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!

The Difference New Clothes Can Make

My Tonner Ultra Basic Daphne doll from 2010 came dressed in a white one-piece swimsuit, as befits a basic doll, right? Only, I've been remiss, for various reasons, in sewing many new clothes for my dolls over the years, so poor Daphne has just been wearing her white suit. I still have plans to sew, but I also happened to buy a Tonner brand doll shirt recently, that to me just makes Daphne shine.

I couldn't find Daphne's original white suit. I've made big strides in cleaning up my doll stuff, but obviously I'm not quite there yet! So here's a picture of Daphne, modeling a necklace that I bought at the Tonner convention.

And here's Daphne now, wearing the new shirt that I bought (not at the convention), with a basic black skirt.
It may be more obvious in person (and with better lighting!) but I couldn't help but love how much more Daphne is a standout in her new shirt.

And it's also nice quality, with snaps up the back instead of Velcro.

So Daphne's happy, I'm happy, and the other girls want new clothes too! I'm looking forward to making that happen.

And since I'm talking Tonner doll clothes, I read online that Tonner 16" dolls can wear some of the Teen Trends doll clothes, so I decided to try it out. It seems Ellowyne dolls are more like Teen Trends dolls in figure, but Tyler looks nice in this skirt from Teen Trend Courtney's Night Out pack.

It's big at the waist, but would look nice with a pullover top of some type to cover that. However, I was having problems with the tulle trim at the bottom of the skirt. It is supposed to show, but I was having problems making it hang properly. Oh well.

I have my eye on a table top photo studio set on Amazon. It seems to be the best way to get proper lighting for my pictures. Thanks to blogging, I've been taking pictures of my dolls again, and just enjoying my collection more, so I'd like to have proper equipment for the photography now. Something new to try out!

Teen Trends Gabby

With encouragement from blog commenters, I decided to add another Teen Trends doll to the group. I was thinking it would be nice to add Kianna, but I found a Gabby NRFB and two NRFP outfits for sale, cheaper than the asking price for the only NRFB Kianna on ebay, so Gabby and the clothes came home instead. I'd still like to get Kianna, NRFB partially because of the low hair quality, partially to get her outfit complete, and partially because I have an OCD cleanliness thing.

Gabby comes tied down with coated wires and the little plastic tags. Her jacket, her necklace and her purse were also all attached to her shirt and pants with tiny little plastic tags. Annoying! There is a cover of plastic and cardboard that gets removed from her box, and then there are cardboard inserts that Gabby, her stand, and her accessories come attached to. Those get lifted out, and you end up with a cardboard wardrobe that holds the doll and her accessories, and has a place to hang her clothes. Extra outfits come with a hanger.

Mattel's Teen Trends Courtney

In 2005, Mattel introduced the Teen Trends line of dolls. They were 17" dolls, each with her own personality, which was reflected in her fairly detailed clothing. I picked up Courtney, the preppie doll. My family was never rich, but I did try to dress preppie in high school during the mid-80s. The other dolls produced were Gabby, Deondra and Kianna. According to Wikipedia, there was also a doll named Rayna who was brought out a couple of years later. The joints at the shoulders, elbows, hips and knees are all strung. Courtney can look a little bit up and down, and also side to side. Each doll originally came in a thick cardboard wardrobe case, with room for the doll, space to hang her clothes, and a little drawer for her extras. Individual outfits, each tailored for a specific doll, were also sold.

If the dolls didn't all have the same face mold, it was at least very similar. Courtney has dirty blond hair, light brown eyes, and pink full lips with a slight smile.

She wears silver ball stud earrings and a nice necklace for an inexpensive play doll. She also wears a short-sleeved polo shirt and a denim jacket with a lot of detail. The jacket does not close, though.

She can't stand up by herself; her knee joints are rather floppy. I don't think that's a result of string deterioration, since the lower legs don't hang loose. It just seems like the knee joint doesn't fit together sturdily.

And with the legs I discovered a problem with this particular doll: she has developed the dreaded sticky leg syndrome. When I touch her lower legs or arms, a tacky residue is left on my fingers. This may also be what stained Courtney's otherwise awesome preppie khakis.

The belt on Courtney's pants looks like a man's tie. Mattel did something similar with one of the Fashion Fever outfits which I recently picked up. Unfortunately, I broke the stiff plastic chain belt that the Fashion Fever tie was woven through, and the pants didn't fit my Fashion Fever doll, nor the J-dolls. So you won't see a picture of that now. Here's Courtney's pants, though.

Courtney's outfit finishes off with sandals that highly resemble Dr. Scholl's Originals, which were all the rage during part of the 80s, and maybe the late 70s. It's all kind of blurry now, and I may be getting them mixed up a bit date-wise with Candie's. Those were rather similar, slip-ons with a wide strap and wooden base, but often with a high, chunky heel.

Courtney's other flaw, besides the sticky plastic, is her hair. It's an uneven mess that feels very much like the straw that it resembles.

This is especially confusing since one of the things the doll seems to be meant for was hair play. Courtney came with the hair items below: three rubber hair rollers, a soft suede-covered headband, a clip, and a decorated hairband. I've never tried using the rollers on Courtney's hair, and the headband doesn't fit particularly well.

I had been considering getting a friend for Courtney, until I discovered her stained clothes and tacky limbs. Now I'm not even sure what I should do with Courtney herself. I've read that baby powder helps with the stickiness, but only temporarily. What should I do with my poor preppie girl?