Throwback Thursday review: Tyco Quints

This post (and the purchase of the items that will be reviewed here) were once again inspired by a post that Tam made.  Last September she discussed the Quints for one of her doll-a-day posts, and I happily remembered owning a set when I was little.  As with the majority of my playthings from early childhood, my original set of Quints is long gone, and I look back on that with a certain amount of sadness because Mama and Daddy went all out for me that Christmas.  I received a set of Quints, a set of matching kittens, a bed that came with little teddy bears, and a set of wagons that came with little visors, toys, and lollipops for each doll.  I assume that either my dolls got sent to the homeless shelter, or my sister got a hold of them and lost all the pieces (indeed, I do remember having to spend an afternoon picking up pieces after she knocked over their box), but either way I spent twenty-five years Quint-less...until now!  This is the "Bottle and Bunting" set that I owned as a child, as I remember using the bunting as an extra mattress pad among other things.  The conjoined crib proved to be too wide for the bunting to make a suitable mattress, but I used it that way anyway.  Anywho, here's what the dolls themselves look like.  My set is very different from Tam's set; hers bear a passing resemblance to Barbie's sister Kelly, while mine...don't.

One of my Facebook friends suggested that these dolls were based on the Dionne quintuplets.  If this is indeed the case they must be based very loosely, for the Dionne babies were all brunette girls, as opposed to the blonde mixed group that I have here.  One day very soon I will own a set of dolls that truly are based on the Dionne sisters; they belong to my great aunt and are not the Madame Alexander dolls, but are very cute nonetheless.  But that's for another post.  Regardless of the basis, Quints come from former toy giant Tyco, a company best known for toy trains, my much-loved Matchbox cars, and the ever-popular Tickle Me Elmo that sent parents and kids silly one Christmas.  Tyco products were big when I was a little girl, so it's nice to once again have something that they made.  My childhood set was blonde like these are, but they also came in brunette, redhead, and African American versions, all equally cute.  The girls' hairstyles also varied, with some sporting pigtails rather than ponytails.  Various waves had different themes and gimmicks but the family unit was the same, as were the colors and numbers.  The family unit always consists of three girls, numbered 1 (rose pink), 3 (sunshine yellow), and 5 (lavender)...

...and two boys, numbered 2 (robin's egg blue) and 4 (mint green).

These dolls didn't come with names, so I chose color-themed names for them: Rosie (1), Robin (2), Daisy (3), Forrest (4), and Violet (5).  Number 3 was always my favorite because she wore such a happy shade of yellow.  My doll appears to have faded a bit...or my memory is flawed and the yellow wasn't as bright as I remember. 

Alrighty, enough stalling!  These dolls are about two inches long from head to toe and thus are of comparable size to Mattel's Liddle Kiddles and to Sweets Sunshine, the Sunshine family's little girl.

The female Quints sport a hairstyle similar to that of Greta Griddle, my tallest Kiddle.

Sweets and the Kiddles are in the slush pile, by the way, and they have been since last October.  I had to round up the Sunshine family's dad before I could start putting a review together, but I should have that ready in a fortnight or so.  Anyway, Quints are of similar size to Mattel's tiny poppets, but they're also very different.  Their bodies are hard vinyl and are jointed at the shoulders and hips, and as a result of this jointing the Quints can strike some basic poses.  They can sit...

...stand if positioned correctly...

...and wave their arms and legs while lying on their backs, like real babies do.

Their arms are molded with elbows slightly bent and fingers curled, like they're meant to hold something.

Indeed, these dolls could hold small items like cat toys or their lollipops.  The legs are also molded with the knees straight.  No bowlegs for these baby dolls, unlike those goofy Heart Family babies!  These feet are fairly well detailed for such small feet.  They have five little toes and a molded arch.

The clothes are molded and painted on, and consist of nothing but a diaper with a molded waistband and a safety pin up front.

Some Quints were tiny drink-and-wet dolls with cloth diapers that changed color when they got wet, and some had solid-colored diapers that were painted to coordinate with each baby's color.  My dolls have plain white diapers, and each baby has their designated number and color stamped on their tushie.  Daisy and Violet's painted numbers have faded somewhat and have a few scratches.  So did the numbers on my old dolls when I saw them last.

