Lil McDonald's POP

 

My Barbies got all kinds of goodies today!  One of the shift managers at our local Micky Dee's is a friend of mine and claimed this POP (point of purchase) display on sight.  "For Jeanie, for her dolls."

Of course, we had to wait until after these toys were featured and the POP came down.  

The scale is all over the place, but that's nothing a bit of imagination can't fix.

One problem with a POP is the white squares that hold the toys in place.  They always leave some of themselves behind.  But that is absolutely not a deal breaker here.

There's your problem.

We'll start with the Happy Meals.  There's even one tray that's just a huge order of fries.  The bigger ones and the Halloween bucket open. 

 The bucket has a sticker on top of a sticker sheet.  The boxes have real sticker sheets inside.  

The scale on these is excellent for the Barbies.  

These aren't bad either.  I think a true to-scale Happy Meal box would be somewhere in between the sizes we got from this POP.  I can certainly see why my friend thought of my dolls.

The bits pictured here are almost to scale with each other, except for the giant drive up menu!  Most of these are static (they don't do anything) but the truck rolls and...

The roof comes off the building!  The interior wall is cardboard, glued in place.

Jenny for scale.

Most of these have interactive features.

The order kiosk and POP have double sided paper inserts.  POP can be empty shelves and kiosk can be in waiting mode.  The register screen tilts.

The register is a good size for the dolls.  The kiosk and POP are too small to be toys, but work well on a doll-size counter.  

The dolls' dolls can have a seat in the booth.

Drink station, fries in the fryer, burgers on the grill.  

Fries are up and burgers are seasoned.

Ice is pouring and the platen on the grill is down.

A play cell phone with the McD's app on screen and its own case! Real phone for comparison.  

A bit large for the dolls.  Maybe I could use it as a wall-mounted order kiosk.  Or Gage might be holding a really big tablet. 

Either way, quite a score!  My dolls are happy!

Barbie Exhibit

We went to Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal for the Barbie Exhibit.  

CMC seems to be developing a habit of having these things during June. 

Twice now they've lured me in with Pompeii.

It's like they know when my birthday is!

This is the first thing in the exhibit proper.

This is the main reason I so love Barbie.

This was slightly later, after the story of how Ruth Handler created Barbie.

Barbie has always been about the possibilities.

I'll fight anyone who says different.

Here's me in the original Barbie Dream House.

They had a lot of these fun photo ops!  

My minions got pictures in a Disco and with a surfboard.

Most of us got into Barbie's Corvette.

We even got into Barbie Boxes!

They give a good overview of how the dolls are made.

Most of the exhibit is in chronological order, showing dolls, accessories, and fashions.

It was fun and informative for our whole group, even those not into Barbie (weirdos).

Recommended for all Barbie Lovers and their weirdos.

Doll Dramatics: Shirley Jackson's "Charles"

 This story is the property of the Shirley Jackson estate.  I am doing this as a homage to one of my favorite writers and making no money from it. 

Charles was first published in 1948.  I've updated certain details and altered it to fit this format.  

Mother: Do you think kindergarten is upsetting Laurie?  All this tough act, bad grammar, and this Charles boy sounds like such a bad influence.

Father:  He does.  Cussing, hitting the teacher, bouncing a seesaw off someone's head, disrupting lessons, and throwing chalk.  But it will be all right.  Bound to be people like Charles in the world.    Might as well meet them now as later.

Laurie: Charles yelled.  The teacher from first grade sent a boy to tell the teacher to keep quiet and Charles had to stay in at recess.  

Laurie:  Teacher had a friend come to see her at school today.  It was a man who came and he made us do exercises, we had to touch our toes.  Charles didn't even do exercises.

Father (coming in): Didn't Charles want to do exercises?

Laurie: Hi Pop, ya ole dust mop.  Charles wasn't allowed to do exercises because he kicked the teacher's friend. 

Mother: I want to go to the PTA meeting but the baby and I are sick.  I wonder what they're going to do about Charles. 

Laurie: Throw him out of school, I guess.

Father: What else has Charles gotten up to? 

Laurie: He yelled during story time and hit another boy in the stomach.  

