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Saturday, November 30, 2019

The eighth child

LOL, Digimon reference!  Well kiddies, I hope our American followers had a lovely, safe Thanksgiving.  Ours was...well, it was delicious of course, but with Daddy, Grandma, and Grandpa in Heaven and Sister and Brother-in-law far away it was also pretty quiet.  Since it was just Mama, Second Uncle, and me we had a huge pot of spaghetti and some garlic bread instead of a huge greasy turkey.  It was a very good pot of spaghetti, big enough that we're STILL eating leftovers, but I missed Sister's smart-a$$ conversation and her husband's big laugh.  First Uncle is home from St. Louis for the weekend and that's nice, but things are pretty different now from the way they used to be.

Now to my aforementioned eighth child.  Yes, if y'all can believe it I've got an eighth American Girl doll.  Say hello to my little fixer-upper, Silver Bird Le.
Yes, that's how she looked right out of the box.  Notice that she's wearing what appear to be a pair of Josefina's moccasins.  Kaya's moccasins go up higher on her leg, so these would have to be Josefina's.
With Z being Korean-American and Ana Ming being Chinese-American I've chosen to go out on a limb and identify Silver Bird as Vietnamese-American.  I haven't yet decided what her first name will be (I'm leaning towards "Matagorda" for some strange reason), but "Silver Bird" will be her nickname because she's developing silver eye.  Indeed, this doll's silver eye is what drew me to her instead of another, cheaper doll without silver eye.  Silver eye is considered a flaw, but I kind of like it!
I admit that my fondness for the Mark Lindsay song may have also had something to do with Silver Bird's nickname.  Heavens, if I'm going that route then I could make her real name "Arizona"!  Sigh...I always will maintain that the sixties and seventies had the best music, and why I had to be born during the nineties with crap like "Oops, I Did it Again!" and "The Real Slim Shady" I'll never know.  Anyway, in addition to having the beginnings of silver eye, Silver Bird also has some staining on her arms that looks worse in real life than it does in my pictures...
...and her hair needs a little attention, about as much as Felicity's and Julie's does.
She also cost significantly more than Julie did (but less than Z did, LOL).  But to my great surprise she's in much better shape than I thought she'd be; I was expecting that hair to be an irreparably tangled mess.  So why did I want her since she's so similar to Z Yang, you ask?  Two reasons.  One, she's wearing part of the very first Just Like You outfit, better known as the Mix and Match Outfit.
The white shirt, the original shoes, and the hair scrunchie are missing, but I was able to replace most of the missing pieces with parts from another almost complete set.  Here's how Silver Bird looks now.
She even still has her original necklace!  It was tucked into the collar of her T-shirt.
Her hair still isn't perfect, but having been brushed it looks some better, and overall she looks more put together than she did.  I'll keep the spare pieces for mixing and matching, per the outfit's name.  Josefina's moccasins???  Julie can have those.  They're about par for what someone might've worn in 1974, and they're more suitable for winter than the sandals Julie currently has.  The laces are crumbling badly, but I can replace those.
Too bad they don't come in my size, because I love moccasins!  Anyway, with Silver Bird wearing her proper shoes and accessories, all she lacks now is the hat, and I'll have it in another day or so, so no biggie.  Oh, the logos on the reverse side of the vest take me back!  When I was a little girl that logo was on EVERYTHING American Girl-themed, from the dolls to clothes for the kids to sleeping bags and backpacks.  Indeed, I was the envy of my fourth grade class because I had a set of jewelry with this logo.
And yet I still didn't have a doll!  I didn't get Felicity until next Christmas, LOL!  In a continuation of the jaunt down Memory Lane, Silver Bird still has her stick-on Grin Pins...all ten of them.  Six on the right side of her vest...
...and four more on the left side.
Once upon a time American Girl included...I think it was ten of these little buttons called "Grin Pins" with each purchase.  My Grin Pins were included with the jewelry set Mama got me, for example.  If one bought an American Girl of Today (as they were called back then) one received a card with ten miniature Grin Pins that adhered to the doll's clothes.  As is often the case with anything that sticks on, these Grin Pins would eventually lose their tack and fall off (that's already happened to two of these) so I'm very pleased to see that Silver Bird still has hers after twenty-five-or-so years.  I may get some fabric glue and stick these on permanently, and just for shizzles I may dig out my own collection of Grin Pins (I had about thirty) and start wearing them again.  Hey, if I wear goofy hair bows to work then why shouldn't I wear Grin Pins too?  Among the Grin Pin designs were the fifty U.S. states, and each time I got an assortment of Grin Pins I hoped for the one with Missouri on it, but alas, it was not to be.  Indeed, I don't even know what color the Missouri pin was!  I remember Idaho's, though; it was dark blue with a teal background.  The Idaho pin was my favorite because the jewel-toned colors seemed fitting for a state nicknamed "the Gem State."  Daddy once asked me why on Earth I'd wear a pin with Idaho on it when I'd never even BEEN there, and when I said "Because I like the colors" he smiled and said no more.

