Throwback Thursday review: Remco Jan

Hi, Heidi!  Like Suzy Cute, Remco Heidi's commercial proved catchy enough to make me want one of the dolls years after production ceased.  True, this commercial doesn't have Satchmo dancing around with a trio of kids, but it's still a cute commercial.  Since I like Oriental dolls and dolls with dark hair, I chose Heidi's friend Jan instead of Heidi herself.

Last vintage doll for awhile, I promise!  Throwback Thursdays haven't been getting the traffic that they used to, so I reckon it's time to change things a little.  In fact, I only have about four more dolls to review for Throwback Thursday, and two of those are fairly recently demised dolly lines.  Anywho, Remco is like Eegee in that it's not as well-known a company nowadays as giants like Mattel and Hasbro, but the folks there did make a plethora of dolls and their products are worthy of respect from collectors.  Remco was around from the 1960's to 1974, and they were responsible for the cackling spawn of Satan known as Baby Laugh-a-Lot.  I've seen a lot of bizarre dolls in my days, but Baby Laugh-a-Lot is probably not one I'll be bringing home, even if she does have the potential to scare the daylights out of my sister.  It's rare when I'll say that a doll is too much for me, but unless I find a pretty good deal I'll pass on that one, thank you.  Luckily for all of us, Remco also made other more benign dolls like Mimi, the Littlechap family, Heidi and her cronies, band figurines like the Beatles and the Dave Clark Five, Snuggle Bun, Growing Sally, Baby This 'n' That, and the Finger Dings.  I love the Finger Dings; they're little dolls that double as finger puppets, and they all have delightfully smug expressions.  I love Baby This 'n' That too, as she was a family joke.  Baby This 'n' That had arms that moved to manipulate small toys, and her jingle went something like "Baby This 'n' That, Baby This 'n' That.  She does a lot a-this, and she does a lot a-that!"  According to my daddy, when Great Grandpa was alive he'd use "this 'n' that" to refer to the loads that the family's babies would drop in their pants.  Upon the load-dropping Grandpa would holler "One of y'all had better get in here, this baby's done a lot a-that!"  I guess he wasn't into changing poopy diapers himself.

Regarding the line in question, Heidi and her crew were around during the early part of Beatlemania and were apparently popular enough to spawn at least one clone.  Heidi was the lead doll and she was your typical blue-eyed blonde combo that dolls too often come in.  Also available were four siblings named Billy, Hildy, Herby, and Pip (Pip was sometimes listed as a "li'l friend" rather than a sibling), and two girlfriends named Spunky and Jan.  Most of these dolls were Caucasian, with Jan being the exception (she's Japanese).  There also was a very cute black Heidi, but I'm told those are pretty hard to find.  The dolls were referred to as "pocketbook dolls" since they all came in their own little plastic purses, or "pocketbooks."  Not all of them had the gimmick that Heidi became known for, but most did.

History lesson over, here's a look at Jan outside her pocketbook.

This doll shipped from Orofino, Idaho (a lovely little town) to Malden, Missouri in three day's time, by the way.  I just thought I'd throw that out there; I've NEVER received a doll that quickly!  The most direct route from there to here would take twenty-nine hours, but that's only if one drives nonstop.  Anyway, Jan is a small doll, clocking in at a mere five and a half inches tall.  She's shorter than both Whimzee and Emerald the Enchanting Witch...

...but ever-so-slightly taller than Lime Chiffon and my Shopkins Shoppie, Peppa Mint.

Now...this hairstyle is one of the stranger ones that I've come across.  If Jan were a hair-growing doll like Crissy and Tressy this style would make more sense to me, but she's not.  Most of Jan's hair is cut short in a pageboy style, like so...

...but it also has one long strand hanging on the right side of her head.  This strand falls to Jan's waist, and I think it was originally braided at one time so I put it back in a braid.

Okay, I'm not positive that this strand was once braided, but it stays out of the way much better now.  The fibers are fairly smooth but are a little brittle, and a few of the shorter strands have a mind of their own so it's hard to get this style looking 100% smooth.  The root job is medium-thick with widely-spaced rows of thick plugs.

It's a very cute style, one that reminds me (prepare for an obscure reference) of a child on an old Licca-chan commercial.  The hairstyles are not an exact match, but they're close enough.  I also think this style frames Jan's face nicely, which is good because Jan has an adorable face.

