The Heart Family, for those of you who haven't heard of them, were a line of dolls that included Mr. and Mrs. Heart,and their two children, a boy and a girl. The Heart Family kids were those stumpy giant babies whose sculpt was also used for the Teacher Barbie set,and the Rosebud Babies. You may have seen a Rosebud Baby that I have HERE,or the Teacher Barbie kids I showed you HERE. The Heart Family were sold from 1985 to 1990,and there were all sorts of sets and accessories sold for them, including a car, a house, a play ground set,sets of accessories for the kids,clothing packs,a camper, and even a dog.
The Dumbo Ride recreated part of Disneyland,and included the ride, benches, and a refreshment stand,complete with a hamburger, popcorn,an ice cream ,a hotdog, and 'toys to buy'.
The Heart Family dolls, sold in Disneyland attire, were sold separately,in sets of one parent and one child.
I came across the Dumbo Ride,or,at least, the important part of it,in Emma's closet recently. Emma's room still has a lot of her stuff in it,including all but her three favourite dolls and her favourite bunny and his sister. (You'll see some of her dolls next year...maybe). The Dumbo Ride was tucked away in her closet with about a million dolls,including the stuffed 'DollPock Apartments', which is a hanging shoe holder, where many of Emma's second string favourite dolls live. So here's the ride.
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| Thanks to Ivy for helping out. The ride was a little heavy on one side to stand up because it's missing a Dumbo. |
The missing bit is the second Dumbo. There should be two, as well as another pink heart for the other short arm. (Also I didn't find the bench and accessories.)
The Dumbo's have seat belts to hold the dolls in.
The seats fit the Heart Family children. Kelly and Tommy dolls also fit nicely. In this case, Gareth World,who has a bend leg body from a Kelly friend with swivel arm joints,is showing you how well he fits.
The ride is a wind up toy. Winding it up makes the Dumbo's go around. The piece at the top, with Dumbo's mouse friend Timothy on it, is the part that's wound.
Timothy is even two sided.
The arms travel along on an un-level circle. The difference in the height of the circle causes the arms to move up and down as they go around.
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| The ring at the center is higher on one side,and gradually gets lower. |
Ivy thought I should somehow show you the ride in action. The only thing I could do was take a series of pictures of the ride in motion. Click through them quickly and you'll get a feeling of motion!
The base on the ride is decorated with many different pictures of Dumbo.
Additional sets were sold to be used with the Dumbo ride,or as individual rides. They were called Heart Family (Visits Disneyland) Kids on Parade. The sets included a doll,(also made from the Heart Family kid sculpt), and a ride vehicle which could be attached to the other arms of the Dumbo Ride,or rolled along loose,and hooked together, to be a parade.
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| The Dumbo ride also came with those yellow thingies to hook the Dumbos together. |
The Dumbo vehicles can also be used off the ride itself,as they have wheels that really turn.
In researching the ride for this post I found a picture of something I had never heard of before:
I don't know if this piece was sold in the U.S. or not. The only picture I found is of one that has French and German writing on the package too. This piece is musical and is just one Dumbo that rocks back and forth.
Dumbo himself is really cute.
His ears and tail are separate pieces,that look like they might move. They don't,but flapping ears would have been pretty cool.
The bench that comes with the set is purple,with white legs that look like upside down hearts.
You can watch an unboxing video of the set HERE.
That's the play set for this month. Don't forget to check back in a couple of days for the next Doll Book of the Month Club entry.
