Throwback Thursday review: three Furga dolls

Last week I discussed two little Furga dolls, Eva in an Apple and Gia/Cacio in a Pear.  They're very nice little dolls, but I didn't think they represented a full range of what Furga had to offer.  Furga is an old company and has spanned the bisque era clean on up to the modern day.  I'll go ahead and admit that even now I don't have a good range of Furga dolls since all three of my new ones are vinyl, and since all three of them are little girl dolls.  But in terms of aesthetics I did...well, fairly well.  From left, their names are Columba, Caroline, and Vincenza.

Columba...that name sounds like one of Bart Simpson's catchphrases.  I've seen several dolls online that look like Columba, leading me to think that she was one of their more popular models.  However, a friend on Failbook says she's on the rare side, so I don't know.  By contrast, Vincenza and Caroline appear to be either not as popular or not as common, because I've yet to find any other dolls like them.  Caroline is particularly distinctive due to her expression.

Regarding the names "Columba" and "Caroline" are names that said Failbook friend said the dolls came with.  She's armed with a book, so I guess she'd know.  The smallest doll proved to be something of a puzzle for her, so I named her "Vincenza."  There's gonna be a lot to discuss about these three, so put on your SCUBA gear and let's dive in.

HAIR

Columba's hair is the main reason why I wanted her.  Furga didn't go half-a$$ed with their red hair; every single one I've seen has this beautiful carrot red shade.  For the record, a lot of Paola Reina's redheads also utilize this lovely shade.  I'll discuss why that's relevant at the end of this post.

I'll be joining the Tenth Doctor and the Eleventh Doctor in eating hearts out, as all three of us envy red hair.  Anne Shirley, on the other hand, hated hers, as did two of my red-haired schoolmates.  It probably didn't help that both kids and adults teased Anne and my friends nonstop about it...and Tam, didn't you once say that folks gave you a hard time too???  Either way I digress.  When I unboxed Columba the hair actually made a bad first impression on me, because while the color is beautiful, the top of the style is very, very stiff.

Even weirder, only the top of the hair is stiff.  The braids are pliant when I manipulate them.

Only one cause for that!  The top part of Columba's hair has been gelled into submission, for reasons that I'll never know.  As a result the top part of her hair holds in short little curls and waves, especially on her forehead.  That center curl is...y'all ready for this???  It's GLUED in place!

I like this overall effect, but copious hair gel catches dust over time, so being able to brush it out a bit would've been nice.  Interestingly, most of Columba's hair is short like this.  See how most of it ends at her neckline?

Columba's hair is so gelled that I can't say much about rooting, but her forehead appears to be gappy like Eva's and Gia's, while her part is very tightly rooted.

I couldn't get a decent picture of this part, but for some reason Columba's braids are rooted much thicker than the rest of her hair.  I also want to note the ends of the braids; since Columba is vintage the rubber bands should be falling apart...except that there are no rubber bands.  Thank God, the ends of her braids appear to be sewn and glued.  With little white daisies, no less!  Daisies recently factored into an ant-themed game I'm currently playing, so this made me giggle a little.

With hair that's decidedly NOT kid-friendly, I wonder if Columba was one of those "dresser dolls," one that stood there on a shelf or a dresser and looked pretty, like this Clodrey doll did.  While the hair certainly isn't meant for play, it's definitely eye-catching!  By contrast, Caroline's hair is pretty drab.  She's got short dark brown hair.

I used to wear my hair like this, back before my hair decided that it wanted to be curly.  Not curly enuff to be pretty, mind y'all, but curly enuff that my hair looked terrible when I wore it short.  In a similar manner Caroline is not immune to her own bad hair days.  I suspect that she spent a fair amount of time on her back before she came to me, because her hair is squashed flat in the back.  I can thus see her roots.

