The Toys of Christmas Past: Lori's Photos Part Four: 1965 and 1966

  There are only two photos in this post,but there are still some interesting toys. We'll start with Christmas, 1965.

  In this photo four year old Lori is holding her Baby First Step doll. You can see my post on Baby First Step for a better look at one of the dolls, HERE. The gimmick for this Mattel doll was that she operated on batteries and actually walked. You can watch a video of the doll walking HERE. There were later versions of Baby First Step, including a talking version. Lori's is the first version though. You can see a commercial for the original version HERE.
   That's the only photo from 1965.so let's move on to Christmas, 1966.

  On the left is the Budding Beauty Vanity and matching stool,by Marx. I remember seeing those in the Christmas catalog when I was a  kid.

You can see the commercial for the Budding Beauty vanity HERE.
  On Lori's right there's a Hasbro Talking Telephone. It's the red one, which was the Mickey Mouse Talking Telephone. You can see a commercial for the Mickey Mouse Talking Telephone HERE. There were several others,including Snow White, Jungle Book, and Mary Poppins. You can see the commercial for the line of Hasbro Talking Telephones HERE.  The phones ran on batteries and used records to make them talk. There were 8 two sided records included with each phone.
  The green cube also on Lori's right is a Suzy Homemaker washing machine. Suzy Homemaker was made by Topper. There was a whole line of Suzy Homemaker
 appliances, like stoves that really baked, washing machines that really washed clothes, and a blender that really blended. I had the Suzy Homemaker blender. You can watch a commercial for the Suzy Homemaker line HERE. You can watch a video of the washing machine at work HERE. Note that it was referred to as a washer and dryer, but the only thing it did to dry was spin the water out. That's what's known as the 'spin cycle' on a washing machine, and not a drier!
  The doll Lori is holding is also made by Topper.
 

She's Baby Magic.

Baby Magic had a gimmick. She had several actions, all of which were operated without actually touching the doll.

'She does all this without touching her.' But is she 'the greatest doll ever invented'? Come on. Isn't that a bit of a huge claim?

 To say she did it all without needing to be touched was a bit misleading. She didn't have to be touched, but the actions did require a magnetic thimble to be waved over her in certain ways.

For example, to make her cry you waved the magnet over her eyes in a horizontal direction. To make her eyes open and close the magnet was waved up and down in front of her eyes. You can see her wink HERE. You could also make her riase her arms, which made her smile. Then you could press her arms down, which would change her smile to a frown. Sears offered a bunch of exclusive accessories and a nightie. Not sure if they were actual Topper Baby Magic things, or if they were just generic things Sears offered as part of their bundle.

 
  There's one more post on Lori's Christmas photos. After that we'll see my review of the newest doll from Maru and Friends. And soon we'll be off on a new year of Doll-A-Day!

Doll-A-Day 290: GI Joe

Yesterday was Veteran's Day, and today's doll,(Better call him an 'action figure'!) is GI Joe.

In fact, GI Joe is where the term 'action figure' originated.

I got this guy recently at a garage sale. He's exactly like the GI Joe I have from when I was a kid. (Except his owner didn't have a sister who shaved his scar off with a razor blade.)

However, this guy comes with a few extra wounds.

He has the hard head and red hair like mine, but a different uniform.

This is my childhood Joe, which I named John, since my sister got to name hers Joe.This is what he always looked like when I was a kid. All that posability isn't all it;s cracked up to be when you're too little to control it!

Hasbro debuted GI Joe in 1964, and the line up included figures based on all four branches of the Armed Forces.

"America's Moveable Fighting Man" ironically his clothes are made in Japan and the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong. Check out that price: $2.99!

In Britain Joe was called Action Man, but the same molds were used.

The 12" line was discontinued in 1976.In 1982 Hasbro shrunk Joe to 3 3/4" tall! Eventually the 12" figure was brought back. Joe moved away from the strictly military to the random adventurer. Fuzzy has a Joe that is very Indiana Jones inspired.

But back in the early 60's Joe was all about soldiering.

"GI" originally referred to galvanized iron. It was during World War I that the letters GI were used to stand for 'government issue' or 'general issue'  in reference to soldiers and air men's equipment.During World War II GI Joe became the standard nickname for any member of the United States armed forces.
See you tomorrow for another doll.