My Childhood Dolls - Part Three

Here concludes my posts of my dolls from childhood.

The last two larger dolls I have had since childhood are Katie Kopycat and 'Linda' my Palitoy 'Walking Talking' doll.

Both of these dolls I got while still living in England so I would have been under the age of six when I got them.  

Katie is missing her original shoes - I must try and find a pair for her.  Linda is wearing a non-original dress, although I do still have her original dress.  She is also wearing a 'bracelet' my Dad made for her.

Katie has long since lost her desk unfortunately - I don't think it still remains at my Mum and Dad's but maybe I will check next time I am over there visiting them.

I have shown this photo before, of me with my doll, when we lived in Glenfield New Zealand in the 1970s.

Last but by no means least is my little Perfekta doll who also travelled from England to New Zealand with me as a child and then back to England with me as an adult!

I am not sure what she would have worn originally, it has been a very long time since she had her original clothes..

I also remember having a baby doll that my sister drew all over with marker pen...  My Mum spent hours scrubbing and cleaning it all off, in the days before Oxy10!    Not sure what happened to that doll, I believe I may have given her away.

I must take a group photo of these childhood dolls.

My Childhood Dolls - Part Two

Along with Barbie and Skipper another teenage fashion doll I had as a child was 'Tressy'.  I must have been younger than six years old when I got her as I remember getting her when I was still living in England which we left when I was six years old.   She was a brunette second issue/edition Tressy with eyes that looked straight ahead.  No one had one in New Zealand at the time, although eventually I met one friend who had a blonde Tressy.  I had mine right through until I was 16 years of age when we moved home.  When we arrived to our new home - we moved ourselves, packing all our furnture, boxes etc...on the back of an open deck work truck of my Dad's  I discovered that one of my boxes was missing.  It included my favourite dressing gown, and Tressy.  I can't remember what other items it contained, but these two remain firmly entrenched in my memory.  I am pretty sure my Dad back tracked to see if he could find the missing box but we never did find it.  I am not sure if any other things were lost along the way.  Anyway I still had her key and her Fairie Glen Wedding dress.

Fast forward many years and I was back living in England and home educating my oldest son.  I had just bought a book for him off Ebay and discovered the seller also had Tressy dolls and a website and yahoo group - which I promptly joined.   I made some great friends on that group and we had a fun time - and yes I ended up collecting Tressy dolls in my quest to find my 'childhood' doll.  I never achieved this goal and several years ago sold most of my collection.  I have very recently sold all but one of the Tressy dolls I kept.  While searching up prices I found 'my' doll.   Sure I had bought ones very similar to her in the past, but when I went through them while selling them a few years ago none were 'quite right'.  Anyway, I discovered the seller was one of the friends I had made on the group all those years ago.  I bought the doll and now have a replacement for 'MY' childhood doll.  She is so similar in every way, that despite my thoughts a while ago about not being able to replace special childhood toys, which I still believe, there is a certain satisfaction in discovering one VERY similar. I will keep the one other Tressy I have for now - she is a blonde first edition and reminds me a little of my friend Beverly's doll.   It is almost like 'two friends' being reunited.  They will have each others company.  

Her 'arrival' photo.

I spent sometime going through my collection of Tressy clothing today - I need to decide what to keep and what to sell on.  I am thinking I will sell the mint in box/package clothing and keep the rest.  

I dressed her in an outfit I made years ago.  It was fun and I think I am going to enjoy rediscovering 'my' doll.

I think she is lovely!

Below is a photo of the 1st Issue blonde Palitoy Tressy that I have decided to keep for now.  She is all I have left of my rather larger Tressy collection.

I need to find the poor girl some shoes!

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Oh and some good news, I have found some new arms for Skipper!

My Childhood Dolls - Part One

Sorting through the doll collection is much like doing a stock take.  I am having a good look at who I have and what they mean to me.  As I was doing this I thought I would do a series of posts of dolls from my childhood and other dolls I am keeping and what they mean to me.

Some of the dolls that at this stage I will be keeping are:

My skipper doll collection. 

I remember when I got my first Skipper doll.  We were living in Glenfield in New Zealand and she came to me in a basket with a lot of clothes, all of which I still have and some of which were original Skipper clothes.  So I know she was second hand when she came to me.  I really loved my little Skipper doll and remember many happy hours playing with her.  Unfortunately when I left home she was left in a toy box and she got chewed by some puppies!  So I am on the look out for a new arm for her.  I did buy a Malibu Skipper with the sole intent of transplanting an arm, but felt she was 'too good' to do such a thing...really I need a more damaged Skipper with a good arm to do such a thing.  It is quite a few years though since I last looked so maybe I should look again. 

Skipper Best Buy Fashion #8610 from 1972

For a while as an adult (started during a search for an arm!) I collected these dolls and this is my Skipper Doll collection.

