Monday, January 24, 2022

Review Time: Maileg Ginger Brother

   It's review time again. I got an action figure for Christmas, a Funko Pop Vinyl, and one actual doll. I picked it out myself. It was one I'd had my eye on for a while. And he's the doll we're going to look at today.



  I discovered the company Maileg when someone I follow on Flickr posted photos of her super cute Maileg  mouse family. I've always loved storybook mice. (But not the ones that get into the house and chew up my stuff!) I checked Maileg out, and found The Gingers. The Gingers are a family of five, Mum, Dad, Sister, Brother, and baby. They were described on the Maileg site as "...a family that always enjoys the time they spend together and their hair is as bright as their personalities!" They were available in three sizes. Size 1 included a 16 inch Mum and Dad, and 12 inch Brother and Sister. Size 2 included a 30 inch Mum and Dad, and a 25 inch Brother and Sister. Size 3 included a 39 inch Mum and Dad and a 28 inch Brother and Sister. They were all available individually, as was the 7 inch Ginger Baby, which came with it's own 'room', swaddling covers, pajamas, an outfit, and a tiny pacifier.


  The smaller sizes came in their underwear, while the other two sizes of the dolls wore casual clothes. Clothes and pajamas were also available for the smaller sized dolls, including Dad's pilot uniform, and Mum's stewardess (flight attendant) uniform.


  A few pieces of clothing and pajamas were sold for the bigger dolls.

The smaller version of the family even had a house, and furnishings available.


They could even go camping.



  I originally wanted the size 2 or 3 Ginger sister. I always balk at spending money though, so I kept putting off ordering her, and alas, she was no longer available by late last year. My second choice was size 2 or 3 Ginger Brother, and I am usually drawn to the boy dolls anyway. So while size 2 Brother was still available, and clearanced for $15.00, I snapped him up before Christmas last year. (When he arrived Ken commandeered him to give to me for Christmas.)


  Originally he was a bit expensive, as is everything from Maileg. So I shouldn't have been surprised by his quality. But I was. I assumed he was made of a smooth cotton fabric, like a Raggedy Ann or Andy. But he is made of a heavy cotton, with a woven texture.



Despite the texture of the cotton, Ginger Brother is soft. 

  He has long, thin arms and legs. 


They aren't dangly and floppy like a traditional rag doll. His legs are fairly moveable, but his arms are more firm. They don't want to stay moved away from his sides. They go, but they want very badly to return there. 



   His hair is a separate piece of fabric sewn into his head. It has a printed pattern.



I love his little 'Alfalfa' hair on the top of his head.



  He has a cute face, with embroidered eyes, and printed freckles, nose, and mouth.


And look at those ears.


He has fingers stitched into his hands.




  His feet are just an angle at the end of his legs.





  He has a little embroidered belly button! His polka dot underwear is part of his body, and can't be removed.


    His body tag is sewn into his body on his underwear.


His clothing is nice quality.  The soft grey sweatshirt is not super thin, and the fabric is nubbly on the back.



 The Gingers logo is printed  on the front of his shirt in metallic coppery coloured paint.



There's a Maileg tag on the side.



  His jeans are a fairly heavy weight fabric.


 They have sewn cuffs that can't unroll.

   The waist has a stretchy band so the pants can be removed easily by little hands, and still stay up when they need to. They are quite tight though, so very little hands may still need some help until his pants stretch out a bit.



   They have a real pocket on the side of one leg.


His arms obviously don't reach that far, so he can't put his hand in it. You could put something small in there though. 

  And look at his socks! 


  I love these socks! They're cute, stretchy, and have rolled down tops. And I love that he has socks! It makes me feel that his feet are cozy and warm. There don't seem to have been any shoes made for The Ginger kids though. (All sizes of the Mum and Dad come with sewn on soft shoes.)

  He comes with a double tag. The top tag, with The Gingers logo and pictures, is cloth. The second tag is heavy paper. According to said tags, Ginger Brother consists of cotton and polyester, and is surface washable only, and colour running is possible. From what I found on the Maileg website, the doll itself is cotton, so the polyester must show up in the stretchable clothing.





      Ginger Brother is cuddly and huggable, with a soft body that could be easily squeezed by tiny arms.


  I can see this guy lasting a child very well, and maybe being passed down. The fabric is sturdy, and his hair is part of his head, so it can't wear off. Even his clothing seems like it will wear well.

   Unfortunately, most of the Gingers collection is no longer available. At the moment there are a few pieces of clothing of various sizes, a size 1 Ginger Mum, and this guy, the size 2 Ginger Brother, still available.

  Included in the box was a Maileg catalog.


The catalog is beautifully photographed, and shows the current Maileg products.





     Maileg was founded in 1999 by Danish designer and illustrator Dorthe Mailil and her husband Erik. The name Mailig, (which is pronounced 'my-lay'.), comes from their last name, combined with the Danish word 'leg', which means play. Apart from Maileg's toy designs, Dorthe, who studied at the Danish Design School and  L'ecole D'art de Marsailles and Paris, also does illustrations for books, magazines, and TV.

