Christmas Doll Gifts

I didn't have too many dolls on my Christmas wishlist this year. All I had was Licca dolls, because I wanted to check out the Licca and Jenny dolls from Japan, but I didn't get expect to get any. However, Mr. BTEG came through and got me two Licca dolls and one cute outfit.

 

The Licca on the right is dressed in a 60s motif. The fabrics she wears are mostly a sateen weave. The only thing that I dislike about her outfit is her cheap rubber shoes. Her belt is too long, but it does make it easier to get the belt through the buckle. The green ribbon she is wearing around her neck in the second picture is stretchy, and I assume it is meant to be another hair band. I didn't really know how to tie it or what to do with it, so I just put it around her neck so you can see it, and how long it is.

 

Our blue-haired girl is wearing a kimono type garment that seems to feature animals and motifs from a brand called Econeco. The only thing that I could find it in English associated with this name are coloring books, which do match the print on the kimono. She also comes with geta which don't want to stay on her feet, as is common with these shoes when the dolls don't actually have toes, a fan with two of the Econeco characters, and a plastic headband covered with fabric. 

 

 

Blue-haired girl looks adorable in the separate outfit. This has a sort of star theme, with stars on the rubber shoes, and on two rubber bands that I'm guessing go around ponytails or buns like she has. I didn't want to mess up her hair right off the bat by trying to mess around with them right now, so I just put one in her hand.

 

I've known for ages that these dolls existed, but I decided to add some to my collection when I saw how photogenic they are in Instagram pictures. Lots of collectors seem to put them on Obitsu bodies, but the bodies they come with are okay. They are rubber over wire, and they are sturdier than I would have guessed. I may put them on Obitsu bodies eventually.The outfits are a slightly smaller scale than Barbie, but they are nice quality, except for the rubber shoes. I'm looking forward to spending more time with these dolls, and adding a few more to my collection.

Random Dolls for Raging Moon and Some Barbiecore for MonsterCrafts

A few posts ago, Raging Moon put up one of her Random Dolls posts. In the post, there were three dolls that I used to own. I told her I'd put up a post showing pictures of them, and I'm finally posting it. I had a few roadblocks; RM has already put up two new posts! But better late-ish than never. The first doll is the updated Holly Hobbie who made her appearance in the 2000s. I had a mini version of her, but she fell off of my desk and I can't find her currently. :( I'm very down about losing her, but I found a pic of her included in a random pic of my desk from 2007. I also have a picture from 2006 of me with the "real" Holly Hobbie.

Xanadu mentioned that she had seen an older version of Miss Hobbie, and indeed, there was a line of Holly Hobbie dolls that came out in the 1970s, at the height of the first Holly Hobbie craze. I have the four different dolls from this lineup, bought second hand, since I never got them when I was a kid. Some are waiting to get their clothes and shoes washed, since they were out of packaging, but here's one of Holly's friends, to show you what she looked like. I posed her in between old school Stacie, Barbie's little sister, and mini American Girl Caroline. She measures 6" tall, and came with shoes, and also a sunbonnet.

The next doll is actually a group of three dolls, the Wee 3 Friends. One of the girls was Stacie, who was supposed to be the same Stacie as Barbie's little sister, above, but she and her friends, Lila and Janet, measured around 10" tall. This made it easier to give them more detailed fashions, as well as easier to make all of the accessories that they came with. I had the set Snow!Snow!Snow!, which included ice skates, pets, snowballs, and hot cocoa. I did do one photo shoot with them, where they were excited about seeing the new green shoots of spring coming out of the ground. I eventually decided they didn't inspire me very much, so I sold them off to Rachael, since she had said once that she liked them. I was afraid that if I donated the set to a thrift store, all the little pieces would be lost in no time, and I thought that would be a shame.

The last two dolls are also by Mattel. They were part of the Teen Trends doll line. RM read that they were also supposed to be competition to the Bratz dolls, but I don't remember them being marketed like that. Of course, I don't remember them being marketed at all, which is probably a reason why they didn't last very long. They were 17" tall, just an inch shorter than American Girl, but a lot more slender in build. I bought Courtney at Toys R Us, where I first saw these dolls. Sadly, my Courtney has not aged very well. Her hair is super dry, and her legs got sticky, to the point where they stained her khaki pants. Courtney was the "preppy" girl, and I always liked preppy fashion. I also liked her shoes, which were like the Dr. Scholl's which had been the rage when I was younger.

As I was deciding what to do with Courtney about a decade on, I made the perhaps ill-advised decision of buying her a friend. The one I chose was Gabby, the "girly" one. Gabby's silver-toned chain belt became blue-green and stained her white pants. The small round pendant on her silver-toned necklace also turned the same color. Here's a picture of Gabby in her case, which each doll came in. Each case was different to suit each doll's personality. I also have her out of box, and in one of the separate outfits that Mattel made for her.

