(no subject)

Just after I joined eBay I realised the potential it had to help me relive my childhood, especially the parts of it that were wrapped around specially loved toys, now I wasn't a great one for dolls, preferring as I did my collection of dinky toys (matchbox cars). I only had three dolls that I really cared about, plus an immense love of my sisters Crissy doll, I would have killed for a Crissy doll, with the hair that wound up and pulled down.

Those dolls plus a wooden cradle and a carry cradle and a cyclops pram, and one knitted toy, knitted for me by my Aunty Dawn, were the only dolls and girly things I had. As I recall I loved that knitted toy to death, and when it fell apart I refused to let my Aunty Dawn knit me a new one, because 'it wouldn't be the same'.

The first doll I can ever remember owning was this one




a baby Thumbelina, she had a cloth body, plastic arms and legs and a pull string, which made her head move from side to side, I loved this doll so much, she used to go everywhere with me, I think in the end her pull string broke and her stitching came undone, and IIRC, she got buried outside in of the many games we used to play, and Mum threw her away after she got very wet and started to smell.

Once I realised you could find just about ANYTHING on eBay, I started looking out for a Thumbelina doll, which proved to be harder than I thought, since it seemed every woman of a certain age was also reliving her childhood and was looking for THIS particular Thumbelina doll, there were several sorts, a newborn one with a knob that you twisted, the baby one I had, even a black Thumbelina, which is about the rarest and will cost you in the hundreds.

I ended up buying a Crissy doll of my very own first through eBay, even wearing the same dress as the one my sister used to own,



I took it down to show my sister and she got all misty eyed about it.

Finally, three weeks ago, I was doing my customary usual search of eBay and there she was, looking a bit sad and in need a little TLC, but it was her, MY Thumbelina, the exact same sort I had when I was little girl, and the pull string was STILL working. I placed a bid and hoped, hoping that her somewhat scruffy condition would put off the doll collectors who just wanted something pretty, whereas I was after memories, and I won her, she now sits on my bookcase, awaiting a good bath and hair washing and styling, and some clothes.

When I started school my Mum joined the schools' P&F (parents and friends) and she ended up as secretary/treasurer, and one of her jobs was fundraising for the school, we used to have a big fair two times a year, and one year they ran a raffle and one of the prizes was a dressed doll from Bridges Bros, well Mum had to go into pick up the doll from the toy store and I went along, I fell in love with the doll and wanted one, Mum said no, so I bought several tickets in the raffle, wanting to win it, sadly I didn't.

I forget about the doll, but Mum didn't, on my birthday there was this huge box, I opened it, and it was not quite the doll from the raffle but close enough, made by the same company, with blonde hair, blue eyeshadow, and she was a walker doll, along with the doll there was dresses and shoes, and the aforementioned wooden cradle.

I was head over heels in love with that doll, and I played dress ups, and when my sister got one as well, not quite the same as mine, we had a great time, I kept that doll till I was about thirteen or so, then my Mother, in her infinite wisdom decided to donate ALL my old doll things, including the cradle and the carrybasket to my old primary school for the kindy kids, WITHOUT asking me, I was devestated, but Mum wouldn't let me ask for them back.

I had no idea who made the doll or where it came from, until I came across by accident a web site devoted to Vinyl dolls from the 60's and 70's and there she was, in all her glory, MY doll, she was a Regal doll from Canada, also known as Canadian Star/Mighty Star/Regal Star dolls.

So that was another search to add to the list on eBay, and last week, there she was, MY doll, in near new condition,



sadly not wearing original clothes, but after thirty plus years, I didnt expect that much, and so I now own the same two dolls I had when I was a kid, and I am always on the lookout for the wooden cradle, carry basket and the cyclops doll pram to complete my collection.

The other doll I had was a Barbie I got when I was ten, I think she ended up going to the school as well, but I'm not really interested in gettting another Barbies, Barbies, are well, a dime a dozen, and theres not that many memories wrapped up in the Barbie.

