Throwback Thursday review: Baby Face So Surprised Suzie

Well, spring hasn't even really sprung yet, and it's already been an interesting one from a dolly perspective.  Or it has been if you're an American Girl fan.  On March 2nd these three got released.

They're all Truly Me dolls, numbered #89, #90, and #91 from left to right, but they're different from the current Truly Me dolls in that they have unique meet outfits and meet accessories.  Mama likes #89 the best, and #91 is my favorite.  Response on Failbook has been mostly positive, with some folks stating that they bought all three on the first day.  A handful of naysayers weren't fans of the outfits or the unnatural hair.  I'll throw my two cents worth in and bet that these dolls have thin hair like Z and Courtney do, but maybe by some miracle I'll turn out to be wrong.  I also wish that the head molds varied a little, since it's impossible nowadays to throw a rock without hitting an American Girl with a Josefina head or a Sonali head.  #89 might've looked cute with the Joss head or the Kaya head, for example, and #91 would've looked good with the Addy head, which seems to be getting less and less use as years go by.  But they're not a trio of classic heads so I shouldn't gripe too loudly.  I've bought two new American Girls this winter (yep, two), so it'll be awhile before #91 joins my group.  As for my two new girls, y'all will have to wait until May 15th to meet them.  Why May 15th?  That's the birthday of one of my new girls.

With AG blather out of the way, on to today's review.  She is NOT an American Girl, nor is she related to them in any way, shape or form.  This post ties in with Marta Angela's post and with Olivia Reese's, and it delves deep into my childhood as well.  Meet So Surprised Suzie.

Oh Suzie, my Suzie, why did we ever start?  Of course this isn't the original Suzie that I owned, as most of my childhood toys are long gone.  Most of my childhood toys got donated to charity with my prior knowledge and consent, but in this case I'll make an exception.  My mom's mom was just this side of a saint, but my dad's mom didn't treat Daddy very well (or his brother and sisters either, for that matter), and when we severed ties with her I assume Suzie went in the trash.  I kept Suzie at her house, and I didn't find her when we cleaned Grandma's house out after she died, so I assume Suzie is sitting in the dump somewhere.  Anyway, one of my aunts gave this doll to me for Christmas one year, a year that I was...a little brat for some reason.  During the span of that family get-together I pouted, stomped, sassed, yelled "NO" a lot, and I was such a little ingrate that when we got home I received a well-deserved spanking.  And after all that Daddy still let me watch A Charlie Brown Christmas with the rest of the family!  LOL, I can't help but look back on that Christmas and shake my head and wonder what got into me, because I was bad at the other grandparents' house too that year!  In spite of that rocky start Suzie and I got to be good friends, partially because she has big blue eyes like I do, and partially because those big blue eyes did not close.  The dolls that I'd owned up to that point had either painted eyes, sewn eyes, or sleep eyes that clattered and didn't close all the way, so having a doll with inset eyes that didn't close was pretty cool for my school-aged self. 

Backstory now.  Baby Face dolls were made Galoob, a toy company that I loved when I was small, largely because of the funny name.  Their designer is...guess who?  Mel Birnkrant!  Indeed, I think Baby Face was his first foray into the doll world, but don't quote me on that!  When I put Suzie with Olivia Reese and Marta Angela it's easy to see the similarities, though I was surprised to see that Olivia is bigger than Suzie all over (I thought/hoped that they'd be the same size).  Suzie appears to be quite taken with Marta.

Suzie:  OMG, you're so teeny-weeny and cute!

Baby Face dolls were wildly popular, to the point that they were hard to come by, thus my ungrateful school-aged rear end should've been darn happy to receive Suzie that Christmas!  As with C.O.D. and the Play Along Club they disappeared after only a short time on store shelves, and once again it was for a completely different reason.  Mattel did away with the C.O.D.s when they took Tyco over, the Play Along Club just...disappeared, and Baby Face got felled by a bizarre pricing war between four large retailers (Wal-Mart, Target, Toys 'R' Us, and KB Toys).  As with the other two doll lines Mel Birnkrant wrote out a lengthy history, the beginning of which can be found here (the actual story of the doll begins here, if y'all don't want to wade through a ton of background information).  Some head molds are harder to find than others, with the rarest Baby Face doll being a prototype boy, So Daring Denny.  There do exist a few foreign-release dolls that look like Denny, but they were called "Sascha" instead.  Suzie actually ties with So Innocent Cynthia as the EASIEST of these dolls to find, though her African-American self is a little trickier.  PrillyCharmin's Suzie didn't take it too well when she learned that she was a common doll, by the way!  My Suzie doesn't seem to care too much.

