Throwback Thursday review: American Character Sandy McCall

LOL, usually Tam has the dolls that I covet, but today I've got one up on her!  She asked very nicely for a more extensive look at Sandy McCall, and by jove, she's gonna get one.  I also want to include a shoutout to Xanadu; I griped after the Fourth that there was nothing to look forward to, and X reassured me that something fun would crop up.  Indeed, something fun did crop up, as seeing this doll on my porch was a tremendous thrill (and a bit of a shock, LOL).  Indeed, I had no idea Sandy even existed before he turned up on my doorstep; my first words upon getting a clear look at him were "It's Peter Playpal!"  Tam thinks Sandy is better, but...well, I'll let the rest of y'all decide for yourselves.  Here's Sandy in his home environment...sort of.  He hasn't moved home-home yet, but Grandma's house will do for now.

The lighting in my grandmother's front room is terrible, but it was the best I can do for now.  Sandy McCall (not to be confused with author Alexander "Sandy" McCall Smith) is a large doll similar to Patti Playpal and her friends, but he's from American Character, meaning that he's more closely related to my Tressy and Mary Makeup dolls.  He's also related by "blood" to Betsy McCall.  Yep, the same Betsy McCall who came as paper dolls or as seven-inch plastic dolls.  LOL, my mother ripped a playmate's paper Betsy's head off one time.  Mama hated the girl she was being made to play with, so she just decapitated poor paper Betsy.  Because Mama was a small child, she got away with it scot-free!  But anyway, older readers may be familiar with the paper dolls and with the little plastic dolls...in fact...Tam, don't you own one?  <pauses to look>  Yeah, Tam owns one, a pretty little redhead dressed in yellow.  She also owns one from the Uneeda years, one that is meant to be an older child but still a pre-teen.  In the early 2000s Betsy underwent a revival at the hands of Robert Tonner, but I didn't care for her so much.  Those dolls were Wellie Wisher-sized and came in cute outfits, but they were a bit bug-eyed for my taste.  Tonner also did some little ones, and I like them better because they're more like the vintage dolls.  Hmmm, bug-eyed...I don't care much for the Betsy McCall dolls with big buggy eyes, but I love So Surprised Suzie.  If anyone has bug-eyes it's her...or the Gerber baby.  I love her too.

Some of y'all are probably wondering where Sandy fits into Betsy's circle.  He started off as Betsy's cousin, and he too began his life as a paper doll.  By about 1960 or so American Character jumped on the "companion doll" bandwagon (Ideal started that with Patti Playpal), blowing Betsy, Sandy, and his twin sister Linda up to companion doll size.  Rather strange that Linda would be Sandy's twin, since she's a smaller girl in the paper doll world.  A story book I found on Etsy also implies that Sandy lives on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

Only Betsy appears on the cover, but Sandy is by her side for the duration of the story.  He's there to greet Betsy when she arrives (this page specifically states the location that Betsy is visiting)...

...and they play together on the beach...

...and by the looks of it, they weather a hurricane together!

Hurricanes are not every-year occurrences on Cape Cod like they are in parts of the Caribbean, but they are certainly not out of the question.  The book was published in 1965, meaning that the author might've remembered Hurricane Donna and the destruction she brought to New England.  So Betsy and Sandy getting caught in a hurricane was not as farfetched a storyline as one might think!  Anyway, the paper dolls that accompanied the book are long gone, but that's not a huge deal since I can find images online (examples can be found HERE and HERE).  Some of the paper dolls have stories attached to them, written in letter form from Betsy.  From what I've read Sandy was apparently your typical late-fifties/early-sixties boy, the type that enjoys innocent stuff like Roy Rogers, birthday parties, and parades.  He also apparently wasn't allergic to the occasional Broadway show, as seen HERE.  

