This is Cricket by American Character and was my birthday present from Naomi. This is the fourth and final version of Cricket. She has poseable legs and the grow hair feature. Cricket was first released in 1964 and was sold as Tressy’s little cousin. The first three versions of Cricket did not have growing hair. They had long straight hair and bangs and looked a little like Skipper. The fourth version uses the same type of metal key as Tressy has. You will notice that this box says that Cricket is Tressy’s little sister, the change was made when the last Cricket dolls were issued. All the versions of cricket were issued wearing a ballet tutu.
I was very lucky because the doll that Naomi got me came in her original box and included not only the key but some fashions as well. A couple of them were tagged Cricket, a couple just made in Hong Kong and a couple were untagged looked like they might have been homemade. More about those later.
Palitoy who made the UK version of Tressy also made a little sister doll. She was pretty much the same as version four Cricket but she was called Toots. I will have to look out for her or the Palitoy Tressy’s will feel discriminated against.
Cricket is in very good condition. Her hair was a bit all over the place so I washed and conditioned it to settle it down. I haven’t tried the grow hair feature yet because I don’t want to push damp hair back inside her head. I’ll try it later. Naomi wondered if her eyes may have been retouched. They do look a bit odd giving her a rather surprised look but that may be a factory fault. I don’t really mind. I never thought Cricket/Toots was a beautiful doll but I like all the little sister dolls and they were the only ones I didn’t have.
You will be seeing a bit more of Cricket in a future post as I have something fun planned for later in the week.
Reference:
http://www.tressydoll.com/page2.htm
Dolls, Dolls, Dolls 
What an amazing sister you have! I love this doll! I love all your fabulous fashions! My little gal was a rescue, came in a slip as is missing her hair plug so I will just style her hair over it or use a ribbon or bow. I did manage to get her an outfit by using my Takara Jenny’s checked dress and sheet jacket, even the shoes mostly fit if I keep the elastic on it.Thanks for the link as I have different versions of Tressy to sort out before I tag them.
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I was also pleased to find that vintage Skippers shoes fit Cricket.
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What a lovely present. Cricket’s wavy hair is pretty. I love doll gift sets with clothes and accessories.
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*sheer
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What a marvelous birthday present – not only Cricket, but her outfits and the original box. I have several Tressy dolls, but had never heard of Cricket. She is a sweet doll with lots of personality, and I love the graphics on her box.
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I haven’t found a picture yet but I’m betting there was a paper or card wrapper or label on that box with a graphic originally too. I didn’t learn about Cricket or Toots, the British version until I was grown up and never saw them on sale.
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Well you have at least three pieces of actual Cricket clothing. The yellow dress is one of those Skipper clone dresses I think,although some of Cricket’s clothes copied Skipper fashions. I wish I had known that there were versions of Cricket that didn’t have the grow hair feature before I did my post on her. Maybe that was just in Australia?
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I read it on the Tressy website. American Character made four versions of Cricket, Palitoy in England just the one but as far as I know neither doll was sold in Australia.
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