The Spectra Craze

Halloween doll meet, a photo by alington on Flickr.

One of our fellow doll collectors came across this Mattel doll, AstraGold, at a thrift store for $1 and shared her bargain find at our last meet. As a child of the 1980s, I recognized this doll immediately, and it caused me to delve into research about my long-lost love of these dolls from Mattel's Spectra collection.

The original line was released in 1987, and was designed to compete with Jem (by Hasbro). Unfortunately, this line didn't sell as well as expected, and was discontinued less than a year after production.

It's theme: Lacy... Spacy... Out of this world!

The dolls have cleverly jointed bodies, if a little extreme, in addition to colorful (yellow, pink, green, purple and blue) hair and colorful facial screening. Their bodies are metallic hard plastic with soft vinyl heads.

Separate fashions were also available, along with several other accessories, including a body buffing station.

Because of the limited production numbers, the dolls are surprising difficult to find (especially in mint or NRFB condition). They can range from $40-55 for the more common dolls, and upwards of $315 for sets including the dog, Spark.

Finally, searching for Spectra dolls online has become more difficult in recent months, because of the addition of Spectra Vondergeist to Monster High's collection, also by Mattel.

Grail Alert: Braniff Air Hostess doll designed by Emilio Pucci

I had a reader email me about this special purchase opportunity:

All four original outfits, designed by Emilio Pucci, plus the original doll (manufactured by Louis Marx) in the original box will be up for sale soon. The set is from 1967, I believe. I don't see the bubble helmet in there, however.

The outfits included are:

• lime green front zip dress with orange cuffs, matching printed hat, and lime and orange boots
• red two piece suit with a skirt and zip-front jacket, red pumps, and printed hat.
• sleek yellow color blocked dress with orange shoulders and neckline and matching socks
• blue two-piece set with slim-fit turtleneck and relaxed fit puff-legged pants

Visit Susan's website for details. You can see the details and download the PDF with pictures from her site.