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Now this is truly a vintage toy. Chatty Cathy is, from what I can tell, only available through collectors as she is no longer for sale in regular toy stores or department stores. Chatty Cathy was born in 1959, made by Mattel, and introduced into stores in 1960. She was a lively talker speaking 11 different phrases when you pulled the ring in the upper part of her back. By 1963, she was speaking several more phrases adding up to 18. One of the revolutionary dolls of the time, her speech came from a phonograph in her belly that activated when the string was pulled. Chatty Cathy was introduced as a Caucasian blond, blue-eyed doll and as an African American doll with brown skin tones the first year. Later, a brunette and redhead were made available.

Her accessories included two types of clothing, a shoehorn, storybook and a paper wrist tag that was a warranty. The first six years on the market, she was the second most popular doll after Barbie, also made by Mattel. With the success of Chatty Cathy, others were also put onto the market such as Chatty Baby, Tiny Chatty Baby, Tiny Chatty Brother, Charmin’ Chatty and the last to be called Chatty was Singin’ Chatty in 1965. Several of the Chattys were redesigned and reissued in 1970 looking completely different from the first ones. Those dolls were on the market for only two years.

Mattel once again issued a Chatty Patty who looked different from all the others 1984. They also released special editions of Chatty Cathy in 1998 and in 2001. Those dolls were made to resemble the original Chatty Cathy dolls of the 1960s. This time they were only sold in specialty stores and toy stores with a price tag of $99. Other versions of Chatty Cathy were made for Canada and England. Having looked at a page from a collector’s group, there were others that spoke different languages.

This doll is no longer available in regular stores. Chatty Cathy is truly a vintage toy that collectors find extremely valuable. Some dolls are being sold for thousands of dollars. There you have the history of Chatty Cathy.

Technorati Tags: Chatty Patty, Chatty Cathy, collector toys, Mattel, vintage toys, Chatty Baby

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This entry was posted on Friday, September 26th, 2008 at 6:55 pm and is filed under Dolls and houses, Histories, Vintage Toys. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.