I happened upon a box with some second hand dolls and realised they had a variety of arm types and thought I'd make up a new page with some photos. If this will grow into showing all kinds of arms, only time will tell. The body types have nothing to do with the fact the arms varies, and what arms used but I have named the body type too below, just for the fun of it. The dolls are dirty and messy but I am concentrating on the sculpts here, so it's not a beauty contest.

Two twist'n turn bodies on left and standard on far right

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Original arms

The original sculpt arms seen here, are the ones that came with the first Barbie dolls in the late 50s. These arms were used for most dolls throughout the early years until the Mod Era. When we moved into the Superstar Era new arm sculpts came to life and these were more or less discontinued.
The hands have a very nice sculpting with the pinky finger separate from the rest.

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PTR - point-to-Rear

The PTR arms has been used for a very long time since the mid 70's. Not the prettiest hand sculpt - and particularly not in this doll. These have a bad finish, but ignore that part. The PTR arms were used for all cheaper dolls, mostly sold in narrow boxes, as well as the beach crew every year. The hands are sculpted with all the fingers close together, no separate fingers here.

Twist'n turn bodies on left and right, Free Moving in middle.

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Mexico arms

This arm type were mostly used during the post MOD Era, into the early 70's. They are called Mexico arms and was first used with the Talking dolls, that were made in Mexico. The doll's left hand (right in photo) is pointing out- and slightly backwards. The hands feels smaller than the original hands, but the size difference isn't really that noticeable.

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Francie arms

I don't know what called for the factories to give Barbie sized dolls Francie's arms. These are shorter with stubbier hands, than Barbie's delicate and longer hands. It's not a matter of leftover parts as there were also made dark skinned Malibu Christie dolls with the Francie type arms. Colored Francie was not that dark skinned. These were used for Barbie and friends in a short period in the 70's.

more will come