Gone for a While

I'm having surgery this Wednesday morning, so I might not be around for a while. I don't own a laptop, so I'll have to be able to sit at my computer to do any writing, and I'm not sure how quickly I'll bounce back. I'll probably still be checking out the dolly world using my phone, but definitely not blogging on it. I hope you all have lots of fun!

A Place to See Toy Fair Pics!

For years, I've been depending on pictures from the guys at ASM. While they're mostly interested in more traditionally boy toys like Transformers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, they provide lots of photos of other toy offerings as well. Right now they have the latest LEGO Friends and Princesses lineup, My Little Pony, Monster High and Hearts 4 Hearts. Check them out here.

Tonner Kripplebush Kid Sweetheart

Just in time for Valentine's Day, I'm pleased to share some pictures of my 2001 Kripplebush Kid Sweetheart, by Robert Tonner. She's 8 inches tall, made of plastic, with wigged hair. Her body is strung with elastic, and she has straight arms and legs.

She also has sleep eyes.

Nap time!

Here's what she looks like when she is awake, and standing. She stands fairly well on her own because of her feet and her sturdy child-like body. She certainly loves roses and lace!

And speaking of her child-like body, her stomach protrudes a little, like a little girl's might. I should have taken this picture more as a profile.

How old do you see her as? I'm thinking around six.

I'm currently posing my Kripplebush Kids with my Tonner 16" dolls. Even though the Kids have set-in eyes and the 16" dolls have painted on ones, they seem to look passable together. Here I put her with my Basic Tyler standing on her flat feet, to give you the best idea of height, vs. a doll on high-heeled feet.

Sweetheart came with a heart to pose with, but mine didn't hold up well over the years. I got the doll second-hand, and this is the way the heart showed up:

My photo is not really the best at showing the damage, but do you see the dark spots on the trimming on the right side of the heart? The darkness is actually worse than that, and also if you look you can see the faint yellow staining on the top of the heart. The seller was totally open about it; that wasn't an issue. I think what happened here was just glue deterioration, but I'm not really sure. This is two felt pieces on light cardboard, glued together with the ruffled trim in between, and the ribbon rose on the front. There's also a piece of thin elastic across the back to allow the doll to hold the heart. I presume it's supposed to look like a candy box. I only keep the heart for the sake of completeness.

There is a helpful resource put together by Diane Drummond which will let you see Kripplebush Kids from all four years of their production, 1998-2001. Unfortunately, some of the dolls in the catalogs were never produced. Also, only white dolls were ever made. The series was mostly made up of three girls: Marni, Hanna and Eliza, and they came dressed in various outfits. There were also characters like fairytale princesses, a cowgirl, and the 1880s series which is what first got me interested in the Kripplebush Kids, with my weakness for Victorian dresses. And there were some separate outfits sold.

Tonner did use the Kripplebush Kid body more recently for his Merli Stimple character in the Gowns by Anne Harper collection. Merli got a new sculpt, with painted eyes. So it's not out of the question for Tonner to reuse the body again, perhaps for another little girl line with more characters added to the group. Of course, Tonner's Patsy line is really drawing in collectors right now who like child dolls, so who knows if the Kripplebush Kids would sell. These girls remind me a lot of Madame Alexander's short-lived Hannah Pepper line. And of course Madame Alexander's own 8" doll line. What do you think?

J-Doll Spitalgrasse

This doll was one of my Christmas presents for Christmas 2013! You've already seen her modelling a dress for me. Now I'm finally going to review her for you. As you'll see, I love the doll but am ambivalent about her outfit, so this might have contributed to how slowly I got this review out.

When I first saw the doll, I was thinking Spitalgrasse was somewhere in Austria. Actually, it is the main street in the capital city of Switzerland, Bern. This Australian site that sells fashion dolls has a little information on Spitalgrasse and stock photos of the doll.

Here she is in person:

Lots of pieces of plastic were holding her in, which equated to lots of tabs in the back, held on with stickers. One of the things I hate about the way J-Dolls are packed, is that the stickers completely cover the tabs, ends and all. So you have to peel the stickers off to loosen the tabs, instead of just grabbing the end of the tab, and pulling.

