Doll-A-Day 2023 #292: Minnie's Ballet Studio

   Today we're looking at some more $1 buys I got at the bin store. This one is a Sweet Seams set, Minnie's Ballet Studio, made by Moose Toys.

  There were loads of these sets in the millions of bins at that store. Nobody 'seamed', (ha), to want them. I decided to buy one, and do a post and then donate it to a Christmas toy drive.  It includes cute little dolls of Minnie Mouse and a little dog. 

  Minnie is about 6 inches tall. Both dolls are pretty flat, with only their heads and Minnie's skirt being puffy.

Minnie has a very 'anime' appearance, and a ribbon and a rosette on her ear.

Each of the dolls has one hand that's a loop, and one hand that's a knot. That's so they can 'hold hands'. The knot goes through the loop. No Velcro required.

Inside the right side of the package is the ballet studio. 

The box proclaims that there are three play areas: the dressing room, the stage, and the studio.

This is with just the two halves opened up.

This is with the flap on the right folded open.

  As you can see above the set comes with stickers, and a tissue paper wrapped 'surprise. It's not really a surprise, because they tell you on the back of the box that there is a 'mannequin' included. More of a dress dummy really. There's also a tissue paper bundle in the drawer in the bottom of the  middle section.

  It contains Minnie's ballet slippers.

  Not wanting to mess up the packaging, so I can donate it, I didn't want to unwrap the dress dummy. I don't think I could replicate that twist on the top of the paper. But the dummy opens to reveal another pair of ballet slippers.

  The slogan on the front of the box is 'Friends stitched with love'. There's a whole series of Disney characters, mostly the princesses. but also some other characters, like Jessie, from Toy Story. Here's the online description of the set I found:

Small "Rag Doll" style collectable Dolls of your favorite Disney Characters! Six inch soft Dolls with a handmade look and feel with simple yarn details and hand-like painted features. Slide open the Matchbox style box to reveal 2 Dolls, accessories, and Playset to create your own stories! Discover Minnie Mouse and her dog Fifi in this feature filled Deluxe Ballet Studio Pack! Minnie's Playset has 3 play areas and 2 pairs of Ballet Shoes, Mannequin and Stickers!

And then there was this description:

Each story in a box playset embodies a specialty look and feel with homemade, unique handcrafted-inspired details of your favorite Disney characters you know and love.These whimsical "rag doll" style 6-inch soft Dolls are truly special with homespun elements woven throughout! From their hand painted-inspired features, classic yarn hairstyle, elongated dangling arms and legs with knotted limbs and iconic Disney character outfits. 

I think they're pushing that 'homemade look' a bit too much. They don't look home made at all. And what's with 'hand painted inspired'?! What does that even mean?! They don't look hand painted at all, and stop trying to make them sound hand made. THEY ARE MASS PRODUCED! There must have been more than one series of toys too, because I also found this:

• Discover 12 of your favorite Disney Characters over Series 2 including Rare, Ultra Rare and Limited Edition Dolls to find.

Minnie wasn't amongst the 12 they were referring to either.

  That's today's doll. See you again tomorrow with another $1 bin store find.

Doll-A-Day 2019 # 114: Minnie Mouse

  I felt better today than I have in a LONG time. I attribute a lot of that to the fact that I woke up today with my mouth hanging open. That only happens when I manage to totally relax in my sleep. I think my neck relaxed enough that I didn't get that headache today. It threatened,and I could feel how tight my neck muscles were, but I kept stretching  my neck to loosen up, and I managed to keep the headache at bay until late tonight.
  I made another batch of curried eggs today for Emma's boyfriend A.J.,since she forgot to take him some on Easter. I'll have to make another batch when Ivy comes home from college. That will make three batches of delicious curried eggs, that I couldn't eat a single bite of!
  My LPR didn't prevent me from trying something new today though. While Emma was here today we tried hostas. Yes! those decorative flowering plants people have in their yards. Apparently they started out as a plant harvested for eating in Japan. Somehow after they came over here people forgot all about eating them.

They are supposed to taste like asparagus. I didn't think they tasted like asparagus, but they were pretty good.
  And also today I jammed a quarter inch long,hair thin splinter from a bamboo Tiki torch into my pinky finger. Nothing ever goes completely smoothly around here.
  Today's doll is a tiny one.

She's Minnie Mouse.

She measures only 2 inches tall.

  This Minnie Mouse is special to me. When I was very small, my sister and I were playing on and around the porch of our house. For some reason my sister was poking around in the dirt at the side of the porch,and that's when she found Minnie. Minnie was buried in the dirt behind the bushes at the side of our porch.

Me, on the left,with my sister and one of our cats,sitting on our front porch. Minnie was found to the far right,out of frame,behind some bushes with inedible red berries and thorns.

Who knows how long she had been there? She looked old even then.

When we found her she had no paint at all. My sister coloured her eyes in,and maybe her tongue.

I looked for information about her for years, but I could never find anything like her. A few years ago I'm sure I managed to find a Minnie Mouse like her online,and she was from the 1930's. Now all I can find that looks like this Minnie are the Disneykins miniatures. The only thing is, those seem to have been made from white,hard plastic. My Minnie is made from a soft pink plastic.

That's some belly button! What's the hole for?

I don't think the soft plastic is appropriate for the  1930's,but I don't think she's a Disneykins. They were white, and painted,leaving the white bits,(Like the gloves), unpainted.

I have borrowed this picture of a Disneykins Minnie that was sold on the internet. I'll be glad to remove it if asked.

Now, my Minnie could have lost all of her paint. I mean, she was buried for who knows how long,after all. But she's made of a different colour of plastic.Also, Disneykins were 1.25 inches tall, as opposed to this Minnie's 2 inches. The Disneykins Minnie also has a hole in her stomach and a copyright on the back of her head that makes it look like The Death Star. Other than the size,the copyright, and the divot,the two Minnie's appear to be made from the same mold.
  But wait! I have looked again and happened upon something else! There was a 1953 Marx set called The Disney Television Playhouse Set. These figures were about 2 inches tall, made of vinyl,and later of soft plastic, and were made in pastel blue, green,cream,white,and pink. The figures were sold separately and in sets. They look like my Minnie,except for the hole between her hands. 

No hole.

 Could the hole have been made by an evil child? It looks molded in.

Her tail curls around her leg.  You can see it on the front of her right knee.

And here it is from behind. She has some huge mold marks on her shoes.

The kids who used to live in the house where we found Minnie must have played around the porch a lot. We also dug up a cowboy cap pistol one day,in the same spot.

The vertical windows in the center are in the door that's behind us in the other picture. The bushes under the horizontal windows to the right are the ones we found the toys buried behind.

It was a bigger, snazzier one than the ones I had. It had cow heads on the butt. I still have it,(and mine),but I never allowed Fuzzy to play with them. I didn't do toy guns with my kids. Things are too different these days.

    That's it for today. Check back tomorrow for another doll.