Samantha's stereoscope questions (long!)

[moderator]

For my mom's birthday I'm getting her a "When She Was a Child" (My Twinn). Today I looked through the AG catalog to see if there were any historical toys she might have had. One that caught my eye was Samantha's stereoscope, since my mom still has her childhood stereoscope (what she called a "stereoptican view"). She was interested--I made sure not to tell her it was the 1904 doll that had one! [img]wink.gif[/img] This would probably be a future present, such as next Christmas, since the doll itself is taking *all* of my money. I have a couple questions about it, though.

1) What are the dimensions? Do you think it would translate well to a 23" doll? My Twinns and American Girls have approximately the same facial width, but it might look a little too small or out-of-proportion. But AG isn't always proportionally on target, since I think the Nancy Drew book looks better with a My Twinn.

2) Does it really work? Is it good quality? Any other information about it that's interesting, too...I'd love to hear!

3) How well does AG respond to requests to order one item in a collection? I wouldn't feel right saying I was ordering a replacement piece. But, at the same time, I also don't want all the other things that go along with the stereoscope.

Thank you!

[JAdder]

The steroscope is small but although it fit Samanatha a doll a tad bigger might be a bit of a problem. It does work unfourtuly there are few people with faces that small to have it line up although if you hold it away from your face you might able to see it better. The photos are from places in New York there are about five I belive I think that's all. Oh and it comes with Samatha's prasol.

[annkirstin]

1) Melissa, if you want some measurements I'd be happy to provide them, but you'd have to tell me exactly what part of it you want measured. It is hard to know exactly what to measure and how to put into words exactly what the measurements are measuring, because it is a very odd-shaped item.

2) It looks good quality to me, and the little cards are nice. I like it except that whether it "works" is a matter of perspective. I mean, the thing is built so that if your doll were living it would work for her; however, it does not work for an ordinary person because the lenses are SO close together (naturally, being made for a doll). No matter what I tried, even moving it away from my face, I could not see the 3D picture, even though I could tell that if my face were the size of Samantha's I could have. I was disappointed in that, but really I don't think there was any way that PC could have made it work for a normal-sized person.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ January 04, 2003 09:29 PM: Message edited by: Ann Kirstin ]</font>

[moderator]

Thanks very much to both of you! [img]smile.gif[/img] The part I would like to know the measurement for is the horizontal width of the part that goes across the eyes (the part that would be on the doll's face if looking through the stereoscope).

It's too bad they are all of New York, instead of a variety.

It's hard to get the full-sized ones to work, too--especially if you're near-sighted like me. I have to put the card holder out as far as it will go.

[Asdis]

Well, at least you guys got a laugh out of my husband! I was trying to see through my dolls' stereoscope to see if it worked. I must have looked pretty funny - but it's true, unless your eyes are VERY close together it doesn't work - I was trying to look through just one eyepiece at a time, but *obviously* it wouldn't work then! You know, they still make cameras to take pictures for stereoscopes - we actually have some pictures of our wedding on stereoscope cards! (I have one too, and sort of collect cards for it)

[moderator]

Asdis, oh how neat! Where can you get that type of camera, if you know?

[Asdis]

Melissa, I *think* it was a Kodak but I'm not sure; I'll e-mail my friend who has one and ask. In this electronic age we still love putting on some good music, getting out all the cards and passing them around to look at. [img]graemlins/camera.gif[/img]

[annkirstin]

That camera sounds SOOOOO neat!!!!

Melissa, the width of the part where you put your eyes is exactly 2 3/8" wide.

[moderator]

Ann, thanks so much for measuring it for me! I'll figure out if it's big enough...it sounds like it might be a bit too small.

Asdis, if you find out the name, let me know! [img]smile.gif[/img]