My mom and I are on a strict no-buying rule for the foreseeable future, as bills were higher than Grace Slick on acid this past month. Thus I'll have new stuff for the blog, but because I'm the queen of procrastination it was all bought in December, January, or early February. Bills and taxes bite whale bubbles. That said, for reasons unknown I tend to get bitten by the Skipper bug around February or March, and...well, y'all will see where I'm going with that in a bit. I'm a moderately big Skipper fan, maybe not so much as Tam is (she did Skipper Saturdays for awhile), but enuff that I have quite a few. Most of mine are the balloon-headed dolls like this bright-eyed trio...
Both dolls can bend their knees to two clicks (Fluff's legs are obviously concealed by her long skirt), and they can move their right elbow.
...and the oldest one I own is Fluff, a friend from the late mod era...or she was my oldest, as we'll soon see. Fluff is another product of Skipper weather; she blew in on the gust front of a mild winter storm, back in 2018.
The vintage Skippers are my favorites due to their sweet faces and their compact size. I can tuck one of them into my purse and carry her anywhere, the way I can Stacie and Lottie and Licca-chan. The Skippers I like the least are the ones from the mid-eighties. Their smiles look too crazed for my taste. Some of the Super Teen Skipper heads aren't great either, though I do love Horse Lovin' Skipper. As for my own dolls...well, they're who I grew up with, so I like them, significantly more so than Jewel Secrets Skipper. They're certainly not perfect with their buggy eyes and fragile necks, but I love me a good balloon-head. But anyway, I like Skipper quite a bit, and when I saw this Pose 'n' Play Skipper for a reasonable price I grabbed her. Tam had one of these once, and the little doll made the mistake of sleeping by a large window during cold weather! The poor love didn't catch a cold, but she did want to go on a bike ride and that plan was foiled by the falling snow. My Skipper arrived just ahead of Winter Storm Blair, and she has naught but her blue playsuit to wear so I kept her a mile away from the windows. This is her; y'all got a glimpse of her at the end of January.
The Pose 'n' Play line saw two dolls, Skip herself and the elusive Tiff, who has the same head mold as Fluff and has straight red hair. Tiff is VERY expensive on eBay, but I'm keeping my eyes peeled for a good deal anyway, because you never know when you'll find one. Skip is easy to find, though; indeed, these were sold in baggies after their production ended, and many, MANY of the Pose 'n' Play Skippers I've seen have been like those. My own doll was marked as a possible baggie doll, but without the original packaging it's impossible to know for sure. My Skipper is in very good shape though, and she even has her cute little curly pigtails like Olga Korbut's.
Those bows are a tremendous pain in the posterior to tie, by the way. The right one was all cocky-doody, so I undid it and it took me the rest of the evening to get it done up again. I won't complain though, because Skipper at least has her original bows. Fluff does not.
Though Skipper and Fluff are from different lines, they occupy a very similar timeframe and have the same body. Their posing is thus pretty much the same, though Fluff's joints like to freeze up if I don't move them from time to time. She can't move her arms out as far as Skipper can.
Though Skipper and Fluff are from different lines, they occupy a very similar timeframe and have the same body. Their posing is thus pretty much the same, though Fluff's joints like to freeze up if I don't move them from time to time. She can't move her arms out as far as Skipper can.
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Here it's also somewhat possible to see the difference in these dolls' faces, and how aesthetics changed in a single year. The Living dolls all had long eyelashes, as seen on Fluff, while the Pose 'n' Play line did not. Living Skipper also looks a little like she's wearing makeup, and Pose 'n' Play does not. Interestingly, nor does Fluff, despite being from the Living line. Surprise, surprise, I like Living Skipper and I'm looking for her, but not too hard at the moment. Y'all will see why in a bit, and y'all can look at Tam's doll in the meantime.
In many ways these two are similar to Marx Sindy, though they both predate Sindy by about five years. All three have soft vinyl limbs and internal joints that allow them to outpose the Barbie dolls of the sixties.
That's too much blonde, though!!! LOL, during the sixties Skip came in all three hair colors, though by the seventies she'd settled into a blonde trend just like Barbie. Though I love redheads, I'd like to find a little brunette to match Mama's Barbie...my, oh my, look what I have! She popped onto the blog in January too.
She's a straight leg with dark hair, just like #3! For the record, I often compare my dark brunette dolls to the very menacing Hesston, Kansas tornado, and most of my dolls fall short of that blackness. Skipper does (she's more Ash Valley brown), but not Barbie!
