Tiny Betsy McCall

In 1957, Betsy jumped from the pages of McCall’s Magazine into the active hands of her loyal fans as an 8 inch hard plastic doll. Produced by the American Character Doll Company in conjunction with McCall’s, this Betsy was an instant hit as a playtime friend!

Vintage 1958 American Character 8" Betsy McCall

"Betsy McCall first appeared on the pages of McCall’s magazine in May 1951. Just about every month for the next several decades, this charming fictional character held court on her own page, sharing a story and a few outfits from her latest adventure. Kay Morrissey was the first illustrator of the Betsy McCall page, followed by Ginnie Hofman in 1958 and Sue Shanahan in the late 1990s.

Betsy also came to life as a three-dimensional doll, either as 16-inch rag doll you could make from a McCall’s pattern, or as a collectible 8” or 14” vinyl doll. Betsy McCall dolls were produced by the Ideal Toy Company from 1952 to 1958, followed by the American Character Doll Company and the Tonner Doll Company. In 1997, a Betsy McCall doll was included in “Classic American Dolls,” a pane of 15 commemorative postage stamps."

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I own two tiny Robert Tonner 8" Betsy's. My Tiny Betsy's are based on the original American Character sculpts . . . but the same moulds were not used. Robert studied the original doll to better engineer away the flaws associated with the 1957 toy.

Since the doll's debut in early 2000, collectors have been drawn very closely to the popularly priced collectible as an outstanding representation of the vintage Betsy, and as one of the finest and most unique examples of 8" dolls today.

Many of 8" Tiny Betsy's outfits, like this discontinued Robert Tonner 2004 (No. BC8402) Summer Fields doll outfit, are based on original Betsy McCall paper doll clothes. This also fits Tiny Anne Estelle and includes the pretty green striped dress, a multi coloured floral print pinafore, white-lavender floral clips, white panties, white socks and white plastic shoes like late 1950's and early 1960's dolls wore.

Initially, a basic 8" Tonner Betsy cost US$39.95 and the Tonner outfits usually sold from US$24.95.

Her head moves up and down, as well as side to side, her eyes close, her arms move at the shoulders, but there is no elbow joint. However, her legs have both a hip and knee joints which help when posing her. Betsy is made of hard plastic which has a nice feel in one's hands, it's smooth and not too shiny. 

She measures 20 cm tall but her wig gives her just a little additional height making her 20.3 cm (a perfect 8 inch doll). Her wig is lovely, fine, without fly-aways and combs easily.

The clothes she is wearing are really well made, with neat finishing, no loose threads and back closures are done with press studs (snaps) and not that yucky Velcro which I hate.

To be honest, I couldn't have made this outfit any better myself . . . so over all, it's a thumbs up to Tonner!!