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Thursday, March 14, 2019

Throwback Thursday review: Mattel Tiny Cheerful Tearful

Fare thee well, February and hello, March!!!  Maybe now the weather can hurry up and get warm...not that it's been that bad of a winter.  Indeed we've had more thunderstorms than we've had snow, but thank God, this February didn't end with a tornado like last February did.  The south is another story entirely, as they've already seen two bad outbreaks and another smaller one on top of that, so hopefully there won't be any more violent weather.  Oh yes, it's also Pi Day!  For you math buffs out there it's an occasion to make a lot of goofy jokes about decimals and that, but for me (an avowed hater of math) it's just an excuse to shove a Tastykake pie into my craw.

Now, presented for your perusal is one (1) Cheerful Tearful doll, made by Mattel.
Cheerful is one of those WTF dolls in a way, as she has a face that shifts expression...and I mean a SINGLE face that shifts, not two faces on one head like Kururi-chan did.  To do this she needed a soft vinyl face and some sort of mechanism to manipulate the vinyl, plus another mech deeper inside the doll to make the parts of the face move.  Cheerful was actually one of two dolls Mattel produced with this gimmick, with the other being the ever-so-slightly creepy Saucy, whom I'm dying to own.  No, I still haven't grown out of the phase where I love to bug the crap out of my sister, and what better way to do it than with a goofy doll like Saucy?  Saucy dates from 1972, the same year as Blythe (what was up with toy companies and weird dolls that year?), meaning that she's not as old as Cheerful Tearful, who dates from 1966.  Bloviating over, Cheerful is six and a half inches from head to toe, VERY close in size to Suzy Cute.  I also added Red, Rosie, and Hattie for kicks.
I ought to get a cradle for this crew to sit in.  They'd all look so cute together!  Indeed, it was an image on Facebook that inspired me to get Cheerful Tearful in the first place; this lady on one of the groups I'm in had posed her Suzy Cute and Cheerful Tearful dolls together in the crib she had for Suzy, which could only mean that the two were close in size.  Indeed they are, and I'm hoping that means that Suzy and Cheerful will be able to share clothes.  But like always, let's review this doll first.  Cheerful has a glorious head of baby blonde hair, just like Suzy does.
Since Cheerful's head is protected by a bonnet she didn't need a hair wash like Suzy did.  But like all babies' hair, this hair can have a mind of its own.  See how the fibers want to stick up?
The fibers are soft, fluffy, and a little rough to the touch like vintage hair will be.  Look how high her hairline is!!!
 Would that classify this hair as a bowl cut?  LOL, anyway, once I get past the high hairline the root job is pretty good.  Nice, evenly-spaced plugs of uniform size.  The hair doesn't fall or pull out easily.
As a final little similarity, Cheerful sports a side part, just like Suzy does.  Hers is on the right, while Suzy's is on the left.
However, Cheerful's hair isn't supposed to have a side part at all!  Her bangs apparently got squashed to one side at some point in her life.  This is evident when one looks at the top of Cheerful's head; notice that her part is actually...nonexistant!
Online images suggest that Cheerful's large and small incarnations both wore their hair in a Pebbles Flintstone-style topknot.  If that's the case then I may have to recreate that.

Now the face.  Cheerful isn't quite as cute as Suzy is (just my opinion), but she's got enough personality to hold her own.
Initially I thought that Cheerful's face was supposed to shift expressions with the turn of her arm, but mine doesn't do that.  I subsequently learned that the shifting face feature was only found...on the LARGER version of Cheerful Tearful.  My version is the "tiny" version, and her shifting expression is limited to her closing her mouth and opening it again.  This change can be activated by squeezing her tummy, though I suspect her eyes are supposed to squint more.
Glad I figured that out early on!  When I first turned Cheerful's arm and her face didn't move I thought I'd broken her, though I ought to have known something was amiss with my doll since she has no holes in her eyes to "cry."  The larger doll does.
Hmmm...I need to go over those eyes again; I cleaned them before starting the review, but obviously I didn't do the greatest job.  Anyway, Cheerful's eyes have the "Mattel look," as I like to call it.  The style of painting strongly resembles the painting style on my Liddle Kiddles' eyes, and an early Barbie's eyes too, for that matter.  Unfortunately one eyebrow is missing some paint.  Also...look at how these eyes are molded!  They're HOLLOW!!! 
My mother and one of our readers both think that Cheerful's eyes are a little on the creepy side, and...I have to agree, especially when viewed from below, as the picture above shows.  The way those hollows are painted...that's just bizarre.  WHY is a baby doll wearing eyeshadow, I ask y'all?  And if that's not eyeshadow, then why are poor Cheerful's eyes sunken in???  I think Mattel should've gone back to the drawing board with this one, at least with the paint job!  By contrast Cheerful's mouth is painted and blended naturally in soft shades of rose pink.
I just love that little tongue!  The interior of this mouth is shaped very well, though this is hard to show with the paltry equipment I've got.  Notice the hole in the back of the mouth, meant to accommodate a bottle, and the copious crud that my saliva-moistened Kleenex failed to remove.
Another drink-and-wet doll, and another example of a bottle mouth that has some personality!  Why I always want to compare every drink-and-wet doll I get to Blossom Flowerpot I'll never know, but...I do.  Maybe the better question would be why do I bother to KEEP that doll, since I never cuddle her or play with her like I do some of my others.  I'm just at a loss as to why MGA Entertainment made their cutest dolls LESS cute with a mere hole for a mouth.  I don't guess it matters much since Lalaloopsy dolls appear to be defunct, but it still makes me wonder what the design team was thinking when they designed those Lalaloopsy Babies.  They could've been super-cute, but instead they were kind of creepy.  But Cheerful...well, except for those sunken eyes she's not so creepy.  The soft vinyl of her face is also a magnet for dust and crud, and said crud is not always easy to remove.

