Doll-A-DAy 2019 #292: Gryffindor Friends Ron Weasley

  My back was much better today. It's still giving me pain,and I want to be careful and not over work it, but I was actually able to get something done today. I think giving it a rest yesterday was the right decision.
  The dolls I showed you the previous few days are mine. But today's doll is one that was around here from the stuff we used to sell. (I think Emma had at least one from this line though.) He fit the theme we've been on, so I thought I'd show him to you. He's Gryffindor Friends Ron Weasley.

The Gryffindor Friends dolls came with a charm.

This guy is about 12 inches tall.

He was made by Mattel  in 2001, and copyright Warner Brothers,but he's not in the likeness of the movie characters. 

He still looks like the book Ron as far as his clothes. In the books the kids didn't wear school uniforms. They just wore robes over their jeans and shirts. Ron was depicted in a lot of the artwork as wearing a purple shirt, Hermione in a pink shirt,and Harry was depicted in a red and white striped football/soccer shirt.
 

 You'll notice Ron, who was taunted by Malfoy for his 'hand me down robes',has a raggedy bottom on his robes.
 

Don't mind Ron's linty robes. They all wore tennis shoes,or,as they're called in England, trainers.

His robes have a Hogwarts crest.
 

Of course, the Weasley's are known for their red hair.
 

They even gave Ron freckles.

  That's today's doll. Tomorrow we'll see a non-Harry Potter doll.

Doll-A-Day 2019 #289: Hogwarts Heroes Ron Weasley

  Talk about your changeable weather! Yesterday was very warm and sunny. I hung out three or four loads of laundry and they all got dry. I think I mentioned that my dogwood tree is in bloom again, and my lilacs are budding again.I was planning on hanging a blanket out to dry today, but woke up to a COLD rainy day. It's FREEZING! I'm not complaining though, because this is more what October is supposed to be like.
  Yesterday we saw Magical Powers Hermione. Today we're looking at a friend of hers. He's Hogwarts Heroes Ron.

He's a doll you may have seen here before, in comparison to the latest Mattel Ron Weasley doll. You can see that post HERE. 

  The Hogwarts Heroes dolls, which included Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley were the first dolls released to represent the likenesses of the actors from the movies. There had been Harry Potter dolls before, but they were based on the books, and bore no resemblance to the movie actors. In Ron's case, he was very different from the movie dolls, because in the books, Ron is supposed to be tall and thin, with a big pointy nose. The Hogwarts Heroes dolls were made in 2001, after the release of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone".The other two in the series weren't great likenesses,(Harry was terrible.),but I think they did a really good job on the Ron. He bears a great resemblance to Rupert Grint, who played Ron.

They got his sideways smile down pretty well. Here he is with last year's Mattel Ron . Granted, the newer one is an older version of Ron, but I don't think they got his crooked smile nearly as well as the first one.

The Hogwarts Heroes dolls are 8" tall. They use the Gymnast Stacie body,so they're jointed at the neck, shoulders, elbows,hips, knees, and ankles. ** And they also have a jointed twisty waist, which I forgot to mention.**

 

Tammy World is using a Hogwarts Heroes Hermione body at the moment, for the posability, without changing her original height. (Since she came on a Stacie body that was not articulated beyond the usual neck, shoulders,and hips, with click bend knees.) The only thing that bugs me about these bodies is the way the arms look, without articulated wrists. They can look a little weird in certain poses

Ron's outfit consists of his robes,which have a disappearing/appearing Hogwarts crest...

It's still kind of visible, even when it's supposed to be invisible.

  The robes came with an 'H' sticker crest on the chest,which you peeled off. The gimmick was that underneath the peel off sticker crest was another,more detailed crest,that was 'invisible'...You can see it actually, but anyway...and you could make it 'appear' by rubbing it with the plastic 'sorcerer's stone' that the dolls all came with. The stone had to be soaked in warm water first,and dried off so as not to damage the crest,before rubbing it on the crest. So it was actually just a heat activated picture. Mattel made a lot of things in the 90's and early 2000's that were heat activated. I remember Emma having a Sleeping Beauty doll whose eyes 'opened' and 'closed' with warm water. Like the crest on Ron's robes,her eyes were still faintly visible when they were supposed to be closed,which looked pretty weird.
...a sweater vest,and a Hogwarts school tie on elastic ...

...a white body shirt with elastic in the crotch to keep it tucked in,like the Hermione shirt I showed you yesterday...

...his black pants,(Since he's English I guess I should call them 'trousers',since pants' are underwear in England.)...

...and his black shoes. no socks though. He didn't come with any.

  The Hogwarts Heroes also came with wands,and each character did have a different wand. Emma got the whole set new, but I got mine second hand,and he was missing his wand.

  When the Hogwarts Heroes dolls came out, Ron was the hardest one to find. I think they must have made considerably less of him...kind of like the movies did! (You may have read here before that that's one of my pet peeves. I really like the character Ron in the books,and he had a lot of great scenes and dialog. The movies cut out most of his best stuff, and watered his part down more and more as the movies went on. I thought that was a shame, because not only was Ron a great character, but Rupert Grint was the best actor amongst the kids.) By the way, Ron is the hardest to find second hand too.

In addition to these two I also have the Tonner Ron. You can see him HERE.

    That's the doll for today. See you again tomorrow for Harry!

