We Made Some Ink! Washingtonian Magazine July 2022

Being residents of the greater DMV (that's DC, Maryland, Virginia for those not in the know), the Washingtonian is our version of New York Magazine or Los Angeles Magazine, with features on local interest, published monthly.  And this month has a one-page feature on the Alice collection, only 6 years in the making!  Pictures below of the cover and our single page, and then an annotated page.

In the photo below, the numbered its are:

1. Regal Mad Hatter Teapot
2. Gund Queen of Hearts Vinylite Stuffed Toy
3. Regal White Rabbit Creamer
4. Zaccagnini (Italy) Cheshire Cat Figure
5. Disneyland White Rabbit Press/VIP Gift from 1984 Attraction Re-Opening
6. Neevel Doll Wardrobe Case
7. Lars (Italy) Bill the Lizard Stuffed Toy
8. 1970s Disneyland Child's Sunglasses
9. National Leather Mfg Co Schoolbag
10. Madame Alexander Doll
11. Larceram (France) Lamp
12. Chad Valley (England) Nursery Play-Toy Tin Stacking Blocks
13. Unknown Tweedledee/dum String Holder (likely unlicensed)
14. Enesco Head Vase
15. Sni-Dor (Canada) Record Player
16. Goebel (Germany) Dodo Smoker Ashtray
17. Unknown (England) Meal Time Dish Set
18. Hassenfeld Bros (Hasbro) Nurse Kit
19. Linemar Mad Hatter's Sky-View Taxi Tin Friction Toy
20. US Time Watch in Teacup Box

Goebel DIS 084 Dinah - Color Sample (!)

It has been quite some time since I've posted here, and as the world has almost COMPLETELY changed it is not surprising.  But, during these crazy times I have still been on the lookout for new additions to the Tulgey Wood, and boy did I find a doozy.

This is the (already super rare) Goebel Dinah figure (DIS 084), but in test colors that are actually film correct!  That's right, the Goebel company actually create color samples of the Dinah figure in the correct colors, submitted them to Disney, and were rejected in favor of the incorrect black color.  One can only assume that at the time the color had not changed, or that the person in charge of approving these things did not know that the colors had changed and was relying on previously distributed color guides.  You can see my previous extensive post on the production version of this figure here.

The key to understanding this piece is the "MM" painted on Dinah's chest.  MM is the abbreviation Goebel used for "Malmuster", which translates (loosely) to Color Sample.

Note that this is a production ready piece, complete with standard Goebel markings on the underside of the figure.

It is unclear exactly how many of these kinds of color samples were made, presumably not very many.  They do turn up from time to time, but this is the first I've seen from the Alice set, and perhaps even from the Disney set as a whole - at least of the vintage 206 figures.

While it is unclear exactly what the origin of this piece is, it was included in a lot of other Goebels, some of which had the archive tag (plombe) attached, which leads me to believe this was part of the massive Goebel archive sale that took place in Germany back in early 2012 - which was the source of the Final Four of my collection.

Many thanks go to my friend Alfred Stumböck for his invaluable assistance in figuring out exactly what this figure is.

Dalla Magazine #1 1953 from Germany

From Germany comes this children's magazine I've not heard of before, Dalla.  Seems to be typical of the children's magazines of the times, very short stories on a variety of topics suitable for younger readers.

But wait, here is a one page article on Disney's Alice, complete with color photographs from the film.  All are pretty standard fare except the first, which is unusual and not familiar to me from any other publications.

The last picture too is unusual in that it has been reversed for publication.

Constanze from Germany - December 15th, 1952

This magazine from Germany features a cover with two ridiculously adorable children taking a bath...or are they?  Looks like perhaps these children were pasted into the picture based on hard crop lines in the bubbles.  Go figure.

Anyway.  This issue features your standard screenshots of the film with accompanying text, although I must say the color reproduction here is quite good.

How often do we see pictures of the bread and butterflies?  Not nearly often enough!

Stimme der Frau from Germany - January 26th, 1952

This is a German magazine, whose title loosely translates to Woman's Voice, from January 26th, 1952.  Inside is typical 1950s women's mag contents (recipes, fashion, etc)...

and this one page article with illustrations for Alice, including several comparisons between the Disney version and the Tenniel version.

Oddly, when I was trying to find information on this magazine, I came across an entry on the German wikipedia that mentions a magazine of the same title as being a communist women's magazine from Austria.  Based on the content of this magazine, I doubt it is the same :-)

Goebel Alice in Wonderland Full Set

Just because it is fun to see them all on one page, here is the full set. I promise I'll move on now...

DIS 58

DIS 59

DIS 60

DIS 61

DIS 62

DIS 63

DIS 64

DIS 65

DIS 66

DIS 67

DIS 69

DIS 70

DIS 71

DIS 84

DIS 85

DIS 87

DIS 88

DIS 89

DIS 90

DIS 91

DIS 93

DIS 97

DIS 106

DIS 107

DIS 108

DIS 110

The Final Four Goebel Figures - DIS 71 Dodo Smoker Ashtray

Last but not least, the fourth figure from the Final Four, DIS 71 (I saved it for last because it is my favorite).

The parade of ashtrays continues with our friend the Dodo, this time modeled as a figural 'smoker' ashtray.  This is cool because the cigarette would rest on his tail, and the lit end would extend into the body of the Dodo, and the smoke would rise and come out of his pipe!  That is a genius design.  Too bad I don't smoke.  Goebel made several different 'smoker' ashtrays, but this is by far the coolest, and apparently the rarest too!