Look on the bright side, Moon Girl:  no hair gel, no glue.  I mean, Caroline's hair did have a few flakes in it when I first got her, but they brushed out with no fuss.  She's got a tiny bit of curl in her hair, just enuff to make a bob look cute.

The root job on the crown of Caroline's head is...interesting.  Instead of being in rows, it's done in concentric rings, almost like that center tuft of hair was meant to grow.

For the record, Caroline's hair does not grow.  I tugged on it, and it doesn't grow.  She doesn't have any hardware in her back for such a gimmick anyway, so I should've known.  This rooting does make styling Caroline's bangs a chore, though.  Overall Caroline's hair isn't as eye-catching as Columba's, but it's a lot easier to handle and it's much softer to the touch.

Vincenza has short, dark hair like Caroline does, but it's longer and darker, kinda like my mother's used to be.  It falls just past her shoulders and is curled up slightly at the ends.

Like Columba, portions of Vincenza's bangs are glued to her forehead.  I had thought that Columba was just a one-off, but apparently this is semi-common for Furga dolls, because Tam's Teresa had/has her bangs glued in place too.  

Weeeeeeeeird.  I've run into glue-filled heads before, but not doll hair that was glued to hold a style.  ANYWAY, Vincenza's hair is more kid-friendly than Columba's but less so than Caroline's.  Even though her hair has a center part, she still came with a pink flowered clip.  Usually I utilize clips like this on dolls with side parts.

The clip is cute, but it unfortunately has left a sizeable indentation in Vincenza's hair

I'm not terribly impressed with the rooting, but it's not terrible.  Pigtails would be a bad idea for Vincenza, as they would be with a lot of my dolls.

In all Columba wins the aesthetic category, and Caroline wins the "kid-friendly" category.  Her hair is also the softest to the touch.  I've heard stories of dark-haired Furga dolls losing their hair with time, but so far Caroline and Vincenza are

FACE
The faces are what initially drew me to Furga dolls.  They all are different, and yet...and yet one can tell they're Furga dolls by looking at them.  I don't think Columba is the prettiest of my dolls in the face, but my mom loves her.

Oh, she's certainly not ugly!  She's just not my favorite Furga face.  The eBay seller says she's hand-painted, but I'm not sure I buy that either.  Whatevs, it's not like I paid a ridiculous amount of money for her, like I would've for a hand-painted Barbie.  So first things first!  Columba has light brown eyes with the long eyelashes that Furga seems to love.

Seriously, these dolls always have thick lashes, and sometimes their lashes can be kinda crazy (examples HERE and HERE).  Columba's eye sockets are set at a slight angle, giving her an ever-so-slightly PO'd look that is thankfully mitigated by delicately painted eyebrows.  I gotta admit, those eyebrows do look hand-painted...or the one that's visible does.  As I noted above Columba's bangs are glued in place, and one of those places is right over her eyebrow.  Bummeroo.

A quick reread of some of Tam's posts reveals that other Furga dolls had their hair glued down too, so Columba, Vincenza, and Teresa aren't alone in that dinghy.  I don't guess I'll ask any more questions, but it still seems kinda weird to do that to toys.  Quick note, Tam:  you covet my Sandy, and I covet both Teresa and Georgette.  Find another of my dolls to covet and we'll be even, LOL.

Regarding the lower half of the face, Columba has the pug nose that all (repeat ALL) of my Furga dolls have (the nostrils are highlighted, and the highlights are off-center), blushed cheeks, and a kissy, cupid's bow mouth.

I love that lip paint!  It's got a slightly lipsticky look to it, but not enuff to bother me.  I also love the shape of this mouth; Columba looks like she's either about to speak or about to blow someone a kiss.  Kissy lips can be tricky to mold without looking comical, and this head did it pretty darn well.  And get this:  Furga used kissy molds like this for a lot of their dolls.  Hmmm...remind me again why I said this doll wasn't the prettiest of my dolls?  Okay, I've probably got 'em that are prettier, but I do like Columba's face.  Maybe not as much as that lovely red hair, but I do like it.  The brown eyes, the handpainted eyebrows, and the coral lip paint sell it for me.

