My Collection Part Thirteen: Barbie Dolls

Long time no see! I've been putting a lot of my doll time into projects that haven't gone very well, so right now, I have nothing to show for them. :(  Instead, let's move on to more of my doll collection. This time, we're starting to delve into the many Barbie (and friends) dolls that I own. There have been so many Barbie dolls with different looks produced over her long career, that one can acquire many dolls and have them each look rather individual, so it's easy to have a big collection! These Barbies are part of a group that I bought from Rachael; this is also a way for me to remember which dolls were part of the bunch that I purchased from her, before they go into my larger collection. Please excuse all the static hair!

Several of the dolls that I got were originally dressed dolls from the Fashion Fever line. I haven't given all these girls names yet, so I'm going to mostly go by face mold. Here we have Lara and Teresa, and the blond girl at the end, I'm going to call Summer.

Lara's mold was first used for a Generation Girl, as Ana. This doll has a slightly sexy air about her, for as sexy as Barbie gets. :)

Teresa's mold is a classic, one that I love and have in many different variations. I can never bring myself to sell off any of them. This Teresa has lighter skin than many, and I love her eyeshadow.

Summer's look reminds me of several blond dolls released with the name Summer in the Barbie line, but going by the marks on the back of her head, she uses the Generation Girl Barbie mold.

Next, we have Kira, Gillian and Lea.

Kira actually uses the Kayla/Lea mold as far as I can tell, the same as the doll at the other end, so you can see how many looks an individual mold can use. Her mouth was painted on a bit crooked, but just gives her an open, quirky look in my opinion.

Gillian in the middle has the Goddess face mold, going by the marks on the back of her head. Unlike many other dolls with that face, Gillian looks very girl-next-door.

And lastly, we have another Kayla/Lea face. Her hair is a bit "fluffy" right now, since I washed the gel out of it. Actually, all of these dolls got their hair rinsed with some conditioner, and it's amazing how soft their hair is now.

I'm thankful to Katti for her website, Faces in the World of Pink. She took the time to compile a lot of information about the different Barbie sculpts Mattel has used over the decades, including her friends, and other sized dolls like Francie, Jazzie, Stacie, Kelly, Tutti, and males in Barbie's world like Ken, Allan and Blaine. Her website is a bit behind the times now, but for older dolls, it's an invaluable resource.

Next up should be some more dolls from Rachael, or a craft project if I successfully get one done. Anyone else got any doll projects in progress? Today Mr. BTEG and I checked out the new Hobby Lobby store, and I have so many ideas and plans now. It was a glorious day, sunny and with a high of 44F/7C. It's been so cold for the past while that it actually felt kind of warm out there, and I am looking forward to spring!

Total dolls: 59

Ever After High Tri-Castle-On Cerise Hood

Assisted by her genetics as the daughter of the wolf from Little Red Riding Hood (it's complicated), Cerise is the fastest runner at Ever After High. She's wearing a pretty boring (in my opinion) outfit for running.

Cerise is taller than the average Ever After High doll. In order to do this and still allow for clothes switching, Mattel simply made her legs longer than other dolls. The basic track pants with no overskirt really show off how long her legs are.

Cerise seems to have a small smile on her face, which is different from some of the other Cerise dolls that I have, especially Legacy Day Cerise. I think Mattel might have been better off giving the dolls a closed-lip smile in the first place, instead of the somewhat bland expression they had at the beginning. Do you see a smile?

Cerise does not have a huge head of hair, probably to allow it to go through the back of her hood. In the cartoons, she always wears a hood to hide her wolf ears. However, I think there is an adequate amount of hair to cover her roots, even though it is very uneven in the back, as often happens.

Like Lizzie Hearts, Cerise's shoes look like tennis shoes, only with giant heels. The little crest detail on Cerise's heels is very well done. Cerise gets black paint on her shoelaces.

Cerise's extra accessory is a very detailed water bottle. I can't get mine to rest on Cerise's shoulder, so she ends up having to hold it like a purse.

While Cerise is taller than other EAH girls, the group of girls from Wonderland, including Lizzie Hearts, are all shorter. I put Birthday Ball Blondie in one of these pictures to show how tall most of the EAH girls are.

I think Cerise is the least exciting doll in the set, in terms of what she is wearing, and what she comes with. I like her character in the show, though, and the smile that I see makes her different from the other Cerise dolls that I own. I already had three different Cerise dolls, and don't mind adding this one at all.

