Marx March Hare Nodder

Second and final nodder from Marx featuring an Alice character is this March Hare. The design of this nodder is superior to that of the Mad Hatter as the March Hare is at least looking foward, whereas in the Mad Hatter it looks like he's staring off at someone's feet.

Marx Mad Hatter Nodder

Something new again, this time it is a true Marx item. A nodder. This little plastic guy is about 3 inches in height total when his head is fully up. As with most nodders it is all a matter of balance, with the fulcrum being a small loop in the back of his neck attached to the collar of his jacket. The overall design of these is pretty odd, makes it look like he's just thrown out his back.

Marx made several of these, mostly of the standard characters like Mickey, but for whatever reason they made two Alice characters including this Mad Hatter. Stay tuned for the other in a future post.

This item is currently available in the Wonderland Bazaar.

The Great Goebel Posting - Addendum

Walt's Office
A very kind reader sent in the photo below. It is Walt Disney's working office as taken at the studio in 1968. For those of you who visited Disneyland a lot (like me), this office resided in the pre-show area of Mr. Lincoln for years. I believe it is now located in Walt Disney World.

If you look closely at the window sill, you will notice the Queen and King nodders! For years I would stare at them in Mr. Lincoln (but for some reason never took a photo of them) wondering if I would ever see them in person. Well, I'm half way there! Thanks again kind reader for sharing this photo with me.

Labels
As mentioned in several posts I have not seen any named character labels on the Alice figures. But I have seen variations on the generic Walt Disney Character labels. The most frequently encountered is the round label.

There is also a scalloped edged label that I've seen on some of the nodders, and as hang tags


And on one occassion I've seen a rectangular label (on a Carpenter figure DIS 64 that I was unsuccessful in acquiring).


Catalog Pages
Here are the two Goebel catalog pages that illustrate the entire Alice series.



More Disney Goebels
And last but not least, for those interested in more Disney Goebel figures, I'm attempting to catalog every vintage Disney Goebel figure over at my other blog Random Neat Stuff.

Goebel DIS 97 - Walrus Nodder

The last of the nodders. In fact the last of the Disney nodders. During the writing of these posts I came to the realization that the ONLY nodders in the Disney series are of Alice characters. This is DIS 97, the third Walrus in the set. TOMART says "standing thick man with stick and cigar as rocking figure". You can see how if you didn't have pictures of the figures it would be difficult to identify who is who, the descriptions for the Tweedles and the Walrus are pretty similar.


This particular nodder suffered the previously mentioned wrecking ball syndrome. But, it is complete with only a couple of spots where there is loss at a repair site.

Goebel DIS 93 - Tweedle Nodder

We're entering the home stretch now. Up next are the 1952 nodders. First up is DIS 93, Tweedledee/dum. Unlike the figure, this is a single figure, which could be either of the twins. Rare enough that getting two to make a set is probably not worthwhile, nor likely in any short amount of time. TOMART says "standing thick man as rocking figure".

As with the other nodders, the same mechanism is used for the nodding action.

Goebel DIS 70 - King of Hearts Nodder

I apologize in advance for the crappy photo, this is one I got off the 'net as I do not have it in my collection. This is DIS 70, the King of Hearts nodder, the last of the 1951 series. TOMART lists it as "King as rocking figure".


Thus endeth the 1951 series.

UPDATE: I have recently acquired this piece, yay!

Goebel DIS 69 - Queen of Hearts Nodder

The elusive nodders. This is the first of two nodders released in the 1951 series, DIS 69, the Queen of Hearts. The TOMART translation reads "'Queen' as rocking figure".

The nodders have a very clever, and simple design. The head has a small rod descending down into the body cavity, at the end of which is a lead weight. At the 'neck' of the figure is a cross bar that rests in a groove set in the opening to the body cavity, and the lead weight acts like a pendulum. Clever.

But, with cleverness comes danger: If you 'nod' too hard, the clever little pendulum becomes a wrecking ball, shattering the body of the figure. Nice. Probably why these thing are so very scarce.