Allison, yesterday's child

As with my posts about Kewpie and Patsy, this post was inspired partially by Aunt Kathryn's collection, though in a more tangential fashion.  In that post I briefly discussed Grandma's Hummels and how they share a bookshelf with a few Boyds Bears.  That in turn made me remember Daddy's collection of Boyds Bears, and THAT reminded me that the company that made these bears also produced dolls.  Long story short, I dug up one of those dolls on eBay.  Say hello to Allison.

Before I discuss Allison, I'm going to engage in a very long, somewhat tangential story, so buckle up.  It may sound strange to hear of a full-grown man collecting figurines, but my father was a huge Boyds Bear fan.  His bears were all of the "Bearstone" variety, meaning that they were the resin ones rather than the plush ones that Boyds also made.  I'd estimate that he had around thirty of them, give or take.  Among them were a complete set of the insects (bumble bee, ladybug, butterfly), a couple that commemorated 9/11, and a little firefighter named Elliott the Hero.  Elliott has a humorous, somewhat poignant story behind him.  Mama gave Elliott to Daddy for Christmas shortly after I turned eleven, which doesn't sound that important on its own, but there's more to it than that.  Daddy was notorious for shaking presents and figuring out what they were before Christmas actually came, a trait that my sister has taken up.  Of course this behavior annoyed Mama greatly, and she was bound and determined to get this present into the house without him figuring it out.  Well!  I was already sequestered in one of the bedrooms with the wrapping paper, most of the gifts for my sister and Daddy, and a new issue of Mary Beth's Beanie World (a Beanie Baby magazine).  At length Mama joined me with Elliott's box in her hands and a crap-eating grin on her face, and the following conversation occurred.

MAMA:  Did you hear what that a$$hole just said???

ME (daydreaming about my own Christmas presents):  Nooooo...

MAMA:  He said "Is that a Boyds Bear?!"

<we both laugh>

It was rare indeed when we could completely stump Daddy on a present!  He didn't know which bear we had for him though, and thus when Christmas morning rolled around he was pleasantly surprised.  If my memory serves me right he wanted a policeman that year, but when he saw Elliott he said "Oh, he's BETTER than the policeman!  He tells a story!"  So yeah, I've got some happy memories of these little figurines.  Alas, Daddy's Boyds Bears are in storage so I can't show them to y'all.  His butterfly was broken (he got her for free because of that) and he never got around to mending her, and I've always meant to complete that task for him.  Haven't done it yet, obviously!  But Grandma also had a few (gifted to her from Daddy, LOL), and I'm happy to share them now.  My favorite ones were these two, one involving a lopsided checkers game between three family members, and the other involving a pair of gossiping friends.

I love the shocked expression on the face of one of the gossipers.  

An important thing about these resin bears is that they always have a tiny engraved paw print hidden somewhere on the figurine.  The gossipers are no exception, but I'm not going to give the location of the print away in case some of y'all collect these and don't have the gossipers yet.  For those who don't know Bo Diddley about these bears, here's what the paw print looks like (I'm using a different figure for this picture).

Small, shiny, black like an ink spot, and slightly indented into the resin.  Most of the paw prints were like this, though Daddy did have one that had a HUGE paw print on it.  Kinda clever; the bears in that figurine were two little drummers, and the paw print was right in the center of the drum.  Daddy (and many other collectors) overlooked it because it was too obvious.

Well!  Allison sure did bring on a stroll down Memory Lane, did she not?  When I was young I was more interested in Daddy's figurines and in the stuffed Boyds Bears than I was the dolls, but...well, tastes change.  Allison has proved beneficial, as she's provided me with the motivation to find Daddy's bears and a place to display them.  I don't want to collect a trillion of these like I have with my dolls, but I would like to add my own personal touch to his collection, with the addition of a frog.  Yes, Boyds had a few frogs done up like their bears, and I intend to get a single one.  But now let's discuss Allison.  She's modern porcelain, a type of doll that is derided by some hardcore collectors.  I never have understood the animosity that some folks have towards mass-produced porcelain dolls, by the way.  Porcelain dolls are almost always attractive, and a great many of them are well-made.  True, they have no resale value, and some of them can be a little or a lot creepy, but if it's what you like, it's what you like.  Your collection, your rules.  Anyway, Allison is about thirteen inches from head to toe, but she looks smaller because she's in a seated position like my Marie Osmond dolls are.  I included Sasha and Camille for scale.

