una Stubbs may be even more familiar,as she is currently appearing as Mrs. Hudson on "Sherlock".

  There were some great toys produced to go along with the Worzel series,including two sizes of the Worzel and Aunt Sally dolls like mine, small figures and 12" dolls. Worzel had different heads for different things: his thinking head, his reading head, his maths head,etc. The 12" dolls of Worzel and Aunt Sally, and the small figure had several heads which could be changed.

Unfortunately the doll and heads are made of foam, and haven't survived the years very well in most cases.

Aunt Sally was able to come alive, at which point she was Una Stubbs. When she was made of wood she was played by a wooden dummy. The 12" Aunt Sally doll had a couple of extra heads too. One is the wooden head, and the other I'm not sure about.  Ivy says it's for sleeping.

The one on the right is her wooden head.

 As i said,I think they did a great job of recreating the costume on my Aunt Sally doll.

  The doll's hat is woven plastic instead of straw, but still looks convincing and is much more durable that way.

Some of you may remember seeing Aunt Sally before.

 That's because she had a narrow escape a few years ago when our basement flooded. I thought I had managed to rescue everything that got wet, but a few days later Fuzzy found a box buried under some things in the back of the basement. In it was Aunt Sally. She was soaked, but I washed her and hung her out to dry in the hot sun. She turned out just fine. You can read about the ordeal HERE.
  One more day of cloth dolls and we'll be into a week of fashion dolls. See you tomorrow!

Doll-A-Day 2017 #5 Bean from Ivy and Bean by Annie Barrows

  Winter has definitely parked it's ice cold butt in Ohio now. It was freezing today and snowing like crazy. Tonight it's 8 degrees! Emma managed to escape today by going to Florida! She'll be back next week when things have died down here!
  Today's doll is 'Bean'.

  Bean is a 12" soft doll based on the character 'Bean' from the "Ivy and Bean" series of books by Annie Barrows, and the illustrations by Sophie Blackall.

Ivy and Bean is a series of books about a pair of unlikely friends who are always getting into adventures.

Bean was made by Madame Alexander.

 Her striped shirt and shorts are removable.

 Her shoes and socks are  not.

  I bought Ivy (My Ivy, that is.) the first Ivy and Bean book when she was little. My motivation was that there was a character named Ivy. The character of Ivy turned out to be the redhead of the pair, and she loved to wear dresses all the time. Both characteristics fit my Ivy at the time. (She still has the red hair, but she outgrew the dresses-all-the-time thing.)

Ken with our Ivy,back when she had to wear a dress every day.

  The character of Ivy is described as being quiet and she loves to read. Bean is the rebellious friend,always causing a disturbance.Bean's not bad, just lively.

   I haven't seen the Ivy doll in person, but we found Bean at Tuesday Morning, and of course I had to get her for Ivy. Ivy is pretty good too, but I think Bean comes closer to the illustrations.

 My Ivy loved the books. She even emailed Annie Barrows to tell her how much she liked them...and Annie emailed her back! Ivy continued to read them even after she was far too old. There are ten books in the series now,and I think Ivy has read them all. She also read the two 'Magic Half' books by Annie Barrows, which were for a little older age group than Ivy and Bean, and she loved them too.I have emailed Annie a few times over the years,and sent her books to sign for Ivy. She always does, and once she even sent Ivy some Ivy and Bean note paper. When I email and ask her if she can sign a book for Ivy,she always remembers her and asks how she's doing now,and when she signs a book she always writes Ivy a little message.

 These days Ivy has moved on to Annie Barrows' books for adults.  "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society", which Annie Barrows finished after her aunt, Mary Ann Shaffer, passed away before completing,is one of Ivy's favourite books. I highly recommend it too. Annie's latest book was "The Truth According to Us",which she kindly signed and sent back to Ivy. Nice lady.

Doll-A-Day 2017 #4 Colonial Williamsburg Betsey Doll,Plus Sarah, Junie B., and a Pottery Barn Princess

  It seems that I have accidentally done a Soft Dolls Week. We're on Day #4 and they have all been soft dolls so far. I guess I'll finish the week with soft dolls and get down to some serious fashion dolls next week.
   First of all I talked yesterday about the tiny Pottery Barn dolls, so I thought I would show you this one.

She's only 5" tall from the soles of her shoes to the tip of her crown. She doesn't have  a tag, but she's obviously made by the same company, as she has virtually the same face as the, much larger, Caroline  we saw yesterday.

I suspect this girl may also be, but, like the princess, she has no tag.

