YEARS ago, I wrote a little article with a passing reference to Samsonite-branded, Barbie-sized luggage.

I found a few more pieces, and these are definitely OFF BRAND and CHEAP.

On first glance, they look like regular Barbie / Samsonite luggage, but... 

The Samsonite-Branded luggage has a handle that is hinged, and movable (and often missing!), but this one has a molded-in-one-piece handle, though it visually is identical to the Samsonite-branded luggage.  The quality is noticeably cheaper, and it is unmarked.  The red one is marked "Made in the U.S.A." but again, no hinged handle.  The plastic is flimsier and lighter.

g

Maybe Samsonite kept making them and just went cheaper on production at some point.  Who knows how long these things were even made.  Definitely 1960s - 1970s, but these were found with 1980s dolls.

I've also never seen this brown color "NRFP," but to be fair I haven't looked that hard.

NONE of this luggage is super-easy to find.  You see the ecru and teal ones pretty frequently but other colors are scarce.

This one at least has proper hinges and doesn't fall apart like the brown one.  Maybe it's legit, but the handle gives me pause.

Clone or legit, these are very fun to collect... you can really use them for storage, or travel, too!

Anyway, that's all!

Unusual Tag

 

Here's a quick pick of an interesting "MATTEL, INC." tag as seen inside a "Miss Barbie" swimsuit.

Summer Finds

Wow!  It's been a while, huh?

Well, I'm still here and still collecting, even though probably nobody out there reads this.

Of course, I went to see the Barbie movie and it was amazing!  I'll write more about that later, for now I wanted to talk about a little collection I picked up from the very sweet original owner.

It all came in a purple Ken case, which I didn't have one of those... and I like better than the yellow one.  Purple is my favorite color.  Let's see what's inside!

Hmm... looks fun!  Let's dig in.

A nice little family! :)  I don't know what makes Ken's head stain like that.  I've seen it many times.  Very unfortunate.  His hair is really a brownette shade instead of black.  Midge is in good shape but Barbie has green ear.  Still a nice bubble cut, though.

Hi, Barbie.

Lots of booklets, which always make me happy, even though I've seen them all so many times.

#942, Ice Breaker, in very good condition with a nice fluffy coat... but sans one skate.  The coat is not usually so white, so I feel lucky about that.

The PAK set with knit shorts and top... kinda racy!  You know, in all my years of collecting I never have picked one of these up.  I found out some stuff I didn't know about it!  First of all, the shorts are tagged, and lined with red fabric.  A really nice touch and really nice quality!  Secondly;

I truly didn't know the shorts had that cute little notch on the side.  What a cute detail!  

Hoo mama!  Where were you allowed to wear this in 1963?  

Barbie in Holland #0823, in very nice condition.  Missing the hat and socks, but I have the hat somewhere.  Really looks like it was hardly played with.  Travel pamphlet is also missing.

Ken in Holland #0777, missing shoes and socks, plus his bouquet of tulips, but honestly, near mint condition and looks unplayed with.  Travel pamphlet is also missing.

Theatre Date, #959, missing the shoes, and technically, the hat, which only was included in 1963, but not in 1964.  Again, very nice condition!

Miscellaneous Ken items.  Some not in very good shape, except for the white pants, which are minty.  The little swim trunks came with a snorkeling PAK but none of the other items are here.  White pants likely go with the sweater (Campus Hero, #770.)  Yellow shirt, tan slacks, and stripey socks are from Casuals (#782).  Sweater is often full of moth holes like that.  There's also a clone version of it that looks nearly the same.

Ken clone items.  A clone of his bathrobe, a really nice jacket I haven't identified yet and a nice shirt.    The shirt is well made and marked British Colony of Hong Kong.  The shirt, and maybe the pants, likely belongs to Babs doll's boyfriend, Bill, an outfit called "Sports Ensemble."  The robe is also probably Bill's, a shameless copy of Ken's.  It was called "Beachcomber."

There's a clone Ken top... on the right, compared to the actual Ken top on the left.

 Ballerina, #989, great condition, missing the small accessories.

Solo in the Spotlight, #982.  Dress is a bit of a mess, none of the small things are here, but glad to have the microphone.

Movie Date (#933) and After Five (#934), not in great shape.

Cruise Stripes (#918) in excellent shape but no belt!

Pretty clone Barbie outfits.

Interesting little set.

Interesting and cute lingerie set!

More clone stuff

This clone swimsuit is one of my faves, sold on numerous clone dolls.  It's often called the "Fashion Queen Clone" swimsuit, because of it's design and the included headwrap.  Also it was sold on wig-head clones.

Handmade coat.

