More dolls for my imaginary collection

I love doing these "dolls that I like but don't need" posts!  They can be a mite dangerous to my pocketbook, but I still enjoy putting them together. 

MOMMY'S HAVING A BABY

COMPANY:  Tyco
YEARS OF PRODUCTION:  1992

The title pretty much says it all:  Mommy Doll is pregnant and "gives birth" to a baby doll.  She even has her own little ultrasound machine to "look" at the baby.  Baby Doll also comes with some accessories, and she drinks and wets like many good baby dolls do.  Mommy has jointed arms to hold Baby, and a dress to wear post-partum.  It's a cute concept, though I can see where some parents might've been freaked out some.  My own mother lifted an eyebrow when I told her about this one, LOL.

MAGIC POTTY BABY

COMPANY:  Tyco
YEARS OF PRODUCTION:  1992

Coexisting with Mommy's Having a Baby was this poppet, who had a gimmick similar to that of Potty Dotty.  Sit her on her toidy and she goes!  Unlike Potty Dotty, Magic Potty Baby's commode does all the dirty work, making tinkling and flushing noises.  The doll herself is partially stuffed and is cute enuff on her own without the pot.  She could be either white or black.

PEBBLES AND BAMM-BAMM

COMPANY:  Ideal
YEARS OF PRODUCTION:
Believe it or not, Uncle Man-Child reminded me of these one night.  We never will be super-close, but we're getting along better, and one night he...I forget exactly what it was he said, but I think he said it was a shame that Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm (the children from The Flintstones) weren't made into dolls.  Surprise, they were!  They appear to be nothing more than cute little baby dolls done up in the likenesses of Pebbles Flintstone and Bamm-Bamm Rubble, but they sure are cute!  I went for a look on eBay shortly after that, and to my surprise Bamm-Bamm is the easier one to find.  Usually the girl doll is the easier one to find, but not this time!

CHIKA-CHAN

COMPANY:  Shiba
YEARS OF PRODUCTION:  1970, give or take a year.

The subreddit r/DollsOfAsia can be a dangerous place to go if you love dolls but are short on cash.  Since Chika-chan is foreign she's hard to come by here in the U.S., and as such she can go for a pretty penny.  Shame too, because she's cute.  "Chan" is a Japanese honorific, meaning that Chika-chan would have to be from there.  If the source I found is correct then Chika only had blonde hair...meaning that the doll pictured above is her friend Chiko-chan.  Chiko was either a redhead or a brunette.  Both dolls appear to have an internal armature, and thus they remind me a little of Tutti and Todd.  I'm fond of Asian dolls, so it should be no surprise that I like Chika-chan and Chico-chan.

ARGIGI AND BRIGIGI

COMPANY:  Hugo Limited
YEARS OF PRODUCTION:

These remind me a little of Poppy Parker in the face.  According to Cardigan Argigi is the lead character and Brigigi is her bestie.  If the chatter on Reddit is to be believed, these dolls are independently produced and have small production numbers, kinda like some of the smaller art dolls that I've seen on Etsy.  As of writing all the dolls are out of stock, so I have no idea what prices we're dealing with, but I bet y'all a bottom dollar these dolls are pricey.  They're cute, though.

PEACHY

COMPANY:  Mattel
YEARS OF PRODUCTION:  1973

C'mon, y'all know darn good and well that Mattel will have an entry somewhere!  Peachy reminds me of the story Treesa told me about herself and her Blooming Doll.  Violet is a puppet, and Treesa used her as a ventriloquist dummy of sorts.  Peachy is...well, she's kinda like that; she comes with four stick puppets and she manipulates them as such.  She also talks via a pull string, and apparently her speech changes with the puppets.  Pretty cool!  I wouldn't mind seeing this doll in action...<pauses to browse YouTube>...I think that's it, yeah.  Peachy could be either black or white, and both variants are cute.  I have to admit, I'm very interested in this one...no, bad Moon!  Stay off eBay!