Speaking of crud, check out Cheerful's ears.  They too are groady, but they're also quite realistic for doll ears.
Looks like it's just dirt, and if that's all it is then I can remove it with some rubbing alcohol and a Q-tip.

Being a baby doll, Cheerful has a baby body:  chubby, rounded, with bent limbs.  She feels pleasant to hold.
Hmmm, that's a long torso for a baby doll!  It doesn't have a lot of detail either, just a bellybutton, a buttcrack, and an indentation for the spine.  The arms are appropriately chubby and have little dimples molded into the elbows.
And of course she's got five little fingers with dimpled knuckles.  Her fingers are...a little clawlike!
LOL, witch baby!  Anyway, Cheerful is bow-legged like a great many baby dolls are, meaning she can't stand up.
She has chubby, short little feet with five toes and five toenails, plus some little fat rolls at the ankle.
The soles of her little feet have the prerequisite indentations and creases that feet should have, but the left foot also has this.
Every single Tiny Cheerful Tearful doll has a hole in her foot like this, and until I undressed my doll I had no idea why.  When I undressed Cheerful (TMI alert) I noticed that she does not have a hole in her bottom, and that's significant because Cheerful is supposed to be a drink-and-wet doll.  Thus I assume that the water is supposed to come out of this hole in her foot for reasons I'll never know.  It may have had something to do with the mechanism in her torso...but if there's a mech there then why bother with the drink-and-wet feature at all???  I really thought I'd seen everything, but a doll that pees through her left foot is truly a new one for me.  Don't quote me on this, by the way; I have no way to feed my Cheerful Tearful doll, so I can't tell for sure if this is how she "pees."  This hole has to serve some purpose though, as all of these dolls have one.

Cheerful has rotational motion in her arms and legs and thus can strike basic baby poses, but her neck is glued into place.  Most likely this was to keep her head properly aligned with the mechanism that helps her expression shift.
Clothes now!  Being a baby, Cheerful is simply dressed, but...is it possible to be both simply dressed and elaborately dressed at the same time?  Because that's the only way I can describe this little outfit.
Start from the top, I guess.  Here's the bonnet.
Bonnets are not items that we commonly see babies wearing nowadays, and yet plenty of my baby dolls have 'em.  This material looks vaguely familiar.
A similar print was used on the vintage Barbie getup "Travel Togethers."  Similar, mind y'all, but not the same, as "Travel Togethers" was red on a yellow background.  That would've been a cute material for baby doll clothes though, as would the material that this bonnet is made of...more on that in a minute.  First let's look at the trim.  Cheerful's bonnet is trimmed with a row of white lace and a red ribbed ribbon.
The ribbon extends into two little ties, with one side being longer than the other.  This uneven length is intentional.  My ribbons need a little pressing and the ends could do with a trim, but otherwise they're in good shape.
Now, about that flowered material.  When I went grubbing around online for info on Cheerful's clothes, I dug up a picture that shows the doll in a full outfit that matches the bonnet.  In addition to the flowered bonnet the doll is wearing a flowered dress and matching booties.  I saw that and thought "BUMMER, that little outfit is cute!!!"  Where to find the rest of the pieces, now???

