Prepare to Be Amazed: The Sheer Trash Roadshow--Animals & Dolls

I sure had fun yesterday, and wow--did I ever score some goodies! I won't even begin to have time to show them all to you in one post, so I'll dole out the gems throughout the coming week. 

The garage and yard sales, on the whole, continue to be a disappointing business, but yesterday my favorite thrift stores were in great form and my sister-in-law and I even found a new shop with great stuff and ridiculously wonderful prices. It was a stellar day of junking!

I've slapped up a few photos for you--excuse the crummy editing, but I'm in a hurry and the fotofuze.com site a bit sluggish today--I assume it's got a lot of users this morning.

Without further ado:

 
These are some of the terrific vintage animal items I found, and which will eventually be available at MyPalPeppy.  From left to right, there's a gorgeous glossy golden-hued mid-century made-in-Japan horse figurine (six adjectives, wow! But all well-deserved, I assure you); a terrific friction-action plastic detective hound toy (any ideas, Vanessa?); a mid-century honey pot; a plastic big sad eye cat coin bank (never seen one in plastic before); a fabulous Italian piggy bank; a tiny redware black bear cub; a lovely blue squirrel planter, mid-century, of course; and a tiny, tiny porcelain poodle figurine. These items were priced from 25 cents - $2.25. None have chips or cracks. Yippee!!

A slightly closer look:

It was also a banner day for dolls.

First of all, can you believe I got these four vintage Barbies for $5 apiece? What a steal!

 

I'm still waiting on my personal Barbie expert to weigh in, but meanwhile I'll tell you what I do know. The one in blue is Francie. I always liked Francie. I think she's one of the most attractive of the early Barbie friends. The blonde bubble-cut Barbie is the oldest doll here and, I think, is a hybrid--my guess is this head has been placed on a newer body. The reason I suspect this is that the head has the molded eyelashes, but the body has bendable legs. I know the bendable legs didn't appear on the earliest bubble-cuts. 

Note this Barbie's molded eyelashes, not the rooted type which came along a bit later.

 

 

 

 

I remember getting my first Barbie for Christmas when I was six. "Solo in the Spotlight"! Mine had red hair.

(The very first "Solo in the Spotlight" Barbies had the ponytail. They re-issued these a few years back. Mine was like the one on the right.)

http://img.auctiva.com/imgdata/1/6/4/6/5/9/1/webimg/538422075_tp.jpg

It's not just the dolls I'm excited about--take a look a their outfits! Especially the crystal-pleated yellow pantsuit the one on the left is wearing. It's fabulous. I don't see any label anywhere, so it may have been a "knock-off" outfit from another company, but who cares? I'm also jazzed about the hand-knitted sheath dress the bubble-cut Barbie is wearing. It's so simple, I'm going to have to make some! Francie's homemade boucle sheath dress and cape are pretty cool, too. The lame jumpsuit is sort of ho-hum, though. (That's "lame" as in lah-may, not merely "lame" as a synonym for "unoriginal/inept" but, come to think of it, that adjective fits, too! Pity I can't figure out how to add accent marks.)

Okay, there's time for one more doll before I log off for the day. 

Take a look and tell me your first impression:

Ignoring her grubbiness, who/what does she remind you of?

Here's another view:

Okay, now what do you think?

http://www.dollreference.com/images/jan_vogue1958.jpg

 

This was my first guess, a Vogue Jan.  WRONG!

http://img0.etsystatic.com/009/0/6329882/il_570xN.416990848_h0qs.jpg

This was my second guess, a Miss Revlon or a Little Miss Revlon. 
Wrong again!!

Take a look at this doll in the altogether, and you'll see she's not  jointed, and her plastic is a very soft, hollow vinyl. Whoever this doll is, she was a cheap knock-off, but despite this, she is still a classy looker. I'm excited to see how she'll clean up. I suppose the price tag ($1.99) should have been a tip-off. (Well, less than that for me with the geezer discount!) Still, I rather like her and it's okay she's not who I thought she was.

If any of you are especially knowledgeable about these dime-store imitation dolls, here are the markings on her back:

 
That's it for now, but I think you'll enjoy the other stuff I've got to share, so do visit again. 

So long, and happy junking!