Dolly Dress Discussion: Bitty Baby and Tiny Tears

My sister's birthday is today, and as a result babies are usually on my mind when September 9th rolls around.  My sis was the first exposure I had to a very tiny baby (I was a month shy of four years old when she came along), and she was a very pretty baby.  So yeah, babies (and thus baby dolls) are on the ol' psychie today.  Recently I measured my Tiny Tears doll, discovered that she's fifteen inches from head to toe, and remembered that Bitty Babies are also fifteen inches long.  That in turn made me wonder if they could share clothes.  So long story short, here's the stars of the show today.  Kiara is the Bitty Baby on the left, and Eve is Tiny Tears.

Eve is something of a slouch.  Here's a better look at her face.

Y'know, I don't know what in the world possessed me to buy a Bitty Baby!  I always liked 'em, but I never super-duper wanted one until one day in 2022 when I decided "Hey, I want a Bitty Baby!"  Y'all see the result, LOL.  Eve was a gift from my mama, and right now neither of them have anything appropriate for the season.  Kiara does have something winter/late spring, but of course I don't know which crate I put it in.  I've gotta start labeling this stuff!  As for Eve, well...she has this hat, sized for a Cabbage Patch Preemie.  Big surprise, since it's got a Halloween theme, Mama likes it.

It fits Kiara too, though it's a smidge big on her.

But then again, hats are universal; they fit just about everyone.  Let's see how well Bitty Baby and this size of Tiny Tears can share back and forth.  I really, REALLY hope they can share clothes.  And...

...first of all, Eve has a seam in her singlet that's come undun and will have to be mended.  Right there at the crotch, see?

I didn't put that on Kiara since she's got her own undergarment...I guess.  Do diapers count as undergarments?  Anyway, I also didn't try Eve's socks on Kiara since Kiara's feet are bigger than Eve's.

Kiara's clothes are a little big on Eve, but not so big that she looks ridiculous.  The main issue I have is with the leggings; they will cover Eve's feet if I don't pull them up a bit.

As for Kiara, Eve's dress looks cute from the front, but it doesn't close in the back.

So Eve's clothes are too small for Kiara, and Kiara's clothes are just a teensy bit big on Eve.  Based on that I'll say that some Bitty Baby clothes are alright for a fifteen-inch Tiny Tears, but maybe not all of them.  Shoes might be too big, and hats might be too small.  Bitty Baby has too wide a body to wear Tiny Tears clothes.

Quick little aside, I turned to hurricane lists from the fifties and sixties to name Eve, and some of those names were HORRID!!!  I'm not going to name names since the names might be your name, or the name of someone you love, but they were not something I'd want to name a baby doll.  Uncle Man-Child's suggestion ("Shasta") also sucked.  I like Shasta soda pop, but a modernish name like that is not what I want for a vintage doll.  Mama cast the vote for "Eve," from the 1969 list, so Eve she is.

Love,

RagingMoon1987 

I know I've said this before, but...

...there ain't no mama like the one I got!  She got me a Tiny Tears doll!

Truth be told, Tiny Tears is as much for Mama as she is for me.  Mama owned a doll similar to Tiny when she was a child (possibly Kathy Cry Baby, as her doll's name was "Kathy"), so she has a fondness for this doll.  Plus, she and I have both been a mite unhappy lately; we both are in a fair amount of pain, I from my hip/fibroids/what-have-you, she from her sciatica, and we're both sick to death of it.  So Tiny has been something of a morale booster for the both of us.  Anyway, the early examples of Tiny Tears had plastic heads, while later versions have vinyl heads.  My doll has a hard plastic head, and it's both hard as a rock and pale as a ghost.  Her body is soft and pink.

Tiny Tears came in several different hair colors, with my particular doll having strawberry blonde hair.  That pleases me greatly, though I'd have taken whatever came.

Tiny is very pale in the face, and she has the same unusual hairline that Tam's doll does, despite having a hard head.

Very unusual.  I'd love to have seen this doll's manufacturing process.  

Unfortunately, dolls and other items are sometimes shipped in packing peanuts, and that was the case with Tiny Tears. 

As I've said before, the Doctor has the Daleks, and I have packing peanuts.  I hate these darned things!  Packing peanuts aside, Tiny Tears was not expected, but she's welcome and already very loved.  I hope Mama knows how I love her.

Cheers,
RagingMoon1987 

YouTube speaks: twenty-four "weird" dolls of the sixties and seventies

This one is another post inspired by YouTube; I'm always on YouTube, so I may make this a series.  Anyway, during one of my nightly YouTube benders I found this video about twenty-four dolls from the sixties and seventies that might be considered odd, either back then or now.  I thought it was interesting and decided to issue my opinions, because my opinions are SOOOOOOO important!  The video can be found here, and spoilers:  some of 'em aren't that weird in my book.  Kinda like...