Not that it matters, really.  Cheerful has this pretty little dress to wear.
Not a thing about it matches that bonnet, but I can live with that.  The bodice is simply decorated with this tiny little bow.
The armholes are trimmed with...oh crap, I have no idea what fabric this is, but it's delicate and has a few loose threads here and there.  It's hemmed with pink thread.
The hem of the outer panel of fabric is trimmed in more of this stuff.
The outer panel is gauzy and has little yellow flowers printed on it.  It feels fragile but has no tears or holes anywhere.  The inner panel is opaque and...oh, this feels like cotton or some fabric of that stripe.
The interior looks nice except for a few wrinkles.  The dress is tagged, but all the tag says is "Made in Hong Kong."  Back in the sixties Mattel dresses often had the doll's name printed on the tag, so that's another clue that this dress is not original to Cheerful.
Interestingly, the back of this dress has no fasteners.  No snaps, no ties, no hooks and eyes, nothing.
Lastly, Cheerful wears...panties???  Yep, little panties that are made of the same fabric as the dress.  The legs are even trimmed with the same lacy stuff.
That's a cute little outfit, very well made and standing up to the test of time.  It fits Cheerful like it was made for her.  I just wish I had the rest of the pieces that go with that bonnet!!!  I'll have to keep my eyes peeled, I guess.  But then again...THIS image implies that Cheerful's flowered dress is indeed original.  I did a little more browsing and discovered that the flowered getup is indeed the extra outfit, while the pink set that my doll has is original.  Now to find the rest of that flowered set!

As I mentioned above, the closest doll I have in size to Cheerful is Suzy Cute, and having looked at these two side by side I now have my doubts about clothes sharing.  Suzy has a wider torso, slimmer limbs, and a bigger head than Cheerful.
Still, I don't suppose it can hurt to try.  And...
Hot dog, it works!!!  Since Cheerful's dress doesn't fasten in the back I didn't have to worry about trying to fasten snaps or anything like that.  The armholes are a little snug around Suzy's shoulders, but not so much that seams are stressed.  The bonnet doesn't fit perfectly, but it's close enough to suit me.  As for Cheerful, Suzy's duck dress is a little big, but not terribly so.  I think that clothes sharing is possible here as long as none of Cheerful's outfits fasten with snaps...but as far as I know there were no outfits made for the smaller Cheerful Tearful.  There might be some aftermarket stuff running around out there, but nothing else.  No trouble though, since Suzy's got enough dresses to go around.  And by the way:  this eBay image has Cheerful wearing Suzy's duck dress too.  LOL, does everyone love that duck dress???

Normally with a baby doll like this I'd just sum it up by saying "This is a cute doll, good for people who like small dolls and vintage toys," but in Cheerful's case she's got a couple of areas that are worth noting.  So I'm going to do my usual good stuff/bad stuff thing.

BAD
*Oh good grief, those eyes!!!  They're cute most of the time, but from the wrong angle they're downright unsettling!
*Vinyl face is a little too soft.  I know why it's soft, but it catches lint and dirt like mad, and it apparently can damage easily, as this poor poppet reveals.
*Pee hole in the foot???  As I said above, that's a new one!!!
*I suspect that my particular doll's gimmick may be partly broken since her eyes don't squint much, but that's not the doll's fault...nor is it mine, for a change!

GOOD
*Hair is nice.  Not all vintage doll hair is, but this hair is.
*Super-cute.  This is another doll that combines the drink-and-wet feature with an expressive face.
*Clothes are very well made.
*Easy to play with.  This doll fits easily into my hand, and I can thus picture many a sixties child toting this doll around.
*Sturdy for the most part, but keep sharp items away from that vinyl face.
*Can share clothes with some other small baby dolls, a good thing considering Suzy Cute's extensive wardrobe.
*Did I mention that Cheerful fits into Suzy Cute's carrying case???  No?  Well, she does.  She fits in there with Suzy and with Penny Brite.  That would've come in handy big time back in the day, and for that matter, it still does!

I don't like Cheerful Tearful quite as much as I do Suzy Cute, but I like her a lot just the same.  Suzy's bright, focused eyes eke Cheerful's slightly tripped out gaze just a teensy bit, but the rest of her faults I can overlook.  That said, I'm happy to add Cheerful to my collection of small babies, if for no other reason to diversify it a bit.  I've got a representative from Ashton-Drake, Armand Marseille, Deluxe Reading, and...I'm not sure who made Rosie, but now I've got a Mattel baby to add to the mix.  Cheerful Tearful is definitely a doll to be considered for the die-hard Mattel fan.  Now, if I could just find the rest of that cute flowered set!

Happy Pi Day,
RagingMoon1987

2 comments:

  1. Oh my RM what a doll! I'd love to see Cheerful after a visit to the spa with a fresh face paint and hair re-root, I reckon she'd come up a treat . . . so many possibilities, she has a great face!
    Hugs,
    X

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    1. I'll have to see what I can do for her! I reckon just a more thorough cleaning will do her wonders. So glad you like, and thanks for the pink Fridays! Those were fun.

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