Monday, March 18, 2019

Doll-ADay 2019 #77: Clara's Soldier Uniform from The Nutcracker and the Four Realms

   I keep saying I'm going to show you what I got for my birthday,and talk about what I did. Today I'm actually going to do those things!
  On my birthday Emma and Ken and I went shopping and out to eat. 

Here we are at The Olive Garden, where we were waited on by Alan Cumming's less attractive younger cousin.

We ate at the Olive Garden. I know people make fun of it for not being 'real'  Italian food, but fake or not,I like it. I was disappointed that they have discontinued their sun dried tomato sauce. I'm not supposed to eat tomatoes anyway, but I was going to make an exception that once.
  Ken bought me the miniature Twister I've been wanting.


I saw it at Barnes and Noble around Christmas and decided I needed one.


The set has a pair of tiny socks, a tiny twister spinner, a plastic twister mat, and a book.


The book tells about the history of Twister, as well as how to play.


The socks were a bit too big for Tammy World.

 

 She said the mat was too slippery to play in her socks, but the size was about right.


   Emma recently went to London and Paris. I asked her to bring me a cool miniature from Pollock's in Covent Garden. She brought me this:

It's in a matchbox style box.
Pollock's is known for their miniature paper theatres,most of which are reproductions of full size paper theatres made as toys over 100 years ago. I wanted to buy one when we went a few years ago, but all they had were the super expensive ones,so I passed. Emma got me this Punch and Judy theatre called Grosses Caspere Theater.

The box is part of the theatre when you put it together with the other pieces. The Punch and Judy puppets are two sided and attach to a thread which is then attached to an arm that is folded back behind the black header on the theatre. What's that called? A proscenium arch, I think.
There is a background that fits on to the back of the box,which is the stage itself,which makes the whole ting 3-D.



It's just the right size for Tammy World.
   And the doll Ken gave me was this one:


  She's Clara's Soldier Uniform, from the Nutcracker and the Four Realms.


 Personally,I would have called her Clara in her soldier uniform,but I guess that's just me.


The movie the doll is based on came out around the holidays last year. I thought it looked pretty good,even if it did stray from the original story. I haven't seen it though.
 Clara was a challenge to get out of the box, and even more of a challenge was getting this thing off her head. Those three plastic things in her head were so tight I couldn't even get scissors behind them to cut them. I struggled with it. A couple of them I pulled completely out of her head!


She finally made it free.


She comes with a curvy stand. The stand doesn't have any writing on it, so you could use it for anything.


 She seems to be articulated, from what I could tell through the box. That was why I was interested in her. Plus, I like the outfit,and her face is unique to this character...I think.
 


As it turns out, she's not as articulated as I'd hoped. She is jointed at the neck, shoulders,elbows, wrists,hips, and knees. No ankle articulation though.





Her arms are on a hinge joint, so they can even go out to the sides like this.


 Her uniform top is all one piece, and closes in back with Velcro. It has printed detail down the front, real trim on the sleeve cuffs,and solid plastic epaulettes.





 

The skirt has an elastic waist,and printed detail along the bottom.

 Her boots have some molded detail,and slits up the back to make them easier to get on and off.
 


 She has a hat...helmet? It's all one piece,including the strap. The strap,being part of the hat, is stationary.



 Her brown hair is gathered into a simple ponytail.



She's only 10 inches tall.so she's more the size of Skipper than Barbie.
  Also included is the key,which figures prominently in the story of the film.
 

I did a lousy job of photographing it, but it's very detailed for being so tiny.
  That's all for today. Tomorrow we'll have another doll, and Tammy will show you what she bought in Georgia.

19 comments:

  1. I have Clara too. I like her articulation, though. She is exactly Skipper sized, as she has the Skipper 2010 body, hula Skipper arms and riding Skipper legs.

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    1. Wow,you've done the homework! Thanks for the information.

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  2. I really like her face but it's weird they gave her an open mouth smile when the actress almost never smiles in photos.
    I LOVE the little theatre!

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    1. Maybe they thought she needed to be less depressed looking.

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  3. I really love that mini twister! Use to have the full size.

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    1. I never had it as a kid,but Emma became obsessed with the idea as a teenager and had to have one to play at her 16th birthday party.

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  4. I’m glad you had a good birthday and got some fun dolly related gifts! I have this Clara soldier too! I picked her up in Jan. when Walmart had a bunch of toys on deep clearance. I like her skipper size and articulation - even if it’s not as good as made to move. I do hope Mattel makes a Petite Made to Move someday.

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    1. Thanks.I think that's when Ken bought her.I tipped him off to her clearance. I just wished Ii hadn't missed the Ginny Weasley for $5! A Petite Made to Move would be great!

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  5. What a very pretty doll. I am glad you had a nice celebration. I like the Olive Garden also. We have the Macaroni Grill. That's great too.

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  6. Looks like you had a lovely birthday, and some very nice presents. I like the new doll, she's very pretty. And the mini twister, that's very cute and perfect for Tammy's World.
    x

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  7. It looks like you had a very nice birthday, and got some nice gifts from your family! The Dancer likes Olive Garden, mostly because she will eat any kind of pasta. We usually only go there for her birthday, though. They don't seem to have endless breadsticks anymore, either! :(

    Now I want one of those Nutcracker Dolls! I wonder if she would be a good body donor for my light-skinned Petite Barbie?

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    1. I'm guessing she would match your fair skinned petite. When we were at Olive Garden we got unlimited breadsticks.

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  8. You are making me want to spend all my money! I love all of these! You find the best stuff.

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    1. Sorry! I'm sure you find a lot of great stuff too. I did get some nice things though.

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  9. The doll is nice but the puppet theater is more fun. I think its because its unique. We see dolls all the time, so something like that is interesting. We used to go to Olive Garden when I was a kid. I am lucky we don't have any around here because one, they are too expensive for us and two, we would need to lose even more weight than Mom and I already do!

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    1. I haven't been to an Olive Garden for ages because of my LPR. Having LPR means I can't eat anything in the salad except lettuce and olives, (and I don't like olives), and I can't eat red sauce any more. I was eating the ravioli with alfredo sauce, but they changed the ravioli recently, and it has rennet or something now, making it non-vegetarian! Like there weren't already few enough things I could eat!

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Thanks in advance for your comments.