WaMu Action Teller With Video

Washington Mutual Action Teller

A recent acquisition found on eBay is the 11-1/2-inch vinyl Washington Mutual Action Teller shown above. Found for a price I could not refuse, the doll arrived in never-removed from box state.  While preparing to enter the doll's information onto my doll inventory spreadsheet, after not finding a manufacturer's name or a copyright date on the box, I conducted a Google search and found the following August 7, 2001, article about the two versions that were created.

WaMu's tiny teller dolls drawing high interest

By Sharon Pian Chan

Seattle Times technology reporter

Inspired by the response Washington Mutual got from a commercial featuring a Washington Mutual doll, the Seattle thrift started selling its own action figures. Since December, the company says, it has sold several thousand to kids, adults and even competitors.

The Washington Mutual Action Teller comes in two versions: an African-American female and a Caucasian male.

The man is in standard dress code for the bank's Occasio branches: khakis, a denim chambray shirt, supershiny brown loafers and a sweater vest emblazoned with a Washington Mutual logo.

The woman, with an Oprah hairdo, wears a WaMu-logo blue oxford and a khaki skirt. The two also come with sportier shorts-and-polo volunteer outfits, tote bag and cell phone.

Real-life WaMu tellers, however, are not provided with wireless phones and are allowed to wear black pants if they wish, spokeswoman Sheri Pollock said.

Each doll costs $19.95 and can be ordered at the thrift's branches or online.

In comparison, a McDonald's Barbie made by Mattel costs $16.99 and comes equipped with a tray of McDonald's food, headset, infant Kelly, a tiny cash register and even tiny bills to fit inside.

Action Teller does not come with fake, or real, money.

The dolls aren't exactly Barbie quality, either. Seams run up the figures' legs, and the male teller has plastic molded hair and two prominent craters in his back where the screws go.

Female Action Teller fares slightly better with painted white panties, but her high heels require rubber bands to stay on her feet.

"The response has been very good," said Pollock.

[http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20010807&slug=wamudolls07]

A WaMu trading card, a black cell phone, and extra Committed Active Neighbors (CAN!) program fashion are included with the doll.

Based on the above article, I assume the doll was released to the market in 2001.  The year of manufacture or copyright year was probably 2000 as dolls are usually released a year after the copyright has been established.  Another online article linked to the following promotional video for the WaMu Action Teller dolls.





Below are additional photos of my doll whose "Oprah-style-described" hair looks more like a British guard cap or busby.  They tried.

My doll's bubble-cut hairstyle, as mentioned above, looks like a hair hat.  She has brown painted eyes and a smiling mouth with parted lips and painted undefined teeth.   Her extra CAN! fashion includes a white logo'd polo-style shirt, tan shorts, white sneakers, and a tan CAN! tote bag.

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One side panel of the box describes WaMu's CAN! program as follows:

What is CAN!?
Committed Action Neighbors
In the CAN! program, Washington Mutual employees get together to work on projects for non-profits in their communities.  In 1999, Washington Mutual employees volunteered more than 145,000 hours on CAN! projects.  Washington Mutual CAN! teams make effective, meaningful contributions to their neighborhoods while having fun.

The back of the doll's box illustrates a full-length view of the doll (shown below) and the actual way the hair was meant to be styled.

The WaMu teller wears a blue long-sleeved button-down Washington Mutual shirt with a tan pencil skirt and black pumps.

Washington Mutual Bank was purchased by J. P. Morgan Chase in September 2008.  Both versions of the nonarticulated action tellers are frequently listed on eBay.

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Barbie Fashionistas #90 and #80 Box Free

Barbie Fashionistas #90 (Rainbow Bright/Ryan) and #80 (Cheerful Check/CeeCee)

The above two Barbie Fashionistas #90 and #80 have been deboxed.  I was surprised to find that the back of Fashionista #90 (Ryan's) dress is purple.

Ryan models the front and back of her rainbow-colored dress which, as indicated, is purple in the back.  Ryan also has very nice, silky, bone straight hair. 

