Doll-A-Day #60: Tommy and Kelly as Hansel and Gretel

   Remember Tommy and Kelly? Tommy has disappeared in the mists of Mattel time, but Kelly, who was already Shelly in Europe, turned into Chelsea and became a long legged seven year old. But back in what I think of as the heyday of Kelly/Chelsea, there were Tommy and Kelly. As kids, Fuzzy collected all the Tommy dolls, and Ivy collected all the Kelly dolls. I once wrote a book for Ivy called, "Ivy and the Magic Flying Sheep", wherein Ivy was granted wishes by, yes, some magic flying sheep. After a few set backs, where the sheep find loopholes, and don't appropriately grant Ivy's wishes to be Queen of the World, etc., the last line of the book is, "...somewhere in the world, it was raining Kellys." I mean, between Fuzz and Ivy, they had almost all the Tommy's and Kellys produced. They even split at least one set, the Grease one, with Fuzz taking the John Travolta, and Ivy taking the Olivia Newton John, except that they traded sweaters/jackets. 

  One set they didn't have, together or separately, was this one: Tommy and Kelly as Hansel and Gretel.

(I can't think of Hansel and Gretel without thinking of the Bugs Bunny cartoon where Bugs earns the correct pronunciation of Hansel's name, "Hansel? Han-sel? Haaansel?..." You can watch the cartoon HERE.) But I always wanted it! This particular one, from our sales stuff, made it's way to Emma's house in a very wet box after the fire. Fortunately it was just the box it was stored in, along with some other dolls. The actual doll box is fine. So, it survived. And you know what? Mine now! At this point, as they were headed to storage, I still didn't open them. And I might not. I like them in the box, for now at least. So here they are.

  It describes itself as 'Barbie Collectibles'. This was the higher end Tommy and Kelly dolls, considered to be for adult collectors, and not play dolls. As such, they were a little more expensive than play line dolls. This set was produced in 2000, and was the second in the storybook series.

  Okay. I have an issue with their version of Hansel and Gretel. I understand they may have wanted to make it a little more palatable for modern audiences, but let's be honest. In the original version, Hansel and Gretel's father is also responsible for leading them off into the forest, hoping to lose them. In the story, the stepmother is sick of having to divide the scarce food with them, and persuades her husband to lose the kids in the forest so they themselves can better survive. The father goes along with this idea! The next day the four of them go out into the forest to 'collect wood'. The parents then proceed to lose the kids. Luckily, Hansel heard their evil plans, and filled his pocket with rocks, so as to leave a path home. The kids leave a pebble path, and make it back by morning. (How they saw those pebbles in the dark I don't know.) The stepmother is furious, and demands that they take the kids out again the next day. Again the father gives in! The kids don't have a heads up this time though, and Hansel has no time to collect rocks. This time when the kids are led out and lost, Hansel has only bread to leave behind. He leaves a nice trail of bread crumbs, but when it's time to follow it, the kids find that it has been eaten by birds! Now they can't find their way home. This is when they get even more lost and find the candy covered house of the old witch who eats kids. You know the rest. The witch tricks them into thinking she is kind, and the kids gladly go into her house. Next thing you know, Hansel is in a cage, being plumped up for cooking, and Gretel is made into a servant. When the vision impaired witch asks Hansel to stick his finger out so she can tell how fat he's getting, Hansel sticks an old bone out instead. When the witch gets fed up waiting for Hansel to fatten, she decides to eat him anyway. Gretel is forced to fire up the stove for cooking Hansel, and when the old witch leans over to the oven door to see if the fire is hot enough, Gretel pushes her in and slams the door! Way to escape a child killer Gretel! But, uh, yeah, she just murdered someone. Mattel doesn't want to blame the father for abandoning the kids in the forest alone, but they have no qualms in telling us that Gretel is a murderer. I mean, it's not like the witch didn't deserve it. And what else was Gretel supposed to do? The witch was going to kill her brother. I don't think the prosecuting attorney would have a leg to stand on if it went to court. However, I do think child services would still take the kids, once they'd made their way back home, even though the stepmother had gone and the father welcomed them home. After all, this guy is easily persuaded to abandon his kids. What happens if he gets another, um...witch of a wife, and she wants him to drop the kids off a cliff? This guy is too easily swayed. He's not responsible enough to have kids.

  Okay. We now return to our regularly scheduled program, i.e., the dolls.

  Aren't they cute? They have slightly more tan complexions than the standard Tommy and Kelly dolls, and a more realistic shade of blonde hair. 

Tommy has a sort of Dutch boy cut, minus the bangs, and a hat, while Kelly sports a kerchief.

Gretel has a printed on patch on her apron, and a basket of bread.

Hansel is wearing lederhosen. That translates to, not, shorts with straps, but 'leather pants'.

That's a whole basket of bread! They could have left chunks big enough to have choked those birds! In the book I have from when I was a kid, they are only given one stale lump of bread between them, which makes more sense, especially if they were supposed to be so poor, and starving.

  But let's get back to those lederhosen. He has little embroidered flower decorations on the middle strap, and buttons in the front. That middle strap: good idea. Like bibbed overalls, it keeps the straps from falling down. (Kid Fuzzy's favourite outfit was bibbed overalls, which Fuzz called 'hook up pants'. My dad was in charge of shortening or lengthening the straps, because I always screwed it up.)

Another shot of those buttons. There's also a checked shirt and yellow socks.

Hansel's shoes are regular molded lace up Tommy and Kelly shoes, in black. 

Gretel has a dress and apron combo, which also has embroidered accents, and some faux lacing on the bodice.

 My childhood Hansel and Gretel book was a Golden Book with this beautiful cover by artist Eloise Wilkin, illustrator of the doll inspiring "Baby Dear".

I loved the artwork as a kid. But one thing that really stuck with me was a picture of the witch putting the kids to bed. They are sleeping in a bed with shelves and doors. I have loved the look of it ever since. I want to build a dollhouse with a bed like this. 

It's called variously a closet bed, closed bed. cupboard bed, box bed, or cabinet bed. That witch may have eaten children, but she had great taste in furniture.

  And those are the dolls for today.  Tomorrow we'll see another doll.