My Collection Part Four: J-Dolls, Part Two

Here are the other half of the J-Dolls in my collection. From left to right, we have Mari, Melanie, Adelheid, Steffi and Holly.

None of these dolls are in their original clothes. Mari wears an outfit I bought from Etsy. Melanie wears a Mattel top and shorts. Adelheid wears an Only Hearts Club top, and a Shibajuku Girls skirt. Steffi's clothes are all Shibajuku Girls. And Holly wears a Barbie dress. And the shoes are, from left to right, Mattel High School Musical, Re-Ment, Momoko, and the last two are both Mattel High School Musical.

Mari

Melanie

 

 

Adelheid

 

 

 

 Steffi

 

 

 

Holly

 

 

 

 

 

Total dolls: 20

Holly's face seems to resemble some Korean models that I have seen online.

Mattel Barbie Sewing Machine Desk

This set is one of those Mattel head-scratchers, or at least the distribution is. I saw it on someone's blog of new Mattel releases last year, and supposedly it was scheduled to be released for Christmas 2018. Mr. BTEG and the Dancer tried to buy it for me for Christmas, but couldn't find it. Early in 2019, I found it on Amazon, going for about $40. Then a few months ago, I saw it at Target for $9.99, and grabbed it. Mattel can be so weird at times.

So, this desk set includes the desk, with the sewing machine attached, the pink chair, a dress form, a measuring tape, two "thread" cones, three pieces of fabric, a tomato pincushion worn on the wrist, two hangers, a pair of scissors, a "fashion design" sheet, and a plant.

It's nice to finally have a realistic-looking machine in 1/6 scale, and the accessories are not bad, for Mattel. :) The machine will need some paint to bring out the details and make it look better, but at least it's not pink. The scissors don't open and close, and they're clunky. Wouldn't want to make the scissors much smaller for a kid's toy, though. The plant is cute, but kind of a "meh" accessory. I would constantly be knocking it off of my work space. :) This plant fits into a recessed circle on the desk.

The pincushion could also use some paint. The green leaves on top of the typical tomato pincushion are molded on, but not painted.

The desk would look nice with clothes hanging off of the hangers, but the desk can't be pushed all the way against a wall, because of the hangers sticking out. That's not awful, but I do keep wanting to push the desk up against the wall, and being stymied by the hangers. The dress form looks good from the front, but is only partially done in the back. It's also rather wobbly standing up. I haven't measured it to see if it is the right size for the Fashionista or Made to Move bodies.

The fabric has the feel of a spandex knit, but barely stretches. Each piece measures 3.5" x 2.5", or 8.89 cm by 6.35 cm. I really only like the polka-dotted fabric, but there is not enough there to do something meaningful with anyway.

The fashion sheet is weird. There's a hole in the top center, so you can hang it up on one of the two pegs on the "peg board" at the back of the desk. That makes the model in the middle odd proportionally to the other two, even if she is supposed to be petite. Also, the hole on the sheet is round, whereas the peg is slightly rectangular, with a rounded end. You can see by the slight wear around the hole, that I tried to get it on a peg, but didn't want to force it, as I was afraid that I would tear the cardboard.

This seemed like the perfect opportunity to share a Re-Ment sewing machine set that I bought quite a while ago. This set is number 6 of the March Comes in Like a Lion - Kawamoto Family Living Room series. In addition to the Living Room series, there seems to be at least a couple of other March Comes in Like a Lion group packs. These all seem to be somewhat related to a manga, which was made into a movie.

The main item in this set is a sewing machine, but on a slightly smaller scale than the Barbie one. Like several of the March Comes in Like a Lion sets, this one has a cat theme. There is a cat on the decorations along the bottom of the machine, and the brand of the machine is Nyanome. This is probably a take on the real Japanese sewing machine brand Janome, which means "snake's eye," based on the round bobbin that the founder of the company pioneered. Nyan is the Japanese version of the English "meow," but I don't know what, if anything, Nyanome means.

The Re-Ment set also came with a spool of "thread," a small basket holding a pincushion with molded pins, and a bag decorated with a cat face.

There is a sewing pattern, of sorts, included with this set. It's actually part of the small card that typically comes with Re-Ment sets, and since it's stiff paper, it won't bend very well, the way it is shown in official photos. I have no plans to use it, but since it does come with the other things, I wanted to show it.

What do you think of these two sets? Do your dolls do any of their own crafting, or design projects?

Cu-Poche and Ever After High

I've been wanting to take some pictures with my new Cu-Poche dolls and their sort-of-corresponding Ever After High dolls since I got the Cu-Poche ones. I bought the light strand, that looks like a vine, at Target on clearance after Easter. It's so perfect for lots of photo themes, I think. The blue bird is Re-Ment.

