Rini raids the archives

Rini inherits a rich and varied history from Horsman, her maker. Discover more about this fascinating manufacturer with the company’s CEO, Kenneth Young.

There was plenty to work with when Rini decided to search the vaults at Horsman. As the longest-established American doll company, the archives contain over 150 years-worth of doll information, and run from the earliest china dolls with kid leather bodies, through cloth, composition, many plastics, to the latest modern materials. Once secure in the knowledge of her rich heritage, Rini took the opportunity to plunder the wardrobes of other dolls – to show how much better she’d look in their fashions, judge for yourself on these pages. But having turned the key and blown away the cobwebs from that dusty back office, she was still keen to find out more – so she delegated our roving reporter to discuss Horsman with its owner and CEO, Kenneth Young.

Horsman is a long-established company. Can you give me a potted history?

I will try to be brief, but Horsman has such a long history that it will still take a bit of time. Horsman Doll is the oldest doll company in America. It celebrates its 145th anniversary this year.

The company was founded by E.I. Horsman who emigrated to the US from Germany in the 1800s. He was the first to produce dolls as real toys by making doll heads from life images to create character dolls. These dolls had realistic features that American children could easily relate to.

Although European dolls were beautiful, their biggest downfall was that their heads were made of china or bisque and very fragile.

Horsman created a magic medium that could be molded and detailed but would not break. This medium was called “composition” which was made from melted glue, glycerin, zinc oxide, and wood shavings. Horsman added a catch phrase to each doll “Can’t break-em.” In 1950 the last composition doll was made, called Bright Star. The dolls that followed were made of hard plastic.

Then in the 1950s soft vinyl was introduced by Horsman that allowed for rooted doll hair instead of wigs. Since the 50s Horsman has set the pace in the market by producing quality dolls at popular price points.

In the 60s and 70s Horsman was owned and operated by the Lipson family. Manufacturing was moved from New Jersey to Columbia, South Carolina to improve cost efficiency. Drew Industries bought Horsman in 1981 and moved part of their productions overseas to be competitive.

For the first time in the history of Horsman, I launched a line of highly articulated 14” dolls to the collectors’ market at the 2006 IDEX [International Doll Exhibition] – Rini – in collaboration with designer Dorinda Balanecki. Horsman continues to emphasize design and engineering in our collectors line. In 2009, we introduced the 16” doll line Urban® – Vita, the world’s most poseable Fashion Doll. This mechanically ball-jointed doll with 19 points of articulation can make the most human-like poses and retain them.

What is your background, and how did you come to be involved with Horsman?

I come from a family that has been making dolls and toys since the mid 50s. My family’s factory is Perfekta Enterprises, Ltd., an OEM [Original Equipment Manufacturer, a company that makes products specifically for its customers (such as Mattel, or Hasbro), and does usually not make or sell its own brand of products]. After my MBA, I joined Ideal Toy Inc. as Assistant to the President of the Toy Company. In 1980, I was asked by my family to head up Gata Box, a subsidiary of Perfekta Enterprises, producing and marketing our own proprietary line of toys and dolls. Gata Box bought Horsman from Drew Industries in 1987 and I took over Horsman from my family in 1997

As we all know, Rini is retro chic. Why did you decide to launch a doll with this particular style?

We started the Rini Line to fulfill the collector’s wishes. Many vintage glamour doll collectors have asked us for years to reproduce these types of dolls. So we brought Rini to the collectors’ market with updated poseable features for a wider appeal. Rini is retro chic and has nostalgic charm. We feel we really hit the mark with Rini as many people thought she was a reproduction but in fact was a brand new sculpt by Dorinda

Another take on a vintage theme is Horsman’s Cindy. Will we see future versions of this doll?

We are currently working on new designs for Cindy and Rini.

You moved bang-up-to-date with the launch of Vita, do you see this doll coexisting with Rini or is Horsman moving away from vintage style towards a more modern esthetic?

