Ideal_Derry

1970's

Derry Daring
by Ideal

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In the 1970's the world was shocked and amazed at the bravery, ingenuity and sheer audacity of dare-devil Evel Kneivel as he leaped his motorcycle over rows of cars, busses and the Snake River Canyon. Okay, so he didn't quite make that last jump, but that didn't lessen the impact of the publicity stunt. Evel Kneivel was said to have broken every bone in his body at least once, and often more than once.

Ideal Toys produced their own Evel Kneivel dare-devil doll and sold him with a variety of playsets usually involving rev-up motorcycles and launching pads. In addition, to appeal to little girls just learning they didn't have to settle for being wives and mothers anymore, they manufactured and promoted Derry Daring, an original female motorcycle stuntgirl.

Though not quite as popular as her mentor, Evel, Derry still had a handful of adventure playsets designed to fire the imagination. These sets are hard to find, and I'm afraid all I can offer to show are a few catalog pages.

At left are two Derry Daring dolls in two different jumpsuits. The pink one with the cape should have had silver lame down the front where it's white now, but this has rubbed off over the years. I saved the panther emblem from another jumpsuit beyond repair and glued it to the front of this one. The cape and belt came from another jumpsuit, also beyond saving. The helmet was acquired separately as well.

The green, pink and white jumpsuit comes with the "Racing Adventure" set (shown below). I'm missing several pieces from this, as you can see.

Notice that Derry's hands are white on the doll on the left, simulating gloves. The doll on the right has normal, flesh-toned hands, as shown in the packaged doll, below. So I got the right jumpsuit on the right doll!

Derry Daring has a body style similar to the Mattel RockFlower dolls, being made of a rubberized polymer with internal wire skelton which allows her to be posed in an infinite number of positions. At least, as long as the wires hold out. Too much contorting can cause the wires to separate at the shoulders and hips inside the doll, and when that happens you end up with a very limp dare-devil.

Derry's hair is rooted platinum blonde, and she has painted-on facial features with no rooted eyelashes. Derry's head only turns left-to-right on her neck post.

Her hands are jointed at the wrists and formed in a permanent gripping posture to allow her to hold onto the handles of her motorcycle (or a can of beer, if you can find one that small). The hands may be flesh-toned or made of white plastic to simulate gloves.

Derry's legs end in peg-leg posts, and the white plastic boots are permanently glued to the ends to form her feet. Don't try to take them off or you'll end up with an amputee dare-devil.

At first glance, Derry doesn't seem to be a very attractive doll. There are so many others out there that are so much prettier. But cleaned up real good, she's not that bad to look at. Take another look at her portrait shot above, and you'll see what I mean.

CATALOG PAGES

At right, and shown below are pages from an Ideal salesman's catalog. These pages show the Derry Daring line of toys that a salesman would show to owners of toys stores to encourage them to stock these toys on their shelves.

I've recently come into possession of an Evel Knieval doll, so as soon as I have taken photos, they will be added here.