Hinamatsuri

This post is coming a day late, but yesterday was Hinamatsuri, or Girl's Day, in Japan. An important part of the festival is a display of dolls and doll-sized accessories. The emperor and empress sit at the top of any Hinamatsuri doll set. I bought the set above from Re-ment. I had a hard time putting everything together, and tried to use poster stickies to help keep stuff in place. It wasn't until I looked at the pictures that I realized that the emperor and his wife were tipping slightly as a result. Oh well. I still think it turned out cute. I saw that Re-ment also makes a Hello Kitty themed Hinamatsuri set. I've seen Peanuts themed ones as well.

I sewed the dress that our little Japanese girl is wearing. The hardest part was sewing the sleeves. I think I would sew them first next time, before I sewed the sides of the dress.

New Dolls! Cu-Poche by Kotobukiya

Today I have brand new dolls to talk about, from a line that I imagine is new to many of you. They are from a company named Kotobukiya, a Japanese company which has been around since 1953, making toys, figures and novelty items. These dolls are from the Cu-Poche line, a group of vinyl dolls made in chibi style. In Japanese, chibi apparently just means "short." In the greater world of those interested in Japanese culture outside of Japan, chibi means a child-like character with exaggerated features. This type of character can be seen in anime and manga art. For all I know, chibi also means a small, cute, child-like character in Japan currently too, but I don't have access to any experts on Japanese culture.

Cu-Poche dolls are made of PVC and ABS. Mine have fabric clothes; some have vinyl clothes. There are generic figures, characters from popular Japanese entertainment, and a handful of fairytale characters. The two I chose are Little Red Riding Hood and Cinderella. Here they are inside their boxes. I like how the front of Cinderella's box looks like a coach.

Here are the boxes from the back, showing you what accessories you get with your doll.

The doll inside the box is packed in a plastic clamshell, with more fragile items wrapped in plastic, and some of the smaller pieces have tape over the indentation they're in, to keep them from falling out.

I'm going to start with Little Red.

Both she and Cinderella are approximately 11cm, or 4.3 inches tall. Cu-Poche dolls have magnets in their feet, to help them to stand and hold poses.

We'll talk more about this stand at the end.

Lots more pictures and reviewing under the fold!

Jointed Doll Body From AliExpress

Ms. Leo bought the same doll body that I have, and has already reviewed it. She used hers for the Asian Babysitting Skipper. I used the new body for my 2003 Barbie Princess of Japan doll. I also bought another, that I think is the same body, later. I paid $6.74 for one, and $3.58 for the other. You'll see how I rebodied the second one later on. Both bodies have extremely pale skin. Fortunately, the skin color suited Princess of Japan, as the legs of her original body were extremely discolored. Hoshiko, as I'm going to call her, was the first Barbie Dolls of the World Princess doll to use the Teen Skipper body. But if I wanted to dress her in anything but the kimono that she came in, that body really had to go.

Hoshiko's new body is also smaller than the standard Barbie body, which I think works out well. I currently have Hoshiko in an outfit that Fashion Fever Teresa originally wore. I think the colors work with her face paint, even if the dress is a little large in the bust for her. The sweater helps cover that. Her feet are a little smaller than the standard Barbie feet, but she is wearing shoes from a Fashion Fever outfit pack that work for her, and the dress.

The head really is a pretty good match with the body. And if she can't touch her face, well, it's better than the straight-armed, three-click knee body with the discolored legs that she was previously on.

As you can see in the picture above, her hands do have fairly visible seams. She also has a few issues on her lower legs. I'm wondering if I could use sandpaper very lightly to sand some of the problems out.

For $6.74, or for whatever around that amount you find these bodies on AliExpress, they're definitely worth it. While this body is not as articulated as the MtM dolls, it's far better than the old school Barbie body, at a lower price than buying a MtM for a rebody. The only issue here, outside of lower quality, is that these bodies usually only come in super pale colors, because they're made for Asian standards. A quick look over at AliExpress did find a couple of sellers who had doll bodies similar to Hoshiko's, with fairly dark skin. The only thing those dolls didn't have was a waist joint, or an under-the-bust joint. Hoshiko has a waist joint. Yes, you'll get to see what Hoshiko's body looks like without clothes, in my next review. I put the other body with the red-headed Petite Barbie, who will definitely have a name by the time I do that review! I'm not so sure how I feel about Petite Barbie with her new body, but since I have her on that body for the moment, I wanted to show you in case you want to do a switch yourself. I also should see how Hoshiko fits in her original kimono and geta. So stick around!