Despite having a fairly sizeable presence in Betsy's paper doll world, Sandy appears to be a rare character, especially in doll form.  Doll Reference lists Sandy McCall's production years as 1959 through sometime in the 1960s.  They didn't say what year he was discontinued, but there aren't many of Sandy's doppelgangers running around on eBay or Etsy, and the ones that are found usually go for a pretty penny.  That leads me to believe that Sandy's run was a short one.  I don't see too many owner pictures of Sandy either; Ernesto over at Dolldom dressed his Sandy up as Robin Hood for Halloween one year, but that's all I've been able to find.  Subsequent companies who released Betsy McCall seem to have forgotten entirely about Linda and Sandy...at least until the early 2000s.  When Robert Tonner revamped the Betsy McCall line he included Sandy in a giftset entitled "Travel Time," as a basic doll, and as Peter Pan.  As far as I know no mention was made about Betsy and Sandy being cousins, but that's only as far as I know...which ain't far!  A Flickr post listed Sandy as Betsy's brother, so maybe Tonner listed him as such.  I dunno.  

'Nuff chatter, and why worry about paper dolls when I've got BIG Sandy right here???  According to Doll Reference Sandy came in both 36-inch and 38-inch varieties, with my doll being the larger/smaller variety.  He is my tallest doll by far, towering over both the My Twinns and the American Girls.

Salome is a motherly type, and she likes giving new friends hugs to make them feel at home, regardless of what size they are.  Sandy had to get on Salome's level to receive said hug, but neither of them minded.  Indeed, Sandy desperately needed that hug, for reasons I'll soon share.

Rita Cheryl is more reserved around strangers, but she's gotten to know Sandy very, VERY well during the past few weeks, and she loves sitting in his lap.  My smallest Paola Reina doll (Mar) does too, LOL.

Salome is a bigger doll and thus more of a lapful, but she can get comfy too.

In case y'all couldn't tell, Sandy is patient and gentle with his smaller friends, kinda like the Alton Giant.  Sandy kinda needed the emotional support from Mar, Salome, and Rita Cheryl anyway, because despite that smile on his face he's currently working through some grief.  Donna, the friend who got him for me, reported on July fifteenth that Sandy was one of a group of nine Playpal-type dolls at the local auction barn (he was the only boy).  On the nineteenth Donna went back to inquire about the girls, and she was told that THEY GOT THROWN AWAY!!!!!!!!!  All eight of 'em, all dating back to the sixties, all in good shape (as far as she could tell), and they got thrown away.  Sandy was heartbroken when I told him that his friends were gone, and his sadness is still pretty raw.  I wasn't thrilled to hear the news either; I didn't need all eight of the girls, but heck, someone else could've used 'em for something!

Maybe putting Sandy in the spotlight will boost his spirits a little.  When I first met Sandy I thought he might be Peter Playpal, but as far as I know Peter never had molded hair.  Sandy does.

He's a ginger...sort of.  His hair is kinda reddish-brown, and my doll looks like he's faded a little over the years.  He's also accumulated some scuffs and stains and rubs to the paint, minor cosmetic issues that are easily mended.  He's got nice molded hair, though.  His bangs are brushed to the right, and he's got a bit of a cowlick up top.

In back is the McCall marking, which tipped me off about this doll's identity.  Peter Playpal would've been marked "IDEAL."

LOL, me and my Ideal dolls again!  Anyway, here's Sandy's face.  He looks equal parts friendly and mischievous.

I forgot to mention that this head is vinyl.  It's slightly soft to the touch, but it's not squishy like Kewpie Gal's head is.  Sandy's eyes are inset and they sleep.  The irises are silvery blue with soft black eyelashes (I love touching the eyelashes), and they're topped with brown multistroke eyebrows.

A lot of the vintage dolls I own have plastic eyes that reflect a lot of light and look unnaturally metallic...or worse, they've clouded over and look lifeless.  Sandy has dodged this bullet completely, and I love how natural his eyes look!  IRL his eyes are your typical plastic eyes with a starburst-type pattern in the iris, but look how real they look in pictures!  A little glassy, yes, but the iris looks darn good.

Everyone and their dog has been making a huge to-do about American Girls and their painted eyelashes.  I admit that I've had plenty to say myself, but notice that Sandy has painted eyelashes too...and they actually don't look too bad when his eyes are closed.  His painted lashes are light, so they don't show as much.