Alrighty, there's my overly lengthy reason number one.  Silver Bird has parts of her original outfit, complete with Grin Pins still intact, and I love it.  Reason number two is actually the more important reason, and that reason is that Silver Bird sports the "Asian" head.
Ah yes, I've loved this head mold right from the get-go.  Back when the Truly Me line was called "American Girl of Today" there were twenty options to choose from, and #4 and #15 were my picks of the litter.  #15 didn't have bangs and I liked that, but #4 was completely different from the Historical girls (there were only five at the time), and from her fellow modern girls as well.  Before Jess McConnell debuted her head mold, #4 was the go-to doll for anyone who wanted an Oriental character.  It's not super-different from the Jess mold, but one can tell the two apart if one knows what to look for.
The #4 head is not a rare mold; indeed, JLY #4 was available until her retirement in 2011...dang, 2011 seems like it was just yesterday!  Even though #4 isn't thunderously rare, it IS hard to find a doll with this head in good shape for a reasonable price!  Furthermore, only JLY #4 used this head mold...and I mean ONLY JLY #4!!!  No other JLY dolls, no Historicals, no Girls of the Year.  Also, this mold is one of only two molds to have been retired by American Girl altogether (the Marie-Grace head is the other).  I don't think a reintroduction of this head is impossible, but given the popularity of the Jess mold it's probably unlikely.  So that's why I have Silver Bird now.  Oh yes, since she's an older #4 her skin tone is a little different from that of the other dolls.  According to her Wiki page, #4 had a "golden" skin tone initially, and indeed this can be seen when I compare Silver Bird to Z and Denise.
And maybe it can't be seen.  It's hard to get these three photographed properly, but here it's fairly easy to see that Silver Bird is fairer than both Z and Denise.  I wasn't expecting that.  And yes, Denise is dressed as a pilgrim.  She spent the month of November greeting patrons at the library dressed like this.
Thank you again, Mama!  My dolls are better dressed than either Mama or I are, I think!

And that, folks, is my lovely Silver Bird!  She will probably need a Downy Dunk like Julie and Felicity do, but no biggie, I can handle that.  Right now Silver Bird is too excited about having new friends to pay much attention to her hair.  Unsurprisingly, she immediately gravitated to Z due to their similar features.
Oh sure, Z looks a little reluctant in that picture, but in reality she welcomed Silver Bird with open arms.  Not only do the two look quite a bit alike, but Z knows how it feels to be the new girl.  For that matter, so does Julie!
Julie has vocalized a fondness for both Z and Silver Bird since they both remind her of her friend Ivy Ling.  Yeah, we all know Ivy is Chinese, and Z and Silver Bird are not, but for Julie the resemblance is still there.  As for me, I'm glad to have another new head in the collection.  Here's the classic mold (Denise, left) and the Jess mold (Z, right)
...and here's the Josefina mold (Julie, left) and the Asian mold (Silver Bird, right).
All of these are identifiable as American Girl dolls, and yet they're all different...and through sheer coincidence I picked four of my five brown-eyed girls (Samantha is the fifth).  LOL, there's an old song that I DON'T like!!!  As inconceivable as it may sound, I don't like all the music from that era; everything Bruce Springsteen did makes me want to vomit and then run screaming into the night, for example.  Anywho, I needed Silver Bird like I need a hole in the head, but as with all my American Girls I'm glad to have her along for the ride.  I'm looking forward to seeing what I can do with her hair.

