Tuesday 17 April 2012

The Scariest Craft Craze of the '70s: Applehead Dolls, 1973

If you don't want nachtmares for the next couple of weeks, read no further. If you do, you're truly sick and twisted and that's probably why we get along so nicely!

Alright my dears, are you ready to be terrified? How about freaked out? Damaged beyond belief? Well look no further, my little ghouls...and boys. Today, the Doll brings you...well, dolls. But the most morbid, the most demonic looking, the most creeptastic dolls of all time: APPLEHEADS.

Yes, peanuts, you heard me right. Dolls with heads made out of decaying apples.


This is from a magazine from 1973, when they were all the rage, but these were still around in the '80s at craft fairs. I even remember being freaked out by some in the Baileyton post office when I was little. But I've not seen any in ages...thankfully. They ARE truly scary.


Yes, friends, they even had their own museum for these kooky, kitschy, monstrosities.

Should you be wacky and warped enough to want to make your own, they very kindly give detailed instructions:





Just so you know, if you think these things are scary now, just wait a few years. Once they really start to decay, they start looking like mummies. How would you like to wake up to one of these staring at you from your nightstand in a semi darkened room?




This one's actually for sale on Etsy. She's actually kind of cute...in a Leatherface kind of way...

Well, that's enough creepy for one morning! Toodles, sweet-peas!!
xx

3 comments:

  1. I don't know anyone who made these, but I heard they filled the room that they were being made in with the most god-awful smell..

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  2. I've heard that too. I don't remember actually knowing anyone personally who made them...just that they were always at craft shows and stuff...open air...thank god!
    I CAN say that my grandmother, who was a big time doll collector, especially in the '70s and '80s, didn't have a single one in her collection when my cousin and I divided them up. It MUST have been the smell. Otherwise the woman would have had thirty of them!

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  3. We had a couple loaned to us for our toy exhibit at the end of last year. They were from the sixties. And they used human hair on them. They were certainly decayed to that nice black state, but they didn't smell. Very fragile though. I tried to make them one year for Halloween, but mine just turned green so I threw them out.

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