PENNY PUPPY WALKER

COMPANY:  Bradgate/Palitoy

YEARS OF PRODUCTION:  1972

Bradgate was (I think) a subdivision of Palitoy, meaning that Penny Puppy Walker here is likely a British/European thing.  Y'all know of old how I like foreign releases.  Penny is a walker like a great many dolls, but instead of relying on batteries she relies on...air.  Y'all see that yellow and red thing and the tube around Penny's foot?  The tube attaches to her somewhere and the child would press on those red buttons to get her moving.  The commercial shows that her dog will move to, utilizing the same mechanism.  Pretty cool!  I admit that I almost bought this one just because of that.  I love how dated the fashions in the commercial are, by the way.  Very early seventies.  As an aside, French company Clodrey made a very similar doll during the same timeframe.  Her name was Nini the Trotter and her face was different from Penny's, but otherwise they're the same doll.  Spoiler alert, Clodrey dolls will be making an appearance in the blog soon.  I've seen and found some cute ones.

BABY GROWS UP

COMPANY:  Mattel
YEARS OF PRODUCTION:  1978

Don't confuse this doll with the Baby Alive doll!  Dolls that "grow up" aren't as common as dolls who drink, wet, cry, walk, you get me, but they're definitely out there.  Unclad images of Baby Grows Up show that her torso gets longer as she "grows," and as far as I know her legs don't have to be manually straightened like the Baby Alive doll's legs do.  I can remember one doll from the nineties whose legs had to be straightened by hand to transform her from a crawler to a walker, and to me it looked like a good way to break your doll.  Not that Baby Grows Up can't break, but she seems a bit more robust than similar grow-up dolls.

COME TO ME BABY CRAWL 'N' WALK

COMPANY:  Toy Biz
YEARS OF PRODUCTION:  1998

This is the doll I was thinking of above.  I was ten by 1998 and finally beginning to pay attention to dolls, but I was also still diligently watching Nickelodeon and the toy commercials that accompany kids' programs, so I remember this one pretty well.  She can crawl, and if her legs are pulled straight she can walk.  She apparently is activated by noise, as she moves when you call to her.  Hmmm, does that mean that if I don't take her batteries out she'll start moving when I beller for my dogs, or when the thunder gets too close?  Jeez, I hope not!

That takes care of this bunch!

Love,
RagingMoon1987

Hands off that "Buy It Now" button!

Here we go, more crap that I need like a hole in the head.  I gotta admit that a couple'a these are VERY tempting, and if I ever have a bigger place then I'm goin' for it...but that's a big IF.  I kinda like the house I've got anyway.

HI DOTTIE

COMPANY:  Mattel 

YEARS OF PRODUCTION:  1971

Dottie is extremely popular on one of my favorite Failbook groups.  Dottie is another little chatterbox like several I discussed in the past, complete with a small telephone for herself and a bigger one for her owner.  Like Chatty Cathy and other talking dolls before her, Dottie didn't have a huge vocabulary, just eleven phrases.  For me the draw is her face, with those big brown eyes paired with light hair.  I've seen these dolls with blonde hair, light brown hair, and strawberry blonde hair like above, so I'm not sure what color her hair is supposed to be, but she's very cute nonetheless.  Keep in mind that my Chatty Cathy's hair used to be dark blonde, and it's turned red as time passed, so maybe the same thing happened with Dottie.  Similar things happened to Barbie's early Afro-American friends too.  It's not uncommon to find Julia or TNT Christie with deep red hair rather than black, but it's all good.  They all look fine.

LI'L SNOOKY

COMPANY:  Jolly Toys

YEARS OF PRODUCTION:  1960

Shudder..."Snooky" was a nickname Daddy called me when I was a child.  I never told him because I didn't want to hurt his feelings, but I hated being called "Snooky."  Li'l Snooky is a cute doll though, kinda similar in a few ways to Mariannina, one of my Furga dolls.  I don't think this doll did anything aside from stand and look cute, but THAT'S ALRIGHT, THEN!!!

GUI-GUI

COMPANY:  Estrela
YEARS OF PRODUCTION:  1967, give or take, reproduced 2017

Gui-Gui looks a lot like Giggles, and indeed she laughs if you press her belly.  The doll in the image is a reproduction, commemorating Estrela's eightieth year of operation, but she's been around since (I presume) the late sixties.  Gui-Gui and Giggles have a few subtle differences, mainly Gui-Gui's brighter eyes and wavy hair, but for the most part they're the same doll.  Very, very cute.