I told Mama that I've reached a new level of eccentricity, what with comparing doll hair to the colors of various tornadoes. When I find a Barbie with hair the color of the Rochelle tornado then I'll REALLY be impressed...and come to think of it, there has been one, LOL. Anyway, this Skipper is not in perfect condition; notice that she's missing her headband, and her hair needs some TLC. Indeed, right now Skipper looks a little like Witchy Woman.
Plenty of Skipper dolls are missing the headband though, and it has a penchant for turning Skip's scalp green, so I won't complain. My doll's hands and feet are also free of chew marks; poor Fluff did not dodge this bullet, though she's not as mangled as some dolls I've seen.
I also threw Pose 'n' Play Skipper in because her feet are immaculate (she's on the left). Some of my dolls got lucky and some didn't. The soles of straight-leg Skipper's feet also tell me a thing or two about her.
This Skipper is not a sample Skipper. Tam has a sample Skipper (also called a test market Skipper), and the "Japan" mark on her foot is lengthwise rather than across the ball of Skipper's foot. Sample Skipper also has slightly bigger feet than my doll, and she has resin legs with a slightly wider stance. Piddling little differences, mostly, but they help tell one Skipper from another. Tam's lovely examples can be seen here, here, here, and here, and she points out that the "sample" moniker is kinda misleading because the sample dolls weren't really samples, but rather the first Skipper dolls on the market. Other special dolls from this early era include two-tone Skipper, who had hair fibers of two different colors (one of Tam's sample dolls is like that), and Color Magic Skipper, who had hair left over from Barbie's Color Magic days. Over time Color Magic hair oxidizes and turns one color or another, and this is what happens with Color Magic Skipper. Tam's doll was a brunette, but now she's got flaming red hair and she's my favorite of Tam's Skipper dolls. Red hair, y'know.
Speaking of red hair (I detest the term "titian"), I've also got Skooter.
Speaking of red hair (I detest the term "titian"), I've also got Skooter.
Skooter is a late addition to the party, and she was pretty short-lived in general, only seeing the straight-leg and bend-leg eras, with mine being the former. She's got her perky little pigtails and her original bows, and her original swimsuit, though it's showing a little wear here and there...if you could call a few loose ends wear.
Brrrr, Skooter arrived on January 22nd at the end of a sharp cold snap, and it was too cold to even think of swimming! Anyway, Skooter came in three hair colors like Skipper, Barbie, and Midge did, and...believe it or not I think they're all cute. I just happened to like this little redhead the best. She's not the prettiest thing, but she has plenty of cute factor.
Chocolate eyes! And freckles, y'all know how I love freckles...but what is that sandy crud on her face??? I hope it's not mold! Time to bust out the Clorox wipes.
Much better. Y'all can probably see that Skooter's blush has faded to an unusual pallor...but only in two places, one on each cheek.
I knew that Barbie and company could develop some unusual lip colors as time passed (I've seen some with lemon yellow lips), but paling blush is a new one for me! Oh well, it just makes my Skooter unique.
Sweeping change of subject, is there any literature out there that reveals who these smaller kids are in relation to Barbie's friends? In my youth I had guy friend Ricky designated as Allan's kid brother, pigtailed Skooter as Midge's sister, and Fluff as...P.J.'s sister? Stacey's sister? I've always leaned in P.J.'s favor since she and Fluff both have brown eyes and blonde pigtails. Or the older P.J. dolls had brown eyes; Malibu P.J. has violet eyes.
Skooter, on the other hand, has brown eyes vs. Midge's blue. They favor, regardless.
Also, how old are these kids supposed to be? Preteens, of course, but not little little like Tutti and Todd were (I'd estimate that they were about six). Ideal Tammy's sister Pepper was listed as eight years old in the commercials, and Skip didn't hit puberty until 1975. By 1979 she was a Super Teen, which sounds pretty reasonable, and then in 1997 Skipper herself admitted that she was sixteen. Time is a strange entity in Barbie's world, I must say, especially since Dreamhouse Skipper is fourteen. Sigh...being fourteen bit whale bubbles, and being sixteen was amazing, so why Skipper would want to age down is anyone's guess. I reiterate: time is a strange entity in Barbie's world. Based on all that useless conjecture I guess eight is a reasonable age for Skipper's vintage self, just as it was with Pepper. But again, if anyone knows for sure, let me know.
Now...it ain't just Skipper weather! Tornado Season 2025 is gonna hit the ground running. Today is Saturday, and this is predicted for Tuesday.
Ryan Hall and Reed Timmer have been talking about this system since last Wednesday, which isn't good. When a severe weather system is predicted to have tornadoes a week ahead of schedule...well, odds are that there's gonna be a serious tornado somewhere. I pray it's out in the middle of nowhere, where Reed Timmer can measure it without it hurting anyone.
I think that's a good place to cut it off!
All of my love,
RagingMoon1987
