Throwback Thursday review: Vogue Ginny, Far Away Lands line

I'm going to start off by saying that there is a certain blogger who has been using my pictures (and the pictures of others) in her own blog without giving adequate credit or asking for permission.  Therefore, starting with this post I'm going to have to resort to using a watermark again.  I did this once back in the beginning, but that got awfully tedious so I stopped.  So if any of y'all start seeing what looks like writing on my pictures, don't think my doll got marked on.  It's just my lousy attempt at making a watermark.  That being said, I started this post clean back on June 7th.  I'd just wrapped up my post on Penny Brite, and at the end I wondered whether Vogue Ginny and Penny could share clothes.  The question led to an eBay visit, a visit led to browsing, and browsing led to the purchase of a doll that I didn't even know existed.  I was hoping for a naked or partially-clothed Ginny with which to experiment, but instead I found the Far Away Lands line, which dates from about 1966.  As y'all may or may not know, I'm a sucker for dolls representing other countries; indeed, I've reviewed several different lines in the distant and not-too-distant past (Midori, Kathleen, and Bozena are the ones I remember), so finding a new line thrilled me.  I was initially torn between the doll representing Germany (where a lot of my ancestors came from) and Scotland (because I love Scotland), but they were both outshone by a doll representing Israel.  Since this Ginny is quite a bit different from others that I've seen, I chose to rename her.  I chose the name "Aminta," which means "truth" or "friendship" in Hebrew.

I chose the Israeli doll over the German and Scots dolls for two reasons.  One, I'd NEVER seen a doll representing Israel before.  I've since learned that Effanbee also had a doll representing Israel, but I already have Bozena the Czech so I didn't get the Israeli Effanbee doll...not yet, anyway.  Two, I'm an outspoken Zionist in real life, to the point that I wear a Star of David around my neck alongside a Christian fish.  Why I didn't mention that in the discussion about Denise's new Hanukkah dress is beyond me, because that's a pretty important facet in my life.

Okay, so I have a Ginny doll...but did I really want to disrobe this young lady just to compare her to Penny Brite?  Well...not at first.  Aminta is suited for the job, no question, but I found her just a little too perfect to undress.  So back online I went, to find a less-than-perfect Ginny to muck around with.  This time Etsy came through with a TLC dolly.

Her name will remain "Ginny" since I don't yet have a doll with that name.  Well, okay, I do have two dolls named Jenny (the Takara doll and the Cupcake Surprise doll), but in both of those cases the name is spelled differently.  Ginny dolls were not produced by Vogue in the seventies; by then Tonka and Lesney had taken over.  Tonka Ginny dolls were chubby like their Vogue predecessors, but Lesney gave Ginny a rebuild, making her look taller and slimmer.  Thus why my two dolls are so different; Aminta is a Vogue doll, while Ginny is from Lesney.

That in turn may mean that Ginny can't wear the cute little dress I've bought for her, and it may also mean that I'll have to undress Aminta after all.  But I'll have to undress Aminta anyway to look at her body...and as usual I'm getting way ahead of myself.  Here's the dress, a yellow Vogue dress from the 1980's.

Since I've got two dolls of two different sizes from two different companies, I'm going to split this review into two.  Aminta gets her review today, and next week Ginny will get her turn.  First though, I'm going to attempt a history lesson.  From what I understand, Ginny was the It Doll before Barbie came along.  The earliest dolls date from 1951 (the year Mama was born!) and were done in hard plastic.  As the years passed Ginny was passed from one holding company to the next, sometimes changing and sometimes staying the same.  As the years passed she made the transition from hard plastic to vinyl, and from wigs to rooted hair.  During the 1960's she had a large family, consisting of an older sister (Jill) and a younger sister (Ginnette), two "friends-in-law" named Jeff and Jan (these were Jill's friends, hence the term "friends-in-law"), and several companions that weren't in the immediate family but were available at the same time.  There was also another set of "siblings" in a different scale, named Li'l Imp, Wee Imp (done in the same mold as Ginny), and Talky Tina Brikette.  To top it all off, there was a baby doll named Ginny Baby; she too was of a different scale than the original Ginny and was usually lumped in with Vogue's wide selection of other baby dolls.  Notice that in this picture Ginny Baby is wearing an outfit that looks eerily familiar; I wonder if that's an Ideal Kissy dress?  Anyway, Jeff's ties to the family were a little odd, as he was listed as either "Jill's friend" or "Ginny's big brother"; apparently it was up to individual stores to decide how he was related.  Jill and Jan provided some decent competition to Little Miss Revlon, and to my great surprise Jill is still being produced, but as far as I know Ginny was always the star of the show.  She was the only one to appear in the Far Away Lands series.

