My Cinnamon girl

Ten silver saxes, a bass with a bow
The drummer relaxes and waits between shows
For his cinnamon girl

--Neil Young and Crazy Horse, "Cinnamon Girl"

Somehow I doubt that Neil Young was singing about Ideal dolls (or indeed any other doll) when he penned that ditty, but it fits pretty well in this case.  Say hello to Cinnamon, Velvet's little sister and the youngest/smallest member of the Crissy crew.

Oh, me and my Ideal dolls!  I've lost count of how many I've got now.  Regarding Cinnamon and how I got her, one could sort of call her a belated Christmas gift to myself.  My mother has proven quite fond of my other large hair-growing dolls (Velvet in particular), so I showed her a picture of Cinnamon.  I've always thought Cinnamon the cutest of Ideal's Crissy crew, and Mama apparently agreed because she all but begged me to buy one.  I did.  The seller says this doll dates from 1972, and if so then this particular doll's proper name is actually "Velvet's Little Sister"!  Ideal suggested on her box that the child give her a name of their own, similar to the idea that Mattel had for P.J. at the time.  To make things even more interesting, Ideal apparently toyed around with the name "Rusty" as the final name.  Thank God they went with "Cinnamon," as I think "Rusty" would've been a horrid name for such a cute doll, or at least a cute little girl doll.  If "Rusty" were meant to be a boy the name wouldn't have been so bad, but the doll is definitely NOT a boy.  If that weren't enough, "Rusty" had a completely different head and may not have been as cute as the final product!  Crissy and Beth relate the full story of "Rusty" here. 

With my usual spate of bloviating over, I've had Cinnamon around for about two thirds of a year now.   I ordered her on December 23rd, and she arrived a mere three days later on the 26th, extremely fast considering that she had to travel during a holiday.  As with Velvet I'm not going to give Cinnamon a full review since she's so similar to Crissy, but here's an idea of how she compares to her sister and cousin in size.  Crissy is 17.5 inches in height (most sources say eighteen inches, but I measured), Velvet is fifteen even, and Cinnamon is twelve inches.  Pardon the hideous lighting in the next two pics.

For those of y'all with a more modern mindset, here's how Cinnamon compares in size to an American Girl doll (Kirsten, left) and to my Hearts 4 Hearts Girl, Mosi.  American Girl dolls are eighteen inches like Crissy allegedly is, while Mosi is fourteen inches and thus between Cinnamon and Velvet in size.

Y'know, I've always wondered why Cinnamon has red hair like Crissy, but she's flaxen-haired Velvet's sister instead.  I know that siblings don't always have the same hair color, but most of the ones I've known do, and most dolly siblings do.  Doesn't matter much, I suppose, but I imagine a few children of the seventies might've gotten confused by this.  Cricket probably didn't help much; she too has red hair, and she's not related to Crissy OR Velvet and Cinnamon.  She's just a friend.  Cinnamon and Cricket sport a softer shade of red than Crissy does, but they still all have red hair!  Cinnamon's fall goes to her ankles, by the way.  I made a note of that the last time I talked about Velvet, but in Velvet's case her fall was ankle-length because the retracting mechanism is broken.  I'm not sure if Cinnamon's is or not, because I haven't tried it yet.  Yeah, I've had her almost a full year now, and I still haven't tried her hair-grow mech.  In keeping with my tradition of doing things the easy way, I braided Cinnamon's fall as soon as I got her, and I haven't touched it since.

From hair to eyes now.  One of the interesting things about little Cinnamon is that she does not have inset eyes like most of the Crissy crew does.

I commented back in the Christmas post that the only dolls in Crissy's circle with painted eyes were Dina and Brandi, Crissy's sun-kissed California chums.  Poor Cinnamon, I think she's the cutest of the bunch and yet I completely forgot that she has painted eyes as well!  This is probably a good thing in the long run though, as she won't get mold in her eyes like poor Velvet did.  Velvet no longer has that crap in her eyes, by the way.  A Q-tip and some rubbing alcohol cleaned them up nicely.  See the before and after pics?  Here's how Velvet's eyes looked before I cleaned them...