Now...while Columba's hair was the attribute that landed her in my cart, Caroline's face was what won me over.  Girlfriend looks ticked.

This is what I meant when I said that Eva and Gia weren't representative of all Furga dolls.  Granted, most of these dolls do smile, but they're also fully capable of looking sad or peeved or neutral, just as Paola Reina dolls are.  I kinda like the little sad ones, by the way; they're the type that I want to scoop up and hug.  Right, then!  Once again, let's start with eyes.  Caroline's eBay seller says her eyes have faded from some other color, but at the moment these eyes are smoke gray.  They have the aforementioned Furga lashes.

In this case the eyewells are set straight and the eyebrows are what gives Caroline her 'tude.  The brows are delicate, but they are not hand-painted like Columba's are.  The eyes themselves look like they may have been brown like Columba's at one time.  See how this eye is showing a tiny bit of color?

No biggie, I happen to love gray eyes.  I like all eye colors, but gray and green are my favorites because they don't turn up as often on people or dolls.  For the record, I've yet to see a Furga doll with green eyes, unless Teresa's eyes are green (I think they are).

Moving down, Caroline has the Furga nose and a mouth that is...decidedly not like other Furga mouths.

Kinda looks like how I felt on Tuesday morning.  You know how some days you wake up and you're just not having it?  Yeah, that was me.  I wanted everyone, my mom, my favorite patron, the annoying kid that wanted to run in circles, to leave me the eff alone...but I sucked it up and my mood improved.  None of the kids actually were that obnoxious, but my point still stands.  LOL, poor Caroline looks like she did have some kid run circles around her, to the point that she wanted to slap them.

As for Vincenza, she looks the most like your stereotypical Furga doll.  She certainly doesn't look like she wants to slap someone.

Blue eyes?  Check, though they have a zig-zag pattern like Caroline's and Columba's, rather than the pixels that Gia and Eva have.  They're also turquoise-colored rather than sapphire-colored.

Long eyelashes?  Check.  So far Eva is the only one of these dolls who can't close her eyes.

Pug nose?  Check.  Rosebud mouth with neutral coloring?  Check, and it doesn't look as lipsticky as Colomba's mouth does.  Like Columba, Vincenza has a little color on her cheeks.

I love her little dimpled chin!  She does have some groad that I need to clean off, par for the course if this doll is as old as I think she may be.  I'm unsure of the ages of all my Furga dolls, by the way...except for one...

BODY

The body reviews got off to a weird start, when I fumbled for a snap at Columba's collar and discovered that she can't be undressed.  Oh, there's a snap at her neck, but as we'll soon see her collar can't come undone.  This reinforces my belief that Columba is a dresser doll.

"HOO-RAYYYYYYY!!!  I don't have to strip!"

No, you don't have to get all the way undressed, but there are a few things I wanna point out.  Firstly, Columba has a hollowed circle in her back.  This hollow has no purpose that I know of, but it's there and I know that some but not all other Furga dolls have it.

Secondly, Columba's balance is terrible.  It's hard to tell in this picture, but Columba always leans to her right a teensy bit and has a very hard time standing on her own.  I can relate.  The poor love can't even lean against the box and pretend she's standing straight. 

Admittedly, Columba's white boots don't help much.  They're soft-soled and have no support.

Lastly, dig these fingernails!

Columba may not be the most graceful of my dolls, but she's certainly well-groomed!  As we'll soon see, not all Furga dolls have painted nails.

Now Caroline, I can undress.  She's none too amused, but...well, tough titties, girlie.  Caroline is a younger child than Columba and has the chubby, soft build to match.

Right off the bat it's obvious that Caroline's posture is also horrendous, but what attracted my attention was this thing above her butt crack.

