🍍 Kiki The Fashion Tiki 🌺

yumfactory.com

I bought this girl of mine around 10 years ago, as soon as I saw her I just had to have her.

She's put together in the same way my Betty Boop doll is - which a 11 inch standard Barbie type body (Circa. 1960's) - the only moving parts she has are her head, shoulders and the tops of her thighs.

These dolls were made by Drastic Plastic for Gobler Toys in 2004 - As a tie in with their book "Gobler Toys: The Fun We Can't Remember" published in 2003.

Gobler Toys is a spoof company created by Steven Fink and Steve Casino; a pair of toy addicts with a quirky sense of humour, the book and it's accompanying website features all manner of adverts for weird and crazy toys.

Google Images

They even produced a commercial for the original Kiki The Fashion Tiki Doll. Which you can watch on Ira Gobler's Youtube channel, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6tUGcjfsRQ

The top of the right side of her box bears the picture above, guaranteeing your doll is capable of keeping you safe from evil spirits and other bad things.

The left side of the box shows an image of a young girl kissing her "Kiki The Fashion Tiki Doll" which is a surefire way of keeping bad things at bay!

The back of the box tells the history of Kiki, just above that is a box which explains how Kiki can help you to keep the bad things away.

Kiki The Fashion Tiki's story reads as follows...

"Kiki The Fashion Tiki was first introduced to the world in 1966 by the legendary Gobler Toys.

Many grownups found her appearance to be unsettling,
but little girls couldn't get enough of her exotic looks and edgy fashions.

She became one of the best-selling dolls of the 60's and spawned
dozens of wannabees including "Birch Babies" and "Michelle The Dress-Up Gazelle".

 Drastic Plastic is proud to reintroduce this wonderful doll to the world.
Her looks have been changed a little to keep up with the times
and she is no longer made of wood, but the same magic is still there.

Learn more about Kiki and other Gobler toys in the book
"Gobler Toys, The Fun We Can't Remember".

Available at bookstores and www.yumfactory.com"

Below this is a disclaimer that reads: "Brushing Kiki's hair will not actually keep bad things away. That was a joke. Ha ha. Excessive brushing may cause something funny to happen to your hand. Please consult your horoscope before brushing".

 Kiki the Fashion Tiki is a 12" Vinyl Doll. Her body is Barbie size so she can always wear the same size clothes, her hair is Rooted like Barbie's and she comes wearing a pink boob tube, gold hoop earrings, a Flower Lei, a Hair Flower and a "grass" skirt. She also has long eyelashes under her brightly painted eyelids.

I recently managed to get my hands on a copy of the Gobler Toys, The Fun We Can't Remember book, it's quite large for a paperback and absolutely full of crazy toy ideas, from the Wiener Works, which allows children to turn table scraps into "Yankee Stadium" tasting hot dogs to Vinnie The Vulture - a unisex toy that can turn a plastic cow into a skeleton in seconds and shoots it from it's beak (up to 4 feet!) for boys or can be used as a styling head style toy for girls.

The book has 4 pages dedicated to Kiki The Fashion Tiki. The first two of these show Kiki in her "Original" wooden form, with a little extra information on how Ira Gobler's wife told him to make a toy for girls which led to her creation.

The 3rd and 4th pages show an alternative version of the doll - the "Pearl Diving Kiki" on page 3, according to the book, "one-upped her predecessor by having an action feature. Simply toss her into a body of water (with fishing line attatched)" and she was guaranteed to "snatch" you a pearl!

Page 4 talks about how Ira Gobler allowed his importer friend to use Kiki as an advertisement for his "Peli-Kan" - Pelican Meat from Guam, claimed to be a healthy alternative to similar products on the market"

The advertisement on that page depicts Kiki in the kitchen with her three daughters and reads "Kiki The Fashion Tiki, star of stage and screen, knows she can count on Peli-Kan pelican meat product to fill the wooden bellies of her three beautiful daughters. That's because Peli-Kan is the only canned meat that children ask for by name..."

As a side note on the page it states that while the Peli-Kan meat didn't quite take off, Kiki's daughters were given the toy treatment and became an instant sell out!

This also explains why a can of Peli-Kan meat appears on the back of Kiki The Fashion Tiki's box.

Kiki The Fashion Tiki is no longer available to buy as she was released as a limited edition, I've read somewhere that there were only 1000 made, don't quote me on that though as I cannot find any evidence to support it.

There is another version of Kiki which is still available at present, but again in limited quantities - a Wacky Wobbler version, she is smaller than Kiki The Fashion Tiki and closer in looks to the "original 1960's" wooden version. 

