Date: 1975?
Manufacturer: Ideal
Accessories: outfit, stand, shoes
*Note: Tiffany Taylor pages will be available sometime in 2009
There is a lot of confusion about the dates for these dolls. What's written on the backs of the heads might not be when they hit store shelves. Tiffany Taylor is dated 1973 and I believe by 1975, she was off the store shelves. Meanwhile, Tuesday Tayolor was dated 1975 and I believe she was available in 1976.
Ideal Toys introduced Tuesday Taylor and her Black/African American counterpart, Taylor Jones, a Barbie sized doll who, like her giant twin sister Tiffany Taylor, could be a blonde or a brunette with the simple twist of her scalp! Or in Taylor Jones' case, brunette or redhead.
As time went on, Tuesday Taylor and Taylor Jones were introduced in different versions. Suntan Tuesday Taylor could actually tan in the sun, though I never had that version, so I can't swear it worked! She also had two additions to the doll line; Suntan Eric and Suntan Dodi, who suspiciously look an awful lot like Ken and Skipper! The dolls had photo-sensitive material in their body which actually reacts to light. In actual fact, I really wanted a Suntan TT and never got one as a child and I never tried to find one now, nor have I tried to get a Taylor Jones. But both are on my wish list.
There were quite a few very nice disco era fashions available for these dolls, though I'd never gotten any. And there were playsets, too. The Tuesday Taylor Vacation House was great. Flip it one way it was summer and flip it the other and it was winter! Man, I wish I could do that! I could live in perpetual winter! Yes, I am the Ice Queen.
The TT Penthouse apartment was also very cool. It looks like a set from the Bob Newhart Show! All those brown tones. And on the roof, an easel? Did that come with the set? I don't know but its a great looking apartment and if I had to be stuck living in the city, that would be the way to do it. You can see pictures of all the stuff I just mentioned on the Tuesday Taylor page at the following site: http://crissyandbeth.com/Tuesday.html
The last revision of Tuesday Taylor was the Beauty Queen version. The doll was a real sign of the times. Sadly so. The original Tuesday Taylor was well made and solid. But the Beauty Queen version was little more than a "dime store" doll. She almost looked like a clone of the real TT. The hair no longer switched from blonde to brunette and was a different, cheap feeling fiber. The legs could no longer click and hold at the knee. They were hard plastic, but hollow. They sound "cheap" when you tap them. The doll's legs are also "swingy". Plus her wrists no longer bend and her arms no longer bend and she no longer had rooted eyelashes either!
The year of Beauty Queen's release is not known to me. I found no date on the internet, either. There's no date of release given in any of my doll books either. I do think it might have been a later release before the company closed in 1982. She might have come out in the late 70's therefore. My other theory is that she might have been the lower end offering for parents unable or unwilling to pay for the more "deluxe" version. Interestingly, the larger Tiffany Taylor never had a version that didn't have changable hair, although her body and face were used in 1977 on the new Magic Hair Crissy dolls.
Below are photos of my Tuesday Taylors. I still have my childhood doll in her original outfit and she does have her stand and shoes, though you can't see it in these photos. I also have a couple of other TT dolls, but they were aquired much more recently. Comments follow each photo.
Feel free to join us on the ohmydolls Yahoo group if you'd like to talk about Tuesday Taylor or Tiffany Taylor, or share more info. Our group is 100% spam free and VERY quiet: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/oh_my_dolls
This is my childhood doll. I prefer to keep her a brunette. The blonde hair was a different fiber and got kind of "fried" even though I took care of the doll, as you can tell. The dolls don't stand as well on the official Tuesday Taylor doll stand, which went around the ankle, so I used a Barbie stand. I was pressed for time, so the stand and shoes remained in the abyss of my doll stuff, but I do have them and will add them to my Tueday storage box.
The doll pictured above is Beauty Queen Tuesday Taylor. Her wrists no longer move and her arms no longer bend as the regular Tuesday Taylor dolls did. Look at the size of her roots and the space between them.
This doll has cut bangs but is otherwise in good condition. Her blonde is a different fiber than my childhood doll and a different shade of blonde. Her hair didn't get "fried" over time. I've noticed this same issue with Tiffany Taylor as well. Some have different shades of blonde and different texture fiber.
The doll pictured above is a mystery to me. She is not a suntan doll, but she's not a regular doll either. Her hair is all brown but two different kinds of hair. Its not the same shade or fiber on both sides. I dressed her in a Barbie outfit. She is a nice display doll. I got her as part of a lot of Tueday and Tiffany Taylor dolls.