Throwback Thursday review: Madame Alexander Pussycat

It's been a long, tiring, busy week, longer than I'm accustomed to.  The husband of Coworker B (the same one with the composition baby and the Inuit doll) suddenly died and I had to work on Monday...on three and a half hours of sleep.  I'm so used to having Monday off that I've taken to staying up until stupid o' clock, and this past Monday that proved to be a mistake because I had to get up at seven-thirty.  Won't make that mistake again!  Add to that the fact that I've had to work with Coworker A most of the week, and Coworker A has used this situation as an opportunity to make a lot of backhanded comments about my lack of a driver's license and my "screwed-up priorities" and this and that.  I've been sorely tempted to tell her to jump off a cliff, but I'm trying to be adult about this.  There are times though when I think I'm back in high school, with the way those two women carry on (yes, Coworker B can be just as bad).

Good thing I had this review thrown together a week in advance!  All I had to do was tweak the intro and it was ready!  Anyway, I've already reviewed one Madame Alexander baby, so why not do the other?  This one is pushing the Throwback Thursday label a little since I think Madame Alexander is still making Pussycat, but oh well, my post, my rules.  Here's my little Pussycat.

Yes, her name is Pussycat, or Pussy Cat with a space; I've seen both spellings.  In today's age of filthy-minded fools a name like "Pussycat" is rather unfortunate, but when I say the name I think of the old nursery rhyme:

Pussycat, Pussycat, where have you been?
I've been to London, to visit the Queen.

Pussycat, Pussycat, what did you there?

I frightened a little mouse under her chair.  

I may be thirty but I never get sick of nursery rhymes!  By the way, I wonder if Queen Elizabeth is afraid of mice???  I know she's not the queen in the rhyme, but I still can't help wondering, given the fact that so many people are afraid of mice (my mother hates them, for example).  Anyway, like many of my other dolls, Pussycat has a fond memory attached to her.  Five years ago I was stricken with a kidney stone (which I don't think I ever passed), and after I was out of the hospital and done tripping on morphine I went shopping with Mama.  For some reason Mama was in the mood to spoil me some, and one of the things she bought for me was Pussycat, a doll that I'd vocalized a fondness for.  The doll I really wanted was called Pretty in Periwinkle, but beggars cannot be choosers.  These dolls can apparently come a few different sizes, with my particular Pussycat being fourteen inches long, roughly the same size as Kathy Cry Baby.

As always, let's start with hair.  Hair varies a lot with Pussycat, both in color and in style.  Indeed, I've seen dolls with bobs, topknots, ringlets, buns like Pretty in Periwinkle's, and several styles of pigtail (examples here and here), in all shades of blonde, brown, red, or black.  My particular doll has flipped baby blonde hair, and the fibers are stiff like Kathy's.

The hair is clean and shiny, AND I found this doll mint-in-box, so I think the stiffness may be related largely to the type of fiber used rather than any sort of aging.  The style is a little out of this baby's age bracket, but it's easy to brush and put back into said style.  It's also easy to tousle if I want Pussycat to look like I just got her up from a nap.  Remember that no baby's hair lies flat during the course of a nap...or playtime either, for that matter.  Sometimes a baby's hair has a mind of its own no matter what one does to it!  This effect is easy to replicate with Pussycat.

Now to the face.  Remember when I said that Kathy Cry Dolly looked more "dolly" than "baby"?  Pussycat has a definite "baby" look about her.  See?

Pussycat's pale blue sleep eyes are squinty and sleepy, and while they are a little dusty they're thankfully not discolored like poor Kathy's are.  She has painted eyebrows and painted and rooted lashes.  Her eyebrows are relaxed, giving this doll a content expression. 

There is one unusual thing about Pussycat's eyes:  the pupils are not colored in.  Due to this plus the reflective properties of this particular plastic, Pussycat's eyes are prone to catching light and shining like a tapetum lucidum.  A tapetum lucidum is a feature in the back of some animals' eyes that contributes to eyeshine.  I make note of this because humans lack a tapetum lucidum; we have only blood vessels, hence our penchant to have red eyes in poorly lit pictures.  Our eyes only shine with some other color when we're afflicted with cataracts...or worse, cancer.  Thus why Pussycat's eyes are so unusual.  In spite of this I find it fitting that a doll named Pussycat would have eyeshine, as eyeshine is most commonly seen in cats with green, orange, or yellow eyes.  For example, my Lily (left) has yellow eyes, and her mother Callie's eyes are green.  Notice that their eyeshine is different as well; Lily's yellow eyes throw a yellow light back, while Callie's green eyes throw back a blue-white glow.

