Throwback Thursday review: Emerald the Enchanting Witch

This little lady would've been good fodder for Halloween, but I didn't order her until October twenty-second, and her post never would've been ready in time even if she did arrive before Halloween (which she did, barely).  Anyway, this is Emerald the Enchanting Witch.

I never, never, NEVER dreamed I'd find an Emerald in this good of shape, as she's fairly hard to find.  Emerald is a member of a group that I like to call the "Odd Three," consisting of 1964's Peteena the Pampered Poodle (Hasbro), 1972's Blythe (Kenner) and Emerald, also a product of 1972.  Apparently none of them sold well, and they're all fairly hard to find nowadays.  I can see why Blythe was a flop (tomorrow we discuss that), but I think Peteena and Emerald were simply a little ahead of their time.  Indeed, I believe that today Emerald would have no trouble fitting in with scary-cute dolls like Monster High and Vampirina.  Emerald is unique in another way, as she is Milton Bradley's sole concession to the doll world.  Once upon a time Milton Bradley had a division called Girl's World, and they made toys that were themed for young females like Emerald and this styling head, because back then no one got all bent out of shape over toys that were marketed to a specific gender.  Anyway, Emerald was apparently released shortly before Milton Bradley chose to market games and nothing but games, so the doll's run was subsequently short.  So let's look at her now!  Emerald is six and a half inches tall tall without her hat.  I thought she'd be similar in height to Whimzee and to Lime Chiffon, and indeed she is similar.  But not the same; she's taller than both of them.

Whimzee and Lime are the only dolls I've got that are shorter than Emerald, though!  Here's how she compares to two of my more recently reviewed dolls, Aminta and Ginny.

It's no secret now that I love unusual hair on dolls, and Emerald does not disappoint.  Her hair is mint green and falls to her ankles in soft waves.

In typical seventies fashion, her hair is styled in a center part with no bangs.

The fibers feel like saran and are showing some signs of age.  Emerald's hair is not in as rough shape as Ginny's, but the ends are frizzy and may need a trim.

A light washing helped matters some, but I'll be taking extra care of this hair so it isn't damaged further.  The root job isn't great; it's thick around the hairline and the part, but the rest is sparsely rooted.

I really need to start painting my nails again, as much as my fingertips show in some of these pictures.  Anyway, I was considering a double braid to keep Emerald's hair out of the way, but that definitely will not work...not without that hat covering the exposed roots, anyway.  A single braid doesn't look great either.  We recently read a kiddie book at the library called Room on the Broom, which was about a witch who wears her hair in a single braid (among other things).  I liked the book (though not as much as A Bad Case of Stripes) and I hoped a single braid might work for Emerald.  No dice, as the style does not flatter her face.

It's good for right now though, since I need some clear pictures of Emerald's face.

This vinyl is a color that I'm not used to seeing, either on dolls or on witches.  Most of the witch dolls I'm familiar with are either human-colored like the Bratzillaz or green like Casta Fierce and Robert Tonner's Wicked Witch of the West dolls.  Emerald is lilac-colored (tomorrow's doll is shown for vinyl color comparison).

I have three other lilac-colored dolls, River Styxx, Operetta, and Twyla, and none of them are supposed to be witches.  River is a ghost (specifically the daughter of the Grim Reaper), Operetta is the daughter of the Phantom of the Opera (who wasn't really a monster), and my particular Twyla is from the Haunted line so she is both ghost and boogeyman (usually she's all boogeyman).

Emerald's closest skin match proved to be Operetta...

...but the closest overall match proved to be Twyla.  Both she and Emerald have purple skin, green hair, green eyes, and avant-garde eye makeup.

This is what I mean when I say that Emerald would've found her market, by the way.  She makes a cute companion for the spooky-chic Monster High dolls.

Now to the face.  Emerald sports green plastic inset eyes, which I assume is what earned her her name.  The eyes are highlighted with bright green winged eyeshadow and gold glitter, but no lashes or brows.  I wish she had little green eyebrows, because her lack of eyebrows makes that big forehead look even bigger.

