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

IKEA Furniture

A couple of weeks ago, Mr. BTEG and I drove from our house on the west side of Cleveland, Ohio down to the IKEA in Columbus, to buy a bunch of items that we have been needing for quite some time. Since we did buy several big items, the drive was worth it, and it was also fun browsing, and picking up a few things here and there that we could also use. One of the things that found its way into our cart was the toy bedroom furniture set from IKEA, of course. :) While this set has been around a while, and there are lots of pictures out there, I wanted to show you my own pictures that I took. Plus, I've never seen who could fit in the bed when it is stretched out to full size, and I've always been curious to know how Barbie would look. That picture will be at the end. :)

Mini American Girl Kirsten told me that she was a natural fit to model this furniture, seeing as it is her size, and also came from a store that originally came from Sweden, just as she did. She also told me that if I brought her along on our next trip, she could teach me how to pronounce all the Swedish words everywhere. I dunno, we enjoyed making up wacky pronunciations, just for fun. Or trying to use the German pronunciation that we are used to, to pronounce some of the words, which may not be the right way to pronounce Swedish. Anyway, on to the pictures.

Okay, I don't remember furniture looking like this back in Sweden.

The bed comes with a comfy pillow, mattress, and blanket.

The bed also comes with a plush dragon. I would prefer my Sari doll, made for my size.

The wardrobe is a great height for me, and even has a metal rod where I could hang the clothes that I don't have.

Somehow, a picture showing the chair, that Kirsten is sitting on at the table, didn't make its way into my folder of pictures. Not quite sure how that happened! Anyway, the chair is just a little red chair, suited for dolls Kirsten's size. As I said, there are lots of pictures out there of this IKEA set. It's been around awhile. The colorful striped rug also came with the set. It's solid red on the other side, and is reversible.

The blanket that came with the bed can be problematic. It's a stiff felt type fabric, and doesn't have any drape. It has a giant fold on one end, as does the mattress, to accommodate for the fact that the bed can be stretched out, and wouldn't lay well over Kirsten in the bed, nor Barbie, for that matter. Of course, that wouldn't matter for most of the small kids this set was actually made for. :) My two daughters had Duplo dolls with furniture and bedding very similar to this when they were little, and exactness was not a concern to them.

I do have making more clothes for the mini AG dolls on my list. Actually, I thought it might be fun to try to make a mini version of Kirsten's spring outfit, since I do have mini check pink gingham. I also might now have to try to make mini dolls for my mini AG girls. The list just keeps getting longer. I did not know Kirsten could be so good at throwing shade.

And yes, when the bed is stretched out all the way, it does fit a Made to Move Barbie doll. Her head and feet come just to the ends of the bed, but she could sleep in it. It might actually be convenient for Barbie's Studio Apartment.

So is this picture going in the IKEA catalog?

I hope you enjoyed seeing my pictures.

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!