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The following note from a reader asked for doll identification help:
Hi I saw your website and wonder if you can help me? I recently acquired a black doll that looks very much like a rock flowers doll or certainly the body. Can you help me identify this doll? I would really appreciate your help... The doll has 17 and K17 stamped on the head and no other markings.
Kind regards
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| The doll is 6-1/4 inches tall with one-piece nonjointed body that looks identical to that used for Mattel's Rock Flowers dolls; however, the head is not the same. |
With the owner's permission, the photos she shared by email are shared here to solicit help from readers in identifying the doll. Specifically, she wants to know if the doll is a Mattel prototype. Based on the manufacturer's marks and the fact that the head sculpt differs from Rosemary Rock Flowers (see next photo), I would doubt this is the case, but anything is possible.
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| A photo of my (preloved) Rosemary Rock Flowers doll, taken against the computer monitor displaying a photo of the unknown doll, illustrates their different head sculpts. |
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| The unknown doll is dressed in a Topper (Dawn) fashion |
If you know who made this doll, the doll's name, or any other information about it, please share the info in a comment. Thank you in advance!
dbg
Check out my eBay listings here.
Hi Debbie!
ReplyDeleteAbout the mystery doll, I might have come up with something. The Dawn Doll by Topper :http://www.jenx67.com/2012/07/1970-dolls-the-dawn-doll-by-topper.html
They are 70s fashion dolls.
The make up, the face told and the body are the same.
Have a lovely day!
Arlette
Hi Arlette!
DeleteI didn't recognize you when I replied to one of your previous comments. It is good to know you're still reading my posts. I tried to refer to your blog for information on a Paola Reina doll this past weekend. Unfortunately I found that your posts have been deleted.
Thank you for sharing the Dawn doll link. I have three Dale (friend of Dawn dolls) from the 1970s. I agree that the mystery doll's head looks very similar to the 1970s Dawn dolls, but the body is not the same. Topper dolls have jointed arms and legs. The mystery doll has a one piece, unjointed body. My Dales' head markings differ from the mystery doll's and my dolls bottoms are marked:
©1970
Topper Corp
Hong Kong
H
The mystery doll's body is identical to the body used on Mattel's Rock Flowers dolls. I also am not aware that Topper made a dark skinned doll with long straight hair. The Dales I own and others I have seen from the 1970s all had bubble cut hairstyles (only the white dolls had long straight hair).
In 2001, Checkerboard Toys reproduced Dawn and friends which included Dale, and they added a dark-skinned doll named Fab Fashion Fun Denise who does have long straight black hair. I own a couple of Denise dolls, but they have never been removed from the box. I do not have the ability to check the head markings for this reason.
I am now thinking that someone placed Denise's head on a vintage Rock Flowers body.
Thanks again for sharing your input and the link.
dbg
Hi Debbie!
DeleteI am back and I have to say it feels good to catch up with your blog.
The possibility that she is a hybrid between a Rock Flower doll and a Denise is growing higher because every time I search for her using the markings on her head I end up with link to Topper dolls either with long or short hair.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/37546968@N08/6998448691/
https://fr.pinterest.com/pin/418482990348407204/
I hope you will solve the mystery without having to unbox your dolls.
I am kind of back to blogging as well (baby steps).
I won't disturb Denise to check her since I really think this doll is a hybrid now.
DeleteWelcome back to blogging at baby steps, Arlette!
dbg
Your doll is so pretty. I think you're right and that someone long ago put a Dawn head on a Rock Flowers body.
ReplyDeleteDawn dolls have such problems with their legs breaking at the knee or the inner structure poking out, that any child who had access to both types of dolls in their toy box could be tempted to make the switch and it is easily done. I bought a lot of Dawn and friends and their clothes a couple of years ago and someone had done this.
The only thing I wonder about is that your doll doesn't seem to have had lashes and I think that all Dawn and her friends did in the version from the 70s. Perhaps she's a newer release? I haven't seen any of those close up so they might not have gotten lashes.
Anyhow, Thanks for showing her. :-)
Hi Maricha,
DeleteI do believe that's what happened with the mystery doll (she is now a hybrid as a result of head and body swapping). I know as a child I used to pop the heads off and on my Barbie, Midge, and Ideal's Glamour Misty at will. To this day, Glamour Misty's head is on a Barbie body and I do not know what happened to her original body (but I suspect that it was probably given away to a childhood neighbor along with the other Barbies and accessories I gave her).
The reproduction Dawn dolls (Denise and the 30th anniversary Dale) that I own also have rooted eyelashes. The doll in question might actually be a dark skinned Dawn clone, because, as I indicated in a comment to RleT E-M, the original Dale did not have straight hair. The reproduced Denise does, but her complexion is lighter than the mystery doll's and her makeup is not as heavy. As soon as time permits, I will publish a post about my original three Dawn-family dolls and my reproduced versions.
dbg
Just to set the record straight. As I own to examples of this doll, this is not a hybrid.
ReplyDeleteThe company markings that rockflower dolls have, have been erased.
This is probably a clone using a Longlocks Dawn head mould without lashes, on a Rockflowers Rosemary body.
I believe this doll’s head is from a novelty Wilton cake doll. These are made using Dawn or Longlocks molds with no markings, come in African American, black, brunette, and blonde hair, and half bodies meant to be used on a cake skirt. I had some as a child and replaced the half body with whatever body was handy. In this case a Rosemary body seems to have been used.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this information. I had not considered that the head was from a cake topper/half doll.
Delete