OG LORI and Basic Ever After High Dolls at Target

I could write a bunch of explanations, but let's just say that between my daughter's recital, and spending some of the Independence Day holiday out and having fun with real people, there hasn't been a lot of dolly stuff going on. I did buy a few things I will share pictures of later this month; I'm *still* working on making my sewing and doll areas better organized. In the meantime, I saw some pretty nice new outfits on some of the OG LORI dolls at Target.

These three dolls were in the OG mini doll ballet studio. I'm thinking this was not marketing as much as a little girl "playing" with the dolls in the store.

The LORI line seems to be headed toward fall outfits. Is this actual planning, or just what they decided to produce next?

Some of these clothing pieces are cute, but I don't want the dolls. It is a very, very common complaint, though, that there not enough individual outfits produced, instead of dolls with outfits. However, I did end up not very thrilled with the LORI outfit that I bought to review, last year. If I see a 6" doll outfit that I want badly enough, I'll buy the dressed doll, keep the new outfit and donate the doll and the outfit I don't want to the Salvation Army or something.

I do feel like Our Generation missed the boat somewhat with LORI. They released some of the cars, campers, houses and furniture to some stores, right before Christmas, but never completely stocked them, leaving customers really interested in buying and not being able to. Even now, the LORI stuff is still just on an endcap, and there's usually only one camper, patio set, etc. when I look. I also still occasionally see people asking scalper prices for these items on eBay. In my opinion, OG should have introduced a new furniture set or a mini camping accessories set or something to keep people talking about the brand, after the Christmas fiasco. The posts I wrote about the LORI dolls are two of the most heavily visited posts of the ones I've written, so people were interested in this stuff. We'll see in the fall if they bring something new and exciting out for the Christmas season.

Speaking of brands, the Ever After High brand has been going through a lot of changes recently. Most of the EAH stuff that I saw at Target is on clearance. The only new dolls are the basics with the new smiling faces. I don't mind the basic line, as I'm sure it's profitable to have low costs EAH dolls available. As I've already talked about, I also bought two basic ballet dolls to do head swaps for the new faces. I don't mind the new faces either, although to me, they look more like younger siblings to the original dolls, and they may become siblings in my EAH collection. I do still want to see higher-priced doll waves, some with the older faces.

I've read people's opinions that while a smile is perfectly in character for Maddie, who is a Wonderlandian and enjoys craziness, Apple doesn't seem like she smiles much. I must admit I've watched all the EAH webisodes, and Apple does smile a lot, although a lot of times, it's in the prom queen/royal wave kind of way. Here Apple just looks like a little girl who wants to play. Then again, if their target audience for these dolls is three or four years old, that kind of friendly smiling face is probably appealing.

I also found a smiling Raven, although my pic is blurry. Even Raven does smile in the webisodes, though!

Maddie looks like she has molded on white tights. That seems a shame for the little girls who do like to redress these dolls.

When EAH was first produced, I thought Mattel was going to follow some of the same themes as Monster High. I thought maybe we'd see an Art Class wave, maybe a Magic Spell/"Science" wave. Most of the waves we've gotten recently seem to revolve around the latest Netflix movie release, and I've heard there will be no more Netflix releases after Epic Winter. I have no idea what direction the EAH brand will take, but there are still a *lot* of dolls that could be made. The reroot/repaint artists out there are already making dolls that older fans want to see, so I'm sure at least some of the dolls that people want to see will be produced, in one way or another.

ETA: I forgot I was going to include this picture I took at a Toys 'R Us, of a first and second release signature Darling Charming. As you can see, the newer release (on the left side) is lacking the bracelet and the paint on her neckpiece, that the Darling doll on the right has. Re-releasing signature EAH dolls with fewer details is not winning Mattel any friends, either.

Quick Review of EAH Ballet Holly O'Hair, With an Appearance by Signature Holly

I'm not in favor of the direction that the Ever After High dolls seem to be moving in. Too many of them have next to no articulation, and molded bodices and legs. While the newest Signatures are similar to the original waves, even there the new dolls are missing several items, like earrings, that were included with older dolls. But since the new ballet line, featuring Apple, Holly and Briar, is quite inexpensive, at $5 a doll, I sprung for Ballet Holly and Briar just to get the new faces. Just so you know, the ballet dolls do NOT come with stands. I used one just to make picture taking easier.

