Throwback Thursday review: Kururi-chan

Earlier in the month I got bitten by the Licca-chan bug, and that prompted the purchase of a few dolls I didn't really need but love to pieces.  One of them is the focus of today's review, a very unusual little creature named Kururi-chan.

Kururi is apparently one of Licca's more obscure friends, as I was unable to find a commercial for her on YouTube.  Compare that to Izumi-chan, another friend of Licca's from the same era; her commercial is available on YouTube, and a character named Izumi has been in the lineup ever since.  I've also seen a commercial for a seventies-era Licca who could grow about an inch, but Kururi appears to be a one-off, sort of like Skipper's seventies friend Ginger or some character like that.  Why did Kururi not survive the passage of time?  Well...we'll get to that very shortly, as her gimmick is a little odd.  As an aside, one of the sources I found lists Kururi not as a friend of Licca's...but as a "little maid."  Maid...hmm...do they mean a maiden friend, or someone who waits on Licca hand and foot???  The site insinuates the latter, as Kururi is listed with other folks who cooked or cleaned or shopped for Licca and her family.  Strangely, all of these maids (Kururi included) were/are child-sized like Licca, rather than adult-sized like her parents and grandmother.

Kururi...sigh, I have a hard time saying that one, and I usually don't have any difficulty spitting out Japanese names once I learn them.  It took me a fair amount of digging to find out the meaning for this name, by the way.  Anywho, Kururi dates from...1974, I think?  No, sources say 1976.  True to the maid list Kururi is close in size to Licca and her friends...but not exactly the same.  When I whipped out the ol' tape measure Kururi's height came out at 8.5 inches, meaning that she's noticeably smaller than Dulcie and Kohaku, both of whom are nine inches.

Licca is taller with her new body as well, and even stumpy-legged Elly is a smidge taller.

Here's how Kururi compares to some of my other non-Takara dolls.  From left, they are Stephie Sunshine, Rosa Lee Linden (rebodied on an Obitsu body), Lottie, Olivia Hope, and Pepper Parson.

I predict that clothes sharing may prove interesting, but that will come later.  Anywho, Licca was in her second generation by 1976, and I know for a fact that Licca underwent several height changes over the years.  Given the fact that Kururi is shorter than the fourth-generation dolls that I own, I'm now wondering how tall second-generation Licca dolls are.  Kururi is a unique height, even for a Japanese doll.

Regarding looks, Kururi has the aesthetic that the majority of Asian fashion dolls have, with big eyes and a charming smile.  Her hair is shiny, straight, and chestnut brown with a center part and bangs.

No tangles (unlike Dulcie's hair) but some of the hairs on the side like to get tangled in with the bangs.  This isn't a thunderously big problem, but it can make Kururi look scruffy at times.

Her hair is reasonably long (about waist-length), but it's thin enough that her second face sometimes shows through.

Wait a minute...SECOND FACE???  Yep, I kid y'all not!  I've discussed dolls that grew hair, looked around, waved, or changed color, but I've not yet discussed a doll with two faces.  Not that there aren't any, of course.  Contrariwise, there have been plenty in one shape, some in the form of Topsy-Turvy dolls and others in the form of dolls with a single head and two faces, which Hujoo and I like to call the "Janus" style after the two-faced god of Roman and Greek antiquity...and the one that gave Percy Jackson and his friends a bit of trouble in the labyrinth, for those of you who might be Rick Riordan fans.  Anywho, I've seen a handful of these two-faced dolls from three radically different makers:  Marie Osmond created one named Boo Boo Baby, Hujoo has had Janus Gato and Janus Rata (review of Gato can be found here), and Playhut produced the Mystixx Vampires (reviews here and here).  Kururi is another of these fairly rare beings, possessing two faces in the Janus style.  Her head is jointed at the neck and divided across the hairline, like so.

Not terribly unlike the swiveling hair mech of my old Tuesday Taylor, except that it's the bottom half of Kururi's head that swivels, not the top.  Apparently this happy face is supposed to face forward in the package...

...but if I gently twist her head to her right I get THIS face, one that reminds me of one of the VID logo variants.

That's the face that I'd make if someone dropped a large spider in my lap!  Maybe Kururi is afraid of spiders too...or maybe the shock of having two faces was too much for her...OR she's not too flattered to be compared to the VID logo.  Either way, Kururi has a happy face and a surprised face.  Lifting her right arm is supposed to pop her smiling face forward again in a manner similar to Growing Up Skipper's gimmick, but my doll's arm doesn't always work.  Sometimes her head will spin if I lift the arm an inch, and other times I have to turn her arm two or three times on its axis before her head will turn.  I'm not tremendously bothered by this, but the seller at Found In Japan (the website where I bought this doll) wasn't thrilled.  She gave me the option of canceling the order or accepting the doll at a discount, and needless to say I took the discount.  You don't run into honesty like that just every day, and though Kururi's malfunctioning gimmick isn't a huge deal I appreciated the forwardness of the seller.  I can't help wondering though if this gimmick weren't off-putting for children of the era, and if that's the reason why Kururi is obscure while other dolls like Izumi aren't?