I didn't take a picture of the back, so the next shot is her as she looks straight out of the box.

I didn't think J-Dolls would be able to stand alone on their feet, as the feet are so relatively tiny. However, they can. But shoes mess all that up, so you will see the J-Doll with this chair when she needs to stand.

Anyway, she is wearing a blouse which is deliberately cut to be worn open (it doesn't shut) to show a sort of bandeau top underneath. She is also wearing a skirt with burn out stripes over what looks like red leggings, and brown plastic shoes with a slight heel. Her hair is done in two braids, on each side, of different sizes that are held at the ends with a piece of red ribbon and a piece of lace. There is also some brown string unobtrusively wrapped around the ends of the braids.

Sewing for the J-Doll

While looking around for possible sewing patterns for the J-Doll, I found one for Blythe. Since everybody was home today because of the cold weather, I decided it was a great time to putz around with it. It's modified from a Skipper pattern, and at least some Skipper clothes work with J-Dolls. I learned a lot from this dress, but it's not really wearable, so I didn't make an effort to take fantastic pictures. But this is how it turned out:

The biggest issue is that it doesn't close completely in the back. J-Dolls seem to have bigger hips than Blythe, and I also had problems dealing with the seam allowances. They were slightly smaller than 1/4", which is about as narrow a seam allowance as my machine works best with. Still, J-Dolls bigger hips were probably the main issue. Which means she probably wouldn't rock the A-line dress like Blythe does, anyway. Oh well. Overall, it was a great learning experience, and an enjoyable way to spend a cold winter afternoon. Next time I hope to make something she can really wear.

Oh, and this is the new J-Doll I got for Christmas! Her review will probably be the next thing coming up here.

Tonner 16" Vintage Basic Doll

At last, the Vintage Basic doll from Tonner's Re-Imagination line has arrived, and I have added one to my collection! After playing with J-Dolls for so long, poor Daphne felt big and also not very flexible. Yes, she really doesn't have the range of motion that a lot of doll collectors seem to be currently looking for, but she's going to be great in my own collection. My J-Dolls and my Tonners fill two completely different niches in my doll world. But it certainly was different to hold this new Tonner doll after so much time with a smaller, lighter doll. Time was when the Tonner 16" dolls were the centerpiece of my collection. Maybe I'm getting back to them.

So let's get to the pictures! There's only one photo with any kind of doll nudity. There are so many Tonner dolls with this body type out there, that I was more interested in giving you the details of this doll's face and clothing. If you have any questions, please ask!

So when you open up the box and pull the tissue back, this is what you see. She is being held in with the cardboard inserts and the foam pieces.

Pull those out, and the doll is free! She had a net over her head, which is hard to see in these pictures, and plastic around her hands.

Calico Critter's Britney's Ballet Recital

Although neither of my daughters collects dolls as I do, my youngest still does appreciate little sets that go with some of the toys she has received over the years. One of her most cherished toy sets is her Calico Critters collection. She has a house, a family, some furniture and a Christmas set. When I wandered into a small store that carries Calico Critters and saw this set, I knew I had to get it for my daughter. Her Calico Critters family is the Cottontail Rabbit family (because she loves bunnies) and as I mentioned previously she loves her ballet classes. Which is why her name on my blog is the Dancer. This was one of her Christmas presents.

Anyway, back to this set. It is called Britney's Ballet Recital.

Although the box tells you to create your very own story, the story that I found online with this set says that Britney has been practicing hard for a year for the big recital. (Presumably she used the mirror and the barre in her practice.) Now that the day is coming up, she can't decide what dress to wear!

The dresses are identical, except for color, but of course color is very important! The Dancer has kept her bunny in the original dress, and Britney is currently posing on the Dancer's desk, since her other Calico Critters items are packed away.

The main problem I have with this set is that the barre is just not the right proportion to our bunny ballerina. Surprisingly, it's far too tall, instead of being too short. There's also the fact that Britney's paws won't really hold the barre, but that's not a big issue for me. If the barre was the right height, she could just rest her paw on the top anyway.

Imagine how funny a rabbits big hind paws would look in pointe shoes!