The Dakin Astronaut Dolls are vinyl Barbie and Ken clones. The copyright date of 1987 on the box means they were probably introduced in 1988. NASA may have wanted to project a positive image of the Space Shuttle Program following the January 1986 Challenger disaster, in which the orbiter disintegrated shortly after takeoff, killing the entire crew. The next Shuttle missions were deployed in the fall of 1988.
The female Astronaut has a ball-jointed neck, and jointed shoulders, hips and knees. She has high heel feet under her astro-boots. She has painted blue eyes and rooted platinum blonde hair in a bubble cut. She is unmarked, except for a blank rectangle shape on her back.
The male Astronaut is 11.5″ tall (29 cm) and jointed at the neck, shoulders and hips. His arms and legs are flexible, but his knees and elbows aren’t jointed. He has painted brown eyes and black hair, with long sideburns and an engaging smile. He is marked MADE IN CHINA on his back.
They wear matching space suits of silver lamé, which is prone to rubbing off. The “helmet” has a vinyl face shield, and is elasticized around the neck. The helmet, gloves and boots are lined with fleece to make them look puffy. They each wear a backpack filled with a square of foam rubber. The suits have a NASA patch on the chest, a Space Shuttle Program patch on the right shoulder, and an American flag patch on the left shoulder.
The back of the box gives a little bit of history about astronauts. The Astronauts are packaged with a white plastic X-shaped stand, similar to but shorter than the ones that came with mod-era Barbies.
Many vinyl glamour dolls of the late 1950s and early 1960s are marked 14R on the back of their heads, sometimes with other marks as well. These dolls have a wide variety of hair colors, hair styles and body types.
This example is 19″ tall and marked 14R-1 on the back of her head, and PAT. PENDING in an oval on the right side of her blow-molded torso. This is the first time I have ever seen a side marking on a glamour doll. Her torso is very straight, with a small bust and hips. In addition to the usual neck/shoulder/hip joints, she has jointed wrists as well. Her dark blonde hair is very short and may have been trimmed.
Wearing a vintage mommy-made dress, all ready for display!
Vogue’s Ginny was the most popular doll of the 1950s. This 8″ hard plastic cutie was affordable for most families, and she had an amazing array of extra outfits for all occasions. This booklet was produced in 1955 and features the straight leg walker version of Ginny. In addition to her fabulous wardrobe, check out all the wonderful accessories that were available as well.
Kinder Crowd and Gym Kits fashions.Merry Moppets and Tiny Miss fashions.Fun Time and Bridal Trousseau fashions.And Away We Go and Bon-Bons fashions.Ginny’s Gym, Fitted Bridal Chest, furniture and other accessories.Wardrobe trunks and cases and budget fashions.Coats and accessories.
The House of Nisbet, better to known to collectors by the name of founder Peggy Nisbet, made dolls in England beginning in 1952. Many of their dolls depict the British royal family and historical characters from the UK and the US. Most Nisbet dolls are made from hard plastic but the company occasionally used other materials. The firm was sold to Dakin in 1988 and then to Diane Jones International, who produced some reproductions in Wales. The last Nisbet dolls were made in 1999.
Royal family dolls including Prince Charles and Princess Diana.Kings and Queens of England, Archbishop of Canterbury and Pope John Paul II dolls.Royalty and nobility dolls.King Henry VIII and his wives, William Shakespear, Anwar Sadat, Margaret Thatcher and Peggy Nisbet dolls.Dolls in uniform, Scottish dolls, Winston Churchill and his mother.Pearly Queen, Santa Claus, St. Nicholas, Father Christmas and French historical dolls.Historical eras and British Isles dolls.American historical dolls, movie star and clown dolls.Ronald and Nancy Reagan, American Presidents, John Bull and Uncle Sam dolls.My Little Girl vinyl dolls – Parties and Romance.My Little Girl vinyl dolls – Parasols and Sunshine.My Little Girl vinyl dolls – Wedding Days.My Princess vinyl doll – HRH The Princess of Wales (Princess Diana).