Now let's look a little closer at this paint.  Kururi's smiling face has unique teal-colored eyes, a color that I don't often see on Japanese dolls.

Kururi's eyes are painted so that she's supposed to be looking ahead (unlike Licca), but the way they're painted makes her look wall-eyed instead, like she's looking two different directions.  I doubt that was the look that Takara was going for, but that's how Kururi looks.  Dulcie-chan also has eyes sort of like this, but the effect is lessened by the presence of two colors in the iris.

Sometimes vintage doll lips fade into interesting colors like white or yellow, and Kururi has fallen victim to this.  Her smiling mouth was probably pink at one time, but now it's a soft orange-yellow shade.  The paint is smooth and free of imperfections.

Other side now.  Kururi's surprised eyes are painted in the same manner (skewed irises and all) as her happy eyes, but they're larger and the eyebrows are higher.

The surprised mouth is painted in the same shade of pink/orange/yellow as the smiling mouth, but it's obviously open.

A recently obtained and soon-to-be-reviewed Licca Castle doll provides an interesting example of how Takara's aesthetic has changed over the years.  This Licca doll sports a unique open mouth, and notice that it is painted in with teeth and a tongue.  Kururi's mouth is blank inside.

For all its simplicity Kururi conveys a lot of emotion, and she does it without looking overly goofy like some of the Licca Castle dolls do.  The paint job is impeccable, as is the design...except for those wonky eyes!

Just for giggles, here's what Kururi's profile looks like.  She doesn't have any ears.

Kururi's body is...interesting.

Like all good Takara dolls she's marked on the small of her back.

It has the same basic shape of a current Licca-chan doll, but there are some differences.  Let's discuss specifics of Kururi's body first though, before we compare shapes.  The body has five joints, shoulder, shoulder, hip, hip, waist, and legs that bend in the Gumby style like most Licca dolls.  The shoulders and hips are nothing super-duper-special, with just swiveling movement.  Kururi can wave with either arm...

...do a basic bridge...

...and do a front-back split.

The waist twists smoothly, but since it's cut at an angle it makes Kururi lean a little.  It also doesn't turn a full 360 degrees, but that doesn't bother me much.

Notice how different the shape of Kururi's body is from other Licca dolls, though.  Kururi has a wide chest, but very narrow hips, while her giggling companion is of a fairly consistent size all over.  Kururi also appears to have uneven posture in this picture, but that's only because one of her legs isn't straightened all the way.

Kururi also has shorter, slimmer arms and legs than her friend does...

...and much, MUCH smaller feet!

Lastly, and y'all may have noticed this by now, Kururi has two screws holding her upper torso together.  One is just above her right breast, and the other is below her left breast, close to where her rib margin would be.

My only explanation for this is that these screws allowed for the accommodation of Kururi's gimmick, since her arm is what makes her head turn.

Speaking of arms, Kururi's arms are made of smooth, flexible vinyl.  They are soft enough to bend, but they lack internal wires and thus do not stay bent.  I'm used to my Takara dolls having wired arms, so this surprised me a bit.  Maybe it has something to do with the gimmick again.

Her hands are very small and dainty, with a surprising amount of detail in the fingers.  See her little nails?

Feet, on the other hand...well, they're smooth little wedges of vinyl with no details, just the holes in the soles that a great many vinyl dolls have.  As I mentioned above, Kururi's feet are very small, about a size and a half smaller than modern-day Licca feet.

I wondered how Kururi managed to stay upright with such tiny feet, but then I learned that Licca dolls of the era had magnets in their shoes that helped them stand and walk.  Fun fact:  the linked set of commercials shows Licca's long-lost and long-forgotten older sister, Rie (but still no Kururi).  She is visible in the third commercial and is dressed in black and white.  I've seen a few Rie dolls available on Found In Japan's website, but she costs a pretty penny compared to my Kururi.  Rie is fairly obscure compared to the rest of her family, but there is a little bit of information online about her and why she was promptly discontinued.  Anyway, I assumed that since Licca and her collegues had magnetized shoes back in the seventies it would make sense for Kururi to have magnetized shoes as well.  And...for once one of my assumptions proved to be right!  Sometimes my making of assumptions pays off!  Unfortunately I have no Licca shoes from this era, and the only shoes small enough to fit Kururi's feet (this pair of zori from an Elly-chan kimono set) require a squared-off toe in order to fit.

The rest of my Licca shoes don't have a prayer of fitting, even with putty or rubber bands.

 Jaylin's sparkly red Blythe shoes don't fit either.

So Kururi will have to go barefoot unless I can grub up some vintage Takara shoes.  Good thing going barefoot is acceptable in a hippie-style dress like this!

Ah, a good maxidress can hide a world of sins, especially if you're the size of a heifer like I am!  LOL, anyway Kururi's dress is appropriate for her era (and for any decade AFTER the seventies, for that matter).  It's made out of pink and white...type of fabric's not important.  The bodice has a yellow bow with a white plastic flower button and a faux button line...with no buttons showing.

