My Collection Part Seventeen: Tonner Kripplebush Kids, and Ashton Drake Gene Marshall Croquet Set

Kripplebush Kids are 8" dolls that were created by Robert Tonner in the 1990s. They have hard plastic bodies and heads, are strung, and have sleep eyes. Some of the dolls produced wore modern little girl clothes, but the ones in my collection all came wearing antique fashions.

I don't know why that middle picture turned out darker. I tried taking pictures again, and they were still dark. I had problems getting this photo shoot together, so after two tries I just want to get this post up. First I forgot my mini SD card downstairs. Then I had to find my mini SD card somewhere on my desk. Then I realized that I had another Kid tucked away in a drawer (the one with the hat and croquet mallet and ball.) Then I realized that she had accessories, and had to remember where I put them. Fortunately for me, I remembered that all my Kids' accessories and extra clothes were put away neatly in this Ginny wardrobe. I kept dropping things (that's a part of every photo shoot, to be honest.) Argh.

Here is a Kid with some of my similar size dolls for comparison: Eden Madeline, Madame Alexander Travel Friends Ireland, and mini American Girl Samantha.

Speaking of Madame Alexander, I see a resemblance between these dolls and the ubiquitous Madame Alexander 8" dolls. I don't know the story behind the creation of the Kripplebush Kids at all, though. There were some Kids dolls that were pictured in a Tonner catalog and never produced. The Kripplebush Kids body was supposedly later used for the bratty child star Merli Stimple character in the Gowns by Anne Harper 16" doll collection by Tonner. However, Merli appears all vinyl, with a new face mold and painted on eyes.

Lastly, since one of the dolls above has that really cute croquet mallet and ball as accessories, I though this was as good a place as any to show a picture of my treasured 1/4 scale Ashton Drake croquet set for the Gene Marshall collection. It featured in a story about Gene playing croquet with some of the Hollywood set and talked about her grandfather Gene teaching her to play croquet (if I remember correctly.) Since croquet was so popular in the mid-1800s into the early 1900s, someday I want to dress some of my 16" dolls in antique gowns (maybe 1860s) and pose them playing a game. Of course, I should get some male dolls to play as well, since part of the popularity of croquet way back when, I have read, was the chance to mingle with the opposite sex. When has that not been popular?

Sydney contemplates how to challenge the handsome young Lord Dawlish. And how to win the croquet game as well.

The BTEG family is going to a restaurant for Thanksgiving. If I don't get any kind of Thanksgiving doll diorama up, I will at least be taking a doll to the restaurant, I think.

Total dolls: 76

Something Simple

There has not been much going on here lately. I haven't had the energy to do much beyond the basics in the past month. I spent an afternoon putting together 8.5"x11" sized pattern pieces for a sewing pattern to make scrubs pants for my daughter. I cut out the pieces for a doll sofa from one of those kits where the pieces come pre-cut; you just have to finish cutting them free, and then glue them together. Hopefully I will have that set up soon. It shouldn't be too hard, now that all the pieces are loose. But just so you know that I'm still here, I'm putting up a very basic picture that I took to mark having 100 followers on my Instagram account. I decided to group together just about every different type of doll that I own into the photo, and I'm glad that I did. I discovered at least one new Instagrammer who collects Madeline dolls for example. I'll probably find more people outside of the Barbie/Monster High/Ever After High groove that I've been in. Some of these dolls you have seen. Some haven't been on my blog at all before today, but you'll see them eventually!

Twelve Days of Christmas - Day Five: Sydney and Kripplebush Kid

A Victorian mother and little girl

Ginny Doll Wardrobes by Vogue, for Tam

Yesterday, my Ohio doll blogging buddy, Tam, put up a post with a nice wooden doll wardrobe that she found at a Goodwill thrift store. She asked if anyone had any information on it, and I do! I not only happen to own a few of those wardrobes, but I also own a box from one of them. I'm also going to show you a similar plastic wardrobe that I own, since they were both made by Vogue, for its 8" Ginny doll.

Here are the boxes.

The box for the plastic wardrobe is in sad shape, but is worth keeping around just for the information. I'm going to post copyright dates and item numbers at the end of this post, if you're interested in that kind of stuff.

The plastic wardrobe has the Vogue and Ginny names on the back. The wooden one does not. Tam's has a sticker that says made in Taiwan, but no manufacturer info.