Arranbee Doll Co. was founded in 1919 in New York City. In the early years of the company, they imported bisque head dolls from Armand Marseille and Simon & Halbig in Germany. They also sold all-bisque dolls and composition mama dolls, as well as doll hospital supplies including wigs, parts, and shoes. In 1925, they opened their own factory in New York manufacturing composition dolls. They kept up with changes in the industry, switching to hard plastic in the ’40s and vinyl in the ’50s. The company made many of its own dolls, but also purchased dolls from other manufacturers to dress and market under their own name. While not being ground-breakingly original, Arranbee dolls are noted for their beauty and high quality, both in the dolls and their clothing. Company founder and president William Rothstein died unexpectedly in 1957; his family continued the firm for a short while, then sold it to the Vogue Doll Co. Vogue continued the Arranbee name and some of the lines until 1961. Fortunately for collectors, many Arranbee dolls are marked with R&B or their names. Here are some of their more notable dolls:
Dream Baby or My Dream Baby was the first of Arranbee’s dolls to have a name. There is a closed-mouth version (A.M. mold number 341) and an open-mouth version (mold number 351) with bisque heads. Some dolls have stuffed cloth bodies with compo or rubber hands, while others have full jointed compo bodies. After the company started making their own composition dolls, they continued using the Dream Baby name. There is a wide variety of compo Dream Babies, including dolls with painted eyes or sleep eyes, molded hair or mohair wigs, in a range of sizes. Dream Baby continued into the ’50s in a hard plastic version.
Composition Dream Baby with molded hair and sleep eyes. See also full image and marking.
Nancy was first made in composition starting in 1931. A few different head molds were used for this molded hair Patsy-type doll (complete with bent right arm) who ranged from 11″ to 14″ in height. Nancy was also made in a line of 16″ to 20″ chubbier toddler dolls with sleep eyes and mohair wigs.
Composition Nancy doll with molded hair and painted eyes.Composition Nancy doll with sleep eyes and mohair wig. She has crazing and damage to her face. See also full view, shoes and box label.
Debu’teen was introduced in 1938. She represents a young teenage girl, with a slim body and a wistful expression, and was made in sizes from 13″ to 22″. Larger dolls have a compo socket head on a shoulder plate, with cloth torso and compo limbs, while the smaller dolls are all composition. She was sold in a wide variety of well-made outfits including school clothes, dressy clothes, sporting outfits and military uniforms. The Sporting Women series of dolls by Vogue greatly resemble Debu’teen, and were probably made by Arranbee for Vogue in an unmarked version.
17.5″ Debu’teen doll has a composition head, shoulder plate and limbs on a cloth torso. See also her beautiful outfit and her body.
Around the World and Storybook dolls from the late ’30s and early ’40s are 9″ all-composition characters with molded hair and painted eyes. The same doll was used for both boy and girl characters, such as Snow White, Pirate, Dutch Boy and Girl, etc.
Nannette is a composition and cloth mama doll with swing legs. She was sold from 1937 until 1943, when the spelling of her name was changed to Nanette. She was sold until about 1947, when the company switched production to hard plastic dolls. The hard plastic version of Nanette is a little girl doll, virtually indistinguishable from Nancy Lee. In the fifties, Nanette was made with a vinyl head and hard plastic body. The last version of Nanette was an 18″ all vinyl high-heeled glamour doll.
Nancy Lee is a true little girl doll. She did not have the chubbiness of the Nancy and Nannette toddlers, but she was not quite as slim as Debu’teen. The compo version, who made her debut in 1943, generally has smoky eye shadow. The hard plastic version was sold from the late ’40s into the late ’50s.
Composition Nancy Lee doll in her original skating outfit. Photo by Withington Auction, Inc.14″ hard plastic Nancy Lee in her original taffeta gown with wrist tag. Photo by Withington Auction, Inc.
12″ Little Angel and 10″ Littlest Angel are toddler fashion dolls. Many extra outfits were available for them. Little Angel was not as popular as her smaller sibling, and was discontinued in 1955. Littlest Angel was later made with jointed knees, and starting in 1956 had a vinyl head with rooted hair. Littlest Angel was one of the dolls that Vogue continued to sell under the R&B name after they bought the company.
Hard plastic Littlest Angel doll. Photo by Nancy McKee.