Vita is positioned as today’s woman with a cosmopolitan lifestyle. She is a visionary and her fashion is edgy. Rini on the other hand is retro. Her fashion is reminiscent of the 50s. Rini is almost like a chameleon, she can be dressed to look like many different 1950s celebrities. What we have been successful in doing is to offer collectors of both types of dolls with human-like poseability. As of 2009 Rini, Cindy, and Vita all have 19 points of articulated mechanical ball joints.

Is there much overlap between collectors of these two styles of doll?

Collectors are very particular about their collections and I have discovered that there is not a lot of crossover from one type of doll to another. We fully intend to address our lines to both types of collector.

What is your starting point when developing a new product?

In developing a new product, we start with a concept and a story line. We determine what material is to be used to manufacture the dolls. If a doll has functional features we have to define what they are. The next steps include sculpting, engineering designs, and creating molds. Fine-tuning the mechanical aspects of the doll is the most critical and time-consuming process. The same fine tuning efforts are applied to the costume, face painting, and hair styling.

What is your inspiration when thinking of new dolls for Horsman?

Dorinda and I often talk about developing new dolls and what we want to make for the future. We bounce our ideas off each other that result in a collaborative design effort.

Who do you admire?

I admire how Dorinda can often visualize how a doll would look or how a display should be setup way before it is created.

If there were a doll that summed up the ethos of Horsman – what would it be?

The one doll that aptly represents the spirit of Horsman is Vita. As with dolls made by Horsman in the past, Vita revolutionizes the doll industry and embodies the vitality and the essence of life.

Clearly Urban Vita is a fashionista, how closely is her wardrobe related to current fashion trends? Fashion wear has shorter and shorter cycles these days (often as little as a few weeks in the stores) – but presumably you have to design for a longer shelf life.

Vita’s wardrobe is diverse so there is something for everyone! I like to say she can be anything and everything. So although she may have a classic style, it always has a bit of a twist.

Have you had any surprises with Horsman dolls? For example have any dolls done much better (or worse!) than you expected?

In business as in life, there are always surprises. However, for Rini and Vita the success comes from a lot of hard work from our design team. Horsman, the new kid on the block in the collector doll industry, has steadily earned its accolades.

Can you describe how you and Dorinda Balanecki work together to produce a new doll? Perhaps using Vita as an example.

Dorinda is a visionary when it comes to designing. Because we live in different states, we spend a lot of time working out our ideas over Skype. E-mailing and video conferencing is also a very important part of our daily activities. Quite often we conduct joint voice or video conferencing with our factory in Hong Kong. Depending on the extent of our product line for the coming year, we travel to China once or twice a year to fine tune and finalize our work with the factory.

Tell me about your collaborations with other designers and doll artists. How did these come about and how do you decide who to work with?

Dorinda, as the Design Director, selects and recommends different designers to our design team. We may have a designer who does the complete doll or one who specializes in face decoration or costuming. We do this for two reasons. One, this adds diversity and dimension to the line, and two, the line is growing and needs additional input.

Are you yourself a collector of anything? Dolls?

I am a collector of fine automobiles.

What new projects may we look forward to in the future from Horsman?

We are most excited about the Urban® Expressions Vita which we introduced at the 2010 IDEX. We have added a play dimension for the 16” Fashion Doll collectors at very reasonable price points. This doll comes with 2 expressive face plates, changeable eyes, long white synthetic mohair wig, and edgy outfit with silver glitter sneakers. Available separately are additional eye colors, wigs, and expression face plates. Some face plates are without decoration to allow collectors to create Vita in their own style. The response to the Urban® Expressions line has been tremendous and we are looking forward to adding more features and marketing programs to this line.

It has been fascinating to discover more about the history of Horsman and to look ahead to its exciting future plans. Generations of children (and adults!) are indebted to the pioneering work of this venerable company that remains in touch with the modern doll collector.

Credits

If you’re interested in finding out more about Horsman and current market values, check out Don Jensen’s book Horsman Dolls: The Vinyl Era to the Present Day (Collector Books, 2007).

For further information or to buy: many of the dolls mentioned in this feature can be found on the internet at www.horsmanltd.com and other doll sites.

This is a reformatted version of a feature that originally appeared in Haute Doll magazine, May/June 2010.