ROCK FLOWERS

COMPANY:  Mattel
YEARS OF PRODUCTION:  1971-1973

Rock Flowers were kinda Mattel's answer to Dawn, small dollhouse-sized dolls that wore bright, trendy-for-the-era clothes, bent their arms and legs, and danced on record players.  The dolls were music-themed and came with their own records, but otherwise they look pretty innocent to me.  The narrator wasn't a big fan of how their doll smelled, and the doll wouldn't sit up for tea parties either.  Legit gripes, both of those.  One of my "scented" dolls stunk up her whole box, and I HATE it when I want my dolls to sit up and they won't.  The narrator also critiqued the Rock Flowers' staring eyes, and I think that critique IS dumb because all dolls stare.  Smart Dolls, Mumpy Terri Lee, Cabbage Patch Kids, American Girls, Barbie, they all stare.  

WEIRD FACTOR:  2 out of 10.  I don't really find these weird at all, in fact.  They're dated a bit, yes, but then so are many dolls of this era.  My review on Heather can be seen here.

DUSTY/SKYE

COMPANY:  Kenner
YEARS OF PRODUCTION:  1974

Dusty and her friend Skye were sports-themed dolls, apparently designed to get girls active.  The duo could ski, play golf, and play tennis.  The narrator says that when their friend's Dusty did ski she made a "nails on a chalkboard" noise.  They also weren't in love with the dolls' faces...or their hair, or their clothes.  Dusty and Skye apparently had nice sets of joints, but those joints cracked louder than my knees do when I'm struggling to stand.  I wouldn't have liked that as a kid; when a doll's joint cracked too loud I was immediately afraid that I'd broken something.

WEIRD FACTOR:  6 out of 10.  I can only presume that Dusty and Skye were created to attract boys and tomboys...kids that don't usually play with dolls, period, even if the doll in question is sports-themed.  If my presumption is correct then the gimmick fell flat right out of the gate.  I personally also find the duo homely, and I know I'm not the only one who feels that way.  Tomboys aren't always plain of face, though they are often depicted as such.  Tam discusses Dusty here and Skye here.

JODY

COMPANY:  Ideal
YEARS OF PRODUCTION:  1975

Copper topped Jody, also called Jody the Country Girl, this doll represented country life in the Victorian era.  Kinda fitting, since Little House on the Prairie was big back then.  Once again, the narrator said their Jody smelled funny, had stiff hair, and stared.  She also could apparently look pretty menacing when wielding a pitchfork.  I personally love her period-accurate accessories,  though, especially her old-timey wall-mount telephone.  

WEIRD FACTOR:  3 out of 10.  Country living was kinda a thing in the seventies, and it still is to some extent today.  The only thing I don't really like about Jody is her skirt, which is impractically long for country life.  But then again, she does represent an era where skirts WERE that long.  Like the Rock Flowers, Jody is a hair dated, but that's all.  Tam also has featured this doll on her blog.

SMARTY PANTS

COMPANY:  Topper
YEARS OF PRODUCTION:  1971

This one is one I wasn't familiar with, and I'm already not in love with the name.  "Smarty pants" is usually thrown around in a derogatory manner.  I'd have liked the trivia factor, though.  Yes, Smarty asked trivia questions, and if you got it right she'd congratulate you.  The narrator called her "bossy" and stated that Smarty was not the most cuddly thing.  Worse, she asked multiplication questions, so that wouldn't have pleased me as a kid.  Multiplication was the bane of my existence when I was Smarty's target age.  Smarty also wore glasses that could throw light wrong, and she wasn't dressed very stylish like.  As a result, the narrator said she looked like a "mean teacher."  Oh, and guess where Smarty's batteries go???  Right up her butt!

WEIRD FACTOR:  5 out of 10.  She's cute, but who wants to be asked questions when they're trying to relax and play?  I don't, even if I do like trivia!  I had a laugh at the battery placement, though.

SWINGY

COMPANY:  Mattel
YEARS OF PRODUCTION:  1968

Our resident Paul Revere and the Raiders fan!  Swingy is a little go-go dancer, styled for the era, and I freaking love her.  The poor love is quite noisy when she moves, though, and apparently her hair would get caught in her joints too.  And guess what else?  The narrator reported that Swingy smelled funny.  Hell's bells, my mama's old Barbie smells funny too, kinda like crayons.  I think that was the norm for dolls of the era, because that's how plastic was and still is.

WEIRD FACTOR:  1 out of 10.  I don't find Swingy weird at all, but then I'm a bit biased because I like her.

CRISSY

COMPANY:  Ideal
YEARS OF PRODUCTION:  1969-1974

Ah, Crissy, of whom I'm very fond.  Crissy and company had hair that grew and could retract again, and if you were good with styling you could give her curls or updos or what-have-you.  Unfortunately, Narrator reports that in addition to feeling nasty right out of the package, their Crissy's hair would break and they'd be left holding shanks of hair.  Funny, I've not had that issue with my dolls' hair, but then I usually just braid it to avoid tangles.  I wonder if Narrator's doll was one of the first issue dolls; Crissy and Beth says that that hair was different from the hair of later dolls.  I've also gotta admit that pulling a doll's hair to make it grow sounds excruciating, but I can't think of any better way to get the hair out.  Hardcore readers of my blog will remember my main gripe with Crissy:  her eyes are ridiculously dark, darker even than the darkest American Girl eyes.  Mia, one of Velvet's friends, has the exact opposite effect; her eyes are a smidge bright.  And yet Mia is one of my favorites of the bunch due to her exuberant smile.

