Laverne, Shirley, Robyn, and Joss

Welcome to my newest little friends!

My best friend Brittany needed rid of them, so I took them off her hands.  The green one is Laverne, the blue one is Shirley, and they have their own distinct little personalities, just like their namesakes do.  Laverne is sassy and likes to bicker, while Shirley prefers to avoid conflict.  They both have healthy sets of lungs, and neither of them act afraid of my cats.  Keep in mind that I have eight cats, and the youngest three (Tommy, Bobbie, and Sir Lancelot) would love to get to know their new housemates.  They even sleep next to the cage.

I don't leave the birds alone while I'm at work, but sometimes when I'm at home one of the cats will climb on top of the cage.  This hasn't caused any harm to the cage and the birds barely seem to notice (they lived with cats at their old home).  I don't allow the cats to make a habit of this, though.

In dolly news, Miss Emily sold another doll.  Or rather, one of her reviews enticed me to buy another doll that I needed like a hole in the head.  LOL, just about every doll that she reviews, I've gotta see for meself.  Robyn is an I'm a Girly doll, and she's on the left.  The lass on the right is none other than Joss Kendrick.

I'm a Girly is a Swiss bunch that is designed by "Kids4Kids," literally.  The line is big in Europe and the U.K., but apparently they've yet to gain a foothold here in the States for reasons I can't quite put my finger on...yeah I can, LOL.  Target and Amazon carry the dolls here in the U.S., meaning that Robyn and her friends have to compete with Our Generation in addition to American Girl and My Life.  The line has its naysayers, but don't all doll lines have their naysayers?  Anywho, as insinuated in the above picture Robyn and Joss are already pretty thick.  Robyn doesn't speak sign language yet, but Joss can talk to her aloud and can read lips so it's all good.  According to her online bio Robyn is an explorer who likes to spend time outside, and she wears the right shoes for the occasion.  Dig these!

Clear shoes beg for trippy socks, so that's exactly what I did. 

Robyn can't wear all AG clothes (she's too slim to wear Joss's shorts, for example), but shoes and socks can be done, as can some other pieces.  Regarding the face, all of the I'm a Girly dolls have either brown or blue eyes (no green darn it), with Robyn being in the brown club.  Her eyes are more amber than brown, though.

Robyn is my third redhead in this size after Felicity and Reagan, and they've all got different eyes.  Wait a minute...does Crissy count?  She's close in height to the American Girls and she's got red hair.  Okay, I've got four dolls in this size with red hair, and they ALL have different eyes.  Felicity has green eyes, Reagan's eyes are blue-gray (and wonky, I'm just now noticing), Crissy has very dark brown eyes, and Robyn's eyes are amber.  Pardon the crud in Crissy's eyes; they've developed some mold that I'll need to deal with after taking her closeup. 

For that matter, their hair is different too.  Crissy and Felicity tie for the most realistic shade, Reagan has...well, carrot-colored hair, and Robyn's is that lovely dark shade that I don't get to see too often.  

Reagan's hair is the softest, Felicity's needs a boil wash, Crissy's grows, and Robyn's can come off.  Yes, Robyn and her I'm a Girly companions wear wigs that can be switched around.  For comparison, I'm a Girly's smaller companions, entitled "I'm a Wow," have rooted hair that changes color under sunlight.  Robyn's wig ties on.  Wait a minute...TIES ON???  Yep, here's the tie.

This renders high ponytails out of the question, but it works pretty well.  The tie fits into a sizeable groove on the doll's head, and since Robyn's wig cap is black her pate is sheathed in plastic.

Reminds me of My Way Kids and their ill-fitting pates.  Speaking of, Robyn can apparently share wigs with My Way Kids and American Girls, so let's test it.  Here she and My Way Kid Leah have swapped wigs.  I already know that Leah looks nice as a redhead, but I've never tried this shade of red on her before.

Mmmm, I'm not feeling Leah's wig on Robyn.  Maybe a different style might do, but I'm just not feeling it.  The cap doesn't fit Robyn very well either; if you look closely at the hairline you can see the groove in Robyn's head peeking out.

Robyn's dark red wig fits Leah like a glove, and I love the color on her.  As with Leah's other red wig, I might braid this if Leah uses it again. 

Now it's Justine-Marie's turn.

I'd always wanted to know how Justine-Marie would look as a redhead, and now I know.  I don't think it suits her.  Or rather, the style doesn't suit her.  Justine-Marie is one of those types that was born to wear a bob.  

Robyn, on the other hand...she actually looks good in Justine-Marie's wig.  She looks way better than I thought she would.  My mom thinks the exact opposite, LOL; she likes Robyn's wig on Justine-Marie, but not the other way around.

Interestingly, Robyn is the only I'm a Girly with bangs.  Even these dolls' extra wigs don't come with bangs.  I love, love, LOVE that blue wig, by the way; if I can find that then Robyn and Lark can pal around together.  Not that they can't anyway, but having two with blue hair would be cute.  Blue would also look striking against Robyn's orange romper.  Some people would call the colors clashing, but I prefer to use the artistic term, "complimentary."  Shame that Robyn couldn't have Lola's purple wig with a yellow romper; yellow and purple has always been my favorite of the complimentary pairs.  Lola was almost my choice over Robyn due to that silvery purple wig, by the way, but I don't care as much for Lola's outfit or her shocking blue eyes.