Underneath Sandy has a pug nose, lightly blushed cheeks, and a closed smile.  His lips are pale pink, rather than the rosy shade that his sister's are.

Here's his ears, just for the heckuvit.  They stick out a little, just enuff to look cute. 

Not a bad face, though I do kinda wish Sandy had some freckles.  I love dolls with freckles, and in a lot of the artwork Sandy is drawn with freckles...but not all of it.  So I guess a lack of freckles makes sense.  The same artwork shows Sandy with brown eyes, but I like my doll's blue eyes and how they sparkle.  As an aside, American Character's two girl companions, Betsy and Linda, had very similar faces to Sandy's.  Same big eyes, same turned up noses, same watermelon smiles, though as I said above the girls have rosier lips.  It was obvious that the trio were family members.

Okay...I have not been looking forward to disrobing this doll, but here's poor Sandy in his birthday suit.

After Sandy arrived I joined a Patti Playpal group on Failbook that accepts all companion dolls regardless of maker (I've even seen a few Kissy dolls).  Some folks there have unfortunately run into dolls that got smashed during shipping, so I'm handling Sandy with extreme care.  Indeed, his head and arms are made out of thick, robust-feeling vinyl, but his torso and legs are made of stiff blown plastic.  I understand that the lightweight blown plastic made playing with these large dolls possible, but in the long run it also made them delicate.  So as I said, I'll be treating Sandy with a gentle hand.  Now...that said, Sandy has your basic five joints (hip, hip, shoulder, shoulder, neck), and the neck is one of the few places where he falls short of the Ideal Playpal bunch.  Patti and Peter had socket necks, but Sandy's neck only rotates.

Granted, Sandy can look all the way around without his head tipping up a lot.  It does tip up a little, but not a lot.  Miss Emily makes note of this when her dolls' heads do that, so I guess I will too.  

Yee-ouchie!  Moving on, I feel slightly...well, wrong photographing this part, but Sandy's torso has some nice definition to it.  His back has some visible scapulae and some contours for muscles, and up front he's got a rounded little tummy with a bellybutton.  The seams on his torso are pretty smooth.

Sandy's shoulders only rotate.  They don't move in and out like...I think some of the Ideal dolls had ball-jointed shoulders.  I've never handled one, so I don't know.  I do know that some dolls were strung, but that's about the extent of my knowledge.  But Patti's construction doesn't matter in this case because Sandy isn't her!  He's his own little self, and it's either arms up or arms down for him.

It's possible to see in some of these pictures that Sandy has some sort of crud on his shoulder.  I presume that it's just dirt; being over sixty years old can make one a little grubby in places.  Indeed, I'm surprised that this is the only dirt on Sandy's body.

Regarding Sandy's arms, his elbows are straight, and his wrists are cocked back a little. The molds are slightly different; Sandy's right hand is turned inward a little with the back of his hand facing me, while his left hand is sideways.  Neither the elbow nor the wrist have joints.

I make note of arm joints because Big Betsy had wrist joints.  I don't know why she had 'em and Sandy and Linda didn't, but that's the way the ball bounced.  Since Sandy does have big hands, and since his hands are vinyl, he's got some nice detail on his fingers.

Regarding the legs, Sandy's legs are long and skinny with sizeable feet.  The only joints are at the hips, and they're at an angle.

As a result Sandy can sit, but his legs always splay WAAAAAAY apart.  He's always got room for at least one smaller doll in his lap, usually more.  On the other hand, Sandy can't do splits of either kind.  He has no lateral movement in his hips, and his legs don't move all the way back.  This is as good as he can do.

Since Sandy's legs and feet are made of hard, thin plastic I was expecting to find poorly molded feet, but Sandy has well-detailed toes.  Alarmingly, the tops of both feet also have small holes where they were blown up.  Normal, but still a little unsettling.  

