A Spy in the Wild, Techno BJDs, Hollie Hobbies on Little House

Here is a little doll pourri of things that might interest us during this trying time.  A Spy in the Wild is a PBS show about animal automatons fitted with cameras.  They are sent out to wild habitats to film animals that before, could often not be filmed at all.  Some of the animal robots included a Komodo dragon, a wild big, tiger cub, polar bear cub, salmon, all kinds of flying birds, a sea turtle,crabs, all sort of wild things.    Wouldn't we love one for the museum!  So far, the wild pig was destroyed by a predator, but the others seem to function.  For more, go to PBS.org.


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I've mentioned before that Little House on the Prairie with Melissa Gilbert often features dolls.  In an episode where Mary Ingalls has a crush on a Carnival performer, tiny rag dolls are used as carnival tramps in a game of chance.  The prize?  A Knickerbocker Hollie Hobbie rag doll, contemporary when the show was made!!

Public Domain image

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April 2019 Doll Castle News magazine features The Smart Doll.  This is a doll that "designed and manufactured in Japan-utilizing modern 3D prototyping technologies together with traditional casting techniques called 'slush casting. ' (Nance DCN 26). This vinyl 1/3 scale doll with Manga looks is stylish and collectible, but she also lets you charge your phone, MacBook, and store 2TB data (Nance DCN 26).  The doll called  Mirai has become the official tourism mascot for Malaysia and Japan.  Apparently, she has been around since 2013.   DCN is an excellent magazine for doll collectors.  Please visit their site, and consider subscribing.  For almost fifty years, they have served the needs of doll collectors at all levels, writing about all kinds of dolls. My friend, the late Stephanie Hammonds who was an artist also created paper dolls for them.  Other noted paper doll artists and authors are Diana Vining, currently with The Virtual Doll Convention, and noted artist and author R. Lane Herron.

https://shop.smartdoll.jp/

Smart Doll, Public Domain