  So do I recommend this Ginger boy? At the price I got him, yes. I think he's cute and quirky looking, which is something I love anyway. He's an excellent quality toy that seems like he will last through a childhood of play, (or two!) But he started out much more expensive. He had been $38 before he was marked down to the $15 I paid for him. Would I pay $38 for him? Hmm. I'm cheap, so I'd have to think about that. I think if one of my kids had fallen in love with a doll like this, I would have paid $38 for him if he were this quality. (If my kids had fallen in love with him, I would probably have paid that for him no matter what his quality was, but I would have preferred he was this good!) Actually, thinking about it, $38 isn't that bad if you compare him to mass produced toys. And this guy seems like he might outlast most mass produced dolls. For example, I think this cloth will outlast the thin cotton blend that Raggedy Ann and Andy tend to be made of. 

  That's it for this review. Coming soon are some fun finds I've made recently.

Thursday, January 6, 2022

The Toys of the Past, Christmas and Otherwise: Lori and Family's Toys from the 40's, 50's, and 60's

  Remember back in December of 2018, when I showed you some very old Christmas photos belonging to my friend Lori? (You can find those posts by clicking Toys of Christmas Past in the sidebar. She got the best stuff! Well, I'm back, with a few more of Lori's old photos from Christmas, birthdays, and Easter. These pictures all have dolls and toys. Some of them need identifying, so if you recognize them, please leave a comment.
  The first picture is obviously Christmas, but Lori is cuddling a toy rabbit, and whatever that other toy is.


  
  Note the tiger slippers. I had several pairs of slippers as a kid in the 60's that had rubber animal heads on them. I had a few pairs with duck heads, and one with cat heads. Apart from the animals, I had a pair with clown heads. Everything wasn't licensed characters then.  
    As per most of the rest of Lori's gifts, the one she's sitting in front of here is pretty valuable these days. It's the Ding a Ling Bridge set by Topper Toys.



The Ding A Lings were a series of robot toys. You can watch a commercial for the Ding A Lings HERE. The huge structure they are running around on in the commercial makes me think of The Doozers from Fraggle Rock, and King Ding and his huge machine make me think of the Power Rangers Megazord.  The bridge set came with some Ding A Lings, but there were others that were available separately. Down in the bottom right corner, you'll see Lori's stuffed Lassie toy. My sister had one too, which I think she actually still has. Even more surprising, since Norma, Lori's mom, threw out or sold all of Lori's toys, Lori still has her Lassie toy too. Of course, Lori's Lassie is bigger than my sister's. because Lori had the best stuff.

  Here's another Christmas picture. In this one there's a Toss Across game on the right. Do they still make Toss Across? It was produced for decades, but I bet they don't make it any more. It was basically a bean bag version of Tic Tac Toe. These days it has pretty much been replaced by video games and 'corn hole'. There's a play pen with a doll. The doll looks like possibly an Ideal Snoozie Thumbelina or Snuggle Softee, or a Horsman doll. I can't find any doll online wearing that outfit though. It looks a lot like a Horsman Sofskin doll, but this doll looks like it has a soft, stuffed body. The Sofskin has a solid body. If anybody can recognize the doll or the boxes in the background and to the left of the play pen, let me know in a comment. **UPDATE** I don't know where my mind was, but Teresa F., a reader pointed out that the box in the background says 'knit'. I did some more looking, and it seems like it's probably a Kenner Knit-O-Matic automatic knitting machine.  


This picture from the same Christmas shows Lori with that doll, and her niece and nephew with something in a box, a helicopter, and an airplane. (Lori's sister is much older than she is, and her niece and nephew are closer to her age than her sister is.) The airplane looks like it might be remote controlled. The little rocking chair next to Lori's chair was really common back then too.


Speaking of Lori's older sister, here she is on her second Christmas in 1948. It looks like she was pretty spoiled too! Look at that haul! There's a doll with a stroller, a drum, an ironing board, a top, a wagon of blocks, a ball, another doll, a little red wagon, what looks like maybe Tinkertoys or Lincoln Logs, in the cannister right behind the smaller doll and the red wagon, a stuffed Panda bear, and a rocking horse. There are some other things I can't see well enough to recognize under the ironing board.   

Sister's second Christmas, 1948.

Here's her sister and a friend on Christmas 1955, There's a doll, a doll crib, and possibly some doll house furniture on the table in front of the doll. 

Christmas 1955.

This picture from January of 1956 shows her with what is probably that doll she got for Christmas.


January 1956.

There aren't any more Christmas pictures, but there are still plenty more pictures with toys. 


  This picture of Lori and her nephew features the same cowgirl outfit and toy German Shepherd I showed you in an earlier post.





That German Shephard looks pretty awesome.
  The doll in this birthday party picture looks like an Ideal doll, maybe a Belly Button Baby. (You can see my Belly Button Baby HERE and HERE.)


  Th next picture looks like Easter. The toy five year old Lori is holding looks like Mother Goose


  This picture is from another Easter. This time Lori has a cute pink poodle





Another Easter and a  bunny and...what is that cute thing? An elephant? (Those ears are pretty big.) 


  Here are Lori and her nephew on yet another Easter, with their bunnies.



Another Easter and another dog. (Or is that a lion? Hard to say really.) That's no surprise. These days Lori has EIGHT dogs! 

Her niece has some sort of plaid animal.

  Okay. The plaid animal is a bunny.



  It must be Lori's nephew's birthday. Charlie Brown is sitting behind them. Looks like the birthday presenst included a five piece truck set. Anybody recognize the toy right below the cake?



  That's it for today. Next time on The Toys of the Past we'll see some toys from my childhood pictures. There weren't many from Christmas, but there are pictures of my toys.