BIZZIE LIZZIE

COMPANY:  Ideal

YEARS OF PRODUCTION:  1971

According to Miss Deb, Bizzie Lizzie was Ideal's attempt to make housework fun for little girls.  And to tell y'all the truth, learning to do that stuff WAS fun for me; it was something that I could do "all by myself" to lighten the load for Mama.  She could do the laundry, I could run the vacuum cleaner.  She could wash the dishes, and I could iron my school clothes.  It was light work; Mama and Daddy weren't slave drivers.  Lizzie ran on batteries and could vacuum, iron, dust, or run her push sweeper, the kind that's like a vacuum but doesn't need electricity.  I love push sweepers!  Miss Deb says that the black version above is a rare entity, and indeed I didn't see any when I jumped on eBay to look for this doll.

BABY OH NO

COMPANY:  Hasbro 

YEARS OF PRODUCTION:  1989-1991

This doll reminds me of some of the Magic Nursery dolls that were available around the same time, and of some of the Cabbage Patch Kids, AND of the Rugrats Ice Cream Face dolls that were available during the late nineties.  All had the same gimmick:  doll "eats" a nummy, gommy treat, doll gets a dirty face, doll cleans up.  Shampoo, rinse, repeat.  I've seen a few eBay listings call this doll "rare," and...<pauses to look>...quite a few entries under the "Hasbro Baby Oh No" query were actually Baby Uh-Oh, equally cute but not the same doll.  So I'd say this doll is semi-rare, and as such she might pop into the blog at a later date.  I like anything that's kinda a challenge.

LI'L POLLY PUFF

COMPANY:  Remco

YEARS OF PRODUCTION:  1970

Oh, Remco!  I like Remco dolls.  I saw this one in Doll Reader years ago.  In that particular article Polly was as sixties as a doll could get, staging sit-ins and peaceful protests while lounging on her inflatable couch.  Yep, Polly Puff herself was your typical small rag doll with a vinyl head and vinyl hands, but she came with a "house" that could be draped over a card table, and her furniture was inflatable.  She also had a younger sister that the Doll Reader author pet-named "Starshine."  Being a hippie at heart myself, I loved that name.  While this doll is strictly a toy, I love her play value!  Little kids could use that card table house and inflatable furniture for a number of imaginary games, not just "House."  I used to like "Cops and Robbers," and I might've pretended that Polly's house was my hideaway...and that Polly was the mastermind!

PASSPORT FRIENDS

COMPANY:  Funrise

YEARS OF PRODUCTION:  2005

Saw these on Reddit!  They reminded me a little of Wee 3 Friends, so here they are.  Indeed, Veni Vidi Dolli implies that Passport Friends were a knockoff of 4Ever Best Friends, so there you have it.  These dolls travelled the world, and if the commercial offers any clues they're probably obsessed with fashion as well.  The dolls themselves are named after the city for which they are bound, which for a doll like Paris or Sydney isn't so bad.  Rome and Manhattan, not so much; I've never met of a little kid with either of those names.  I presume that the Asian character's name is Beijing since that's where she's headed, and that's also...well, Google calls it a "non-traditional" name choice, so that doll's name doesn't really work either.  Manhattan is a brown-eyed blonde though, so I'll give her that.  In general these dolls don't look that bad, and names can always be changed.  I like the little animal stampers too!  Looks like Sydney has a koala...sigh, I love koala bears, but I kinda wish wombats would pop up more in Australia-themed doll lines.  Wombats are epic.  But so are koalas, so I'll shut up!

McDONALDLAND BIRTHDAY GIRL

COMPANY:  Hasbro
YEARS OF PRODUCTION:  1999

I saw this pet on Failbook and got some serious flashbacks.  I only remember this hazily, but I remember when McDonald's did birthdays like this.  My family isn't a party bunch so I never had a McDonald's celebration (didn't really want one either), but I remember my friends talking about how much fun they had, and of course, the cake.  No birthday is complete without a cake.  Indeed, this little doll's cake was pretty special.  It unlocked with a key and apparently played some type of music, and there was something hidden inside as well.  The milkshake would also change "flavors" when one pressed the straw, so this doll had some fun items.  Oh, and the doll herself has a cute little face.  And is that Birdie I see on that shake cup?  Ronald McDonald and Grimace still pop into advertisements from time to time, but Birdie...Birdie was kinda an early nineties thing, if my memory serves me right.  This commercial was my favorite, because pigs, that's why.  Anyway, this doll is yet another simple, interesting concept, one that ignites the nostalgia in my nineties inner child.

