Toddler dolls with plump figures and dimpled fingers and toes became popular in the 1950s, with Ginny dolls by Vogue Dolls credited with starting the trend. Other companies soon followed, producing hard plastic dolls with rooted hair and sleep eyes. These dolls can be worth a lot of money today, with high quality dolls in good condition being the most valuable.
Toddler dolls are dolls that resemble a toddler, or young child, in body type. A plump figure, rounded tummy, and dimpled fingers and toes are characteristic of these dolls. Although many dolls in the 1930s and 1940s had these features, children’s dolls became especially popular in the 1950s when eight-inch dolls were mass-produced by many different manufacturers.
Ginny doll, made by Vogue Dolls, has been credited with initiating the children’s doll craze. Vogue began marketing its first dolls for children, called Toddles, in the late 1930s and 1940s. These early dolls were made of composition and had painted eyes; their arms, legs and heads were held on to their bodies with rubber bands.
In the early 1950s, Vogue’s children’s dolls were renamed Ginny. Around the same time, Vogue started using hard plastic to make her dolls. Sleep eyes have also been added – weighted eyes that close when the doll is laid on her back and open when she is standing. Beginning in the mid-1950s, Vogue dolls were also walkers. When their legs were moved back and forth, as if walking, their heads turned from side to side.
By the early to mid-1950s, these dolls had become so popular that many other companies were producing them. Most dolls in this period had glued-on wigs for hair, eyes for sleeping, mechanisms for walking, and fashionable clothing typical of the time. Virtually all of them were made of hard plastic. Madame Alexander’s Wendy, Alexander-kin and Wendy-kin, Muffie from Nancy Ann Storybook, and Ginger from Cosmopolitan are just a few other great dolls on the market. A number of other companies also offered cheaper imitations.
Many companies continued to produce their children’s dolls well into the 1960s. Vinyl replaced hard plastic, making rooted hair possible, instead of wigs. Walking mechanisms were not used as frequently and dolls were often made more cheaply than before. However, although these dolls were still being produced, fashion dolls had become the new craze.
These dolls can be worth a lot of money today, depending on the manufacturer and condition. High quality dolls, such as those of Madame Alexander, Vogue and Nancy Ann, often boast high values, while lower quality knockoffs tend to be worth much less. Also, the less you wear a doll, the more it will be worth. Dolls that are “minted”—meaning they’re virtually untouched, looking as they would have when brand new—are the most valuable and therefore the most desirable.
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