Throwback Thursday review: Mattel Baby Love 'n' Touch

Today's doll is Mattel's Baby Love 'n' Touch, and I know for a fact that some of y'all own her (or did in the past, at least).  Some of the emojis on my pillow approve of her and some don't.

She came ensconced in my old nemesis, packing peanuts.  Sideshow Bob has his rakes, and I have my packing peanuts.  Oh well, I have my ways of dealing with these.  

I've said this before but I'll say it again:  I don't know where this blog would be without Tam and her amazing blog.  I credit Miss Emily with inspiring me to start a blog to begin with, but without Tam I'd really have to dig for source material.  Baby Love 'n' Touch was featured in one of her Doll-a-Day posts, and the way Tam describes her doll made me want one so bad I could almost feel it in my arms.  The doll is stuffed and her body is mostly fabric, but her face, hands, and butt are made of this soft, smooth vinyl that is supposed to emulate baby skin.  Okay, I can hear someone saying "Wait a minute, did the Moon Girl just say 'face, hands, and BUTT'???"  Yep, you read right, and if you looked at Tam's post then you saw it with your own eyes!  "But WHYYYYY???"  you ask.  Well...ever hear the phrase "smooth as a baby's bottom"?  Apparently this doll's designers did!  Indeed, there are fewer things nicer to touch than a baby's soft, clean skin.  I guess that's what Mattel was going for when they made this doll, even though they did well enuff with Teenie Talk.  I can't photograph softness very well, so y'all will have to take my word that Teenie is soft.

Teenie is one of my favorite dolls to hold for this very reason, but Baby Love 'n' Touch may be about to give her a run for her money.  Since "Baby Love 'n' Touch" is a mouthful I'll call this doll "Carrie," for Carrie Ingalls and for "carry me," because this doll is the perfect kind for carrying!  Like many baby dolls this doll could just as easily be a boy, but this doll just looks like a "Carrie" to me...the sweet, innocent kind, not the kind that kills her tormentors with telekinesis.  Gotta make that clear!  Carrie is twelve inches from head to toe, meaning that she's small, even for a baby doll.  Adam is a behemoth next to Carrie, and Anita, my unidentified Horsman baby, is also larger.  As usual, Anita is unimpressed by this.

Unsurprisingly Carrie is quite a bit smaller than Teenie Talk, meaning that she can sit more comfortably on Lindsay's lap.  Teenie is not amused by this development.

Luckily for Teenie, Carrie is just as content to sit on Salome's lap.

Tam notes that these dolls have a lot of hair, and indeed Carrie is well-endowed.  This may sound unrealistic for a baby, but baby hair can vary wildly in thickness.  I've mentioned this before, but both my sister and I had a ton of hair when we were born, and my mother had none at all when she was a baby.  Indeed, when I was new I had so much hair that the nurses couldn't make it lie down, even with Vaseline.  LOL, Daddy told me I looked like a punk rocker with my hair sticking up in Vaseline spikes, especially when my mouth was open and wailing for a bottle.  Sister didn't have that problem, though she too had a full head of hair.  Ironically and unfortunately, my hair is so thin now that y'all can see my scalp shining through!  Anywho, here's what Carrie's hair looks like.

Carrie's hair is a bit out of control, just like Teenie Talk's hair and Softina's hair and mine.  I was able to bring both Teenie's hair and Softina's hair under control without the help/hinderance of Vaseline, so I shouldn't have any trouble taming Carrie's hair.  For the record, the rooting is not the greatest.  

There are big gaps between the rows of rooting, and at the moment I've been unable to find a clear-cut part.  I was able to do this with Teenie Talk, hence why her bangs are swept to one side.

Carrie WOULD have a nice thick head of hair if the roots weren't so obvious.  Oh well, good thing she's got a hood!  She's also got enough hair to frame her sweet little face, so that's a plus.

Carrie's eyebrows are brown and delicately painted, her irises are blue, and strangely, her sclera are also blue.