She comes in at just a bit over 5", but she seems much bigger.

 The princess is such a sweet little thing. I have something of a small collection of tiny cloth dolls, and she's one of them. Another is this girl,today's doll,Betsey.

She's 6" tall, and tagged 'Betsey 1997 Colonial Williamsburg Foundation',so obviously she's one of those historic dolls sold at Colonial Williamsburg, in Virginia. I got this one at a yard sale or thrift store,so who knows. I've tried to research it online, and they do sell dolls like this in stores at Colonial Williamsburg,(As well as 12" ones.),but as for them being sold other places, I couldn't say.

She's designed and manufactured by a company called Merrymakers Inc.,who also made these personality filled pigs...

They are finger puppets and are apparently the 'this little' piggies from the book "Piggies" by Audrey and Don Wood.There are supposed to be 5 in all, and the sunglasses guy on the right should also be wearing a straw hat and have a book in his hand.

...and this cute and tiny 5" Junie B. Jones doll from several years ago.(As well as the bigger ones.)Yes, I have one of these too.

Both our girls loved the Junie B. Jones books when they were small,so she reminds me of those times. (This one is missing her purple skirt.)
...but not these very similar looking 6" Linnea dolls, who are made by Determined Products.

Sorry about the nudity, but she loaned her green and white striped bibbed overalls to a Tutti body with a Peter Paniddle Kiddle head on it, and they fit PERECTLY! By the way, you can see my post on 12" Linnea HERE.

  Betsey has a slip, dress, and 'built in' shoes/boots/stockings.(I'm not quite sure what they are! They look like shoes and socks, but the sock part is painted and feels sort of leathery. Is it meant to be socks, or boot tops?Or maybe really tall spats...)

She has thread hair, and a sweetly drawn face.

Her dress won't stay velcroed though.

Her head and body are cotton, but her ears are felt!

 I love the faces on these dolls.They are so small, and yet so delicate. I like them so much, that when I found this girl...

...at a thrift store, I had to buy her, even though she's wearing only her slip.(Which is just like Betsey's.)

Maybe someday I'll find some clothes for her, or even make her some.
 She has the same painted...socks? and built in shoes as Betsey.

 
She's tagged Sarah Doll,Colonial Williamsburg Foundation,1996,MerryMakers Inc.,

 ...and she's the same size as Betsey. I think now I need a boy from Colonial Williamsburg...
   Tomorrow we'll look at another soft doll. See you then!

Doll-A-Day 2017 #3 Pottery Barn Caroline

  Today's doll is Caroline, a soft doll from Pottery Barn.

  Pottery Barn dolls are made by North American Bear Company.

    Although Caroline has yarn hair,many Pottery barn dolls have hair made of velveteen strips instead. Some of the yarn haired Pottery Barn dolls were recalled because there were loops in the hair that made them strangulation hazards.
  Caroline is 18" tall, but there are also tiny Pottery Barn dolls,about 5" tall, that look just like her. I really like the tiny ones, and I have a couple, and we'll be seeing those later in the year.

  The Pottery Barn dolls have sweet, simple faces. I think of them as very old fashioned dolls.

She has a soft huggable body, with built in socks and shoes.

And in fact, her dress is sewn to her body at the bottom of the bodice. Raggedy Ann and Andy always had socks and shoes that were part of their bodies, but their clothes were removable. I think the removable clothes are a better idea. It teaches kids to dress themselves.I do understand the danger of buttons on toys for very young children though.

Strangely, though Raggedy Ann and Andy sales have fallen off so much that they are disappearing, and being forgotten, the Pottery barn dolls are quite popular. Maybe it's just because somehow Pottery barn is fashionable, and Ann and Andy no longer are.
  Tomorrow we'll see another doll.

Doll-A-Day 2017 #2 Hugga Bunch Impkins

  I recently came across a Hugga Bunch doll.

  Now Hugga Bunch dolls have never really impressed me one way or another. That's kind of unusual, because most people either love or hate them. They either find them adorable, or are creeped out by their furry faces and weird little pin point eyes.

  Originally created as characters for Hallmark greeting cards, Hugga Bunch were licensed by Kenner and were produced as dolls, starting in 1985. That makes them Unsentimental Niece's era. In fact, I think I bought her one.

All the Hugga Bunch dolls had names.This one, as you can see from her 'bracelet' is Impkins.

  The dolls all had different colour hair,eyes, and outfits. There were also a couple of African American Hugga Bunch dolls.

