Doll-A-Day 2019 # 15: Mary Poppins Week: Jane and Michael Banks

  We continue our series on Mary Poppins dolls this week with the youngest characters from the original Mary Poppins movie, Jane and Michael Banks.

The boxed dolls are mine, and the loose dolls are Emma's. This means that we get to see them both ways.

Jane and Michael were sold in 2007,in the same series with the amazing Dick Van Dyke 'Bert' doll, and the Julie Andrews sculpt Mary Poppins.

Although the Bert and Mary dolls were sculpted to look like stars Dick Van Dyke and Julie Andrews, Jane and Michael did not get new sculpts of the actors who played the characters in the film.

And unlike 'Bert' and 'Mary', who are labelled on the box just that way, even though the dolls were sculpted in the likenesses of real people, 'Jane' and 'Michael' are labelled as 'Jane and Michael Stacie doll and Todd Doll', and described on the back of the box as 'Stacie Doll and Todd Doll celebrate a favorite classic film, dressed in recreations of ensembles worn in the iconic carousel scene'.



In spite of the box saying they are 'Stacie' and 'Todd', Todd actually had a his own head sculpt.

 

Jane and Michael were both made from the Stacie sculpt.

 

  Stacie is Barbie's sister. She's still being made, but is now taller and uses a different head sculpt. Jane and Michael use the Stacie sculpt that was used from 1992 to about 2008.

  They have the same articulation as Stacie too. They are jointed at the shoulders, hips, and neck. Their heads can tilt sideways and up and down a bit.

Their arms can move out to the sides as well as up and down.

Their legs, however, can only move back and forth. They do have click bend knees though.

All the dolls in the series were depictions of the characters from the part of the movie where they jump into one of 'Bert's' chalk drawings and end up in an animated world, where they race on carousel horses. The dolls were all packaged riding cartoon carousel horses.
 

It would have been great if they had come on three dimensional horses, but alas, these are only thin cardboard.
 

It looks a little different from the side!

Jane and Michael are about 8" tall.

Their costumes are fairy movie accurate.

  As we saw yesterday, these dolls weren't the first depictions of Jane and Michael in doll form. In the 1960's Horsman produced dolls of Jane and Michael.

 

In the original "Mary Poppins" movie 'Jane' was played by Karen Dotrice.

 

Karen was born into an acting family. Her father was Roy Dotrice, a well known actor whose last appearance was in 'Game of Thrones'.

 

Her mother was Kay Dotrice,an actress known for her stage work, as well as TV and movies. Even Karen's siblings are actors. Her sister Michele Dotrice is a busy working actor today, and her sister Yvette was active mainly in the 70's and 80's.
  Karen herself appeared in three Disney films. The year before 'Mary Poppins' she appeared in The Three Lives of Thomesina. In 1967 she appeared in The Gnome-Mobile. She also appeared on "Upstairs Downstairs". Since 1982 she has only appeared on a few episodes of "Young Blades",and in a cameo role in the new movie, "Mary Poppins Returns".

Karen with Lin Manuel Miranda on the set of "Mary Poppins Returns".

  The character of Jane Banks is played by Emily Mortimer in the new film. 
  Michael Banks was played by Mathew Garber. Michael only made three movies, all of them for Disney,and all three with Karen Dotrice, and two of them as her brother.

 

Sadly, Matthew died from pancreatitis at the age of 21 after reportedly catching hepatitis in India, which spread to his pancreas. 

   Come back tomorrow for another 'Mary Poppins' doll.

Happy Mother's Day!

  I hope all you moms out there are having a happy Mother's Day. I'm spending the day with my girls. We went to Ivy's Senior Awards night this past week,and it really hit home that she'll be going away to college soon. I cried on and off the whole evening afterward!

Dolly World and some of her kids wish you all a Happy Mother's Day!

Doll-A-Day 2017 #353: Todd and More Sweaters

  Today we're going to look at this little guy.

He's Todd.

But you may have seen him on the blog before as Simon World.

Todd was the twin brother of Stacie,the little sister of Barbie.

Todd first showed up in the Midge Wedding  Party set in 1991, as the ring bearer. He was also part of a two pack from the Wedding series, 'Wedding Day Kelly and Todd', along with a doll called 'Kelly',who used the same face and body sculpt as Todd. That was the only 'Kelly' doll of that size. The next time we saw a Barbie sister doll of that size,she had a new head sculpt and her name was Stacie. Todd didn't show up again until 1993.
 

Todd was sold as a single doll, and in a few gift sets with Stacie and Barbie.

There were also a few African American Todds.You can see my African American Todd having fun at the World family's Halloween party HERE.

