Remembering Remco Pocketbook Dolls

Your Monday Photo Shoot: Let us see your collection of whatever it is you collect. Thimbles, NASCAR collectables, Star Trek figurines -- what it is, let's see those tchotchkes!

I could have posted this much earlier in the evening, but I had to go to sleep for four hours first. That's as much sleep as I got, total, Sunday night. Onward.

What collections have I not shown you guys already? You've seen my L'Engle collection (well, parts of it) and our tiki mug collection, and even our swizzle stick collection, albeit not in close-up. I've shown you my 1960s Barbie dolls, and my crystals, mostly inherited from Mom, which I don't care about at all otherwise. I've told you about John's Star Trek collection, but it's all in boxes, so I can't show it to you. I've mentioned my Harlan Ellison collection and my collection of children's books, but neither is all in one place to be photographed easily. Ditto with my trolls. The Quantum Leap stuff is mostly paper, not visually interesting; and the DVDs are all over the place, and not interesting to look at, only to watch.

(See, this is why I leave Musings up and running! I want you to be able to see all that stuff, despite the banner ads.)

I know! I'll show you my Remco Pocketbook Dolls! These are all from the early to mid-1960s.



I think my mom gave me my original Jan doll (long gone, of course) in 1963. She's still my favorite of the group. Got to love that face!



Here are the main three, Heidi, Jan and Spunky. Heidi was the franchise character. Jan was "A Heidi Japanese Playmate." Spunky came third, I think. This is where I really wish this Blogger template allowed for bigger photos, but we'll just have to limp along for now.

The deal with each of these dolls is that "SHE WAVES HER HAND." What that really means is, you press the button in her tummy, and the right arm goes up. This is not terribly diverting, but in 1963 it was probably cutting edge. Besides, the dolls were cute, especially Jan.

The other three dolls in this second photo are Remco Finger Ding dolls. The idea is to stick your childish fingers into the doll's hollow tights, and walk it around. There were Monkees Finger Dings later on.

There were also Beatles Remco dolls, in 1964, but they weren't Finger Dings and they didn't have that waving action. They go for big bucks now. We had some pass through our hands back in our Rockarama days, but they were always too valuable to snarf for ourselves.




Jan had a number of Japanese-flavored outfits available. I don't think I had any of them for my Jan doll in 1963, but I got a bunch on eBay in the 1990s. The Jan herself was a gift from John, purchased from an antique mall that has since shut down.




Here are some ancillary dolls and accessories. Yes, Heidi had her own plane! She also had a motorcycle, a hot dog stand, and a house, but I don't have any of those. The clothes in the NRFP package are for Heidi and Jan and Spunky. The little kids crew of Remco Pocketbook Dolls are, from left, Little Brother Herbie, Li'l Friend Pip, and Little Sister Hildy.

The doll on the left is a Winking Heidi. Press the tummy and her eyelids move. I don't remember offhand what the doll on the far right is called, but she's a growing up doll. She's not like infamous Growing Up Skipper in the chest development department, though. She just gets taller. Also, she wears a wig for some reason.




Heidi had lots of clothes. Here are some of them. I have another whole little box somewhere. And look! I've got the kitchen set! Très moderne!

That's enough for now.

Karen