Happy Independence Day!

I hope that all of my American readers have a nice holiday.

Fortunate Furniture Find

Garage sale season is going full swing here in Northeast Ohio. I was thrilled to find Ever After High Apple White's sofa, EAH Raven Queen's vanity, and a 1/6th scale table with two stools.

Barbie Basics 04 Red-haired Doll Review

It's nice to see Mattel bring back basic dolls of nicer quality than the Fashionistas. I also am happy to see these dolls with the Made to Move bodies, even if some old time collectors aren't. At the same time, I don't really need too many new Barbies, so I decided to get only one, the petite doll with red hair. I'm not too sure how I feel about her face, though, now that she is live in the vinyl. This is how I see this doll, as a hostess at an vintage cocktail party. She looks almost sly to me. I can picture something... interesting, happening that evening. Spilled secrets? Poisoned glass? A knife in the back?

So glad you could join us, my dear.

This is our petite lady standing next to an older Barbie head on a Made to Move Barbie body. Quite a difference, I think. Petite's dress is fairly nice quality. It's a stretch swimsuit type material.

On Facebook, I found the interesting tidbit that newer shoes with the B initial on the bottom will work with regular and petite bodies, while shoes with the Barbie ponytail silhouette will fit curvy and tall dolls. I tried this with a newer pair of shoes with the B on the bottom. Sorry that the camera focused on the wrong part of the shoe. Regular on the left, petite on the right.

This is what the Barbie silhouette looks like. The only curvy shoe I could get my hands on without going on a massive search was black on black, but I hope you can make it out.

 

Looking at how small and slender Petite Barbie is, I was hoping that she could fit into some clothes made for other dolls. What I did not realize looking at that sleek black dress, is that our girl is relatively hippy. Here she is wearing a vintage Teen Skipper outfit. The top fits perfectly, but the capris can barely fasten in the back. Next is a dress that I normally have a doll with the old school hands to side Barbie body wearing. Besides being a bit too long, although she is barefoot in this picture, it looks okay. It is a bit loose, but that's not terribly noticeable. However, the pink and white shorts made for the modern Barbie figure are definitely too big. There is a major gap in the back, and room at the sides too. Lastly, Petite Barbie tries on the outfit that her regular counterpart was wearing. The skirt fits, but it flares out so far that it almost look like she's wearing a cupcake. The top is alright, but paired with the skirt, it gets pushed up above Petite's shoulders. By itself it's acceptable. I guess the moral of the story here is that if you have any spare tops or stretchy dresses lying around, they might work.

Shoes made for other size Barbie family dolls did not work. The green Teen Skipper slides look okay-ish, but they're rather loose in person. Modern Teen Skipper shoes are too long. High School Musical shoes, which work on my J-Dolls, don't look right on her. The only shoes that could pass muster were some pink pumps with a kitten heel, made for Momoko dolls. They also were a bit loose, but it's not obvious. I also have one of my J-Dolls wearing these, normally. The difference between Petite and my J-dolls is that the J-Dolls' feet get wider as they move towards the toe, while Petite Barbie's feet are the same width for the whole of the foot.

 

This is one of the negative things about Petite Barbie, that she will be difficult to find clothes for. Mattel, surprising no one, reaped the positive press from the new bodies, made a few outfit packs for the different size bodies, then contented itself with offering stretchy clothes that will fit multiple bodies. This is why I personally hate the different body types trend, because doll companies hate making clothing packs to begin with, never mind multiple clothing packs for multiple body types. And while you can pass stretchy clothes between dolls, I'm afraid a larger doll wearing something will stretch it and make it too baggy for Miss Petite to wear it again. Plus, why should Petite not have clothes to wear that aren't made with spandex? At least she can share flats with regular Barbie. I forgot to check and see how her feet would fit in shoes made for arched feet, but I'm guessing they wouldn't look great.

I do like Petite in the brown top. When I was picturing in my mind what she would look better (to me) in than that black dress, I saw a country girl type of look. Her hair isn't giving off country girl, though, and the parted sides are pulled together in the back and cut rather short. Maybe I could take them apart and reattach in the back of her head. Sixties might work if I cut off most of her curls, but I don't want to do that, and I don't know that I want to dress her in sixties things anyway, even if I'm realizing that the kitten heeled pumps would also fit that vibe. Urgh.

Although I said above that I like Made to Move bodies, I wish Mattel could have proportioned the petite body's joints a bit better, especially in the knees. Of course, I do find the knees the ugliest joint in all the Made to Move sizes.

Lastly, these new Barbie Basics dolls come with a plastic circle underneath the earrings. Is that to prevent green ear, or any damage to Barbie's ears? I find them unsightly and green ear or not, I think they're going to have to go. 

 

I'd like to know if anybody sees my Petite Barbie differently than I do. Actually, I'm almost certain some of you will, beauty being in the eye of the beholder and all that. I'm not going to get rid of her anytime soon, I don't think. I'll give her time to grow on me, and maybe try to make her some outfits of her own. It's a shame that she's hard to dress, or I might enjoy having her in my collection more already.

Total dolls: 92

Mini Brands Retro and Little Tykes Minis

I've been overthinking photography ideas for the post that I want to make, featuring Barbie Basics Number 4. Mr. BTEG surprised me yesterday with a couple of the mini item balls, so I'm blogging about these, and then I'll settle down to get some good pictures of Number 4.

First is the Little Tikes toys mini ball. I got the dump truck and the recycling truck, in their own boxes.