Finally that anniversary present! Ron Weasley

  I have been promising to show you my anniversary present for ages! It kept getting put off because I had leaves to rake. But I won the battle with the leaf sucker truck this year! I've had my leaves raked for ages! Of course, I threw my shoulder out and re-aggrevated my bad wrist in the process,but it's done. Ivy was home from college for a few days right before Halloween and again around Thanksgiving. In between we went to Indiana for her birthday. Emma and I went to see Fleetwood Mac, which I insisted on calling Fleetwood Neil,since Neil Finn joined. (I still find that bizarre.) Lori had her heart problems and then her father passed away. There has been a lot going on around here the past few months,much of it bad. That's why it has taken me ages to do this post.
  Finally I have my act together and here is my anniversary present:

Ron Weasley from Harry Potter. There are six dolls in the series, which just came out this year: Harry,Ron, Hermione, Ginny,Dumbledore, and McGonagall. While there are always tons of the kids on the shelves,the two adults are the short case pack items,and are often sold out.

Ron is my favourite character in the Harry Potter books. He has the best lines in the books,adds some nice comic relief,and is the underdog type I always root for.

Plus he has red hair. We've gotta stick together you know.

  Of the three main characters I always felt Rupert Grint was the best actor,who had the most chance of a long career. The other two did get better over time,but as kids I think he was the most talented.
  I was really glad to see that there was another Ron in the playline dolls. There hasn't been one since Mattel's original line of HP dolls, way back when the first movie was released in 2001. (Wow! Has it really been that long?!) That line included Harry, Ron, and Hermione. The lines that followed only included Harry and Hermione. (I'm not including the action figures or Legos.)The best likeness of the three was the Ron, who really did look like Rupert Grint. (I actually have all three of the original dolls,but I have misplaced them.) UPDATE: Found them! See below.The new line is the same: Ron is the best likeness to the actor who played the part. Maybe Rupert Grint just has an easy face to copy to a doll.

Original Mattel Ron on the left. New Mattel Ron on the right.

 

He comes with his wand, which seems to be the repaired version.

The original dolls were much smaller than the new ones. They were made with the bodies used for the Gymnast Stacie doll,and were about 8" tall.

Original Mattel Ron with new Mattel Ron.

The new Ron at least, is about 10" tall

His hair is actually a separate piece that's glued onto his head.

The kids all come in their school uniforms,which were a movie thing entirely. In the books the kids didn't wear school uniforms. I don't know why they decided to change that for the movies. Ken commented that their uniforms are very similar to the one he wore when he was in school.(Well Ken,aren't most British school uniforms pretty similar?) The original Mattel dolls also wore the school uniforms and robes,but they had a more realistic set of clothes. The tie was separate, the shirt and sweater vest were two pieces too. (Since Harry and friends are English, maybe I should say 'jumper' instead of sweater?) The new dolls have a one piece sweater/shirt/tie.
 

The tie is printed on,as are the stripes on his sweater...

...and the sweater and shirt are all one piece,except for the sewn on cotton shirt collar.  I was disappointed with it. This cheapens the look of the dolls,which are otherwise pretty impressive.
  The sweater and shirt themselves are made of a more stretchy fabric than the collar.The sweater/shirt closes in the back with Velcro.

The pants,(Or should I say 'trousers',as  'pants' are underwear in England.),also close in the back with Velcro. The Velcro is nice and flat,and doesn't make the bulge in back that you used to get with doll pants' Velcro.
   The pants also have some actual stitching detail in the fly area. 

Since it follows the real join in the fabric there is also an actual join where the fly would open. Nice touch. It's little details like that that make these a bit more upscale than a lot of play dolls.

Like the old Mattel dolls,the new dolls are articulated,only more than the old ones.

Ron is jointed at the neck,shoulders, elbows,wrists,hips,and knees.His legs can move to the sides too.

 So can his arms.

  He has great detail in his shoes too.

I'm impressed that they bothered to give them this much detail on the bottoms.

 

The shoes have a split in the back to make them easier to get on and off.
  His hands are quite realistic.

The right hand is made to be able to hold his wand.

And the left isn't.

He also came with his robe,which I almost forgot to photograph him in!

 The robe fabric is a bit heavy and stiff, It has a hood,which at least lays flat.

Looks like Ron is headed for the Room of Requirement.

  His robe has the Griffindor crest.

These versions of Ron and friends are a bit older than the original dolls. Those dolls were first year students. These are obviously not, since Ginny has now joined them at Hogwarts. These seem a bit younger than the first Tonner Potter dolls though. You may have seen my Tonner Ron HERE.

I think Harry and Ron are the same size. If it had been done authentically to the movie or the book, Ron would be taller.

The original Ron became pretty hard to find. Harry and Hermione were plentiful. Emma was a Potter nerd well before the movies came out, and she got all three dolls when they were released. It took me a while to find all three though,since I waited around and got mine second hand. Ron took me the longest.

Since I like boy dolls and I collect red haired dolls, collecting Rons was a given I guess.

No socks. Gross.

I missed out on the Star Ace Ron when he was affordable. Hopefully one of these days I'll find a deal.

His wand is rubber banded to his hand, and for now at least, I'm leaving it that way.  

Although they gave Ron his very orange hair, the Ginny doll's hair is practically brown.

  So there you have it. Finally! There will be a lot of posts coming at you one after the other after this. There will be a series on vintage dolls and toys,a review of the latest from Maru and Friends,and before you know it, the return of Doll-A-Day. Stay tuned.