Coty Girl is a 10″ vinyl glamour doll made to compete with Ideal’s Little Miss Revlon. She had many extra outfits and was advertised extensively. This doll is very difficult to identify because she is marked only with a P in a circle, as were many other small glamour dolls of the era. The 18″ Coty Girl is the same doll as the high-heeled Nanette. See this site for more info on Coty Girl dolls.
18″ Coty Girl doll.
Text and photos copyright 2006-2024 by Zendelle Bouchard unless otherwise noted.
In the 1950s and ’60s, Cameo began making Kewpie and some of their other characters in vinyl, but also licensed other companies to manufacture them. This makes identification difficult, unless the original packaging is present, as they may be marked with the Cameo name while actually made by other manufacturers. Cameo closed in 1969, but founder Joseph Kallus retained his copyrights and continued to license them to various other firms. The dolls pictured above include an 8-inch Kewpie marked Jesco, and two smaller dolls marked Cameo. Kewpies were made in many different sizes, from miniature to child size.
Kewpies finally got fashionable in the ’50s and ’60s. Kuddly Kewpie, like most of the vinyl versions, was sold in various outfits.
Kuddly Kewpie photos courtesy of eBay seller your-favorite-doll. The doll on the far right is 12 inches tall.
There were variations of the standard Kewpie dolls as well: Kewpie Gal has chin length molded hair; Ragsy Kewpie, which is a vinyl version of the original cloth doll, has a body molded in color and is jointed only at the neck.
Ragsy Kewpies made by AMSCO under license from Cameo.Photos courtesy of RubyLane seller Romancing the Doll.
Another sweet Kewpie by AMSCO. Photo courtesy of RubyLane seller Romancing the Doll.
Most vinyl Kewpies were flange jointed, but the unusual doll pictured below is strung together with elastic cord.
For much more information on Kewpies and their history, visit this page. Sadly, the Kewpie trademark is no longer owned by a doll manufacturer, but by a Japanese mayonnaise company.
Vogue made an all-vinyl baby version of their popular Ginny doll beginning in 1959. In the first two years of production, she was made in an 18″ size only. (This is the doll pictured above. She is missing her shoes and socks.) In 1961, 12″, 16″ and 20″ sizes were added. These were all drink-and-wet babies. In 1962 and ’63, an 8″ doll that did not drink and wet was produced. Beginning in 1964, the 8″ doll had the drink and wet feature too. This causes confusion for collectors, as she was identical to Vogue’s 8″ Ginnette doll, and can only be conclusively identified by a wrist tag or original box. Ginny Baby was made in both molded hair and rooted hair versions, with sleep eyes. Rooted hair dolls were made in platinum blonde, dark blonde and brunette. Boxed outfits were sold separately.
Black dolls were available beginning in 1964, and possibly earlier. These were made from the same molds as the white dolls, with rooted black hair and brown sleep eyes.
In 1975, a 25″ doll was produced. Watch my video about the 25″ Ginny Baby here. That same year, a 12″ Ginny Baby will rooted red hair was sold. In 1978, a Ginny Shower ‘n Bath set was made with an 8″ painted eye doll.
Ad for the first Ginny Baby dolls in the March 1959 issue of Playthings magazine.
16″ Ginny Baby from the 1970s wears an orange knit coat with a white sleeveless dress underneath. This doll was made during the time when Vogue was a subsidiary of the Tonka Corporation.
Ginny Baby Shower n’ Bath
Tbis 1978 set includes an 8″ doll with painted eyes and rooted hair, with a bathtub and accessories.
American Character was founded in 1919 by brothers Jacob and Max Brock, with their partner Ed Schaefer. The company was one of the leading doll manufacturers in America for the next several decades. Collectors value the company’s composition dolls, but their hard plastic and vinyl dolls of the 50s and 60s, such as Sweet Sue, Toni, Tiny Tears, Tressy and Betsy McCall, are American Character’s enduring legacy.
The company’s early dolls were either all-composition, or had a composition head and limbs on a cloth body. The earliest dolls are marked “Aceedeecee” on the back of the head. Beginning in 1923, they began using the trade name “Petite,” and many of their compo dolls are marked and tagged with that name. Their popular baby dolls included Bottletot, with one hand molded to hold a bottle, and the smiling Happytot.
American Character composition dolls illustrated in the 1928 Sears catalog.