(no subject)

Just after I joined eBay I realised the potential it had to help me relive my childhood, especially the parts of it that were wrapped around specially loved toys, now I wasn't a great one for dolls, preferring as I did my collection of dinky toys (matchbox cars). I only had three dolls that I really cared about, plus an immense love of my sisters Crissy doll, I would have killed for a Crissy doll, with the hair that wound up and pulled down.

Those dolls plus a wooden cradle and a carry cradle and a cyclops pram, and one knitted toy, knitted for me by my Aunty Dawn, were the only dolls and girly things I had. As I recall I loved that knitted toy to death, and when it fell apart I refused to let my Aunty Dawn knit me a new one, because 'it wouldn't be the same'.

The first doll I can ever remember owning was this one




a baby Thumbelina, she had a cloth body, plastic arms and legs and a pull string, which made her head move from side to side, I loved this doll so much, she used to go everywhere with me, I think in the end her pull string broke and her stitching came undone, and IIRC, she got buried outside in of the many games we used to play, and Mum threw her away after she got very wet and started to smell.

Once I realised you could find just about ANYTHING on eBay, I started looking out for a Thumbelina doll, which proved to be harder than I thought, since it seemed every woman of a certain age was also reliving her childhood and was looking for THIS particular Thumbelina doll, there were several sorts, a newborn one with a knob that you twisted, the baby one I had, even a black Thumbelina, which is about the rarest and will cost you in the hundreds.

I ended up buying a Crissy doll of my very own first through eBay, even wearing the same dress as the one my sister used to own,



I took it down to show my sister and she got all misty eyed about it.

Finally, three weeks ago, I was doing my customary usual search of eBay and there she was, looking a bit sad and in need a little TLC, but it was her, MY Thumbelina, the exact same sort I had when I was little girl, and the pull string was STILL working. I placed a bid and hoped, hoping that her somewhat scruffy condition would put off the doll collectors who just wanted something pretty, whereas I was after memories, and I won her, she now sits on my bookcase, awaiting a good bath and hair washing and styling, and some clothes.

When I started school my Mum joined the schools' P&F (parents and friends) and she ended up as secretary/treasurer, and one of her jobs was fundraising for the school, we used to have a big fair two times a year, and one year they ran a raffle and one of the prizes was a dressed doll from Bridges Bros, well Mum had to go into pick up the doll from the toy store and I went along, I fell in love with the doll and wanted one, Mum said no, so I bought several tickets in the raffle, wanting to win it, sadly I didn't.

I forget about the doll, but Mum didn't, on my birthday there was this huge box, I opened it, and it was not quite the doll from the raffle but close enough, made by the same company, with blonde hair, blue eyeshadow, and she was a walker doll, along with the doll there was dresses and shoes, and the aforementioned wooden cradle.

I was head over heels in love with that doll, and I played dress ups, and when my sister got one as well, not quite the same as mine, we had a great time, I kept that doll till I was about thirteen or so, then my Mother, in her infinite wisdom decided to donate ALL my old doll things, including the cradle and the carrybasket to my old primary school for the kindy kids, WITHOUT asking me, I was devestated, but Mum wouldn't let me ask for them back.

I had no idea who made the doll or where it came from, until I came across by accident a web site devoted to Vinyl dolls from the 60's and 70's and there she was, in all her glory, MY doll, she was a Regal doll from Canada, also known as Canadian Star/Mighty Star/Regal Star dolls.

So that was another search to add to the list on eBay, and last week, there she was, MY doll, in near new condition,



sadly not wearing original clothes, but after thirty plus years, I didnt expect that much, and so I now own the same two dolls I had when I was a kid, and I am always on the lookout for the wooden cradle, carry basket and the cyclops doll pram to complete my collection.

The other doll I had was a Barbie I got when I was ten, I think she ended up going to the school as well, but I'm not really interested in gettting another Barbies, Barbies, are well, a dime a dozen, and theres not that many memories wrapped up in the Barbie.