The nurses uniform, the bikini and the yellow dress are clothes from my childhood. as are the few pieces below.

The green dress is: Skipper Best Buy Fashion #9125 from 1975

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My Barbie Dolls.

I've never really collected Barbie dolls, much preferring the Skipper, as they reminded me more of my childhood, although I still do have my childhood Barbie, who arrived new not long after Skipper if my memory serves me correctly.

My barbie is on the right in her swim suit - she has greening on her face and pieced ears which have also greened!  Oh dear.....  Not sure how I came about her 'twin' sister, but I think she arrived when I got some of the Skipper dolls.  I do remember wanting 'Super Star Barbie' when she came out and was very excited to hear my Dad tell my Mum that he had got the 'SB' one year just before Christmas....turns out he got me a skateboard instead - a blue one!  After the initial disappointment I was actually thrilled with my new skateboard and had many an enjoyable time on it - oh and a fair few spills and scrapes as well. They chose correctly!

I have three boxed barbies.  One is my Graduation Barbie, who yes I got when I graduated with my BA Mus (Hons) .   The second I think my MIL gave me for Christmas one year, and I am not sure how the Anniversary Barbie came into my possession.

I did have more, but I sold them a few years ago.

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My Pippa Dolls

Some other little dolls I have from my childhood are my Pippa dolls.

Dancing Tammie on the left, Pippa, my sisters Pippa in the dress and one I found in a charity shop last year.  She didn't have any clothes when I found her, but fortunately I had a spare set for her.

So that is 20 dolls so far in my 'To Keep' collection.

Jacko the Monkey

Following on from my post over a month ago regarding Jacko...and after more thinking and searching I decided when seeing one that looked just like mine on Evilbay to go for it, IF I could get him for a good price - I didn't want to spend much as after all this was kind of an experiment about replacing a beloved childhood toy and memory.

Anyway he arrived this morning and these are my observations so far:

He looks the same...wearing the same outfit, but something wasn't quite right...I couldn't yet put my finger on just what.

I held his hand and then I knew!  His hands are a slightly different shape...they weren't MY Jacko's hands.  Why was this I wondered?  Surely all their molds are the same?

But wait there was something else as well, and it wasn't until I was showing my husband pictures of other Jacko the Monkeys on the internet that I realised the difference and yes there were differences....subtle ones, but definitely differences which perhaps account for why I just knew this one was not like mine.  Perhaps they changed the molds and styles every few years.

Certainly this lad is in better condition than mine was pre-rat destruction.  Mine had been well loved and his hair was less plush, in fact I think his hair was also a slightly different material.  I seem to recall the black hair being less fur like.  Difficult to explain.  How I wish I had kept the 'pieces' of my Jacko that remained.  I can't remember what happened to them.  Whether I threw them away, buried them or left them to my poor Dad to deal with.  In hindsight, I should have tried keeping some of him, but was too upset I think.  My husband remembers me being pretty distraught over the damage to the various dolls and teddies.

Anyway back to the differences.  My Jacko had white bands round his arms and his trousers didn't come in at the feet, but were more like trousers.  Perhaps if I found one like him it would have his hands?  This could be a slippery slope...of course, the quest to replace him 'properly'.

I think perhaps this Jacko is a later model than mine, a 'younger' chap.

But saying that, this Jacko who has arrived, who yes needs a bit of a clean up,  (how to clean fabric is a tricky one) and also needs a bit of stitching along his back seam, but nothing serious, is in otherwise lovely condition.  His fur is soft and he has that cheeky Jacko face.   His eyes are a bit filmy.  The eyelids seem to be covered in something, but I have given them a quick clean and it will come off.

I look at him and he brings a smile to my face, which is partly what it is all about.  

Will he stay?  Most probably....time will tell.

Will I keep searching?  Who knows?!

At least I know I have made a bit of space for him but letting some of the other dolls travel to new homes where hopefully they are fulfilling someone else's needs, desires, or collections.

Here he is meeting the other cheeky monkey members that live here!

Can you replace a childhood toy/memory?

Quite a few years back, pre music degree and everything else I collected Tressy dolls.  It started when I came across someone selling them when I bought a book for my son from her on Ebay.  She had a website about these dolls.   I had a brunette second edition Tressy when I was a child that I used to play with a lot.  I remember playing with her with a friend called Beverley when we lived in Glenfield, Auckland, New Zealand and was so surprised that someone else had one as they were not common in NZ.  We had taken mine over with us when we emigrated there in 1973.  Sadly on one of our many moves she went missing.  Whether she was lost in a box of other things that went missing - I seem to recall a dressing gown going missing during that move, or whether my mother gave her away (she did that with several of my dolls without asking me) I don't really know.  All I know is I went on a quest to replace that childhood doll and ended up with rather a collection.  I sold most of that collection just over a year ago and keep three, plus three Toots.  I discovered in this quest that you can't really replace these childhood dolls/toys.  There is something missing from them...perhaps some essence or the like.  It is difficult to explain.  But they are just not 'the same'.  One of the ones I kept back is very much like my brunette childhood Tressy and I put the dress I still had on her, but it still hasn't made her 'mine' even though I must have had her for over 15 years now, which in fact is probably longer than I actually had my childhood doll for as I think I got her when I was between the ages of 4 and 6 and she got lost when I was about 16.  So it isn't how long you have a doll for either it seems.  So these remaining six dolls are soon to move on to new homes.