Sclera should NEVER be blue, not unless you're a Monster High doll!  In real life blue sclera are signs of rare congenital nasties like osteogenesis imperfecta and Marfan's disease, so thank God Carrie is a doll and is thus impervious to crap like that!  As I noted above Carrie's irises are also blue, like those of many other Mattel dolls.  Indeed, I've started calling this shade "Mattel blue."  Teenie Talk has the same color, as does her "sister," Baby Secret, and a few dolls I've reviewed before, like Greta Griddle and Tiny Cheerful Tearful.  Here's a better look at Teenie's eyes, just so I can pound the point into the wood.

Babies usually have blue or gray eyes, but contrary to popular belief they can also be born with dark eyes.

Carrie's eyes have stood up to the test of time well, but her mouth has not.  It used to be this nice brick shade, but most of my doll's lip paint has been rubbed off.

That's a shame, because the mouth is a lovely shape.  It's slightly open and has a nice little smile, kinda like babies start to do at a young age.  As to the rest of the face, Carrie has chubby, squishy little cheeks with only a tiny bit of blush, and realistic ears.

Tam compares the Love 'n' Touch face to that of Ideal's Thumbelina, and I do see the resemblance...depending on which Thumbelina one looks at!  Some of them aren't so pretty.  Overall Carrie has a sweet, approachable face, one that lacks the attitude that Teenie Talk and Baby Peep have.  She has the right face for a doll that loves cuddles.  Her mouth will be easy to repair, once I overcome my laziness.

Okay, time to look at this body.  Like the Cabbage Patch Kids and a few of my other dolls Carrie is a glorified rag doll, meaning that she has vinyl parts attached to a soft, floppy, cuddly body.  Hmmm...using that criteria would mean that Pussycat is a glorified rag doll too.  I didn't think of that when I reviewed her!  Anyway, here's Carrie's body.

First and foremost, I wonder why Mattel didn't give these dolls rubbery feet, especially since the hands are so detailed? 

I love babies' teeny-weeny little feet, as do my family and a lot of my friends, and yet Carrie and her Love 'n' Touch siblings don't have proper feet.  They just have these cloth stub-feet.

For comparison, here's Teenie Talk's feet.

I guess Mattel didn't think to give these dolls proper feet since they're always covered.  But then again, Carrie's tushie is covered too, and it's vinyl.  Tam's niece called this doll "Naked Butt Baby" for that reason.  Y'all ready to see?

I see a bad moon rising!  In truth this bad moon a wonderfully soft, smooth, squishy little tushie, just like real babies' bottoms are, but...I can't help wondering what the folks in the factory thought when they were assembling this doll???  Think about it:  you've got a traditional baby doll with a cloth body and vinyl head and hands, and the only other vinyl part is...her butt.  Now, babies' bottoms are known for being soft and smooth.  I get that.  But babies' bottoms are also known for shenanigans such as THIS!!!  Once again, thank God Carrie is a doll, and not the kind that loads her pants!  Yeah, I'm gonna leave that alone and focus on Carrie's hands again.  They're not squishy-soft like her butt is, but they're flexible and smooth to the touch.  She's got a little grunge around her cuticles, but I can fix that.  Her little nails are wonderfully molded.

Regarding posing, Carrie can't do much since she's a baby, and since her arms and legs are only loosely attached...

...but she's certainly good at lounging!

Later versions of Baby Love 'n' Touch can grasp fingers when their tummies are squeezed, but Carrie can't do that (we'll see a doll that can do that in the not-too-distant future).  She also can't sit up well, due to her heavy head and lightly stuffed upper torso.  All too often when I sit Carrie up she tips over, bringing Ideal's Lazy Dazy to mind.

However, Carrie can do this, which I think looks cute.  Few of my baby dolls are limber enuff to attain this position.

Regarding clothes, Carrie is simply dressed in a warm, fuzzy hooded onesie.  We're finally getting a normal winter here in the Bootheel (we've had some snow and a lot of wind), so I'm glad Carrie's got this.