I wanna skip over to Joss now and show y'all her hair.  It wasn't in its original style when she got here, and when I was finger-combing the fibers for the first time I found several tiny braids that someone had put into her hair.  I didn't like finding those since they made more tangles, but they looked cute and I'll probably put some more in after I've had Joss awhile.  But my main point is that this color is not like anything I have in my American Girl collection.  For example, here's three of my brown-haired girls, Samantha (left), Molly (center), and Zoe (JLY #26)...

...and my other three, Amanda (JLY #16, left), Luciana (center), and Joss.  In the pictures Luciana and Amanda appear to have similar hair, but IRL Luciana has a slight ruddy cast to her hair and Amanda's has a bit of a silver sheen.  Neither of them have hair like Joss.

Oh yes, and Lindsey.  Her hair has a subtle red cast to it, which I touched on in this post about Girls of the Year.

I own four Girls of the Year now, and they've all got special wigs, either in terms of length or of color, or both.  Makes me wonder if I spoke too soon when I derided Lanie and McKenna as "boring."  I know I had to eat my words when I met Isabelle for the first time.

Just for the heckuvit, here's how Joss's hair compares to Robyn's.  The colors are nothing alike, but they're both shiny and eye-catching.  If you're a brunette and have ever hated your hair (like I have in the past), take a note from Joss.  Even brown hair can be beautiful.

I want to go back to eyes for a minute.  I'm a Girly eyes are sometimes bad about degrading like My Twinn eyes.  One of Miss Emily's I'm a Girly dolls came with her eyes strangely fogged up, kinda like they'd been exposed to heat or something of that stripe.  Robyn's eyes appear to be okay for now, but I'll be keeping a wary eye on them no less.  A wary eye on eyes...Lordy, I didn't mean to make that joke!  But seriously, I've been watching doll eyes more closely than ever, because guess what?  I saw someone's new Gwynn Tan doll, not even two months old...and her eyes had turned LILAC!!!  A Wellie Wisher with eyes that turned!  Granted, the doll had apparently been a window display and thus exposed to sunlight, but still!  American Girl is supposed to be better than that!  Right, Joss?

Right.  I don't think Joss will ever have to worry about eye problems, but never say never.  Even now the folks at American Girl warn that their dolls' eyes can turn silver with time, especially if they get wet, and silver eye shows the most in dolls with dark eyes, like Joss.

Yep, another brown-eyed American Girl doll for me.  That makes...how many?  Lemme see...Amanda, Denise, Julie, Kyle, Kailey, Luciana, Samantha, Silver Bird, Zoe, and Z.  Two of them (Amanda and Silver Bird) have varying degrees of silver eye.  Add Joss to the mix and that makes eleven (her eyes are NOT silver and I plan on keeping it that way).  So yeah, Joss's eyes aren't as unique as the eyes of some of my dolls, and they're not as bright (unusual?) as Robyn's.  Her shoes aren't as fun as Robyn's either.  Indeed, they were a pain in the posterior to get on.  But then again, I'm always griping about Julie's and Kailey's shoes constantly falling off.  Joss's shoes fit pretty tight around the ankles so they won't be falling off.

At some point during this past week I had Joss and Robyn together with Rita Cheryl, one of my darker dolls, and I noticed the difference in their vinyl tone.  Robyn is fair (with freckles!), Joss has a sun-kissed shade, and Rita Cheryl is one of AG's medium tones.

I'm gonna set Robyn aside again and look a little closer at Joss, since she's supposed to be fair-skinned but doesn't really look the part.  Most of my fair-skinned dolls are pretty old and have yellowed or faded or God-knows-what, but Courtney still looks pretty good.  I'll throw in Z too, since the wiki claims she's fair-skinned.

Am I seeing things, or are all three of them different?  My mom can't tell the difference, and indeed it may be my imagination (once again) running away with me, but I think their vinyl is subtly different in color.  Not a huge deal really, since we all come in a wide array of skin tones, but I just thought I'd throw that out there.

That's about all I have to say for either of these gals.  Joss is an American Girl, and usually if you've seen one of those you've seen 'em all.  Indeed, I knew what to expect with Joss, as she was well-photographed and had clearly visible hair and eyes.  She had no flaws, so there were no surprises, good or bad.  I knew I'd like Joss.  Robyn was more risky.  Her eBay listing showed only a stock photo, and I knew from Miss Emily's review that these dolls could have bad eyes.  I also wasn't sure how her angular face would photograph, but Robyn turned out to be a delightful surprise.  She photographs well, her eyes are clear, and she's just a fun doll to own.  For reasons neither Miss Emily or I have been able to establish these dolls are relatively cheap...well some characters are.  Robyn and Lucy are easy to obtain, for example, but Mia is not for some reason.  Either way Robyn was well worth the twenty bucks plus shipping and handling that I spent on her.  Oh, and just for the heckuvit, her romper glows under my porchlight.

Maybe I should just bite the bullet and get a black light for my porch.  I've always enjoyed that kind of thing.  No, this particular bulb isn't a black light, but with the way it reacts to certain materials it might as well be.

Cheers,
RagingMoon1987