Saturday, February 5, 2011

Gund Character Dolls

Alternately known as Gund Soft Toys or Gund Stuffed Toys, Gund produced a set of three dolls of the Mad Hatter, March Hare and White Rabbit for the original release of Alice in Wonderland, pictured here in the campaign book. 
Oddly, while the CMD has a page for the Gund Stuffed Toys, it does not picture these three like the campaign book does, but rather pictures a concept image of an unproduced Alice doll.
By the time the August issue of Playthings was published, they had dropped the Alice and you see the three characters as produced.
 It has been my experience that for whatever reason, the March Hare is the most common of the three, although his construction tends to produce a hole in his left foot (as pictured) from the wire armature.  His ears also have wire armature and they can be posed.
The White Rabbit is of similar construction, and although pictured with a red heart on his chest in all the advertising, it is not always present.  The examples I have seen with the heart have always seemed to me to have been handmade rather than factory made.
The Mad Hatter is the most difficult to find, primarily because of his hat being a separate, and easily lost, piece.  Not to mention that the 10/6 tag is made of really cheap paper and is seldom found .

I must say that the rabbits look pretty good, but the Mad Hatter is a little scary.  I'm fairly certain that the Alice would have been quite frightening if it had been produced.

3 comments:

Major Pepperidge said...

I don't recall that the March Hare was such a wonderful character that he would have generated much toy merchandise, and yet....

Doesn't he really just appear in the tea party scene? (It's been a while...)

Matt said...

The Tea Party patrons also appear at the end of the film at the trial, but yes he is mostly known for the Mad Tea Party.

You should rush right out and get the Blu-Ray, it is a fantastic transfer, and the new supplemental feature is very very good. And of course they put mine from the last release on the Blu-Ray as well, so even more reason!

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