So yeah, Allison is a small doll.  Her head is porcelain with brown side-glancing eyes...

...while her feet are resin like the Bearstone-style Boyds Bears are.  See the stitch detail on her little socks?

I think her hands may be resin too, but I'm not certain.  They look more like resin than porcelain.

The palm of Allison's right hand has an indentation and some glue, making me wonder if she didn't hold something in her hand at one time.

Indeed, her Amazon images show that she is supposed to be holding a little bird in her hand.  That explains the binoculars that came draped over Allison's left hand.  These too are resin and have some texturing molded in.

I wasn't sure if these little dolls would have paw prints on them like the Bearstone figures do, but while I was looking at the binoculars I found it.  So these dolls have paw prints concealed on them somewhere just like the figures do, or at least Allison does.

The binoculars would mean that Allison is indeed a little bird-watcher, not to be confused with Gary Larson's boid watchers.  That makes her missing bird in the hand all the more disappointing.  Oh well, the missing bird can be replaced with another bird or concealed nicely by Allison's teddy bear.  Unsurprisingly, just about all of these dolls came with teddy bears.

According to Amazon, the bear's name is "Andy."  His joints move, just like the stuffed Boyds Bears and like the old Steiff bears of yore.

Allison also has joints at her shoulders and neck, but her clothes conceal those for the most part.  Basically Allison is like the majority of other porcelain dolls, in that she sits and looks pretty.  Her molded legs bring Walda to mind, but Allison is of a higher quality than Walda is.  She'd make a fine addition to any collection of Boyds paraphernalia, and that is what I plan on doing...once I find Daddy's figurines!

And...that's really all I have to say!  Boyds dolls are worth the while if you like porcelain dolls, or if you like the stuffed or resin Boyds bears, or if you like teddy bears in general.  Now that I've said that, it's time to work on October's batch of posts, and boy, do I have an experience for y'all!  It's not a super-bad experience, but bad enough that I learned a lesson from it.

UPDATE, 6/30/2021:  I was able to find an in-box example of a Boyds doll, and according to the box the dolls do not have paw prints concealed on their bodies, but rather...shoe prints!  So now I need to dig Allison out of storage and find her shoe prints!  The in-box example I found is available for sale from SeaPillowTreasures on Etsy.  Her name is Miss Molly, and in true Boyds fashion she has a teddy bear.

Much love,
RagingMoon1987

Patsy comparison

Before I kick off today's post, it's probably old news now that the 1980s American Girl Courtney Moore has leaked.  I can count on one hand the number of important things that happened during the eighties, but Miss Courtney is too stinkin' cute.  She has big eighties hair and brightly colored mix-'n'-match clothes, and she appears to be a fan of Pac-Man, Care Bears, and our old friend Molly McIntire.  Perhaps I need to introduce her to Molly.  LOL, I must admit that my decade of birth does fascinate me, mainly for silly reasons like toys and pop culture, and Courtney will eventually have to come home with me.  I've seen some folks say that she looks too much like Maryellen, and I'll admit that I wish Courtney could've been a brunette or a redhead (or biracial, even!), but I still like her.

Of course there's no way that I can introduce Courtney to Molly today or anytime soon, so I'll just fill today's post with Patsy.  Told y'all last fall that Patsyette would be popping in and out of the blog some, though granted she hasn't popped in and out as much as I thought she would.  Apologies to those of y'all that don't like Patsyette much; I will NOT be offended if you decide to skip this post.  Anyway, in addition to Patsyette, Alannah, and Patty I've scored two more from the Patsy family.  The tall one is Patsy Joan, and the small one at her feet is Patsy Babyette (hereafter referred to as "Babyette").

No joke, Babyette's back is marked "Patsy Babyette."  See?

As I noted back last fall, Effanbee's hugely popular Patsy doll came in a respectable number of sizes, ranging from five to thirty inches.  My dolls mostly fall towards the smaller end of that category, with Babyette being nine inches like Patsyette.

Patsy Joan is much bigger.  She's shorter than Crissy by about two inches, and shorter than Sasha by about one inch.

Just for grins, here's how they both compare to my sole other Effanbee doll, Bozena the Czech.

Not much family resemblance, is there?  Granted, Bozena is not a member of the Patsy family, but there's still not a lot of resemblance here.