A whistle.  A WHISTLE?!?!?!  Why on Earth would a doll have a whistle in her butt, unless her maker wanted her to fart???  LOL, I know, I know, she's probably supposed to squeak when she's squeezed.  Luckily for my mother Caroline DOESN'T squeak, but her abdomen is soft enuff to be squeezed. 

In other news, Caroline's ability to stand on her own is worse than Columba's.  Like Columba, she always leans to her right, but in this case I can clearly see the reason why.  Her left leg is longer than the other, so when I do manage to get her standing, she leans to her right.  Most of the time she just falls over.  The difference in length isn't even that big a difference!

But it's enuff to throw poor Caroline off balance.  She's got cute little feet, though.  The molding here is very good, with well-defined toes and toenails.  She does not have nail polish.

I'm just going to go up from here, LOL.  Sort of a reverse of my usual body review.  Caroline doesn't have a lot of definition on her knees, but she does have a few dimples visible.

Her arms are molded in a similar manner.  The elbows have shallow little dimples, while the hands are well-molded.

Here's a better look at the hands; they've got nails and knuckes and everything, but like the toenails the fingernails are not painted.

I would say that Caroline is a hair young for painted nails, but I personally knew a one-year-old who loved having her nails painted.  I'd compliment her and she'd point at her mother and say "Mommy!"  LOL, it was her way of saying "Mommy did it for me."  Sigh...that baby isn't a baby anymore.  She was/is my preacher's daughter and she grew into a fine young lady.  I wish her all the best.

Back on track now, Vincenza is the shortest of the trio, at eleven inches.

She is the only one of my Furga dolls who can stand on her own.  Even Eva can't stand, because her heavy hair pulls her back.  That said, Vincenza's posture still kinda, sorta sucks.  I call this her rooster stance, because she looks like she's fixing to crow.

"COCK-A-DOODLE-DOOOO!!!"

Yep, just like that!  For the record, I love roosters, but I don't want my little dollies to look like one!  I guess it's a small price for pay for decent balance.  Regarding body composition, Vincenza has plastic legs and a plastic torso like Columba does, with a vinyl head and vinyl arms.  That makes Caroline my oddball of this trio, as she's all-vinyl.  Anyway, Vincenza has painted nails just like Columba does, and like Caroline doesn't.  I wonder what determined which dolls got painted nails?

In contrast to the rest of her body, Vincenza's legs are made of hard plastic.  See the seams?  They're not too long, but they're fairly rough.  Otherwise Vincenza's legs are just the same as Caroline's, same toes and everything.  Interestingly, her toenails are not painted.

Y'all might've noticed that I haven't yet talked about how well these dolls can move, and that's because they move like Eva and Gia do.  So far I've not met a Furga doll that didn't have more than five simple rotational joints, and my group today is no exception.  They can turn their heads but not tip them...

...they can sit and stand...

...and they can move their arms all the way around.  

That's it.  Granted, that's all a child's toy really needs, but I kinda, sorta wish these kids could at least look up and down.  

CLOTHES

Clothes...hmmm, reviewing clothes isn't going to be easy.  Columba can't come out of her clothes, and Caroline's clothes don't look original.  Or at least I don't think Caroline's dress is original.  I doubt it, because none of the Furga dresses I've found do this!

I know for a fact that Caroline's diaper is not original, because I put that on her myself.  That came in a box of doll clothes that I got last summer.  As for Vincenza, her clothes do come off, and they fit her too perfectly to not be original.  She has a little dress with attached panties, and some shoes.

The dress fits Vincenza to the skin, so I had a little trouble undressing her.  She's wearing...what else but pink???  The pink is broken up a bit with a little lace around the collar, but boy do I have trouble getting that collar to lie down!  When it DOES lie down it's roughly oval-shaped.

The pink material feels like fleece or some similar fabric, and the armholes are not hemmed, just like Eva's sleeves.

The skirt feels like polyester.  It's white with pleats and cute little flowers, and the hem is trimmed with more lace.

