Phat as Duckbutter

Having survived a root canal earlier in the week, yesterday I dropped into Walmart to do some retail therapy and struck gold -- the new, articulated SIS dolls dressed in Baby Phat fashions were on the shelf.

Unfortunately these dolls do not have the pivotal torsos or knees that allow the Fashionistas to pose so expressively.  Their range of motion is the same as the Kenya dolls, but Kenya feels a little lighter and more brittle.

Trichelle is not available in this wave of SIS dolls. Marissa didn't want her to feel left out so she let her model this Baby Phat fashion.

I am not fond of this melon pink, probably because it is a color I can't wear however I love the purple print leggings.

The Baby Phat logo necklace is a fun accessory

and the purple shoes are scrumptious.

When I lived in New Orleans, I used to tutor the little girls who lived next door.  One day when we were drawing self portraits, the middle girl who was about twelve used the brown marker to color her face and then exclaimed "oh no!  that's too dark!"  Then she took the yellow marker to give herself blonde hair.  I always felt that Kara had the same kind of complex about her complexion.  At least she has found a better colorist this time.

Now if we could just get her to ditch the pink lipstick...

Fortunately this Kenya Fashion madness dress compliments Kara's complexion well and her feet are small enough to squeeze into Kenya's shoes.

Meanwhile Marissa now has enough points of articulation to really work Movin' On Kenya's outfit.

Each of the Baby Phat SIS dolls comes with a pair of stylish sunglasses.

The face screens on some of these dolls seems a little askew but I'm sure Chynadoll can work wonders with them.

Kenya loves Kara's Baby Phat shorts and sweater.

The sweater fits well even though Kenya is a bit better endowed than the SIS dolls.

The tube top and shorts are sewn together as a one piece romper that fastens in the back with a strip of velcro.

While Kenya is searching for her contact lens we can admire her... Baby Phat shoes!

Kenya and the SIS dolls have a very different sense of style but they can wear each others' outfits and add their own personal flair to each one.

For example Grace can rock Rock Star Kenya's jacket and jeans

but she adds her own a note of sophisticated elegance with her Baby Phat sunglasses.

I was never sure what color Grace's eyes were supposed to be before but in this new face screen they are clearly green.

Kenya's hips and thighs are fuller but she can fit comfortably into Grace's slinky black leggings and pink top.

The asymmetrical collar is a very distinctive detail.

Ankle boots complete the ensemble.

The two divas find they can respect each other.

Chandra even invited Kenya to attend her church.

I was disappointed that Chandra's outfit turned out to be a one piece dress.  At the very least, I feel the jacket should have been a separate piece but Kenya was so happy Chandra loaned it to her that she stood up and shouted "Hallelujah!" 

When it came time for the collection she proudly tipped up to the altar in these snazzy shoes.

Kenya is obviously one of those people who goes to church to be seen.

In contrast, Chandra fell to her knees and gave thanks that she has finally been blessed with an articulated body.

I was very glad Chandra was also blessed with soft, curly black hair.  She accented Riviera Kenya's three piece pink suit with a matching Baby Phat headband. 

While I love Chandra the best

all of the new SIS dolls are phat as duckbutter!

À Bientôt

Kiddles 2

In my childhood doll world the Marx cowboy, Johnny West married Barbie's redheaded British friend, Stacey and they had a passel of redheaded children.  Virginia (alias Trikey Triddle Kiddle) was the oldest one.

To show her big sister status, I upgraded her to a Dawn body.

The long, loose dress from a Mattel Rosebuds doll conceals the fact that Dawn was a 1:12 scale adult woman.

Mattel produced Kiddles 'N Kars from 1969-1970.  These Kiddles each came with a "horseless carriage" and an updo hairstyle.

I was charmed to have a doll from the era portrayed in Maud Hart Lovelace's Betsy-Tacy books.

Rosemary Roadster's car has long since gone to the great junkyard in the sky but I still have her original purple checked suit with the hobble skirt although she "outgrew it" in her role as the oldest child of General Ivan Zacker and his wife, Babette (nee Dupont).

She is also on a Dawn body hidden under another Rosebud dress.

Lois Locket was one of the 13 Lucky Locket Kiddles produced between 1967 and 1970.

Each of these 2" dolls was enclosed in a plastic locket that you could wear around your neck.  My Lois had a lovely green dress with lace trim.  As she grew up, I upgraded her to a Dale body.