In 1929, American Character acquired the rights to make the Campbell Kid dolls, and produced an adorable version for a few years. Puggy was another all compo character made in the late 1920s. He is 13″ tall and has plenty of personality. Puggy’s Girlfriend (pictured below) was made from the same molds as the Campbell Kids.
During the Depression years of the 1930s, American Character remained successful, with little girl dolls including Sally Joy and Carol Ann Beery, a celebrity doll representing the daughter of Hollywood actor Wallace Beery. Sally was very similar to Effanbee’s popular Patsy family dolls. She could be purchased with either molded hair or a mohair wig, and in an all-composition version as well as one with a cloth body.
American Character also made rubber dolls during the 1930s and ’40s. Most of these dolls have not survived because rubber degrades over time. Rival dollmaker Effanbee won a lawsuit against American Character in 1935 over the company’s introduction of a rubber drink-and-wet doll. Ed Schaefer left the company in 1939 to start his own firm making rubber dolls, and a second generation of Brock family members joined the team.
Despite the lawsuit and the challenges of production during World War II, the company continued to develop drink-and-wet babies, and in 1950 they debuted their most successful doll to date, Tiny Tears. Not only could this doll drink and wet, she could cry too! She was made with a hard plastic head and rubber body from 1950 to ’58; and with a hard plastic head and vinyl body from 1959 to ’61, in several sizes. The earlier dolls had molded hair or a caracul (baby lambskin) wig, later on she had synthetic hair rooted into a vinyl skullcap inset into the top of her head. Various vinyl versions of Tiny Tears were made in the 1960s.
Vinyl Tiny Tears pictured in the 1961 Sears catalog.
Hard plastic Sweet Sue is another iconic doll made by American Character during the mid-twentieth century. She was produced in sizes ranging from 15 to 31 inches. Early dolls had mohair wigs but most dolls have synthetic hair. Some dolls have various American Character markings on the back of the head, but many are unmarked, which is a source of confusion and consternation for collectors. Vinyl head versions of Sweet Sue were made as well.
Sweet Sue Sophisticate was the grownup version of Sweet Sue. Made in 14, 20, and 25 inch sizes, she had a mature figure and feet shaped to wear high heeled shoes. American Character’s version of Toni is nearly identical to Sweet Sue Sophisticate. She was made in four sizes from 10 to 25 inches. The 10 inch version had many extra outfits which could be purchased separately. Toni was a tie-in to Gillette’s Toni Home Permanent and came with a Playwave kit to style her hair.
Betsy McCall started life as a paper doll in McCall’s Magazine. She became three dimensional with Ideal’s vinyl version in 1952. In 1957, American Character began producing Betsy in an 8 inch hard plastic version. She was hugely popular and had many extra outfits available. Following the success of the 8 inch Betsy McCall, American Character produced a 14 inch size with a vinyl head in 1958. This version was only available for two years. There was also a 20 inch Betsy with flirty eyes; 22 and 29 inch dolls with a different face sculpt; and a 34 inch companion-size Betsy. None of these larger dolls had extra outfits like the original tiny Betsy.
8″ and 14″ Betsy McCall dolls by American Character.
Toodles was a name that American Character used over and over for baby dolls. There was a rubber version in the ’30s and a hard plastic version in the ’40s; but the all vinyl Toodles, made in several different versions in the 1950s and ’60s, is the one most well known today. She was a drink and wet baby, but lacked the crying feature of Tiny Tears. Later on there were infant, toddler and little girl versions of Toodles.
Infant Toodles
The company continued to innovate and experiment in the 1960s. Whimsies were all vinyl novelty dolls that were aimed at older kids and teenagers. They were produced in 1960 and ’61. A total of 17 different styles were made, including Annie the Astronut, Freddy the Friar, Trixie the Pixie and Wheeler the Dealer. Another doll, Hedda Get Bedda, is similar to the Whimsies, except that her head rotates with three different faces: a sick face, a sleeping face, and happy “all bedda” face.
American Character Whimsies – Dixie the Pixie and Tillie the Talker.
During this period American Character also produced Little Miss Echo, a 30-inch talking doll who worked by means of a tape recorder in her chest. Sally Says, Babie Says and Babie Babbles were other talking dolls made by the company.