The back of CeeCee's dress is the same as the front:

CeeCee models the front and back of her dress.  The heels of her red vinyl shoes are flimsy; one heel was already bent upon arrival.

Complexion comparisons between Ryan and five different dark-skinned Barbies are shown below followed by Ryan and CeeCee modeling Sparkle Girlz fashions.

Ryan's Complexion Comparisons

Ryan's complexion is darker than So In Style Chandra's.

Ryan's complexion is slightly lighter than Model of the Moment Nichelle's.  Ryan would be frozen into the ModelMuse position if this body were swapped for hers.

Musician Barbie's complexion is lighter than Ryan's. This would not be a good body swap for articulation.

Another close, but not exact, complexion match is Barbie Basics Collection 1, Model No. 4.

The complexions of Ryan and Princess of South Africa Barbie are also close, but not exact.

I do not own any articulated Barbies with complexions that match Ryan's unique deep ebony skin tone.  I was asked if Made to Move Camp/Hiking Barbie's complexion matches.  I do not own that doll but I reached out to someone who does.  Dreamer Dolls allowed me to use the following photo:

AA Camp/Hiking Barbie's articulated body does not match Ryan's complexion as illustrated in this photo courtesy of DreamerDolls.net.  Please see an articulated body suggestion below the fashion show.*

Ryan and CeeCee Swap Clothes and Model Sparkle Girlz Fashions

Ryan wears CeeCee's shirt dress comfortably; however, the rainbow dress is a loose fit on CeeCee.

The two look very nice in the first of the six different Sparkle Girlz fashions.  Before dressing her in this fashion, CeeCee's ears were pierced.  She now wears tiny gold-tone hoop earrings that are on a straight post.  I used the posts to pierce her earlobes.

I tried the floral print dress with side cutouts on CeeCee first.  I like the fit of it on Ryan better.  The dress CeeCee wears was a nice fit on Ryan, too.

This faux blouson one-piece pants set fits Ryan well.  The yellow striped top fits CeeCee, the waistline of the shorts is a little low.  If they are not pulled up high enough, CeeCee faux panty line is exposed.

Of the six Sparkle Girlz fashions, I like the girls in the third set.  Instead of redressing them in those, I opted for the following Sparkle Girlz fashions purchased in the past.

This fashion shows off CeeCee's more shapely legs.  Ryan's legs are thin and straight.

*If you desire an articulated body for Rainbow Bright Fashionista #90 and are unable to find a manufactured one that matches the head color, dye a body using brown Idye Poly or Rit Dyemore.  The brown in both formulations is rather dark.  The longer the body is left in the dye, the darker it will become.  You can either use a brown body and dip it for a few seconds or a white body and leave it in the dye bath a few minutes until the color deepens.  If I were to do this, to have a headstart in color deepening, I would dye a brown articulated body.

I used brown IDye Poly to dye the heads of these dolls.



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In Loving Memory of Yvonne Peters

I became acquainted with Yvonne Peters, a fellow doll lover, after she was informed in 2009 by her local library of my first book, The Definitive Guide to Collecting Black Dolls.  Our first contact was through snail mail.  Somehow (perhaps through the book), she found my P.O. Box mailing address and wrote me the first of what would be several letters (all of which I still have).  We eventually began communicating through email, by phone, and later by text.  At the time we "met," I had already written my second book (which she purchased from me after learning about it), and I was already writing my third, The Doll Blogs:  When Dolls Speak, I Listen.  In this book, dolls from my collection were "allowed" to take the reader on an imaginative voyage by blogging their experiences of being part of my collection.

In June of 2009, after having read in my first book about my past doll dyeing attempts, Yvonne sent me a white Cabbage Patch doll to dye brown and add to my collection. 

