Teen Time Courtney 1988

There are some collectors, who prefer to present their dolls in the order they arrive. Very admirable. I don’t do that. Having no talent for creative writing, I describe the dolls that inspire me at a given moment and it often happens that I begin before the doll even arrives. Teen Time Courtney 1988 had to wait a little – she came some time ago with Baton Twirling Skipper AA. My extensive research on vintage Skipper and her friends took a little while too, but at long last I’m ready to publish. 

As I’ve already mentioned the Teen Time 1988 series here, I thought I might focus on Skipper’s friends who kept her company before Courtney’s arrival. As the most popular girl in school, Skipper was destined to be surrounded with friends and the first couple appeared shortly after her own debiut. In 1965 Skooter and Ricky joined Skipper. Each of the three friends had a different headmlod but, strangely enough, they were all based on the same body, even Ricky the boy! Skooter had one more release on her original headmold and then both her and Ricky fell to obscurity as apparently they didn’t sell well enough. So Skipper ended up alone again.

                                                         the source: https://barbie.fandom.com/wiki/Ricky_Doll
 

 the source: https://picclick.com/Vintage-1960s-Blonde-Straight-Leg-Scooter-Doll-in-333095605244.html

Skipper’s solitude didn’t last long. In 1971 Mattel’s sites produced Living Fluff- graceful as a flower and a year later the tomboyish Pose’n Play Tiff made her debut. The two dolls shared their face sculpt and body mold and there all the similarities end. When I look at them it strikes me how different these dolls are. Fluff is very girlish and sweet, Tiff is crazy and wild and I like them both because I think they really complement each other.

 the source: https://www.ebay.com/itm/DRESSED-BARBIE-DOLL-1971-VINTAGE-LIVING-FLUFF-1143-SKIPPERS-FRIEND-/372657311310?oid=372615534245

the source: https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/super-vtg-pose-play-tiff-doll-red-1852043778

1975 was a year of a true revolution as Mattel put their ambitious plan into execution and  created an educational toy – Growing up Skipper. A doll that can grow bust was heavily criticized by conservative parents who felt such a toy would be in appropriate. I don’t think so and neither did Mattel who was determined to defy all harsh criticism and soon the Growing up Ginger joined her friend so she wouldn’t have to suffer this tongue-lashing alone. Mattel bravely stood against wide disapproval but sales rates are quite another thing. Both dolls were doomed and production cancellation seemed only a matter of time. Skipper is still relatively easy to find, but the beautiful Ginger seems to command high prices and is now a doll well sought after. 

                                   the source: http://www.fashion-doll-guide.com/Growing-Up-Skipper-Doll.html         
 

Whether the consumers liked it or not, Skipper became a teenager and it was high time for her to be smitten and preferably broken-hearted. In 1979 she met her first sweetheart Scott (Ricky was just a childhood friend). Dashing Scott with his impressive hair and his roller skates stole Skipper’s tender heart but the relationship didn’t last long. Apparently, Skipper grew tired of his annoying hairdressers-are-evil attitude and his very revealing shorts. She dumped him. This time Skipper decided she wouldn’t waste her time on some silly friends and she thought it would be better to hang out with Barbie and her glamorous friends. But then she met Courtney and they were best friends till 2000ish. In the meantime there was another boyfriend too – Kevin. I’ll talk about him some other time though.

the source: https://pl.pinterest.com/pin/567172146791933377/

the source: https://www.amazon.com/Barbie-Basketball-KEVIN-Boyfriend-Skipper/dp/B001ENMI8Y

In 1988 Mattel produced the first Courtney ever who, along with Skipper, comprised the Teen Time series. The dolls came with a lot! They had outfits that transformed from a school to a slumber party look and they came with many pieces. Courtney’s consists of a marble denim vest, a striped blouse and a polka-dotted skirt which is actually a nighty and there’s a pair of short bloomers too. Courtney’s got two pairs of shoes – white sneakers and fluffy slippers. The slippers are awkwardly made but they’re cute.