J-Doll Wigs, Outfit and Shoes

I let myself get way too far behind in blogging, and then when I finally went to put up a new post on Thursday, I discovered that our home internet was down. Time to get back into the blogging groove!

Back in October of 2013, I purchased my first J-Doll, Unter den Linden, whom I named Lindsay. She's a beautiful doll, but her long, blond haired wig was rather dry. Now that there aren't as many dolls out there that I want to buy, I have been spending more money on clothes and accessories. I saw a couple of relatively inexpensive wigs in J-Doll size and decided to take the plunge to replace Lindsay's original wig. I bought two, one a short cut with auburn hair, and one of long dark-blond hair with bangs. Which one do you like better on Lindsay?

I also purchased a knit tank top and tiered skirt from the same Etsy seller from whom I bought the wigs, a place called LazyDaisyWorkshop. I asked Lindsay to model this for me as well. I think the outfit goes nicely with her new long-haired wig.

Lastly, I've been buying a lot of Re-Ment lately! I decided to take a gamble and buy a set from the Little Twin Stars bedroom series and see if the shoes fit my J-Dolls. And they do! They take a little bit of easing on, but that just means they stay on well. Also, keep in mind that Little Twin Stars had a pink and blue theme, pink for the girl star and blue for the boy star. Therefore, each original set had one shoe in pink and one shoe in blue. Once I determined that the shoes from this set fit, I bought another set so I would have two shoes in each color.

If you want to think about getting these for your J-Doll or Pullip, the dolls modeling these shoes have the type four body. I also tried a shoe on my J-Doll with the type three body, and it did fit her as well.

Lastly, a full length picture of two of my J-Dolls wearing the shoes. The brunette with the braids is wearing a Shibajuku Girls dress that I reviewed here. If you remember from my review, the interfacing of this dress kept rolling up so that it showed at the top of the neckline. I've since tacked that down by hand underneath the collar, and it has also made the collar lay flat. The blond on the left is wearing a dress from Robert Tonner's Only Hearts club line, and it is extremely versatile, as it will also fit Mattel's Stacie, and Hannah at Never Grow Up has put this dress on an Ever After High doll as well.

I'm finding that I really enjoy picking up all these new things for my dolls!

She Blinded Me With Science

As you may have noticed, I've had the same blog header for quite a long time. I keep wanting to do a summer beach photo, but I don't have everything I want to do that. Since back-to-school time is happening here, I decided to do a chemistry class picture, using the two Re-ment Science Class sets I bought recently. I feel now like maybe I should have filled the beaker with some colored water. :) Still, I did at least make sure both girls are wearing eye protection.

Neither set cost very much, because as you can see, neither set came with very much. Below is a picture of both sets together. One class was supposed to be boiling water. One class was supposed to be baking a toffee cake experiment. Neither are particularly scientifically rigorous. Maybe they're themed so little kids don't get the idea to try more potentially dangerous things. For the low price, I thought it was fun to have a few science bits and bobs.

Furniture and Food

Tonight I'm going to focus on some of the furniture purchases I've made recently, and the real cool Re-ment food that I found. By furniture, I mean chairs, at least as far as this post goes. Chairs are vital to a good doll diorama, no matter what room you're in. Well, maybe not the bathroom. I was looking for some more kitchen chairs, and really like this style. Found two for a good price, so I picked them up. Today Barbie will only be modeling with one. It really does look like a style of human sized chair currently on the market.

You won't catch me sitting down on the job! Mostly because I can't sit.

The next chair purchase was kind of a impulse buy. These were given out at the latest Barbie convention, and then of course, eBay was flooded with them. I looked at a lot of auctions to make sure I was getting a decent price. I've seen this style of chair a lot on various websites, mostly painted gold. The last place I saw them was in pictures of a Barbie exhibition in Paris. The chairs from the convention had plain satin cushions on them, with enormous tags attached. I ripped the cushions off completely. Since I have plenty of fabric and batting, I can make my own cushions. I can even make several in different colors and fabrics and change them around.

Lastly, I happened to see an armchair, still in bag, from the 8" Madeline doll line. It was a fantastic price, so I picked that up as well. I already have one, but as you'll see, this chair can look good for the 1/6 crowd as well. Plus, what looks cozier on a cold winter night than two matching armchairs before the fire?

Here Madeline models. She and her fellow 8" crowd are going to make sure they keep at least one of these.

See how nicely I fit in this chair? It's mine.

But really, this chair is not any shorter than a chair made specifically for Barbie.

So then I had Holly step in and take a seat.

So much more comfortable than sitting on plastic!

That's the last of the furniture for now. What do you think of the green armchair for taller dolls?

