Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Adventure Boy!

  I'm feeling a little better, but I had a hard night a couple of nights ago. My neck really hurt and I felt like I was being strangled. I have a doctor appointment tomorrow,so hopefully we'll start to get to the bottom of this. Last week when I had my dentist appointment I got home and managed to take some photos while I felt up to it momentarily. It was really cold though,so I didn't take many! As for the subject matter of the photos,remember way back in September ,when I did a post on Remco Finger Ding dolls? (You can see that post HERE.) If you read that post you might recall me mentioning another Finger Ding character I had my eye on: Adventure Boy. Well...


I got lucky and found two for a great price recently! These little guys aren't officially Finger Ding dolls, but they are also made by Remco,like the others I showed you,which are 'Finger Dings',and they share the same principal of using the child's fingers for legs. They have plastic heads,arms and torsos,but their legs are only empty tights until somebody puts their fingers in there.


These guys are from 1970. Like the others I showed you,they are about 5" tall. This one is Adventure Boy with his Snowmobile. He definitely could have used it the day I took his photos. Since then we've had tons of rain,(Including the loudest rain storm I have ever heard: and I'm talking the actual rain, not thunder! There may have been hail mixed with the rain, but it was raining so hard I couldn't tell!),and all the snow is gone.
 
Here's how his box looked.(I don't have it.) He originally came with skis too. I really think these Finger Ding dolls over sold themselves: "There's never been anything like him! He's almost alive!"
  He's the one on the left in the two shot above. He has slightly lighter brown hair than the other one.

 The other one is Adventure Boy with his Skymobile.


Coming in for a landing!

Mine is missing the decal from his chest.

His hands are painted red,but I'm not sure they are supposed to be. We'll just pretend he's wearing gloves!


Skymobile Adventure Boy has a cape,and his helmet has lightening bolts.
 

Snowmobile Adventure Boy has what looks like a baseball helmet,and an apron of some sort.
 
Looks like he's ready to play Finger Paint Baseball!

Not that I want to start some kind of dispute about who's the coolest.

Ut oh. We have an Adventure Boy down!
You know how I love boy dolls. These guys are really cute. I think I like them much better than the two girls you saw in my other post. Plus they have cool gear!

He gets knocked down, but he gets up again.

Plus Adventure Boy has something else I love on dolls: teeth!



My Snowmobile Boy has some differences from what is shown on his box, but there were, as far as I know, only two other Adventure Boys,and they were very different from these two. So he has to be Snowmobile boy. The other two were Adventure Boy and his Motorcycle, and Adventure Boy and His Spacecraft. I don't care much for motorcycle Boy's green and black outfit...
 

...but the astronaut Boy is great.


Of course, I'm a child from the moonwalk era. I wasn't very excited about it back then though. I remember the moon landing, and Mom and Dad making my sister and me watch it. We were bored, and complained and wanted to go upstairs and listen to Paul Revere and the Raiders! I think that must have been my big sister influencing me, because I am pretty sure I would have been awed by such a thing otherwise. It still awes me that anybody managed to do that. I told my kids about it when they were little. I think Fuzz was most impressed that they left a car on the moon. He used to look at the moon and say, "I  can see the car."!
 So that's it for this post. See you soon.

Sunday, January 21, 2018

Not The Last of My Illness,But The Last of My Christmas Presents:Disney Descendants Ally of Auradon Prep

  I know I promised this post 'in a day or two' quite a while ago. I'm still having some problems,pounding heart and feeling crappy. I do feel a bit better every day,but every time I think I feel much better, I have another spell. I thought my bad tooth might be causing the heart problems, (That is a thing.) I had a dentist appointment Friday, and the only thing wrong with my tooth is that is has a crack in it. So there goes that idea. I'm back where I started,and causing more heart problems by worrying about my problem. My appointment with the Cardiologist is February 1st.
  In  any case, back to my happy place.
  The only real doll I got for Christmas was this girl.







Is Disney embarrassed to be ripping off Ever After High?
Her box has a rabbit in the design.



I have to say, the box was easy to get into.(It took me a minute to figure out which side to open,but once I did,it was all go.)  It's got one piece of tape on the side. After that was dealt with the box opened easily and the insert slid out. Getting her off the insert was another story though. She was attached with a plethora of elastics and T-ended plastic thingies.

 

The elastics were so tight they were a little hard to remove without cutting them. (Hey. They come in handy,ok?) The worst thing though,was that blob of glue at the top.


It was hard to pull off, but it had to be removed to get to the things holding her hair to the insert. Her head was held to the insert so tightly that there was no chance of cutting the her loose from the front without cutting her hair.

I can't believe I'm out!

I have seen plenty of Disney Descendants dolls, but I only found out there was an Alice related one a couple of months ago. As you may know,I collect Alice dolls and stuff. You can see some of my other Alice dolls HERE, HERE,HERE,HERE,HERE,HERE,and HERE. (Hmm. I have posted more Alice dolls than I thought.)


She's actually supposed to be Alice's daughter.



She is recognizably related though. She's got the striped tights...

Alice did not wear the striped stockings in the original John Tenniel illustrations for "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland". She did wear them in his illustrations for the sequel,"Through the Looking Glass,and What Alice Found There".
I thought they were cottony,but they're nylon.
Her shoes have big pink bows.


She has an Alice blue dress, although it is modernized.




