Throwback Thursday review: Nasco Claudie

Spring has sprung here in the Bootheel, and I'm hoping that it won't last two weeks like LAST spring did.  Seriously, last year it snowed in early April, was nice for two weeks, and then it got hot.  Anyway, my trees are in full bloom, and did I mention that I have a redbud tree?  I'm intensely fond of redbud trees, and mine is putting on a show this year!

One of my other trees also is worthy of note.  I don't know what kind of tree it is, but on Saturday night it had big, fat buds on its branches.  By Sunday morning the buds had opened into soft little leaves.

I like to call this tree "Horus," because it has a knothole that looks a lot like the Eye of Horus.

Maybe y'all can help me identify this tree.  In early spring it grows these soft buds that look like the flowers on pussy willows, but then the buds grow into catkins.  After the catkins fall off the leaves start to grow, and then my tree is pretty all season long.  It also drops these infernal seed pods that my dogs try to eat, and I don't like those a bit.  Not only did the dumber of my two dogs (Sonic) almost choke on one, but they're a stumbling block for me as well.  Hey, I've tripped over smaller things!  The balls look like sweet gum pods, but the leaves and bark don't match.

I would also show y'all a picture of this awesome anthill that I've got in my front yard, but this is a doll blog, not a nature blog.  Just trust me:  it's a work of art.  NOW let's get this review underway.  As Ideal Velvet's debut commercial attests, hair was the thing during the sixties and seventies.  I've always found that commercial comical, by the way; all the little girls had at least a foot of hair, and they were all sharing a hairbrush.  Lovely way to get cooties, kiddies.  Anyway, all the big doll companies had at least one doll with hair that grew, as did plenty of more obscure companies.  Moony's doll for today is...sort of a Crissy competitor, a very small chica named Claudie.  Claudie dates from 1967 and was made by Nasco.  To my surprise very little information is available about the company.  Doll Reference, my favorite go-to for dolly info, had only a short list of products, and Claudie wasn't even mentioned on that list.  I had to turn to Crissy and Beth for a description of the doll.  Here's what my Claudie looks like (her appearance varied).

Claudie is/was one of a series of hair play dolls that Nasco apparently made to compete with Crissy and her Ideal cronies.  They came in a wide range of sizes and names, with several hair colors that all had a grow gimmick similar (but not identical) to that possessed by Tressy, Crissy, and Velvet.  Claudie is the smallest of the lot, at six inches.  She would be small enough to be a child for Tressy, were the two dolls' scales not so different.

Actually that difference in size isn't so bad, though I still have to seat Tressy in order to get the two to look at each other.

Technically one could argue that Claudie is more of a Tressy clone than a Crissy clone given the small size of both Tressy and Claudie, but Tressy got discontinued in 1966, a year before Claudie started popping up in stores.  Still, given their similar gimmick AND their coordinating dresses, I can't help wondering if Tressy was the one Nasco wanted to imitate rather than Crissy.  Perhaps Claudie was just there to fill in the gap that Tressy left, since Crissy didn't come along until 1969, AFTER Claudie saw her brief peep of sunlight.

I thought Claudie might be close in size to my Vogue and Lesney Ginny dolls, but they are both quite a bit taller than Claudie is.  I think Claudie and Lesney Ginny could become close friends if I left them alone long enough.

Last time y'all will ever see Lesney Ginny with hair that long, by the way.  I got sick of the tangles and cut it.  Now she has a chop bob, as I like to call it.

Digression over, Whimzee and Tea Blossom are closer to Claudie in height, though these three could never share clothes.

Penny Brite and Jan aren't the right size for clothes sharing either, but these three do look adorable as a group.

Alrighty, now that my customary fooling around is over, Claudie dolls come in several hair colors, with my doll possessing very dark brown, almost black hair.

Like all good hair-growing dolls Claudie has a head full of rooted or "base" hair, plus one long fall at the crown of the head.  Her base hair is parted on the right (verses the left for Crissy and the center for Velvet), and it falls to just above her ear.  The texture is smooth and quite coarse, which I'm used to seeing with clone dolls (both Jennifer and Cherry Fizz have hair like this).  The rooting is average-good; the plugs have some gaps between them, but they're not huge gaps and for the most part the plugs are rooted thickly enough to hide the gaps.  For the most part, that is.  Dig this.

Claudie's roots do show in the back, and they show enough that I've been asked a couple of times why my dolly is going bald.  The truth is that Claudie is not going bald, but rather suffering from a nasty case of box hair, one I have not yet been able to fix.  If she didn't have elastic in her head I'd boil-wash her hair and be done with it, but she does have aging elastic in her head so I don't dare.