I've learned that these dolls had little outfits that were available separately, so these relatively flat diapers are a blessing in disguise.  They're not naked all the time, but the diapers are flat enough to fit under the clothes (I hope).  The long-term goal is to find some of these outfits and find out!

Upwards now, since I'm going backwards with this review.  LOL, didn't intend for that.  Anywho, the heads are semi-soft vinyl with rooted hair.  The shade is baby blonde, not terribly unlike Suzy Cute's hair, but not quite as pale.

I wish I could've found redheads, but the only redheads I saw for sale were crazy expensive, so I settled for the blondes.  Like Suzy Cute, I had to give these babies a bath before their hair came to life again, not uncommon for dolls over the age of ten.  After the hairwash I was able to get these dolls back into their original styles; the little girls all wear Pebbles Flintstone-style ponytails with very short bangs in the front and little coordinating ribbons...

...while the little boys have simple bowl cuts.

Notice that their scalps are painted to match their hair.  I can't say that I'm a huge fan of that, but it doesn't show terribly, and it's better than a vinyl-colored head showing through.

Once again I believe that I've run into a child-mangled doll, as Forrest's hair appears to have been cut.  Notice that it's shorter than Robin's hair and sticks up more.

This looked terrible before I washed his hair, but I gave these dolls baths right after I got them and now Forrest looks adorable.  Indeed, I quite like his shorter hair, as it helps me to tell him and his brother apart.  Okay, I admit that even without the haircut I could've told Robin and Forrest apart, because some of Robin's hair has this strange orange cast to it.

It didn't wash out, either!  Surely someone didn't try to give Robin a dye job with Magic Marker or something like that!  But then again I've seen stranger things done to dolls; once I even saw a Ken doll that had armpit hair.  Yep, some little brat had gotten hold of a Sharpie and drawn black circles under Ken's arms!  Luckily, the stains came off with...I think that blogger used Oxy-Clean to get it off?  I can't remember, and unfortunately that post (and the blogger) appear to have vanished so I can't verify the above story.  But I swear to the good Lord above that I saw it, and I got a hearty haw-haw at Ken with pit hair.

Now to the faces.  These dolls appear to have square heads with square faces, which makes me giggle a little.  My father, being of German decent, had a skull that was mostly flat in back, a trait that I inherited (my sister got Mama's more rounded Celtic skull).  As a result, he often referred to himself (and me) as a "squarehead."  Nowadays the term "squarehead" is largely a synonym for a "blockhead" (meaning an idiot, popularized by Peanuts), and back during the turn of the century it was a racial slur.  In fact, it still IS a slur in some circles!  My father always used the term in a loving way, so I had no idea that it was once supposed to be highly insulting.  LOL, slur or no, my dolls have box-shaped heads, at least from the front.  Their cheeks are wide and their jaws are short.

The back and sides are a little more rounded, at least from what I can see.  These dolls have so much hair that it's hard to tell.

All five of these dolls have the same head mold and thus truly are almost identical; Tyco used subtle differences in paint jobs to differentiate boys from girls.  All of these dolls have...well, quite frankly these faces are fairly minimalist.  All of them have round, upcast blue eyes with brown borders, single-stroke light brown eyebrows, low-set button noses, and pale pink lips that tend to disappear against the pale vinyl of their heads.  The girls have painted eyelashes and the boys do not.

I wish their lips were painted a little pinker; pale lips just don't look good on pale dolls.  This same shade of pink was used to blush the dolls' cheeks, and it makes them look pallid rather than rosy.

With the dolls reviewed, let's look now at the "Bottle and Bunting" bit, which refers to the add-ons that this particular set of Quints came with.  The "bottle" part is pretty straightforward, just five little interlocked plastic bottles with painted details.  Some Quints' bottles held fake "milk" or were tiny functioning bottles, but these are just plastic bottles with nothing in them.

The "bunting" bit is where things get interesting.  Buntings are commonly now known as "sleep sacks" and can be store-bought, hand sewn, knitted, or crocheted.  Sometimes they come with hats or hoods and some have sleeves built in, but this bunting is the only one I know of that's built for five.

Yes, five.  In keeping with the Quint theme this bunting has five pockets, one for each doll.

