In 1978, Mattel produced a dog named hug n’ talk Napper. He was 13″ long with light brown fur with ears and tail being a darker brown. He has a distinctive patch on his back that is shaped like a daisy. The patch says, “hug me”. When Napper is squeezed he says 6 different phrases: My name is Napper, I get so lonely, You’re so good to me, Ruff ruff rub my tummy, Im sleepy, Ruff ruff ruff. Napper does not require batteries; instead he has a record player inside of him. He is like the more familiar pull-string talking toys except instead of a pull-string starting the talking mechanism, a squeeze does.
You can see the distinctive daisy patch on his back
I sold this rare toy for $500.00 on eBay in 2011.
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Holly Hobbie (born 1944) is an American writer and illustrator. She was born Denise Holly Ulinskas and she married Douglas Hobbie in 1964. She and her husband currently reside in Massachusetts.
In the early 1970s, Hobbie sold distinctive artwork of a cat-loving, rag dress-wearing little girl in a giant bonnet to American Greetings. This series of illustrations became immensely popular and her originally nameless character became known as “Holly Hobbie”.
How did the artwork come to be a doll?
In 1973 and 1974, Holly Hobbie was working at American Greetings under art director Rex Connors. Rex was responsible for launching “blue girl” as the most identifiable of the Hobby characters. Bob Childers, a veteran concept artist and designer was also working with Rex on the “blue girl” project at that time. Childers insisted that there should be a doll. Since no one seemed to listen, Childers went home and, on his own time, hand-stitched the first prototype and presented it to Connors. Rex then took the doll to Tom Wilson, Creative Vice President, after which American Greetings approached Knickerbocker Toys concerning the Holly Hobby license.
And the rest was history……………
In 1974, Knickerbocker Toys licensed the Holly Hobbie character for a line of rag dolls, which were a popular toy for young American girls for several years. Knickerbocker produced the Holly Hobbie doll and a line of dolls called Hollie Hobbies friends.
They were Carrie, Heather, and Amy. Each of the dolls wore “pioneer” style clothing that you would expect to see a young girl in the 1800’s in the American west wear: bonnets, pantaloons and calico frocks. They all wore their hair in a style of the same era: parted down the center with long braids to each side of their heads. Each of the dolls was caucasion.
Holly Hobbie has brown eyes, and very light brown hair. She wears a blue patchwork dress with trim in a blue print over a white background. Her bonnet and pantaloons are a coordinating blue calico print. This is the traditional outfit for Holly Hobbie. Some Holly Hobbie dolls featured her in a pastel patchwork dress with light blue calico trim and matching bonnet. Her pantaloons were blue circles over a white background.
Holly hobbie knickerbocker Carrie 16″ doll friend
Carrie
Carrie has blue eyes, light brown hair and a scattering of freckles across her face. Her outfit is an orange flower print over an ivory background and hems and ruffles in a coordinating red.
Heather has brown eyes, brown hair and freckles. Her outfit is a green flower print over an ivory background with trim in ivory. She also wears an ivory apron.
Holly hobbie knickerbocker Amy 16″ doll friend
Amy
She also wears an ivory apron. Amy has blue eyes and light red hair with freckles. Her outfit is white flowers over a dark green background and trim colors in a pale green. She also wears a pale green apron.
Holly hobbie knickerbocker day night 16″ plush doll
Would you like to share Holly Hobbie with your granddaughter? They still make them! Here’s a great assortment available at Amazon:
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Vintage 1976 Playskool Dapper Dan 15″ plush toy doll
Vintage 1979 Playskool DRESSY BESSY 15″ plush toy doll
Dressy Bessy & Dapper Dan vintage magazine ad
Enlarged text on the bottom of the vtg magazine adMagazine ad
The mysterious world of zippers, snaps, buckles, buttons, and shoelaces is suddenly easy. Because little fingers got a chance to practice while they plays with our new Dressy Bessy or Dapper Dan. Both these Playskool dolls are big, cuddly and adorable! To hug and love. And long after your child learns to dress, they’ll still be favorites. Because they’re beautifully make to take lots of rough play, and their clothes are attached so nothing gets lost. To learn more about Playskool Toys, write for our free booklet, Play tools to shape a child’s world. Playtime is learning with Playskool.
The Wombles are fictional pointy-nosed, furry creatures that live in burrows, where they help the environment by collecting and recycling rubbish in useful and ingenious ways. Wombles were created by author Elisabeth Beresford, originally appearing in a series of children’s novels from 1968. Although Wombles supposedly live in every country in the world, the stories are concerned with the life of the inhabitants of the burrow on Wimbledon Common in London, England.
The characters became nationally famous in the UK in the mid 1970s as a result of a very popular BBC children’s television show using stop motion animation. A number of spin-off novelty songs also became major hits in the British music charts. The Wombles (band) was the brainchild of British music writer and composer, Mike Batt.
The Womble motto is “Make Good Use of Bad Rubbish.” This “green” message was a reflection of the growing ecology movement of the 1970s.
Tobermory (roadie) – an engineer, was based on Beresford’s brother, a skilled inventor, and named after the capital of the Isle of Mull
Orinoco (vocals, keyboards) – a shirker who loved sleep and food, was styled on Beresford’s teenage son and named after the River Orinoco in South America
Alderney – Madame Cholet’s assistant, was named after Alderney in the Channel Islands where Beresford lived towards the end of her life. She appeared in the early books, but did not make it into the first TV series. Her character was revived in the second TV series, when many viewers wrongly assumed she was a new character.
This is a great looking Knickerbocker Wombles Uncle
Knickerbocker Uncle Bulgaria Womble
Bulgaria 12″ plush toy elizabeth beresford. Item is about 12″ tall and in good condition. Item lacks rips/tears/stains. Eyeglasses are broken and bow tie is missing.
Creator of the Wombles Elisabeth Beresford
There were five novels:
The Wombles (1968)
The Wandering Wombles (1970)
The Wombles at Work (1973)
The Wombles to the Rescue (1974)
The Wombles Go Round the World (1976)
All of these were out of print for many years, but they are currently being re-issued by Bloomsbury with all-new illustrations. The last two books are less well known than the original three, perhaps because they appeared after the successful television series began. In The Wandering Wombles, the setting moved from Wimbledon Common to Hyde Park in central London. However The Wombles to the Rescue saw them return to Wimbledon Common.
The Wombles have been a sensation in the UK for decades now. This is but a small introduction to the Wombles for us Yanks! I hope you enjoyed the article. I’m going to check out more of the Wombles music now!
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