J-Doll Old Church Street

With some of my eBay winnings, I turned around and purchased a NRFB J-Doll on eBay, Old Church Street. She's named after a street in London, and with the draped and pleated material around her hips and the pleated skirt, she does give off a little bit of a Victorian vibe. Which is one of the reasons I liked her.

I managed to restrain myself enough to get some pictures of her while she was still in the box. Forgive me for the quality; no one got the mail until that evening when it was already dark, and as I said, I wanted to get her out of the box as soon as possible.

The inner box slid out of the outer box to reveal the doll. I've named her Melanie.

I love the detailed eyes of the J-Dolls. I should get a couple of pictures of just the eyes closeup. Her forehead was held by a clear strip of plastic, and her hair by two strips. She had a twist tie around her neck, and one around her waist. The one around her waist left an indent on the dress.

 Her feet were held in place with two criss-crossed strips of plastic.

Her shoes came in a plastic bag. I like the shoes; the heels especially are much sturdier than some other manufacturers. The heels on Barbie doll shoes especially tend to bend too often.

Here is a view of the back of the box, with the twist ties and the plastic strips visible. On the right is the string holding the overcoat and bonnet in. The string was fairly easy to remove without leaving holes in the fabric.

Here is Melanie seated, wearing her bonnet and overcoat. I probably should have gotten a picture of her standing, but I was too tired to mess with the stand after I damaged the first one I got. Her bonnet is very Little Bo Peep meets Kate Greenaway.

Here Melanie wears the dress by itself. You may have already noticed that she has the number 3 body. When she bends her knees, her lower legs seem to want to shift themselves to her left. I didn't feel like fighting it too much. I like her lacy tights, but her shoes fall off way too easily. As in, if you're holding her up in the air for more than a few seconds, they fall off. Of course J-Dolls aren't for children to play with, but as an adult playing with her by posing her and moving her around, having the shoes fall off constantly is frustrating. Plus somehow they tend to fall someplace where I can't see them easily, so I have to search around a little.

Her hair is not as sleek as Lindsay's, nor is it extremely soft. But is not crunchy either, so I don't have a problem with it. I wonder how much having her hair held back by the plastic strips affected the slight waviness of her hair. I should look up pictures of Unter den Linden still in the box and see if she is packaged the same. I don't have the problem of the hair wanting to separate itself in back, as Lindsay's does. On the other hand, you can see the wig cap a little bit in front, but it's not a deal-breaker.

Lastly, here is the overcoat and the bonnet removed from the doll, so you can see how the back of each looks. The back of the coat is very nicely darted and pleated, but the sleeves were very hard to get over Melanie's hands, especially since I was already worried about her wrist joints with her number 3 body. The cotton lace used to tie the bonnet is attractive, but is already scrunched where the bow is made tying the bonnet on.

I'm going to write up a completely separate post comparing Melanie and Lindsay's bodies, as they use the number 3 and 4 bodies, respectively. I will say here that I was fortunate that Melanie's body does not have cracks at any of her joints. I'm still going to be careful with them after what I've read about their fragility. Look for a comparison post within the next couple of days.