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