GingerDolls
In English

NK OG SPECIELLE NK GINGER-DUKKER
NK AND SPECIAL NK GINGER DOLLS

Billeder nederst på siden/Pictures at the bottom of the page

Har man haft lejlighed til at se det sidste Ginger-katalog udgivet i Sverige (1961), har man måske undret sig over, at dukkerne ser lidt underlige ud. Det er der en god forklaring på! Jeg var så heldig at få fat på en af disse dukker, og hun er fint mærket Ginger i nakken, men ansigtet er ikke Gingers, kroppen endnu mindre! Faktisk ligner hun til forveksling den dukke, firmaet Uneeda producerede og solgte, dels under eget navn som en Janie, dels som en Kellogg's kupondukke. Det var noget af en overraskelse! Og hun er ingen enlig svale, for jeg har skaffet endnu en, til en ven i USA, endda i original æske. Der er højst sandsynligt tale om en speciel svensk forteelse; Ginger har måske været så populær en artikel for NK, at man ikke har ønsket at skulle stoppe legen, da Cosmopolitan ikke længere kunne levere varen, og har i stedet truffet aftale med en anden leverandør. Det er i hvert fald en mulig forklaring. Men dukken er jo altså mærket, og min vens dukke lå i en af de sædvanlige Ginger-æsker ... Måske det er Cosmopolitan selv, der har leveret denne Uneeda Ginger?
Men mysteriet bliver så ikke mindre af, at jeg efterfølgende har fået endnu en dukke med samme ansigt, også mærket Ginger i nakken - men med Ginger-krop! Jeg troede først, der var tale om en sammenflikket dukke: at nogen havde sat et af de nye hoveder på en gammel Ginger-krop. Men kort tid efter så jeg en dukke magen til i sin velsagtens originale æske, en tilsyneladende helt normal Ginger-æske, men på denne æske var det ikke Cosmopolitan, der var anført som producent, det var Active Doll Company, som ellers stod primært for Mindy-dukken, som kunne være såvel en Ginger- som en Virga-klon.
Der er med andre ord i NK solgt 2 forskellige sene Ginger-dukker, som man ikke kender fra dukkens hjemland USA. Hvad er den rigtige historie bag? Det mysterium får vi nok aldrig opklaret. Men der er billeder af dukkerne længere nede på siden.

Andre leverandører var der i det hele taget mange af i NK's Ginger-sortiment.
Der blev solgt kopitøj til Ginger under navnet Peggy. Der var også en Peggy-dukke, helt i hård plast. Hvem fremstillede hende og tøjet? Det er sandsynligt, at produktionen var rimeligt lokal, Peggys sko var mærket 'Lille venn', hvilket jo er norsk. Hun ligner også en norsk dukke fra samme tid ved navn Eva. Men igen mangler vi mange oplysninger. Jeg har fået kontakt til en Peggy-samler, som vil forsøge at skaffe de manglende oplysninger, så måske en dag vi får lidt bedre kendskab til Peggy.
Gingers babydukke-lillesøster fra NK er heller ikke den rigtige Baby Ginger, ikke engang den, der blev solgt som kupondukke af Kellogg's. Den babydukke, NK solgte, er mærket Pamette, hun er derfor fra Fortune Toys, Inc., som også lavede Ninette, Jeanette og Pam. Meget tyder på, at Cosmopolitan og Fortune Toys var tæt knyttede til hinanden, der er også så mange lighedspunkter i tøjet til Ginger og Pam, at Fortune-tøj ofte sælges som umærket Ginger-tøj.
Desuden blev der især efter 1958 solgt tøj til Ginger (og Little Miss Ginger) i Sverige, som kun kendes fra de svenske kataloger, ikke fra de amerikanske. De første år med behørigt mærke og korrekt tryklås, siden uden mærke og med anden tryklås. De senere produceret af hvem?

Der er stadig meget at finde ud af for hvem, der har lyst.


Anybody who has had the chance to study the last of the Swedish NK Ginger catalogs (from 1961) may have wondered that the dolls look a bit odd. Now I know why! I had the good fortune to get hold of one of these dolls, and she turned out to be marked Ginger on her neck all right, but her face and even more so her body is totally different from Ginger's. In fact she seems identical to the doll produced by Uneeda and sold as their own Janie or as a Kellogg's advertising doll. What a surprise! And it's not just this one single doll. I also got a boxed one for a friend in the US. Ginger was BIG in Sweden, and a possible explanation could be that NK was not willing to give up on Ginger when Cosmopolitan was no longer able to deliver the goods. So NK found another manufacturer to buy dolls from. This might easily be the case. But on the other hand: the doll is marked, and my friend's doll was boxed in one of the usual Ginger boxes ... Maybe Cosmopolitan somehow was responsible for getting this doll on the Swedish market? We may never get a solution to this mystery.
But the mystery deepens with the finding of yet another new Ginger type in Sweden. Her face is just like that of the doll described above, but her body is a regular Ginger body! When I first saw her, I thought somebody had put one of the new heads on an old Ginger body, but since then I have seen another doll just like her, and this doll came with what must be her original box. The manufacturer given on this box was not Cosmopolitan, it was Active Doll Company. This company sold Mindy, who was found as a Virga clone or a Ginger clone.
So NK marketed two different Ginger types not found in the US! It would be very interesting to learn the hows and whys and whos of all this, but I don't suppose we ever shall. Pictures of these dolls are posted at the bottom of this page.


On the whole, NK seems to have contracted with other suppliers for Ginger-related items quite a lot.
Clothes were sold under the name of Peggy. There also was a Peggy doll, made of all hard plastic, wigged. I have no information about her manufacturer, but she looks very similar to a Norwegian doll by the name of Eva. Further, her shoes are marked 'Lille venn', which is Norwegian for 'Little Friend'. I found a Peggy collector who is very eager to find out about this doll and her clothing, so maybe some day we'll know more about Peggy.
Ginger's baby sister from NK is not the real Baby Ginger, either - not even the variation sold as a Kellogg's advertising doll. The doll sold by NK is marked Pamette, so she seems to be from Fortune Toys, Inc., who also manufactured Ninette, Jeanette and Pam. Cosmopolitan and Fortune Toys seem closely connected, e.g. many Pam and Ginger outfits are almost identical, and those from Fortune are often wrongly sold as untagged Ginger items.
Furthermore, not least after 1958 we see a lot of outfits for Ginger (and Little Miss Ginger) that are not documented in the US. The last US Ginger catalog is from 1958, but the last Swedish one is to my knowledge from 1961. The first years these outfits were tagged and had the proper snaps, but the later outfits are untagged and have a different snap. I wonder who made these dresses?

Sådan ser den først fundne dukke, Uneeda-typen, ud; dette er min vens dukke
This is what the doll first found, the Uneeda type, looks like; this is my friend's doll

Min egen første dukke, som er samme type, ses ved at klikke på billedet/My own first doll (same type) can be seen by clicking on this picture:



Min dukke af type nr. 2 ses ved at klikke på dette billede/My doll type #2 can be seen by clicking on this picture:



Og her er begge typer NK-Ginger side om side/And here are the two variations of the NK Ginger side by side:


>


(Ses bedst i Firefox/Best viewed with Firefox - 1024 x 768) Til toppen/Top of page
Opdateret d. 1.3.2014
InternetExplorer6 og tidligere er ikke understøttet/IE6 and earlier not supported