Aminta is a fairly small doll, being shorter than Bozena (Effanbee) AND Wendy (the aforementioned Little Miss Revlon).  That's saying a lot because Wendy is one of my smaller dolls.

Penny Brite, my usual go-to girl for small doll comparisons, is closer to Aminta in size.

Aminta's hair looks black, but under the flash it's easy to see that the fibers are brown.

The fibers are soft but also coarse, so it's not the best for restyling.  A simple ponytail is about all I can manage for this kid.  The plugs are thick and closely spaced...around the part and the hairline, anyway.  When I parted the hair to look at the rest of the root job, I found THIS!!!

Good grief, it's Bozena all over again.  No, this didn't show at all when I tied Aminta's hair back last spring; the hair she does have is so thick that it covered this completely.  Based on the thickness of the hair that Bozena and Aminta do have, I think I understand now why a large part of their scalps were left bald.  Their hats may have something to do with it too; Bozena was supposed to come with a hat, and Aminta almost always wears her kerchief.  Since Aminta does wear a head covering her hair is in no particular style.  It's parted in the middle...

...and as I said above, the ends are curly.

Aminta's hair is similar in color and texture to Bozena's hair (wiry), so maybe that bald spot is a blessing in disguise.  It makes me wonder though if the regular dolls in the Ginny line were styled like that.  Now I'm dying to own one, to my pocketbook's chagrin.

Now, the face.

Confession time:  I've never cared for Vogue Ginny faces.  The hard plastic ones from the 1950's are okay, but from the sixties onward Ginny took on a chipmunk-cheeked, tight-lipped expression that I just don't like.  Aminta is no exception, but I'll try to set my feelings aside and look more objectively at this face.  Aminta has light brown eyebrows that don't match her hair, black molded eyelashes, and...I think these eyes are supposed to be gray???

What in blue blazes is wrong with these eyes???  The right one has clouded over, that much is certain, but what is up with the left one?  I can't tell if that's mold or if it's paint, but either way it covers part of the iris and looks weird.  Time to bust out the Q-tips and the alcohol, I guess.  By the way, remember last week when I said Bozena wasn't the only doll I had with molded sleep lashes, and that I'd be reviewing two of them soon?  Aminta is one of these.

Despite my dislike of these dolls' faces, I can appreciate the nice molding on the lower part of the face.  She has a wide, flat nose and a nice little philtrum, and small but full lips in a serious expression.  The lips are a nice shade of rose pink.  The upper lip is very prominent in profile, but oddly, the lower lip is not.

I think I understand Vogue's reasoning behind this sculpt now.  They wanted Ginny to look innocent and maybe...angelic?  Maybe they wanted Ginny to look like a cherub, so they gave her full cheeks and a dinky little mouth?  I'm not sure, but I wish these dolls looked a little more...well, happy!  I think she looks haughty, not a personality that I tend to associate with little girls.  As with Bozena, I think Vogue was trying to make a doll that looked similar to a Madame Alexander doll (possibly the ever-popular Wendy, NOT the same doll as my Wendy), but in this case I think the effort fell flat.  It's a nicely sculpted face though, and the vinyl is clean and free of scuffs.  Aminta is authentically painted too, as I don't think traditional Israelis wore too much makeup...and I KNOW that most little girls don't usually wear makeup, regardless of what country they're from.

Now we do what I didn't initially want to do, and take the dress off to look at it.  As with Bozena, there's a lot going on.

I told y'all that watermark was going to be ugly!  Aminta wears a kerchief over her head, an accurate touch for an Orthodox Jew...but only if they're married.  I don't think Aminta is old enough to be married!  Anyway, this kerchief is made of slate blue fabric and goes on like a bandana.  Fold it in the center and tie the corners, and it's ready to be worn.  The edges are not hemmed, but I suspect that this was deliberate.

At first glance it might look like Aminta is wearing a long-sleeved dress, but when I undid her clothes I found that the sleeves are actually part of a jacket.

This little jacket is made of the same material as the kerchief, but it's hemmed.  It doesn't close anywhere, but the front where buttons normally would be is decorated with black panels of fabric.  This fabric in turn is embroidered with blue and red flowers.

The back is plain, except for a stain.  I'm not sure if this stain is from outside sources or if it's just a sign of the fabric aging, but either way the back of this jacket has a purplish tint.