This is not my photo, but an image from Google.  

(My Jacko was dressed the same way and I miss him so much!)

I am often tempted to replace 'Jacko' my monkey who sadly got eaten by rats when Mum moved him and some of my other bears and dolls from the protection of inside a wardrobe in the house, to a box in an old dilapidated shed in the grove.  Why she did this I still do not understand to this day as it was just asking for trouble...Yes, rats ate him :- (  I was devastated and if the truth be told I still feel very upset about this.  Several very precious to me bears and dolls were destroyed.  I should be able to 'let this go' but I do find it difficult to do so.  Why is it even as a 'mature' adult I find this upsetting?  I remember when I discovered what had happened.  I had planned to bring these remaining childhood toys back to England with me when we were in New Zealand visiting my family.  I went to get them and they were no longer stored where I had left them...in their place were my brother in law's father's exercise bike and things...  items that COULD have been stored in a shed without fear of damage from rats!  Where were my dolls I asked?  In the shed in the grove.  I went out to get them and was horrified what I found.  My special pyjama case teddy that my Dad had brought home with him one day after work had been eaten.  Jacko had really been damaged beyond repair....I tried washing him in their washing machine - apparently my poor Dad was still finding bits of foam in the drum for months afterwards!  My doll had her thumb chewed off...and various other things.  But these are the three I remember the most as they were the three most precious to me.  Three toys that had travelled to New Zealand with me as a six year old.  I remember I had had to part with several bears and dolls before we left England for New Zealand and can only think that this is why these three were just so much more special as they were the ones I could keep.  I still feel this loss.  

Anyway, despite my temptations to replace Jacko, I remind myself of previous attempts to 'replace childhood dolls/toys' and realise that even if I did, it wouldn't be MY Jacko.   

So not sure why I am writing this really. Just trying to work through various things that seem to be jumbling around in my mind at the moment, and perhaps it is part of working through the process of cutting back on various possessions I have and working out why I have some of these items. Sometimes we just need to let go.  I am not very good at it.

Reminiscing.

On one of the doll groups I belong to we have been discussing doll collections and just how many we have, or feel comfortable with and whether we have them on display or not.

I started 'stock taking' to see just how many I have which includes various dolls from my childhood.

Doing this I realised just what an eclectic collection I actually have, ranging from teeny tiny dolls to the largest which is a doll I got given before we moved from England to New Zealand when I was six years old.

Of course this then led me to scrabbling around up in the loft to find that particular childhood doll that travelled with me from England to New Zealand.

Here I am standing on the deck holding 'Linda' my doll.  My Mum is behind me and my sister to the side.

When I came back to England I couldn't bring a lot of things with me so left my 'precious' childhood toys which included Linda, Jacko the monkey and a stuffed bear pyjama case that my Dad bought me stored in a wardrobe in Mum and Dads house.  Sadly for reasons that will remain unclear to me, my Mum decided to move these things to a dilapidated shed in the grove.  Result:  Most of these precious toys got chewed/eaten or destroyed by rats.  I can't even begin to explain how much this upset me. Now thinking about it I realise that the only childhood toys from my first six years remaining are Peter Panda, a knitted kangaroo, Dougal, and Linda.  There is definitely a feeling of loss involved.  I had thought about replacing Jacko but when I have bought 'replacements' in the past I realised that they still aren't quite 'the same', something is missing.

Linda was the only one who made it out - albeit with a missing thumb!

In the very early days of Ebay I decided to try and replace her and bought a lookalike with a fringe and a brunette friend.

I dressed her in Linda's dress which for some reason I did have with me.  I know she had at least two dresses, so the other one was on Linda.

In 2007 my son brought her back to England with him when returning from a trip to New Zealand visiting family.

I have just retrieved her from the loft.  The first bit of fresh air she has seen for some time!

Still as pretty as ever.  She used to talk and walk.  She can still 'walk' but I am not sure if she can still talk.

Photo of her poor chewed thumb.

I have in the past thought of swapping her arm with the other girl...but I haven't done so as yet as I wonder if she will then not feel quite right...  

Kangaroo - I remember my Mum having to go back home from school after dropping me off searching for the baby joey who had dropped out of the pouch on the way to school.  I would only have been four or five at the time.

Peter Panda, A dear childhood friend who has been literally cuddled threadbare.

Dougal from the Magic Roundabout.