Sindy 1960s Paper Dolls

“Cut-Out Books of the Doll You’ll Love to Dress”

Cut-out paper dolls are “a paper or cardboard representation of a person usually in two dimensions for children to play with”.(www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/paper%20doll accessed 18.5.2025.) 

The OPDAG (The Original Paper Doll Artists Guild) adds to this definition with the view that a paper doll should include costumes in which the dolls can be presented. If you are interested in the origins and history of paper dolls, this page on their website written by Judy M Johnson includes a very good early history of them https://www.opdag.com/history.html 

The Sindy Paper Dolls follow the OPDAG definition and were introduced in the mid 1960s with only a very short lifespan. They were produced by Young World Publications presumably under licence to Pedigree, and of course they were a great piece of cross-marketing for Sindy herself.

Young World Productions Limited (YWP), which was located in London NW1, at 115-125 Bayham Street, published many “Gold Token Books” for children during the 1960s. “Gold Token Books” contained gift tokens inside each publication, which children could cut out, collect and mail to YWP to receive “exciting free gifts”, such as “A quality painting book” for 12 tokens.

Sindy was featured in the company’s wide-ranging stable of publications, including a series of six adventure novels, annuals, comics, and numerous puzzles, activities and games books.

1965

Sindy’s 1965 Sindy Set Style leaflet featuring Sindy & Paul refers to these Gold Token publications referencing “Sindy Cut-out Books” and “Sindy Keep Busy Books”, both priced at 2/6d. The leaflet refers to the cut-out books as following Sindy’s adventures in the town and country. The text also makes the point that these are authentic versions of her clothes. These were number 1 and 2 in the series, as listed below. ‘Sindy in the Country’ and Sindy in Town’ were printed by Mulder & Zoon N.V. – Amsterdam – Holland.

The doll sits in a pocket inside the front cover, and there is pocket detailed to look like a prettily painted cupboard inside the rear cover, with punch-out doors, to store the clothes once they have been cut out. The dolls and clothes are printed on high quality card with a slightly glossy, varnished finish. Each book also contains a six page story, illustrated with beautifully detailed black and white drawings, a crossword puzzle page, and the music and lyrics to “Sing a Song of Sindy”.

The first two stories were also issued separately in the Gold Token “Sindy Story Book”. In this book the illustrations were in colour. The crosswords and the “Sing a Song of Sindy” were also reused.

The lyrics of “Sing a Song of Sindy” were used on the two promotional 45 rpm records released by Pedigree, to promote Sindy to toy retailers. The first issue was released in September 1963 for her launch, and the second issue in 1964 to build on the initial success of Sindy.

In the first four books, the cardboard punch-out Sindy is wearing her 1963 Undie-World bra and panties, and there are four pages of clothes, and accessories, in full colour, to cut out and dress the doll.

Sindy in the Country No 1

All are 1963 outfits.

Listed in order of the published page:

  • Sindy in Undie-World bra & panties
  • Pony Club jacket, shirt & jodphurs plus hard hat
  • Lunch Date dress, scarf & bag
  • Weekenders matelot top & jeans
  • Country Walk jacket, skirt & polo jumper
  • Summery Days
  • Sleepy-Time & sponge bag
  • Windy Day tamashanta & scarf
  • Duffle Coat
  • Sloppy Joe sweater & socks with attached brown lace ups
  • Pair of brown flat shoes

Sindy in Town No 2

All are 1963 outfits.

Listed in order of the published page:

  • Sindy in Undie-World bra & panties
  • Skating Girl
  • Shopping in the Rain (umbrella)
  • Cape
  • Undie-World (petticoat)
  • Out-and-about
  • Extra skirt which looks like the Country Walk skirt recoloured
  • Shopping in the Rain coat, boots & bag
  • Leather Looker (with the white short sleeved top used for the style leaflet illustration)
  • Dream Date dress & clutch bag
  • Shopping in the Rain head scarf
  • Weekenders matelot top & jeans
  • Dream Date sandals
  • Sleepy-Time & sponge bag

1966

Whilst the 1966 Sindy Set Style Leaflet featuring Sindy, Paul and now introducing Patch, simply uses the same text as the 1965 style leaflet; the 1966-67 Tri-ang Bumper Book of Toys catalogue, published by the distributors Kilroy Brothers Ltd, displays four new cut-out dolls. These are numbered.

This set follows the format of the 1965 issue, a doll in a pocket inside the front cover, the pocket detailed to look like a prettily painted cupboard inside the rear cover, with punch-out doors, to store the clothes once they have been cut out. A black & white illustrated story, the crossword puzzle page, and the music and lyrics to “Sing a Song of Sindy” complete the format.

We know that No 3 Sindy Goes on Holiday and No 4 Sindy Party Book were simply marked “printed in The Netherlands”. These two cut-out boooks are shown below.

There were also two other new cut-out books shown for the year, but unfortunately, we know very little about the contents. They are called:

  • Sindy at Play
  • Patch 

We would love to show these if anyone has them.

Sindy Goes on Holiday No 3

These are 1963 to 1965 outfits.

Listed in order of the published page:

  • Sindy in Undie-World (1963) bra & panties
  • Winter Holiday (1965) anorak, glasses, gloves & polo sweater
  • Bridesmaid (1964) jacket, bouquet, dress & headband
  • Stand for Ringo the dog
  • Seaside Sweetheart (1964) towelling beachwrap, crop top, shorts & towelling beachbag
  • Sweet Swimmer (1964)
  • Weekender (1963) jeans
  • Ringo the dog (1963)
  • Weekender (1963) matelot top
  • Winter Holiday (1965) ski pants with attached boots, ski poles & skis

Sindy Party Book No 4

These are 1963 to 1965 outfits.

Listed in order of the published page:

  • Sindy in Undie-World (1963) bra & panties
  • Springtime blouse (1964)
  • Dream Date (1963) dress & clutch bag
  • Ringo the dog (1963) & stand
  • Frosty Nights (1965)
  • Sleepy-Time (1963) sponge bag
  • Unknown blue top possibly based on the Out-and-about (1963) jerkin
  • Extra skirt which looks like the Country Walk (1963) skirt recoloured
  • Coffee Party (1965) brown variation
  • Windy Day (1963) tamashanta recoloured in green
  • Weekender (1963) matelot top
  • Shopping in the Rain (1963) head scarf recoloured in green
  • Shopping in the Rain (1963) bag
  • Emergency Ward (1965) nurses cap, dress, chart, white lace ups and medicine bottle
  • Weekender (1963) jeans

1967

The 1967-68 Bumper Books of Toys shows four cut-out books including Sindy at Play and Patch. Two new books were also displayed. Unfortunately, this catalogue does not include their numbering, so we have used the order of their listing. Again, we do not know what their contents actually were, and we would be pleased to hear from anyone who has them.

  • Sindy and Patch Superset this cut-out book was incorrectly listed as “Superjet”
  • Sindy and Patch Swinging Outfits

 After this year we can’t find any more references to these paper dolls.

Our Sindy Museum is grateful to Sandy Jennings from Australia for sharing her four wonderful cut-out dolls and for her efforts in photographing them and writing about them.