Wednesday, March 20, 2019

Teen Sweetheart Skipper 1987



One day I was fondly wiping nonexistent dust off my doll cabinet. As I was putting my Skipper dolls back to their top shelf, I thought to myself that I finally managed to add some variety to my previously very consistent and very blonde collection of Barbie’s little sisters. The sight of two out of my three most favorite Courtney dolls pleased me and I’m already working on my number one Courtney, but my requirements are high and I’ll probably opt for a boxed doll in the end. As to AA Skipper, no success here, but I’m making an effort in that too. In fact, for the last several months I’ve been so focused on acquiring Courtneys and AA Skippers that I completely forgot about the blondes. As my dream Teen Sweetheart Skipper 1987 appeared on my radar and there was still no sight of AA, I decided to go for it and here she is, my beauty.


Teen Sweetheart Skipper left Mattel’s production sites in 1987 along with three friends comprising the Teen Fun series (Cheerleader, Workout and Party). A year later they appeared in toy stores and thus Skipper made her debut with an entirely new look. But did she? I’m not so sure anymore, because I’ve recently discovered the School Going Skipper 1986. The doll is intriguing for several reasons. Firstly, she was produced by the company called Leo operating under Mattel’s corporate umbrella exclusively for the Indian market. Second, the company used two different headmolds to create the doll, one was well known at that time and it gave a face to many dolls, Hot Stuff Skipper being one of them. The other however, looks very much like Skipper 1987, only the body seems to be of the older kind and her neck is so short that it completely distorts the doll’s proportions to the point that I wasn’t sure this actually was the big-eyed Skipper, but I think it is. Now these are my own inferences because my research results are scanty at best. One thing is certain, the doll’s created a great deal of confusion amongst Skipper doll’s enthusiasts. The 1987 faced School Going is very pretty and she comes with a great package. I’d love to own her but she’s extremely rare and expensive. Well, one day perhaps.


:https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/leo-mattel-school-going-skipper-502860865


 źródło:https://pl.pinterest.com/pin/752523418958639067/?lp=true

Now, this entry is about my Teen Sweetheart Skipper, so let’s get back to her, shall we? She’s a great doll and I’m ecstatic to have her at last. She arrived NRFB, but the light was so poor that I didn’t take any pictures of the doll in her box. And I really wanted to have the box too for the pictures on it. As you can see, the prototype pictures look nothing like the final product which is very fortunate, because the prototype isn’t very pretty. Her proportions are weird and her face unappealing. Let’s face it, she’s ugly and if all Skipper dolls looked like that, I wouldn’t collect them now. The box also contained the same scrapbook catalogue that Fun Time Party Skipper 1987 came with. The pictures in the scrapbook show both the prototype doll and the real thing. I’ve always loved the old pictures for all the effort put into making the doll look to her best, but the cartoony artwork is just pure magic. See for yourselves.







Teen Sweetheart is one of the more available Skipper dolls. You want them boxed, unboxed, used, brand new, you got it. But the doll also comes in two variants – with kanekalon and saran hair and the latter seems to be rarer and more desirable. That was the version that I searched for and I found her at long last. I was not disappointed because she happens to have the best quality and the most beautiful hair of all my Skipper dolls. Sure it was a little boxy, her golden locks were all squashed and the hair was a bit coarse, but that’s to be expected given the doll had been boxed for 32 years! But that’s nothing a fine-toothed comb and a bit of lukewarm water can’t fix. The locks were still well defined so all I did was I brushed each strand separately dipping the comb in water and the strands grouped nicely, the coarseness disappeared and I could enjoy the soft and silky mane of the doll. Her hair is actually two-toned, the bangs keep in place and the half ponytail is held with a rubber band that at some point turned stone-hard! It didn’t crack so I left it for now, I just need to find a bit of ribbon in the right shade of pink.



Now if you look at the big-eyed Skipper releases over the years of her production, you’ll notice that Teen Sweetheart’s facepaint is nothing out of ordinary, just some blue eyes, blue eye shadow and blue eyeliner and oh pink lipstick. Pretty generic? Pretty for sure! That’s why out of the four “officially” first releases Mattel chose this one to copy over the next several years. The intensity of colors and the number of lashes would vary from line to line, but Skipper will from this point on be mostly a blonde with blue eyes. And if you think that had always been the case for the 1987 headmold, just look at Workout with her green eyes, Party with purple and Cheerleader – brown! Their hair also differs and that’s something I didn’t quite realize until I saw a video on youtube by Kewpie83.



Teen Sweetheart is going to a school dance and Mattel gave her an amazing outfit. Ball gown type Skipper dolls are quite rare and apart from Teen Sweetheart only three other dolls come to my mind and those are Homecoming Queen Skipper 1988, Dream Date Skipper 1990 and Beauty Pageant Skipper 1991. What all these four dolls have in common is that their elaborate dresses are in fact transformable. So TS Skipper’s wearing a fabulous full skirt. The Skirt has three layers of pink net sprinkled with polka dots and the underlayer is white with some glitter. The three layers of varying length give the outfit a nice shape and a sort of an ombre effect. And if you’re wondering what the skirt would look like in a shorter version, Courtney’s got a fashion pack that features the same fabric. It’s evident that Mattel liked to utilize their fabric leftovers.


Now as the lively teen will surely want to swirl on the dance floor all night long (till 10pm) and such a long skirt may not fit the purpose, she can take it off as underneath she’s wearing a cute little mini dress with a peppelum. The dress has a motif of a rose and that is covered with an opalescent net so the effect is amazing. The mini is held with a ribbon so that it doesn’t slide down exposing the doll and it closes with plastic snaps at the back. As I’ve already mentioned, the outfit is transformable, so there’s an additional snap at the back so that you could attach the full skirt to its back to create a kind of train. It doesn’t work as it should because the skirt is stiff and it’s reluctant to take any shape other than the original, intended one but I still like the idea.



The doll comes with a pair of white dotty tights. As you can see, she suffers from the spotty legs syndrome as most of the original line do. My Party Skipper’s legs are just the same, so I really expected the spots to be there. No matter, the four (officially) first big-eyed Skippers have much to make for the unfortunate flaw so my plan to get all four of them is still on. Now I didn’t take the tights off to check if her spotty legs are also sticky because it’s quite tedious to put them back on. The tights are a nice touch and they go well with the doll’s ballerina shoes that are made of pearly pink plastic just as her necklace that has a clasp! Now the necklace doesn’t really go well with the ribbon, but I still love it. Can you imagine a respectable teen that would go to a dance without a purse? Of course not, and the fashionable Skipper absolutely must have one. Her purse is very simple little sack with a white ribbon, but it’s functioning and you can actually use it to store the tiny gloves that the doll came with. They’re cute, white, short gloves sprinkled with glitter and I like them but they’re a pain to put on! Her unknown date (Kevin will be released two years later) brought her a flower bouquet that she can put on her hand, a very graceful accessory! The bouquet has its box of course, but I didn’t put it together, because it’s a shame to destroy the punch-out sheet, so I only took a picture of the entire sheet and the box there is still flat. Now, she’s a queen (or should I say a princess) wherever she appears so she’s been properly crowned, only the crown isn’t to my liking. It’s made of some kind of flimsy material that refuses to keep the right shape, so I’ll get her a ribbon instead. The last accessory is her pearly pink brush, I hope I remembered to mention all of them because the doll does come with quite a package.







I knew this post would be extensive, but what can I do? The doll is so cute and every single details deserves attention. So here are my two (officially) first anime-eyed Skipper releases. Enjoy





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