Lastly, the dress itself.

The bodice is white and sleeveless; I think that on a human-sized costume there would be sleeves, but in this case a sleeved dress would just make putting on the jacket tricky.  These armholes are hemmed, but the interior likes to turn inside out and look raggy.  The armholes and the collar are trimmed with what appears to be ric-rac.  This helps to hide the recalcitrant hems of the armholes.

In the center of the bodice is a panel that I assume is supposed to simulate the area where buttons would've gone.  Again, there are no buttons to be seen, but there's some nice floral embroidery.

The waist is high and trimmed with red and gold satin ribbons.

As for the skirt, well...it's slate blue like the jacket and the kerchief, and it's floor-length.  There's not much to say except that it's a skirt with nice thick hems and a pleated waist.

This fabric is faded in a few places, particularly on the skirt, and it feels like the kind that will get brittle as it ages.  I'll have to be extra careful with this outfit.

Under her dress Aminta wears simple little cotton panties, which also feel like they could be fragile if treated roughly.  The legholes are trimmed with the same ric-rac stuff that the bodices is trimmed with.  There are a few loose threads hanging out; these don't show when Aminta is wearing the panties.

Aminta's footwear is equally modest, and quite practical as well.  She wears these black socks that go up to her thighs...

...and fuzzy little black flats that are constantly falling off.

As a final finishing touch, Aminta has...what else but a Star of David around her neck!

Aminta's star is about the same size as the one I wear, but on a shorter chain (obviously).  It's a little out of scale for a little doll like this, but a smaller necklace probably would've gotten lost or been hard to mass-produce or both.  I never take it off Aminta, just as I never take my own necklace off unless I absolutely have to, and it's probably just as well because the clasp is stiff.

I'm unsure what age child Ginny is supposed to be, but all the Vogue dolls have a body that looks like this.  It's all-vinyl, and the shape is chubby with short little limbs, like a toddler.

Aminta's arms stick out to the side a little, but since the majority of Ginny dolls wore dresses with full skirts, this isn't a problem.  Her hands are chubby, with stubby but well-molded little fingers (please ignore the tooth marks where some little brat decided to chew on her doll)...

...and her squat little feet took to a mold well, much better than next week's doll!

Aminta's jointing is very similar to Bozena's.  She can move her limbs up, down, back, and forth...

...she can do front-to-back splits...

...she can sit awkwardly...

...and she can turn her head back and forth.

Some Ginny dolls have jointed knees, but Aminta does not.

Searching for extra clothes can be easy or hard, depending on which style of Ginny one's got.  Lesney dolls are a little trickier to shop for, as y'all will see next week, but the Vogue dolls are easy.  This little yellow dress is labelled "Vogue," but I still had my reservations since the dress dates from the eighties, while Aminta dates from the sixties.  We all know how doll bodies can change over the years (just ask Barbie), but this looks like it'll work.

Indeed, this dress fits Aminta very well and it looks very nice on her, though I do wish I had some shoes and socks that don't clash (her current footwear would never work with this).  I'll have to change that in the future...any excuse to buy something that I don't really need, LOL!  This dress does present a bit of a conundrum for me though, as it makes me think of Easter, a holiday that Jews don't usually celebrate (Passover is their spring holiday, period).  Maybe I can pretend that this is an outfit for Rosh Hashanah instead, as it's acceptable to dress up nicely for Rosh Hashanah just as it is for Easter or any other religious holiday.  However...someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think Jewish girls are supposed to keep their arms and legs covered.  I don't think this is as big a deal now as it used to be (one of the dresses in this link is sleeveless), but if anyone out there has any knowledge about this, please let me know.  As silly as this may sound, I'd like to stay respectful to Aminta's religion, even if she is out of national dress.  Well...maybe I'll have to show a little more disrespect, because I want to see if Penny Brite can share clothes with Aminta.  I originally had my hopes, but those hopes may not be realized.

For one thing, Penny is noticeably taller and slimmer than Aminta is.  Her feet are smaller, and her limbs are longer and skinnier.

The dolls' torsos appear to be close in size though, so it's worth a shot.  And...

...this did not go the way I expected it to at all.  Aminta's dress is a teeny weeny bit big on Penny, but not noticeably so, and Penny's knitted sheath stretches enough to fit over Aminta's pudgy little frame.  I doubt that a regular Penny Brite dress would've worked since those don't stretch, but this works okay.  The pattern is a Blythe pattern, by the way, a pattern called the Molly Dress.  If any of y'all like to knit and have small vintage dolls, this pattern can be modified to fit either Ginny or Penny Brite.  Just experiment a little.