Tressy, introduced in 1963, was American Character’s answer to Mattel’s Barbie. Tressy had a unique feature – “growing” hair that could be made longer or shorter by means of a T-shaped key inserted into her back. Like Barbie, Tressy had extra oufits and a little sister. Tressy’s friend Mary Makeup had very pale coloring that could be enhanced with colored pencils. Tressy was very popular and is commonly found today, although her extra outfits and playsets are harder to find.
In 1965, American Character introduced their line of Blue Ribbon dolls, which were not advertised on television, so could be offered at a lower price point. Pouting Penny and Butterballs were part of this line.
They also experimented with unusual types of dolls during this decade. Popi was a Barbie-sized doll with a “pop-apart” torso to make her easier to dress. Her molded vinyl wigs enabled her look to be changed quickly. A vinyl figure of Topo Gigio, a character mouse from the Ed Sullivan Show, was also introduced. A line of action figures from the tv show Bonanza were the last items produced by American Character.
The company name was changed to American Doll and Toy Corp. in 1960, although they continued to use the American Character trademark; they also did business under the name American Miniature Doll Corp. during this same era. By 1968, they were no longer in business. Some of the company’s molds and trademarks were sold to Mattel and Ideal.
For more information, read Judith Izen’s excellent book. Click the image below to view it on Amazon.
The Flintstones was an animated television show that ran in prime time from 1960 to 1966, and has been re-run almost continuously since then. It spawned several spinoff shows and movies. The show featured a stone-age family and their friends dealing with the everyday life and concerns of mid-20th century America. Pebbles, daughter of main characters Fred and Wilma Flintstone, was introduced in 1963, near the end of the third season. Originally, it was planned that Fred and Wilma would have a son, Fred Jr., but the head of marketing for the production company convinced the producers to change it to a girl, because “girl dolls sell a lot better than boy dolls.”
The Ideal Toy Corporation made several different versions of Pebbles, but this 14″ baby with vinyl head and limbs and peach-colored cloth body was the first. Pebbles has rooted red hair and painted features, with side-glancing gray eyes and an open/closed smiling mouth. Her left hand is bent backward. At the top of her head, Pebbles’ hair is rooted in a circular pattern, around a bald spot, and gathered into a ponytail holding her plastic bone in place.
Pebbles wears a cotton flannel diaper held on with safety pins (yes, we gave children sharp objects back then!) and a leopard-print dress with a small bow at the neck. She originally came wrapped in a yellow flannel blanket edged with leopard-print binding.
Pebbles was one of the last dolls sculpted by Bernard Lipfert, who designed many of the best-loved dolls of all time, including Ideal’s Shirley Temple, Toni and Patti Playpal.
I don’t know anything about dollmaker Sarah Andrews, so if you have a doll of hers, or any more information, please leave a comment. If you could message me on Facebook with a photo I could add to this page, that would be very much appreciated.
1840 Mill Girl is 16″ tall (40.6 cm) and has a porcelain shoulder head and porcelain arms, on a cloth body.
Her facial features are hand painted. I can’t tell if she is marked because to take her bodice off would require completely unlacing it.
She has an unusual style of construction that I have not seen before, with a uniquely shaped lower torso and button-jointed legs that allow her to sit nicely.
She has a red wig with a center part and braid on either side from the part, gathered into a bun at the back with a piece of nylon stocking to hold it in place.
The Mill Girl wears a two piece dress of brown and white cotton, with a short-sleeved jacket with a peplum that laces up the front with thread. Under the dress she wears a white cotton chemise and petticoat, and she has a white cotton apron as well. She wears black knit stockings to just above the knee, and vinyl lace-up boots. A hand knit scarf completes her outfit.
Her paper hang tag indicates that she is #18 of an edition of 50.
I purchased this doll at an antiques flea market in Dover, New Hampshire. Many cities in New England, including Dover, were centers for textile manufacturing in the 1840s, and the young women who worked there were known as Mill Girls. The Lowell (MA) National Historical Park preserves the history of the mills, and includes a Mill Girls Boardinghouse Exhibit where you can see how they lived.
I found some other dolls by Sarah Andrews on Worthpoint. Click on the photo to go to the page on their website.
