There have been a great many different dolls over the years that try to mimic the actions of a real baby, some more successfully than others. It’s a given that most dolls have the weighted eyes that shut when they are put in a lying down position, but there have been attempts at emulating the sounds of a baby crying, gurgling and burping, wetting its nappy and even nappy rash! However, by far the most popular of these many dolls must certainly be the Tiny Tears doll.
As the name suggests, Tiny Tears special feature was that she could be made to cry. This was achieved by feeding her with a bottle of water, and then placing a dummy in her mouth once she had drunk her fill. Pressing hard on her tummy (note to kids - this isn’t recommended with real babies) would cause tears to stream from her eyes. No wonder at it, as I don’t think I’d like being punched in the guts after I’d just finished feeding either. Water also emerged from her other end too, yielding a wet nappy.
The first iteration of the doll was released in 1965 by Palitoy and was 16 inches in height and made from vinyl. The following year a smaller 12 inch version was also released, called Teeny Tiny Tears. Tiny Tears was quite a realistic looking doll, although the shock of blonde hair she sported was rather more than the average baby might have. This original version didn’t actually cry though, and it wasn’t until the early 1970’s that this feature was added after a redesign of the face of the doll, which was made to have softer looking features than before.
These are another example of a toy that dates back many decades, but which were still popular in the 1980’s, and probably are still popular today, if you can find where to buy one that is.
Teddy Ruxpin first appeared in 1985 and was intended as an educational toy that would help and encourage young children to learn to read. The toy took the form of a cute and cuddly teddy bear who could actually read stories to a child, with it’s eyes and mouth moving in time with the words of the story.
It’s less of the case today, but in the 1980’s little girls were generally either Sindy Girls or Barbie Girls (please don’t start singing at this point!). Today Barbie has garnered a pretty big share of the dress up doll market, but in the 1980’s Sindy just had the edge, in the UK at least.
If there was ever a decade where companies learnt there was money to be made from kids then the 1980’s is surely it. This surely was the beginning of the merchandising age, where any toy, cartoon series, film, comic could reasonably expect to be refactored from one form of media to all of the others, with a motley array of lunchboxes, quilt covers, clothing and just about anything else you can think of thrown in for good measure.
I certainly remember my sister owning a Strawberry Shortcake doll, but I didn’t realise that, like the
Monster In My Pocket was a series of small collectible plastic monsters first released by Matchbox in 1990, so it’s possible that if you were born during the 1980’s you will remember them. The reason I’m writing about them today is because I was reminded of them after seeing an advert on TV the other night for something incredibly similar - unfortunately I didn’t catch the name of these new ones, but it appears as though Monster In My Pockets are still available now as well.