Mattel decided that both girls would differ in terms of their intrests and tempers and they demonstrated their tendencies through a rather generous set of accessories. Courtney is an intellectual type fond of art. She got a pair of red glasses, a palette and a paint brush, a can of soda and a folder/handbag that opens. Of course there’s the classic hairbrush too and the cardboard punch-outs. The doll also came with an instruction manual and a scrapbook catalogue that I now have 3 copies of! As to Skipper, when I showed her to you she did have her complete outfit but no accessories and I still don’t have them but as it turns out, my Cool Looks Barbie comes with an identical set and those two differ only in terms of the stickers that you put on them for a decorative purpose. So Skipper, were she complete, would have come with a round hat box sort of bag, a can of soda, a phone, a triangle alarm clock, a notepad and a pencil. The pencil is not there in the photos, I do have it somewhere, just couldn’t locate it for the photo shoot. It’s there in the post about Cool Looks Barbie though should you want to see it.

Courtney’s been rooted with a generous amount of kanekalon and that it’s wild is an understatement. It’s slightly deformed for all the decades the doll spent in her box but I dare not tamper with it. I’m sure that any attempt at fixing the hair would end up a miserable failure. Some of that grizzly hair was gathered at her forehead with a ribbon and the doll doesn’t have bangs which makes her unique. Her facepaint is just cute. There’s a tiny bit of bottle green shadow over her large, chocolate brown eyes and her lips are raspberry color. Just so.

As you can see, Courtney suffers from the spotted legs syndrome and it’s extensive. I could put on some leggings or try to rebody her, but it doesn’t bother me all that much and I like her outfit a lot, I wouldn’t like to change it after I’d put so much effort in acquiring the doll NRFB. Strangely enough my rescued Skipper doesn’t have the same problem and both dolls were made in China. Anyway, I’m happy to have finally completed my top 3 Courtney list. Cool Tops and Cheerleader are next to come, I hope.

Baton Twirling Skipper AA 1992

This month has brought two posts featuring Dolls of the World and it’s time for a change of age group now. This is the newest addition to my Skipper collection – the Baton Twirling Skipper AA 1992. Until very recently, the AA Skipper doll’s kept escaping me despite my best efforts at procuring my copy. I’ve noticed that AA Skippers find their homes easily and in the 80s/90s there weren’t all that many releases to begin with. Some versions don’t appear on Ebay at all, and the ones that I usually see would be the Homecoming Queen and the Baton Twirling Skipper. Homecoming Queen is cute enough, her facepaint is very sublte and she has no bangs that serves to her advantage, but she’s been dressed in a shapeless ball gown that’s not to my taste. Now Baton Twirling Skipper is hard to pass without noticing, but she often comes with bangs so huge that they cover half the doll’s face. Oh well, I could always tuck those bangs in the pink bucket she wears on her head – I thought. Now that she arrived, I couldn’t be happier with her, but she photographs awfully. I kept looking for the best place to take photos of her and no matter what I did, her face and her hair would blend and blur together. Finally I found a good spot – in my kitchen, so I’m sorry for all the coffee mugs and the appliances you can see in the background.

While doing a research on the topic of AA Skipper dolls I’ve realized that the first African American version of Barbie’s little sister appeared only in the late 80s. She came out in 1989 to be exact and that was the before mentioned Homecoming Queen, produced in 1988 as the second wave of the big-eyed Skippers. She was released about once a year and she changed twice, just like the Caucasian Skipper and Courtney.

Homecoming Queen Skipper AA 1988

 the source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahdolls/7099091425

The below list shows all the AA Skipper dolls that were produced before Skipper and her gang were discontinued altogether.