WEIRD FACTOR:  Mmmm...4 out of 10, mostly for the eyes.  Crissy's eyes are WAAAAY too dark.  I might bump the Look Around variants up to 6 out of 10, as the "look around" feature is kinda creepy.  Y'all can read my review of Crissy here; I also own two Velvets and a Cinnamon, and I'm keeping my eyes peeled for Tara.  Tam has a few of these dolls too; indeed, one of my Velvets belonged to her!  

THIRSTEE WALKER

COMPANY:  Horsman
YEARS OF PRODUCTION:  1964

Yes, that is a screenshot, LOL.  Several of these images are.  Thirstee Walker walked, drank, and cried, which is admittedly an unusual combo of gimmicks.  None of my walkers drink, for example.  The water proved problematic, as it sloshed around, leaked from the doll in various unusual places, smelled stale, and undoubtedly caused the doll to mildew.  I'd have kept water a million miles away from this gal.

WEIRD FACTOR:  6 out of 10.  She looks innocent enuff, but why make a doll drink when she can't pee it back out???

CHEERFUL TEARFUL

COMPANY:  Mattel
YEARS OF PRODUCTION:  1965

Cheerful's name says it all:  she could be happy or sad depending on how her arm was positioned.  She could cry real tears like Thirstee Walker, but she had a pee hole so the water wouldn't build up inside and get icky.  Like Dusty, Cheerful made a racket when her arm was moved, and sometimes she'd get stuck between happy and sad.  The smaller variant, Tiny Cheerful Tearful, had sunken eyes that attract dust, throw funny shadows, and make the doll look sick.  I'd know, because I own her!  My review of Tiny Cheerful Tearful can be found here, and if you watch the video, you may notice that one of the pictures of Tiny looks familiar. 

WEIRD FACTOR:  6 out of 10.  That shifting face is admittedly a little freaky.  Tiny Cheerful Tearful also looks a little ill with those hollow eyes.

BABY FIRST STEP

COMPANY:  Mattel
YEARS OF PRODUCTION:  1964

Another walker, though this young lady walks the same way Swingy dances:  by shuffling her feet and swinging her arms.  Like Swingy she's noisy when she walks, and the narrator claimed that this doll could spontaneously walk by herself.  Knowing mechanical items like I do, there's probably some truth to that.

WEIRD FACTOR:  1 out of 10, just like Swingy.  The two could be sisters, except that they don't look the same in the face.  Tam has discussed this doll on her blog.

CHATTY CATHY 

COMPANY:  Mattel
YEARS OF PRODUCTION:  1959-1965

Chatty Cathy?  MY Chatty Cathy, weird?  Well...if you ask my sister then she's worse than weird.  Most doll fans are at least vaguely familiar with this doll, either because they lived in the era, because they saw the GEICO commercial, or because they like The Twilight Zone.  As for weird...well, Cathy doesn't blink when she talks (most dolls don't), her mech made an ominous grinding sound when activated, and...yeah, I can see why some folks would be a bit weirded out by Chatty Cathy.  Nonetheless, to date she is Mattel's second most popular doll, behind only Barbie.

WEIRD FACTOR:  I'll give her a 5 out of 10.  I've gotta admit that it's freaky how she stares and talks without blinking.  To be fair, I don't like that about Amazing Maddie or my other talking dolls either.  Furthermore, I always thought it was odd that some of these dolls declared "I hurt myself!"  Another of my chatterboxes, Teenie Talk, says something similar, but she then asks me to kiss it, so it makes a bit more sense.  Big surprise, Tam also has a few of these, and two of 'em have pigtails.  I think the ones with pigtails are cute.

CHARMIN' CHATTY

COMPANY:  Mattel
YEARS OF PRODUCTION:  1963-1964

Chatty Cathy's sister of sorts, Charmin' relied on records to speak, and that right there is a smidge problematic.  Fans of old vinyls know how records can get scratched, and when that happens they skip or repeat.  This sometimes happened to Charmin' Chatty!  She also was a little goofy in the face, to the point that some folks think she's ugly (I think she's hilarious).  I will say that Charmin' isn't as quiz-kid as Smarty Pants is; one of her records has her making animal sounds, which kids love to do.  So Charmin' had a goofy side.

WEIRD FACTOR:  I'll give her a 4 out of 10, a little lower than Chatty Cathy.  She doesn't blink when she talks either, but as I said above few dolls can do that.  The skipping records are my main reason for her landing a 4.  Once again, please take a look at Tam's doll.  She's missing her glasses, but she's still cute.

TINY TEARS

COMPANY:  American Character
YEARS OF PRODUCTION:  1950-1965

One of the more well-known vintage dolls, Tiny Tears is a crier and could wet her diapers as well.  Narrator says that this doll's voice sounded too realistic at times (so do Cry Babies!) and that she'd go off at random sometimes.  If not properly dried her tears would gather dust and make the poor poppet look unwell.  Hmmm...I never had that problem with the handful of criers that I played with.  She apparently also reeked after being fed.