According to Doll Reference Patsy Babyette dolls date back to 1931, and that happens to be the ONLY year listed so I wonder how long this doll was in production.  Babyette could apparently be either a boy or a girl and could come singly or in pairs of fraternal twins (these are reproductions, but they look the same as the old ones).  Being an entity of the 1930s means that Babyette is made out of composition like Patsyette is, and that in turn means that she's sadly got some damage.  Her feet are missing some paint (her left leg is particularly bad)...

...and her left hand has a nasty crack, all the way down to the wood underlay.

Unfortunately, her little face also has some paint flubs and cracks, mostly around the eyelids.

I've seen compo dolls in worse shape than this, and such deterioration is to be expected when one is a fan of the medium, as I am.  Sadly I lack the experience and expertise needed to mend this, so Babyette will have to live with a split eyelid for awhile.  She also came to me butt nekkid, but I was able to fix that with Patsyette's extra dress.  Even though Patsyette and Babyette are both nine inches from head to toe, their measurements are very different, and that is why the pink dress bags on Patsyette but looks great on Babyette.  Please forgive my beat-up old Vera Bradley purse in the background of Babyette's picture, LOL.  That thing has served me well, but it's about had it!

Patsyette can stand on her own if I fool with her enough, though she's so loose that I usually I just toss her in a stand and leave it at that.  Babyette cannot stand at all due to her bent knees (note that she has the rounded body, typical of Patsy dolls).

Babyette's all-composition body means that she's an old doll like Patsyette is, but she has two crucial differences.  One is the hair; Babyette sports a wig, and Patsyette does not.

It's medium blonde, though it looks darker in the pictures I've taken.  I'm not sure if it's lambswool or mohair, but it's curly and wispy and thus very fitting for a baby's hair.  Wigs are not unheard of on vintage Patsy dolls of any size, but they appear to be most prevalent on these babies.  Under her wig Babyette has the prerequisite molded bob that most Patsy dolls of the era had, but this is only visible in the middle of her forehead, right at the hairline.

Right then, we've established that Babyette is wigged and that sets her apart from Patsyette.  However, there's one other thing.  Need a hint?

Patsy dolls could have inset sleep eyes or painted eyes.  Patsyette's are painted, but Babyette's are inset, and they appear to be glassene (tin eyes were also an option).  Despite Babyette's cracked eyelid these eyes work well.

Dolls with glassene eyes are a bit of a gamble nowadays, as the eyes can cloud over with time and look super-creepy like THIS poor little doll's eyes have done.  Luckily Babyette has dodged that bullet.  Most of my composition dolls have dodged said bullet, with the exception of poor Shirley Temple, who looks a hair possessed at the moment.

Regarding jointing, Babyette is strung like most all-compo dolls are, but unlike Pansy and Patsyette she does not need to be restrung at all.  I've semi-invented a rating scale for restringing, based on the U.S.'s DEFCON system:
*STRINGCON 1:  Doll fell apart, is in danger of falling apart, or has loosely dangling appendages. Needs restringing stat.
*STRINGCON 2:  Doll is in no immediate danger of falling apart, but cannot stand, sit, or hold any poses without a lot of work.  Even his/her head will not stay up unless balanced on the neck joint...or if it's not strung at all, like an American Girl's neck.
*STRINGCON 3:  Doll can hold some basic poses, but getting him/her into said poses is very difficult and may require some cussing.
*STRINGCON 4:  Doll is a little floppy but can be posed with a little work.  Trying to get him/her to stand unassisted is still risky if the doll in question is breakable.
*STRINGCON 5:  Doll is fine.  No action needed.
*STRINGCON 6:  In this fairly rare scenario, the doll is too tight and damage to joints may result unless the strings are loosened.  Ball-jointed dolls are most likely to achieve STRINGCON 6 status, though this can be a problem for Sasha dolls as well.  Note that there is no level 6 on the DEFCON scale (LOL).

Most of Aunt Kathryn's dolls are at STRINGCON 1 or 2, Patsyette is a 3, and Babyette is a 5.  In fact, she may be a 6 across the shoulders, since her arm joints have some visible damage.

Wear is to be expected on the joints of any composition doll, but this is a little more wear than I prefer.  However, I don't move Babyette's arms around much so she'll probably be fine in the long run.

