Play Sets: Barbie Wizard of Oz Emerald City Playset

  Happy Halloween! Our state said no trick or treating because of the virus, but our town did it anyway. I chose to go along with the state and not hand out candy.

  Last month I totally missed the end of the month and didn't do a playset. I have had a post ready for ages, but Ivy came home and forbid any digging in her newly straightened closet because it gives her anxiety. That meant I haven't been able to get in her closet and get out the playset I had the post ready for, to photograph it. Well, I give up. I'm doing the post this month with stock photos, and some photos of the playset I used before to show you some of Ivy's Oz dolls. I should have photographed the whole playset then, but I was trying to get Ivy's room done before she came home, so I didn't take the time.

  So, this month's play set is this one. It's the Barbie Wizard of Oz Emerald City Playset.(Now that's a mouthful!)

It was sold in 2000. Ivy wanted this set, and she had the Barbie as Dorothy talking doll to go with it. No dolls came with the set. The set did come with a plastic Emerald City facade, which you may have seen in my post on the Wizard of Oz Kelly and Tommy dolls I came across while redoing Ivy's room last Fall. You can see that post HERE.

The doors really open. The "Bell out of order. Please knock." sign is a separate piece which hangs on a hook in the facade plastic.

It also came with a cardboard yellow brick road, which you might have seen in that post, and the posts I did on the Oz Munchkin Tommy dolls HERE, and HERE.

The 'road' was printed. along with some poppies and grass at the edges.

  Some small pieces came with the set, which was based on the "In the Merry Old Land of Oz" portion of the movie. (You can see that part of the movie HERE.) These included a hair brush, fake scissors, a perfume bottle, and an oil can. And of course Dorothy needs her salon chair to get her makeover. The chair comes in pieces and you have to put it together. In the movie the chair was actually a lighter, mint green. They did a pretty good job on the design though.

  The other big piece to the set is the Wizard's balloon. Included is a plastic balloon basket, with plastic 'ropes', and a real mylar balloon you can blow up.  

  The balloon basket can hold one doll. The irony here is, Dorothy never made the trip back to Kansas in the balloon, since Toto jumped out of her arms to chase a cat, and she jumped out of the balloon to follow him. The other irony of including the balloon is, the only major Oz character Mattel never made a doll of is The Wizard, who is the only character to actually ride in the balloon..
  There was a 1/6 scale Wizard doll to go with the other Oz dolls made by Multi Toys. He was hard to find though. I'm not sure he wasn't a Canada only release. I know he was excluded from the boxed set of Oz toys that Multitoys made. (That set included Dorothy and friends, and both witches.) I think I still have a Multitoys Wizard somewhere in my attic in our old doll show stuff. There was also a Wizard made by Hamilton Presents, for it's Oz line.

  Well, that's the playset for this month. Hopefully next month we'll see an actual in hand playset! See you tomorrow for the Doll Book of the Month Club.

Playsets: Cookie Topper's Cozy Kitchen

  I have to apologize for the lateness of this post. It was scheduled to go on while I was gone, but it didn't publish. So I'm publishing it by hand. My hand, as you can tell, is back home from Georgia, which I'll tell you about soon. I'll catch you up on the Doll Book of the Month Club tomorrow. But first, this month's play set is, I think, Topper's Cozy Kitchen.

   It looks very similar to the Deluxe Reading Dream Kitchen. (Click the link to see mine.) The colours and design are similar. There's a good reason for that. Topper and Deluxe Reading were the same company. Deluxe Reading was the parent company, and they sold toys under various names, including Deluxe Topper, Deluxe Toy Creations, Deluxe Reading, Topper Corp., Topper Toy Group, and Topper Toys.

It says Topper right there.

  There is one major difference between the Deluxe Reading Dream Kitchen and the Topper Cozy Kitchen though: size. The Deluxe Reading Dream Kitchen is 1/6 scale, or Barbie/Fashion doll size. The Topper Cozy Kitchen is tiny. It's more 1/12, or dollhouse scale. The pieces are 4 1/2 inches tall.

Cookin' Goodis Tutti, forsaking her own white stove for Cookie Topper's Cozy Kitchen. You can see Tutti with her own stove in my post, HERE.

  It makes a good play kitchen for Tutti, or a regular kitchen for dolls like Dolly Darlings or something else short. I'm pretty sure it would be too short for Dawn though. What confuses me is, I've seen it on line as Penny Brite's kitchen, and it's way too small for her. She's even bigger than Tutti. Besides that, Penny Brite had her own kitchen set. (Oddly enough, Dawn's Apartment used the same stove mold as  Penny's kitchen, even though Dawn was way too small for it. You can see my post on Dawn's Apartment, which also shows you Penny's kitchen, HERE.)
   Here's a picture of the Cozy Kitchen set in the box. As you can see, the set originally came with the stove, sink, fridge, a table and chairs, and  a chandelier.

You'll notice that the pieces aren't always the same colour, although the same colours are used in the set. 

    And who is 'Cookie Topper'? As you can see, it is called 'Cookie Topper's Cozy Kitchen'. I assume there was a doll called 'Cookie Topper'. I can't find anything on such a doll though. If you Google 'cookie topper' you get sprinkles and icing decorations for topping cookies!
  I bought this set second hand. I originally had the table too, (Mine was pink.), but it had gotten separated from the set. I didn't know what it went to, and it was broken. The corner was missing, and it only had three legs, so, in a rare moment of common sense about such things, I threw it out or put it in a bunch of things for donation.
   Unlike the Dream Kitchen, none of the doors open. They're just hollow plastic pieces.