Basic, basic, basic. Holly's arms don't even move out to her sides.

Holly's molded on bodice follows her theme with the flowers and braided trim.

The molded legs are gorgeous, but bending knees would have been nice.

Her hair isn't a bun so much as a roll.

She can't even sit well, not just because of how her legs stick out, but because her torso and legs can't quite make a 90 degree angle.

These new faces have appeared at the same time as the new faces for Monster High. I don't think there's as much difference between the EAH faces as between the new MH faces, though. Here's signature Holly with Ballet Holly.

Our ballerina's head is smaller, and she wears less makeup. Honestly, I think Mattel would only have had to put a little more curve at the sides of the lips on the molds they already had to give our EAH girls a smiling face. Maybe little girls also liked the smaller head when they did market research?

These dolls are fine for play by very young girls, and the price reflects the simplicity of the doll. I just hope the entire line doesn't go this route. After all the time and money Mattel has put into the storylines and the "themes" for each doll, it seems a waste to dial these dolls down for the younger set. The new signatures are okay, although lacking some of the details that the earlier waves had, that made them stand out. They're also lacking the diaries that came with every doll, which makes sense if the target age can't read very well yet, or read at all. In some ways the new Epic Winter line is an Epic Fail, though. Molded leggings (although with bending knees), less jewelry and fewer painted details make these dolls compare poorly to waves like Spring Unsprung or even Dragon Games. If Mattel makes more money overall selling to a younger age group, though, simpler is how it will be. I guess older EAH collectors will have to pick up older dolls they haven't bought yet, and/or work on customization.

Speaking of ballet, my youngest daughter the Dancer expressed an interest in Ballet Holly. Since I was already planning to do a head swap, the Dancer will get a new Spring Unsprung Holly's head on the ballet body. She also loves her Misty Copeland doll, which she received on Sunday. Misty is going to stay in the box.

Tonner Strawberry Cupcake Mimi and Fall Flowers Lilah Dolls

Since the last time I posted about my Tonner 10", or "tenner," line, I've acquired two new dolls. The first is named Strawberry Cupcake Mimi, not to be confused with the more recent release, Strawberry Cupcake Patsy. The second doll is Ann Estelle's baby sister, Lilah. She's 9" according to Tonner's website. I wanted to get a Mimi and a Babette from the Petite Filles line for my tenner collection; there were only a few styles of each doll produced, and the faces are unique, except for a couple of dolls made in Dr. Seuss styles for a Tonner convention. And of course the convention ones are even rarer.

Mimi's hair is wonky, in that her curls on each side don't really match.

Mimi's body is a mix between the old and new 10" dolls. Her arms are the same as Ann Estelle.

Her knees bend like those in the new Patsy doll line.

Her pantaloons have some faint brownish stains on the legs. I'll try soaking them in Biz detergent.

She has a flaw in the inside corner of her right eye.

Here Mimi is with two of her 10" friends, from the Mary Englebreit and Patsy lines. They each have very unique faces. Sophie's face is also different from Ann Estelle's, but I didn't want to mess around with that many dolls in the picture just then. I'll take a picture of the whole gang sometime.

Lilah dolls are relatively hard to find as well. From what I found, there were only three different Lilah dolls produced, and one of those was also a convention doll, and came riding a large seahorse at that, so her value is much higher. I got my Lilah at just above original retail price, however, so it seems she is not hot in the doll market right now. I still like her. :)

Lilah is described by Tonner as being in a seated leg position. I guess that means she's not old enough to stand up on her own yet. I did stand her up for a couple of pictures, but she doesn't really stand well.

Ann likes being a big sister.

I think the onesie would have been cuter with sleeves.

However, the dress underneath the sweater does not have sleeves. The dress is cute, but there is one flaw. In the bottom right of the picture below, you can see a black thread in between the two layers of bodice fabric. At some point I may try to take the dress apart at the waist to get in and get that thread out. It's not like I have to worry too much about ruining the dress; it's unwearable by itself in this state.

There's also something rattling somewhere in Lilah's body. I may try to get her head off at some point and investigate that.

There are more faces I would like to get for my 10" collection, but I'm not on eBay nearly as much as I used to be, so that might be an issue. I'll talk about the eBay thing sometime soon. In the meantime, I'm glad I expanded my collection of little girls.