I could have sworn that I took a picture of Kelly standing next to Barbie, to show another viewpoint of Kelly's size next to the toys, but I couldn't find it when I uploaded the pictures. I was having a difficult time with these tiny pieces. When the little people go in their seats in the trucks, they don't fit in firmly. They still roll around, so when you have one person in the truck, he can still fall out while you're trying to put his friend in. I gave up and laid most of the people flat.

As you can see, these toys are way too small proportional to Kelly, who can still possibly put things in her mouth and swallow them. They're not made to be necessarily one sixth, so it's not an issue. I do have smaller dolls who will love new toys.

The two balls are supposed to stack together with the shelf pieces provided, to make a display center. I can't get the top shelf into the holes to hold the two balls together. :(

 

Next are the Mini Brands Retro line. By retro, it looks like it means mostly the 70s and 80s. You get five mini pieces. I got some Energizer batteries, a floppy disc, a one-time use camera, a can of motor oil, and a box of candy. It seems the box of candy is an Ultra Rare item, which is too bad, as I would have liked other items from the Ultra Rare group better if I was going to find one. (A floppy disc was an 80s version of a thumb drive, kind of.)

The box of Mike and Ike candy is too big. As I remember, the candies themselves aren't much bigger than jellybeans. That would be a lot of candy! I guess it would look okay on a store shelf or at a movie snack bar. The floppy disk is a bit too large, but not as bad. I actually used these, so I have vague memories of how big they were. This kind was smaller than the ones before it, which actually were kind of floppy and could be ruined if you folded them accidentally, but the one I have would still look okay on a desk in an 80s computer lab. Time for a LAN party! (Now get off my lawn.) Everything else looks close enough to one sixth scale, considering we do have big batteries like these, and the camera fits her face reasonable well, although I didn't get a picture of it. To be honest, I don't know how big a old-school can of oil would be, but it looks okay. It would work on a shelf in a garage.

I know these aren't available everywhere. Anyone else out there who likes to collect these mini brands balls?

I've figured out how I want to photograph Barbie Basics Number 4, but then it occurred to me that since she is petite, I should see how other dolls' clothes fit on her, which will take more time. She's next on my list; however I didn't want to wait too much longer to get a post up. Hope you all in Tornado and Dixie Alley, especially RagingMoon, and all my other readers are faring well.

It's the Little Things

Last year I went to a lot of thrift stores, garage and yard sales, and estate sales. I'm always on the lookout for mini items, even if I'm actually shopping for something else. I've been wanting to show you all the adorable little items that I bought. Some were made as miniature decorations. Some were originally for some other use, but work perfectly as minis. Our proportion model is Victorian Christmas Barbie. Her old-timey look suits every mini piece except this one, a mini Coleman lantern.

This is really too little even for Barbie, but I have smaller dolls that it will work with. Unfortunately, it was already a (relatively) old item when I bought it new in package. I just took it out of the package today, and the batteries it came with are corroded. Fortunately, they were packed separately, but now I have to get some new tiny batteries to see if it will work.

Next is a glass that is too big for Barbie, a Coca-Cola glass. That one will probably look good with my Coca-Cola Cissy doll, but I want to do a full review of her when I get her out of the display case, as she's very tall (21" or around 53cm) and can be cumbersome to move around. She's not a little doll I can take a quick picture of and put back. I'm not ready to deal with that photo shoot yet, so here is the glass with Barbie.

 

Here is a pretty peach and purple luster bowl. I'm not sure that this was made to be small decor, or something else, as I've seen lots of peach lusterware teapots and cups, especially, as well as other tableware. It's a good size as a decorative bowl in one sixth. It could hold some type of small filler items, but it's nice by itself, especially with the white design on the bottom.

Next up is a small red glass pitcher, which I think was hand-blown. I'm guessing some of those marks on the bottom of the pitcher are from some type of adhesive used to hold the pitcher down, but that the mark in the center is from when it was made. The white handle is especially delicate. This pitcher would also work quite well with smaller scales.

Continuing on, there is this pewter pitcher. It might be a bit too big, but pewter serving ware was not especially dainty when it was commonly used, so it could possibly work. Americans often associate pewter with our colonial time period, but I also picture big pewter platters in the Middle Ages with a roast boar or a big stuffed goose on them. Be aware that real pewter contains some lead, so wash your hands after contact with it.

Next is what I think was probably a toothpick holder at one time. It's this beautiful green glass piece that makes a lovely, if large, vase.

I really like this mini oil lamp, especially how colorful it is. The blue/purple color has faded some, but it's a still a standout. It might actually work, since it has a wick inside. Would I like to deal with smoke marks? No.

Lastly are some salt cellars. Salt cellars are small bowls that were included with every place setting at a table, so everyone had their own salt for their meal. Apparently they were in use for centuries, but mine are very much newer pieces, as they're glass. They're relatively heavy too, so they're nice quality. I read up a little about their history, and apparently they began to go out of fashion around 1911, when the single salt shaker started taking off. I don't know how old mine are, but I imagine someone who was really into collecting them could tell their age by their style.

I bought one set of three. Of course I wish there had been four, but I was still happy to get these. I picture water and mini flowers floating in them.

At another sale, I found one salt cellar, and a little plastic spoon. The plastic spoon does not seem to match with when salt cellars began to fall out of use, and also doesn't jive with the age that the estate sale manager told me that she had been informed it was. It's still a gorgeous set; I just wish I knew more about its history. The spoon is about right for a serving spoon for our lady of the house Barbie.

Are there particular places where you find a lot of items you can use with your dolls? Are you always on the hunt for things to add to your doll decor? Do you have a favorite find you'd like to share? Once the weather is warm enough, garage sale season will start up here, so I'm hoping I'll find more items I can turn into minis.