WEIRD FACTOR:  2 out of 10.  She's a crier, no worse than the Cry Babies of today, though as with Thirstee Walker I'd be concerned with mildew over time.  Thus why I keep water away from Ayla and Kathy Cry Baby, even though they were meant to have water inside them.  Tam has this one too, and hers is really cute.

BETSY WETSY

COMPANY:  Ideal
YEARS OF PRODUCTION:  1937-1983, give or take

Killecrankie, I had no idea that Betsy Wetsy had been around that long!  Narrator says that this doll retained water like Thirstee Walker (and probably Tiny Tears) did, and predictably that started to smell after awhile.  Her hair could also turn green from the chlorine in the water.  Interesting, I knew that could happen to polar bears, but apparently it can happen to dolls too!  Narrator didn't add that unlike Tiny Tears, Betsy's nose runs when she cries, adding another orifice to be cleaned. 

WEIRD FACTOR:  4 out of 10.  She's a crier like Tiny Tears, but the runny nose bumps the weird factor up a bit.  Yeah, we've all had a runny nose from time to time, but it's not a common feature on our dolls unless they're little sickies, which Betsy is not.

BABY ALIVE 

COMPANY:  Kenner
YEARS OF PRODUCTION:  1973-present day (sort of)

We're talking the original one here!  Baby Alive is still very much alive in the present day, but boy howdy, has she changed!  Y'all have seen my little trio, and they look nothing like the doll of the seventies.

The original Baby Alive ate more-or-less real baby food, and she could drink from her bottle as well.  Our narrator hero states that feeding the doll AND changing her diaper were jobs for a biohazard team, and her chewing and sucking mechanisms made ominous grinding noises.  Having seen the food, I have to agree that it doesn't look the most appetizing in the world, and I wouldn't want to change that diaper either.

WEIRD FACTOR:  6 out of 10 for a doll that eats colored sludge and calls it food.  Even Snackin' Sara's Play-Doh turdlets looked more like something a doll could eat.

FLATSIES

COMPANY:  Ideal
YEARS OF PRODUCTION:  1969-1973

Flatsies, Flatsies, they're flat and that's that!  I thought that these dolls were...well, flat, but it turns out that there's more to them than that.  Flatsies could apparently be inflated like little balloons, or little blow-up dolls, take your pick.  They didn't always inflate fully, and over time their air would leak out, which Narrator said was freaky because of the noise it made.  Hmmm...the Flatsies I'm familiar with don't inflate.  They just are...well, FLAT, with legs and arms that bend like Tutti and Todd dolls.  They live in picture frames and thus can double as a wall hanging, so that's something.  Score one for storage!

WEIRD FACTOR:  Ohhhhhh...5 out of 10.  They're cute, they're flexible, they've got rooted hair...and they're flat.  That's kinda strange, but not outrageously so.

BABY SECRET

COMPANY:  Mattel
YEARS OF PRODUCTION:  1965

Narrator's frequent comparisons of Baby Secret to a stupid spy didn't contribute to my enjoyment of this segment.  Baby Secret DOES whisper secrets, but they're innocent little messages that normally wouldn't give kids the all-overs.  Now granted, the whispering voice does freak me out a bit, and some of her phrases sound a mite R-rated to someone with a dirty mind (I admit it, LOL).  Baby Secret also has a mouth that moves, just like Teenie Talk and Baby See 'n' Say do.  Some find that disturbing, but I think it's cute.  The doll's eyes look ever so slightly pissed though, making Baby Secret look like she's about to whisper "Go jump off a cliff."

WEIRD FACTOR:  5 out of 10.  Talking dolls are nothing new, but the whisper sounds a mite sinister, and the doll looks like she might be a biter.  Kinda like Teenie Talk, the same one who asks me to kiss her finger.

I love Teenie, but I never have fully trusted her.  She looks like she'd like to bite a plug outta my arm.  Hmmm, I need to give that dress a bath.

SPORT AND SHAVE KEN

COMPANY:  Mattel
YEARS OF PRODUCTION:  1980

Ken had already had facial hair by the time this guy came around; Now Look Ken had fuzzy stickers that allowed him to wear a mustache, sideburns, or channel his inner Barry Gibb.  Whatever you wanted; I thought it was a riot, by the way, that Now Look Ken's commercial equated a mustache with a villain.  But we're talking about Sport and Shave Ken, whose beard came from this gommy black marker.  You drew on his face and then shaved it off with a razor that didn't actually cut anything.  Now, if you had a man in your life that wore a beard (like I did), then you knew that beards require a fair amount of maintenance, just like the hair on our heads, and you knew what razors were for.  So a Ken with a razor doesn't weird me out much, but the gloppy paint that made this particular doll's beard was kinda gross.  The narrator agreed.

WEIRD FACTOR:  4 out of 10.  The marker looked weird when it was in place.  Indeed, this is the only Ken I've seen with facial hair that looked better without.  Shaving Fun Ken looks amazing with a beard...drat it, I miss being able to take my dolls outside like Tam and Miss Emily do!!!  As an aside, Jenjoy notes that this Ken was the only one with his particular head mold.  Kinda cool!