Todd was only made for two years. That's disappointing, because he is a cute little fellow.
 

I love his hair!

His sculpt was finally used again in 2008,when he appeared as Michael in the Mary Poppins Banks kids set.Like Todd's sweater? I happened upon these Christmas ornaments at Target recently while I was supposed to be Christmas shopping for other people!

I couldn't resist because the sweater seemed like it would be removable, and it was the perfect size for Todd! It was a bit of a pain to get on him, since his fingers kept getting caught in the weave,but he looks pretty good in it.

It was only glued,lightly, at the waist. It pulled off fairly easily. the poor reindeer was revealed to only have a body made of a rolled sheet of foam,and pipe cleaner arms with glued on felt hands. There are a couple of different patterns to the sweaters on these ornaments. There is extra variety though because the print falls in different places on the sweaters too. (They must be made from large bolts of the woven stuff.) This sweater was the best one I found,with a nice, even print.
  See you tomorrow for another doll.

Every Day Is Earth Day

It matters every day, not just once a year. Live Earth Day every day of the year if you want to make a difference.

Happy Earth Every Day, from The World Family and me.

Doll-A-Day 244:Red Heads Week: Todd

  Today's Red Heads Week doll is Todd.

   Todd was introduced in 1966, as Barbie's little brother. He had been preceded in 1966 by Tutti, who was supposed to be his twin.

 

Red hair and brown eyes, and NO freckles! A doll I can relate to! This is the doll I originally wanted to make my son Fuzzy's doll of himself out of.He also has that combination.

Tutti and Todd were sold together in  the Sundae Treat gift set.They wore matching outfits, with Todd in a red and white striped jacket that matched Tutti's dress. They both wore blue shorts. Todd wore a white shirt, blue knee socks and blue shoes, while Tutti also wore white anklets and red Mary Janes. 

While Tutti and Todd both had red hair in the gift set, Todd had brown eyes instead of blue, like Tutti. Tutti also came separately and in other sets as a blonde or brunette version, (And one other red haired version, the Night Night Sleep Tight bedroom set.), while Todd only came as a red head.

 Todd is just over 6" tall.

Todd was sold his second year in this outfit, with the addition of blue socks and red shoes.The Sundae Treat version of Todd usually has longer, thicker hair and blushy cheeks.

Todd disappeared after 1968, and the rest of the Tutti line was gone after 1971,except in Canada and Europe, where the line continued  until 1980.

The soft rubber dolls with copper wire inside, to allow for posing, were considered too dangerous to continue the line. The wires often poked through the rubber of the American dolls. The European dolls were made of heavier rubber. The wires in the American dolls also cause greening of the rubber, or they rust and turn the heads a nasty yellow, or even brown. The European dolls don't seem to suffer from these problems, at least in my experience.

 While American Todd only came as a red head, European Todd came as a red head or a brunette. Also, unlike U.S. Todd, Euro Todd was accompanied by a full wardrobe sold just for him. Euro Todd's red hair is also darker than this guy's hair. Check out Doll-A-Day 161 for a look at my European Todd.

Mattel again produced a doll named 'Todd' beginning in 1991. That version of Todd was taller,with brown fuzzy hair. It's also not clear who he was meant to be related to. He appeared in the Midge and Alan wedding gift set, as ring bearer. The flower girl was a one off girl named 'Kelly', made from the Stacie mold. After the wedding set 'Kelly' was changed to Barbie's sister 'Stacie', and 'Todd' was her twin brother. The name 'Kelly' cropped up again soon after, attached to Barbie's baby sister. The last 'Todd' from the 1991 mold was produced in 2008, as part of the Mary Poppins kids set. They were supposed to be 'Stacie and Todd as Jane and Michael Banks'.

As I mentioned before, I was never crazy about my red hair. I don't remember having a problem with it until I started school.At school everybody made fun of me, which made me defensive, but also I think I began to feel that maybe this hair wasn't so hot after all.(Except literally. Being out in the sun with this hair is like wearing a copper pot on your head.)