Here are the wardrobes side by side. I have included mini AG girl Samantha, as well as one of my 8" Kripplebush Kid dolls, so you can see what the furniture would look like with the taller doll.

And here are the insides of the wardrobes. The plastic one has hooks, which the wooden one does not, and a little, loose, two-drawer piece, to hold Ginny's smaller items. The hangers in the wooden one are genuine Ginny, although I don't know what year they were made. The bottom drawers on each both open, and come out.

The wooden one has the advantage of being sturdier. Also, I have another plastic wardrobe like this that has yellowed with age. Still, if you have small dolls, I wouldn't hesitate to grab either of these.

Some furniture pieces similar to Ginny's were made for other 8" dolls, as they were very popular during Ginny's heyday. For example, I found this "well-loved" dressing table for a doll named Matilda, whom I've heard of. It is being sold by Australian eBayer sparklesandstring. I am using this picture for informational purposes, not to sell this item. As you can see, the flowers and gold plastic handles are rather like those on Ginny's wardrobe. I wonder if one doll company licensed out the furniture designs to another one?

For that matter, the box for Ginny's wooden wardrobe show the bottom drawers with one handle each, while all three of my wooden ones have two small knobs each. This may just be a change in production, though.

And if you want the super detailed stuff, here is the copyright info on each of the boxes. The plastic wardrobe box photo did not come out very well, because of its poor condition. They were copyrighted 9 years apart, with the wooden wardrobe coming out second. Also, just like Tam's wardrobe, my wooden one was made in Taiwan. By 1987, Vogue Dolls was owned by Dakin. I really only associate Dakin with stuffed animals.

And here is a blurry picture of the side of the plastic wardrobe box, so you can get an item number.

So Tam, and my other readers, I hope that was not more information than you wanted to know! But I hope at least some of it will be of interest. If any of you have seen any other furniture similar to this made for other dolls, please let me know in the comments!

Happy Easter!

Angelina Ballerina Dresser and Chest

My Angelina Ballerina furniture arrived today! Well, most of it did. I couldn't find the stove in the pile of newspaper that everything came wrapped up in. Still have to talk it over with the seller. But everything else is fantastic! I decided to stick to the wooden dresser and chest, because otherwise this post would be way too long. I'll highlight the other items in later posts.

The chest and dresser are very nice pieces, made of wood, with what I think is called fiberboard at the bottom of the drawers and the bottom of the chest. They also are marked on the bottom with HIT Entertainment (who owned the rights to Angelina Ballerina, at least the animated series) and American Girl, who distributed the stuffed dolls and furniture.

I forgot to take measurements! Let me know if you want a particular measurement. But you can get a pretty good feel for how big the pieces are by looking at the dolls I thought worked best with them. First up are some pictures of the dresser and chest by themselves.

A couple of the dresser drawers are very loose; the small drawer on the top right is very tight. You might be able to see how it fits a little crookedly into its slot.

There are some marks on the front of the chest. Nothing serious.

Because the chest used such thick pieces of wood, I feel like it looks a little funny on the inside, proportionally. But it's a very solid piece, which is the main thing.

First up to model is Disney's Snow White, by Mattel. As an aside, I realized while I was taking pictures that the dress Snow White is wearing is over ten years old! I got it in a dress swap, as a member of a doll board I don't even remember anymore. Actually, it might have even been an old-school bulletin board. Anyone else active on those back in the day?

She doesn't look too out of place here. The chest looks a little small proportional to her height, but the dresser isn't bad at all.

The mirror piece on top of the dresser is completely separate, giving it even more play value, as it can be moved around on top of the dresser or used by itself.

I wonder if this is a magic mirror?

 Next up is a J-Doll, Melanie.

Being more petite, I think she works better overall than Snow White. Possibly it might be a little too big for her, but I don't think so. She looks right sitting on the chest.

Lastly, we have my 8" Kripplebush Kid by Tonner. At the moment, I think she works with these pieces the best.

 

The mirror tilts (although it doesn't stay in a tilted position) so anyone could sneak a peek in it, but I like that this little girl can look right at the mirror.

I also had my Madeline and mini AG Samantha out, but the furniture completely overwhelmed them. So I think these are the ones in my collection who would work the best.

Obviously, with the flower decorations, these pieces are rather girly, so they're not for everyone's collection. Can you see GI Joe using these? :) But they're well made, real wood pieces that are going to look great in one of my doll's bedroom set. Which doll you think should get them?