Why does Claudie have elastic in her head, you ask?  According to Crissy and Beth, these Nasco dolls had/have an "ingenious" hair mech.  One would turn the doll's head to the left, pull the fall out to the length one wanted, and turn the head facing front again.  In order to do this the fall had to be attached with elastic, and since elastic grows brittle as it ages I have to be careful with the fall.  Indeed, I don't monkey much with the fall at all.  I just braid it, like I do the falls on my Crissy dolls.

Time for a spapeggy and meatballs moment:  I like to add a bit of flair to my dolls' rope braids by adding a smaller rope braid in with the larger strands.  Just something I like to do.  Feel free to copy, since I copied it myself from someone else's Crissy doll.  See how my Crissy's hair is braided?

Unfortunately I wasn't able to pull the style off with Claudie since she doesn't have enough hair for me to grasp.  She wears her fall in a simple braid to keep it from getting too messy.  I added the little green clips and the hemp string for...well, just for the heckuvit.  The clips came with Wozzeck's new wig back in December, but he has no use for them so Claudie got them.  They don't match a thing Claudie is wearing, but...oh well.

I also braided a strand of hemp into Claudie's hair, for reasons I didn't know then and don't know now.  It makes a cute bow at the end, though.

I do tripped-out crap like that to all my dolls that grow hair, by the way.  I make up for my inability to style by adding in any sort of outrageous accessory I can find.  Anywho, for a doll from the sixties Claudie has fairly nice hair.  Hair play dolls usually take a beating since little kids love to play with doll hair, but Claudie's stiff fibers have stood the test of time well.  I can tolerate the fact that Claudie's gimmick doesn't work much since her ponytail is at least in place (sometimes they fall out), and since she doesn't have a chop job to her base hair like my Crissy does.  I also love the color, as it provides a nice contrast from pale blonde Velvet, honey blonde Tressy, and red-haired Crissy.  I just wish it didn't look so thin in back!

Now to the face.  Most of Crissy's friends had inset sleep eyes, with only Dina and Brandi having painted eyes, while Nasco's hair-growing dolls could have either inset eyes or painted eyes.  I personally prefer the painted eyes on these dolls since Velvet's eyes can look buggy and Crissy's eyes can look lifeless.  Wait a minute, can?  Crissy's eyes just look lifeless, PERIOD, no ifs, ands, or buts.  As for the Nasco dolls, Claudie comes from the painted eye camp, as her cute little face shows.

No joke, I love this doll's face.  For some weird reason those eyes remind me of Penny Brite's eyes, even though they're not Mickey Mouse-style pie eyes.  Maybe it's the way they're painted, being side-glancing eyes with indistinct borders.

Not very precise paint, not terribly surprising for a knockoff.  The eyebrows are cute, though.  Sometimes super-dark eyebrows bug the snot out of me, but Claudie's eyebrows aren't super-dark.  Even if they were they'd match Claudie's hair, so I'm not going to gripe.  I will complain that Claudie's lips are too light, though.

I don't know if these were deliberately painted like this or if the paint has faded over time, but these lips look very washed out in pictures.  If I were better at painting faces I'd add a little color to these lips, but I'm no good at painting faces so that's that.  Since she's a little girl I figure Claudie's makeup is supposed to be pretty sparse; indeed, she has no eyeshadow or blush, so these light lips may be deliberate.  I do wish they were a little darker though, so they'd show up in pictures.  Not paint to write home about overall, but there aren't any screw-ups anywhere, no off-center eyes or lips on foreheads or anything like that.  I'd grade this paint a C+, on the good end of average.  Average or no, Claudie packs a lot of personality into this little face, and that's always worth something for a doll, no matter how cheap the paint is.  Plus there's no glaring foibles or mistakes with this paint.  I can't say that for all of my clone dolls (see Jennifer and Mariclare for examples).  Since I brought Jennifer into the fray, let's see what she and Claudie look like together.  I also threw in Cherry Fizz, since I named her Jennifer's "sister."

I think Jennifer and Cherry have a new "sister"!

On to the body we go.  Since this is a clone doll I'm not expecting anything wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am, and indeed Claudie has a little girl's body, devoid of any development.

She has naught but a bellybutton and a gluteal cleft molded on her torso, plus her copyright info on her upper back.  Like a handful of my other vintage dolls, Claudie was made in Hong Kong.

Interestingly, Claudie's body is all hard, hollow plastic...except for her arms.  They're vinyl like her head, and they took to a mold fairly well.  It is possible to see small seams of plastic between her little fingers, though.

Claudie's legs are straight, slightly tapered columns with three little dimples at each knee...and no other definition.  Being hard plastic it probably goes without saying that these knees do not bend.

Claudie's feet are cruder than her hands, being short, boxy little things with only the merest suggestion of toes.  The seams here are quite rough.

As with the majority of dolls this era (clone or no) Claudie has only rotational movement in her joints.  She can sit in a bimbo-on-Quaaludes pose, and she can do splits and wave.

Her head can turn from side to side but cannot turn all the way around.

