1961 Columbia Toy Products ROKO 49ers Dolls

Twin 1961 49er ROKO Dolls

These are 1961 ROKO 49er Dolls 

Some folks call these "Gund" dolls as well, but I'm not sure if they're Gund.

I don't know much about these dolls other than the obvious things. They're constructed of hard rubber heads and hands with plush fuzzy material for the torso and any other parts with color. And there is canvas type material for the legs and shoe area. The colors of the helmets are the early 1960's Silver with red stripes and no SF logo yet, that came in 1962.

CU of Roko Doll 49ers Shield

There's supposed to be a NFL Team shield on the chest of each doll, one has the 49er's shield but it's really faded and hand sewn to keep it from falling off.  The material of the shield is super fine cotton material.  It's hard to see, but there's the classic 1960s shooting 49er with '49'ers' in bold lettering over him.

1961 & Roko head sta

At the back of the rubber head or neck area it's been stamped with "1961" and below that "ROKO".  Thus the ROKO name I've given it.  Now if this is a "Gund" I would love to hear from anyone about that information, but until then, it's a "ROKO" to me.

(this is the best picture I could take of the stamp)

Columbia Toy Products tag on the 1961 Roko 49ers doll

 There's a product tag on the side of the each doll that reads "Columbia Toy Products" the other side is so faded, I couldn't read it.  There's not much history to read up on them, other than they made all the NFL teams dolls and other character dolls like Popeye and such, so they must have done this for a while during the 60's.

UPDATE: August 1, 2013
 I was able to purchase a 3rd Roko Doll, in near perfect shape and shocked at the condition of this 52 and a half year old doll.  It's amazing it still has this much detail.  I'll for sure be sending this one up to San Francisco for the new museum.  I would say that this is a true HARD TO FIND collectable.