SALLY SECRETS 

COMPANY:  Mattel
YEARS OF PRODUCTION:  1992-1994

Sally is a glitzy toddler doll from the nineties...wait a minute, I thought we were doing the seventies and earlier.  But as I've stated in the past Sally has a number of artsy little items that were trendy in the nineties, and she carries them on various parts of her body.  Her shoes and earrings hide little stamps, and stickers come out of...wait a minute, her body???  Yep.  I gotta admit that that's kinda weird.  Sally's sister/friend (I'm not sure which) Penni Secrets carries her stickers in her hair bow, which makes a tiny bit more sense.  I bet Penni's bow would be a heavy one though, and I know of old that heavy hair bows are extremely uncomfortable.

WEIRD FACTOR:  6 out of 10.  The child does have stickers coming out of her chest, after all.  I love this doll, though!

MY PRETTY BALLERINA 

COMPANY:  Tyco
YEARS OF PRODUCTION:

Also not an oldie, but she is highly similar to Dancerina and Dancerella, who ARE products of the Me Decade.  My Pretty Ballerina sometimes appears on lists of glitzy toddler dolls, and...I guess she could count as such.  Narrator states that this doll danced semi-on her own, and she'd continue to do so after her music stopped, which they found kinda disturbing.  I'll add in my two cents and say that the doll looks a smidge stoned.  Since she's a doll My Pretty Ballerina also looks robotic when she moves, but...well, she's a doll!  They don't move exactly like we do.

WEIRD FACTOR: 2 out of 10.  I think she's cool.

HUGO, MAN OF A THOUSAND FACES

COMPANY:
YEARS OF PRODUCTION:

Okay, now THIS one made me raise an eyebrow.  Hugo is actually a puppet and is geared towards little boys, and he has facial features that one can attach to make him look like someone/something else.  He's even got SCARS!!!  I love the concept, but Narrator says that it was hard to get the pieces on straight, and they left a sticky residue.  I wonder if that sticky stuff didn't wear off after awhile, and I know darn good and well that the sticky stuff gathered debris with time.  All sticky stuff does.  Narrator also notes that Hugo is weird-looking even without his extra features, with them big ol' eyes that stare.  

WEIRD FACTOR:  8 out of 10.  Hugo is a very interesting concept, but he's still pretty odd to look at.

BABY SOFT SOUNDS

COMPANY:  Fisher-Price
YEARS OF PRODUCTION:  1979

According to Narrator this doll recorded your voice, but the playback wasn't great.  She oddly could pick up on conversations while one thought she was off, and she also smelled like "old batteries," as the video put it.  Now the dolls that I've seen make no mention of an internal recording device, but they were out-of-box so I have no way of knowing for sure.

WEIRD FACTOR:  Mmmm...3 out of 10.  To me she's no weirder than Little Miss Echo.

BLESS YOU BABY TENDER LOVE 

COMPANY:  Mattel
YEARS OF PRODUCTION:  1975

Bless You Baby Tender Love.  She looks pretty innocent, if a little orange.  Bless You Baby Tender Love sneezes when her belly is squeezed, and because she takes a bottle her sneezes are realistically wet.  Narrator stated that they owned this doll, and in addition to sneezing the little doll sounds like she's wheezing too (which she does).  They felt bad for this doll because she was always sick and couldn't be made better.

WEIRD FACTOR:  7 out of 10.  Sick dolls are nothing new, but usually they show some other symptom besides the sneeze, and a lot of 'em alternate between periods of illness and periods of wellness.  Tam thinks this one is weird too, by the way, and...well, obviously I think she's kinda weird, or I wouldn't have given her a 7 out of 10!  I intend to review this doll eventually, but life keeps getting in the way.

GROWING UP SKIPPER

COMPANY:  Mattel
YEARS OF PRODUCTION:  1975

The infamous Growing Up Skipper, the doll who goes through puberty with a twist of her arm.  Skip and her friend Ginger were both in on it, and the backlash against these dolls was so great that Ginger never appeared again.  Anyway, Narrator notes that like several of these other dolls Skip smelled funny, and I think she clicked, and sometimes she'd get stuck between her short/child self and her tall/teenage self.  Poor child, sounds like she was the type who got tall and awkward as she grew.  I don't know which is worse, being chubby during the gawky stage or being tall with big klutzy feet.  I was chubby, my best friend got tall and gangly, and we both HATED it.

WEIRD FACTOR:  7 out of 10.  Puberty is a natural, normal part of life, but I'll admit that a doll that goes through it is kinda odd.  Oh, and by the way, My Scene revisited the growing up gimmick with the Growing Up Glam line.  I'd rank them the same, 7 out of 10 on the weird scale. 

TUB AND TOOT 

COMPANY:  Toys R Us
YEARS OF PRODUCTION:  2014

This doll is modern, not a seventies thing, but otherwise she belongs on this list.  Why???  Because she FARTS IN HER BATHTUB!!!  Let's be real, we've all farted in the bathtub at some point, and the racket it makes is hilarious.  But...is it really worth it to make a doll that does it?  I mean, this doll is completely innocent-looking, but press that button on her belly and...oh, not only does she make the noise, but she also apparently blows bubbles with her butt.  Sigh...I have no other words.

WEIRD FACTOR:  9 out of 10.  What the actual heck???  A farting doll???  Miss Emily discussed this one once, and she too was pretty weirded out.