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Well! I'm finally able to sit down at the computer and get out this post. And not because I was out drinking green beer, either! I was finishing up Sophie's dress.

She is currently the only doll I own from Tonner's 10" Ann Estelle line. The dress pattern is one of the few patterns right now that I can make up without too much trouble, so I chose it for this day. I'm going to be concentrating now on spring clothes for all my dolls. Maybe something for a J-Doll next.

Irish themed clothes, especially dresses for Irish step dance, are very popular among doll manufacturers. Among other things, Tonner made Irish Lass a part of his Kripplebush Kids line for two years.

Photo by Diane Drummond from Tonner catalog

Around that time, Tonner also put out an Irish dancer in his Betsy McCall line. A picture of that doll can be seen on this Pinterest page, along with a great many other photographs of Irish dance dolls. American Girl not only produced Irish dance wear for the 18" doll, one of the dolls in the smaller Girls of Many Lands line was an Irish dancer as well. In her book we learn something about the early history of modern Irish dance.

Not only did Tonner produce dancing dolls, in 2006 we saw Irish Incantation Tyler, in a beautiful golden gown. Here are some photos of the doll, although not the gown.

Another Tonner doll that did not have an Irish theme but certainly looks very Irish is the doll currently gracing my blog header, Elegance Sydney from 2003. She was a basic doll and came wearing a pale green teddy and matching shoes. Here is another picture of her, wearing a dress and bracelet from Franklin Mint's Princess Diana.

Urgh. Video I wanted to put here is not working from either Blogger or YouTube. I'll try tomorrow. It's already way late for this.

Tonner Kripplebush Kid Sweetheart

Just in time for Valentine's Day, I'm pleased to share some pictures of my 2001 Kripplebush Kid Sweetheart, by Robert Tonner. She's 8 inches tall, made of plastic, with wigged hair. Her body is strung with elastic, and she has straight arms and legs.

She also has sleep eyes.

Nap time!

Here's what she looks like when she is awake, and standing. She stands fairly well on her own because of her feet and her sturdy child-like body. She certainly loves roses and lace!

And speaking of her child-like body, her stomach protrudes a little, like a little girl's might. I should have taken this picture more as a profile.

How old do you see her as? I'm thinking around six.

I'm currently posing my Kripplebush Kids with my Tonner 16" dolls. Even though the Kids have set-in eyes and the 16" dolls have painted on ones, they seem to look passable together. Here I put her with my Basic Tyler standing on her flat feet, to give you the best idea of height, vs. a doll on high-heeled feet.

Sweetheart came with a heart to pose with, but mine didn't hold up well over the years. I got the doll second-hand, and this is the way the heart showed up:

My photo is not really the best at showing the damage, but do you see the dark spots on the trimming on the right side of the heart? The darkness is actually worse than that, and also if you look you can see the faint yellow staining on the top of the heart. The seller was totally open about it; that wasn't an issue. I think what happened here was just glue deterioration, but I'm not really sure. This is two felt pieces on light cardboard, glued together with the ruffled trim in between, and the ribbon rose on the front. There's also a piece of thin elastic across the back to allow the doll to hold the heart. I presume it's supposed to look like a candy box. I only keep the heart for the sake of completeness.

There is a helpful resource put together by Diane Drummond which will let you see Kripplebush Kids from all four years of their production, 1998-2001. Unfortunately, some of the dolls in the catalogs were never produced. Also, only white dolls were ever made. The series was mostly made up of three girls: Marni, Hanna and Eliza, and they came dressed in various outfits. There were also characters like fairytale princesses, a cowgirl, and the 1880s series which is what first got me interested in the Kripplebush Kids, with my weakness for Victorian dresses. And there were some separate outfits sold.

Tonner did use the Kripplebush Kid body more recently for his Merli Stimple character in the Gowns by Anne Harper collection. Merli got a new sculpt, with painted eyes. So it's not out of the question for Tonner to reuse the body again, perhaps for another little girl line with more characters added to the group. Of course, Tonner's Patsy line is really drawing in collectors right now who like child dolls, so who knows if the Kripplebush Kids would sell. These girls remind me a lot of Madame Alexander's short-lived Hannah Pepper line. And of course Madame Alexander's own 8" doll line. What do you think?