Changing the subject a little now, I didn't show this in the pictures above, but Julie got some new earrings.
Bees!  The studs were once Elizabeth Cole's, and the bee dangles came from 2SistersSewCrafty on Etsy.  These were made with Blaire Wilson in mind, but as with all doll jewelry anyone can wear them.  The shop also sent along a headband and a ring as freebies.
Silver Bird will probably get the ring since it matches her outfit, and I haven't decided yet who will wear the headband.  Z would look good in it, but so would Denise, and so would Silver Bird and Xenia and the Madame Alexander duo.  Yes, duo.  Remember Alissa, my smug little flower fairy?
Alissa went to live with Isabelle and Little Gracie, and her name is now "Rosie."  I still have the fairy costume, though (LOL).  Anyway, any of my eighteen-inch dolls can wear that headband, but right now I have it in storage, waiting for the right outfit to come along.

With the Christmas season just around the corner, I'll be veering away from American Girl dolls to focus on another doll, one that may possibly be a on a lot of little girls' lists to Santa Claus.  I may update this post when Silver Bird's hat gets here.

Ciao,
RagingMoon1987

Update, 12/3/2019:  Silver Bird's hat came today after a minor snafu with delivery.  Mama thinks the hat adds the perfect touch.
I also was able to figure out a formal name, though in my typical noncommittal style I ended up choosing ALL the names I had planned.  Silver Bird's full name is now Arizona Matagorda Silver Bird Le, though to me she'll be known simply as "Silver Bird."  I've seen dolls named "Neon Annabelle" and "Susannah Maria Augusta Eliza Lucy Louise," so my doll's name isn't super-weird.  It's merely...a little weird!

End update!

10 comments:

  1. Congrats on getting a number 4! She’s very cute. I think she would make a great Ivy for Julie. Just put her in a 70’s inspired outfit and they would look perfect together. I forgot to comment on your post about it, but congrats also in getting Julie. She’s a great doll. I got my daughter a Julie off of eBay a few years ago, because I stumbled upon the listing by accident ( I was looking for doll clothes - not dolls) and the price was so cheap I couldn’t resist bidding). I love the brown eyes/ blond hair combo since that’s not super common in the doll world.

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    1. It's not a common enough combo, in my opinion! LOL, Julie's so cute, it's hard to beat her! I got my Julie by chance too, so I feel you there; I couldn't pass her up for fifty bucks. I hadn't thought of making Silver Bird play Ivy's part, but that's not a half-bad idea.

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  2. It's nice to see your AG girls RM, although the four are all different there is a similarity in their smiles ... I really do love their teeth, so cute. :) Your little Alissa is a cutie too, with her little rosebud lips all pursed and ready to kiss someone. I wonder why didn't you keep her?
    Big hugs,
    X

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    1. I gave Alissa to my little friend because my little friend only had two dolls, and I've got a bunch. Alissa was also the only one who wasn't a gift, so...off the island she got voted! My friend was very happy to receive her, though!

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  3. Thanksgiving dinner can be whatever you want it to be. No turkey necessary! As a vegetarian I haven't had turkey for over 30 years, and my kids have never had it. Ivy, our youngest, hates what she calls 'Thanksgiving food', so for several years she has had Olive Garden for Thanksgiving! It's all about what makes you happy.

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    1. Yum, I could dig Olive Garden! LOL, I mean no hate towards my mother's spaghetti. I just wish the whole family had been there to enjoy it. My sister loves spaghetti.

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  4. I think that AGOT #4 is definitely very distinct from Z. They are both pretty dolls!

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    1. She is if one knows what to look for, yes! Z's cheeks are wider, among other things. Thanks for the compliment!

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  5. Mr. BTEG and the Dancer and I had dinner at a restaurant buffet. I personally skipped the turkey and went right for the prime rib. I'm not big on eating turkey anyway.

    Boy, Grin Pins take me back to those earlier AG years. Silver Bird seems very happy with her new friends, and her outfit looks great on her.

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    1. Mmmm, prime rib sounds lovely. We would have gone out to eat, but the weather was dodgy and we didn't want to risk it. I would've preferred that Mama not have to cook at all, but the spaghetti was easy to make and it kept us fed all weekend.

      LOL, the Grin Pins took me back too! I'd seen the doll-sized pins available separately in the catalogs, but I figured American Girl just wanted to hawk paper stickers. These, though...they're pretty nice for stickers. As to Silver Bird herself, she's settling in nicely and has grown accustomed to the ups and downs of belonging to me.

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