Famous Madame Alexander Dolls

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Greetings vintage mates! TVTA is pleased to add another new toy entry to the archive. This time it’s the famous Madame Alexander Dolls line from the US, with today’s catalogue images coming courtesy of FAO Schwarz 1967 to 1974, and the Madame Alexander Friends From Foreign Lands booklet, 1970.

Madame Alexander Dolls is the creation of Madame Beatrice Alexander Behrman, the daughter of US immigrants, who created the Madame Alexander Doll Company, Inc. in New York in 1923.

Throughout her lifetime, Madame Alexander received many accolades for her pioneering craftsmanship, originality and excellence. She was the first to create toys with officially licensed tie-ins to entertainment properties, producing dolls of famous characters from the likes of Gone With The Wind, The Sound of Music, Little Women, Alice in Wonderland, Cleopatra, Heidi, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty; she also helped popularise industry innovations such as dolls that could close their eyes, and dolls that could walk, and she was first to introduce the plastic face mould, which changed the doll industry forever!

In honour of her achievements, she was made a life member of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, New York, and her dolls have featured around the world in permanent exhibitions. Madame Alexander was a true pioneer of the doll world, and her vision lives on today with the famous Madame Alexander company still going strong and celebrating 100 years in the business this year!

Click on images to go big. Enjoy the scans!

Madame Alexander Dolls. FAO Schwarz Fall Winter 1981 /82 catalogue. US.

Friends From Foreign Lands booklet, 1970.

“The Happiness Of A Child Is A Joy To The World”

As always, thanks for looking!

You can read more about pioneering woman Madame Alexander at the official site here

Madelman action figures from Spain – short is beautiful

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Madelman Live Action sets. Featuring: Trapper, Canadian Mountie, Polar Expedition. FAO Schwarz. 1973_74. US.

Greetings vintage mates! TVTA is pleased to add a new toy entry to the archives – Madelman action figures, from Spain. I hadn’t come across these toys before, and when I first saw the adverts for them I believed they might be 12 inch scale (approx 32 cm) Action Man / GI Joe spin-offs of the 1960s. But no, although similar in design and play themes, Madelman figures stand up at approximately 7 inches tall (17 cm), meaning that the production costs for the figures, accessories and vehicles would have been far lower than their taller contempories back in the day.

Madelman was produced in Spain, and saw successful exports to countries like Germany, France, United Kingdom, Italy and the US. The original production years covered between 1968 to 1983. The line was revamped by the longstanding Spanish toy company Exin around 1988, but fell out of toy fashion by 1990.

Madelman Buzo Deep Sea Diver and Polar Explorer set. FAO Schwarz. 1973_74. US.

Madelman Catalogue entries. FAO Schwarz. 1973_74. US.

Madelman Live Action sets. FAO Schwarz 1974_1975 Catalogue. US.

Madelman figures space toys. FAO Schwarz 1981 1982 catalogue.

Thanks for looking!

A walk to Camden Market, and a sweet vinyl record haul

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Greetings vintage mates! Another weekend, another walk to somewhere cool. This time it’s the famous Camden Market in Camden town, London, in the same borough where I live. I should be so lucky (as the wonderful Kylie Minogue might say!).

The last time I visited Camden town was way back in the early 2000s. I was surprised how much the markets had changed, but ever present were the band tee-shirts, posters, music, books, jewellery, bric-a-brac and hippie stalls.

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A short walk to Abbey Road

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Greetings vintage mates. Having just moved house (and country), I’m exploring my new neighbourhood on my weekends off; you might say I’m a bit of a Day Tripper… making the most of things, because you know, Tomorrow Never Knows …

So, Yesterday, early Saturday morning, I woke up, fell out of bed, dragged a comb across my head, and realised that I only lived a short walk away from the famous Abbey Road in London, where the Beatles recorded their 1969 album Abbey Road, and where they made their iconic walk across the zebra crossing for the photograph which appeared on the album cover.

The Beatles Abbey Road artwork. Image courtesy of UMG. Apple Records creative director Kosh designed the album cover. It is the only original UK Beatles album sleeve to show neither the artist name nor the album title on its front cover, which was Kosh’s idea. The front cover is a photograph of the group on a zebra crossing, based on ideas that McCartney sketched, and taken on 8 August 1969 outside EMI Studios (now Abbey Road Studios) on Abbey Road. At 11:35 that morning, photographer Iain Macmillan was given only ten minutes to take the photo while he stood on a step-ladder and a policeman held up traffic behind the camera. Info by Wikipedia.

A visit to Abbey Road has always been on my bucket list, so, please join me, let us Come Together, as your humble vintage editor takes you on a short walk to Abbey Road…

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Portrait of the young woman: the artwork of Mai Thu and Philippe Noyer

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Philippe Noyer and Mai Thu composite. Pénéla. 1968.

“What is lighter than a feather?

Dust.

Lighter than dust?

The wind.

Lighter than the wind?

A woman.

Lighter than a woman?

Nothing.” 

Pénéla Présente Mai-Thu painter Vietamese. Photos Denis Manceaux. Penela No16. 1968.

Mai Thu (1906-1980) was a Vietnamese-French artist who made numerous studies depicting the young woman in her daily life and at ease in her surroundings. Philippe Noyer (1917-1985) was a French artist who also made numerous studies depicting the young woman in her daily life and at ease in her surroundings.

Confident, relaxed, serene, one with their environment – almost to the point of being in a dreamlike state, perhaps even bored at times – the young women in both artists’ studies occupy their places in nature and social environments with the fleeting presence of youth, captured in immortality by the tools of the artists.

