Tuesday, August 1, 2023

1950s Roberta Walker

1950s hard plastic head-turning walker by Roberta Dolls

This 1950s hard plastic doll attributed to the Roberta Doll Company was offered on eBay for a price I could not refuse. She needed a bit of restyling. What was done to make her presentable was captured in a series of photos, but there are too many to upload and describe in one blog post. So, I created the following descriptive video.


All done!

Based on the original flower in the doll's hair, it possibly was originally dressed in a Hawaiian costume as illustrated in a photo from the Doll Reference site. Many companies during the time this doll was made, used the same brown-skinned dolls to represent brown-skinned people of different ethnicities.   

This is my second 17-inch Roberta walker-type doll. The first one was acquired several years ago. It was curated and added to my virtual black doll museum in January 2023. It is also included in my first black-doll reference, The Definitive Guide to Collecting Black Dolls, on page 23. 

Roberta doll #2 poses with doll #1.

The two Roberta walker dolls pose together and are now displayed together in my doll room. There is a slight complexion difference between the two.

View and read the museum-installed doll's details at this link.


©Black Doll Collecting/dbg

There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.

__________

Thank you for reading. Comments that are not spam are appreciated. Spam comments will not be published, so don't waste your time. To contact me directly regarding dolls or any of my posts, please use the contact form on the right of the home page, which is visible in "web view." A link to web viewing should be visible at the bottom of this page.

If you're not already a subscriber, visit, "like" and follow the Black Doll Collecting Facebook page or bookmark the Black Doll Collecting home page and visit on Tuesdays and Thursdays when typically new posts are published.

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Check out my eBay listings here.
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Tuesday, July 25, 2023

In Appreciation of Harriet Tubman Dolls by Gloria Rone


On February 2, 2022, three one-of-a-kind dolls sculpted in tribute to Harriet Tubman by Gloria Y. Rone of Massa's Servants Collectibles were curated and installed in DeeBeeGee's Virtual Black Doll Museum. The installation includes photos and details about the dolls along with a brief Harriet Tubman bio. 

To this installation, on July 24, 2023, the following comment was added by museum visitor, Albertina Walker.

These dolls are absolutely sensational! The likeness, particularly of the 12″ doll, is spot on, and the intricate details of the face and facial expressions are extraordinary! I am very grateful to artist Gloria Rone for sharing her remarkable art with us and I am especially pleased that she chose Harriet Tubman as her subject. There are very few people – male or female – throughout this world’s history who have demonstrated as much courage, genius, perseverance, dedication, and leadership as Harriet Tubman. Her extraordinary, diverse catalogue of knowledge spanned a vast array of disciplines and skills ranging from geography, botany, wildlife, animal behavior and psychology, to astronomy, herbology, climatology and human psychology, thus justifiably deeming her equally (if not more) proficient and intellectually well-versed as any leading scholar or intellectual contemporary of her time. (Despite the leading consensus among academians that Ms. Tubman was illiterate all through her life, recent inquiry uncovered evidence suggesting that she had indeed accumulated some degree of basic reading and writing skills at some point by her final years, as indicated by long forgotten journals she kept towards the end of her life, which had been stowed away in a Yale University archives basement for decades.)


Thank you for writing this outstanding article and sharing with us the brilliant work of Gloria Rone.

At 5:06 p.m. on July 24, 2923, I replied,

Thank you so much, Ms. Walker, for your glowing review of Ms. Rone’s Harriet Tubman dolls. She does have a keen ability to sculpt very realistic faces that breathe life into dolls. It is very important for our heroines like Harriet Tubman to be remembered for their heroism and dedicated battles against human bondage.

Thank you for also sharing that Harriet Tubman achieved basic reading and writing skills during her lifetime. This is why we need to research our history and continue to share our stories. It would be detrimental to our progress as a society if we allow individuals who are descendants of enslavers to rewrite history in order to absolve their ancestors of their wrongdoings against enslaved Africans. Such an action will only serve to create further division among us.

**********


It always warms my heart to hear from museum visitors and subscribers who express appreciation for the information the museum provides.

View the installation here.

©Black Doll Collecting/dbg

There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.

__________

Thank you for reading. Comments that are not spam are appreciated. Spam comments will not be published, so don't waste your time. To contact me directly regarding dolls or any of my posts, please use the contact form on the right of the home page, which is visible in "web view." A link to web viewing should be visible at the bottom of this page.

If you're not already a subscriber, visit, "like" and follow the Black Doll Collecting Facebook page or bookmark the Black Doll Collecting home page and visit on Tuesdays and Thursdays when typically new posts are published.

Check out what I am selling here
Check out my eBay listings here.
Please follow my sister blog Ebony-Essence of Dolls in Black.
*New*Visit/Follow DeeBeeGee's Virtual Black Doll Museum
Donate here to support this blog. Thank you!

Thursday, July 20, 2023

Latinistas Dolls and Fashion Packs

Latinistas fashion dolls by Purpose Toys LATIN are from L-R Lola, Liv, Juliana, and Dani.


Marketed as the first full line of Latina fashion dolls by Purpose Toys LATIN, at the time of publishing this post, the dolls are shown as currently unavailable or temporarily out of stock on Amazon. Preordering commenced earlier this week. The scheduled release for these dolls is in August 2023. The purchase links provided below should be active by then. I will update this post or create a new one that links to this one as soon as I know purchasing or preordering has resumed. The dolls will also be available at Walmart and Target.




Juliana
 
Lola
 
Dani
 
Liv
 

Dance Night Fashion Pack

 

Festival Day


©Black Doll Collecting/dbg

There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.

__________

Thank you for reading. Comments that are not spam are appreciated. Spam comments will not be published, so don't waste your time. To contact me directly regarding dolls or any of my posts, please use the contact form on the right of the home page, which is visible in "web view." A link to web viewing should be visible at the bottom of this page.

If you're not already a subscriber, visit, "like" and follow the Black Doll Collecting Facebook page or bookmark the Black Doll Collecting home page and visit on Tuesdays and Thursdays when typically new posts are published.

Check out what I am selling here
Check out my eBay listings here.
Please follow my sister blog Ebony-Essence of Dolls in Black.
*New*Visit/Follow DeeBeeGee's Virtual Black Doll Museum
Donate here to support this blog. Thank you!