Doll-A-Day 2023 #32: Young Sweethearts Michael

   Today’s doll is actually mine! I’m still at Emma’s. but this doll came from my house. I got him at a doll show I went to with my sister a while back, and I’ve been wanting to show him to you. He’s Michael.

  Michael was part of the couple, the Young Sweethearts, made by Mattel in 1975. Michael was sold in a set with his girlfriend, Melinda. While Michael is fairly realistically proportioned, Melinda had a bit of a big round head, and looked more like a Japanese fashion doll.

  Michael has a unique head sculpt that was only used for this doll.

He has a large head of rooted 1970’s hair. Mine has had a little bit of a haircut in the front, and he’s a little self conscious to be going thin at his age…but what is that age? Is he the young Sweetheart or is he really 48 years old?

His body, however, was used for Starr’s boyfriend Shaun, in 1979 and ’80. (You can see my post on Starr HERE.)

  As for why that body was used instead of, say, Ken’s body, which Mattel also owned, Michael was ahead of his time in his articulation.  

On the back of the Young Sweethearts box, that body is described as ‘made with LIFEFORM posability’.

You can see that claim at the bottom of the back of their box.

  I think that’s one thing that makes people want to collect Michael and Melinda. I know that’s one of the things that set me looking for Michael.  He’s very posable.

He’s no Made to Move. He can’t sit in a yoga position. But he does pretty well.  He’s jointed at the neck, shoulders, Upper torso, waist, hips, elbows, wrists, knees, and ankles.

  He doesn’t seem to get a lot of use out of that upper torso joint though.

That’s about the extent of his twistability.

  He can sort of lean at the waist joint though.

The other thing that made me want a Michael, was that unique head sculpt. He doesn’t look like any other doll. And there’s not a lot of variety in male fashion doll looks.

Michael wants you to paint him like one of your French girls.

  This is mostly Michael’s original outfit. The original outfit consists of a one piece sweater vest and shirt that closes in the back with a snap, white trousers, and off white shoes. So the only non original thing Michael is wearing is the brown trousers. 

  From what I can tell, Melinda had two original outfits. The one I’ve seen most often is a peach coloured maxi jumper dress, with a lace heart on the bodice, and a lace blouse underneath. (Probably all in one piece.) That one coordinates with Michael’s white trousers and salmon sweater vest and peach coloured shirt. The other dress I’ve seen Melinda in, in the box, is a bright yellow version of the peach dress.

  The Young Sweethearts weren’t around for a long time. But while they were, they had several clothing sets produced for them, as well as a Wishing Well Park playset.

  I will direct you to this Pinterest page for a look at all the different Young Sweethearts fashions, as this lady seems to have already rounded up a good collection of photos. 

    I wish I had had some good props and furniture to show Michael to you. But everything is at my house, and I’m not. I did have Ken bring Michael from our house, but I can’t fill Emma’s house up. It’s bad enough we’re having to bring a lot of stuff to dry out before carting it off again.

  That’s the doll for today. Tomorrow we’ll look at another doll. See you then.