The three Tonner Collectibles. Click

for a larger image.

Manufacturer/

These three 18" vinyl dolls are part of the Robert Tonner Collectibles line from 2002 which also included three large, soft-body Boudoir dolls which have nothing else in common with the child dolls. On the doll collecting lists, we sometimes refer to these as the "Don't Call Me Betsy" dolls because they have the same face and outfits as the 14" Betsy McCall dolls (such as this 14" Betsy as Red Riding Hood) though they are not part of that line. Reportedly, this is because Tonner failed to obtain the licensing rights from the new owners of "McCall's" magazine. Still, this 18" doll comes from a long line of wonderful dolls inspired by the paperdoll drawings (first published in 1951 in McCall's magazine) by Kay Morrissey. Joanie Dawson's Betsy McCall Grows Up With Us webpage has pictures of the different dolls, starting from the first in 1952 up to the 14" Tonner version introduced in 1997.

Regardless of what these are called, these are wonderful 18" child dolls! They are very, very similar to the 18" Ann Estelle dolls that debuted a year before the Collectibles. They share the same body, as do the Penney and Friends dolls that Tonner created for J.C. Penney and the Linda Rick Lovee/Key to My Heart dolls which are more recent. The face sculpt is different from Ann Estelle but the construction is similar and of equal, high quality. Like the Ann Estelle doll, they are marketed as 18", but they are actually 19" as you can see in the pictures below which compare the body type to an 18" Magic Attic doll.

Like the Magic Attic dolls (also sculpted by Tonner), these dolls are slimmer than American Girl dolls and have smaller feet. The Collectibles didn't have separate outfits available, but they can fit the 18" Ann Estelle clothing and most Magic Attic-size outfits and shoes.

You can see a scan of the Collectibles page from the 2002 catalog at the Tonner website catalog archive (click your browser's Back button to return here):