The dolls came in large boxes with clear plastic fronts, alot like Cabbage Patch doll boxes.

  The large Hugga Bunch dolls all came with a tiny one, which was called a 'Hugglet'. Impkins' Hugglet was called Nuzzler.

Unfortunately I can't show you Nuzzler, because he's AWOL.
  Hugga Bunch dolls were about 18" tall. They are all plush and very soft and huggable,which is fitting I guess.

  After the dolls became popular there were tons of other Hugga Bunch products produced, including  small vinyl dolls, Viewmaster reels, and lunch boxes. (There's one of those around here somewhere, as well as a Christmas stocking. I really need to get rid of those.) Taco Bell gave out Hugglet sized dolls with their kid's meals.

This is a Taco bell doll named Gigglet

Much better than some of the junk you get now.A toy like this would cost quite a bit in stores.

  There was even a movie in 1985,which at a cost of $1.4 million was the most expensive  TV special ever produced at the time, and won an Emmy award for Outstanding Visual Effects. (Which seems a little surprising when you look at the movie now, but it was the 80's. Visual effects have advanced a lot since then. But even for the 80's,well, let's just say they weren't the Muppets.)You can watch the movie on Youtube HERE.
The dolls eventually lost popularity, as everything does, and were discontinued. They still have quite a following however, and are sought after by Hugga fans.

Doll-A-Day 2017 Day #1 Carrie from Little House on the Prairie by Knickerbocker

  The first new Doll-A-Day is this Carrie doll by Knickerbocker,most famous for their Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls.

 Carrie was originally the youngest daughter on the TV series Little House on the Prairie.Later on her sister Grace was born.

Some of the Carrie dolls, like this one, have lips that have faded to white. There are still some pink lipped dolls out there though.

The series was, of course, based on the popular series of books by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

In case you forget, her name is on her pocket.

'Carrie' was short for 'Caroline', as she was named after her mother.

  Carrie is approximately 10" tall. She has a stuffed torso and limbs, with a vinyl head and hands. Her auburn hair is rooted. 
  The books were based on the real lives of Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family. Laura was born in  1867 and passed away in 1957. The TV series, which ran from 1974 to 1983,took some liberties with the stories. For example,the real Mary  Ingalls did not work as a teacher, although she did attend a school for the blind, and she never married,living with her parents until their deaths.

  The real Carrie was born in 1870. She worked as a type setter, before marrying a widower named David Swansey, and becoming stepmother to his three children. Her stepson Harold was one of the workers who carved Mount Rushmore, and his name is on the granite wall at the bottom of the monument.

Carrie is wearing bloomers a plaid dress, and a creamy yellow pinafore. Her boots are part of her legs and not removable. She has pink ribbons in her hair.

 Although she had a life long history of ill health, Carrie lived to be 75 years old, eventually succumbing to complications from Diabetes,(like many other members of the Ingalls family, including Laura and Grace), in 1946.
  Come back tomorrow for the next Doll-A-Day!

Happy New Year! And The Return of Doll-A-Day!

  Happy New Year!

  I haven't done many posts in the past few months. That's all going to change, because I have decided to bring back Doll-A-Day! I've been contemplating it for a while. I've had a year off to recuperate, (and believe me, it was a lot of work.), and I started to miss it. I may regret it before very long, but for now, I'm looking forward to it. (Actually, now that the moment is here, I'm starting to panic again!) I haven't discussed it with my family. They were getting pretty tired of all the time it was taking me to do a doll every day. But I've decided that most days will be streamlined posts, with mostly just a few pictures of the doll, and some days will be longer, informative posts. Originally, when I decided to do Doll-A-Day,I had been inspired by The Crazy Quilter on Flickr. She had done one picture of one particular doll every day for a year. I decided to do a picture of a different doll every day for a year. But then it got sort of out of hand. I did entire photo shoots for each doll. Then I started writing long posts detailing the history of some of the dolls. I really enjoyed doing the long informative posts on particular dolls, and my theme weeks, like 'Oscar Week', and 'Red Heads Week'. So, I'll be doing some of those.I have a few planned out in my head already. And maybe, while I'm sorting through all my stuff,digging out dolls to present each day,I'll decide I can do without some of them and make more room to enjoy the ones I can't part with. It would be nice to have a bit more room, and space to display my favourites, without all the clutter. Since I'll be working on my house this year too, clearing out alot of the things we had to sell, and redoing some rooms, clearing out some of my personal collection goes right along with the general redo.
  The first new Doll-A-Day post will be a separate post from this one. Check it out!