Mai Thu and Noyer worked in the same time period throughout the 20th century. Both were French-connected and intrigued by the study of the young woman. TVTA is pleased to present their two differing styles, courtesy of scans from 1968 editions of Pénéla Magazine, with text by Françoise Louviot and photos by Denis Manceaux.

Pénéla Présente Mai-Thu painter Vietamese. Photos Denis Manceaux. Penela No16 1968.

The young girls are already women. Philippe Noyer article par Françoise Louviot. Penela No18. 1968.

Pénéla Présente Mai-Thu painter Vietamese. Photos Denis Manceaux. Penela No16. 1968.

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Where is TVTA??

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Greetings vintage mates! Hope you’re all doing just fine and dandy?

Well, TVTA is still here, although we’re a little bit over there, and maybe just a bit over that way, or this way, or up the road, or down the road, or across the water… heck, we’re gonna need an atlas!

Charles Atlas. “Let me prove I can make you a new man!” 1976 advert. US.

Erm, not Charles Atlas, but you know what we mean. Thank you, Charles.

So, long story short, your humble editor and his intrepid office cat Wooof has moved offices. Not local, but abroad. Change of country. Yikes! Our office equipment is all packed up and waiting to join us, our new scanning room is bereft for the moment of a … yep, scanner. Mrs Coldkettle the tealady is still trying to sort her visa. But we’re getting there… (wherever there is). So where exactly is ‘there’ ?

It was almost Dubai. Then California. Then Melbourne. Then finally…

clue as to where our new offices are located:

Tower of London. Published by The Ministry of Works. Date unknown.

Where is TVTA ??

Cover. ABC of Londons Transport. UK. 1948

Really? TVTA has moved to…

The Clash – London Calling.

Ah. Blimey, those fish and chips and a good old cup of Rosy Lee sure tasted good after 14 years in France!

Suffice to say, we’re back! And we’re looking forward to catching up with our dear vintage mates here in WordPress-land! Geography-tastic! See ya soon. Love ya!

BRITAINS SET N° 460, Scots Guards, circa 1933.

This post was brought to you by Beaky Plinders Moving Company, est 1920, for all your international moving needs and vintage office equipment, by order. 

 

A numerical dilemma: The Elephant in the Room!

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Cover. FAO Schwarz 1967 1968 catalogue.

Greetings vintage mates. Since 2011 TVTA has been diligently keeping track of the number of vintage print advert and catalogue images it has been archiving for your viewing pleasure. To date, prior to this post, our print archive stood at “4,998” images! Why, that’s “Enough print to encircle the planet three times, hot enough to fry an egg, deep enough to contain six Olympic swimming pools, and faster than a cheetah driving a Formula One racing car!!” or so our blurb says!

So… only two print images to go until we reach that magical figure of “5,000” archived images. Goodness! Whatever shall we post here today to celebrate such a milestone?

Well, how about this… a 1967 Corgi Toys advert featuring the Batmobile and Batboat! Bam! Pow! Kersplowie! Cool, “4,999” images! We only need one more ad to reach our 5,000 target!

Corgi toys. FAO Schwarz 1967 1968 catalogue.

Fine. So how about print image N° 5,000? What will it be?

How about this one?

The Fright Factory Thingmaker horror kit by Mattel! Y’all know how much TVTA loves horror and Halloween, right?

Fright Factory by Mattel. FAO Schwarz 1967 1968 catalogue.

Cool! But, then, how about this… The Sound of Music Dolls by Madame Alexander?

Yodel-me-not, for we do not kid around! Here it is in all its glory:

Madame Alexander Sound of Music Dolls. FAO Schwarz 1967 1968 catalogue.

Okay, but how about the splendid joy of the Teleidoscope and Musicalscope… TVTA dares you to look into the eyepiece of toy goodness and not be bedazzled by the sight and sounds which await!

Teleidoscope and Musicalscope. FAO Schwarz 1967 1968 catalogue.

However… how can one resist the lure of Lincoln Logs?

Lincoln Logs. FAO Schwarz 1967 1968 catalogue.

Or, Winnie the Pooh toys and books?

Winnie the Pooh toys and books. FAO Schwarz 1967 1968 catalogue.

Gosh-durn-it on a biscuit, what about the Hound Hotel and Bear Outing playsets that probably no one’s ever heard of but wishes they had?

Hound Hotel and Bear Outing toys. FAO Schwarz 1967 1968 catalogue.

Or the Hurricane Galloping Horse toy? Giddy up!

Hurricane Galloping Horse toy. FAO Schwarz 1967 1968 catalogue

Don’t know about you, vintage mates, but we here at TVTA are finding it hard to simply pick two adverts to reach our goal of 5,000 archived images!

How about some Dinky Thunderbirds toys?

Dinky Thunderbirds. FAO Schwarz 1967 1968 catalogue.

Or a Bilofix building set? (free pipe included for Dad to smoke on while he helps out building boats and stuff on Christmas day)

Bilofix building toy. FAO Schwarz 1967 1968 catalogue

We could always ask our TVTA intrepid office cat Wooof what he suggests as our 5,000th print image…

TVTA’s intrepid office cat, Wooof (in one of his latest incarnations. Wooof has had more nine lives than you’ve had hot dinners!)

Wooof says: “Miow, mewl, myaw, meeeow, myah, myah, myah, mioooow!”

Translated: “Dear editor of TVTA, why not just post everything you just scanned, and then we can have another week off work? You silly, human twit, you.”

Dang. So, as usual, the cat wins. Hence, TVTA is proud to announce that we have now archived “5,010” print images. Excellent. Right, we’re off to set up the Bilofix and light our pipes! As always, thanks for looking 😁