1.       Homecoming Queen Skpper AA 1988

2.       Cool Tops Skipper AA 1989

3.       Babysitter Skipper AA 1990 (+1 dziecko)

4.       Pet Pals Skipper AA 1991

5.       Baton Twirling Skipper AA 1992

6.       Cool Crimp Skipper AA 1993

7.       Babysitter Skipper AA 1994 (+3 dzieci)

8.       Pizza Party Skipper AA 1995 (Pizza Party headmold)

9.       Phone Fun Skipper AA 1996 (Pizza Party headmold)

10.   Cool Sitter Teen Skipper AA 1998 (+4 dzieci) (Teen Skipper headmold)

11.   Barbie and Skipper AA Pajama Fun Tote 2003 (Teen Skipper headmold)

Pizza Party Skipper AA 1995

the source: https://www.picswe.com/pics/barbie-pepsi-labels-4b.html

Cool Sitter Skipper AA 1998

the source: https://www.amazon.com/Barbie-Sitter-SKIPPER-Babies-Dolls/dp/B004286PDC

When Skipper AA grew up an changed her face sculpt for the second time, Nikki was on her way to replace her and after 2003 the official sources announced Skipper left for boarding school in Rio. She came back only in the Caucasian version, much shorter, with dark hair and a new face. The African American Skipper decided to stay in Rio a little while longer because her next release would be in 2018 as a part of the Skipper Babysitters inc.  

Babysitters Inc. Skipper AA 2018

 the source: https://barbie.mattel.com/shop/en-us/ba/sisters-pets/skipper-babysitting-doll-with-phone-baby-bottle-fhy91

Now the series to which my Baton Twirling belongs is very interesting. 4 dolls comprise the series and these are Baton Twirling Skipper, Baton Twirling Skipper AA, Cheerleading Courtney and Basketball Kevin. I’d love to all of them because they’re all cute. Unfortunately, once Mattel decided to finally release an AA Skipper (or Barbie for that matter) they made their point to treat racial equality very much literally and dress both Skippers in identical outfits. I’d much prefer the Caucasian Baton Twirling in a combination of blue and green that would bring the color of her eyes better. Oh well. Now back to the series, you can see that it’s all about sports in  general terms and somehow this time Mattel decided against one name that would describe all four dolls. Instead, they called each doll differently. The boxes also differ in terms of the graphics at the back. Inside the box, I’ve found a poster catalogue showing all the pretty things Mattel had on the menu at that time.

Baton Twirling Skipper caucasian- the box

the source: https://barbie-shop.pl/en_GB/p/1992-Baton-Twirling-Skipper/251

Skipper Majorette is dressed in a one-piece all in neon colors. The outfit is basically a long sleeved body with a skirt attached to it. The uniform has some silver detailing to it and it’s trimmed with sequins. The details up front are printed on. The doll’s also got a hard plastic hat with some fringe I suppose. Her ankle boots match her hat and the only accessory that she comes with apart from her brush of course, is her baton and it does twirl. The baton can be attached to her hand thanks to a skin colored piece and it turns smoothly both ways. I played with the baton just like a little kid, but don’t tell anyone. I’m supposed to be a mature and responsible grown-up after all.

On the basis of the available pictures I couldn’t really tell the material her hair’s been made of. But to my great joy it’s turned out to be saran and beautiful too. The black and brown mingle together giving it a very soft hue. Her bangs are also much shorter than usual and they don’t get in her eyes, and those are very pretty indeed. If I didn’t know any better, I would’ve assumed most AA Skipper dolls to come with brown eyes. It’s not so. In fact grey and purple are very common for these dolls, and mine’s got a mixture of purple and brown to her eyes. She’s a little more made-up than I would’ve thought, but she’s taking part in a parade after all. So there’s some opalescent violet and silver eyeshadows on her lids. “She’s ready to wow the crowd”

I’m very happy with my new doll, finally I own all versions of the 1987 Skipper headmold. They look so cute together. Now I’m slowly moving in the direction of the vintage and Pizza Party headmolds. But the big-eyed sculpt will always be my favorite face of Barbie’s little sister.

Teen Sweetheart Skipper 1987

25.02.2019

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.

 _{source: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