Her belt is plastic and it is removeable.
 

She has her black 'Alice band' in her hair,except it's not a whole head band, just a bow on the top of her head.


It's actually a comb,but for some odd reason they don't have it in her hair. It's tied down to her head with elastic that goes all the way under her chin.

Good view of her bow earrings.


And of course the blonde hair,although she has blue streaks in hers.



She also has a watch,since the White Rabbit's watch figures prominently in the book.


It's a wrist watch, but it has a 'chain' on the band to make it sort of pocket watch related.
And there is a larger watch. It's actually a purse, and it has rabbit ears!




 
I was glad to see that her purse does actually open. I hate it when doll purses are just a solid hunk of plastic.


The purse has a paper rabbit inside.
 

I thought it might be a sticker for kids to really use, but it seems to be just a paper bunny. That's a waste. For one thing, what do you do with it? And we already got the same bunny, only a different colour and  slightly larger, on the box insert just above the watch. You can see it in the picture above of the watch in the box. For another thing, there are so many other things from the Alice books that would have made good accessories,which she could have carried in her purse. I know she's supposed to be Alice's daughter, and not Alice, and I don't know what's going on in the Disney Descendants series,but off the top of my head,they could have used: gloves,a fan (Both are things the White Rabbit carried.), a tea cake that says 'eat me',(Staying away from the bottle,which might be seen as encouraging kids to drink alcohol or strange,unidentified things in bottles.), a tiny deck of cards,(That would be great!),or a mirror,(Referencing "Through the Looking Glass".). Things that they also could have used as accessory besides a purse: a cat,(Dinah or The Cheshire Cat), a rabbit, a pig,a flamingo,a hedge hog,a tea set,a tiny chess set,etc.
   She is jointed at the neck,shoulders, elbows,wrists,hips,and knees.


She can tilt her head up and to the sides.


Her arms are pretty flexible. She can actually touch her head,as you saw above. However,she can't use that head tilting and arm posing to at all appear to look at her watch.

I know there's a watch out there somewhere.
 Her knees bend too. But she seems strangely stiff and unposable. I think it's because she lacks a waist joint. Her body is one stiff piece of plastic.


 She's not my favourite of my Alice dolls. For one thing, she has too much of a bland Barbie smile.(I have mentioned before that I prefer my Alice's to look a bit grouchy,like the original illustrations. Even bored is a better look than being so cheery.) She is a nice addition to my Alice collection though.


   After so much time between posts, I do actually have another post you'll be seeing in a day or two. See you next time.

Saturday, January 13, 2018

What I Got For Christmas

  I'm not gone! I'm still here. I've just been taking a break. You may have read me say I have been having some health concerns, but I think it's stress. I'm still having problems, but I'm feeling better. I'm not going into it more, because this is my happy place.
  Meanwhile,it's freezing again.The day before yesterday it was in the high 50's,(Fahrenheit.). yesterday our street looked like this.




  It's even deeper today.
  I was so busy over Christmas, that for the first year since I've been doing the blog I didn't find time to do my Christmas list. (Fortunately for me,Ken shopped my Ebay watching list!) So, I'm going to post my birthday wish list this year. My birthday is in March, so Ken will have some time. I'll be working on that. In the meantime,here's what I got for Christmas.
  I'll save the most 'doll' gift for another post in a day or two.
   So,first of all,I finally got the Target elves I've been wanting for the past few years,ever since Emma got one. (You can see Emma's on his Doll-A-Day post HERE.)



I got the girl too! These were from Ken. I did more than hint when we were shopping at Target,so he couldn't help but know I wanted them.
Ivy made me a vase in her ceramics class and bought me this Fozzie Bear.



He's about 10" tall. Good,isn't he?
I also got plenty of movies. These were from Ken.


And these were from Emma.


Plus Ken got me these boxed sets I've been after for years.

The original "Poldark",which was my version of a soap opera during my teens.
Ken got me the new Neil Finn,(Ex-Crowded House and Split Enz),album,on vinyl,just like I wanted.


He also got me some reading material.


Ken also got me the Shirley Temple stamp I only recently found out had been made,and these new old cards to replace some of the cards in my childhood 'Touring' game that are starting to fall apart,since Ken and I play it all the time.

They're old, but they're still sealed,because Ken knows how OCD I am about used things,(In spite of owning so many old,used things!)

My friend Lori got me a Wizard of Oz calendar,a t-shirt,and a joke gift.(Those are political, so I'll keep it to myself.)


  I got some sweets from Ken's sister Diane,including Italian Nougat,and vanilla biscuits. I got a giant box of my favourite chocolates,Russell Stover,and some Tootsie Roll hot chocolate from Ken. (The hot chocolate was sadly disappointing.)


Ken's sister Gloria gave me some insulated socks.


Emma also got me some cute socks.


A Beatles t-shirt.


And some Whittard's Cherry Bakewell Biscuits.


And she also got me this Funko Batman Bookworm figure.

The Bookworm was played by one of my favourite actors since I was 7 years old,Roddy McDowall.



The figure is a pretty good likeness.



  This is a small figure. You may have seen my larger Batman Bookworm figure by Figures Toy Co.  HERE.
  Fuzz and his girlfriend Shanna got me this nutcracker and a new sewing box with sewing goodies inside.


 There were a few other stray items. The next time we'll see the one real doll doll I got.