I'm surprised that Saucy wasn't on the list!  Blythe isn't either, and she was so weird that peeps didn't buy her.  Neither of them are as weird as Hugo with his funny faces, and even he's not as weird as Tub and Toot, but still...I'd rank Saucy a 7 out of 10 and Blythe an 8 out of 10.  Keep in mind that I'm a big fan of both dolls.

Other good candidates for the list would've been Susie Sad-Eyes, Emerald the Enchanting Witch, Little Miss No-Name, and Joey Stivic, the last of whom was...don't quote me, but I think he was one of the first mass-produced anatomically correct boy dolls.  His commercial made a big deal of this aspect.  Furthermore, I don't think All In the Family was geared towards kids, not with the language Archie Bunker used!  I think All In the Family is a riot myself, but then I'm 37 and won't be confused or horrified by the situations on the show.  Thus I think the Joey Stivic doll probably was way over the heads of seventies kids.  Now, disclaimer: I mean no shade towards ANY of these dolls, not even Tub and Toot.  Indeed, Little Miss No-Name is very high on my wish list, and I own several of the others already.  But y'all gotta admit, they're not your average dolls.

What say y'all?  Do you know of any little weirdoes that belong on this list?

Cheers,
RagingMoon1987

Dolls with comical expressions

WARNING:  the Moon Girl is about to fangirl.  I have to do so to set up the reason for this post.  Pop in the eyedrops.  

"The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe" is NOT a shining moment for our dear time lord; indeed, WhoCulture listed it as the Eleventh Doctor's worst episode...and a legion of Whovians VOTED it as such so I'll take their word for it.  I admit that the episode left me shaking my head more than once, but the scene where Number Eleven's hijinks catch up to him made it worth it.  Watch the scene and you'll know what I mean; Doctor Matt hit the floor so hard I'm surprised he didn't regenerate right then and there.  

RIGHT!!!  That particular scene is also significant for me as a doll collector.  During his breakneck rundown of the children's' room, somewhere between the selection of torches and an enthusiastic endorsement of Cluedo, Number Eleven refers to "dolls with comical expressions," and the camera pans in on three of the little dolls he's referring to.  The catch is, when the camera panned in on said dolls, they were NOT the most comical in the world.  They were cute enuff, but they were generic, probably what the prop team could grub up without having to spend a lot of time and coinage.  It's rare when I'll say that I can do something better than the Doctor could, but I watched that scene, saw the dolls utilized in the scene, and I retorted "Awww, I can do better than that!"  So because I love fluff posts, here's another of those.  I'll be avoiding dolls that are deliberately made to look creepy (like my Living Dead Dolls) and dolls that are done in someone's likeness (like Beetlejuice and Pee Wee Herman).  Some of these dolls are mine and some aren't, and fair warning, some of 'em are more creepy than comical, even though they weren't MEANT to be creepy.  Also keep in mind that "The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe" was largely set in 1941, and thus most (all?) of the dolls I'm sharing wouldn't have been in the Doctor's lineup.  Or...maybe they would've.  The Doctor IS a time lord, after all, and if he wanted to drag a Cabbage Patch Kid back to 1941 he could've done so with ease.  Whatever, let's do this.

NAME:  Whimsies; the individual dolls had varying names.  Mine is Hedda Get Bedda.  Her review was last December.

COMPANY:  American Character
YEAR OF PRODUCTION:  1960

LOL, I think that of all of the Whimsies I got the funniest one!  All of the Whimsies have goofy little smiles, but Hedda Get Bedda utilizes her sleepy face and her sick face as well.  Y'all have seen this already, but here's a rehash.

It should be noted that Whimsies were intended for an older mindset and not small children, but they're still goofy enuff that I included them here.  The vast majority of Whimsies look like Hedda's smiling face, with variations in the eyes.  Wheeler the Dealer and Samson the Strongman have hooded, mischievous-looking eyes, while Fanny the Fallen Angel has closed eyes altogether.  Fanny's face is different from Hedda's sleeping face, though.  Either way these are a fun bunch, if a bit (a lot?) homely.  

NAME:  Teenie Talk.  She has a "sister" named Baby Secrets who has the same face.

COMPANY:  Mattel
YEAR OF PRODUCTION:  1965

I think I've said in the past that Teenie is plotting my demise.  Teenie is one of Mattel's dolls that talks or has face gimmicks, and as such she's got a soft vinyl face that moves with the mechanism underneath.  Teenie can look a little goofy or a lot goofy depending on whether her mouth is open or closed; how it ends up after a phrase is a crapshoot.  For me it's the slant of the eyebrows that make Teenie look like she's about to tell me to pound sand.  Baby Secrets looks very much the same; her only aesthetic difference from Teenie is her red hair.

NAME:  Baby See 'n' Say, pet name "Elmyra"

COMPANY:  Mattel
YEAR OF PRODUCTION:  1965-1966

My Elmyra is a little funnier than other dolls of this type because she's got that lazy eye.  But even when both her eyes work Baby See 'n' Say is a funny little doll.  She's like Teenie Talk in many respects, the most obvious similarity being that her vinyl face moves as she speaks.  Ideally Elmyra's eyes would move too, but my doll needs a visit to a professional before that can be done.  Right now I'm just pretending that Elmyra needs an eyepatch for lazy eye, my usual explanation when my dolls have droopy or wonky eyes.  But under normal circumstances Elmyra's eyes would move as she talked.  Indeed, one of her phrases is "Can you move your eyes like this?"  LOL, yes, sweetie, I can!  And brave heart, because I too have a drifting eye.

