Disney Japanese Pocket Puzzle to Enrage and Delight

And now for something completely different: drive yourself mad with a Disney-themed interlocking pocket puzzle, sold online at ThinkGeek.com.

The puzzles are based on the classic mechanical games involving two interlocking pieces which must be separated - only this time you are offered motivation from the Magic Kingdom: help Alice navigate the Red Queen's maze, extract Winnie the Pooh from Rabbit's hole, separate Minnie and Mickey (?...).

The vendors says that the puzzles are intended for adults - "kids might be pretty frustrated," by which I think they mean they will be quiet for hours (good), right until the point they pitch the thing through the passenger side window (bad).

Tiny Tea Set for Tiny Tea-Parties

Sugar with your tea? One grain or two? Bas Bleu, online retailer of gifts and accessories for readers, is selling this miniature tea set decorated with quotes and illustrations from Disney's Alice in Wonderland ($55).

The teapot is 2 1/2 inches high, which is perhaps a little undersized for a truly mad tea-party, but may yet appeal to a small friend or caffeine-loving teddy bear.

Novelty Cards from Blue Barnhouse with Tenniel Illustrations & witty captions

Twenty new cards from Blue Barnhouse called "A Weekend With Alice" re-interpret Sir John Tenniel's classic Alice illustrations with irreverent captions. There's also others with the same trick using Oz and other retro illustrations. Available for $5 a pop at the Blue Barnhouse online store.

There's also four in their Drug department (not just making the obvious jokes, they're pretty left-field. The illustration of the White Rabbit with trumpet & scroll is captioned "Somebody hold my MFA so I can light this thing.")

Minnie Maria Mad Tea Party

Minnie Maria (see previous post Rackham Alice Miniatures) has come up with a new batch of minatures: the entire Mad Tea Party.

Rackham Alice miniatures

LCSNA member Joel Birenbaum sends the following message:

"Minnie Maria, an English company, is producing a set of Alice miniatures based on the superb illustrations of Arthur Rackham. To my knowledge this is the first time this has been done. The figures are hand-painted pewter and are of a very high quality. The first figures have been produced and are of two scenes: Alice encounters the White Rabbit, and Alice and the Caterpillar. The Caterpillar and the mushroom are separate pieces that fit together quite well and are priced at GB£31 for the pair. They stand approximately 3" tall [A very good height indeed!]. The Caterpillar is a great representation of Rackham's drawing. The Alice (when she is small) that goes with this scene is 1.5" tall and costs GB£17. The White Rabbit is 2" tall and is magnificent, with his coat flared out as if he was speeding on his frenetic way. Don't be late, he is GB£20. The compatible Alice for this scene is about 1.75" tall. They all come in a variety of color combinations. The next scene to come is the Mad Hatter's Tea Party. I can hardly wait!

Now for the good news, if we purchase a sufficient quantity, we will get a 25% discount. Understand that these items are heavy and shipping is expensive. For now, figure that the total price to you will be a 10% discount, but will include all shipping. If our order is large, the savings will be a little more, as shipping from the U.K. to the U.S. will be fixed price. Note that this is a limited time offer."

To see the figures, for further details, to order, and to contact Joel, please go to http://collectalice.home.comcast.net/~collectalice/maria.html.

No pig baby?!

Charles Stephan and Elf Doll will be releasing a new set of "Cherry Blossom" figures. Alice, Billie, Edward, Victoria, Ian and Julia are all dressed up as various characters from Alice in Wonderland.

I'm there!

Estate Sale: Alice in Wonderland collection for sale, including books, tea sets, dolls, collectibles, jewelry, and ephemera. Saturday, April 19, 9am - 4pm; 5806 Ruddy Duck Ct., in Stockton, California. More than 2,000 non-Alice books, plus furniture, framed artwork, china, clothes, and some antiques. This is the collection of the late Carolyn Buck, a long time Carroll/Alice collector. Most of the Alice books are from the last 30 years, but there are some older books as well. There are many Carroll biographies, including Life and Letters by Collingwood. Translations in German, French, Spanish, Greek ,and Slovenian, including a Slovenian translation of the Nursery Alice are up for sale. Halcyon and Kingsley enamel boxes plus ornaments, hand painted tee shirts, stamps, and much more. Address questions to Claudia Buck at buckpage@sbcglobal. net.

Little, Big

Well, let's have the big news first instead: The next LCSNA meeting will be in Washington, D.C. at the end of April, and all are welcome. More info here: www.lewiscarroll.org/meeting/2008spring/Spring08.pdf.

As for little, here's a few more bits and pieces of catch-up.

A survey of 400,000 people (though not specifically children) by Britain's Booktrust (www.booktrust.org.uk) finds that Alice in Wonderland is the tenth "best" children's book "of all time." www.booktrust.org.uk/show/feature/Home/Booktrust-news

At the recent toy fair in NYC, Tonner Dolls showed off the latest from the Alice collection, including, strangely enough, the Queens of Diamonds, Clubs, and Spades:
www.cooltoyreview.com/story/front/TF2008_Tonner_Alice_In_Wonderland_112558.asp
www.tonnerdoll.com/alice.htm. There is also an Alice-lookalike in Tonner's "Kickits" collection, titled "Hunting Rabbit": www.tonnerdoll.com/2007Images/TONNER%202007/Kickits/KI3.jpg.

And slightly late for those of you in the U.K. crowd, child heroes including Alice and Peter Pan make an appearance in "The Worlds of Fantasy," a three-part series starting on Wednesday 27th February (tonight), BBC4, at 9 p.m. with probable repeats.