The Baby Face dolls weren't as big on surprises as the Cuddle On Delivery dolls were, as their names were prominently displayed on the boxes, and as they were all girls except for the elusive Denny and a few other prototypes.  Suzie is out of her box anyway, so any surprises she contained would've been revealed.  Seriously, have y'all seen the asking price for a MIB Baby Face doll???  Even a common character like Suzie is pricey!  One thing that surprised me when I got my old friend in the mail was her size.  I remember Suzie being something of an armful, but in truth she's only about eleven inches tall.  I kept picturing something sized like an American Girl, but Suzie is WAAAAY smaller than Justine-Marie.

I think Suzie is just as surprised as I am about that, though per her name she is surprised about everything.  Dig Justine-Marie's new shirt, by the way.  In addition to making her my resident snow bunny I've also made her a little globetrotter.  With Kira Bailey being the woman of the hour it's been easy to find Australian-flavored things.

No, Kira will not be one of my new dolls...not anytime soon, anyway.  She's cute enough, but she looks too much like Julie Albright for my taste.  That wouldn't be a huge issue, except that I already have Julie.  But my mind has changed in the past, so we'll see.

Right then, back to Suzie now.  Since she's so much smaller than the American Girls I grubbed up two of my smaller dolls.  It turns out that Suzie is quite similar in height to Ideal's Cinnamon (left), and she's about an inch smaller than a Hearts for Hearts doll.  Keep in mind that Mosi is similar in size to a Wellie Wisher.

Baby Face dolls have rooted hair that came in many colors, with Suzie's being baby blonde.

Interestingly, Suzie has two bits of hair that are longer than the rest.  These are rendered in nineties-era crimps.  I remember pulling on these when I was little to see if they'd grow.  They didn't then, and they don't now.  That would've been a cute touch though, kinda like the Magic Nursery toddlers that could get pretend haircuts.

The rest of Suzie's hair is straight and approximately the same length all around.  Since my doll is out-of-box her hair is a bit unruly, especially up front where her bangs won't lie flat.

I also don't remember being able to see my childhood doll's roots this easily.  I understand why her roots show a little in the back, since I think this doll spent some time on her back.

The rooting on the crown of Suzie's head surprised me even more.  Instead of having a part from the back of her head to the front, it looks like she's got one from side to side...and it shows pretty badly.

I think I know now why all these dolls wore hats of some kind!  Suzie may have a Downy dunk in her future to tame those cowlicks up front, and probably some bows for those pigtails too.  Otherwise this is very kid-friendly hair, with a low risk of tangles.  The longer parts are pretty frizzy, but not tangled.

Regarding the face, each Baby Face doll has what antique doll collectors would call a "character face."  Each character expressed a different emotion and was named accordingly.  These really drive some collectors nuts, but some collectors...aren't bothered too much by them.  So Surprised Suzie is supposed to look surprised, hence her name.

These are a pretty far cry from Sasha, y'all!  I have a sneaking suspicion that Sasha Morganthaler would've hated these dolls, given the fact that so many of them smiled.  Anyway, here's the eyes that I was so enamored with as a child.  They're the same color and very nearly the same shade as mine, and they have applied eyelashes.  Eye color varied a lot with these dolls, but Suzie's eyes are definitely blue!  They're a shade lighter than Courtney's and Olivia's, but they're still blue.

Dang, those are kinda creepy when the rest of the face is edited out!  While I was researching Cuddle On Delivery dolls I learned that Mel Birnkrant was not a huge fan of doll eyes that stared straight ahead "catatonically," as he put it.  This shows in all three of my Birnkrant dolls, even though they're all different ages and were made by different companies.  Suzie is looking to her right, Marta is looking forward and slightly up, and Olivia combines the two, looking up and to her right.

Here's a closeup of one of Suzie's eyes.  Her eyes aren't as hypnotic as Nancy's eyes, but they have some nice lines painted in to make them look a smidge more real.  They also need some canned air, as many of my dolls' eyes do.

