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Much desired by the baby boomers born in the mid to late 50's Tressy was launched in the UK in 1964 by the Palitoy toy company. She was made in the US by American Character & by Bella in France. There were four versions of Tressy made by Palitoy. The first issue from the early 1960's around 1964 - has the characteristic sideways glancing eyes. Her hair extended by pressing the button in her tummy & pulling out the 'secret strand'. Her hair was wound back in again by means of a special key. Some of the keys that survive today are the metal ones that came attached to a string belt that USA Tressy came wearing. The earliest Palitoy keys were pink plastic with 'Palitoy' embossed on them. They fitted into a little indentation in the Tressy doll stand. They wer not very stronh, Palitoy soon replaced them with metal ones. Keys could be bought as spare items. Tressy's little sister followed along a year or so later in the UK. She was called Toots here, Cricket in the US & Snouky in France.

FIRST ISSUE The first of the Tressy dolls had the characteristic sideways glancing eyes.

Here we see a Tressy in the original Shift Dress with chain belt. She is shown on original stand with the plastic Palitoy Key & original shoes. Original Tressy shoes have 'HONG KONG' marked on the base. This doll is as close as I can get to the doll I had for Christmas in 1964

FIRST ISSUE The Tressy & Toots presentation box in the UK was a unique triangular shape. Many little girls could guess what was under the tree for them at Christmas! Tressy's box was mostly blue & Toot's was red. Dolls were supplied with a stand, key to wind hair & a style booklet.	SECOND ISSUE Slightly later Tressy's from around 1967-68 came in a larger open fronted box. Included with this doll was the Tressy comb & a selection of hair ribbons. Tressy wore either a long or short lurex dress & had hair with a fringe or bangs. By 1973 The box was the same - but Tressy came in a full length Gold lurex dress.
	SECOND ISSUE FACE The second issue Tressy doll was bodily the same but has a less 'waxy' plastic to her head & her eyes look straight ahead. These dolls were produced in the later 1960's & early 1970's.
BOXED TOOTS - RARE
The third issue and later variation Fourth were 'Active' dolls & had moving joints & wrists. The third edition had 'cupping' hands, as far as I know these were produced in the mid 1970's. This is my least favorite Tressy to be honest. I don't think she was made for very long as she was replaced with the prettier forth issue keyless doll. Shown below.
	THIRD ISSUE
FORTH ISSUE She came in Blue or Red outfit	The last type of Tressy produced by Palitoy was another active doll, she had gripping hands that could hold a glass or other small items. Often these dolls are very loose in the hip joint & refuse to stand unaided. She did not have a key but a built in winder in her back, hence the fashions for these dolls allowed for this extra girth. She is shown here in her original outfit, blonde seems to be the only colour this doll was made in. She was either supplied in the blue outfit shown or the same style in red. Some household extras were made for this doll, Vacuum cleaner, wardrobe & shopping trolley.

KEYS

A metal key was produced later & they could be bought as a separate item from toy shops. In the UK Palitoy made a special place in the Tressy stand to store the key. American Character dolls had the key attached to a small white cord belt as as shown here.
For the first & Second issue Tressy & for Toots a key was needed to shorten her hair. The first keys Palitoy produced were pink plastic. These often became distorted as little girls turned them ever more vigorously!







Tressy Mules Original Tressy mules have Made in Hong Kong on the bottom, always stitch holes from being sewn onto cards. The first ones had a slightly curved strap as you can see in this picture. Both are VERY fragile. I don't use them in many of my pictures as the strap will split at the slightest strain. Don't EVER store our dolls with them on!
'V' LEG TRESSY You may hear someone refer to a 'Vee' leg Tressy. These were some of the earlier dolls that had a more traditional joint to the hip. These dolls were not made for the UK market - but you can sometimes find one on Ebay. If you look at these pictures you can compare the two moulds, as you can see, with a bit of imagination, that when a 'V' Tressy sat down she was 'most unladylike'.


If you look at these pictures it is easy to see the different shape of the two dolls. The V leg doll has much wider hips & some of the fashions do not fit her so well ( I know how she feels!!) As you can see the poor girl was not very ladylike when she sat down!!
	Red shift AC Tressy
	She is pictured wearing her original dress with the key tied to her belt. This doll was produced by American Character in the USA. Palitoy Tressy had a slot in the stand to keep her key, and a gold chain belt. Palitoy did not make a 'v' leg doll.
Most pictures are thumbnails - click for a larger picture & use your back button to return here

The very rare Black Tressy doll - Never made for the UK market, and quite rare in the USA too. I think you will agree she is very attractive, and would have sold well had she ever been marketed in England. Pictures by kind permission of Nancy	Click here to see some of the few international Tressy pictures I have - Spanish - Canadian - French etc
The best place to see international Tressy is www.tressydoll.com

This advert was featured in the April 1967 edition of "June & School Friend" the popular picture comic for girls. We can see that Tressy was 24/11. That's under £1.50 in today's money. It was still quite a lot in those days though!

And just in case you are wondering about me! Here you can see me on Christmas morning 1964 (I was 9 at the time!) Pictured clutching Tressy in her box & waiting to go to my Grannies for a party. As you can see the skinny little girl grew into a Beautiful Princess............Oh sorry! I mean........grew into a matronly techno geek. Email: tressylady@hotmail.co.uk
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