Dolls and toys in the sixties and seventies were renowned for having gimmicks, and Emerald has one as well...or HAD one in my doll's case.  Normally if the owner put in fresh batteries and gently shook the doll, her eyes would flash green.  My Emerald does not have this function, to the apparent chagrin of the eBay seller.  She says she gave this doll a complete checkup and could not find out what was wrong, so I'm just going to live with it.  Emerald's eyes still sparkle like her namesake gemstone, so no huge biggie.  The eyeshadow is also noteworthy, as it's painted in a manner similar to the eyeshadow of Endora, antagonist of the then-popular TV show Bewitched.  Indeed, one of my fellow bloggers dubbed their Emerald "Endora" for that very reason!

Emerald has chubby little chipmunk cheeks, not terribly unlike the ones that I found a smidge annoying on Vogue Ginny dolls, but she makes up for it with a button nose and a dimpled smile.  Her lips are peach-colored, which looks odd against her lilac skin.  Darker purple might have worked better here.

For grins, here's what Emerald looks like in profile.  From this vantage point she bears a passing resemblance to Aminta, my older Ginny doll.

Truthfully, Emerald has several of the attributes that Ginny does (chubby cheeks, small nose, round face overall), but Emerald's jaws stick out more and her features are more cartoonish overall.  I like Emerald's face more than Aminta's, largely because I think Emerald has more personality than Ginny does.

Lastly, check out Emerald's ears!

They're small and simply molded, but they're also pointed!  I'm a sucker for pointed ears, a fact that I didn't know until I started looking at the Makies.  Every single Makie that I designed had pointed ears, as do several of my ball-jointed dolls.  It pleases me that Emerald has these ears, as very few playline dolls have them, ball-jointed dolls are expensive whether they have pointed ears or not, and Makies are sadly now defunct.  Alas, o Nocturne, I will never know you!  Notice that had I chosen to make Nocturne real, she would have had pointed ears barely visible under that hair.

Right then, back to Emerald.  Regarding this body, I've seen some unusual doll bodies in my time, and while Emerald doesn't take the cake she certainly does fit into the "unusual body" category.  She is the exact opposite of her Monster High cronies, being short and fat all over.

On her back is this battery compartment, used to make the eyes light up...if my doll's eyes actually DID light up, that is.  There are no old batteries in there, which is a good thing.

Emerald rattles when I pick her up, which I think has something to do with her gimmick.  When I peered inside her battery compartment I saw this thing swinging freely up and down through a little window in the compartment.

This rocks up and down like one of those hammer-things that one sees in certain scenes of Twister, and it took a long time for it to stop rocking.  I guess this thing has something to do with how the mech works.

Emerald's torso is unusually shaped, with a protruding belly and a bit of a tushie.  Also, I don't know if this means that Emerald was taken apart and put back together at one point in her life, but her lima bean-shaped torso is held together with a yellowing strip of glue.

Not a huge deal since her clothes cover this, but I thought it was worth mentioning.  Now to limbs.  Emerald has short, stubby legs and surprisingly long arms.  Her hands are nicely molded on the back, with a nail imprinted onto each stubby little finger, but her palms are smooth.

Emerald's legs are stubby and roughly cylindrical, with boxy, flat feet.  The feet have little molded toes and toenails, but otherwise they're average doll feet.

Emerald's jointing is average.  She can raise her arms, "walk" if propped up, and sit awkwardly...

...and she can turn her head from side to side.

About par for the course for a doll this size. 

Clothes don't always make the man, but they're usually what makes a witch doll a witch doll, and in this case they're the reason why I chose a doll with a non-functioning gimmick.  I can't tell y'all how many of these dolls I saw online that still had flashing eyes but were missing part or all of their outfit.  In this case I'm happy to trade a gimmick for clothes.

Emerald wears a simple black vinyl romper with matching boots and hat, and when I say simple I mean simple!  The romper is a short sleeveless number with a dab of silver ric-rac around the neckline.

