American Character Tressy family of Dolls 1963-1967

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American Character Tressy family of Dolls 1963-1967

Tressy, Mary Make Up, Cricket booklet

Her hair grows; short, long or in between. Tressy's hair makes her a Queen!

Tressy is a 11 1/2" tall teenage fashion plastic doll with growing hair, painted facial features. She's jointed at the neck, arms and legs. All Tressy's were marked on the back of her head "American Char. 1963" in a circle. Other family dolls are; sister Cricket, called Toots in the European market and Tressy's friend Mary Make-up. Tressy's clothing line was called "Budget Fashions" and some of the names are; Pink Champagne, Campus Casual, Shaking the Night Away, Soda Pop Cutie, Car Coat, Chic Shift, Hootenanny, Evening Date on the Beach. The Palitoy Company of England marketed the Tressy doll line in the European market and Regal Toy Limited of Toronto, Canada in the Canadian market.

In 1967 the American Character company made a settlement with their creditors and then went out of business in 1968, several doll patents were sold to creditors Ideal and Mattel, in the 1970's Ideal used the grow hair patent feature for their Crissy and friends dolls.

American Character Tressy family of Dolls 1963-1967

1963-1967 Tressy Doll 11 1/2" tall 1963-1967 Tressy Doll 11 1/2" tall

Tressy doll is shown on left in her original box with red knit sleeveless dress a white soutache band around the arm holes and neckline a white cord belt and white open toe shoes, and her key to make her hair grow. 1964 Tressy head shot close up - Later Issue

1964 Tressy head shot close up, Later Issue shown at right; the first issue Tressy dolls have heavier eye makeup in green eyeliner, later dolls have gray eyeliner.

1965 Tressy Make Up Doll (not shown) - This doll has the grow hair feature along with a waxy unshiny "make-up" face that you can use cosmetic's to color the dolls face and change the hair color. These products could only be used on these particular dolls. A very coveted doll is the Black Magic Make Up Tressy doll that is an black doll - Hi Fashion Cosmetic doll.

1964-1965 70211 Tressy, Hi Fashion doll # 70211

1964-1965 Tressy,

Hi Fashion doll

# 70211

(shown on left) This doll was sold by Regal Toy Limited of Toronto, Canada, - Patent 693746.

The box text is in both English and French, you can see the key that was used to insert into the dolls back, then push the button on her tummy to make the hair grow.

1964-1967 Mary Make Up doll

(shown on left); The dolls in this time period all seem to have to do something, Mary's feature was that her face is waxy, so a child could apply make up that later could be easily removed. She's the same size as Tressy 11 1/2" tall and can share her wardrobe.

She originally came wearing the same red knit dress as Tressy. She does not have the grow hair feature though.

Photo courtesy Laney Cummings

1964-1967 Cricket doll face

1965-1967 Cricket doll, 9 1/2"

Cricket was introduced as Tressy's little sister, she's about 9 1/2" tall, hard plastic jointed body, vinyl head with rooted hair, painted facial features, closed mouth, the first issued doll had long straight hair and bangs, the later dolls have the grow hair feature. Cricket was called Toots in the European market and was produced by Palitoy Company of England.