I had a little doll a lot like those Miss Revlon dolls, but a knock-off of sorts. She did come with a set of curlers and "perm" which were little packets of sugar to make the curls stiff.
Anyway, she was 12" tall and had long hair and was very light plastic to look like an old-fashioned porcelain doll, and she had a childish body, so she was much easier to sew for than a Barbie, and I sewed a lot for her.
As my swan-song to childhood, when I was 12, I made an elaborate set of Edwardian dresses for her, with lace insertions, hand tucking, leg-o-mutton sleeves, and all the trimmings. It was to showcase my fine hand sewing, which I can do quite well, though I don't get much occasion ever since I outgrew playing with dolls!
My other favorite toy from childhood was my first bicycle. It was vintage even then, an old Huffy that was a knockoff of the Schwinn stingray style. It kicked so much ***. It had a metallic fade paint job...dark blue at the front forks shading to a very light, silvery powder blue by the back fork. It had a bluejean banana seat with a real pocket! It had glittery blue rubber grips on the handlebars, and lots of accessory reflectors on the wheels. I had one shaped like Cookie Monster, one shaped like a rainbow, and one like a tulip, plus a bunch of these little flourescent, glow-in-the-dark spoke beads. One of my aunties gave me a brass horn for it. That little bike rocked so hard! I had it from when I was 8 until I got too tall for it when I was 13. Then I saved all my birthday money and babysitting money and bought my first 10-speed, another Huffy, which I had until I literally wore it out, when I was about 20. My current bike, a Trek 800 (21-speed) was a Christmas present from my husband (back then fiance') in 1997. That, plus my digital camera (Christmas present from the Mr. this past year) are my favorite "toys" now. My little blue Huffy, as well as a second frame I always intended to customize are still at my parents' place and I told my mom I will come retrieve them someday, because when I have kids, I want to fix those cool vintage bikes up for them.
I had a little Kodak Instamatic point-and-shoot camera when I was a kid, I think I was 8 or 9 when I got it. It took those 124 film cartridges. That was another great favorite of mine. Normal children ask their parents for candy at the grocery check out, but I would ask for more film! I have wonderful photo books from my childhood of the family pets, of my friends being silly, and of whatever else I felt like shutterbugging. At one point in time I was very into taking pictures of people making silly faces, and got a BUNCH of my relatives at a cousin's wedding to do silly faces for me.
My friend had one of those and I was so jealous. We could spend hours with that thing... It's actually gone way up in price.
