❀ 1982 Quick Change Sindy by Pedigree ❀

On 4th November 2012, I wrote and published a post about Sindy Styling heads which I have since reverted back to draft form, the information in this post was part of that one but looking back through  my "Drafts Folder" I realise it really should be two separate posts, so I have decided to split and rewrite them both...

It began when I discovered a Sindy Doll bust online and wanted to find out more about them...

Around the same time I managed to get my hands on a bundle of Sindy dolls, which I was either going to restore or customise depending on how damage they were when they arrived.

  At the time I bought them I was curious about the one that appeared to have purple hair and when she arrived I was even more curious about her, so I uploaded a photo of her to my Flickr Photostream and asked my Flickr friends for any information on her.

One of my friends suggested that she is probably a Quick Change Sindy which came with pens so you could add streaks of colour to their hair or if you prefer completely change the colour of her hair.

As I'd never heard of her before I did a little research and discovered that she was released in 1982 and came with "Magic Colour Change Sticks" which were used to draw the colour or colours of your choice directly onto the doll's hair, whether or not these washed out I cannot say, although I suspect they would have done so you can try another colour or colour pattern etc.

(So really not much more than my friend told me, in fact it was virtually impossible to find anything else on this doll at all at that time...)

Which makes me think it's even more surprising that this doll of mine still has the colour on her hair - without which it would have been impossible to identify her as a Quick change Sindy!

Ebay Listing

One of the tools I like to use when trying to identify dolls and other toys is Google Images. While originally looking for info' on various Sindy's in order to identify this girl, I spotted a thumbnail of the above image which lead me on what I initially thought was a separate quest to buy a Sindy Styling head.

Ebay Listing

I couldn't resist bidding on it and while waiting for the auction to end, I began researching these instead!

I discovered there are two versions of this toy, a standard (for this type of toy) "Flesh tone" part bust (shoulders really) version and one that has the bust area (partial breast lumps included!) made from red textured plastic... possibly to resemble a jumper, as shown in the photo' below.

Ebay Listing

I have no idea why this version has a red  textured body, I suspect it is made to simulate a red sweater as opposed to the flesh versions above.

 I guess it is possible that as she is showing part of her breasts it was deemed more appropriate to have her "wearing" something.

One image I found appeared to be a brunette version of this "sweater" style styling head, which seems to be identical in every except for the hair.

I think this may infact be a case of someone not placing the original blonde head back on the bust as after discovering the origin of these "busts" / "mini styling heads" I can't really sree the point of making a dark haired version, that statement will become clear to you once you've read a bit further down...

As you can see from this picture of the "Brunette version", these "Sweater" styling heads came with heated hair curlers so you could heat-set and style Sindy's hair, I am unsure whether the "Flesh" type 

also had this gimmick.

Or so I thought but while double checking my facts and editing this post from the original (written in 2012) today, I did a bit more research I found this image in Google:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/lauralovelylocks/8213184369/

As it doesn't enjoy being enlarged much, I guess I should explain it's relevance... At the bottom of the box there is an "Also available" type image which toy manufacturers just so love placing on their products, the product it's advertising is ( I don't actually know the marketed name ) an additional playset which contains a hair brush, mirror, comb, portable hair dryer, hair curlers, holders etc

I recently bought part of this set which you can see in the listing photograph below... Sadly it wasn't complete and the yellow items don't belong to it, but it did contain the long coveted Sindy Curlers I've been after for years and the adorable portable hair dryer too!

The "Brunette with curlers" image above is looking more and more to me like a bundle of similar Sindy items that the seller has either knowingly or not, grouped together for the purpose of the sale.

And talking of auctions and more specifically the one for the "Flesh tone bust" / "Styling head" I mentioned earlier...

Well I didn't win that auction but after more searching I found a "red bust" blonde haired version for auction, I placed a bid and this time I won!

