Mattel issued many talking dolls in the 1960/70/s era. They
had a phonograph inside the hard plastic body with a cloth
covered speaker. The design of the speaker holes varied
by design and year. These dolls were operated by
"D' cell batteries. Very few of these dolls still work.
Even fewer have the cover for the battery pack.
But there doll repair shops that can repair them.
The bodies and one or both arms
were hard plastic, depending on what the doll does.
The head, both legs, and one arm were vinyl.
(sometimes both arms are the same material depending
on what the doll does).
These dolls were a big hit with the little girls. Some of
the dolls were: Chatty Cathy and family, Gabigail, and
Hi Dottie, (I am going to do a study on the only doll
one of these dolls I still have, Hi Dottie. I can also do
one on the Chatty family, if I can locate my pictures.
I no longer have any of the Chatty dolls.
Another unusual fact about some of these dolls is the
arms and legs are of different shades off vinyl.
The reason for this, the dolls were made in different
factories in many countries. Mattel, in its effort to
be cost efficient. If one factory had a high inventory of legs
then the excess would be shipped to another factory. Each
factory had their on formula for making the vinyl and
each one had a different shade of color. It was barely
noticible when the dolls were new, but has become very
noticeable as the dolls age. I still have one of these
dolls with the different shades of vinyl. I am going to
try and get a good picture showing the difference.