The neckline is trimmed with a white band of fabric (this fits closely when it's on the doll).

The sleeves are the exact opposite of the bodice, being loose fitting short white sleeves with pink trim.

The skirt of the dress has a very high waist (trimmed with a band of white fabric) and it sports bands of lace at the hem and about halfway up.

This lace extends all the way around, unlike the trim on certain other companies' dresses.

Unfortunately this trim is not without problems of its own.  The lace is pretty tortured after all these years.

Some of the damage may have come from the hem catching on this Velcro, which is the snaggy kind that doesn't lose its grip.

Underneath the skirt is this very short netted petticoat.

The petticoat adds a little fullness, but it makes redressing Kururi a pain in the butt.  I've been tempted a couple of times to cut it out, but I don't want to ruin the dress so I don't dare.  Other than that stupid petticoat and some signs of aging this dress is in good shape.  It's not pulling apart at the seams, though it does have a few loose threads hanging out here and there.

Oh yes, there appears to be some sort of sewing gaffe on the right front bodice (Kururi's right, my left) that looks like a pull.  I don't think it IS a pull, and it's not terribly distracting, but it's there and worthy of noting.

Plain little white panties keep Kururi decent underneath that dress.  They're nothing to write home about, but they are hemmed and that's a good thing.

Given the loose fit of that dress I doubt that Kururi's tiny hips will be too much of a hindrance when sharing clothes around, aside from them possibly being too narrow to hold up Jaylin's jeans.

Yep, too narrow, and her legs are too short for these too.  I didn't know Jaylin's legs were that much longer than Kururi's!  On the other hand this shorter stature means Kururi can wear Jaylin's top as a very short dress.  This would look adorable with some leggings or tights.

My favorite Licca-chan dress fits Kururi pretty well, only being a teensy bit big around the bust.  Also visible are the only pair of shoes that Kururi can wear; they came from another Licca-chan outfit, one that Elly-chan is currently wearing.

This next outfit is an Elly-chan nightie.  It fits, but it's loose around the shoulders and is a bit too low-cut for Kururi's body (notice that her topmost screw is on display).

Maybe this schoolgirl set (also an Elly-chan outfit) will work better.

Well...if I push the socks down I can pass Kururi off as a kogal.  That skirt is certainly short enough, though in truth it's short on my other dolls too.  The top is roomy around Kururi's stomach area, though pulling the skirt down a little helps hide this.  The pink shoes belong to Laughing Licca, and they don't fit Kururi's feet even with the thick socks.

Speaking of Laughing Licca, this next outfit is the one she arrived in, though in truth it's too small for her.  Maybe Kururi's small body can slide into it better.

The top restricts Kururi's arm movement (thus why her surprised face is pointing forward in this picture), but the black shorts fit surprisingly nicely.  I won't be leaving those shorts on Kururi though, because guess what?  THEY STAIN!!!  Too bad too, because they fit over Kururi's narrow little hips better than anything else I've got.  Maybe a quick dip in some Woolite will take that dye out.  In general Licca and Blythe dresses fit Kururi's small frame quite well, while pants are either too long or too big.  Shoes, as we've already established, are out completely.

In a similar manner, the full skirt of Kururi's dress will likely fit over the wider hips of her friends without much trouble. 

Indeed, all four of the dolls I picked for clothes sharing can wear Kururi's dress, though not perfectly.  It comes up a little short on Licca and Jaylin, both of whom have relatively long legs for a doll of this scale, and Elly's stiff body isn't flattered by the bodice.  I think Laughing Licca wears the dress the best, even though it's a little short on her as well.

I think I've said what I can say about Kururi.  Time to sum it up.

BAD
*Gimmick is a little fluky, though that's due to age more than anything.  Said gimmick might also be considered creepy by some.
*Can't wear many of the shoes I've got on hand.  Only one pair of boots worked.
*Dress is showing signs of wear, though this also is due to age rather than shoddy construction.

GOOD
*Gimmick is unusual.  There aren't too many Janus-type dolls in this world.
*Can wear most of Licca's clothes, though pants and shoes are largely a no-go.  Pants are not often found in the Licca world anyway.
*Very cute faces.  I have to admit that I prefer the smiling face, but the surprised face is cute too.  At least it's not sad or angry or haughty like some modern-day dolls can be.
*I love the hair.  It's soft and smooth and a pretty color.  It's a little thin and kinked in places, but for the most part it's good hair.
*Molding is nice, especially on the hands.

Kururi is a very interesting doll, one I'd recommend to any Licca fan and especially to one who specializes in the vintage dolls.  My particular doll has some age-related quirks, namely that her gimmick sticks a little, but I don't play with the gimmick much so that's no biggie.  Plus the seller gave me a discount because of the quirky gimmick, so that's always a good thing.  I'm not sorry I picked Kururi up though, because I love vintage dolls and because I love foreign dolls.  Now to find some shoes!

Much love,
RagingMoon1987