As with Cherry Fizz, Jan's face reminds me of another doll's, but this time I don't have to kill time trying to figure out who it is.  I only own one other doll with a dimpled smile like this, and that's Penny Brite.  Look at the similarities!  Smiling eyes, button noses, and molded dimples.

Also like Penny Brite, Jan's face paint could vary from wave to wave, with some dolls having teeth showing and some having closed smiles.  My doll has an open smile, in the form of a thin line of white paint between her watermelon-pink lips.  Unfortunately a few hairs appear to have gotten caught in the lip paint.  I don't know what else those black fibers could possibly be.  Also note the heavy rouge on Jan's cheeks.  I don't know if all Jan dolls had this or not, but mine does.

Eye paint could vary too, with some eyes being more sharply defined than others.  My Jan appears to have...both paint schemes!  See how her right eye (our left) is sharply painted, while her left eye is more fuzzy?  Also notice how the bottom edges are not fully painted in.

Also like Penny Brite, Jan has pie-shaped pupils, similar in shape to old-school Mickey Mouse.  The eyes are glancing towards the doll's left, par for the course with Heidi and her friends.

No earrings for Jan, but that's okay.  Since Heidi and her friends were supposed to be little kids earrings would've been a bit out of character anyway.

As with many dolls of the sixties Heidi and her like-sized cronies have a gimmick, part of which is obvious when I disrobe Jan. 

See that white thing sticking out of her belly?

Push it, and Jan's right arm goes up.

She's supposed to be waving, but since her palm is facing sideways the wave doesn't look terribly realistic.  If you watch Heidi's commercial it looks like she's gesturing towards her name on the screen rather than waving.  Still, I find this a very endearing gimmick, something simple that doesn't require batteries or anything of that sort.  The gimmick CAN break, as eBay and Etsy are both full of dolls that no longer work.  I went to great pains to find a doll that does work, and I'll be treating her with care since I don't want to break her.  The smaller dolls in this line cannot wave, by the way; I guess the mechanism didn't fit into their smaller bodies.

When I overlook the gimmick Jan's body is pretty ordinary.  It has your basic little girl shape with a hard plastic torso and vinyl arms and legs.  The torso...looks a little small in proportion to the arms and legs.  See?

The legs and the left arm have rotational movement, enabling Jan to sit, stand, walk, and wave her other arm.  Jan's right arm is restricted by her waving mechanism and thus cannot move unless I push the button.  Her knees also do not bend.

Well, technically I can move her right arm, but I'm not in the mood to break another doll.  I fear that if I get too ham-handed with that arm I'll do just that.

The molding isn't particularly precise on Jan's arms.  Her fingers have some indistinct creases, and also some fairly rough seams.

The legs are smoother and have better molding around the toes, but are nothing spectacular.  The knees don't bend, which surprises me since bending knees were becoming more and more common among dolls of this era.

Jan's clothes are appropriate for her era and for her age bracket.  She wears a yellow and black minidress and white flats.

Before tearing this dress apart I'm going to hit the part that made me lift an eyebrow.  Printed on the lower left skirt of this dress (our left, Jan's right) is this character.  The only character I've learned how to read so far is the Japanese kanji for "fire," so I'm at a complete loss over what this one means.  I don't even know if it's Chinese or Japanese.  Toy companies are bad about tossing random kanji onto random dolls regardless of the nationality of the doll, and being the accuracy freak that I am that bugs me.  Here's the character; keep in mind that Jan is Japanese.

Talolili thinks this may be the character for "love," and I have to admit that the resemblance is uncanny, especially if one looks at the various font types.  So it looks like Remco may be off the hook there.  Otherwise the dress is your typical sixties-era dress, a short A-line in buttercup yellow.  The sides are trimmed in black, and the turned up collar is black as well.

Interestingly, the sides of the skirt have little slits cut into it.  Dang, like this dress wasn't short enough already!

This is an authentic feature of one Oriental dress, but the dress I'm thinking of (the ao dai) is Vietnamese, not Japanese.  Plus it also has a pantsuit underneath it so the slit isn't a huge deal.  A doll-sized ao dai is something on my wish list, by the way; Carpatina makes them in American Girl size, so I may get one for Denise (she's an enthusiast for Eastern wear).