  I have noticed with my two red haired children that kids don't tease red haired kids much anymore. Neither of them have ever had a problem.(Now of course there's the Ginger prejudice, but we've never run into it.) But I was tormented. Kids used to give me the "I'd rather be dead than red on the head.", which I countered with, "I'd rather be a red head than a dead head." I was short (Was?) and so in second grade I was chosen to play one of the turkeys in the Thanksgiving Mother's Club program. I had to wear red tights and a burlap costume covered with tissue paper feathers and sing "Five Fat Turkeys Are We". The kids called me Red Headed Turkey. It stuck, and occasionally somebody would call me that from then on. By 6th grade, kids who hadn't even gone to our school in second grade were calling me that. Kids used to smirk, "Whoever heard of a red headed turkey?!" The stupidity of these kids floored me."Whoever heard of a turkey with ANY hair colour?! Turkeys don't HAVE hair!" As I said, I got defensive. I became the girl who would kick you if you picked on her, and often used the defensive approach of picking on somebody else before they could do it to me.That thing about red heads having a bad temper is another myth that works out with me, anyway, as well as my dad and my son Fuzzy. (Actually, I read something years ago about bad temper being caused by the same gene that causes red hair. The scientist even went so far as to say that the legendary bad temper of Vikings was accounted for 'by the high incidence of red heads amongst them'.) The joke around here is that I was Helga from "Hey Arnold" when I was a kid. The kids think it's hilarious that I identify with Helga so much, but actually, it's rather pathetic! If you pay attention to the show, Helga is actually a really sad character.

  

Helga should have been a red head.

 The scene where all the boys surrounded Helga and chanted "Helga's not a girl!" always makes me cry because it hits way too close to home.
   Every now and then Mom would let me grow my hair long enough to wear it in a ponytail. 
 

First grade, with ponytail.

But then she'd get worried about all the hair the rubber bands she used on it were pulling out and how thin it seemed to be getting, so she'd chop it all off. I spent most of my childhood with a Pixie cut.

Hey fifth grade Tam, the Partridge Family called. They want their outfit back.

   Only old ladies seemed to like my hair. Once a lady with very obviously dyed hair patted me on the head, (Infringing on my personal space!! Don't touch me!) and said "What nice kind of red hair." (I was thinking,Whatta ya mean KIND OF RED?) It didn't help that my hair was stick straight. My mom always wanted her girls, (She really wanted a boy!) to have curly hair. She used to give my sister baby permanents,(Luckily they don't have those anymore.), and she tried to curl our hair for picture day at school. Our hair never really held a curl.(My sister has brown hair, but she too has the same baby fine hair as our dad.) By picture time my hair was always in stringy looking dead waves because the curl had died.Finally Mom gave up trying.

Fourth grade. See what I mean? I slept in curlers all night for this?!

  So I had sort of a weird relationship with my hair. Some people loved it, which was nice, but the kids I was surrounded by for 5 days a week, nine months of the year,spent their time trying to convince me how awful it was. Eventually I began to realize though, that my hair was my only 'asset'. It was the only thing people really noticed. It was at least unique, and some people did covet it. In high school I started letting it grow. I grew it long.

Quite a while after high school: age 23. Up a roll of straw, Yorkshire, 1985.

REALLY long. My sister had a framed print of Waterhouse's Lady of Shalott which she used to say was 'me'. "She has your hair and she looks all miserable."

I had always wanted to look like old movie star Hedy Lamarr, with her delicate features and black hair.

Not in this lifetime!

 Oh well. I guess that look would have required alot of make-up and attention anyway, and I'm not big on maintenance. Well, if I can't look like Hedy Lamarr, my next choice was singer Kate Bush.

"Lionheart" Kate.

That was at least slightly more attainable. She usually had her hair various shades of red or auburn, so I had a start already. (I don't do hairdos, so dying the hair and trying to do a 'do' was never going to be involved.) Plus we both have brown eyes. (Hey, I'm clutching at straws here.) In my early twenties I used to braid it at night to get that 'Lionheart' crimped look the next day.
 

I slept all night in a million braids for this? Oh yeah! Now this hair is more like it!

I tried having the crimped look permed in, but that didn't work very well.Then I started getting perms which started out as tight curls but soon turned into a more loose curl. 

Somewhere in the 80's in my 1930's dress. This perm was on it's way out.

Look at that nose. This is one of the few real sunburns I ever had in my life.Ken and I, (Here, not long before we got married in 1989.), had spent a week or two taking my friend Cheryl, who was visiting from England, to as many interesting places as we could. I got A LOT of sun.This perm has a bit more time left on it.

Now days,we're both older and...uhhh...bigger, and Kate Bush looks like my sister!

And I kind of look like my sister,so I guess, in a way, I finally obtained my wish. Except, this wasn't the way I wanted to do it!
  Now that I'm in my fifties my hair has dulled out, and now is a darker colour  and looks almost brown in some light. 
 

Eww. 'Old' me.

(The bottom is about the colour of Ivy's).I've actually had people ask me where the kids got their red hair! That was kind of weird for me. My hair was always a big part of my 'identity', and it was strange to realize I was different now. Kind of like finding out your parents aren't really your parents or something.
  Join us tomorrow for the last day of Red Heads Week.