Doll-A-Day 2023 #20: Star Fairies Doll

   Today's doll is one Emma has in her selling stuff. She is a pretty little girl, and my dolls are far away, so we're going to look at her today. She's a Star Fairies doll.

  She's marked Hornby on the back of her head.

Apparently the Star Fairies were made from molds made by Hornby for their Flower Fairies line, but produced and sold by Tonka.  I guess Tonka couldn't be bothered to change the name on the molds.

  The dolls were sold in 1985. There was a series of dolls, some fashions, and some playsets. This would have been when Unsentimental Niece was eight years old, so I would have been buying things for an eight year old. But I don't remember these dolls.

  She came with a wand, and a hairbrush.

Her hand mold allows her to hold her wand.

 She is jointed at the shoulders, hips, and neck, where her head is on a ball joint. This allows her to tilt her head as well as turn it.

  She has a twist waist.

 She's a fairy, so she has big wings.

Her wings fit into her back with a plastic piece that pops into a hole in her back. Her wings are removeable.

Her dress is removeable, and closes in back with Velcro.

Her legs are bendable.

She stands about 6 or 7 inches tall.

  The Flower Fairies line had a male character or two, and so did the Star Fairies. The male Star Fairies  dolls wore shiny white pants and hooded capes, called 'Star Shower Rain Capes', and also had wings. The Flower Fairies had shorter dresses, with flower petal skirts. There were six female Star Fairies, and not one of them I have found online has this girl's dress! I'm so confused! There were those extra fashion sets though, so could this be one of those? Seems unlikely, since I think the fashions were just repackaged Flower Fairies fashions.

  They're pretty dolls. The Flower Fairies didn't sell well, and I can't understand why. They were even prettier than the Star Fairies, who have polyester dresses. 

I'm not sure how well the Star Fairies sold either. Tonka put some oomph behind them though, as they also produced the playsets, which were 'star' or 'space' themed, and so not left over from the Flower Fairies. (The 'Castle WishStar' playset has built in clouds all around the front of it.)  There were also other related items sold, like lunchboxes, and paper dolls. There was even a Hanna Barbara animated show. You can watch it HERE. Tonka probably hoped the show would go on to be a series, and sell their dolls for them, without paying for commercials, because that's the way it worked in that era, before those in charge of monitoring children's television reigned some of that stuff in. 

  You can watch a commercial for the Star Fairies HERE.

  That's the doll for today. If I'm lucky I can fit another one in today and start getting caught up. Either way, see you tomorrow for another doll.