I'm nuts about this clone of Evening Splendor.  Jacket isn't included here, but I have one somewhere.

Fits really snug, but snaps instead of a zipper like in the Barbie versions.

Random stuff found in the drawers.

Midge advertising insert.

Pak hanger and some clone shorts also found in the drawers.

Also, there was definitely once a "BARBIE FAN CLUB" sticker over the K of KEN.  Maybe someone whished they had a Barbie case instead, haha.

Here's the clone robe next to the real thing, you can see how different the tailoring is.

Oh well, that's all for now!

Barbie Bench Mystery

 

What if I told you the much-coveted Barbie Susy Goose piano got reborn as a cake topper?  Would you believe me?  Well, it's true!

This whole blog entry started a few months ago.  I was assisting in cleaning out the house of a family friend.  This friend died, age 99 years old.  In a dirty old box full of flower pots in her garage, I found this:

   Huh.  A Barbie Susy Goose bench?  Sure looks like it.  But.. um.. it's a little weird.  One, my friend was 99 years old.  Two, she didn't have any daughters.  Three, no children had lived in the house for decades.  Four, no other Barbie stuff or even toys were in the house.  Also.. it just didn't look right.

When I got it home, I examined it next to known a Susy Goose bench.

Hum... well they look pretty similar, but look closer:

Same size.. same basic shape... the plastic feels different though...

Susy Goose Barbie bench has no marks.

The gold bench is marked "WILTON-CHICAGO 60643 W 808 MADE IN"  Note that it says "Hong Kong," but the "Hong Kong" appears to have been scratched out of the actual mold.

Well!  That got me really curious.  Wilton?  Like cakes?  Whut?

So I started Googling.

Turns out, Wilton made a piano-shaped cake topper.  Turns out, this cake topper was 100% made from the parts of the Susy Goose piano.  Don't believe me yet?  Keep reading!

Here are the two piano tops compared to each other.  Pretty much the same, though obviously different plastic and different levels of painting.

The piano legs are also very similar, though I can't 100% tell since I don't have one in person.

Here are the two pedal assemblies next to each other.  Again, they look pretty much the same, just with a different method of attaching to the piano itself.

Here's the detail of the Wilton bench's feet.

Here's a close up of the legit Susy Goose bench's feet.  The molding is much cleaner, but there is less gold detail.

Here they are together from the top.  If you ripped the fabric off of the Susy Goose bench, you would find a similar molded piece of plastic underneath, though it would be white.

Here is a close up of the differences in molding.  You can see the Wilton Cake Topper bench is much cheaper.  The plastic is also a much cheaper weight and feels more brittle.  It just feels "cheap."

Anyway, I have seen this gold bench being sold as a legit Susy Goose product, or even as the Susy Goose piano bench!  It is NOT!   If you buy this bench, please do not pay whatever you'd pay for a Susy Goose piano.  It is knock-off.

However, that being said, of course it displays perfectly fine with Barbie and is an excellent replacement.  Just don't pay a Susy Goose price for a Wilton product.

Here's what the Wilton cake topper looks like in full.  I think you used a Wilton piano-shaped cake pan and put it in-between the top and bottom of the plastic piano pieces?  I don't know.  I couldn't find any other pieces of it in my friend's garage.  The candle sticks look like they might resemble the Susy Goose ones as well.

ANYWAY, there you have it.... no matter how long you collect you're always going to find some new weird thing.

Lastly, I can't speculate as to how this happened.  This cake topper came out in the early-to-mid 1970s.  Susy Goose was out of business by then, I think.  They hadn't made furniture for Barbie for years at that point.  I don't know what happened to their molds, patents, files, or anything like that, or how it might have migrated to Wilton and whoever designed this thing.  Who knows?!  

If anyone out there can share more insight, please do!  Information on Susy Goose online is hard to come by, except that it was registered as a trademark in 1941 by someone named Paul Jones.  THIS ARTICLE says Susy Goose liquidated in 1970, so I'm guessing that would be exactly the time Wilton acquired the molds.  They apparently moved production to Ohio in 1967, shortly before going out of business.

Apparently the original Susy Goose factory was in Jonesville, Michigan, under the name of "Kiddie Brush & Toy Company," founded in 1927. (and HERE is the Wikipedia article about the building.)  I didn't know that Susy Goose products were made in the United States, I assumed they were made overseas like (most) Barbie dolls.  That also makes it more interesting that the Wilton bench was (probably?) made in Hong Kong.

Are the molds still out there somewhere?  Could some toy company make repro Barbie accessories?  Are they floating around?  Does Wilton have them?  Wilton, are you out there?  Can you make me a Susy Goose piano?

SO STRANGE.  Has anyone else ever noticed this, or am I the first one?