Mattel Tippee Toes 1967

Naomi recently bought herself a new doll which we’d like to share with you today. She is Mattel’s Tippee Toes first released in 1967.

Mattel Tippee Toes – photo from dollreference.com

Tippee Toes is 17 inches tall and has jointed knees which enable her to ride her little pony or tricycle. She seems to have been sold with both accessories which must have been rather nice. She has a hard plastic body and limbs and a softer vinyl head which is loosely attached so that it can rotate I imagine. Tippee Toes is marked “Japan” on the back of her head and on her neck where it joins her body you can just read “1967 Mattel Inc”.

She takes two batteries but we haven’t tried her out yet to see if she works. I noticed a line of zig zag stitching on her back which puzzled me. I thought that maybe she had been cracked and this was some kind of repair although I didn’t understand how you could sew hard plastic. However, I found an article that explained that this was present on all dolls and was where a ribbon was attached inside the battery box to make it easier to get the batteries out. Below the battery compartment on her back Tippee Toes is marked_{“c1967 Mattel Inc, Hawthorne, Calif. Made in USA.”}

Battery compartment with line of stitching.

Her rooted hair is a kind of strawberry blonde, not as curly as in the photo on the box. This may be due to age or possibly different issues had slightly different hair. Her eyes are painted on, as often seems to be the case with Mattel dolls; and she has an open mouth with two little teeth showing which is rather cute.

Tippee arrived naked so she will join the list of dolls who need to be made an outfit. Her original outfit was leggings and a little smock top but I think Naomi wants her to have a little dress and panties.

When she is dressed and has been tested to see if she works, we’ll show her off. The trike and pony seem readily available on eBay USA but not locally which makes me think that she might not have been sold in Australia or at least not in large numbers. If we come across them at a good price, with reasonable shipping perhaps we’ll get them for her. I did find an old ad for a later edition of Tippee Toes being sold in Australia which mentioned she was made by Regal, Canada.

Tippee Toes seems to have been made until at least 1980 when there was a rather controversial commercial made for her. The 1980 Tippee Toes was smaller at 14 inches and was marked “Made in Mexico”. She was also made by Estrela of Brazil. Since 2020 have manufactured a modern Tippy Toes doll who is very pretty, I think.