Remind me...

[gerisullivan]

...to never, ever go to a toy auction in person. It's hard enough to resist pushing the "bid now" button on my computer screen while watching and waiting for the single item I'm there for to come up to bid.

I do love living in the future, though -- living in the future and having friends and loved ones who turn bad ideas into good ones.

I'll explain more in another 283 items. In the meanwhile, what were your favorite childhood toys? I never had a Barbie doll, not a single one, and I don't remember ever wanting one. But Pepper? Pepper was a great doll. I so envied her hair -- you could curl it up over your finger, or under around it -- every curl always held in place the way they never, ever did with my own hair. There are several genuine Pepper dolls out there. Ideal apparently kept changing her hair -- blonde, brunette, redhead, short, then shoulder-length. All in the pursuit of more sales, no doubt.

Pepper was Tammy's little sister, but I neither my older sister or I had a Tammy doll and I was never interested in Tammy. One doll was enough. You got one doll, then expanded out with clothes and accessories for her. That was the norm for the late 1950s and early '60s neighborhood that I grew up in.

Sue's doll was "Jill" doll, of Jan, Jill, and Jeff fame. I mostly remember the Jill and Jan wardrobe shown in the top image here. (Jan's name was on the other door.)

This palomino horse was quite likely the toy I played with the most. I had it for years and never tired of putting the bridle on, taking it off, attaching the stirrups, adjusting the cinch strap, and more. Whatever vinyl they used for all those little bits certainly had endurance. One of the connection points on the bridle eventually broke, but not until years after I'd stopped playing with it regularly.

Edited to add: My palomino couldn't have been Dallas, since he wasn't introduced until 15+ years after I played with mine. And further reflection recalls that my horse's main and tail were hard plastic, not hair. But the one-leg-raised pose is the same, and all the fiddly bits, too. I suspect a reworking of an earlier toy horse and accessories lead to the creation of Dallas. Darned if I can remember my horse's brand name, certain though I am that it had one.

What were your faves?

Comments

[pameladean]

I had Madame Alexander's Ginnie dolls. Their great appeal was that their knees bent. You could see the joints if they wore short skirts or shorts, but it was still much cooler than a doll with stiff legs. I had five or six of them so that they could have proper adventures. I really wanted a Barbie doll to be the grownup who went away (really -- all the children's books of my childhood required it), but had to make do with a Tammy, who looked plenty grown-up to my 8-year-old self. She went, with all the Steiff animals, to Africa to study science while her large and apparently fatherless (I hated Ken, for some reason, and in any case my mother would not allow either one of them in the house) brood went to fantasy universes and talked to fantasy animals.

My other favorite toy was my mother's old dollhouse, which I populated with eraser animals from the St. Louis Zoo. And my other other favorite was a basic set of wooden blocks. Those were priceless.

P.

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Eraser animals! I remember those!

Wooden blocks -- priceless and timeless. Then again, I also had a weakness for Tinkertoys, Lincoln Logs, and even those big cardboard bricks we played with in kindergarten. I was never into metal or plastic building -- Erector sets, Legos, and their ilk such simply didn't appeal. But wood? I loved (and still love) playing with things made of wood.

Thank you for telling me about your Ginnie dolls. I love that Tammy and the Steiff animals went off to Africa to study science! It's almost as if the real animals had to be out of the way for the Ginnie kids to be able to talk to their fantasy counterparts.

[pameladean]

You are probably right about why the real animals had to be bundled off with the adult.

I had thirty or forty eraser animals. Where did you get yours? They were so great.

P.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

Slight correction: Vogue made Ginny; Madame Alexander made Muffie. Both started with non-bending knees but later had bending knees. (As you know, Bob, I'm older than you.) There were also Ginger, Pam, Gigi, and a host of others. I loved that size doll but never had more than one at a time, as i recall.

[pameladean]

Oh, fascinating. My mother was convinced that they were made by Madame Alexander. I had a couple of other Madame Alexander dolls, too, or so I was told -- Marybelle, the Doll that Gets Well, is the only one I can remember. She came with an arm and a leg cast (removable) and stick-on spots for measles and chicken pox, and so on. She was much larger, though, and I liked smaller dolls better.

P.

[galtine1.livejournal.com]

My mom is a "Ginnie" -- and still had a couple of her MA-Ginnie dolls until a couple of years ago. Came to terms that her two daughters were never going to want/love them like she did so eBayed them. And then bought herself a small weekend getaway. lol