BEBE GLOTON

COMPANY:  Berjuan
YEARS OF PRODUCTION:  2009

This doll may make some of y'all raise your eyebrows, scratch your heads, or both.  Indeed, she freaked me out a smidge the first time I heard of her, and she aroused a fair amount of controversy.  Bebe Gloton (Baby Glutton in Spanish) is...well, she's a breastfeeding doll.  The doll is accompanied by a vest that the child wears to simulate nursing sites, and when Bebe "latches" onto one she'll make sucking sounds.  Now the first time I saw this I freaked out and called it "WAAAAY too inappropriate for little girls."  My mom bottle-fed us, see, and so did everyone else that I knew, at least in public.  Indeed, I was...I think I was thirty-two before I saw someone breastfeed her child in public.  Right in the library, no less!  Yes, even at thirty-two I was ignorant enuff to think that breastfeeding was some sort of in-your-face thing, and so when I saw this young mother doing it to her baby so discreetly I was very surprised.  In fact, I'd leaned in to say hello to the baby (she was a pretty little baby) and didn't immediately realize that I was dangerously close to touching the mom's breast (I was caressing the baby's cheek).  The mother was thankfully a very nice lady and politely schooled me on how to get the job done.  But yeah, I was that ignorant at thirty-two.  So my opinions on Bebe Gloton have changed over the years; I see her now as both a cute, interesting little doll and a learning tool, one that could prevent other little girls from being ignorant about breastfeeding as long as I was.  Oh yeah, you can also burp the baby.  I loved watching Mama burp my sister when she was little, LOL.  Ooo, ooo, and I even found evidence that boy Bebe Gloton dolls existed!  Y'all know how I like boy baby dolls.

Bebe Gloton is a fairly recent doll compared to some of the other entries on today's list, but I'm unsure if she is still in production.  The links I found gave me a 404 error message, so I guess Bebe must not be in Berjuan's lineup anymore.  She CAN be found on eBay occasionally, but only for sky-high prices.  The Moon will have to get VERY lucky to add this one to her collection.

NENUCO WON'T EAT

COMPANY:  The one and only Famosa
YEARS OF PRODUCTION:  2014

Nenuco Won't Eat was also controversial, but for reasons that I found more idiotic than Bebe Gloton.  Nenuco is your classic feeding time baby doll, but in this case the child turns her head AWAY from her feeding spoon.  With some persistence the doll can be fed, but it takes some work.  Now if you've ever cared for a baby or a small child then you know there are times when they won't want to eat.  Nenuco represents that, but a lot of mamas freaked out anyway, saying that Nenuco "promotes unhealthy eating habits" that can ultimately lead to anorexia.  One source says that the message is subliminal...just like the messages that Led Zeppelin's music DOESN'T have.  I thought the controversy was absolute malarkey, and that Nenuco was...well, I thought she was just a stubborn baby, like my sister and I were!  Nenuco won awards at the London Toy Fair that year, so obviously others felt the same way I did.  I personally am more disturbed by Nenuco Sore Throat because she is accompanied by what looks like an incentive spirometer.  And that's just a personal hangup on my part, as I don't like it when very small children are sick or injured.  It's a fact of life, just like goofy eating habits are.

Have any of y'all seen/heard of/owned any of these?  Discuss. 

Happy Groundhog Day,
RagingMoon1987

More random dolls that I don't need but like

What can I say, I like doing posts like these.  They keep the blog alive and hopefully keep y'all entertained while I wait to hear from my doctor.  Nope, still haven't heard back from him.  He said he was sending my X-ray to "someone else," presumably for a second opinion, but I haven't heard anything yet.  That said, today's dolls will largely be baby dolls, and most of the images will be screenshots from YouTube because I don't own most of these.  Apologies.

BABY THIS 'N' THAT

COMPANY:  Remco
YEARS OF PRODUCTION:  1976, 1990

Baby This 'n' That!  Baby This 'n' That!  She does a lot of this and she does a lot of that!  I think I've told this story before, but one time while my great-grandfather was playing with one of the family babies it apparently loaded its pants, and Great-Grandpa hollered "One of y'all better get in here!  This baby's done a lot of that!"  I guess he was too good to change diapers himself.  Baby This 'n' That doesn't load her pants like some baby dolls do, though.  Rather, she holds items in her hands, items like a rattle and a toy telephone, and she moves her arms when you squeeze her goofy-looking little toes.  She also can move her mouth, which I didn't remember her doing, and I just think she's cute.  The family joke helps my opinion of her a bit too, of course.

