December 10th, 2008

Madame Beatrice Alexander Behrman (1895 – 1990) was the daughter of a Russian immigrant living and working in the Lower East Side of New York. Her father ran a doll hospital and she started producing dolls during the 1st World War in order to help her father’s business, which suffered badly as most of the dolls and doll parts it relied on had come from Germany. The earliest dolls were made of cloth, the very first being of a Red Cross Nurse, and on the back of its success, in 1923 she launched the Alexander Doll Company as a fully fledged business.

She’s credited with two major innovations in the doll collecting world - firstly basing dolls on licensed characters from popular culture such as Scarlett O’Hara, and making dolls of living people such as Queen Elizabeth and the Dionne Quintuplets.

In fact she was also responsible for introducing a fashion doll that slightly predated Barbie - 21 inch tall Cissy was first produced in 1955, discontinued in the early 60s and revived for the collector market in the 1990s. A 10 inch version called Cisette was introduced in 1957, which has also been revived.

In the 1930s the cloth dolls were phased out and dolls were made of composition (a mix mainly of sawdust and plaster of paris) and in the 1940s she began manufacturing hard plastic dolls.

Having built up the business to be the largest producer of dolls in the United States, she retired in 1988 at the age of 93 (although her son in law and grandson had really been running the business since the 1970s). But the company floundered without her strong vision at the helm, and in 1995, on the edge of bankruptcy, the Company was acquired by the Kaizen Breakthrough Partnership. They revived the company’s fortunes, by adhering to Madame Alexander’s principles of putting quality in design and finish first.

Dolls based on characters from fiction have been the backbone of the catalogue since the 1920s when Madame Alexander produced Alice in Wonderland as her first doll on launching her business, and the company now produces Madeline, Wizard of Oz and Nursery Rhyme dolls amongst others. They also produce baby doll lines, such as Baby Alexander and Huggums, licensed characters from film and TV such as Desperate Housewives, the Nightmare Before Christmas and Legally Blonde.

They also produce a 16 inch collectable Fashion Doll line – called Alex. Like other dolls of this type, Alex has a fully rounded back story, she’s the editor of a fashion magazine and the series has a cast of characters of fashion writers and designers, which gives lots of scope for beautiful dolls in stunningly detailed costumes.

Tags: alex, Dolls, fashion dolls, madame alexander
Posted in Dolls | No Comments »

October 19th, 2008

The Japanese toy company Bandai was formed in 1950, and is now the 3rd biggest toy manufacturer in the World.  It’s first product was a ball with a bell inside marketed as the Rhythm Ball, and it soon followed this up with a line of tin cars and planes. In 1963 it launched into the ‘character toys’ market which has been the cornerstone of it’s success throughout it’s subsequent history. It’s first forays into this field were with Astroboy and Ultraman, who continue to be popular to this day.

It’s history has also been characterised throughout the decades by the deals it has made with other companies, in order to increase it’s product range and geographical reach  - from Tonka, Imperial Thai, Disney, Apple and Mattel.

Throughout the 70s and 80s Bandai had success with Ultraman, Gundam, Godzilla and Dragonball products, but it’s biggest success came in the 90s with the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers line.

Bandai also had some disastrous failures too. It’s Gobots toys lost out to the direct competition of the very similar Transformers range. And in 1994 it developed a games console in partnership with Apple called the Pippen. This proved to be unpopular and more expensive than other consoles on the market, and ended up losing Bandai an estmated $200 million.

It’s fortunes were revived, however, by the success of the Tamagotchi, and it’s 1999 deal with Mattel, which strengthened it’s International profile.

Throughout the 2000s Bandai has continued to grow by making inroads into other entertainment fields, notably video and online games, and satellite TV.

Tags: astroboy, bandai, godzilla, japan, toys, ultraman
Posted in Collectible toys | 1 Comment »

October 8th, 2008

This popular Japanese fashion doll was originally a Barbie. In 1981 Mattel licensed Takara to sell a fashion doll under the Barbie brand. However, she was redesigned for the Asian market - slightly younger looking than Barbie - Jenny is a schoolgirl, slightly smaller, and with a big eyes ‘manga’ style face-paint.

The deal with Mattel only lasted for 5 years. When the arrangement broke down, Takara relaunched the doll as Jenny.

Jenny also has lots of friends that appear in the series with different hair colours and skin tones and back stories depicting them as coming from different countries.

Clothes and accesories are also available, of course, including typically Japanese costumes such as sailor-blouse school uniforms and kimonos.

Like Barbie, Jenny comes in a wide variety of price ranges, from simple play dolls for little girls, to much more expensive collectors items in more lavish costumes.

