Cute As A Button

Effanbee baby doll

Tonight I have another mystery Effanbee baby doll for you. This baby is 16 inches and has a face mold almost identical to the 1980s Baby Button Nose sculpt, except this one is a drink and wet doll. I haven't ever seen a Button Nose with the drink and wet feature. Therefore I think this is a Twinkie doll, but one with rooted hair, which is quite unusual. The Twinkie sculpt is very similar to the 1980s Button Nose. Effanbee has offered a "Buttin Nose", "Button Nose", and "Baby Button Nose" since the 1930s, and they change the sculpt periodically. There is even a modern Baby Button Nose sculpted by Diana Effner and marketed today. The problem I have with this doll is my Modern Collector's Doll book series by Patricia Smith claims a Button Nose doll was released by Effanbee in 1968 but not a Twinkie. So, I don't know for sure. I'm calling this doll Twinkie, just for this blog post. Both Twinkie and Button Nose are very hard to find and they are similar in value.

Twinkie was first introduced by Effanbee in 1952. Her face sculpt has remained consistent and I think she's always been a drink and wet doll. Most Twinkie dolls have molded hair, but a few were made with rooted hair.

There are a couple marks on the vinyl.

The hair is a little frizzy in back.

This doll is marked #2500 on the head and #2808 on the back. She's a drink and wet baby with white blond rooted hair and crystal-clear blue sleep eyes. Her original clothes are missing, but she has a very well-done handmade ensemble. She has a factory made-blanket as well. It's very large and may actually have been meant for a real baby. I gave Twinkie a sweet factory-made hat and diaper from my stash. Obviously you would want to remove the diaper pin if you were to give this to a child as a play doll.

Twinkie comes with a blanket.

Twinkie's Mommy-made outfit was sewn with skill. She has a dress with lace-trimmed bloomers and a matching bonnet. In the winter she can switch out the bonnet for her knitted hat. She wears socks and squishy plastic baby shoes.

I gave Twinkie a  baby doll of her own. This is a Best USA brand hard plastic Kewpie type Frozen Charlotte doll. You can really see how realistic the sculpt is when you pose baby as sleeping or playing with her baby. She looks like a real baby!

Twinkie has a Best Kewpie baby doll.

I touched up Twinkie's eyebrow, lash, and lip paint.

The Kewpie is marked Best USA

I did do a bit of restoration on Twinkie. I washed her hair and gave it a leave in conditioning treatment with fabric softener because it was a little frizzy in the back. The front of the hair looks mint. There were some breaks in the eyebrow and eyelash paint so I touched them up along with the lips. All together, Twinkie turned out well.

She's super cute and not easy to find. I've only ever had one Twinkie in my store and that was the more-common molded-hair version. This baby is such a cutie she's making me want another real baby! You can find Twinkie in my store Atelier Mandaline, Etsy and many more dolls in that store and my Atelier Mandaline on eBay, so please check.