Dale was Dawn's African American friend.  Since I never got any other black dolls her size, she was more than willing to sacrifice herself so that Lois could be part of a 1:6 scale family.  

On July 20th, 1969, Armstrong and Aldrin made the first manned landing on the Moon in the Apollo 11 Lunar Module.  Toys like the Kozmic Kiddles (produced in 1969/70) reflected the impact that the space program had on the popular imagination. 

Meanwhile under the Green decision of 1968, the U.S. Supreme Court had decreed that "freedom of choice" desegregation plans such as the one offered in New Kent County, Virginia were a sham and established the "Green" factors as criteria for the acceptability of school desegregation plans.

The impossibility of achieving equality of facilities, transportation, extra-curricular activities, and an equal ratio of black to white students and faculty in school districts drawing students from segregated neighborhoods led to the implementation of extensive busing plans that transported students citywide or across city-county boundaries. 

I was never bussed but I had integrated an entire elementary school in Fairfax County, Virginia during the 1968/69 school year when I was in the first grade. My mother taught at the school and had obtained permission to enroll me even though we lived in Maryland.  From then on there was never more than a sprinkling of other black students in the schools I attended.

For most of my education I felt like the "sister from another planet."  No wonder I identified so strongly with my Purple Gurple Kozmic Kiddle.  

Girlfriend's space ship cracked up years ago and her antennae broke off so she couldn't communicate with the Funkadelic Mothership and ask them carry us home.

Thus we had to learn the ways of earthlings.

To see what the original space ship looked like, check out "Pictures of my Kozmic Kiddles Collection."

À Bientôt

Thanks to PANKS

I mostly prefer 1:6 scale dolls but last week Debbie Garret shared an informative post about the Family Corners dolls on her Black Doll Collecting blog and I had to admire the beautiful pieces of 1:12 scale furniture Vanessa Morrison of Van's Doll Treasures dug up from her basement.  I can't afford such fine furnishings, but a few years ago when I found some decent-looking 1:12 scale pieces at Dollar Tree, I snapped them up.  I not only bought several rooms of this furniture for myself, I bought duplicates of each piece and snuck them into my niece's 1:12 doll house.  Yes, I am part of a a new demographic category marketers have identified that tends to spend as much as $3,000 a year on goods and services for the children in their lives -- PANKS, professional aunties with no kids. So this photo story is dedicated to all the PANKS out there!

"So how was your trip, Sis?  We're so happy to have you with us."

"The flight was a breeze but I couldn't wait to get here and see the baby.  I can't believe my little brother is a dad!"

Later the proud parents prepare to venture out without their precious for the first time since she was born.  "Are you sure you don't mind babysitting, Sis?"

"I'm thrilled to get some quality time with my niece."

The baby fusses a little after mom and dad leave but Denise rocks her and croons to her until she goes back to sleep.

Meanwhile Kurt and Toya have taken a hotel room for the night...

The bed that matches the rest of this Dollar Tree furniture is too short to be in scale but that doesn't bother the amorous couple.  The dresser seems to be just the right height!

À Bientôt

Kiddles 1

Ms. Leo recently catalogued many of the infant and toddler-sized dolls that add joy to our 1:6 scale doll families so I am chiming in to show that before there were Kellys, there were Kiddles.

Mattel marketed these 2 1/2" - 3 1/2" dolls as a separate brand but I usually used them as babies and toddlers in my Barbie families.

Lola Liddle was the first Kiddle I received.

She is one of the original 24 Kiddles introduced in 1966.  She wore a red sleeveless shirt with a white sailor collar and white pants.

She also had a sailboat and a plastic sailor's cap.

I no longer have her boat and  I cut her hair at some point because one of my Barbie families needed a son.

Babe Biddle came with a yellow convertible sports car (not the one in this picture) and she had a blue headscarf to keep the wind from mussing her hair.

I no longer have the car but she is on her original body and wearing her original dress.

Windy Fliddle came with a little plane.

I still have her pilot's helmet and jumpsuit.

Since her hair was short, the Zacker family adopted her as a son.

At some point I upgraded "Bert" to this taller, unidentified body.

My mother confiscated Soapy Siddle from some hapless child who was playing with her in class.

She presented the doll to me at the start of a trip to see our paternal grandparents.  While Miss Siddle was wearing her red striped bathrobe, I never had the claw foot tub that came with her.

Still she kept me occupied for hours on that long drive.