They don't stay in very well, at least not like this.  If I tucked their arms in they might fit better, but I think that would be a tight squeeze for all five of them so I'm just going to leave them as is.  The front panel of this bunting is made up of pink fabric with multicolored hearts, mint-colored ribbons, and white numbers, and the back panel has the pink and white bits reversed.  The hem is trimmed with white lace.

The top hem is decked out with this pink woven cord, which I assume is for hanging or carrying the bunting.

Don't try to hang or carry this thing with the dolls in it, though!  I tried that when I was a little kid and the dolls spilled out.  That wouldn't have been such a big deal except that my dolls were carrying their lollipops...and one of the lollipops came loose from the doll's hand...AND our dolt of a dog tried to eat it.  Yeah, good times.  As a bonus, this bunting can be used for other small dolls, dolls like the smaller Liddle Kiddles and Sweets Sunshine.

Often when I revisit a toy that I owned during childhood I learn about some of the accessories that accompanied said toy, and the Quints are no exception.  I had no idea that there were little strollers available.

Each stroller is big enough to accommodate two dolls, like so.

Of course this leaves one doll to travel by foot, not unlike Chuckie on Rugrats.  Daisy volunteered to be my Chuckie in this case.

These strollers have functioning wheels and can fold up for easy storage.

Unfortunately, these little buggies aren't heavy enough to counterbalance the weight of two dolls' heads.  As a result, when I try to pose the dolls in there the strollers tip backwards like so.

It's also tricky to get the dolls positioned in the strollers, and once they're in I have a hard time getting them to stay there.  Some form of harness or seat belt would've come in handy here.  As for the ease with which these strollers tip over, all I can say is that maybe these were meant to be pushed by the Quints Cousins.  Yep, the Quints had triplet cousins who also served as babysitters.  They wore matching hairstyles and outfits, and like their baby cousins they had playsets and extra outfits available.  And that's only part of what was available for these pint-sized babies!  There were little outfits available, and other pieces of furniture besides the bed.  A couple of these Quints sets even came in baby form rather than toddler form; these were referred to as Newborn Quints and they came in a "So Soft" variety and (what a surprise) a drink-and-wet variety.  I had thought that these dolls were cute little one-offs like I did with Cherry Merry Muffin, and again I turned out to be mistaken.

So what's hot about these dolls?  What's not?

BAD
*Forrest got a chop job; not Tyco's fault
*Paint is wearing off the diapers some, probably age-related rather than a design flaw
*Strollers are a disappointment, as they tip back when loaded
*The dolls themselves have no small pieces, but the accessory sets do.  Keep away from pets and small children.

GOOD
*Very cute
*Sturdy, with nothing to break and relatively little to destroy; some little brat can cut the hair (and did in Forrest's case) but otherwise these dolls are pretty tough.
*Simple and traditional, perfect for kids or adults that still like to play "House"
*I don't know why I'm putting this here, but these dolls can hold stuff.  I don't run into too many dolls that can hold their own toys; even my ball-jointed dolls can't do that.
*Make good props for larger dolls.

I can't say that these Quints are collector's items or anything of that stripe, but they certainly are cute and would make superb playthings even now, provided that the child in question is old enough to know better than to put stuff in their mouths.  Since the Quints ARE small they make good props for larger dolls and good companions for other small dolls like Kelly and Liddle Kiddles.  I'd advise against storing them all in the same box though, since Liddle Kiddles can melt other plastic.  I'd also advise against certain accessories, like those strollers.  They suck, to be blunt and crude.  I also remember the wagons being a little problematic, at least for my child's hands.  The wagons came with a handle, as all good wagons should, but this handle was supposed to attach to the front end of the first wagon and I never could get it to snap into place.  I'd probably have better luck now that I'm an adult, but I've yet to see the wagons for sale.  Patience is a virtue, I guess; I already have seen several sets of cats, which bodes well for my long-term goal of rebuilding my childhood collection.  But I'm rambling, of course.  Do I recommend these?  No if they didn't catch your eye, and yes if you happen to love small dolls or if you're looking to recapture a childhood memory of your own.  As for me, I'm thrilled to have this fragment of my past back.

Hugs and kisses,
RagingMoon1987