Yes, I loved those eyes when I was a little girl, but I also loved Suzie's dainty nose and her mouth.  Her mouth is open in the aforementioned surprised expression, and she has some little teeth and a tongue painted in.  Her cheeks have a little blush too, which I don't remember from childhood.

As with the eyes this mouth fascinated me, as it was NOT a drinking mouth.  My other baby dolls were drink and wet dolls and thus had holes in their mouths to accommodate water, but Suzie is not a drink and wet doll.  That didn't stop me from pretending to feed her anyway; indeed, unlike my other baby dolls she could eat solids!

Regarding the body, Suzie has a chubby little baby body with a big head and big feet, not terribly unlike the Play Along Club and the Cuddle On Delivery babies.  Suzie does have one big difference, though:  she is all vinyl.  Both Olivia and Marta have bodies that are at least partly cloth.

Take that back:  Suzie has one other difference from Marta and Olivia, as her limbs are strung rather than wired.  We'll address that in a minute, but as usual I want to show y'all what Suzie looks like all over. 

Right away I see a parallel between the Baby Face dolls and the Cabbage Patch Kids:  Suzie has a stamp on her tushie, just like the Cabbies, and My Child too.

In addition to being shorter than Olivia, Suzie has smaller feet and a shorter, wider torso.  She is jointed at the neck, shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees.  I could've sworn her wrists were jointed too, but my memory proved flawed there.  See?  No joints!

Maybe I was thinking back to Kissy's review.  She has splayed fingers like Suzie does, and her wrists are jointed.  Suzie's hands remind me a little of the "starfish hands" sported by Kewpie dolls, and that in turn makes me think of the "starfish hugs" given by Julia on Sesame Street.  Julia is too stinkin' cute, by the way; she reminds me of a friend I've got, the little girl who owns Isabelle.  Anyway, since Suzie is strung she's a little loose in places, namely the head.  It doesn't lol back limply like the heads of some of Aunt Kathryn's dolls do.  Rather, it prefers to snap back and stay back, like Mosi's head does.  The good part about this is that Suzie can turn and tip her head in just about any conceivable position, but the bad news is that her preferred position is this.

I'd rate Suzie a 4.5 on the STRINGCON scale, since her arms and legs are still tight.  She sits and stands very well.

She can wave with ease...

...and for what it's worth, she can do splits.

Strangely, Suzie's elbows and knees have good rotation, but they don't bend very well.

Okay, take that back.  They do bend well, but they don't stay bent.  Her elbows are a little better than her knees are, but they're still not great.  Suzie can look like she's blowing a kiss, but she can't cover her mouth or face like a surprised person sometimes does..

That image gives off a bit of a Little Miss No-Name vibe.  It doesn't show the angle of the joint very well, so here's a better view.

Here's the arm with the elbow joint straight.  There's not a huge difference. 

Makes a body wonder why they bothered with elbow and knee joints to begin with!  I'm told that A Girl For All Time joints behave in a similar manner (random thought for the day, LOL).  Anyway, I touched on the shape of the hands, but I didn't really discuss molding.  As it turns out I needn't have bothered since the molding is pretty simplistic.  There's very, VERY shallow little dimples to suggest fingernails, but that's about it.

Suzie's feet are the same way.  She's got ten little toes, but no nails.

The soles are even flat!

Those feet do a good job of holding Suzie up, though.  Indeed, of my three Birnkrant dolls Suzie has the best balance due to her flat feet and her legs that are vinyl instead of wired fabric.  

I should probably add somewhere that the torso is molded simply like the hands and feet are.  The only obvious molded areas are her bellybutton...

...and her trademark info, visible between her shoulders.

The same info is visible on the back of her head, below the hairline. 

Overall this is a robust little body, perfect for small children like a nineties-era me to have as a companion.  As with all strung dolls these can get very loose as time passes, but so far Suzie is in pretty good shape.

Now time for clothes.  Olivia is fully clad and Marta is not, so that leaves a wide clothing continuum for Suzie to fall into.  Luckily for all of us she is fully clad like Olivia is.

These dolls' fashions are fun because they're so unabashedly nineties!  Some are more in tune with the styles of the day than Suzie's outfit is, but Suzie does pretty well for herself.  Her ensemble is entirely red and white, which I love.  Indeed, I think this ensemble may be unique among Baby Face clothes, as it's dominantly a bold primary color rather than a pastel or a neon shade.  Note that Suzie sports a diaper rather than panties.