Now here's where my head spun a little bit.  In 1990 Baby This 'n' That got a revival and an update.

I didn't know this doll existed.  I didn't know Remco was even still in business in 1990.  Awww, phooey, there's plenty that I don't know, about dolls and about a lot of other things I like.  Sweet Baby This 'n' That didn't do everything that her seventies self did, but she did brush her hair, sip on a straw, and blow kisses, so that's something.  Again, she's cute, and she appears to be...kinda obscure.  eBay has PLENTY of the older Baby This 'n' That, but the 1990 version...not so much.  Challenge accepted.

MAKE ME BETTER BABY

COMPANY:  Geoffrey, Inc.
YEAR:  1998

Make Me Better Baby was strictly a Toys R Us thing, but otherwise she was your average little sickie.  She'd cough, get red glowing cheeks, and run a fever, or she'd develop a red glowing ear and moan in pain, but either way the remedy was the same.  Cough syrup for the cough, ear drops for the ear, and she'd announce "All better!"  This doll-child appealed to me because I've always been attracted to sick dolls, and because she had short, low-maintenance hair, but I didn't like her enuff to want her or ask for her.  I was able to find a used one on eBay though, and guess what?  The white version has violet eyes!  I always like that.  Oh, and surprise, surprise, Baby Alive has/had a doll with the same name and the same gimmick.

Her cheeks even light up!  Poor love could also receive a shot, which makes me cringe because I hate the thought of babies getting stuck with sharp things.  I'm pro-vax, mind y'all, and a lot of those shots prevent very, very bad things from happening to innocent little kids, but no one in their right mind likes hurting small children...or small pets either, for that matter.  My animals always ran a fever when they got their first round of shots, but it kept my dogs from getting parvo so it was worth it.  A more recent Baby Alive with the same name trades the shot for a tissue box...or maybe those are baby wipes.  This one does load her pants, after all.

I'm willing to bet there are other Make Me Better Babies out there, but the one from Toys R Us kinda started it all.

POTTY DOTTY

COMPANY:  Playmates Toys
YEAR OF PRODUCTION:  1998

I hated this doll when she was in production, and I'm willing to bet other kids did too, because this pet is pretty obscure.  The picture is pretty self-explanatory; Dotty is a drink and wet doll, though she didn't actually drink because she's mechanical.  She'd react to her bottle, then she'd announce to her "mommy" that she has to go potty, and then when you put her on her little potty she...makes a sound like she's taking a leak.  But there's a catch!  If you don't get her panties off fast enuff she makes the tinkling sound anyway and then she says "Uh-oh, I'm sorry, Mommy!"  Believe me, Dotty, sciatica does a number of fun things to one's body that I wasn't originally aware of, so I understand accidents.  The human nervous system is so weird; kidney stones make one throw up, and sciatic nerve problems screw around with a lot more than just one's ability to walk.  Anyway, what really bugged me about Potty Dotty growing up were her huge, wide-set eyes.  She's just a funny-lookin' little goober...kinda like Baby Alive, now that I think of it.  She was innocent enuff, though.  Indeed, I'd rather have a doll that makes a tinkling sound than one that craps slime.

SHOP 'N' BOP BABY

COMPANY:  Playmates Toys
YEAR OF PRODUCTION:  1998

Now I know why this doll's commercial was always shown immediately after Potty Dotty's!  Both Playmates dolls, both a little strange.  Shop 'n' Bop's gimmick was admittedly stranger than Potty Dotty's was, but then again I loved shopping carts when I was little.  I loved riding in them, I loved riding under them (that was possible at one of the grocery stores in Malden), and I loved helping push them "like a big girl."  I was never allowed to ride on the front of the cart, like Shop 'n' Bop did here.

Mama and Daddy thought it wasn't safe to hang onto the front, and indeed some of the stores had signs up warning parents not to let their kids ride the carts like that.  Some little brats did it anyway, and I saw at least one kid get injured that way.  I don't think Shop 'n' Bop sold well either, by the way, as pickin's on eBay are pretty slim.