One of the things I look for very often is deals on Re-ment packs of mini food. Admittedly, they are a little small for 1/6 size, but so nicely made that the size issue can be looked past. I also love seeing them in dioramas people set up without dolls. It's amazing how with the right lighting and perspective, a doll diorama can look very close to real. I'm not anywhere near that skill level myself, but my dolls like to have something to eat and drink while they're sitting around on all these chairs.

Here is the bulk of three Re-ment sets that I picked up recently. The watermelon set I bought because it was a great deal. The whole watermelon is, I think, too small for 1/6. The watermelon pieces could be used, possibly. I'm not sure what that dessert looking thing in the white dish is, but I'm pretty sure those are pieces of watermelon in there. The dessert piece comes out of the bowl, so the brown plate, white bowl and spoon will be useful even by themselves. I actually bought two paella/sangria sets. I loooove sangria! Each set only comes with one glass, and really, who wants to drink alone? So two dolls can now nosh on paella and sangria while sunning themselves on the Costa del Sol. Heck, they can have a pitcher apiece!

Again, the sangria glasses are pretty small for drinking wine, to my eyes. Still, they've got that whole pitcher to keep the refills coming. I really like that you can see tasty slices of citrus all the way down into the pitcher.

And the good thing about the paella is that all the pieces come apart, for more play options. Those shelled items in the paella don't look much like the mussels I've seen in pictures of actual paella. However, if my dolls want to have a clam bake in September, these might work.

Buying furniture and accessories for dolls, speaking for myself, does not give me the same joy as opening a new doll. But after all, we only have so much space to display our dolls, or even to store them. And only so much money to buy them! So it's enjoyable to create dioramas for the dolls to pose in while on display, at least for me. Dioramas can always be changed to keep your doll display looking fresher, too. Win win!

ORCARA and Re-Ment

I'm sure at least some of you know about the great products that Re-Ment produces that are doll-size. They are made in Japan and apparently come with candy or gum. The detail and breadth of items that Re-Ment has created is incredible. I've picked up a few items here and there on eBay, and I'm going to share pictures of my latest set. But what I'm going to show pictures of first, is my new set of minis made by another company called ORCARA. I've read its products are Chinese. There's a lot fewer sets produced, but what they make is pretty nice. Please excuse the lighting in these pics. I was going to take them when there was more light outside, but when your daughter says she wants help cleaning her room, you don't want to turn her down!

The ORCARA items are definitely a better value than Re-Ment. I got this entire set, plus more, for about what I paid for the Re-Ment set, which you'll see at the end.

In the picture above is everything that I'm going to keep. The set is called Cooking with the Master. As you can see, there are pieces that enable you to "make" various items, although I wouldn't call grinding and brewing coffee beans, nor making a salad, cooking.

Some of the pieces are incredibly realistic. It really looks like a pottery bowl and a wood cutting board in this picture.

Most of the items can be taken apart. The lids come off of the coffee grinder and coffee pot. The flour and salad come out of their bowls. And there is a tiny molded plastic "milk" piece that can go inside the measuring cup. I haven't put that in for fear I won't be able to get it apart and I might want to do something else with the cup. And as you can see, the bowl that holds the pats of butter looks very nice on its own.

Considering that the toaster oven is relatively in scale, the flour and sugar canisters are unfortunately wildly out of scale. The sugar one might look nice on a tea table. The flour one would be useless in a real size kitchen.

The spaghetti, strainer and corked bottle of olive oil go nicely with a few Re-Ment pieces I've been saving for a long time.

There is something to go in the blue pot, and even a little dent for the ladle to rest in. It's a nice idea in theory, but...

Meh.

it doesn't look edible or appealing to me at all. Apparently it's supposed to be spaghetti sauce, which makes sense within the context of the set, but it really does look close to this shade of brown in person. To me it looks more like lumpy cake batter than anything else.

The finished spaghetti product also does not look like any kind of spaghetti that I've ever seen. The spaghetti and sauce pieces will be tucked away somewhere.

And here is my Re-Ment set, a bread machine with bread, oven mitt and jam.

The "glass" lid of the bread maker is a little wonky, but that bread looks good enough to eat. The metal baking pan also comes out. I tried looking up the name in English letters that is on the front of the bread maker, but could not find anything. Maybe it's two Japanese words combined into one.

Just for fun, I took a picture of the ORCARA and Re-Ment oven mitts together. The Re-Ment one is more realistic looking, and even has a slight opening for a hand to go, whereas the ORCARA one is sealed shut. I'd be afraid of breaking the doll's hand or the oven mitt if I tried to use it, however.

The other two ORCARA sets I have are still in their plastic bags. One is for making rice balls, the other for making soy milk. Neither of those interest me, so they're going on eBay.

What cute minis do you have?