| THE TODDLES YEARSAs WWII approached, Germany was no longer an acceptable source of supplies, so Mrs. Graves hired a sculptor, Bernard Lipfert, who had created the heads for Effanbee's popular Patsy, Patsyette, and Baby Patsy lines, as well as Ideal's Shirley Temple. If you have noticed that Vogue's Toddles looks a lot like the Effanbee dolls, this is the reason why. Mrs. Graves decided to make the new doll with a new material, composition. Composition, a special process related to papier mache and today's "masonite" or composition-board, didn't shatter the way porcelain bisque did. It was also less expensive to manufacture. From 1937 until 1947-48, all Vogue Dolls were made of composition. During the WWII years, when resources for manufacturing were tight, Vogue also used a cute 8-inch composition doll called Toddles from the Arranbee (R & B) Company.![]() Photos: Ebay The Arranbee (R&B) Toddles At first these were marked R & B on their backs. Later ones had the Vogue mark. Mrs. Graves introduced a "sold separately" clothing line for Toddles, which greatly increased her popularity.
Toward the end of WWII, manufacturing was forever changed by the emergence of that exciting new material - PLASTIC! With plastic, dolls could be made with greater detail and much greater durability (practically indestructible!) at no extra cost.
|