Showing posts with label Zwergnase. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Zwergnase. Show all posts

Saturday, April 12, 2014

Maru and Friends Doll, "Savannah"

Maru and Friends offers a small collection of 20 inch, high-quality, all-vinyl play dolls.  The dolls were created by Maritza Gutierrez with the idea of putting beautiful, realistic, culturally diverse dolls into the hands of children.  The central character, Maru, is described as a Latina girl who moved to America in search of a better life.  Maru has found some wonderful new friends to give her support and help ease the transition into her new situation.  These friends (Jamie, Savanna, Raven and Tanya) make up the rest of the doll collection.  Maru and Friends dolls can be purchased for $115 at the company's online store or at the Aventura Mall in Miami.  These dolls can also be found online for £109 at the lovely My Doll Best Friend shop in the United Kingdom.

I purchased my Maru and Friends doll almost a year ago and she has been waiting all of this time for her review.  I was tempted by all of the Maru and Friends characters, especially Maru herself, but I ended up (predictably) choosing the redheaded, blue-eyed Savannah:

Maru and Friends® doll, "Savannah"

Friday, August 9, 2013

Zwergnase Junior Doll "Ivanca" by Nicole Marschollek-Menzner

Nicole Marschollek-Menzner is the German artist responsible for the zany, joyful, grouchy, mischievous and unforgettable faces of the Zwergnase line of collector dolls.  Nicole also designs happy, long-necked art bears and unique play dolls.  The Zwergnase art dolls are among my favorite dolls in the world.  These dolls are produced in small editions and tend to cost over a thousand dollars.  The art dolls have cloth bodies with hand-painted vinyl heads and extremities.  They have large, gorgeous glass eyes, and wear human hair wigs that tend to be unruly and dramatic.  These masterpieces are made in Schalkau, Germany, surrounded by a landscape that has served as Nicole's creative inspiration since 1994.  I have always wanted to own a Zwergnase art doll--or at least see one in person.  In particular, I covet little Annemor--a delightful, grinning girl with strawberry blond hair and enough personality to fill a room.  Annemor was released in 2002, so I have been admiring these dolls for over a decade.

I am not likely to ever own a Zwergnase art doll, but I did stumble upon a wonderful opportunity to purchase a doll from one of the Zwergnase Junior play lines.  The company has two styles of play doll: colorful cloth-bodied dolls with simplified vinyl heads and limbs, and more realistic fully vinyl dolls.  Both groups of dolls are appealing to me, but the faces on the all-vinyl dolls are more similar to the art doll faces I love so much.  Samantha's Dolls carries a great selection of Zwergnase, and during one of their amazing 50%-off sales, I decided to buy a Junior doll.  The play dolls retail for between $220 and $250.  The half-price sale brought the price of my doll down to $110, which is comparable to the cost of American Girl, Carpatina and similar dolls.  Samantha's huge sales usually only apply to 2010 or earlier dolls, so I made my selection from a small number of remaining older dolls.  I ended up choosing Ivanca for her bright red hair and interesting expression.  I call her Ivy:

Zwergnase Junior doll, "Ivanca."