My Child and Magic Nursery wore diapers too, though oddly they were real diapers.  Yep, REAL doll-sized Pampers.  Suzie's diaper isn't real, but it looks the part just fine.  Over her diaper Suzie wears a very short little dress.  It doesn't cover her diaper, though that's not a huge deal when you're a baby.  The inside of the diaper feels a little fleecy, I assume to prevent Suzie from getting diaper rash.

The outside of the diaper is plasticky-feeling like real diapers are, and it has a light yellow pattern that looks a little like party streamers.  The tabs close with our old buddy Velcro.

The Velcro isn't as problematic for Suzie as it would be for Marta and Olivia since her body is vinyl rather than fabric, but it still could be a headache if it catches on certain parts of the dress.

As I noted above this is more of a shirt than a dress, but I'm calling it a dress anyway.  The first thing of note is the plastic patch with the Baby Face logo, sewn prominently onto Suzie's chest.  This patch contains the only patches of color that are not red or white.

The collar is trimmed with a delicate row of lace.

The striped sleeves are also trimmed with this lace...

...as are these cute polka-dotted panels.

The lace could be a bit of a snagging hazard if it were to come in contact with the Velcro on the diaper, but not so much as this tulle layer under the polka dots.  The tulle rides up constantly and is almost never visible, so this bit could probably have been left off.

So that tulle layer is in the way and is a snagging hazard.  Guess what the dress fastens with in the back?

Yep, a single tab of Velcro.  Now granted, I've never had any trouble with the Velcro on this little outfit, but it's still worth noting.  

Here's what the inside of the dress looks like.  It's well-made, with no loose ends visible. 

On her head Suzie wears this visor, made of fabric-covered plastic and vinyl.  The band has polka dots that tie this hat in with the dress, and the vinyl bit has little round cutouts.

The vinyl brim is bad about getting bent out of shape.  The only way to get it back into shape is to smash it into the desired shape, find a way to hold that shape, and leave it for a week.  Very annoying, but a cute hat otherwise. 

On her feet Suzie wears netted white socks that could do with a washing...

...and white sneakers with tulle ties.

These shoes have a lot of nice molded details, like a tongue and seams, plus little hearts on the sides and soles.

To my great annoyance something appears to have stained these shoes.  The eBay seller was honest about this, but I still don't like it.

Maybe Magic Eraser will fix that.  Magic Eraser fixes everything.

Before moving on I'd like to share something interesting that I've learned.  Remember the tulle that decorates Suzie's blouse and shoes?

According to the handful of sources I've found, Canadian Baby Face dolls utilize lace rather than tulle.  That wouldn't mean much for Suzie since she doesn't have a lot of tulle on her outfit, but other dolls (Dee Dee in particular) do have a lot of tulle.  Thus their Canadian selves look a little different.  A little, but not a lot; the lace is really the only difference.  I admit that I like the lace better since it looks fancier than the tulle, but can y'all imagine putting a ton of lace OR tulle on a baby's outfit???  Such an outfit would get messy fairly quickly, given the fact that babies drool, spit up, and do numbers in their pants while wearing cute outfits (like I did during another Christmas visit one time, LOL).  But lace and tulle are cute touches for dolls, since most baby dolls DON'T drool or spit up, and the ones that do numbers in their pants usually don't make a huge mess.

Okay, I lied about these dolls not having any surprises, because they did all come with...I'm gonna call them magic hearts.  Specifically, this.

This is activated by warmth; ideally you'd cup your hands around the heart and warm it until the message appeared.  Each doll had a specialized message, and if I remember correctly Suzie's message reads "Surprise!  I really love you!"  Online sources confirm this...meaning that this is NOT Suzie's heart.

This heart reads "Give me a hug!"  According to online sources the only ones who had that particular magic heart were two of the bathtub babies, So Bashful Abby and So Sad Brooke.  But the hardcore collectors on Failbook say that there was no set pattern to the hearts, and thus Suzie could end up with any of the ones available.  I always loved these hearts though, sappy as the messages may seem now.  If I needed something to cheer me up I'd cup my hands around Suzie's heart and feel better.  As far as I remember that's the only accessory that accompanied these dolls, and they can be tied to the doll's wrist so they don't get lost.

