Baby Heather

Name: Baby Heather

Made by and When: Mattel, Inc., 1987

Material: Soft vinyl face with a wired mechanism for facial movement, a foam-cushioned-pink body that houses the battery compartment and electronics, firmer vinyl arms, and legs

Marks: (Head) ©MATTEL INC. 1987; (body tag) Baby Heather™ / ©Mattel, Inc. 1987 / Hawthorne, CA 90250 U.S.A. / Made in Hong Kong / REG. NO. PA-60 / ALL NEW MATERIALS / Consisting of polyurethane/ foam and polyester fiber

Height: 20-1/2 inches

Hair, Eyes, Mouth: Rooted black hair; brown mechanical eyes that have blink and open and close responses, bristle upper eyelashes and outlined upper eyes, open/closed mouth with painted coral lips and tongue

Clothes: Original clothes, as seen in the final image below, include a pink bonnet, pink knit romper with three embroidered pink flowers (two with pink ribbon bows) on the white cotton bodice, removable pink skirt, white socks and shoes. The museum doll wears only the pink knit romper

Other: Baby Heather is a first-of-a-kind battery-operated interactive doll with facial expressions, can respond to your voice, and speaks over 350 different words or phrases. A pink rectangular-shaped button in the battery compartment is the “Grow Up” button—the doll can be programmed to respond as a baby or as a 1-year-old.  There is an On and Off button in the battery compartment. Baby Heather can be turned off with the eyes open or closed. The Enter and Set button is used to set the time.  Requires 8 size C batteries and four AA batteries.

View a Baby Heather commercial below the gallery photos.

Gallery

In an image from Black Dolls 1820-1991 an Identification and Value Guide by Myla Perkins (Collector Books, 1993), another Baby Heather wears the complete outfit.
A Baby Heather commercial features the White* version.

*Doll commercials, like Baby Heather’s, rarely featured or mentioned the availability of Black versions. Consumers usually became aware of Black versions as options to the widely marketed and distributed White versions by seeing them in stores (if the stores stocked them) or by word-of-mouth.

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Your comments are valued. Donations aid the initiative to preserve Black-doll history. 

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Published by DeeBeeGee

Doll collector, historian, co-founder of the first e-zine devoted to collecting black dolls; author of black-doll reference books, doll blogs, and doll magazine articles.

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