Well okay, I lied, because this garment isn't entirely sleeveless.  Emerald has some black tulle ruffles that go all away around the neckline, though I think this could pass for more of a cape than sleeves.  The tulle is showing its age, unfortunately.

The back has a slit for an opening, and it's held closed by a single snap.

The hat is quite a bit like Lime Chiffon's hat in that it makes Emerald look taller than she really is.  It's about three inches tall and is your stereotypical witch's hat, peaked with a flat brim.

The brim got squashed a bit, something that I'll have to remedy.  Notice that one side of the brim curls up more when it's on Emerald's head.

The hat is made of the same material as the dress and has a chain of ric-rac around the base.  A small purple flower adorns the side, and it also got squashed.

When I got Lime Chiffon last spring I discovered her hat to be too soft to hold its shape without stuffing.  With my allergies going full tilt I just took a clean sheet of Kleenex and stuffed Lime's hat with that.  Emerald's hat will need no such stuffing, as this vinyl is thick enough to hold its shape.

Lastly, shoes.  Emerald wears black "boots" that come to her knee.

These are shaped nicely around the tops of Emerald's feet but otherwise are simple little black sacks of vinyl.  They are the only part of Emerald's outfit that are showing wear, in the form of a small scuff on the back of one shoe.

So there's not really much to this outfit, but what IS there is well-constructed and leaves no doubt as to Emerald's occupation.  A lot of doll companies fail to remember the KISS principle and subsequently deck out their dolls with outfits covered in so many bells and whistles that it either drives the price sky high, renders the doll impossible to play with, or becomes so gaudy that it's unsightly.  Thus I applaud Milton Bradley for trying their best to keep this doll simple and yet cute.  For those who weren't satisfied with Emerald's plain black dress, there were three extra outfits available, all appropriately colorful for the era and unsurprisingly hard to find.

Normally I try to get dolls that can share clothes with one another, so when I saw Emerald's build I knew that would be a tall order.  To my delight, Ravelry has a free knitting pattern for this young lady, one that I fully intend to take advantage of!  Big thanks to Funny Bunny for drafting it and to fitzcharming for sharing the link; stuff like this does not go unappreciated.  Unfortunately it still leaves me a bit hard up for clothes at the moment since I've gone through all my fine-gauge yarn.  Monster High clothes are way too small and Aminta's dress is too long, but I do have one other doll with a thick belly and short limbs.  Suzy Cute's clothes might fit Emerald.

Neither of these outfits are Emerald's style, but they fit.  The duck outfit fits better than the red snowsuit does; notice that the sleeves of the snowsuit are too long for Emerald's stubby little arms.  Both of these can work in a pinch, though.

Time to sum it up now.

BAD
*My doll's hair is in rough shape, though this isn't her fault
*Lip paint doesn't flatter her vinyl color
*Gimmick doesn't work, and apparently is not repairable at the moment
*Body is an odd shape that can't wear many other dolls' clothes

GOOD
*Concept was original for the time; witch and monster dolls are popular now, but back in the seventies they weren't that I know of.
*Eyes fit the "emerald" label well, despite not lighting up
*Doll is sturdy, except for that battery cover.  It pops off fairly easily.
*Clothes are simple and well-constructed, showing very little wear.
*Can share clothes with Suzy Cute

This doll is not everyone's cup of tea, I've learned.  I think she's adorable, but my mother finds her quite ugly.  However, she's worth the search for anyone who likes more macabre or spooky-themed dolls.  She's tricky to find in good shape, those that ARE in good shape are often sans parts of their outfits, and her light-up eyes don't usually work, but she's still worth the effort.  I enjoy having this goofy-looking little poppet along for the ride, particularly since she makes a good friend for tomorrow's doll.  Here's a sneak peak of tomorrow's doll.

Let me just say that I said I wouldn't do something and then did it anyway.

Much love,
RagingMoon1987