Where was I?  Oh yes, the back of this dress is held shut with two metal snaps.

Underneath the dress and somewhat displayed by the skirt's slits are a pair of white panties.

These are greatly appreciated as short as that dress is.  The legs and waist are trimmed with some sort of white stuff, which is unfortunately coming loose at one of the legs.

As for the shoes...well, I've seen better.  Jan wears white bow flats that are made of soft vinyl and are crudely molded.  The backs of these shoes have big tags hanging off of them, and one of the toes has a hole.

Not the best doll shoes I've seen, which is surprising given the decent construction of the panties and dress.

Since she is such a small doll Jan doesn't have much in the way of extra clothing options.  She's too short to wear Barbie clothes, too skinny to wear Vogue Ginny's clothes and Emerald the Enchanting Witch's clothes, too chunky to wear Whimzee's clothes or Lime Chiffon's, and too small all over for Suzy Cute's clothes.  I was hoping that she could wear Penny Brite's clothes, but Penny's knitted sheath dress proved too big.

She can't wear Penny's hat or coat either.

To my mild surprise, Jan can wear something of Licca-chan's.  Licca is way bigger than Jan is, but Jan can still wear this crocheted vest, and she looks pretty good in it too!

Her waving mech is hindered by this vest, so she'll have to keep her arm down while wearing it.  This isn't the only piece of Licca's clothing that Jan can wear, though.  She can also wear some of Licca's shoes, as long as they have a low heel and aren't too narrow.  Licca can't wear Jan's shoes at all.

Since I discussed Suzy Cute's carrying case, and since these little pocketbooks are so important to Jan and her friends, here's what this bad boy looks like.  Colors varied from character to character, as did molds, but they're the same otherwise.  Jan's is blue and has her name embossed on it, along with what appear to be cherry blossoms.

I like cherry blossoms and I know the Japanese do to, but I do wish doll companies would vary it up a little.  Chrysanthemums are very important to the Japanese, for example.  But then again, cherry blossoms are pretty recognizable.  Anywho, this next bit is hard to see, but the back of Jan's pocketbook is stamped with her name and the words "POCKETBOOK DOLL PRODUCT."  Oh yeah, and another sprig of cherry blossoms.

Inside is an orange plastic tray that looks a lot like a soap dish.  It is clearly meant to hold Jan in place when the pocketbook is carried around.

The other side has that clear plastic window that is securely riveted in place.  Nevertheless that clear plastic is very bendy, so I try hard not to press on it.

This sticker was on the front of the package, but it was starting to peel off so I took it the rest of the way off.  I think it's important still, so I keep it tucked in the pocketbook next to Jan's soap dish-bed.

I think I've said all I can about Jan, so time to wrap it up.

BAD
*Hair fibers are a little fragile
*Lips have some fibers stuck to them.  Not a huge deal, but it looks a little weird up close.
*Shoes are absolute crap

GOOD
*Super cute.  I love a doll with personality like this.
*Gimmick still works, though it's showing signs of wearing out.
*Arms and legs show no signs of getting sticky; after dealing with Rosa Lee Linden and the Liddle Kiddles I'm a bit gun-shy about sticky vinyl parts.
*The pocketbook is in good shape; sometimes this part is broken or missing altogether, so having this is a plus.

Jan and her pocketbook pals are more of those dolls that fit into the "get if you like small dolls or if you had one as a child" category.  She's a cute little doll, still kid-friendly after all these years, but she's not an absolute must-have unless she appeals to your aesthetic.  Since I like cute, smiling dolls, Jan appeals to my aesthetic; those who prefer a more serious doll of this era may want to stick to Barbie.  Jan is perfect for me, though; see how she fits in with Penny Brite and Licca-chan?

Love,
RagingMoon1987

Quints follow-up

This is a follow-up to my post on the Quints a few months back.  I owe a debt of gratitude to Barb the Evil Genius for alerting me to a large lot of Quints accessories running around on eBay.  I don't neccessarily want a complete collection of Quint stuff, but this lot included some clothes and some items that I'd never seen before...plus some items that I did once own and wanted to own again, so when Barb sent me the link I was quick to hit that "buy" button.  Here's what I've got for y'all today.

