My Collection Part Nineteen: Madame Alexander Travel Friends

There aren't going to be any new pictures of these dolls. I bought them back in 2015, so even if you saw the posts when I reviewed the dolls, you've probably forgotten about them, and what they looked like. I reviewed them in great detail; unfortunately, there were a lot of flaws in the dolls, clothes, and box art. If you're interested, check out Germany and Ireland here, and Italy, Kenya and Russia here.

Here are the five dolls together.

Top from left to right: Italy, Russia, Kenya

Bottom from left to right: Germany, Ireland

The Germany doll, who I named Gretel, is wearing mini AG Felicity's dress, because her own outfit is just horrible. The shirt was too short, and the lederhosen were too baggy, and the straps were too tight when I tried to sit Gretel down. Plus her shoes were huge on her, as opposed to the other dolls. I guess that's because she came wearing stockings, which none of the other dolls did.

So ein Pech

The girls' clothes also had huge tags in them, that could stick out from the outfit.

 

When I re-read my reviews, I didn't remember how much I had really savaged some of the aspects of these dolls. However, I only paid $10 or so for each doll, and overall they *are* cute. They kind of remind of dolls like the Kruselings, only about 2" or 5cm shorter. I think I like my dolls' overall look better, actually. It's just too bad that Madame Alexander, a doll manufacturer name associated with quality, produced dolls with so many issues. This type of doll, which they also tried to use for a princess line, and a NASCAR line (so odd!) didn't sell very well, and few doll styles made it to stores.

Total dolls: 82

Madame Alexander Travel Friends Dolls Germany and Ireland

Yes, everyone and their aunt have been reviewing these dolls lately, or so it seems. However, I haven't seen a review yet of Germany! And Germany surprised me by having quite a bit to talk about that was different from the reviews that I've seen. Yes, I went with my own heritage and picked the Germany and Ireland dolls, although Ireland's red hair was a bonus. Let's get a little info about these dolls first. They are 7" tall, and made of vinyl. They are part of Madame Alexander's Play line. A visit to MA's website showed me that they are currently dividing their dolls up into three categories: Baby, Play, and Collector. They have quite a variety of baby dolls. Play dolls are mostly represented by their 18" lines. And the Collector line includes their Wendy and Cissette dolls, among others.

This is going to be a very picture heavy review. Actually, since I haven't seen MA's Germany Travel Friend doll reviewed, this post is the first one I'm going to treat like a "real" review and not just an overview. Before the break, I'll show you pictures of the dolls in their boxes. Let me give my standard disclaimer here: the in-the-box pics are poorly lit because I often don't get the mail from the group mail box down the street until later in the day. Thus, the natural lighting is poor, and I'm eager to break the girls free, therefore poorly lit pics.

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?