BOX DATE: 1963
MANUFACTURER: Mattel
VARIATIONS: Blonde; brunette; redhead
RELEASES: 1963 separately sold; 1964 Party Time Set; 1964 Wedding Party Gift Set
BODY TYPE: 1963; straight, non-bending legs; flat feet
HEAD MOLD: 1963 "Original"
****My doll has been rerooted.
PERSONAL FUN FACT written by my sister: It was September 2022 and I was thinking about--what else?--doll clothes. I was hoping the lady who sold us some affordable American Girl items would be back. However, when another regular seller asked us, "Would you be interested in looking at some doll clothes?" my answer was "Always." He was dealing Barbie sized clothes and the first thing I saw was a ziploc bag containing a vintage Skipper and some Skipper clothes. (Perhaps it wasn't the first thing I laid eyes on, but I had tunnel vision after that.) This doll didn't look like this--she had almost NO hair left--Her bangs were as frizzy as my "Little Red's" had been when I rescued her from an antique store, but the rest of her equally frizzy hair was sticking up in some sort of bad mohawk look. Not much was left of it, it was either cut or pulled out. So sad. She was wearing a Ship Ahoy dress. When he said the bag was five dollars, I didn't have to think about it. I paid six dollars for my first Ship Ahoy dress, without the vest, and I could see the vest for this one floating in the bag. (I could also see that the dress needed repair.) I could also see other Skipper clothes--ones that I recognized like Red Sensation as ones I already owned and others that looked familiar, Skipper fashions I didn't yet have. I knew the bag was a bargain, whether or not this girl turned out to be salvageable. I bought this and Shelly bought the bag with Midge and Barbie for fifteen. We were at the guy's table for less than five minutes and he'd made twenty bucks off us--not a bad day for him either. In the shopping frenzy, part of my mind still wondering whether or not the lady with AG clothes would be there (she wasn't) and whether or not the elderly couple still had the Sunshine Family dolls (they did!), I hadn't even processed that I had just purchased Skipper's original attire! (Most iconic outfit ever!) (I'm hoping it will bring me luck and more will follow--I've got two blondes and Little Red waiting for swimsuits too.) I knew, even prior to realizing that the swimsuit was there, that the clothes alone were worth more than five dollars, even if Skipper turned out to be a body donor. She could've gone either way. One could justify a reroot, since we don't find sixties dolls every day and since this body is, as far as vintage bodies go, fairly obtainable and wasn't one I needed to repair a doll already in the collection. She could join the family. Or, since she was missing some eyebrow and lip paint and the hair was unsalvageable, she could used for parts. To the landfill or part of the family--what would be her fate? Honestly, I knew when I paid the five dollars that I wanted to save her. I've always wanted a brunette straight leg doll. They are so iconic and beautiful. I figured I could easily talk Shelly into saving her--I knew my childhood bendable leg was hoping to get a reroot someday, so we could order her hair at the same time. Plus, Shelly saved a Swirl Ponytail, given to us by my friend Kathy, who was in equally bad shape (worse actually). We bought this doll, who Shelly said we should call "Hazelnut" for her hair coloring (and I agree it's a lovely name), on a Sunday. Her hair arrived that Friday. By Saturday night, Hazelnut had a full head of hair! (I was mesmerized by her.) So, within a week, she had a whole new look and a whole new lease on life. Even before Shelly touched up her paint, she was no longer at risk of being mistaken for trash. While Shelly could have rerooted my childhood bendable leg first (she had prepped her for the reroot also and had them sitting together, bald, on the art desk waiting for hair), I'm glad she did Hazelnut first. Hazelnut was new here and didn't understand that her new home duals as a doll hospital. She probably thought Shelly was making her worse, not better, when she cut off the fragments of her original locks. My childhood doll has been waiting, jealously, for a reroot for a couple years (staring enviously at Little Red). She understood that reroot is good. She trusts Shelly's makeover abilities. I had hoped, while they were sitting together with no hair on the art desk (and Hazelnut was nude because Shelly had to repair her swimsuit), that my childhood doll was explaining the whole thing to her, making her feel better about it. I was glad that it didn't take long for the girls' hair to arrive and that Shelly decided to tend to Hazelnut first. (My childhood doll had a head of hair by that Sunday night also--vintage reroots are easy, Shelly said, because they have less hair plugs.) I think the end results are perfection--she is so beautiful! The hair color looks right--though it's not as easy to compare because she had so little left and it was in such bad shape, but this color looks right compared to dolls her age who still have shiny hair. I'm really glad we rescued her and gave her a home--and hair!