...and after!  They still need a little work, but they're better than they were.

LOL, violet eyes!  Take a gander at Wild Hair Sindy's post for my story on that.  At least I don't have to giggle to hide my revulsion now, because the mold is gone for the most part.  Note to Crissy fans:  a bit of rubbing alcohol and a cotton ball are all you need.

Right then, where was I???  Finding extra clothes for Cinnamon may be tricky since she's a different size from both Crissy and Velvet.  That not such a huge deal now with the weather being as warm as it is, but back in January when Cinnamon was "new" it was a big deal.  Or rather, it was to me; bare arms and legs always make me shiver in the wintertime, even if it's just on a doll.  Anyway, the last time I looked Etsy had all of two outfits, one adorable and one ordinary, and the few things on eBay come from a shop that I flatly refuse to do further business with, so it looks like I'll have to bust out that sewing machine of mine and start in sewing.  If I go that route then I can make matching dresses for all three dolls.  Now to see if Crissy and Beth has any patterns for Cinnamon...<glances at the website>...bummer, there's NOTHING!!!  Good thing eBay had a pattern!  Of course I currently don't know where I placed the pattern (typical behavior for me), but there's enough in that pattern set to make sixteen (yes, sixteen) little dresses for Cinnamon.

There's also these, though I bought them with the intention of fitting them to Velvet or Crissy.

These are old coats from Premier, who made aftermarket items for dolls of various sizes, from Topper Dawn to Barbie to dolls Kissy's size.  These coats all came from the "Doll Togs" line.

Surprise, surprise, these coats all proved to be too small for Crissy and Velvet!  Guess who they ended up fitting?  So cute!

Now I need to find something that will cover Cinnamon's little legs, as they look funny sticking out from under a quilted coat.  And I'll have to do that pretty darn quick, as it'll be chilly again before we know it!

Let's also look briefly at shoes.  Remember how I made such a big deal about Velvet's shoes in her post?  Well...maybe you don't (that was eons ago), but I did.  I'm pleased to announce that Cinnamon came with shoes.

Cute little white shoes that match everything.  I suspect that these shoes are aftermarket shoes of some stripe since white Cinnamon-sized shoes only came from Spiegel catalogs (anyone remember those?), and as far as I can tell the Spiegel shoes didn't have little bows on the toes.  These do.

Further, the Spiegel shoes are T-straps and these aren't.  Oh well, no matter where these shoes came from.  Cinnamon has them, and shoes for Cinnamon are just as elusive as clothes, so I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. 

As a last little haw-haw, JoJo Bow alert!

Since Cinnamon is the least well-dressed of my Crissy crew I decided to give her a JoJo Bow to make up for it.  The JoJo Bows available at Malden's Wal-Mart are too small for my big head (yes, I wear JoJo Bows), but they're perfect for a little doll like Cinnamon!  They work well for other dolls too, dolls like American Girls and the My Life dolls and Kissy, any doll that's got a sizeable head.

With that I can pronounce my Crissy collection complete!  I've got Look Around Velvet, Look Around Crissy, and lovely little Cinnamon to gaze at when I first wake up of a morning.  Please ignore my box fan again; I've been needing it since my ceiling fan is on the blink and has been ever since this time LAST year.

I don't want a ton of these dolls since they all do the same thing and since they're all sizeable dolls, but having the main three is nice.  I've run into some dolly lovers that were NOT Crissy fans, but I can certainly see the appeal with their happy faces and their kid-friendly gimmick.  Heck, they're good playthings for little kids now, provided said little kid knows not to go at the hair with a pair of scissors!

Now...for the moment I'm free from Facebook jail...but for how long?  Given the admins' penchant for digging through my history for the slightest of slights, I figure it's just a matter of time before I'm blocked again.  Then...well, then it'll get busy here on the blog again!  Speculations are already starting to swirl around American Girl's next Girl of the Year, and about the mysterious Joss Kendrick, who's name has appeared in trademark info.  If I get more information on that then I'll discuss it when I finally review Z Yang. 

Much love,
RagingMoon1987