Blue-eyed cats lack a tapetum lucidum, and thus when one views an odd-eyed cat's eyeshine the results are striking.

Alrighty, enough with the science lesson!  All Pussycat babies have closed mouths and rosy apple cheeks, but lip paint can vary some.  Pretty in Periwinkle had brick-colored lips, and my doll's mouth is light pink.  I think the closed mouth is a little unusual for reasons that'll soon discuss, but it's very nicely shaped, with a little philtrum and a slight pucker.

This head is made of fairly soft vinyl and is marked on the neck, just like Kathy's.

I admit that when I first got this doll I thought the 1977 copyright meant this doll was from 1977.  Wrong answer.  Do not pass go, do not collect $200, go directly to jail.  That's a mistake that newbie and novice collectors make, not someone who's been in the hobby since childhood.  Furthermore, it turns out that 1977 isn't even the year that these dolls began production since some Pussycats date back to 1971 or earlier.  So I know that my particular doll is not as old as some Pussycats, but she could very well date from sometime during the eighties and thus be about my age.  That's old enough for a doll.

Now to the body.  Pussycat differs radically from Kathy Cry Baby in the body department, as she has a cloth body with vinyl limbs rather than an all-vinyl body.

The torso is made of pink...I'm not sure what that fabric is, but it's soft and fairly strong.  Pussycat is stuffed well enough to sit up if propped up, but she does flop around quite a bit.  The up-side of this is that Pussycat can achieve poses that Kathy could not.  For example, Pussycat can cross her legs a little.

The down-side is that I have very little control over how Pussycat is posed.  Her head does not turn, and her arms are always in the same raised position.  That's not too bad though, since she looks like she's reaching to be picked up, as a well-cared-for baby will do.  Pussycat's hands are more dynamic than Kathy's are, by the way, though they are no more or less well-molded.  The left hand is in a clenched fist...

...while the right hand is half-open and appears to be pointing at something.

Pussycat's right thumb is extended and would be great for a thumb-sucking pose, but alas, her mouth is not open.  I don't have a single baby doll that CAN suck its thumb, in fact!  That galls me a bit since babies love to suck their thumbs...at least until they start growing teeth!  That was when I had to stop sucking my thumb; yes, I remember that far back, believe it or not.  I remember seeing tiny tooth marks in the skin of my thumb, and I also remember my thumb swelling up with a big disgusting-looking blister that my dad had to lance!  The lancing was surprisingly completely painless, but the whole experience taught me that my thumb-sucking days were over.

I do think that was the third tangent of this post!  Maybe I should've included a warning at the beginning.  LOL, anyway, Pussycat's feet are different from Kathy's as well.  Remember that Kathy had a flat sole and a separate big toe?  Not Pussycat!  Her feet are more like a real baby's feet, though they're still not as realistic as a reborn doll's feet.  The toes are dimpled and creased like Kathy's are.

The feet are molded into different positions.  The left foot is curled...

...while the right one is more stretched out, with the big toe extended upwards.

The rest of the limbs are a little surprising, as they're not as creased and dimpled as Kathy's were.  They are all bent at a sharp angle (Kathy's arms were more or less straight).

If Pussycat had a firmer body this would mean she could be put in a decent crawling position...but she has a soft body, so my attempts to make her crawl did not go well.  This provides a good intro for the final part of Pussycat's body, though.  Deep inside her chest (I can palpate it with my fingers) is a cylinder, and this cylinder is Pussycat's cry mechanism.  It's even possible to see this cylinder faintly through the fabric on her back.  See the dark area???  That's the cylinder.

Cry mechs like this are bad about wearing out over time, but my doll can still make noise, as I learned when I dropped her one day!  To make Pussycat's mech work one has to lay her flat on her back like so...

...and then tip her forward onto her face like so.