BOUNCY BABY

COMPANY:  MGA Entertainment
Year of production:  1996-1997

MGA Entertainment's first doll is a far cry from the dolls that followed her!  Indeed, when someone brings up MGA in conversation the first dolls I think of are usually Bratz, L.O.L. Surprises, or Rainbow High.  I thought Bouncy Baby was cute, but like other dolls I've seen she was more of a toy than collector fodder, so I never got nor really wanted this one.  Bouncy's gimmick is another simple one:  squeeze one wrist and she'll sing one song, squeeze her other wrist and she'll sing another, press her tummy and she giggles.  Despite what the commercial suggests, one apparently does not have to bounce this doll to get her to sing.  She has a soft body with simple clothes and hair that's easy to take care of, and those look like rainbow highlights in that lousy screenshot, but they're actually streamers on her hair bow.  I love that.  Everything's better with a hair bow.

In 1998 Bouncy Baby spawned a spinoff, one that was around until 2000 or so.  She was Bathtime Bouncy Baby.

This version of Bouncy Baby could be played with in the tub or in the pool, though I don't think getting her fully submerged was a smart idea.  According to an archived Reddit post this doll was capable of singing and vocalizing at the tiniest little movement, and taking out the batteries did no good.  My sister thus would've HATED this doll!  Still would, probably!  Anyway, I didn't find this doll's commercial anywhere near as catchy, but I liked her a lot better than the original Bouncy Baby because of her brightly colored swimsuit.  I also got to hold a friend's Bathtime Bouncy Baby, and her vinyl felt nice.  I liked this doll quite a bit.

BABY GO BOOM

COMPANY:  GC Toys
YEARS OF PRODUCTION:  2001

Oh, I remember this one!  She did and said a number of things that I did and said when I was small, and thus I thought she was really cute.  Baby Go Boom did pratfalls, kicked her legs, and talked and giggled.  She also reacted when you tickled her, which I think is cute despite the fact that I loathe being tickled myself.  I think it's interesting, by the way, that when you're an adult and you do a pratfall it can do some serious damage; indeed, that's part of the reason why my sciatica is so bad.  But when you're a little kid you're lighter and have a diaper covering your tushie, and falling down isn't as big a deal.  Indeed, Baby Go Boom makes a big joke of falling down and going "boom," rather than crying about falling like some children do.  So this doll is a cute doll, but...well, she's mechanical.  Y'all know I've got an aversion to mechanical dolls, even though I seem to have plenty of 'em, LOL.

KINDER GARDEN BABIES

COMPANY:  Up Up and Away, Marvel Entertainment, Toy Biz, Playmates Toys
YEARS OF PRODUCTION:  1997-2005

I really loved these!  Kinder Garden Babies were small baby dolls that resided in fabric flowers, and the flowers in turn converted into carriers for the doll.  They were scented like the flower that they replicated, and oh my, were there a LOT of flowers!  The two pictured above are a blueberry and a raspberry, but because they're from the Playmates era I don't know if they had names or not.  Up Up and Away's blueberry doll was named Briget, and Toy Biz named their blueberry Brenda, so the names varied anyway.  Perri Pussywillow, from Toy Biz, and Betsy Beehive, from Up Up and Away are my two favorites.  Perri is both a wildflower and a cat, and she shares a name with a Little Golden Book that I once loved.  Betsy is...well, bee-themed!  I love bees.

There was also a spinoff of the regular Kinder Garden Babies called Water Lilies, and like Bathtime Bouncy Baby they could be put in the water.  Their hovel converted into a shower, and I have a hazy recollection of the hovels floating as well, but I may be mistaken there.  When I was a child I liked these the best since I loved to play in the water.  These seem to be a bit more obscure than the regular Kinder Garden Babies, but I liked 'em enuff to ask for one.  Alas, there were none to be found in podunk Malden or anywhere close, so I never got one.  These also remind me a little of the Shining Stars, which I discussed in the past; both are small baby dolls, both have cute carriers that appealed to my fantasy-flavored imagination, and I need both of 'em like I need a hole in my head.