 À Bientôt

Dawn

Since MGA Entertainment introduced the Bratz dolls in 2001, the "girls with a passion for fashion" have given Barbie a stiff run for the money.  Mattel and MGA spent over 5 years in court each arguing that the other had copied its designs.  In the 1970s, however, Barbie faced an even more popular rival -- she stood only 6.5" tall and her name was Dawn. 

Original Dawn dress

Topper, a brand of the Deluxe Reading company, produced Dawn dolls in mass quantities from 1970-1973.  Reading's strategy had been to place dolls and other toys for sale in grocery chains and variety stores rather than in department stores.  The space on the top most shelf of the supermarket aisle was a dead zone where shoppers were not likely to look for grocery items.  Yet a child seated in a shopping cart could easily see Reading's brightly packaged toys there and the inexpensive prices made parents more willing to humor their children's whims. 

Dawn's diminutive size also enabled smaller retailers such as drugstores and five and dime stores to carry and display the full line where they couldn't dedicate enough shelf space to fit the full line of Barbie dolls and accessories.

2003 repro Dale

Further, a girl could fit a dozen Dawn dolls and a large selection of the original 44 outfits in a compact case where a colony of Barbies and their paraphernalia would threaten to overrun the house.

Mattel fought back with the Rock Flowers dolls.

Topper, however, also used television advertising effectively and gained a strong foothold in the market. 

I don't remember seeing Dawn commercials or Dawn displays in the stores when I was growing up but I did have a lot of fun with a set of Dawn paper dolls.  It may be that Dawn was disappearing from the shelves by the time I became aware of her for unfortunately, her small size made it difficult for Topper to come up with enough new fashion ideas to keep girls interested.

2003 repro Dale

Having started with a Model Agency, then released dolls with "Dancing," "Flower Fantasy," and "Majorette" themes, as the company lurched towards bankruptcy in 1973 its designers were unable to invent fresh scenarios for the characters.

Starr Doll by JPI attempted to recapture this niche between 1994 and 1998 with a line of 7 dolls who were models for the Starr Model agency.

I bought Toya, the African American one at a Toys R Us in Miami in 1994.  Later in the 90s I found her a husband and daughter at KB Toys in New Orleans.

I don't remember who made them or what they were called.  There was a corresponding adult female doll as well but I didn't purchase her because I already had Toya and she was not interested in sharing the man.

Still I gave two of these families to the daughters of a friend.  The girls' parents approved of the fact that the baby was packaged with the father instead of with a single mother.  They took the opportunity to impress upon their daughters that they should get a husband first before they have a baby.  :-)

My original Dale and Dawn dolls became body donors for Little Kiddles who were members of my Barbie families but in 2006 I purchased this Toy-O-Rama reproduction Dale doll and several outfits at K-B Toys in Savannah, GA.  

Toya rolled her eyes, sucked her teeth, and grumbled about "that man-stealing heifer" until I explained that she was homeboy's sister.  Then she was very happy to borrow Dale's clothes.  

The repro versions of Dawn did not last long in the market but you can find them and many of the original dolls and fashions in good condition on eBay.

Sources accessed 1/17/2013

"Dawn Doll Archive"

"Dawn Dolls:  Tiny Doll Stars of the 1970s"

"Dawn Doll by Topper:  eBay Guides"

"Starr Doll by JPI Archive"

À Bientôt

Bratzillas Wardrobe Malfunction

It looks like MGA has committed to continue with the taller Bratzilla's bodies.  Yesterday I spotted the new Magic Night Out girls in Target.  I like the fact that these dolls have feet but unfortunately Cloetta Spoletta had suffered a wardrobe malfunction:

The package was intact so I guess she just had a wild night.  :-)

À Bientôt

Sweater Girls

Thanks to the generosity of Ms. Leo, Heidi has a warm sweater to wear on her ski vacation.

Heidi and Bianca hope to spend a few days on the slopes before the semester starts up again.

I'm usually not lucky with contests so I was thrilled to win the sweater give away.  I especially like the snowflake detail on this sweater.

I made Bianca's sweater sometime in my teens.

It is the only sweater I have ever knitted and no-one has worn it for years because it is so hard to put on.

Bianca is thankful that Vanessa of Van's Doll Treasures shared her trick of covering dolls hands with saran wrap while dressing them in sweaters.  Otherwise she would not have gotten this modeling gig!

À Bientôt