She makes a sound like "ehhhh," not terribly unlike some of the noises my sister and I used to vocalize our displeasure at something.  My knowledge about Madame Alexander dolls is not extensive so I don't know if all Pussycats cry like this, but mine does.

I'm not sure where this fits into the review, but Pussycat still has a legible tag.  Not all tags are readable on dolls this age, but this one is.  Unfortunately it tells me nothing about when this doll was made.  It tells me a bit about who and where, but not when.

Now, clothes.  Unlike Kathy...jeez, I seem to be comparing ALL of Pussycat's features to Kathy's!  Anywho, Pussycat still has her full outfit, unlike poor little Kathy, who has to wear that ill-fitting red dress that looks cute on her anyway regardless of the ill fit.  Pussycat is dressed in a long pink nightie, with a little diaper and booties in tow.

The nightie is made out of fleecy material and goes to Pussycat's knees.  When I seat the doll her bent knees disappear under the nightie's hem and make it look longer.  The sleeves are elbow-length and are trimmed with white lace.

The neck is also trimmed with this lace, as well as a pink satin bow that might prove to be a strangling hazard on a real child.

The nightie closes in the front with pink pearly buttons (the button row is trimmed with still more lace)...

...and with two metal snaps at the throat.

The back is plain.

The back of the dress is tagged at the neck, revealing that this doll's name is indeed two words, though I've seen it spelled both ways in catalogs.

As I've grown to expect with Madame Alexander dolls, the insides of this garment are impeccably finished, though with this material it would be hard NOT to do it well since fleece has such clean raw edges.

The hem of the skirt is particularly well-done...maybe a bit overdone.

Under her nightie Pussycat wears that oh-so-popular item for any stylish baby, the diaper.

This slips on and off and is made of ivory-colored fleece.  Very simple, and yet nicely made, just like the nightie.  The legholes are trimmed with more lace, which breaks up the simplicity a bit and ties the whole look together.

Lastly, booties.  Most of the older Pussycats that I'm aware of had these little knitted booties.  They're made of cream-colored yarn and have little pink bows sewn to the cuffs.

Since Kathy and Pussycat can share clothes it seems logical to assume that Pussycat can wear the Magic Nursery dress that I've got lying around.  But I was in for a surprise.

Oh sure, it looks fine in that picture, but in truth I underestimated another measurement of Pussycat's torso.  It's the right width, no question about that...but it's longer than either Morgan's torso OR Kathy's.  Thus this dress that was just right on Kathy comes up short on Pussycat, making a diaper a necessity.

That's going to make the My Child dress interesting.  It was too short AND too tight for Kathy, so I can only imagine what it'll look like on Pussycat.  Here it is.

WAY short!!!  It does fit Pussycat around the chest, but even with that diaper I think this is too short for her to wear.  That, therefore, puts a serious restriction on what I can dress Pussycat in, as there aren't a lot of outfits for Kathy Cry Baby...but plenty for the My Child crew!  Magic Nursery stuff will work in a pinch, but loose Magic Nursery clothes appear to be at a premium on eBay right now.  Luckily, this story has a happy ending, as I have another dress in storage that Pussycat ended up being able to wear.  Check this out!

This outfit came with another doll that I'll be reviewing...oh, at the rate I'm going it'll likely be in FEBRUARY that she'll get reviewed.  Her name is Softina, and she came with two little outfits plus some knitwear.  This little pink dress proved to be too short for Softina, so I put it back in storage knowing fully well that one of my dolls would probably be able to wear it.  Ta-da, Pussycat can!  It's loose across the shoulders and in the armholes, but it's hard to tell.  The booties don't match the dress, but I wanted them to be used so they're being used.  I don't know who made this dress, but it looks factory-made so it had to belong to someone at sometime.

That settles it!  And as with Kathy I can't really think of anything super-good or super-bad with this doll.  She's a nice doll, well worth the money I paid for her, but like Kathy she's just another cute baby doll.  I like Pussycat's face better than Kathy's, but Kathy can wear a slightly wider range of clothes, so even they pull about even.  So Pussycat is a good doll for enthusiasts of Madame Alexander or baby dolls (or both)...but if I were y'all I'd pick a different one than this.  Pick a little brunette or one that might be more apt to stand out.

Cheers,
RagingMoon1987