1960s » Vintage Doll Collector

Here’s something interesting I found last week. I don’t know much about him, but his guitar-shaped cardboard tag indicates he was made by Remco in 1964. He is missing the little booklet which came with him which featured photos of the Beatles. I think the term “mascot” means that he was sold as a decorative item for older kids, not a plaything for the little ones. He represents a generic Beatle rather than one of the individual members of the group. He looks most like Paul McCartney or George Harrison.

He is about 30″ tall and made of fabric and felt, with faux fur hair. Besides the guitar and booklet that he came with, he has no tags or other markings on him. His hands are like paws, with four felt fingers that look more like claws! Elastic straps on his hands enable him to hold the guitar. He seems to be a fairly rare item. The small Beatles dolls with vinyl heads made by Remco are a lot easier to find.

I have been slowly adding more pictures and descriptions to the Vogue page on the website. This company has an interesting history and I am enjoying getting more familiar with their dolls. I don’t remember ever having a Vogue doll as a child, although the company was located just a few miles from where I grew up in Boston. Here is a picture of Lil Imp, part of the Brikette line, from a Vogue ad. Both dolls were marketed as Ginny’s impish cousins. I love those glasses, don’t you?

I thought today I would share with you some photos that I just haven’t gotten around to putting on the website yet, but they deserve to be seen.
This is Jackie by Ideal. She is 15″ tall, all vinyl, and is quite rare. She was made in 1961, and according to Judith Izen’s book “Collector’s Guide to Ideal Dolls,” she was taken off the market after First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy objected to her name being used for the doll, although the doll looks nothing like her. The Jackie doll is very similar to Ideal’s Liz doll, who was also sold under the name Carol Brent in the Montgomery Ward catalog. The major difference is that Jackie has sleep eyes, while Liz/Carol’s eyes were painted.
Jackie is very high quality and is the epitome of a sophisticated fashion doll.

Spent most of today doing fall cleaning on the website (see yesterday’s post) and decided to celebrate by adding some new photos to the Vogue page. Some of them are composition dolls that are rarely seen. Take a look and let me know what you think.

Here’s a really cool 1959 Brikette ad, probably from Playthings magazine, a toy industry publication.

Tonight I happened to catch an episode of the new TLC reality series “Pawn Queens” about a pawn shop outside Chicago that is owned by two women and two men. The show focuses on the female partners in the business and the fact that they buy and sell “girl stuff” in the shop – not just the usual guns, electronics and other “big boy toys” that most other pawn shops specialize in. Among the items they purchased in this episode were a light-up wedding dress, a baby stroller that converts to a bicycle, and a vintage ponytail Barbie doll.

The owner of the Barbie doll said that it was “an original 1959″ doll and asked for $4,500. Only a #1 Barbie would be worth that kind of money, because she was only made for a few months. The doll was obviously NOT a #1, #2 or even #3 Barbie, and had a massive case of green ear. Worth a couple hundred bucks, tops. One of the pawn shop ladies agreed that it was an “authentic” doll, and stunned me by countering with an offer of $3,000! I was yelling at the TV by this point.

Now came the drama. One of the male co-owners pulled one of the women aside and informed her that they didn’t have $3,000 on hand. She had to swallow her pride and ask the Barbie owner to come back in a few hours after they scraped up some cash. I was hoping for their sakes that they woman had second thoughts about selling her “valuable” doll and didn’t come back. Alas, she did return. One of the guys ran down to a gold buyer with some jewelry and got some money. I was still yelling at the TV, but Chicago being halfway across the country, they couldn’t hear me.

I can’t say this bodes well for either the series or the business. I am a huge fan of “Pawn Stars,” the History Channel show about a very successful family-run pawn shop in Las Vegas. While they make the occasional bad purchase on that show too, they routinely call in local experts to advise them on the authenticity and value of items that they don’t know enough about. The “Pawn Queens” better take a lesson, or they might end up having to hock their own jewelry to pay the bills.

The photo above shows what #1 or #2 Barbie should look like – notice her eyes are painted only in black and white. (Photo courtesy of Loving Dolls.) The doll in the photo below has blue eyes, like the one the “Pawn Queens” purchased. This doll is a #3 – but the doll on the show had a darker skin color, indicating it was a later model Barbie.

Vintage Doll Collector

Remco Beatles Official Mascot Doll

Still working on the Vogue page

Minty Monday: Jackie by Ideal

Vogue page updated

Pawn Queens make a huge mistake with Barbie