FASHION MEETS FUN FLASHBACK

1970’s COLLECTIBLE “LONG HAIR” DOLLS FROM IDEAL TOYS

"The Brady Bunch" sisters 

  It was the early 1970’s, and the fun Friday night line-up on TV was “The Brady Bunch”, “The Partridge Family”, and—does anyone remember?—“Nanny and the Professor”!  It was an era of incredible changes, blossoming with flower power, cranking up the classic rock, getting down with dynamite disco, laughing with Sonny and Cher, and seeing orange and lime green everywhere you looked. But, especially unique to the times, it was all about long, long hair.

Ideal's Crissy Doll w/box
Photo by Grace George

Ideal's Cinnamon Doll w/box
Photo by Grace George

   Styllin’ in the Seventies: We grew up with Marcia Brady and her sisters who were pivotal in inspiring the envious look of long, shiny straight hair that every girl wanted. This idyllic image was captured in dolls by Ideal Toys and mass produced for little girls everywhere. The company introduced the red-head Crissy, then her blonde cousin Velvet and Velvet's little sister Cinnamon. Other models outside the Crissy clan followed, including glamour girl with the too cool two-choice hair color Tiffany Taylor who looks as though she just walked off the set of “Charlie’s Angels”.

Ideal's Velvet Doll
Photo by Grace George

   My sister and I played for hours with these dolls, inventing hair styles for them while mixing and matching their out-of-sight outfits. We wished we had hair just like them but enjoying theirs was the next best thing! My sister, being older, of course had the original Crissy while I had the subsequent model of her younger cousin, Velvet's little sister Cinnamon. We probably

Ideal's Tiffany Taylor Doll w/box
Blonde option

fought over Velvet. Sibling rivalry being what it is, we tried to outdo each other’s hairdo. These dolls were such a hit, I remember our neighborhood friends biking over to enjoy them just as much as we did. As my sister started to lose interest in dolls, Tiffany Taylor joined the family and was all mine. She was double the pleasure, I could make her a blonde or a brunette

Ideal's Tiffany Taylor
Brunette option
Photo by Grace George

depending upon my fickle fashion mood at the moment. As far as I was concerned, all these girls got along and had a blast together as I invented lives for them. Ironically, as fate would have it, these dolls ended up serving as my prototypes in the exercise of this author’s eventual character creation.

   I still have all these dolls (plus one little country girl whose name I don’t remember),

Unknown "Country Girl" Doll
Photo by Grace George

but my mother (Nana) had gone to the trouble of keeping these dolls safe in their original boxes thinking that if she ever had a granddaughter they would be appreciated again. But while Barbies successfully evolved with each new edition to remain relevant and the Bratz broke out in their own modern rendition of fashionable fun, the idea of making the long hair that you can do anything with came up short on appeal to my daughters who already had their own long hair to experiment with and who are now older teenagers. But the upside to that is my collection remains in great shape, “gently-used” by just one generation.

   All of these dolls not only not survive, they are again ready to thrive! While almost antiques, with their preserved pizzazz they stand ready to prove that playtime never fades and they can bring back the magic of the 1970’s! For anyone who is  into nostalgic doll collecting, these gals have and continue to be featured on my ebay page, nanastreasures1938. If interested, go to link below:  

https://www.ebay.com/usr/nanastreasures1938?_trksid=p2047675.l2559