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