Normally I'd segue into clothes here, but I've already talked about Patsyette's dress so I'm moving on to Patsy Joan.  Patsy Joan differs from Patsyette and Babyette in that she's a more modern doll (she dates from 1994), and thus she's made of high-quality vinyl rather than composition.  Other than that Patsy Joan is just like her little sisters.  I don't know if Effanbee was still a separate entity in 1994, but that's the company stamped on Patsy Joan's back.  Notice that it's spelled "EFFANDBEE," with a "D" in the middle.

The name "Effanbee" is an amalgam of the founders' initials, but usually the "and" in between was shortened to "AN" to form the company name.  Interestingly, Patsy Joan does not have her name stamped on her back like Patsyette and Babyette do.  Her name is engraved into her neck, along with a more modernized Effanbee logo and the copyright year.

Underneath her candy-striped bonnet Patsy Joan sports a brown bob.  It has more molded details than Patsyette's bob does.

Her eyes are blue sleep eyes like Babyette's, though they're not as vividly blue as Babyette's eyes are.  In fact under the glare of the camera they look silver rather than blue.

Attached to Patsy Joan's wrist is a paper tag, which I think is supposed to simulate the metal tags that the composition dolls came with.  The metal tags that I've seen simply read either "EFFANBEE," or "EFFANBEE DURABLE DOLLS" like Patsyette's tag does...

...but Patsy Joan's tag talks a little about her posing as well.

Movable LIMB???  LOL, Patsy Joan moves more than just one limb, and her head does indeed tilt.  Sometimes it tilts when I don't want it to!

In all Patsy Joan has five joints like Patsyette and Babyette do, and like them she is strung.  I rate her a 4 on the STRINGCON scale and she is thus using a stand, shoved uncomfortably underneath her dress.

The eBay seller was mildly concerned about Patsy Joan's stringing, suggesting that she might need to be restrung, but I don't think Patsy Joan will need that anytime soon.  She can stand without a doll stand, albeit unsteadily, but to avoid any mishaps I leave her in a stand anyway.  Her loose strings are the reason why her head sometimes tilts when I don't want it to, by the way.

Unlike Patsyette and Babyette, Patsy Joan is wearing her original outfit and it's a darn cute outfit.  I'm just going to skim this since it's not the easiest to put back on, but I'll give y'all the gist of it.  I suspect that this particular Patsy Joan was the most popular make, because eBay has a million of them in this exact same dress and bonnet.  The fabric feels like it might be cotton, and I love the way it feels in my hands.  The dress closes in back with snaps, and it also ties in the back.  Getting this sash done up into a nice straight bow is a pain in the posterior.

Likewise, it's also a pain to properly tie the bonnet.

The bonnet is a lot like a pioneer's sunbonnet, and it has an extra row of ruffles that frames Patsy Joan's face and looks very pretty.

Oddly, I've run into some mild confusion as to how Patsy Joan should wear this bonnet.  When she first came the brim was folded back a little bit.  This is hard to show, but look close to where the brim joins the main body.  

Since then I unfolded it and leave it at its full length, like so.

I mention this because folding the bonnet has an effect on how it looks from the front.  It's a very subtle effect, but it's there.  On the top the bonnet is folded, and on the bottom it is not.

I guess it's just a matter of preference.  As an aside, I wonder why Patsy Joan's bonnet ties in the middle, but Addy, Caroline, and Kirsten all have bonnets that tie on the side (click on the links for an idea of what I mean).  Even my Kirsten's Etsy bonnet ties on the side.  Yeah, yeah, I know Patsy Joan is not an American Girl doll, but I also have porcelain dolls with bows to one side or the other.  But then again, I also have other dolls with bows in the center.  I just wonder why some bonnets are one way and others are the other way.  Maybe it was another matter of preference back in the day.

Ah, I do love tangents.  Both Patsy Joan's bonnet and dress are very nicely finished on the inside.

The only raggy area is right around the waist, where the petticoat and the skirt of the dress tie into the bodice.  That's a lot of raw edges in one place so I can overlook the loose ends here.  The hems and seams are impeccable everywhere else.

Back in the day Patsy Joan would've likely worn oilcloth shoes and flimsy gauze socks like Patsyette does, but since she's a relatively modern doll she has patent leather shoes and thick knitted socks.