Carrie is wearing a yellow onesie with a trapdoor and a hood.  Do onesies still come with hoods these days, or have hoods been deemed a suffocation hazard?  I know I'd be a bit leery about putting a baby in something with a hood, and I figure I'm not the only one who feels that way.  Adam is wearing an outfit meant for real babies and it has a hood, but the hood is part of a jacket, not a onesie.  So I'm not sure about hooded onesies nowadays, but I do know that drawstrings are now a no-no on clothes for real babies now (Adam's jacket has none).  In the seventies they were allowed, and Carrie has them.

These are made of white braided cord like a shoelace, and there's a little bit of stretch in the material.  The ends are uneven, and the usual remedy for that would be to pull the shorter side until the ends ARE even, but I can't do that because the cord is sewn in place at the top of the hood.

That's handy, because now the cord can't be pulled all the way out, like I've done with a couple'a my own hoodies (LOL, oops!).  The front closes with two little snaps.  Real metal snaps!

Interestingly, the front left chest has an oval-shaped patch that reads "T & L."

Tam thought it was unusual that this patch reads "T & L" rather than "L & T," and I have to admit that it is odd.  Perhaps Mattel was hearkening back to the early seventies and the days of Baby Tender Love?  I dunno.  Baby Tender Love was quite a bit bigger than Baby Love 'n' Touch, so my early theory that Carrie could be wearing leftover Baby Tender Love clothes is out.

Like many onesies, Carrie's has a trap door in the back for her butt to hang out.  This trap door is held shut with tabs of Velcro, which work surprisingly well on this fuzzy fabric.

Usually I'd prefer snaps like the ones that close the front, but in this case I'll make an exception, as snaps could very likely get tight and cause this fabric to tear.  I guess that's true of all snaps, and maybe that's why doll clothes don't have them anymore.  That's all just conjecture, of course.

Since Carrie is a small doll she can't share clothes with any of my other dolls, but that's not a huge deal since I have a bag of Snoopy stuff...somewhere.  In my disorganized room those clothes could be anywhere, so I'll just dig those out and get back to y'all.  Carrie is also small enuff that I can knit for her, but I've been extremely lazy so I haven't done that yet.  I'll have to do that and get back with y'all.  Right now I think this is a good place to wrap this up.

BAD
*The worst thing I can think of is that hair that's broken off at the roots.  It can be hidden, but it still concerns me.  There's nothing worse than a doll head covered in stubble, and thus I'm hoping no more of it will fall out.
*Maybe not the sturdiest?  The clothes feel like they could tear if treated roughly, and the body might too.  This is NOT a doll for modern-day kids!
*I can't get this doll to sit up unless I prop her up, but that's true for most baby dolls.
*Not the easiest to dress, due to her small size.

GOOD
*She lives up to her name!  This doll is perfect for loving on and touching, though admittedly, having a squishy butt is still kinda weird for a doll.
*Uhhhhhh...I just like her???

I admit that I had a hard time finding anything outstandingly good or bad about Carrie.  She's just another baby doll, one that happens to be extra-cuddly instead of hard vinyl like so many baby dolls are nowadays.  If you like to hold your dolls, this one is the one for you.  She's not too big, not too heavy, and super soft.  Now if you have dogs or large cats, then maybe this doll is NOT the one for you; I once caught Tommy trying to drag Carrie under my bed, so beware of snoopy pets.  She's also not an ideal toy for small children, as her loose limbs and light fleece nightie would not stand up to a game of tug-o'-war.  C'mon, y'all know how rough children can be, especially in this day and age!  And that's...really all I have to say.  She's just another baby doll that happens to be soft and squishy like a real baby.  In today's modern day, when all babies are gimmicky, made of stiff vinyl, or both, that's saying something, but I still have to admit that that bare butt is weird!

Love,
RagingMoon1987