Tags: barbie, Dolls, fashion dolls, jenny, takara
Posted in Dolls | No Comments »

September 15th, 2008

Gene Marshall was an innovation in doll collecting. Introduced in 1995 as a collectible doll with no association with a children’s range; larger by nearly 4 inches than standard fashion dolls,  the price, the standard of the finish and the sophistication of design marked the range out as something quite new and different. Designed by illustrator Mel Odom, Gene Matshall came with a backstory about the Golden Age of Hollywood, and fashions from the 1930s to the 1950s.

There are now 4 characters in the range, Gene Marshall herself -  a Hollywood actress, her rival Madra Lord, a leading man Trent Osborn and a Jazz singer, Violet Waters.

In 2006, doll designer Jason Wu, formerly of the Fashion Royalty series for Integrity Toys, took over the design duties.

Buy Simply Gene at Ebay

Tags: Dolls, fashion dolls, gene marshall, jason wu, mel odom
Posted in Dolls | No Comments »

August 25th, 2008

In 1972 a bizarre big headed character was introduced into the toy  market. Blythe was a new doll by the American company Kenner (which has since merged with Hasbro), with eyes that changed colour and a distinctive large face . She was an instant ….flop. She was discontinued and forgotten about for 30 years - except by the occasional doll collector, one of whom was a photographer called Gina Garan, who produced a fun series of photos of a Blythe doll in different locations, and kicked off a whole new craze.

 Following the success of her collection of pictures, published as “This Is Blythe”, vintage Blythes shot up in price. Japanese department store Parco produced a limited edition of Blythes, and used the doll in their 2000 Christmas advertising campaign leading to the doll becoming a cult in Japan, with top designers such as Issey Miyake eager to contribute to exhibitions and gallery shows featuring this new cute but odd looking icon. In 2001 Japanese toy company Takara manufactured the first of the new series of Blythes, (sometimes referred to as ‘Neo-Blythe’ to distinguish them from the original ‘Vintage Blythe’)
The next year Takara launched the half-size model Petit Blythe

Smaller and cheaper than the full-size doll, Petit Blythe is a less costly way to get into collecting, sized to fit in a bag or put on your school desk.

Since then there has been 3 different bodies, over 50 full-sized Blythes and another 100 Petit-Blythes.

You can buy Petit Blythe at happyhappytoytoy.com

Tags: blythe, doll, fashion dolls
Posted in Dolls | No Comments »

August 16th, 2008

Medicom Toy Incorporated started manufacturing high end 12 inch figures in 1996.
In 2000 it started it’s kubrick  line – small chunky figures whose name is either a tribute to the managing director’s faviourite film director, or a portmanteau Japanese-English word -  ku meaning 9, a kubrick is made of 9 pieces - and brick as in lego.

 The basic idea behind the designs is that they are licensed characters from movies, anime, games, pop music or other popular products. The product line was developed by Managing Director Tatsuhiko Akashi with a former lego employee, and the very first series was based on the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion.

Although a toy – a kubrick is a ‘collectible’ and not intended for small children – the guideline on the box says for over 14 year olds. In 2006 a line was developed for younger children – babekub, which is slightly bigger, and with fewer parts, so safer for smaller children.

The most successful offshoot of the kubrick has been the bearbrick. Initially a give-away at the World Character Convention in 2001, bearbricks are now on their 16th series.

You can buy kubricks  at happyhappytoytoy.

Tags: bearbricks, kubricks, medicom, toys, urban vinyl
Posted in Collectible toys, Dolls | No Comments »

August 14th, 2008

The very first fashion dolls weren’t made for children.

 They were produced by French fashion houses to show off their designs and skills to clients and they were eagerly passed around dressmakers over the course of years, as the styles worn by royalty and grand ladies became copied in cheaper versions for those lower down the social scale.

The fashion doll as we know her today was born in Germany – but she still wasn’t intended for children. In 1955 Bild Lilli was based on a popular cartoon strip and was a pin-up girl- hence her buxom, long-legged figure.

But Elliott Handler (the ‘El’ half of American toy manufacturer Mattel) and his wife Ruth saw her while on a trip to Switzerland, bought several, and made copies of the doll and costumes for her for their children, putting Barbie – the name of their daughter – into production in 1958. Ruth Handler was convinced that little girls wanted a doll that looked like an adult woman, to dress in adult fashions and not just the little girl and baby dolls that had been produced up to then.

In 1964 Mattel bought the rights to Bild Lilli, and production of that original doll stopped.

Tags: barbie, bild lilli, Dolls, fashion dolls, mattel
Posted in Dolls | No Comments »