Penny can't wear Aminta's footwear, though that came as no huge shock given the differing size of the dolls' feet.

Just for grins, here's what Penny looks like in the whole outfit, minus the shoes.

I could just eat Penny up in this, though I think I could eat Penny up in anything she wears.  She looks fabulous in traditional Israeli garb though, and the skirt is even the right length.  Penny's legs are longer than Aminta's so I was concerned that the skirt might be too short, but it's not.  I do wonder how Penny would look in something shorter, though...where's that yellow dress???

Wouldn't y'all know, Penny looks adorable in this too.  I really don't know why I bother anyway, since Penny looks adorable in EVERYTHING she wears!!!  Truthfully, the dress is not anywhere near as short as I thought it would be, but the bodice and the bloomers are a little baggy.  Not much, but enough so one can tell that this is not an original Penny Brite outfit.  I like this on Penny better than I do Aminta though, so I may declare this dress a "For Penny Brite Only" thing.

Since I brought Penny into the mix, let's give Suzy Cute's clothes a whirl.  Suzy is chubby with short limbs like Aminta is, and for the record she appears to be about the same scale as Ginnette.  I can't remember for the life of me whether Ginny and Ginnette could share clothes, but judging from the linked image above I think that answer must be in the negative.  Ginnette appears to have a much wider chest than Ginny does.  But Suzy Cute is not Ginnette, and since I've got her cute little outfits I'm going to try them on Aminta anyway.

Suzy's stock dress (left) fits Aminta very well, bloomers and all.  I was fearing that the skirt would not be an appropriate length, but it is.  If I get some proper footwear for Aminta she can wear this more often.  The duck outfit is short, short enough that a few people might scratch their heads and say "Why is a Ginny doll wearing that?"  It's good enough to pass for a summer romper though, if Aminta is up for a romp in slightly skimpy clothes.  The fit itself is a little baggy, but nothing anyone would really notice.

I'm not going to try to shove Aminta's dress on Suzy, as I doubt it would fit over her wide little shoulders.  It's not really Suzy's style anyway.  As a last little addendum, Bozena and my Little Miss Revlon doll Wendy are quite a bit bigger than Aminta is, so clothes sharing is out of the question there.  Thus without other dolls to share clothes around, I've reached the goods and bads.

BAD
*Root job is not great, though I'm beginning to suspect that there's a reason for roots like this
*Eyes are cloudy, and one has...mold?  A sloppy paint job?  I can't tell exactly, but something is wrong with that left eye.
*Clothes are showing some ever-so-slight signs of aging and are a little fragile.
*Shoes won't stay on.

GOOD
*Nicely captures the national outfit of an oft-ignored (and scorned) country
*Hair, though oddly rooted, covers the doll's head and can be put up in a few basic styles
*Face is nicely painted, free of stains, scuffs, and paint gaffes.
*Body is compact and well-constructed, and is a good size for children to play with.
*Clothes are well-made and only show minimal signs of aging
*Can wear later Ginny clothes
*Can share a few clothes with Penny Brite and with Suzy Cute, though I don't think Suzy can wear Aminta's clothes.  I didn't dare try it.

My opinions on Ginny's face are largely unchanged, but I can see why this little doll was a big hit in her day.  She's well-made, as toys from her era often are, and she is the perfect size for a little kid's hands.  I can also see how the Far Away Lands line could be a hit, as little girls tend to go through a stage in their lives where they're fascinated by foreign countries.  She's not perfect, as that hair would not loan itself to a restyle, and the clothes feel like they could get fragile as they age.  For me the worst thing about Aminta is her eyes.  They're both cloudy, and that left one...I don't know quite what to do about that.  Oh sure, I'll try the alcohol bit, but I'm not sure it'll work.  I could also just leave her as-is and say she's blind in that eye, but not before at least trying to clean it.  Oh yes, those shoes also fall off constantly, and that's a pain in the butt since these shoes are the perfect size for cats to abscond with and use as a hockey puck.  However, I was delighted to learn that Penny Brite can wear Aminta's outfit, something I wasn't expecting, and Aminta can wear Suzy Cute's clothes, something else that I wasn't expecting.  So even though I'm still not a big fan of Vogue Ginny's chipmunk-cheeked visage, I can still see the allure.  Indeed, I'm sorely tempted to add a few more to my collection.

Much love,
RagingMoon1987