About what I've grown to expect from knockoff dolls.  Not high, not low, definitely better than some clone dolls that I own, but not as good as some others.

As I noted above, Claudie's dress coordinates nicely with her larger friend Tressy's, being red and white and relatively short.  Not all Claudie dolls were dressed this way, but a few were.  My particular doll is wearing a red pleather micro-minidress and white plastic go-go boots.  With a dress that short she'll also need drawers.

Yes, pleather.  The dress is made of pleather, or a vinyl material that looks and feels like pleather.  It is devoid of the scuffs and tears that pleather and vinyl sometimes encounter.  The surface is embossed with squarish little shapes that are of a different texture from the rest of the dress.

Ringing Claudie's stubby little waist is this belt, made from a stiffer strip of vinyl.  This does not continue all the way around the dress.

Also present is this white velour collar.  It lies flat and I'm thankful for that, but being velour it catches dirt and dust and looks groady.  I'll have to do something about that.

The back of the dress is completely open, just like a hospital gown, and it is held closed with one.  single.  snap.  Yeah, a single one.

Good thing Claudie has those britches!  They're just plain little white panties with an elastic waist and a few loose threads hanging off.

The boots are cute, but nothing super special.  The molding is crude on these as well, and the seams are splitting badly.  The boot on the left has a split in front, and the boot on the left has a split in back.  These splits are a great help in getting these shoes off Claudie's feet, but I wish they'd chosen to split in the same place!!!

Claudie can stand up when she's wearing these, by the way.  When I tried to stand her in her bare feet she tumbled over.  All in all this is again what I'd expect for a clone, though the quality of these items are a lot better than some of the falling-apart-at-the-seams items I've seen at Dollar General here lately!  The biggest problem with this outfit are those splitting boots, and I can probably mend those.  Probably.  My track record with mending broken shoes has been a bit iffy here lately, but I can still try.

Regarding other clothes, Claudie has a rather unique size and shape and thus I have my doubts about clothes sharing.  After a copious amount of digging I discovered that Nasco did make extra outfits for their dolls, one of which can be seen here, but I really do not need to be spending money right now.  Of the dolls I currently own, I think Cherry Merry Muffin and Li'l Gumdrop may be my best candidates for sharing.  Again, I think Claudie may be making a new friend!

'Nuff chatter, you two, let's get down to business.  Cherry is taller than Claudie, but their builds are similar.  Let's see how this goes.

Hmmm...not bad from an aesthetic standpoint.  Cherry's pink shoes don't match, but there's nothing I can do about that since they're molded on.  The dress fits.  As for Claudie, she fits into Cherry's stuff, but the Velcro in the back won't fasten and the sleeves are tight.  I don't think I'll risk the well-being of Cherry's dress by forcing this on Claudie again.

Gumdrop, now...well, having looked at the two of them I have my doubts now, since Gumdrop's shoulders are so narrow.  But she's out of storage so I may as well try it.

On a lark, I tried this Lati Yellow-sized dress on Claudie.

It fits, but that skirt is VERY short.  We're talking Sailor Moon-short, folks!  Still, I'm now curious about the fit of other Lati Yellow clothes.  I may have to revisit this in the future, maybe with a pair of pants or culottes to go under this dress.

I do believe that covers Claudie.  What do I and don't I like about her?

BAD
*Hair is not the easiest to style, which is important for a hair-play doll.  I'd say this is Claudie's biggest problem.
*Face paint a little indistinct
*Posing sucks, especially seated positions.
*Boots are splitting and the dress only has one snap (I can probably fix both those problems)
*Can't wear many other dolls' clothes

GOOD
*That face!!!  I love that expression!
*I also love this doll's overall style.  She's a go-go girl, for crying out loud!
*Sturdy, though I suspect age may have rendered her gimmick unusable.  A modern child could play with this doll with few problems, though.
*Makes a good companion for my other dolls.  Some of my dolls are hard to place into a group, but not Claudie!
*May be able to wear Lati Yellow clothes.  I intend to tinker with that some.

Well, once again I've sunk a bit of money on a clone doll that's...pretty average.  Claudie has an adorable face and would probably still make a good plaything for a younger child, but I wouldn't call her collectible unless you're a clone enthusiast (like I am) or if you're into the history of hair-play dolls like Beth from Crissy and Beth is.  Even in that category Claudie falls a little flat, as she doesn't have a lot of hair to play with.  Even Tressy has enough hair to make a decent beehive, and her head isn't any bigger than Claudie's is.  I'd say that the hair is Claudie's biggest problem, since she IS supposed to be a hair-play doll.  I wish her fall were thicker, and I wish her base hair were a little easier to restyle, so I could hide her plugs better.  Still, I do love Claudie's little face, and I love the possibility that she can wear Lati Yellow clothes.  As I said above, I'll have to experiment with that a bit and get back to y'all.

Cordially yours,
RagingMoon1987