   The 'chrome' is worn on all the pieces.

The stove top, (and sink top), is a solid piece, although it is a separate piece from the rest of the stove. 

The hole and piece of plastic on the upper shelves are where there used to be non-removable plastic plates, as you can see in the picture of the boxed set, above.

 That's the playset for the month. I'll see you back here tomorrow for the Doll Book of the Month Club.

Play Sets: Bounce House Sample

  Okay. I admit it. the play set for this month is a bit of a cheat, but also really cool. To preface a little bit, when Ivy was little she was really into Kelly dolls. Her favourite dolls to play with were 'Blue', a former Tommy, and her sister 'Rose', who was a Kelly, so most of the doll stuff bought for Ivy had to fit them. One Christmas I was searching for Kelly sized stuff on Ebay when I came across today's 'playset'. I don't remember what I searched to find it, and I've never seen another one. It was perfectly Kelly sized though, so I bought it for Ivy.

Modeled for size here by Gareth World.

  It's a perfect little bounce house.

 I always thought it might have been a salesman's sample. In looking on Ebay I see that there's a miniature Spiderman bounce house in the  'Sold' listings, that calls it a 'miniature store display'. I don't see bounce houses being sold in stores, so...? It's labeled 'Action Air'  ,which is a company that makes full size bounce houses.

  The bounce house is made almost just like a real one. The major difference is that instead of inflating, it's filled with foam. There's a zipper on the bottom.

There's a warning on the front. It's obviously meant to show that there's a label on the real one, but this tiny one isn't very legible.

The opening to the bounce section has a Velcro closure.

The sides are mesh, just like a real bounce house.  I'll tell you a story of what happened to child Fuzzy in a bouncy castle once, but not until the end of this post.

 There's a narrow section in the middle for kids to climb from the bounce section to the slide section.

The tunnel emerges at the top of the slide.

And there's the slide. 

I'm not sure what originally attached to the Velcro strip on the slide. Any ideas?

There are padded posts at the bottom of the slide.

  Okay. now for that story about what happened to little Fuzzy in the bouncy house at a kids event thing. Fuzzy, along with a bunch of other kids we didn't know, was bouncing in a bouncy castle, way back when the kids were small. Fuzz must have been about 10 or younger. All the kids were bouncing and having a good time. All of a sudden, the inflating device conked out, and someone screamed for all the kids to get out of the castle. The kids shot for the exit. Fuzz was knocked down by the herd of panicked kids. Unable to get up with all the kids trying to run out, (because the floor was squashy, and getting more so by the second as the air fizzed out of the castle.),  Fuzz rolled around, trying to get up. I was panicking too, because my kid had suddenly disappeared. I couldn't get in to Fuzz until all the other kids were out of the way. Once they were,  I dived inside, only to find Fuzz nearly vanished in the quickly deflating bouncy castle's floor. You see, Fuzz had not been able to get up, and had rolled into the crack between the floor and the wall. If I hadn't been such a paranoid mom that I stood and watched Fuzz bounce to make sure he didn't get abducted, things could have ended tragically. Once that castle deflated, the weight of it might have made it impossible for Fuzz to get out at all. Fuzz could have suffocated. I managed to pull Fuzz out of the crack and we got out. I'm not sure which of us were most scared by the whole thing.

  So that's this month's playset. See you tomorrow for the Doll Book of the Month selection, and soon we'll see my recent Goodwill finds.

Play Sets: Bratz Rock Angelz Recording Studio

   I've been having trouble with my computer. For some reason it can't install the latest updates, and it's blocking something, which keeps it from being able to come on. I'm having to use Ken's computer for this. That will slow down my posts unless I get that fixed.
  The play set for this month is the Bratz Rock Angelz Recording Studio.

The studio has a built in mixing board on the outside .

'On Air'? Is this a recording studio,or a radio station?

The recording studio goes to the series of Bratz RockAngelz dolls.

There's a door on the side so the dolls can enter the booth.

The recording studio was sold with and without a doll.

There's a microphone hanging inside the booth.

The booth is lined with speakers.

This is another shot of the inside of the booth.

Since the recording Studio is made for Bratz dolls,it's a little short for most 1/6 scale dolls,like Barbie. It looks alright on the outside, but it too small for them to stand up in. Twelve inch Paul decided that since he knows so much about recording, he would demonstrate Here he is showing how the door is too short for him.

He still needs some shoes. He's been crossingAbbey Road all day.

 But the booth is tall enough on the inside for him to stand up in. The microphone is too low though.

It was sold in 2005.

The set as it looked in box.

  The set originally came with a microphone for the child, that recorded and played back brief pieces,what appears to be a doll sized margarita glass, glass of orange juice, and two bottles of 'water',and a head set for the doll.
  Surprisingly, the recording studio didn't come with anything else that would be useful for recording a song,like,say, guitars for the dolls or any other instruments. Those things were saved for other sets that were available separately.
 

  Those sets included a stage set ,a drum and keyboard set, and guitars. (There was even a tour bus play set.) There were quite a few Rock Angelz dolls sold, who came with guitars,or a stand microphone. There was even a two doll set that came with a guitar and a keyboard.
  You can see the original commercial for the recording studio HERE.
   That's the play set for the month.See you tomorrow for the Doll Book of the Month Club.