Saturday, April 11, 2009

The Big Book of Sasha Memorabilia: 1. Catalogs

The Big Book w/Angela for scaleHi Folks, I've been thinking on introducing you to MamaT's Sasha memorabilia book for sometime, but it is so big and so overwhelming I haven't dared begin it. Finally, it occurred to me that I should take it more like eating an elephant, and just do one chunk of it at a time. At last, it seems doable to tackle it. The memorabilia book started in a one inch binder, but it soon outgrew that, so now it has expanded to a two inch binder, and quite frankly, it has maxed that one out, and she really should upgrade again. You see here we put Angela in the photo for scale. We scanned in a Sasha poster for the cover as the poster won't fit in the binder.

Hmmm. I can't explain to you why this photo loaded sideways. The thumbnail is not sideways. It was not even taken sideways and later flipped. This goes beyond my techno-skill. I am only a doll after all. Click the photo for a closer view. sideways Trendon catalogs
Our first memorabilia topic is the catalogues. I'll spell it the English way since that is where they were printed. We have two sets, Trendon Catalogues from the 70s & 80s and Götz catalogues from the 90s and early 2000s. First, about the Trendon catalogues. The oldest catalogue we've seen is from about 1969 and has a Sasha lying comfortably in the grass. That is probably the catalogue that would have come with me, and it is one catalog we don't have. The next catalog has the black and white photo cover, leaflet #7 from 1973. Apologies for the flash glare in the photo. We thought we got one without glare, but it turned out too blurry, and we were too lazy to do the whole set up again. This catalogue features both blonde and brunette versions of Sasha in gingham, Gregor in Denim (having a bit of a tussle), babies in nightdresses and babies in overalls (dungarees) called the playsuit. The blonde babies were boys and the brunnette babies girls and were subtly sexed until 1978. There is also Cora in white knit, Caleb in his khaki pants and a black baby girl in white cotton suit with red trim. As in all of the catalogs, there are also a variety of outfits for sale.

Below that (also in the glare) is catalogue or leaflet #12 from 1975. It includes a nice photo inside of the boys playing soccer while the girls look on. The dolls are all pictured on the cover, but since you can't see it well, I'll tell you it has all the same dolls shown on the cover of the leaflet #14 from 1976 which is directly to the right of the 1973 catalog in my photo. Below the 1976 catalog is catalogue #17 from 1979. You can see a few newcomers on the cover of this issue. This is the photo MamaT has a poster of. All the catalogues beginning with the 1979 issue have a photo of Sasha Morgenthaler on the back. We also have a sheet with hair care instructions for Sasha that came with the dolls.

In January 1980 a one page leaflet was printed showing new dolls playing on a slide. This is when the black dolls were changed to a warmer skin tone. For that matter, the fairer skinned dolls were lightened at the same time. Another leaflet printed in September 1980, pictures Sasha Morgenthaler and tells her story on the back. The catalogue #18, printed in October 1980 features the honey blonde silk dress on the cover. Baby Sandy and the brunette Marina doll are also introduced in this issue. In January 1982 a leaflet identified as supplemenmt to catalogue #18 was printed featuring the new dolls, Gregor Redhead cord, Sasha blonde sweater (with short hair) and baby bear. Catalogue #23 was printed in November 1982 and introduces Sasha brunette dancing dress and baby Rosie with honey hair (on the cover). Baby nest replaces baby nightdress here too. Also printed in 1982 was a booklet entitled Where do Sashas come from? It has a photo of the factory on the cover, and explains the manufacturing porcess--very interesting.

Catalogue #25 from 1983 features school boy Gregor and school girl Sasha on the cover. The black baby, Little Flower is replaced by baby Cara, in a pink plaid dress. This catalogue also shows some of the limited edtion dolls, 1981 Velvet, 1982 Pintucks, 1983 Kiltie and 1984 Harlequin. The last issue we have is catalogue #27 from 1985 featuring Sasha blonde tunic, redhead baby Ginger, and Sasha honey blonde party on the cover. Inside, Cora in the flower dress is replaced by Cora in a blue cord dress and 1985 Prince Gregor is added to the limited edition dolls. The small leaflet #31 was also printed in 1985. It is Sasha in motion and features photos of Sasha dolls in a whole series of different poses. And now that is likely more detail on Trendon catalogues then you ever wanted to know. We notice we are missing a lot of issue numbers, but we haven't seen many other catalogues issues besides these available on the internet. A few of these are available on Carol Zody's site or you can just watch for them on Ebay.

Gotz catalogs

And now I am almost burned out on writing and tempted to leave the Götz catalogues for another entry. This part should be shorter though. I will just briefly list who is in each catalogue. There are two catalogues from 2001 which are not Sasha specific, but feature many specialized Götz dolls. By the way, we don't have any Götz catalogues from the 1960s. The recent set is available from Dorisanne Osborn. The last item pictured is a wrist tag booklet that came with Angela. The other “modern” dolls had similar booklets. The limited edition dolls also had their own booklets.
1995: Angela, Maria, Gregor
1996: Laura, Maria, Lilly, Gregor, David, Angela; babies, Patrick, Celina, Andrea
1997: Lilly, David, Barbara, Maria, Muriel, Luisa, Laura; babies Celina, Christina, Patrick, Lukas, Claudia
1998: Luisa, Sarah, Anna, Alberto, Babette (like 1997's Barbara); babies Bianca, Max, Lukas, Claudia, Christa (like 1997's Christina)
1999: Annett, Marina, Trudi, Alice, Alberto; babies Linda, Toni, Jeanine, Bianca, Max
2000: Kyra, Marina, Daniela, Michel, Sofie, Stella, Wibke; babies Julia, Felix, Viktoria, Lena, Karin, Matti, Stine; toddlers Esther, Ollie
2001a: (fair brunette on cover) Ivette, Carmen, Anika; toddlers Iona, Erik; babies Lars, Simon, Meike. Also has dolls by Sylvia Natterer, Hildegard Günzel (Kinderland), Pampolina, Beatrix Potter, and other Götz dolls.
2001b: (Indian doll on cover) Yamka, Ira, Allan, Leon; toddlers Elke, Claudius; babies Lena, Irka, Alek, Like Also features dolls by Susi Eimer, Joke Grobben, Tara Heath, Ulrike Hutt, Didy Jacobsen, Elisabeth Lindner, Carin Lossnitzer, Sissel BjØrstad Skille, Sylvia Natterer, Götz faces, Principessa, and Welcome to the World collections.

I am so sorry for rattling on so long, but I can't leave you without a link for the day. Today's is by Jesse in New Zealand, Sasha Morgenthaler's grandson, about the adventures of his Gregor doll, Angelo.
http://www.picturetrail.com/angelos_world

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