Since I was talking to MonsterCrafts on her blog about Barbiecore, I wanted to add two more pictures. Here in the US, Barbie: The Movie was a huge event. Women wore whatever pink items they had in their closet, or combed the thrift store to get the right Barbiecore style. They were also greeting perfect strangers at the theater, saying "Hi Barbie! Hi Barbie!" I saw a picture of these pink mules in a thrift store shortly after the movie left theaters, and texted my daughter, asking her if she thought somebody had bought them to wear to the Barbie movie. She replied, "For sure they did."

I also got permission from my daughter to post this picture of her at the movie, taken in a special photo booth. I feel she got the old school Barbie "karate chop" arm down perfectly.

I will admit it was fun to talk about these dolls, which are usually far from my current blogging subjects. My doll collecting has certainly changed too!

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

Nothing Like a New Outfit

Mr. BTEG and I had to go to Wal-Mart a couple of months ago to pick up something he needed. I of course hung out in the doll aisle while he was shopping, and I found two outfits and an accessories pack that I had to bring home.

Rainbow High fans have been begging MGA for years for separate outfits (for that matter, most doll collectors want these.) What we got, however, was not the same fashionable, detailed looks that Rainbow High was known for, but simple sets that looked one step up from dollar store quality. To my mind, the pajamas set is the pick of the bunch. Meet my model, Priscilla.

 

Are these slippers cute, or nightmare fuel?

 

I got Priscilla for Christmas, but I've been terrible about blogging about my new dolls. I'll talk about what she came dressed in on another post. For now, she's warm and cozy and ready to hit the sack. The set also came with four barrettes, and a hair straightener and curling brush.

The pajamas are adorable, and we don't often see nightwear made for our dolls, so they're nice to have, anyway.

Next is an accessory set for Barbie, that mostly centers around sweets. Barbie chose this sleeveless plaid dress to model. What's up with the shoes, though? They look like you'd wear them with another type of outfit. I was worried Barbie might be as messy with ice cream cones as I am, but she's Barbie. She doesn't get messy. And her hair bow coordinates nicely with her outfit.

Next is a blue Popsicle, with heart-shaped glasses and an ice-cream shaped purse. That's a lot of sweets there, Barbie.

I don't gain weight, either.

The watch looks nice in this picture, but as gravity will have it, the heaviest part of this watch (the face) will slide around to the underside of Barbie's wrist unless she's posed just right.

Lastly is this all-purple beverage, a pink tote with a faux fluffball key chain and a faux cupcake key chain, and a strawberry-shaped wristlet.

 

It's a cute accessories pack, and everything in it is useful except for the watch. I guess the ice cream purse is a bit weird too. It doesn't look like something that you could carry anything in.

A new doll line has been produced, by a company named Far Out Toys. As you might be able to read on the box, the doll line is named LUV, which stands for Limitless Unique Vibrant. I'm guessing that the VP Sharon Zuckerman is probably the same one who used to design for Mattel, so that's interesting. However, the name of the line reminds me way too much of the late lamented LIV doll line. If someone produces a group of dolls named LAF, I'm going to riot.

There are four core dolls, and each also has a separate outfit made for her. At least they have the separate outfits thing going for them. Problem is, despite wanting to go with a fashion forward concept, and having a fashion show where human models showcased all of the outfits in human sizes, some of the concepts are a bit dated and don't always make a cohesive look, in my opinion. My favorite outfit is the one that I bought that was made for the doll named Autumn. I was hoping that my Pullip could pull this outfit off, but instead, the only doll body type I own that can fit into this is Ever After High. Ashlynn Ella is a great model, since she has the same basic coloring as Autumn.

This outfit has a boho feel, which makes sense, since Autumn is "the boho one." It also gives me images of strolling through Rome; perhaps some of that is because of the bag that this outfit came with, and the rose neck accessory. The shoes that were included do not fit Ashlynn, so I tried a couple of EAH shoes with her look.

Bon giorno. Il mio nome è Ashlynn. Mi piacciono le tue scarpe.

I'm impressed by the tulip sleeve in such a tiny blouse, but the (faux) pockets on the boho skirt feel a bit odd.

Her bag looks like a smaller version of a market bag. It's cute, even though her arm has to be posed rather high to keep it from falling off.

The shoes that came with this outfit do fit Barbie, even though they are a bit big for her.  I don't know how I would like them with the other pieces in this look. What do you think?

Do you have a favorite from my three new sets? I'm happy with all of them, even if I don't find every piece useful. Isn't that always the way? I'd like to get some sewing for dolls done this year and create my own things. The hottest days of around 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32C) this summer have really been tiring me out. Thank goodness for air conditioning, and that the temps haven't been even higher.