You can purchase her with the book direct from Yum Factory,  here's a link to the page:  http://www.yumfactory.com/yumfactmain.html

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Pac Man Board Game by MB Games - 1982

Here's my newest requisition, well I actually bought it for Aaron - he doesn't know it yet though!

Aaron has inherited my love of Retro Games and Retro Games Consoles, I have to say I still can't get used to the things I loved and played in my childhood and into my teens as now being "Retro" and "Collector's Items" when the hell did that happen?!

Still it's best not to dwell on that, at least in some ways it makes me considered cool!

My favourite game growing up was Pac Man and at a push  (i.e. when no Pac Man was available) Ms Pac Man and I guess it must have been the favourite game of many others too as, not being a company to miss a trick MB Games brought out the board game version in 1982.

I'm pretty sure that Aaron doesn't know this game exists, so that's going to be fun, when he finds out that not only does it exist, but he also owns it, and I think he's going to be really happy to have this as part of his Retro Gaming Collection - even if it isn't computer game, it will still look great sitting next to his Binatone TV Master MK 8 (from 1977) actually that's kind of crazy when you consider how much Gaming progressed in just a few short years... But enough of that, I'm sure if you don't know about this game, you want to know all the specifics and how to play it, so here goes...

As you can see the game box comprises of a board designed to look just like the boards on an Arcade or Console version of the Pac Man game, it's for 2 to 4 players, but is much more fun, the more players you have...

It comes with 4 Pac Man (or should that be men?) counters and a corresponding colour coded tray, you have 2 ghosts and 2 die and a lot of white marbles, some yellow ones too; and here's what you do...

Firstly you need to set up the board, you do this by placing the marbles onto each of the indents on the board, these are colour-coded so you know where to place the yellow ones.

 The Ghosts are placed in the middle square, place the Pac Man counters in their colour coded spaces, with the corresponding tray on on the table in front of  each player ... then you fight over who gets to be the Yellow Pac Man, then who's going first (or be sensible and throw the die to find out!) and then it's "Play Time"!

And here's how you do it:

You throw both die, one determines how many spaces your Pac Man can move, and dots (marbles) he can eat and the second relates to how many places a ghost can move.

Now the cool thing about the moves is you do so by placing your Pac Man over each dot and pressing down, his mouth makes a "munching" motion and the dot is retained inside him, after you have finished your go, you empty out the dots into your tray and it's the next player's turn.

http://boardgamegeek.com/image/395162/pac-man-game

The aim of the game is of course to munch as many dots as you can whilst simultaneously moving your Ghost away from you and closer to your opponent's Pac Man... if he get's Ghosted, he has to go back to the starting square.

Interestingly, the colours of the Ghosts differ from box to box, the one I have purchased has yellow ones, but I've also seen Blue, Green and Red ones, I can't help wondering why they didn't include Ghosts of  more than one colour in each set, or why they chose these particular colours for the Ghosts, but then again "Who cares?"

Pac Man is awesome and this board game is well cool!

Unknown Vintage 3 faced dolls

I have 2 different versions of  3 face dolls, which I suspect must have been kind of popular in the early 1960's, as mine are definitely not the only type of 3 face doll made back then.

I have seen 2 other examples, but they do seem to be quite rare nonetheless, and no one I've asked seems to know very much about them at all, neither does Google! so I'd appreciate any info anyone has on this pair.

Enough preamble ... Here's my two:

Vintage 3 faced standing Doll.

Here's what I know about her...

She has 3 faces which you bring to the front by turning the little hair patterned topknot on her head.

Her outfit looks to be original or at least made for her as it has a split on top to allow her topknot to poke through.

She stands around 8 inches tall and due to the restrictive nature of her outfit, she cannot sit down!

Other than that I'm clueless lol so would love some info if anyone has any?

Vintage 3 faced Native / Eskimo? Sitting Baby Toy.

Made in Hong Kong circa. 1960.

She's made of rubber &  plastic.

She's 4.5" tall.

The black pompom on top of her head changes her facial expression when you twist it!

     

                                                       ***   UPDATE   ***

23/09/2014

I'm not exactly sure how it happened as one search inevitably leads to another and another, but the upshot is, I've found out a couple of things about my tallest girl:

She was made in 1979 by Fun World Toy Company.

Her outfit is definitely her original one.

There are several versions of this outfit available - I've seen at least three other versions made from different patterned fabric and also one cut from yellow fabric.

If I manage to find out anything else, I'll keep you posted...

Watch this space!

1970's Pedigree Sindy Styling Head

I always wanted a girl's World Styling Head by Palitoy, but had I have known that there was a Sindy Doll Styling Head available, made by Pedigree, I would most certainly have wanted one of these instead... 

