Doll-A-Day 2023 #361: Boo Berry

  I'm not prejudiced. I feel the same about action figures as I do dolls. Let's face it, 'action figure' is a term that was only invented to sell GI Joes to boys. (Couldn't sell 'dolls' to boys, now could they?) So if you think this Boo Berry is an action figure, that's okay.

  He was only recently released, by Jada Toys.

  He comes in a little box that looks like a box of Boo berry cereal.

Okay, so the back of his box calls him an action figure. I don't mind.

  I had been wanting this guy, and Ken got him for me for Christmas. The name on his box feels sort of flocked. It's coated with glow in the dark stuff. I haven't gotten it to glow though.

The front of his box opens like a door. 

Boo Berry glows in the dark. At least, he's supposed to. I have had him under the light for ages, and he barely glows. He comes with a stand, and a little block of plastic that looks like a box of Boo Berry cereal. The box has glow stuff on it, like the front of the box. And the little box glows better than Boo Berry himself.

 

He's 3 1/2 inches tall.

  Here's a better look at his box background, with him out of the box.

  It's Franken Berry, Count Chocula, and Boo Berry. There also used to be a werewolf called Fruit Brute. Does anybody remember him? he must not be popular even with those nostalgic for the other three, because he never gets mentioned. There are figures of the other two from Jada Toys too though. But Boo Berry was always my favourite. I didn't eat the cereal very often, but I thought the character was cute, and he was fun to imitate, because he had that Peter Lorre voice.

  See how cute he is?

His arms and hands are posable. He's jointed at the shoulders and wrists.

  His mini cereal box is two sided.

  His stand is clear and when he's on it, it's supposed to look like he's floating.

  Boo Berry has a corresponding hole in the back to place him on the stand with.

In the dark, if he glowed properly, he'd look like he was floating in the air. I said if.

I mentioned how fun Boo Berry was to imitate, with his Peter Lorre voice. Everybody and his cousin does a Peter Lorre impression. (These days, maybe not so much. And if they do, they don't always know he was a real person.) Well, I did too when I was a kid. In fact, I got hit in the face with a dodge ball in elementary school because somebody asked me to do my Boo Berry impression for somebody else, and I did...paying no attention to the dodge ball heading for my face.

  Action figure or not, glow in the dark or not, he's a cute little guy and I'm glad to have him.

  Number 361! We're going to do it! Check out today's other posts, and stay with us for the end of the year and watch us hit 365!

Doll-A-Day 2023 #360: Pee Wee Herman 11" Doll

   This doll is one I had never seen until the doll show my sister and I went to back in August, I think. Her friend Georgia went with her, and I met them there. Georgia spotted this Pee Wee before I did, and bought him. My sister knew I really wanted him, so she bought him off Georgia, and gave him to me for Christmas. It was a double Pee Wee Christmas! (If you haven't seen the Pee Wee Herman doll my siter MADE for me for Christmas, you have to check out the post! )

  This Pee Wee is an unlicensed doll, I'm sure.

 He's still not a bad likeness .

 

He has a sticker on the bottom of his shoe that says made in Korea.

He has Pee Wee's unusual hair.

 

And that crooked mouth, and super pale complexion.

  The suit is a little off. The checks are really big. But not as big as those buttons!

His sleeves are appropriately short, and he does have his red bow tie.

He's got a hankie in his pocket, but black pocket flaps. That's not accurate.

He has the standard articulation: neck, shoulders, and hips.

I forgot, he has white socks and his white loafers. They don't have tassels, but they aren't bad.

 

  All in all I like this Pee Wee. He's the only sort of 'fashion doll' sized Pee Wee I've ever seen. And the flaws in his suit are fairly minor. I wish I had had this guy when the kids were little. It would have been fun to have had Pee Wee at Emma's yearly doll concerts, and I'm sure he could have added some fun stuff to the movie I made for the kids starring their favourite dolls.

 

  That's 360. Check out today's other posts. We're about to hit the end of the year.

Doll-A-Day #359: Chinese Sword Dance Doll

I love this doll. She's beautiful, and interesting. She's a doll representing Chinese sword dancing.

  She is actually from China, as her tag shows.

She has two swords, as they are Chinese hook swords, which are used as a pair.

 

Wikipedia says: "The hook sword, twin hooks, fu tao, hu tou gou (tiger head hook) or shuang gou (Chinese: 鈎 or 鉤; pinyin: Gōu) is a Chinese weapon traditionally associated with northern styles of Chinese martial arts and Wushu weapons routines, but now often practiced by southern styles as well."

  Click the Wikipedia link above to read the full article. There isn't much known for sure about hook swords. They may or may not have been used in the military, but probably not. They may be from this region or that.  They may be ancient, or more recent. Geez.

  Her pose, with one foot in the air behind her, is one typically seen in pictures of Chinese sword dances.

She is wearing a silk outfit, with top, trousers, and skirt.

There's a lot of decoration on her clothes. I'm not sure if it's painted, or decal of some sort.

 

She has little black shoes with white soles.

She's about 8 or 9 inches tall, and attached to a wooden base.

I'm not sure what her hair is made of. It's twisted into two buns and decorated with sqiggly gold thread.

It has a stitched part.

She kind of reminds me of Bernadette Peters.

She has a delicate little face, with soft sculpture features.

  Before I accidentally erased this whole post, (!!!), I had a link to a good site about Chinese sword dancing. Now I can't find it. It just doesn't show up when you search 'Chinese sword dance'. 

  Ivy and I both have some Chinese dolls with similarly made faces. In fact, this sword dance doll looks like an older version of THIS GIRL of Ivy's or  THIS GIRL. of mine. .They both have the same soft sculptured faces and hair made of the same stuff...whatever that is.

  359! We're nearly there! This may be the first Doll-A-Day to not miss any days at all! My sister keeps telling me I should just forget it and say, oh well. But I am so close to accomplishing what I said I was going to do, in spite of everything that happened this year. And I am going to do it! 

Doll-A-Day 2023 #358: Spunky

Spunky is a member of the Honeyhill Bunch, a series of small dolls that ran from 1976 to 1978. 

  The dolls came in a couple of sizes, with Spunky being one of the larger dolls, at 6 inches tall.

There seems to be some disagreement as to whether Spunky is a boy or a girl. The Honeyhill Bunch paper dolls seem to think he's a boy, as the girls are shown in one piece outfits that include a top, and the boys, which include Spunky and Solo, are shown in shorts/swim trunks only. Of course, L'il Kid is shown with no top, but wearing Mary Jane shoes, and the outfit include yellow pajamas, one outfit that looks baby boyish, (in fact, similar to Tiny Chatty Brother's clothes), one outfit with pink pants and a pink and white polka dot top, and one indistinct sailor suit. Sooooo...boy? or infant girl?

Spunky has cute freckles and a dimple.

The Honeyhill Bunch was made by Mattel, and they have typical Mattel faces of the era. In spite of the copyright on the tag, the series did start in 1976.

The dolls all have cloth bodies with vinyl heads and rooted hair.

Spunky has a funky fringed vest.

The kids all had an accessory too. Some of the accessories' were pets. Spunky's is a frog.

  The dolls have Velcro on one hand so they can hold their accessory, or hold hands with each other.

  Spunky's slogan, on his box, is "Nobody bothers me, 'cuz I'm tuff! See!" ('Tuff', but very bad with spelling and punctuation. See? Maybe Spunky could get some help with that from I.Q..)

  Check out today's other posts for more Honeyhill Bunch. We're going to hit 365 on time!