Regarding clothes sharing, Suzie is too chubby to wear clothes for Cinnamon, Mosi, or Olivia, and all of my Cabbage Patch clothes are either too small or too big.  So I don't have much on hand for Suzie to wear, but that's not a big issue for once.  Why?  Because there were separate outfits made for the Baby Face dolls.  This particular Suzie came with an extra dress, which is the main reason why I picked her despite her stained shoes.

Pink, or as I like to call it, paaaaaaank.  Most of these outfits were entitled "Goin' <fill in the blank>," with the two exceptions being "Workin' Out" and "Playin' Outside."  Heck, who needs to work out when you play outside???  My muscles were hard as rocks when I was the "playin' outside" age.  My sister and I got a nice tan too, just by running around, playing whiffle ball, and swinging on the swingset.  Anyway, in this case Suzie is "Goin' to the Ball."  It's a little nicer than Suzie's stock outfit (duh, since it's a formal), but like her stock outfit it has a headband.  This particular headband holds a double bow, made of white sateen on top of pink polka-dotted sateen.

The larger pink bow matches the sash, which actually does tie.  That bow isn't sewn in place like some bows are.

The shoes are vinyl with tulle ties, but this time they're pink ballet flats with only a few molded details.

Unlike the Cuddle On Delivery and Play Along Club dolls, Baby Face has a sizeable following on Etsy, meaning that finding handmade things for these dolls is relatively easy.  I tend to prefer my blondes in yellow rather than pink, so I'll soon be getting something yellow for Suzie to wear.  Stay tuned, kiddies!

Great, time to sum it up!

BAD
*The worst criticism I can conjure up is that this doll is strung.  With my particular doll that's not a bad thing, but other dolls are pretty floppy.
*There's also some parts to the outfit that can snag or tear if Velcro or cat claws get too close.
*Hair is a little unruly, but I think that's related to age.
*Also related to age, one of my doll's shoes is stained.  Both that and the hair can be fixed.

GOOD
*The dolls in general convey a number of emotions. 
*Sturdy.  The elastic feels strong, and the all-vinyl body will lend itself well to play.
*Came with extra outfits, so these dolls are easy to dress and re-dress.
*Outfits have some snaggy types of fabric here and there, but are well-constructed, easy to put on, and colorful.

I like Suzie heaps, but then again I'm biased since I owned this doll myself once.  I can see why folks become hardcore collectors of these dolls though, since they're all different, they're all dressed in brightly colored nineties fashions, and they pose...pretty well.  I still think Suzie could've done without those knee joints, but then again they do rotate.  Had I unlimited space I might get a few more of these, but I don't so Suzie will just have to do me.  And she does me quite well!  I issue the usual warnings about Velcro, but those warnings hold true for just about any doll.  I also advise caution when shopping for these dolls as some of them can be very, very loosely strung.  This is a repairable problem, but it sure can make a doll look creepy!  And lastly, some of these dolls can give off a bit of an Annabelle vibe, as their expressions are extreme.  The best example I can name is So Funny Natalie, who has a very extreme smile with visible teeth.  She might be off-putting, but the rest of these are pretty harmless.

Alrighty, I've done three Birnkrant-designed dolls this year, and as a result I've been to Mr. Birnkrant's website a lot.  Tucked into his site is a group of dolls and toys that made it to the prototype stage but didn't get produced, and in that group is my favorite of his dolls, Tina Twinkle.  Tina Twinkle actually "did something," as opposed to Suzie, Marta, and Olivia.  She was a little fairy who lit up, talked, and flapped her wings.  Her big toes even lit up (twinkle toes, LOL).  Indeed, Mr. Birnkrant suggested that maybe he made Tina a little TOO gimmicky!  Despite all of that she still retained the Birnkrant aesthetic, with big side-glancing eyes, a sweet, innocent face, and babyish proportions.  Tina Twinkle is a favorite of Mel's, but she sadly did not get picked up by any big company.  Playmates liked her a lot, but she came in second to some other toy the first year, and then the next year there were a trillion fairy dolls everywhere so the timing wasn't right for a doll like Tina Twinkle.  Thus Tina never got picked up by a company, even though Playmates liked her.  What a bummer; I'd have needed her too, to be an otherworldly friend for my very human Birnkrant trio.  Mr. Birnkrant is now retired and well past eighty years of age, but never say never, right?  These days age really is just a number as long as one's mind is still sharp!