I definitely want one now...She's just so beautiful!

I discovered her existence while on my usual travels around Ebay, by the time I discovered her, the listings had already ended so I saved the listing images as a memory aid, and went on a search for more information.

Since then, I have been trying to find out as much as I can about this toy, but unfortunately I haven't been able to come up with very much at all.

 I suspect this is due to her being very rare and therefore hard to find, but that said Sindy books, or Sindy Lovers Doll Groups should have some information.

I have been unable to find a boxed version either, this would help a great deal as I'd be able to find out exactly what items came in the box, however, this also was not possible.

                                                  Rare Blonde Haired Pedigree Sindy Styling Head.

She has ultra-long hair for this type of toy, and it looks very thick too, I'm sure it was very play resilient.

She also has ultra-long lashes as you can see in the photo below...

The styling head has suction caps underneath to ensure the doll doesn't move whilst her hair is being styled, a great help if this version came with the same  heated rollers that the other version I found did!

                                        Rare Vintage Pedigree Sindy, Brunette, Styling Head.

          The height from the top of her head to the bottom of her shoulders is approx. 7.5 inches high.

                                

                                  

                                   Her neck has a twist and turn feature, to make styling easier.

Under her hair, the back of her head is stamped with the Pedigree Logo.

The other difference with this version is that it appears to have a "flat" bottom, which leads me to suspect that it doesn't have the suction caps that the previous two do.

I have a feeling that this is from a later time period than the first two are.

My Kewpie Collection

My Kewpies...

I was given my first Kewpie when I was about 8 by a Great Aunt who is sadly no longer with us...The doll was pretty old when she gave it to me and I took one look into those big eyes and fell instantly in love!

Over the years, through moving home and the like, I have lost many of the dolls I collected during my Childhood...Sadly my Kewpie was one of them.

In recent years, I have managed to get hold of a few more and here they are:

9 Inch Vintage Kewpie (on left).
7 Inch Vintage Maori "Holiday Souvenir Doll" (Right).
 5 Inch Vintage Kewpie (in front.)

Meet Mr.Tinkles...

He's made of really soft plastic and has moving eyes, they just roll around by themselves whenever you move him!

I've seen a couple more of these recently so suspect the pink pants are original (unfortunately these are sun-faded at the back) when you drop them...boy do you get a surprise!! lol

Anyhoo, other than that I know nothing, no manufacturer's stamp that I've noticed so any info would be great guys! xx

                                                       Kewpies Descending...

                                                      9 Inch (Vintage) Kewpie.
                                                      8 Inch (Vintage) Kewpie.
                                                      6 Inch (Vintage) Kewpie.
                                                      5 Inch (Vintage) Kewpie.
                                                      2 Inch (Contemporary) Kewpie.

 Both the 5 inch Kewpie and the 2 Inch Contemporary Kewpie have moulded wings stamped onto their backs.

This little guy (Oddly, my largest Kewpie) is my favourite,
 along with Mr.Tinkles!

He looks  just like the one my Aunt Bessie gave to me.

He stands at 9 inches tall.

Maori Kewpie Doll (Vintage New Zealand  Souvenir  Doll)
Circa. 1960's.

I didn't even know you could get dark skinned Kewpie dolls, so when I saw this one I had to have her!!

She's 7 inches tall and as cute as a button!

Here's my "Big Baby" again, he just seems to have the perfect Kewpie Look,

 well  as far as I'm concerned anyway!

5 Inch Vintage "Baby" Adopted  by Simon.

I liked to think of this little guy as a baby Kewpie, but that couldn't stop me feeling bugged by the shape on his head, the fact that it looks to me like it is "squished" and causing him to look like he's got an invisible hand pushing his head down into his neck!

It made him have a kind of "fold" in the plastic of his face around the eye region, and as this just didn't fit in with my idea of a "Kewpie Ideal", I decided he needed to be rehomed to someone who would love him!

I ended up giving him up for adoption to Simon, (a Flickr Friend). They make a good match!

Out for a Stroll...
They just make the "Perfect Family"

I'm still on a quests to enlarge my Kewpie Family, so I guess this page will be a work in progress for some time!

10/11/08 - Today's Bargains!

Kitsch Extreme!!

This little guy has a music box he's sitting on and turns around as the music plays.

Soda Float My Little Pony,released in 2007 as part of the Scented Ponies Set. She smells faintly of Root Beer (yummy!)

                                    Contemporary Strawberry Shortcake Soft Bodied Doll

                                                          1973 Blue Peter Annual