About what I'd expect from a doll this size.  If Sandy had too many joints or smaller feet he'd likely be hard to stand up.  As he is, he can balance quite well, provided his legs are in the proper position.

Moving along, I don't know if all Sandy McCall dolls came in a suit like this, but mine did.  

Looks like the laddie is ready to head off to Easter service!  The jacket and the slacks are made of gray herringbone, and he's got a white oxford shirt underneath.  

The jacket's sides and sleeves are lined with smooth gray silky material, but the back is not.

That's a mild disappointment, but then a full lining might've made the jacket too bulky.  Besides, these seams don't need hiding; they're very neat.

I don't see a tag anywhere inside here, so I'll move out and talk about buttons.  The jacket is held shut by three large mother-of-pearl buttons.  They fit tightly in the buttonholes, but not impossibly so.

The sleeves have the same buttons, but they're just for show.

In a similar manner, Sandy's pockets aren't real.  There are just flaps.

Sandy's jacket fits him closely, so his shirt is pretty wrinkled...and a little groady.

Like the jacket, it closes with mother-of-pearl buttons, albeit much smaller ones than the ones on the jacket. 

The left shoulder has stains from some sort of bug guts or chocolate or whatever gom was on Sandy's shoulder.  I'm hoping this will wash out.

The hems of the shirt are much smaller than the ones on the jacket.  They also look professionally done.

Indeed, of Sandy's three main clothing items, this shirt is the only one with a legible tag.  M for McCall, maybe???  There's nothing on the reverse side, so I don't know. 

The last thing of note are Sandy's sleeves.  They fit him pretty close, especially with these buttons!

The sleeves can be folded back or left on the long side, but either way they're a pain in the posterior to deal with.  I think these are the only things I don't like about Sandy's getup. 

The slacks, on the other hand...well, they're simple gray slacks that match the jacket.  No frills here!

They're nicely pressed after all these years, I'll give 'em that!  The only other noteworthy thing I found was along the back waistband.  It's elasticized, and it's still stretchy after all these years.

Getting these off Sandy was thus the easiest part of undressing him, LOL!

I'm not a huge fan of my dolls going commando, so I was pleased to find some gauzy undershorts beneath everything.  These are just plain white undershorts, the kind that fits under just about anything.

For footwear Sandy wears small black laced shoes and white crew socks.  The socks are a little grubby from age, but as usual I can fix that.

I'm almost positive that these shoes are not Sandy's original shoes.  They're made of leather and were a pain to get off, and on the inside I found this.

Stride Rite.  I doubt strongly that a doll's shoe would have that on the inside.  Also, the soles are quite worn, more so than they would've been if Sandy were the original owner.

For the record, Stride Rite shoes are still being made.  The styles are more in tune with today's casual styles, but they're still Stride Rite shoes.  As for Sandy's shoes, they've got a little wear and tear as shoes inevitably will get, but if I take care of them they should hold up for another sixty years...Lordy, if I live that long I'll be ninety-five!  Anyway, the only problem I can find with Sandy's outfit besides the tight shirtsleeves is with his tie, and it's a minor problem.  The tie itself is your basic black bow tie, the kind that is dear to the hearts of some Whovians.

Or maybe that's navy.  It's kinda hard to tell.  The problem is that the elastic has lost its stretch, and now Sandy's tie hangs limply on his chest instead of around his neck.  Easy fix, though I wonder why the elastic in Sandy's slacks is still going strong while his tie has gone limp.  Overall Sandy's outfit is both well-made and in great shape except for that loose tie and the stain on his shirt.  His shoes and the cuffs of his shirtsleeves are fiddly, so if by some miracle you find this doll keep that in mind.  I'm beginning to wonder how much Sandy was played with when he was young, because he's in excellent shape overall, and the minor problems he does have are related to age and not mistreatment or shoddy construction.  On the other hand, online images suggest that my Sandy is NOT wearing his original clothes.  The all-original dolls I've seen were strikingly dressed in red and black, but I won't knock my doll's clothes.  The McCall bunch was created to sell clothing patterns, after all, so it's entirely possible that someone's mommy dressed Sandy in something nice from a pattern.  That would explain why he's wearing kids' shoes.