NAME:  Baby Small Walk; pet name is "Carol."  I named this doll after Carol Burnett, thinking she was a redhead, but she's not.

COMPANY:  Mattel
YEAR OF PRODUCTION:  1967-1971
Baby Small Walk is just one of a number of small Mattel dolls from this era that had...either this face or one similar to it, one with a less open mouth.  Doll Reader had an article about them all one time, but I didn't pay much attention to it.  Not like I ever was gonna own any of those dolls, LOL.  The names that I remember are Baby Small Walk, Baby Small Talk, Baby Go Bye-Bye, and Valerie.  Valerie had "hair that grows and grows, right down to her toes."  How they got away with that without Ideal having kittens is anyone's guess, as that used to be Crissy's tagline.  Anyway, a lot of the Small Talk dolls were...well, basically the same doll, except for different eye and hair colors.  They had names like Goldilocks, Sister Small Talk, and Tiny Chatty Baby (no relation to Chatty Cathy and her blabbermouth bunch).  I like Tiny Chatty Baby because she's blonde and brown-eyed (Mama has made me a fan of that combo), but I digress.  Carol and the dolls with bigger mouths do have some angles from which they are...unflattering.  I don't recommend photographing Carol in half-profile, for example.  I think she looks kinda like a fish.

Otherwise this bunch is a cute bunch.  I particularly remember the Doll Reader article making special note of Baby Go Bye-Bye, because she had a car that she could "drive."  But even without the car she's cute.

NAME:  Tumbling Tomboy, pet name is "Jordyn."

COMPANY:  Remco
YEAR OF PRODUCTION:  1969

Tumbling Tomboy's gimmick didn't rely heavily on her face.  Indeed, I don't think the owner was supposed to look much at her face at all, as Tomboy is...well, a tumbler!  If you have her controls and some batteries you can plug her up and make her do cartwheels.  However, Jordyn doesn't have her controls.  I'm pretty sure I could find a set, but I'm not looking too hard right now.  I love Jordyn for her face:  her green eyes, her freckles, and especially that Harrison Ford smirk.  As I've said more times than I can count, I too have a lopsided smile, especially when I'm up to some sort of mischief or if I'm telling or hearing a particularly corny joke (I love corny jokes).  Thus anytime I can find a doll that smirks, I get it.

NAME:  Baby Laugh-a-Lot

COMPANY:  Remco
YEAR OF PRODUCTION:  1971

Killecrankie, I think we need the Doctor's help dealing with this one!  In this doll's defense a LOT of Remco's larger dolls had personality galore (two of Tam's examples can be seen here and here), but I think this one's pushing it a bit.  Jordyn's cousin Baby Laugh-a-Lot is a modified rag doll with vinyl hands and a vinyl head, and a push-button mechanism to make her...well, laugh!  The laughter sounds maniacal enuff on its own, but this particular doll has a face that only a mother could love.  Granted, no one looks like a Victoria's Secret angel when they're having a good belly laugh, but this little gal is still pretty creepy.  Oh, and when this doll's batteries run low, she even SOUNDS creepy!  Hmmm...I did once love scaring the snot out of my sister with dolls like this...and like the next doll.

NAME:  Saucy, pet name is "Alana."

COMPANY:  Mattel
YEAR OF PRODUCTON:  1972-1973

Mattel certainly had their fair share of goofy-looking dolls during the late sixties and early seventies, didn't they???  And my list is nowhere near comprehensive!  This one has the potential to be creepy just like Baby Laugh-A-Lot does, but I think she's hilarious.  When Saucy's left arm is turned her face shifts expression, like so.  She's got a soft vinyl face like Teenie Talk, Baby Secrets, and Baby See 'n' Say, and as a result she can emote very well.  Here's some highlights. 

Mama hates the cross-eyed look.  I think it's a scream.

Does anyone else look at this doll and hear Alana Thompson saying "The dolla make me holla, honey boo-boo!"  Shudder...poor Honey Boo-Boo.  She can't help how she was raised, but I do hope she'll find a way to make something of herself.  Last I heard she was studying to be a nurse (I like nurses), but I heard that from Wikipedia so take that news with about eleven grains of salt.  Anyway, Saucy reminds me a lot of Honey Boo-Boo when the latter was young, but the future is...decidedly brighter for Saucy.  Tam discusses this doll further on her blog, and if y'all want a review of mine, say the word and I'll do it.  

LOL, I make that face myself when something mildly surprises or dismays me.  My sister is going to HATE this doll if she ever sees her, by the way.  Dolls give her the creeps as it is, thanks to yours truly.  My thirty-six-year-old self is not as evil as my eleven-year-old self, though; I'll try to keep Alana away from her.

NAME:  Bedsie Beans, one of the Baby Beans dolls.

