Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Happy Birthday Wendy by Madame Alexander

Madame Alexander, 2016 Birthday Wishes Wendy #71467 has dark brown sleep eyes, dark brown hair styled in ponytail, wears, polka dot fuchsia party dress and fuchsia petticoat, white tights, and pink patent-leather Mary Jane shoes.

Throughout the years Madame Alexander has released their 8-inch Wendy doll in a variety of birthday themes.  Some years included boys.  I have several of these in my collection dating back to the 1990s.  I purchased some and others were gifts.

One of my multiple, nearly out-of-control June purchases includes Birthday Wishes Wendy by Madame Alexander, released in 2016.  After seeing the doll deeply discounted on Zulily, I could not resist the urge to add her to my birthday Wendy collection.

I took only one photo (shown above) of Birthday Wishes Wendy to add to my doll inventory worksheet. Since my other birthday-theme Wendy's have been featured in a previous post (along with other dolls), I decided to gather all photos and place together here in one post.

Madame Alexander Wendy dolls, Balloons for Your Birthday and Dairy Queen Blizzard (not a birthday doll) -- these Wendys use the exclusive African American head sculpt. 

Happy Birthday dolls by Madame Alexander, Birthday Boy and Girl (1992), Happy Birthday Wendy (1999) and Happy Birthday Wendy 2005 -- these dolls have the original Wendy face, which was used for both AA and Caucasian dolls.  Wendy's appearance changed in 2004 with an exclusive head sculpt created for the AA doll.
More posts will follow regarding my out-of-control June doll acquisitions.  Once again, I am pulling in the reins on doll purchases.

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6 comments:

  1. They're super cute! I love their outfits. What fun it must be for you to have so many beautiful faces looking back at you all the time.

    For a second I wondered if it wasn't confusing to have many dolls with the same mold...then I remembered that I collect Blythes :D.

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    1. Hi Maricha,

      No it's not confusing because their hairstyles and usually themed fashions give them their own identity, even when the themes are the same but for different years.

      It's just like collecting Barbie. For years Mattel used the same head sculpt and often they still do. Changing only the clothing, hair color/style, and eye color makes us believe it's a different doll when in reality...

      I would however get bored by collecting one type doll. I could never collect just Barbies, or just Madame Alexander Wendys, or just one type anything. If I had to do that, dolls wound not interest me. I need variety.

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    2. I completely agree. Staying interested in collecting without variety would be difficult for me too. Nonetheless, my collection will never be as varied or culturally relevant as yours.
      After giving it a lot of thought, I've decided to only collect playscale dolls, and that all my dolls were going to be at least school age children or older but I was only able to narrow it down to that because it actually covers a huge assortment of dolls besides Blythe.(Barbie, Skipper, Leggy) Still, if I had more space... :-)
      Also, the lack of diversity in Blythe is going to make me create or purchase custom dolls, if that wasn't an option I wouldn't have bought more than the single one I already had.It annoys me that the manufacturer isn't stepping up on that but they're not American so diversity is always going to be a low priority for them. The community certainly makes up for it.

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    3. But your collection is relevant to you because it consists of dolls that you hand picked, based on what pleases you. That's the most important thing for collectors to do: buy what warms their heart, what renews their spirit.

      I would enjoy adding more Skipper-sized dolls to my collection and really wish Mattel would bring back the dark skinned version. I have a couple of tan Blythe dolls and would really love an authentically black one. Having one customized at the amount most customizers charge is out of the question for me. My two tan ones will have to suffice.

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  2. Such cuties! I think the Birthday dolls are my favorite, especially the little boy. I always admired Madame Alexander dolls because the company always offered black dolls, even if it was sparingly.

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    1. I have admired the company for the same reason, Brini. Madame Alexander is one of the oldest American doll companies to incorporate black dolls into their doll lines as early as the 1930s (having opened their doors in the 1920s). There are quite possibly some black Madame Alexander dolls that date back to the company's inception, but I have not been able to document this.

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