The Final Four Goebel Figures - DIS 85 Dinah

Third in the Final Four is DIS 85.

This has got to be the most innocuous figure I've ever seen from Goebel, with the possible exception of the frog from the Bambi series.  I wrote a series of extensive posts on the question of 'is this Dinah' here and here, take a look at those for more details on why I believe this is indeed Dinah.  Again why two different Dinahs?

This photo illustrate a unique feature of the Final Four:  the Goebel Archive Tag.  What's that you may ask?  I'll tell you.

As some of you may recall, back in 2008 Goebel announced that they were closing and ceasing production.  They later sold off the Hummel division and the remainder of Goebel was purchased and both Hummel and Goebel continue to produce gift items, although independently.  But, as a result of the split and sale, the original factory, and the accompanying archive of figures, was sold off.  And these figures came from that sale.

Each figure from the archive is identified with one of these small metal tags or plombe (feels like aluminum), and to my knowledge there was only one of each figure in the archive, and perhaps not every figure was represented.  Luckily for me the four I needed were indeed in the archive!  The word 'archivmuster' loosely translates to 'archive specimen' (or sample or model), essentially the file copy of the figure.  The reverse says 'W. Goebel Oeslau', which was the name of the company and its location at the time the figures were made.

Several very rare figures from the archive have surfaced on eBay in the past 5 months, and I'm sure there are more to come.  It may be that for some of the rarer figures, the archive example may be the only known example.

The Final Four Goebel Figures - DIS 107 Tweedledee & Tweedledum Ashtray

Second of the Final Four, DIS 107.

As with both DIS 106 and DIS 108, this is just the DIS 65 figure on the generic ashtray base.  While I understand that smoking was extremely prevalent at the time, I fail to see the need for so many different ashtrays, and especially this one.  With all the other ashtrays in this set, the character is a smoker, but no so with these two.  Nit picky to be sure, but just sayin'

The Final Four Goebel Figures - DIS 108 Dodo Ashtray

The first of the Final Four is DIS 108, the Dodo ashtray.

As with the previously posted DIS 106, this is merely the Dodo figure from DIS 66 applied to a standard ashtray base.  This same base was used on many different ashtrays in the Goebel line.  Gotta love the 1950s when everybody smoked, when a Disney-themed ashtray was a good idea.

23 Years in the Making

Yesterday I received a package that completed a 23 year collecting odyssey.  I never in my wildest dreams imagined that I would one day be able to say this:  I have completed the Alice Wonderland set of Goebel figures! <insert fanfare music here>

It was a long road, that started when I found a copy of this Collector's Showcase magazine.

In the dark ages, before the World Wide Web, there were these constructions of paper issued on a periodic basis called 'magazines', and they covered a wide variety of topics.  This particular magazine was all about collecting, and this issue had a very interesting article.

This article was all about the Walt Disney Studio archive, and talked about what kinds of things the archive had with a few illustrations, including this one

This was my first image of an Alice in Wonderland Goebel figure.  And the hunt was on.

I have previously posted a large article on the Goebel figures here, I encourage you to read it.  Stay tuned over the next few days as I reveal the Final Four.

Marx Alice Holland Figure

As bizarre as this looks, it is indeed correct. This is a Holland figure, so named because the word Holland is stamped on the bottom. It is the same size and material as the SP figure from yesterday, and probably dates from around the same time. There are also versions with the word Germany. All the Holland figures have unusual paint jobs, totally different from their American cousins. Perhaps this color scheme is related to the weird colors in the RKO promotional materials from the 1951 original release.

German Alice im Wunderland - ein Großes Disney-Bücher

This lovely German book is a departure from the standard set of books we've seen before from overseas. Usually European publishers would simply re-publish the set of American books in the local language as we saw with the Little Golden Book, Big Golden Books, and Cozy Corner book.

This book does not follow that pattern. If fact, Germany only re-published two of the three Little Golden Books, and left the other two American books alone. This book is from the series of "Great Disney Books" or so Google Translate tells me. It was published in 1952 and was originally issued with a dust jacket as seen here. The book is fairly scarce on its own, but the dust jacket is rarely found. It took me 18 years to find a copy with a dust a jacket.

Some of the illustrations in this book are fantastic, like the two page flowers above and the caterpillar below. There are also some odd Alices in here as well...

There are some variants to this book, and you know I love variants! As I said previously it was first published in 1952, but there appear to be two variants from that year. The first is identified by the name of the publisher being hyphenated (seen here on the cover without its dust jacket)

and by the text on the copyright page.

Note that the final line is in English and says "Printed in Germany by K. G. Lohse Frankfurt am Main".

The second variant is identified by the publisher name not being hyphenated

and by the text on its copyright page.

Note that it is missing the final line and that the first line is in a different font or at least a different font weight.


While I'm sure these differences are ultimately meaningless, they bug the crap out of me. Why are these differences even present? Which one is truly the first edition? Was one printed specifically for Germany and the other printed for other German-speaking countries? Why do I even care?!

The final variant is a later printing, from 1967. It is easily identifed in several ways. First and most obvious is the spine is a yellow cloth rather than a red cloth. Second, the cover is glossy - or at least glossier - than the 1952 edition. Third, the name of the publisher has changed to Pestalozzi Verlag, which sounds vaguely Italian.

And finally, the back cover is completely different. On the 1952 edition the front and back covers are the same, but on the 1967 edition the back cover is bright red with the Walrus and the Carpenter peering down at the Oysters.

Whew. That was a lot longer post than I had originally intended... guess I'm a little too wrapped up in the details...

UPDATE: by request, some additional pages...