Introduction to Hatter Madness!

I was wondering what to do this year that would be especially tea-themed. I like upholding my brand, but series of tea dolls aren't the easiest to construct now that I've done the two directly tea-themed doll lines I'm interested in (LDD Series 23 and Monster High G3 Garden Mysteries). Then, I was struck by the fact that there were, in fact, multiple disparate dolls based on the Wonderland Hatter that were interesting to me, so why not make a loose series of that? 

The Hatter is one of the most iconic characters from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and headlines what is almost certainly its most iconic chapter-- "A Mad Tea Party". 

Alice, the March Hare, the Dormouse, and the Hatter as depicted by John Tenniel's iconic original artwork.

The Hatter is never actually referred to by Carroll specifically as the "Mad Hatter", but he is based on the Victorian idiom "mad as a hatter". The figure of speech arose from the trend of milliners (hatters) suffering from mental effects of poisoning due to using mercury in their trade. In the book, the Hatter is illustrated by John Tenniel with exaggerated proportions owed to Tenniel's work as a political cartoonist, thus lending the Hatter a huge head and hat. Alice clashes with the Hatter, finding him ruder than she expects adults to be (or ruder than adults want her to be) and he and his companions the March Hare and Dormouse sit at an eternal tea gone sideways, through proceedings which are baffling and quite entertaining. The Hatter later testifies to minimal effect at the Knave [Jack] of Hearts' trial. The charge (stealing tarts) comes directly from the pre-existing "Queen of Hearts" nursery rhyme which is quoted as evidence. 

The sequel book, Through the Looking-Glass, details a separate dream fantasy of Alice's that thus might be considered a separate world of characters, but the Hatter and March Hare seem to reappear through visually-similar figures called "Hatta" and "Haigha", as if their epithets have been pronounced by a phonetic English accent. ("Haigha" would be pronounced a bit like "Heya".)

Hatta and Haigha in front of the White King, Lion, Unicorn, and Alice in Through the Looking-Glass.

There are a good few Hatter dolls based upon licensed properties--Disney Store, Jakks Pacific, and collector Barbie a have their takes on the Johnny Depp/Tim Burton Disney Hatter, and I've owned some of his dolls from the former two previously.

Disney Store Hatter from the second film next to Jakks Hatter with a design based on the first. Disney Store had a good likeness and rooted brows, while Jakks was based on the character design I favored and had a favorable doll body in my eyes. His hair was the wrong shape and neither doll had the expression I wanted, so I brushed out and trimmed the hair and did a bad Sharpie repaint on the mouth. Some stock photos suggest brushing out the hair is meant to be done, though.

Another version of Jakks Hatter, with the factory paint and hair. The face is very painterly and antiquey but not accurate to the character's energy.

I think it happened that the best Depp Hatter doll was the one I never got, from a different brand! The Barbie licensed version based on the first film is really nice. He doesn't have wrist joints, but the same limitation didn't stop me from enjoying the Jakks editions.

I get really nostalgic for the old Jakks Burton Alice dolls, even though they're mildly crappy. I had a whole phase with them.

Jakks Alice not-quite-successfully rebodied onto a Made to Move Barbie.

This doll line had a Red Queen with an oversized head like the film...I mean, not quite; the film character is more distorted...but it was bigger than the other dolls' heads! An effort was made!

To match the second film's plot, the crown was assigned to the White Queen doll, though the Red Queen wore it in film one before being deposed.

The Disney Store Red Queens used Helena Bonham Carter's actual on-set proportions pre-VFX, at least as far as head:body ratio. Not sure if this is excusable as portraying the character before (or possibly after; does it get cured?) her time with a giant head or if this is just flatly inaccurate, but both Disney Store dolls of the character, in separate outfits, have more proportional head sizes.

I'd absolutely get the Jakks Hatter and Red Queen again, and maybe I will at some magic moment when my focus allows it and the Red Queen's current prices don't deter. I adore these character designs. I have no love for the films at large!

Maybe my answer is actually the Tonner Red Queen doll. She's the only other doll of the character with an oversized head, plus hers is larger proportionally than the Jakks doll's, the doll is fancier, and she has her crown from the first film.

Tonner also has a Hatter from the film, but I don't like it more than the Barbie edition. It does have a fabric hat, though. Tonner also did a highly stylized cartoon version of the design which I don't love. 

There are also dolls based upon the classic 1951 animated Disney Hatter, though I think the only jointed plastic doll is the Barbie Kelly and Tommy set with Tommy dressed like the Disney character.

I'm not discussing any of these in this project. Reviews of any of licensed Hatter doll would be predicated on faithfulness to a specific adaptation of Carroll, and I'm interested here in design adaptations which were created for dolls--designs of the Hatter fully original to the dolls depicting them.

I thought of reviewing dolls in order of relevance to my hobby's history, then in order of historical release, but as I've thought about my candidates more, I think I want to spread this project out over the year and review the dolls as they suit the time. I'll still remain mostly chronological, but some of these Hatters are spring and summer while others are very clearly autumn to me, so one of my picks will be shifted out of chronology to suit the passage of this year. As such, not every single month will feature a Hatter post as this project goes on. I expect that April, May, and June will have posts to capitalize on the springier/summery Hatters I've picked, while the series will resume and conclude in October and November to cover the autumnal choices.

Also, while most of these Hatters have a designated Alice or Alice figure in their collections, I didn't expend the effort and budget toward getting Alices to match them all for photos. I'll use the Alices I already have for the Hatters who match them, but that's it. Also, one Hatter, while not adapting the 1959 Disney Alice character, technically only matches the 1959 Disney Alice, which breaks my logic a bit. You'll see. (I know, I know: Logic? In my Wonderland? Just let me have this; it makes it easier!)

My first review will be ready soon, but I thought this prelude was a tad lengthy and added to a preponderance of "discussion of dolls not in this project" that the first post already features, so I'll leave this intro here!