Regarding extra clothes, I'm not sure if Ideal made extra outfits for Patti Playpal and her friends, but if I know them they probably did.  If they DID make extra outfits stuff for Peter Playpal would probably cost a premium now, because Peter had a very short run compared to his sisters.  The old commercials attest that Patti could wear clothes for a small child, and the same is probably true for the other dolls as well.  I haven't bought any children's clothes for Sandy yet, as such a feat would probably require me...dare I say it?  I'd have to take him into Wal-Mart and try that stuff on him.  I'm eccentric, but carrying a doll this big into Wal-Mart is a bit above my level of craziness.  Next stop was eBay, and they didn't have much, but I was able to find a few things.  It remains hot in the Bootheel, as it does across most of the country, so I got Sandy something a little more comfortable to wear.  That suit he's got is nice, but I wouldn't want to wear it year-around.  So here's his play outfit.

Not the color I'd have chosen, that's for sure, but then again white could be bleached sun-bleached and it would be white again.  Not that that's a big deal for Sandy since he's a doll, but...anyway, Mama saw this outfit and had her doubts, saying "Sandy's pretty skinny."  Indeed, he is.  The whole outfit is a little big on him...

...but that proved not to be a huge deal.  It WOULD have been a big deal because these pants aren't stretchy like Sandy's stock slacks are, and they would've easily fallen down even with the belt pulled tight.  But luckily for both Sandy and me the shorts button to the shirt.  You heard right, the shirt has a row of buttons all the way around the hem, and they button to the waistband of the shorts.

The belt helps conceal that, not that visible buttons would've bothered me.  I like buttons.  Some of the buttons have been replaced along the way, though I'm not sure which ones.  Some are mother-of-pearl and some are opaque white plastic.

The shirt also has a little wear around one button.  Not a lot, but enuff to make me treat this outfit with a gentle hand.

I don't know if this outfit was intended for a small child or if it's one for a doll, but it works well enuff that I'm happy to display Sandy in it.  

I feel bad nitpicking about Sandy's flaws since he was a gift, but this is a review so I've gotta do it.

BAD
*Sometimes Sandy's size works against him.  He's hard for me to dress, and he can be hard to pose as well.
*But then Sandy's posing isn't great anyway.  It wasn't great for the majority of these companion dolls.

*I'm afraid I might break him!
*Excruciatingly hard to find.  As of writing eBay has exactly one big Sandy, and his price is steep.  The rest are Tonner dolls.
*As a result, it's hard to find nice new clothes for Sandy.  He can wear children's clothes, but I'm unsure what size.

GOOD
*Once I get Sandy upright he's rock solid on his feet.  That is not the case for some of my dolls.

*Poses well with my other dolls, despite his size.

*Very well-dressed, though I doubt this is his original outfit. 

*Original or no, his clothes are in good shape and will probably stay that way.

*Might be able to wear children's clothes, but I haven't tried that yet.

*Uh...I just love him???

There was a time when I did want one of the Playpal dolls in my collection, but my eye was on Patti's sister Suzy.  I still like Suzy Playpal and won't turn my nose up at her if I ever find one, but for now Sandy fills the big doll void just fine.  I have to confess that there's a bit of a learning curve when owning one of these larger dolls.  They've got longer arms and legs, and as such they're...kinda like dressing a real child, minus the wiggling.  I also have fears about Sandy being fragile, but I also have this concern about Kissy, Crissy and company, and Chatty Cathy.  Basically if they're vintage and bigger than a Barbie, I'm afraid of breaking them.  That said, Sandy has a commanding presence in my collection due to his size, and for me in particular he's special because he's a gift.  So if you can find one of these big boys for a reasonable price, get him, and if some lovely friend drops one on your doorstep, keep him!  They're few and far between on eBay, and the prices when they DO turn up are insane!  I'm therefore blessed to have this big boy by my side, and equally blessed to have a friend like Donna.  

God bless y'all,
RagingMoon1987