The shoes snap shut and have ruffled treads on the bottom.

Brief tangent.  I keep the Patsy troupe stored on the shady end of my bearded dragon's cage, along with my Ichimatsu dolls Hitomi and Satomi.  It's an odd crew, but I like them together so here they are. 

Ewwww, I apparently didn't get the flash right.  Poor Satomi looks even yellower than she did in her own review.  Here it's also easy to see that Babyette is quite a bit bigger than Hitomi, though her long dress partially hides that.

And that would've been it...except that while typing up the post on Aunt Kathryn's dolls I became enamored with Tam's Pansy doll and decided I wanted one for myself.  I did find one (indeed, Pansy dolls are easy to find), but she doesn't look a thing like Tam's doll.  Guess who she does look like?

She looks like an African-American Patsy doll!  Black Patsy dolls are not unheard of, but they're rare enough that I've never seen one during my admittedly-short eBay browsings...take that back, I found a few reproductions that are freaking adorable.  Debbie Behan Garrett also has a few on her blog, and they're plumb cute too (her Patsy Jr. has short little braids).  Anyway, these Pansy dolls were made by Joann Fabrics and were intended to be "dress-me" dolls, but they're different from the dress-me dolls I'm familiar with by a country mile!  Pansy's arms and legs rotate (many of the dress-me dolls I've seen have frozen legs)...

...and she's not made of crummy hollow plastic, though not all dress-me dolls are that cheaply made.  No, Pansy is heavy enough that she could double as a club, a much more formidable one than the old Lalaloopsy dolls could.  Her vinyl is thick and sturdy and has a matte finish, though it does have a fair amount of scuffs.  I'll see if a Magic Eraser can't fix some of that (those are super-fine abrasives).   Anyway, Pansy has molded and painted hair like most Patsy dolls, and her features are painted as well.  She's a little taller than Patsy Joan.

I love this doll's expression!  She arrived right back in late March, right as the coronavirus crisis was gathering steam in the Bootheel, and her face is a good representation of how I felt about the whole situation.

"OMG, when's it gonna stop???"

I don't know when it's gonna stop, Pansy.  I really don't know.  I treated the whole mess as a lark when I first heard of the virus, but it went from lark to annoyance to inconvenience to serious matter in the span of about a month, and things haven't gotten much better since.  The 1918-19 flu pandemic lasted a couple'a years, so we may be dealing with this coronavirus crap for awhile yet.  With that lovely thought...it isn't every day that I find a doll with a resting bitch face like mine!  I think I'll pretend that Pansy is cheerful but misunderstood; the other dolls see her expression and assume she's in a bad mood, when she's really just lost in thought.  That's happened to me on many occasions. 

As a last little lark, I noticed a few similarities between Patsy and Kewpie.  

I don't think Patsyette trusts Jess any more than I do, by the way; remember last week that I thought Jess had a mischievous expression.  I think my new Kewpie doll (another RoseArt girl) might be a better match.

I chose the name "Daisy" for obvious reasons.  Let's disrobe Daisy and Patsyette and look at them side by side.

Side-glancing eyes?  Check.  Molded hair?  Check.  Chubby cheeks?  Check.  The dolls have similar builds too, with rounded little torsos and short arms that stick out to the sides.  Overall I think Patsy and Kewpie have a few endearing similarities, though I can find nothing confirming or denying that Patsy was inspired by Kewpie.  I doubt it somehow, but they have enough similarities to make a body wonder.  Oh, by the way, Daisy has a secret heart on her chest like Rose does, but hers is quite different from Rose's heart.

Daisy's heart is shaped like a lollipop, and it states that her favorite flavor is cherry.  I prefer lime myself. 

And that, kids, is my small but loved Patsy crew!  I know she's not everyone's cup of tea, but I've always been fond of this chubby-cheeked little doll and I'm glad to finally have a few in my midst.  As with the Kewpie Krew, the Patsy Platoon will probably grow some.  Miss Debbie's little girl with the braids is adorable, and I'd like to find another lookalike as well, maybe Averill's Peaches or Peggy, who was made by both Amberg and Horsman during the 1930's.  I also wouldn't mind owning one of the Tonner dolls, just to show how much things changed during Effanbee's long existence.  I'm not going to do any active searching right now, but I'll keep my eyes peeled, as I often do!

Love,
RagingMoon1987