I don't even recognize some of this stuff.  Some of it is clearly accessories to a set that's not around anymore, and some of it...Lordy, I don't know WHERE those skis came from!  Given the amount of stuff I'll try to break it up into subsets, for y'all's sake and my own.  I'll start with the most complete set, and my personal favorite part of the set.  If y'all go back and read my post on the Quints y'all may notice that I referred to a set of wagons that I once owned.  Behold, the set of wagons was in this lot!

There are some pieces missing, but all the important stuff is here.  The wagons are intact with nothing broken, and they're even in the proper order.  Further, someone was able to accomplish what I could not do as a child:  get this little handle properly placed!

It's IN THERE, clearly not intended to come out, so I understand now why I had such a hard time getting it to go in.  Anyway, the wagons originally came with little sun visors, lollipops, and toys for each child (dolls for the girls, trucks for the boys).  My set is missing one doll and one truck, but here's what the items I do have look like.  Being pink, blue, and yellow, they'd be for Rosie (Quint 1), Robin (Quint 2), and Daisy (Quint 3).

The dolls are obvious rag dolls, with bulbous noses and smirky little smiles.  They're not terribly unlike Loonette and Molly, characters from The Big Comfy Couch.  The truck looks like one of those oversized Tonka trucks that I was very fond of in my day.

The lollipops are those infamous all-day suckers that I never saw the allure of, and unlike the toys there's one for each kid.

The candy part has molded swirl marks, and the sticks have bows on them for reasons I'll never know; given the size of these lollipops compared to the Quints' mouths those bows would have sugar-sticky slobber all over them in a matter of minutes.  Even when I owned these dolls as a kid I knew that.  These lollipops have an advantage over the dolls though, as the sticks are slender enough to fit into the Quints' hands.

Lastly, the visors.  As with the lollipops I have all five.

I was particularly fond of visors when I was a kid, as my grandfather wore them to read.  Whenever I found one I'd put it on so I could be "just like Grandpa."  I'd forgotten that until I saw these.

So here's my caboodle all decked out for a wagon ride.

And here they are in the wagons.

These wagons really do work, by the way; when I was little I'd pull them around.  Now that I'm older I can see potential problems with this set, chiefly those little visors.

They have to flex a little to go around the dolls' heads, and I worry that that may cause this plastic to wear out with time.  Maybe there's an easier way to get them on; maybe just showing the earpieces into the hair will do.

And maybe it won't.  I'll just have to be extra careful, I guess.  I love this set though, and I'm so glad to have it back in my life.

Now the territory grows uncharted, for I've never seen this set before, not even on Ghost of the Doll's website.  It's a ski set.

However, my eyes deceived me, as this set is indeed on Ghost of the Doll's site.  It is an outfit set called "Snowy Fun."  I'm missing three ski poles (one each for Robin, Daisy, and Violet), and I'm missing Rosie's and Daisy's ear muffs, but I've got all the shoes so no huge deal.  Each child has their little jacket, which is made out of terry cloth and has an attached scarf.

The front is bedecked with three little "buttons" in the form of white seed beads, but needless to say these buttons don't function.  The front is held together with a strip of Velcro.

The shoes are intregal to the functioning of the skis, as they're what holds the doll's feet to the skis, so I'm happy that I've got all of them.  They're vinyl low-top shoes with two lines of lacing in the front and a reinforced heel.

The poles are made of plastic and are like the lollipops in that they can be held in the dolls' hands.

The ear muffs are also made of plastic and are not much to look at from the front...

...but from the side they're shaped like little hearts!

Even though it's finally spring here in Missouri, here's what my crew looks like when they're about to hit the slopes.

I was afraid that dressing these dolls in such tiny clothes would be, to quote Simon Cowell, "a complete and utter nightmare," but to my surprise it was fairly easy.  I also was afraid that those little coats would be too short to truly look warm, but they do a fairly decent job of covering the Quints' bodies.  The missing poles are not immediately noticeable if I put the poles I do have in the hand facing the camera, and the ear muffs do not stay on very well so I don't miss the two missing pairs terribly.  Fitting the dolls onto the skis was not hard either, though it's easy to knock a pole or two loose when getting them situated.  This is a great little outfit set though, one that I'm delighted to have.