BABY AH-CHOO

COMPANY:  Mattel
YEARS OF PRODUCTION:  2007-2009

This one's cute, and like Make Me Better Baby she's a doll that I actually would've played with as a kid (I loved to doctor and baby my stuffed animals).  Baby Ah-Choo's gimmick is self-explanatory:  she's got a cold and her owner has to get her through it.  Squeeze her tummy and the poor love sneezes, coughs, asks for help blowing her nose, and reacts to her thermometer and her medicine spoon.  She also asks to be held and occasionally will sigh "make it go away."  Poor dolly, I think we all know what that's like.  Indeed, I remember being sick during my sophomore year of college.  I had a simple cold like Baby Ah-Choo does, but my throat tickled so bad that I couldn't stop coughing, and in the middle of the night I wailed "MAKE IT STOOOOOOOOOOOP!!!"  Of course the tickle DIDN'T stop no matter what I did, and I scared the bejesus out of my roommate when I yelled, LOL.  That was the night I mixed sleeping pills with cough syrup, so desperate was I to MAKE IT STOOOOOOOOOOOP, and y'all can probably predict how that went.  Arguably the dumbest thing I ever did.  Anyway, during that same illness I also desperately wanted to be held, even though I was a full twenty-two years old!  So I can relate with this doll.  As an aside, Baby Ah-Choo is kinda different from the sickies I grew up with, in that she came in Caucasian, Latina, and Afro-American variations.  By 2009 this was commonplace.  

Since I'm here on the subject of sick dolls, Li'l Sniffles is also worthy of mention.  She's a little older than Baby Ah-Choo is; I remember her from my high school days, but though I've searched her commercial is not on YouTube.  Li'l Sniffles does many of the same things that Baby Ah-Choo does, but she also sings when she feels well, and her manners are a tad better than Baby Ah-Choo's are.  When she asks for her soup or her meds she says "please," and after she's received what she's asked for she says "Thanks, Mommy."  I don't know how popular either doll was, but I was able to find both of them on eBay for reasonable prices.  With Lulu Achoo, Hedda Get Bedda, and Bless You Baby Tender Love hanging around, I doubt I need more sick dolls.

PRINTEMPS

COMPANY:  Sekiguchi
YEARS OF PRODUCTION:  1970s

I found this image on Pinterest, so if this is your doll, please let me know and I'll either credit you or take the picture down, your choice.  I offer my compliments to your collection; I can't tell if those are Smart Dolls or Dollfie Dreams in the background, but this is a beautiful trio.  Printemps actually did go on my wish list...for about five minutes!  At minute six I saw their prices on eBay and that was the end of it.  $375 for one of these???  Forget it!  If I'm gonna cough up multiple Benjamins for a doll I want it to be a Smart Doll or a super-nice Simon and Halbig.  Printemps is an interesting little creature, though.  She's got the aesthetic common to both dolls of the seventies and to Japanese dolls of any decade, complete with huge, hypnotic eyes.  The eyes have a catch:  they initially look dark, but they glow bright blue when the light hits them just right.  I love the creepy factor!  I also love their otherwise mild faces.

MAKE ME UP DARLINGS

COMPANY:  Hasbro
YEARS OF PRODUCTION:  1989-1990

This entry is a little ill-timed, as I recently brought Cookin' Cathy home, and she's popped into the blog a couple'a times already.

Make Me Up Darlings are a last-minute addition to this post (I wanted an even ten), but they're still pretty interesting, and I didn't discuss them in depth the last two times Cathy popped into the blog, so yeah.  These small dolls were scented, and they also had faces that would change with warm or cold water, like so.  Even their eye color could change, though I can't yet test this with Cathy.  Hot water issues, y'know.  The Make Me Up Darlings also came with outfits and accessories that fit their theme.  Mary Mermaid, seen above, came with a tailfin that would allow her to do the Ariel thing without giving up her voice.  Cookin' Cathy's wardrobe change is less drastic; she's got an overskirt that doubles as an apron, plus an oven mitt.

According to Ghost of the Doll there were two waves with six dolls each, and three playsets with one doll and extra accessories, but the gimmick remained the same.  The dolls could be dressed as animals, as fantasy beings, or as everyday occupations; my favorite of them all is Chessie Cheerleader, because she shares a name with one of my cats, AND with my favorite railroad mascot, after whom my cat is named.  I like Annie Artist too, with her bright outfit and hot pink hair.  The dolls are a little cartoonish, but then a lot of dolls are.  They'd fit right in with my Strawberry Shortcake/Cherry Merry Muffin bunch.

As usual, dear readers, your input is welcomed.

Love,
RagingMoon1987