Chicago Toy Show Loot (April 2017)

This past weekend, my mother, YouTuber Barbee0913, and I attended the Chicago Toy Show at the Kane County Fairgrounds. Going on 44 years, this show is a staple for the Illinois based toy collecting community. This year, the show revamped its room set up, which was a little disconcerting to many of the long time doll buyers and sellers. Instead of housing the dolls in the ‘Dollhouse’, aka the Robinson building, dolls were housed in the atrium/cafe area’s of two different buildings. I estimate each room had 20-30 vendors. Why the change? Apparently, the “boys toys” are outgrowing their space and, alas, the poor doll vendors paid the price. Admittedly, the ‘Dollhouse’ has shrunk over the years, so we should have seen this coming, but still, I don’t quite understand why the doll vendors couldn’t just be in one room, sharing space with general toy vendors.

Despite the changes, we ended up finding some great dolly deals. Here’s some of the goodies that came home with us from the show. This post doesn’t feature all the items we purchased, just a handful of highlights. To see everything, check out the video below.

Barbee0913 is a fan of Madame Alexander Victoria dolls. She received one when her brother was born. Passing down that tradition, I received one when my brother was born, as did my younger cousins when they first gained a sibling. It’s a fun tradition that I hope to continue on into the future. We rarely see Victoria’s at the toy show, but this year, to our surprise, we spotted two! Barbee0913 got a mini and large Madame Alexander for an amazing price. The vendor was selling her mother’s Madame Alexander collection. Her mother, who had passed, had loved Madame Alexanders. Her collection seemed to be an ‘in box’ collection, as my mom noticed that the Victoria dolls were very minty fresh!

From the same vendor, Barbee0913 picked up this adorable Alexanderkin. We haven’t been able to really identify it, but it’s just too cute. The body has a textured feel to it, like real skin, which feels really neat. But this face? How cute is that!

As some of you know, something I like to collect are Jem dolls. The Jem dolls at the show were insanely expensive, so I didn’t end up with any of those. However, I did end up with this amazing play set, Jem’s Rock Backstage/Speaker! This play set is compact, has some amazing fluorescent shelving and interior pieces and, believe it or not, the speaker function still works!

Toodles came home to join Barbee0913’s collection. Isn’t she cute? Toodles was made by American Character and has eyes that follow you. My mom has been looking for one of these for a few years now and finally found one that was priced right!

My big purchase of the day was an unmarked composition Shirley Temple lookalike. She stands around 20″ tall and is adorable! For being from the 1930’s, she has very little crazing and is in amazing shape. One nice thing about this vendor was that she wasn’t a doll re-seller. Due to downsizing, she was selling her own collection. On her table were pieces that she had loved and enjoyed, not just pieces she picked up to make a profit. This Shirley doll was clearly a piece she loved, as she seemed very remorseful as she started packing the doll up. Don’t worry, I’ll give your Shirley a good home!

What drew me to this girl was her adorable face, her clear tin eyes, her red dress and her amazing wig! I wish I knew more about her maker, but since she’s unmarked, all I can know for sure is that she is from the 30’s, since she’s composition and most likely, over 70 years old! (Think of the things this doll has ‘lived’ though— if dolls could talk!)

This is only half of what we picked up at the show. To see everything else and hear more of our thoughts on the show, check out the video, linked above. Overall, I’m happy with the items that came home with us. Usually, there’s a little bit of buyers remorse that comes along with shows like this, but not this time! Everything we picked up was priced really well and I have no regrets. Have you picked up something from a doll show or flea market recently? Share your thoughts in the comment area!