Tent & Chair (2001-2003)

[Cheekadee]

Tent & Chair (2001-2003)



Grade: A

The Good:

Tent:
When constructed, this tent is large enough for two dolls. It has two windows that roll open or velcro close, and a double door that also opens. The colors coordinate well and are just nice and bright. The material quality is high, as usual.

Chair: Cute! The chair unfolds with a snap. What else is there to say?

The Bad:
Tent:
The six tent poles are not connected to one another and only pressure keeps them together. This makes the tent somewhat tricky to assemble. I can see a young child (say, around seven or eight) having issues and needing a parent's help.

Chair: If you don't center the doll right, the chair can fold in on itself - whoops!

Overall, I think this is a great project. However, from what I've seen, the OG tents are almost as good! Unless you're a completist, I wouldn't break my neck getting this retired on E-Bay when you can get a similar one for $15 dollars with a sleeping bag from target.

[green chile supergirl]

I've been meaning to write this review for a long, long time. Better late than never, right?

This was one of the items I've wanted as long as I've known about it. It came out when I was in college, but I remember looking at the catalogue and thinking how awesome the whole camping theme was.

So, on with the review:


One assembles the tent pretty much exactly like a human-sized tent. Though humans had largely moved on to external frame tents w/ clips, this one still uses the sleeve style. You take the six sticks, stick them together into to 2 longer sticks, slide them through the sleeves, and stick the ends in the little black dealie guys on the bottom corners of the tent proper.

Now, I bought my tent on eBay, so only two of the tent poles were still intact. You can see the intact poles on the left side of the tent- where the poles are gracefully curved instead of strangely jointed. It doesn't look like it would be that difficult not to break the poles, but if you're not familiar w/ pitching tents, I can see how it might be difficult- particularly because the plastic joint sections are not reinforced. I sat down and went at the poles with packing tape. This works, but is a bit unsightly. Also, it's not very practical to tape and untape a three foot section of plastic tubing, so I'm going to store them taped together with Kaya's teepee.


Two sides, opposite each other, have round entry holes. You can roll up the little "doors" and use the little bungie guys to keep them up. Not very accurate, but I think this makes a lot of sense. In a real tent, you'd want mesh over all the openings to prevent bugs from getting in, but this is a toy. Plus? It looks really cute when my cats sit in the tent with their heads poking out the holes.


This is what the round doors look like with the "doors" pulled down. They can velcro into place like this.


The third side of the tent is not an accurate replica of human tents, but it is *perfect* for playing with one's dolls. This side zips open down the middle into two panels, which can then be rolled off to the side and secured with more of the bungee guys. The black things on the lower edge are velcro- for velcroing this side of the tent shut. This is a definitely improvement over the Our Generation tents, which don't have sides allowing so much access. Great feature! (The non-broken pole is on the right in this picture, if you're keeping track.)


This is the fourth and final side of the tent. I think the fabric is supposed to be smooth and not oddly wrinkled, but I believe this is a side effect of my broken, taped-up tent poles. You can see the purple ribbon that goes all the way around the tent. It's adorable- it has little insects on it that match the Camping Outfit shoes.


This is the tent at an angle. The side directly facing the photo is the non-broken side.


And here's the interior. It's actually very roomy! One thing that is cool is the floor- like the rest of the tent, it's made of real tent material. The floor even has two sides, a right and wrong side, to keep out water- just like on a real tent! Awesome!

So, I give this tent at B-. I believe I've mentioned all the pluses already- the accessible doors and open side, the cute ribbon trim, the adorable bungee guys, and the accurate materials. I've docked the grade because the tent poles do seem easily broken because they are not reinforced. Almost all the tents I see on eBay have broken poles.

Additionally, it doesn't have a rainfly. This is probably nitpicky, but as a lifelong camper, I would really appreciate the dolls having a rain fly. It protects the actual tent from sun as well as rain. It wouldn't have been that hard to add little jump rings to each corner and stitch up a square piece of fabric for the fly.

So, overally, cute, and easy to store, because it rolls up into a nice, tidy little packet. However, w/ the broken poles, I have to keep them stored in their taped form, so that's kind of a pain.