It wasn't until I received it that I discovered it's actually pretty small, the head itself is the same size as a regular Pedigree Sindy doll and in fact whole thing was the exact same size as a Sindy doll's shoulders as I discovered when I placed one on top of the other.

I still had no idea what I had got until several months later when I decided to once again search for information on Quick Change Sindy dolls by taking another look on Google Images - this time I got lucky and discovered several images of  boxed "Quick Change Sindy" dolls...

One look at the boxed dolls and the mystery of the "Sweater" and flesh type heads was solved!!

Google Images

As you can see from these two images, these dolls came with a spare head mounted on a mini bust, some boxes had the bust that with a flesh tone bust and some had the bust in a textured red plastic, there is probably some reason for this, but so far I have been unable to work out what it is.

Google Images

My only guess is that they somehow correspond to the two variants of this doll available at the time; one wearing a purple sparkly outfit, as shown in the photos below and one wearing a silver outfit, they both had a metallic padded jacket as part of their outfit.

Photo found on Google - If it belongs to you, please let me know so I can credit you.

As you can see from the above photo and one below these busts seem to have been designed so that they can be displayed alongside Sindy's furniture in her Dream House or wherever else your doll may live.

Image found on Google, please contact for credit if it belongs to you.

My spare head is packed safely away in one of my many doll filled boxes and so apart from the photographs which were part of the Ebay listing and we're already uploaded as part of this post when I initially wrote and published it a few years back, so I haven't taken any new pictures of it for this post.

I have however found this photograph, also taken several years back, which shows how my Quick Change Sindy looks now...

I was worried that if I wetted her hair to restyle it she may lose the purple streaks, which really is all that's left of her original "played with" look and something she has been displaying for the last 33 years!

It really didn't seem right to remove it - I'm  not a "Purest Doll Collector" well not totally - I can and often am swayed, afterall it's not really a good trait to have when customising dolls that are Vintage or Limited Edition etc

But I digress ...

It seemed a great opportunity for me to experiment with 1/6 clothes and one set in particular which I'd had my eye on for a while - so I brushed out her tangles, redressed her in said outfit and...

Punky Sindy was born!

Follow

Sindy Flock Haired Tester Doll - aka - "The Old Bouffant Headbutt"!!

As this doll is a "Ghost Sindy" I thought she should be a bit Goth looking, but beyond that I really had no ideas of what to do with her, so she ended up becoming little miss experimental instead!

I had already started on her fringe but as the rest of her head was pretty wrecked and Andy aka Bouffant Headbut; a Flickr friend of mine had recently told me his secret - how he flocks his doll customs...

The two things began to gel together in my head and so poor "Ghost Sindy" became my flocking guinea pig, after all I reasoned if it goes wrong, it doesn't really matter as she was pretty knackered as she was so why not see if I could do the Bouffant Headbutt Style flocking on her, or as I like to call it "Give her the old Bouffant Headbut"!

And this is the result:

The corset top is from some stock pieces for Pullip that I bought a few years ago and had no idea what to do with ... I've coupled it with some leather look Little Big Eyes trousers that were left over after my "Alice" custom was finished,  which look fab on her and yay actually fitted perfectly!!

The first thing I tried before I'd even removed the hair was to "tidy up" her make up as the paint from her lips had bled somewhat and is quite distracting ... but after I repainted them, she looked like one of those old ladies who think they still have full lips and end up getting it on their teeth and halfway up their face!!

So I just removed it and left her without ...  now she looks  like she's gotten drunk and smeared it all over the place instead!

Hopefully one day I'll work out a "cure" for this, but to be honest I've gotten so used to her having smeared lipstick that I think it kind of suits her and goes with "her look" quite well!

After a while, I uploaded her picture to Flickr and was so surprised to get so many compliments on her as I was still thinking I should do something else to "finish her off", but after receiving invites to add her to doll groups and the amount of attention she was getting, I decided maybe I should leave her be, after all I could end up ruining her completely.

Now that she's been like this for several years I feel she really is "finished", I love the way she looks right down to her drunken lipstick smears!