Laurie: Charles was so good today the teacher gave him an apple.  

Mother: Really?  Charles?

Laurie: He gave out the crayons and collected the books and Teacher said he was a helper.  

Laurie: Yesterday, Charles told a girl to say a bad word and she said it! Charles told her to say it twice and she did. She had to sit in Time Out.  

Father: What about Charles?  

Laurie: Nothing.  He was passing out crayons.  Then, today he said it a few times and threw chalk.  

Mother:  I'm definitely going to the PTA meeting, cold or no cold.  

Mother looks for Charles's mother at the meeting, but no one looks haggard enough.  No one stands up to apologize for the way her son was acting.  No one mentions Charles.  After the meeting, she seeks out the kindergarten teacher.

Mother:  I've been so anxious to meet you.  I'm Laurie's mother.

Teacher: We're all so interested in Laurie.

Mother: He certainly likes kindergarten.  He talks about it all the time. 

Teacher: We had a little trouble adjusting, the first week or so, but now he's a fine little helper.  With occasional lapses, of course. 

Mother: Laurie usually adjusts very quickly.  I suppose this time it's Charles's influence.  You must have your hands full in this kindergarten, with Charles.

Teacher: Charles?  We don't have any Charles in the kindergarten. 

What I've Been Up To

 I'm finally making some progress on getting back to this blog.  I've written a few on that other blog, but my poor neglected dollies are mad at me.  Good news on that front... one of these books holds the story I've decided to doll dramatize!

I had another really good idea for a doll drama but it jumped right outta my head.

I did finally get around to fixing the grocery store.  The cold unit is a Shopkins display, if I recall correctly.  The shelves are Zoe lockers and the trophy case/amplifier from a Monster High playset.  Groceries are assorted minis.

Second Sister's church held a rummage sale.  Rusty got a new dress!  When I said I had no idea for what occasion she might wear it, my Eldest Sister contributed a Masque.  She can go to a Mardi Gras ball!  (You'll see the full dress in a few.  I'm having some issues getting my digital camera to talk to my new computer.)

The Mother of The Boy has taken up sewing.  Previous blog posts showed the Barbie size quilts she made my dolls.  She asked about Barbie clothes patterns to use for her scraps, so I nabbed these.

McG is modeling a Gear Shift Hoodie.  The dolls also want the skeleton and I believe there's a galaxy one. The Hoodies also come in solid colors, but where's the fun in that? (This was picked up at Auto Zone on my way home from the rummage sale.)

Rusty in her new fancy dress.  Ain't she purty?!

Teeny Tinies

Five Below sells "Teeny Tinies".  They are sets of minis.  The scale varies even within the set, but most of it works with Barbie scale and a little imagination.

Ty with the TT kitchen.  It's the perfect size for my Chelsea/Zoe hybrids. 

This grill was way too short for Barbie.  So I glued on some legs and we're good to go.

Besides the grill and kitchen, I have bought things like Greek Food, for the more unusual pieces. Today I picked up Holiday Party.  For the big ole ham and the lamb, mostly.

Front of the package. We can see all the goodies!  I usually pick the set with the best stickers/paint, but this was the only Holiday Party and I had to settle.  Most of the pieces are painted plastic.

The back identifies everything so an ignoramus like me knows what she's getting.  I will take the fifth on some of the silly mistakes I've made with these sets.

Behind the plastic tray holding the goodies, we find a lovely scene that matches the box front edges. Not sure why it's so orange, but they're all like that.  The lovely Aegean villa in Greek Foods was very blue.  Like we're looking through colored glass.

Dolls for scale comparison. Pumpkin pie and baking setup.

The underside of the gifts.  They do come apart but then have things sticking out the sides.

Gifts and a cracker.  The lids do come off the boxes! The cracker does nothing if you tug the ends because it's solid plastic. Imagination is required. 

Glass of milk, mug of cocoa, donuts, shaped sugar cookies, and (chocolate chip?) cookies.  

Frosting bag, sprinkles, and wafer twists. Labels are stickers.

The box of cocoa is just that - a box.  The macaroni and cheese is a sticker.

Fruitcake and mince pies.

Lamb and Ham.  Yummy!