How many of you remember Thumbelina, or perhaps one of the many different versions that followed her?
This commercial appears to come from the early 1970s, when Ideal was turning Thumbelina into much more than one familiar baby doll. There were smaller versions, newborn versions, walking dolls, kissing dolls and even In-a-Minute Thumbelina, who sat in her high chair and impatiently rattled her cup against the tray
What made the original Thumbelina so different was the movement. A wind-up mechanism inside her body made her head and limbs slowly squirm, giving children the feeling that they were holding a restless baby rather than an ordinary doll. The Strong National Museum of Play considers her an important early step in the development of animated baby dolls.
Ideal kept adding new actions, outfits and accessories as the years went on. By the time of this commercial, Thumbelina had become an entire doll family, with each version offering children another little piece of pretend motherhood