The panties are attached underneath, and they're made of this same floral fabric.  

Inside the bodice I found a tag and turned it over, hoping to find Vincenza's real name...

...BOUNCING BABY???  The whole ensemble fits Vincenza like a glove, but it's definitely NOT her dress!  LOL, so much for this dress being original to Vincenza!  The shoes are little white vinyl shoes that I like a lot...

...but I don't think these are original to Vincenza either.  They're marked "USA".

Okay!  So Caroline and Vincenza are not wearing their original clothes, and I can't undress Columba completely.   However, I can give y'all a general idea of what her clothes are like.  I peeped underneath to look for loose ends.  There were two small ones on that yellow layer, but they don't show.

LOL, looks like the underside of a mushroom!  Columba's dress is largely made of eyelet, as are her cute little pantaloons, rendering that opaque yellow layer a necessity.  As much as I love eyelet, I don't think it's a good material for undergarments.  The eyelet on Columba's bodice is lined, but her pantaloons are not.

Breezy!  LOL, even though I can't get Columba's dress off, her dress can unsnap and her satin sash can be removed.  When Columba came in the mail her bow was in front, but as with my Geli doll I put the bow in back.

Rounding out Columba's ensemble are these cute white boots (sometimes this doll has yellow boots).  They look nice and are showing no signs of deterioration (they're pleather), but they don't come off and don't help Columba stand.

But overall I have to say I'm impressed!  Decorative dolls sometimes have flimsy or cheaply-made clothes, but Columba's outfit is substantial. 

This time I think I've got enuff material to do a good/bad section.

BAD
*Columba is not meant to be played with much.  Her hair is gelled into a helmet and glued down in places, and her clothes cannot be removed.  Vincenza's bangs are also glued down.
*Caroline's eyes have faded.  Not ugly-like, but enuff that it should be noted.
*The plastic in these dolls can be brittle.  That's not such an issue with Caroline, but with Columba and Vincenza it might be someday.  Let's just say that I know from personal experience, and NOT from Eva and Gia.

GOOD
*While Columba's hair is not well-suited to play with, it IS eye-catching.  Y'all know by now that I'm a sap for red hair.  I've heard of dark-haired Furga dolls losing their hair as time passes, but Caroline and Vincenza are well-endowed and show no sign of hair loss.
*I love these dolls' faces.  Columba's face is hand-painted, Caroline's shows some attitude, and all three of them have straight eyebrows and lips.  Not all mass-produced dolls do.
*I'm reserving special mention for these dolls' eyes; they're all different colors and they're all eye-catching.  Columba's brown eyes are my favorite.

*Uhhh, I just like these dolls???  They're kinda like the Paola Reina bunch; there's something for everyone.

It should be noted that all of these dolls are not created equal.  Columba appears to be a dresser decoration like some of my teenage companions were, while Caroline and Vincenza are clearly toys.  Caroline is especially a toy, because at one time she squeaked and items for adults don't usually squeak...unless one likes mice, LOL.  At the same time Caroline and Vincenza are diverse enuff to look nice in a large collection.  I don't really get why some of these dolls have glued hair, but it's not a problem that's exclusive to Columba and Vincenza.  Columba's clothes are nicely tailored and constructed well.  Overall Furga reminds me a little...no, a lot of the Paola Reina dolls that I love.  Both come in multiple sizes with pretty eyes, emotive faces, and a wide range of hair colors, and both are from European countries I've never seen and may never see.  Granted, I'd almost give my gimpy left leg to see La Sagrada Familia, but I'm not bettin' on it.  Anyway, both dolls come in a wide range of sizes as well, from Eva in an Apple and Mini Amigas on up to dolls like Teresa and Las Reinas de Paola.  They come in all eye and hair colors, though in Furga's case blue eyes do seem to be the norm.  As I said above, there's something for everyone in both lines.

Much love,
RagingMoon1987