COMPANY:  Mattel
YEAR OF PRODUCTION:  1970-1984

All of the Mattel's Beans were cute, but the eternally-yawning Bedsie is hilarious...or hideous, depending on who you ask.  I think he's adorable, but then again I also think Hedda Get Bedda is adorable and she's...well, I think she's adorable.  I've seen a few folks compare Bedsie's mouth to the grille of an Edsel, which admittedly does look like it's yawning...or doing something else.  Keep it PG, Moon Girl!  I may have to up that rating to PG-13 with the language I sometimes use.  Anyway, like I said above Bedsie is the most unusual of the Beans, as most of them are smiling or looking innocent or curious.  Giggling little Booful Beans also could be considered comical, but he's not as goofy-looking as Bedsie is. 

Hmmm...maybe he's charismatic more than comical.  But either way I love Booful!

NAME:  Cabbage Patch Kids; the ones I've got here are Idalia Gale, Kory Aryan, and Iris Evangeline.

COMPANY:  Various; Idalia is a Coleco Kid, while Kory and Iris are Jakks Pacific Kids.
YEAR OF PRODUCTION:  1983-present day

The Cabbies pictured are among the more extreme in my Patch, but there are Cabbies in this world with even goofier smiles (examples can be seen here and here).  In the early days their expressions were more sedate, like so.

A handful don't have much expression at all since they're sucking on binkies.

Or they don't show much expression since those binkies hide it.  They have nice little smiles when they're not sucking their binkies.

But I think Cabbies fall under the "comical" umbrella, for many of the same reasons that Whimsies do.  They're homely as sin, but they're also cute and they're pretty innocent (not all Whimsies are that innocent, LOL).  Cabbage Patch Kids didn't start life with mouths full of choppers, but as y'all can see more head molds were added and now a lot of 'em look like they're laughing out loud.  I love Cabbies like that, though as y'all have noticed I'm not too picky.  Idalia has her tongue lolled out and I welcomed her with open arms.  I was so determined to own a popcorn that Idalia could've had fangs if the price had been right.

NAME:  Baby Face; my particular doll is So Surprised Suzie, in the top center box.

COMPANY:  Galoob
YEAR OF PRODUCTION:  1990-1991

Suzie is a frequent flyer here on the blog, and admittedly she's not as comical as some of her friends.  My mama calls her "one of your funny-lookin' ones," LOL.

Hey, Saucy can make that face too!

Truthfully I haven't seen a Mel Birnkrant-designed doll that WASN'T a character, though some of Olivia Reese's character comes from her ability to climb things and hang upside down.

Marta Angela, on the other hand...I think she'd classify as comical.  I think she knows it, too!

But yeah, regarding the Baby Face dolls, I think the funniest one is the deliriously happy So Funny Natalie, though again, some fans think she's creepy.  Admittedly, she IS pretty toothy.  Teeth can be hard to do on dolls; they can look sharky or rabbitlike or just plain dumb.  Or they can look adorable, like the teeth on my beloved American Girls, or innocent like So Innocent Cynthia, or sultry/snarky like a Bratz doll.  In my eyes Natalie is pushing the boundary between funny and sharky.

NAME:  Rotten Kids; my particular doll's name is Lucy, though I still sometimes call her "Belka."  I've not yet rooted Lucy out of storage, so this is a reused picture.

COMPANY:  D'anton Jos, apparently a division of Berenguer
YEAR OF PRODUCTION:  Sometime in the nineties, I presume; I still know very little about these dolls.

Believe it or not these ugly little goobers were meant to be collectors' items of some stripe!  Or I think they were, as that's the only way I can explain a price tag of sixty-five bucks for a lightweight doll that picks her nose and does nothing else.  Prices like that make a grown man holler (LOL).  To be perfectly honest I'm not sure if Lucy is one of the Rotten Kids or if she's just a D'anton Jos doll that looks a lot like the Rotten Kids.  Not all Danton dolls were Rotten Kids, you see, but the ones I've seen are still a riot.  As I said in Lucy's second post, she and her rotten brothers and sisters will never win any beauty contests, but I tip my hat to whoever sculpted these faces.  Capturing emotion is not easy without making the doll look stilted, and "stilted" is the last word I'd use to describe these dolls.  Plus, Lucy's lips have molded creases.  Such details are usually painted or left out.

Despite being homely as all get-out Lucy is a favorite of mine, both for her funny face and for the sentiment behind her (she was a gift).

I could also throw in Jumeau model 217, the one that's lolling her tongue out, but I couldn't find a picture that wasn't copyrighted.  But then again, that picture of Baby Laugh-a-Lot may be theft too.  Y'all if that's your picture and you want me to take it down, say the word and I'll do it.  Anyway, I don't know if Model 217 could be considered comical, crazy, or downright stupid, but there aren't many dolls in this world like her so she gets Honorable Mention.  I'll also give Honorable Mention to the Zwergnase bunch, particularly LOLing Kicky and sly, smirking Zwaantje.

My odds of owning a Zwergnase doll are about as long as Pete Townshend's nose, and I don't WANT to own Jumeau 217, so I'll end this by letting my kids ham it up a bit.  They're a happy bunch for the most part.

Cheers,
RagingMoon1987