You might remember meeting the Renwal family here nearly three years ago. It's hard to forget these frightening plastic dollhouse figures. My mother's fairly enviable collection of Renwal includes just three people: the Scary Mom, Scary Dad and Scary Daughter. I saw them staring out at me from inside a plastic bag Friday morning, which is what initially caught my attention and led to the purchase of this dollhouse. Most of the items that came with the dollhouse were by other makers, but there was enough Renwal to make me happy. There was a Renwal baby buggy and two Renwal babies, who look remarkably cheerful given the family into which they were born. And given the fact that unlike the rest of the family, they are entirely unclothed.
Despite their unhappy expressions and terrible paint jobs, the figures are well made and can sit down and stand up. Clearly all of the time and effort went into making their complicated jointed knees, because the paint is just awful. Oddly, my newly acquired Renwal Dad has exactly the same paint job as my mother's Renwal Dad. It's as if someone instructed workers to dab a little blue paint on his nose and hairline.
My mom is going to be pretty jealous when she hears that I now have the Renwal Scary Son, because she doesn't. I'll have to find out if she had one and lost him, or if she never had one, and if so, whether she didn't want one, and whether that was because she might have had issues with her own brother. Sure, collecting dollhouse figures looks simple, but who knows what kind of family dynamics might be revealed? If the conversation gets too fraught, I'm just going to change the subject and mention that my Scary Daughter has a much worse paint job than her Scary Daughter.
Also, please notice that despite the fact they have a cute rocking chair and a very slick tricycle with moving pedals, both children look desperately unhappy. Kids these days. Or, actually, those days. They're never happy.
