Toy Chest Tuesday! Rose Petal Place!

Oh the plight of the scented toy. Most of the time we are expected to enjoy sniffing a piece of plastic that smells like a sinful treat we know we shouldn't eat. For instance, I could never be friends with Strawberry Shortcake or Cherry Merry Muffin. Everything would smell like fresh baked goods and other yummy desserts, and I'd be like, "Are we going to eat dessert yet?" And Strawberry Shortcake would just roll her eyes and say, "Oh Miss M, you're smelling my hair. There are no real desserts, we're plastic." And then I'd just start gnawing on my arm from all the hunger. But on a side note, would being a zombie in Strawberryland be so much fun or what? Anyways, let's get on with this week's Toy Chest Tuesday!


As I have mentioned numerous times, I absolutely love scented toys. Scented-anything works for me, I love scented stickers, scented trading cards, scented dolls, just name it and I'm for it. So back during Strawberry Shortcake's first run, Kenner added another fun scented line of dolls to the toy world. These dolls didn't smell like food, instead, they smelled like flowers. Rose Petal Place came out in 1984 and they were the more sophisticated counterpart to the more down home Strawberry Shortcake. While Shortcake was busy baking and being a part of the county fair, Rose Petal was busy having tea and looking down at anyone who smelled of high fructose corn syrup.
Let's check out the dolls!

Rose Petal

The dolls were slightly taller than Strawberry Shortcake, and each one had a flower scent. Rose Petal was the main character and she smelled of roses. Incidentally her favorite song is "I Touch Roses" by Book of Love. The dolls came with a brush, dress, hat, purse, and stand. The dresses were actually very pretty and had a sense of whimsy. They were more dainty than Strawberry Shortcake dolls and could not stand on their own. I love the packaging for these dolls. The color and font were very pretty.

Rose Petal's hat looked like a flower, and each doll had a little rhinestone drop on the hat. It was to mimic the look of a teardrop, which will be explained in a bit. Also, I love the brush because it was so similar to the Strawberry Shortcake combs. The end of the handle has the "logo" of the line etched in it.

The back of the box featured two images, but the standout piece for the box is the long bio about the line. It makes the line seem more special instead of showing all the different dolls available for purchase. This makes collecting interesting, because if you aren't completely sure of the entire line, there is a sense of surprise about who you'll see on the shelves.

So the story goes that some girl had to leave her garden behind and as she cried over leaving the garden, her tears landed on the petals of the flowers and magically gave life to the flowers. It is a very interesting story that leaves a great deal to the imagination of the owner. I mean what happens next? These little flower people come into being, and what do they possibly do? Well, the story fails to mention that there is also some scary looking widow spider woman named Nastina (no connection to Christina Aguilera) and she has some hate for the dolls of Rose Petal Place.  

 

The two images show what to do with the doll. I actually love the brightness of Rose Petal's hair in the first picture. So Rose Petal was part a cartoon and the whole works. Also Rose Petal was actually voiced by Marie Osmond in the show. The cartoon was short lived, as was the toy line. Kenner produced a first line of dolls, and there are images of a second line, but I do not know if they were ever made.

 

 Daffodil

In keeping with the theme of most girl lines at the time, Rose Petal had an assortment of friends and each friend had a designated theme and color associated with them. Daffodil was one such friend, and she was decked out in yellow. A lot of yellow. Daffodil came with the same items as Rose Petal, but her packaging was decorated with daffodil flowers for the artwork. (Rose Petal had roses on her packaging.)

In the cartoon each friend has a characteristic trait, and Daffodil's was very interesting. She was all about making money and being a blooming entrepreneur. If I recall correctly she was the business savvy flower person who had a flower shop or something like that. I wish these still had a scent, because I am very curious to know what fake toy daffodil scent smells like. I wonder if it smelled like money?

The back of the box was identical to Rose Petal barring different pictures and a different color scheme. I greatly enjoy when toys do this, it was such a staple of the 80's. When I think of lines like Rainbow Brite, She-Ra, and Strawberry Shortcake, one of the first things that comes to mind is that each character had a specific color.  

 

Here is the same bio, in yellow! Notice the different art for the flower motif.

Daffodil has a bouffant yellow hair style. She reminds me of someone who would have been on Hee Haw or something. There were plenty of other dolls in the line up as well, for fun be sure to check out Ghost of the Doll. There is a whole list of the dolls and what they look like.

 

I was lucky to come across these two dolls pictured above because Rose Petal Place was a short lived line and is rare to come by. At least in terms of a decent price. I never had them growing up, but I had a friend who lived across the street that had an Orchid doll. I always thought that was the prettiest doll. She had platinum blond hair and this shiny purple outfit. I'm actually surprised that no one has tried to bring Rose Petal Place back. With such success with bringing back properties like My Little Pony and to some degree Strawberry Shortcake, it would make sense that Rose Petal Place would come back in some form too.

 

I'm a big dreamer though. I keep hoping that all kinds of things come back, like MoonDreamers and stuff like that. Those were some fun properties and were special. At some point I will get to MoonDreamers, because if you think that a spider villain named Nastina is strange, just wait until you see the villain from MoonDreamers. She was like an evil grandmother with neon green hair that glowed in the dark! The best. One day I'll get to her. One day.

 

For now enjoy the images! If you have any memories of Rose Petal Place or you want to share your thoughts on toys that smell like flowers, feel free to leave a comment! I hope that everyone is doing well!