Dollhouse Dolls
July 1, 2019 6:23 PM   Subscribe

For her 3rd birthday, Nano McGee is getting a Melissa & Doug castle dollhouse from grandma. It comes with a couple dolls and a couple horses; I wanted to add some more characters to it. THIS APPEARS IMPOSSIBLE. Help me find some?

It is this castle, dolls are apparently in the neighborhood of 3.5" - 4". We do have some peg people who can move into the castle, but I was hoping to get some preschooler-appropriate knights and ladies and outlaws and that kind of thing, that aren't so deep in the uncanny valley I'll be afraid of them coming to life and murdering me in my sleep, but also don't cost $40/doll. They don't have to match the M&D dolls (I mean, peg people are moving in), but I would like them to be the right size for the castle. (Also, the few sets I've found that have been the wrong size have been like four boy knights and two boy wizards, and that's a big nope, we need some gender-parity knights happening here.) Halp?
posted by Eyebrows McGee to Shopping (12 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
What is the measurement from the floor of one of the inside rooms to the ceiling? It seems like it’s maybe 1:18 scale from what you’re saying maybe?

What size were the ones that didn’t work?
posted by corb at 6:29 PM on July 1, 2019


How about Playmobil people? They have some knights and Medeival and fairytale sets, and a lot of the gear is interchangeable so maybe a female character can wear some armor even if they don’t make a female knight (I don’t know this is the case; we don’t have any knights, but the doctor stuff in the hospital we got can be traded around so you’re not stuck with a male doctor and female nurse). A lot of Playmobil stuff is too tiny for a 3 year old, but the figures should be OK. Only about 3” tall, though.
posted by Kriesa at 6:52 PM on July 1, 2019 [2 favorites]


I did a Google search for 4-inch dolls that turned up several sets.

I have seen sets in educational catalogs that have diverse dolls of various sizes. Look under educational toys.
posted by emjaybee at 6:53 PM on July 1, 2019


We had a Melissa and Doug castle and Playmobil was pretty well-scaled to its size. There are lots of Playmobil fantasy and medieval folks, many with Prince Valiant haircuts that we referred to with female pronouns (and actual women too, but the hair got us nearly to parity.) depending on the kid you might want to set the tiniest pieces aside but the people themselves should be fine.
posted by tchemgrrl at 7:54 PM on July 1, 2019 [2 favorites]


Yeah, Playmobil is the first thing that came to my mind. Pint-sized praemunire waged many a battle with them.
posted by praemunire at 8:35 PM on July 1, 2019 [1 favorite]


Don’t know how helpful this will be but my daughter is the same age and has a little tykes dollhouse which came with four dolls. She has lots of Fisher Price little people like this and they all go in the dollhouse. I got her these Daniel Tiger toys for her birthday and they all go in the dollhouse. So I wouldn’t sweat trying to find toys that fit the dollhouse. As long as they’re not too big, she’ll probably still be into it.

Also, my daughter picked this out at the library and it’s kind of sweet.
posted by kat518 at 9:07 PM on July 1, 2019 [1 favorite]


Plenty of doll ideas - your post reminded me of the Jane and the Dragon tv series which might be interesting to your kiddo in a little bit. Lots of day-to-day castle life.
posted by childofTethys at 9:11 PM on July 1, 2019


I concur that playmobile would work well, they have a few medieval knight sets.
posted by katypickle at 5:12 AM on July 2, 2019


Maybe these, from Pottery Barn? They appear to max out at 5" tall, so should be roughly the same size as the Melissa and Doug dolls. I can confirm that Playmobil figures will work; we have a similar M&D folding castle with a Playmobil king and queen who occasionally take over the throne. I'll also add that appropriate sizing of castle residents seems to matter way more to me than to my kid; generally at least one turret of the castle is filled with tiny Shopkins, and very large stuffed tigers occasionally try to squeeze in past the drawbridge.
posted by Jemstar at 8:32 AM on July 2, 2019


Response by poster: Sounds like Playmobil is the easiest to get my hands on quickly, so I've ordered a handful of Playmobil dudes (knights, witches, fairies, peasants) to start the whole thing off. (I love those pottery barn ones!) Thanks! Still totally open to hearing more sources if you know of any others, we tend to get a base toy and then collect additions to it so I imagine more dudes will be moving into the castle over time.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 9:48 AM on July 2, 2019


Personalized peg people can be found on etsy. So very cute and in very sizes.
posted by tipsyBumblebee at 9:07 PM on July 2, 2019


There are is an additional set of royal family dolls available. Also another set. And a set of horses.
posted by Altomentis at 4:27 PM on July 3, 2019


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