I did dye the doll, named him Peter, and allowed him to "blog" his experience in my third book, too.  Peter's three recorded entries in The Doll Blogs are shared below:

Thursday, June 18, 2009

I arrived today from Obetz, Ohio as an unexpected gift for Debbie from Yvonne Peters, a doll collector.  Ms. Peters recently purchased a copy of Debbie’s second book and a backup copy of her first book.  Since then, she has sent correspondence to Debbie on several occasions, to which Debbie replied.  Debbie also sent Ms. Peters information on doll magazine subscriptions to help her locate dolls and stay up to date on new dolls.  As a gesture of her appreciation for the time Debbie took to answer her letters, Ms. Peters wanted to send Debbie a gift. 

After purchasing dolls from a person selling CPK dolls in her area, Ms. Peters decided to send me to Debbie with the thought that Debbie could dye me black.  She read about dyeing dolls in Debbie’s second book.   Even though she no longer dyes dolls, Debbie thought it was very nice of Ms. Peters to send me to her.  After showing me to her husband and explaining to him why I was sent to her, Mr. G. suggested, and Debbie agreed, that she should dye me to deepen my complexion and send me back to Ms. Peters.  So as soon as time permits, that is what Debbie plans to do.  In the meantime, she took a before picture of me to remind her of what I looked like before my dye bath.  Debbie named me “Peter.”

CPK Peter Peters

*******

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Today is Father’s Day.  After Debbie took her mom to the fire department to have her blood pressure checked and discovered it was normal (and that it was her blood pressure monitor that needed new batteries that caused the high readings), she went to a dollar store before returning home.  At the dollar store, she purchased a small waste basket to use for my dye bath.  After boiling water in two large boilers and allowing it to cool for a few minutes, she poured the water in the wastebasket, which had been placed on top of a piece of newspaper.  Cocoa Brown Rit dye and salt were added to the water and stirred with a metal spoon until all the powdered dye dissolved.  I was submerged in the dye bath for several minutes.  It’s times like this that I’m glad I’m a doll!  My pink body immediately began to turn a tan color.  My vinyl did too.  After several minutes in the dye bath, my color failed to deepen further.  So Debbie removed me from the water, added dark brown dye to the water and mixed it with the spoon.  I was dipped back into the water and immediately began to turn a darker shade of brown.  After achieving the desired color, Debbie removed me from the dye bath, squeezed the excess water from my cloth body, and placed me on top of a large plastic trash bag to dry out.  Debbie noticed a few imperfections on my face and head where the vinyl did not dye evenly.  She thinks this may be from a buildup of something used to clean my vinyl.  She may try to paint these areas, apply another cover-up, or just leave them as is and call them my birthmarks.  J  After I’m all dried out, the plan is to redress me and mail me back to Ms. Peters.  We hope she likes me.

CPK Peter Peters

*******

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Debbie decided to paint me from head to toe because the dye bath did not give me an even complexion.   She used Spice Brown acrylic paint.  After the paint dried, she darkened my blue eyes with a brown Sharpie marker.  The marker was also used to darken by original blonde hair color.  She trimmed my hair, too.  Then she applied a layer of varnish to my vinyl head.  After that dried, she used spray matte gloss for my cloth body, arms, and legs.   I was allowed to dry one final time before she dressed me in my yellow and white romper, yellow socks, and white cap.  This whole process lasted a week.  I am all ready to make a trip back to Obetz, Ohio to join Ms. Peters and the other dolls in her collection.  Debbie will include a note to Ms. Peters explaining why I am being returned. 

CPK Peter Peters

*******

Yvonne was indeed surprised to have Peter return to her and readily incorporated him into her collection.  I recently asked about Peter, "Do you still have him?"  She said, "Yes."  Our nine-year long-distance friendship blossomed through our shared love of dolls and her love of learning and reading about vintage-to-modern black dolls.  Last week I learned that my dear friend, a God-fearing woman who constantly gave thanks to God for his grace and mercy, who was always cheerful in spite of several long-term illnesses, who never hesitated to lift me up in prayer when I requested and even when I did not, and for whom I prayed the answer (that she would be healed), is now resting peacefully, suffering no more. 

I will truly miss Yvonne but find comfort in knowing that she is now truly healed from all physical illness, pain, and suffering. 

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