Now, another little outfit set that I never owned before, and it didn't have a lot of pieces to lose so it's complete.  This is called "Sleepy Time" and it's an obvious pajamas set.

These are feet pajamas that were once fairly common for babies and kids...I guess technically they still are, but now they're called "onesies."  Anyway, these have honest-to-God buttons on the front, though they're just for decoration (the front fastens with Velcro again), and the necks are trimmed with a dab of lace.

The backs have faux seats, done with lines of stitching and two more buttons.

These pajamas come with little star-shaped pillows that have bits of elastic at the top for the dolls to hold.

The fabric is printed the same as the bunting from the "Bottle and Bunting" set, but the color of each pillow varies to match the corresponding Quint.

Lastly, this set comes with a "book" that teaches basic letters and numbers.

Time for bed, kiddies!

I don't like this set as much as I like the ski set, but it sure is cute!  It adds a bit of cuddle factor to these otherwise stiff dolls.  The elastic on Robin's pillow has unfortunately broken, but that's nothing I can't fix with a needle and some elastic thread.  Very cute.

To my delight, these pajamas do not interfere with the Quints' ability to lie in their bunting.  Indeed, the fit is improved slightly due to the extra bulk of that fabric.

The rest of this stuff is a random mish-mash of accessories that came with other playsets or other sets of dolls.  These flocked teddy bears belong with the bed that I once owned, for example.

When I was a little girl I'd stick these bears in the wagons with the other toys, and indeed I could still do that today.  They also make superb accessories for the pajamas.

These items came with the vanity set.  I got the little ottomans, several hairbrushes, little hair combs for the girls, a headband for Robin, a blow dryer for Daisy, and bits of ribbon that may or may not have come with the vanity set.  Not bad, really!  All I need to complete this is the vanity itself.

These items, four and a half pairs of bunny slippers and a conjoined rattle that actually rattles, came with the rocking chair playset.  I need to replace the chair itself and the little blankets that it came with...and maybe Robin's missing slipper.

This last set...I'm really not sure if it's all part of one set or if it's two sets put together.

I know that a lot of this stuff (the tan pails nests, the birds, the flowers, and the hats for the girls) belongs to the Sunny Time Quints.  These Quints were a set of dolls quite different from my Bottle and Bunting set; they had freckles that appeared with cold water, and they only came with red hair.  Missing from this set are the Quints and their clothes, and caps for the boys.  I do have the girls' bonnets though, and I like them better than the sun visors.

Unfortunately these only sit loosely on the single ponytails of the Bottle and Bunting girls...which makes me wonder how the Sunny Time girls wore them, because they also have single ponytails.

Interestingly, no mention is made of flocked rabbits in the Sunny Time Quints' inventory, and yet I have one.  It's pink and thus would belong to Rosie...if it is indeed a Quints item.

Another set of Quints, the Playful Quints, came with bunnies, but they weren't three-dimensional flocked bunnies.  Nor were the bunnies that came with Cradle for Five, one of the accessory sets, flocked figurines.  So I guess that I'll have to scratch my head over this one; maybe it's just some sort of cute add-in that someone acquired along the way.  It fits in nicely with the teddy bears, so I'm not going to complain too loudly.  Rosie can have her very own velveteen rabbit.

While these accessories are not 100% complete, I'm very happy to have them.  They kept me entertained for a solid four hours last Monday, so that's one thing.  Additionally, instead of having to piece together a collection one item at a time I've now got a whole lot of stuff, including TWO outfit sets.  I'm particularly happy for those outfits, as now my dolls don't have to run around in their diapers.  It's wonderful to have my old wagons back too, and the other assorted little props that came along for the ride.  And those skis!!!  I've never owned a doll that had skis before.  Yeah, I know there were ski sets available for Barbie and for the American Girls, but I never had any of those.  So in short, I'm delighted with this lot of stuff, and I send out a big fat THANK YOU to Barb the Evil Genius for sending me the link, and to eBay seller It72406 for selling them to me.  Now I just need to replace the vanity and the rocking chair...and maybe find a set of Sunny Time Quints that are missing their accessories.  They're just so cute, and they're different from the Quints I already own.

Joy to all,
RagingMoon1987