Another tie-in, more pink, plus a health update

Is it just me, or is American Girl becoming more Barbie as time goes by?  Lila Monetti had a heavy dose of pink in her collection, and current Girl of the Year Summer McKinny is girly to the hilt.  Looks like the trend is continuing into 2026.  Meet Raquel!  LOL, my buddy Barb saw my commentary on pink coming a mile away, but it's a cute little dress so I can live with it.  Heck, it's PLAID!!!  Plaid is awesome.

Raquel is the second Girl of the Year to tie in with a past character (Lila was the first).  She is Samantha Parkington's great-great-granddaughter (or is it great-great-great, I've seen both?), and she's from MISSOURI!!!  Kansas City, to be exact.  Ooo, ooo, I hope that means she likes the Chiefs!  She clearly likes pink and hair bows like Samantha does, she's learning pickleball (THAT'LL look dated in ten years, I'll bet!) and DJing, and she's biracial, being Mexican and white.  She has Joss's head and Tenney's eyes, and despite the pink I think she's cute.  Sounds like this one's gonna be fun!  I just wish there weren't so damn much PINK!!!  Almost all of the new Truly Me outfits released this year have been dominantly pink, and...yeah.  I DO NOT HATE PINK!  I just hate the belief that all little girls are obsessed with pink.  As I've said time and time again, I love green and have since I was old enuff to name the colors.  But I can overlook the pink since Raquel is bringing something new to the table...or semi-new.  As far as I know, there has never been a modern girl with any ties to a historical.  Technically, Raquel ties in with two historicals since Nellie was Samantha's adoptive...sister?  Cousin?  Samantha's aunt and uncle adopted Nellie and her sisters, so I guess Nellie and Sam were cuzzies.

I'm gonna break these opinions down into categories, since I ALWAYS have opinions.

WHAT I DON'T LIKE
*Too much pink.  Y'all knew that already.
*Raquel is a very pretty little doll, but she looks a lot like Maritza Ochoa.  Not exactly, mind y'all, as Maritza's hair is different.  But Raquel and Maritza could be sisters or cuzzies if someone wanted to play it that way.
*This is a local gripe, but there's so much more to Missouri than the cities and Branson!  Lea Clark hailed from St. Louis, and now the other city is getting represented.  I kinda wish we had a girl from the Ozarks who liked to explore caves.  Missouri IS the Cave State, after all, and caves can be stunningly beautiful.
*Treesa pointed out on Barb's post that there may be idiots who criticize Raquel for being Samantha's relative but also having a Mexican last name.  I don't have an issue with it, but y'all know fully well how dumb people can be.  Humans will get mad about anything.

WHAT I DO LIKE
*The tie-in to Samantha.  I've said in the past that I think Samantha is overrated, but in Raquel's case I think it'll help her.  Samantha is very, very loved by a boatload of AG fans, so the tie to her may boost Raquel's sales a bit.
*Her hobbies are unique.  We haven't had a pickleball fan yet, nor have we had a budding DJ.  DJing isn't the easiest thing to do.
*Is that dog a Pomeranian???  I freaking love Pomeranians!

Overall I like what I see.  I don't know yet if I'll bring Raquel home, but I like her so far.  She's not another dancer, not another blonde, not another Josefina or classic face.

In health news, I saw my doctor yesterday afternoon.  She's very understanding and very professional, and I like her a lot.  She did your routine pelvic exam and also did a mini-ultrasound, which was cool.  She held the wand in her hand and it brought up the images on her phone.  Right now the diagnosis is two large uterine fibroids; she doesn't know HOW large but she knows they're large.  I'll need a more extensive ultrasound to know more, but the doctor did say that a hysterectomy wasn't out of the question.  She also doubts that these fibroids are the cause of my lameness, and she suggested that I get tested...FOR MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS!!!!!!!  Drat, I don't want MS!!!  I know it's not the end of the world, but I don't want it!

Breathe, Moon.  You've got one friend with a broken neck and another friend who's fighting bone cancer, so things could be a lot worse.  The young man who broke his neck is semi-quadriplegic, but he's slowly getting some motion and feeling back in his hands.  I don't know if he'll walk again, but his arms and hands are recovering.  But either way my life could be harder.  Right now my main concern is hospital bills!  If I bother with Raquel at all she'll have to wait.

Love,

RagingMoon1987 

The Labubu trend

I knew that these homely little goobers were popular, but I didn't know that they were popular enuff to spur a thriving bootleg line.  I'm referring to Pop Mart's Labubu figures, of course; these little things look like one of the monsters in Where the Wild Things Are, and they are driving peeps wild.  LOL, even that link thinks Labubu looks like a Maurice Sendak character!

I never cared much for Where the Wild Things Are, by the way.  There's just nothing to the story.  There's nothing to many of Sendak's books, come to think of it.  Not terribly surprising, considering that Sendak considered Herman Melville one of his "gods."  I tried to read Moby Dick for the accelerated reader program in high school, and that book bites.  ANYWAY, Labubu looks a lot like one of the characters from that book, complete with the big toothy smile.  Despite those teeth, Labubu is supposed to be a friendly, helpful sort, though sometimes the plans go terribly awry, as best-laid plans often do.  According to the link these blind box figures are the most popular, so I got one of those to start out with.  He/she is from the Exciting Macaron wave.

As usual there are several variants, including one secret Labubu that's rarer than the others.

I like all the options, but unsurprisingly the green one is my favorite.  I ended up with...

...Soymilk!  I don't hate that result, and I actually like soy milk.  Soymilk is about six inches from head to toe with vinyl face, hands, and feet.  His fur is soft, and I don't know this for sure but his eyes look like they might reflect light, like those red things on bicycles do.  I'll warn y'all, by the way, not to give these small Labubu dolls to small children, because Soymilk's left foot popped off right after I got him.  I was able to repair him easy-peasy, but beware just the same.  

Since I'm always giving shout-outs to tornado towns, shout out to Plainfield, Illinois, from where Labubu hails.  That tornado was a 24-carat mutant, and Plainfield came back bigger and better than ever.  So hats off to you, Plainfield, and to the other communities that got hit in that event too (Joliet, Crest Hill, and Wheatland Township also lost citizens in that tornado).  Thank you for my Labubu!  He hangs out on my walker for the time being; if I can ever get OFF the walker then Labubu will have to go somewhere else, but for now he's my mascot.

Y'know, Labubu reminds me of Monchhichi, with the stuffed body and vinyl face, hands, and feet.  And sure enuff, Monchhichi is making a comeback thanks to Labubu.  I never cared much for Monchhichi, but I guess now is a good time to change my 'tude....like I just did.

She's not bad!  She's softer than I thought she'd be, and cuter in the face.  Mama told me point-blank that she likes Monchhichi better than Labubu, LOL.

One of these days I need to do a post about my plushies.  I like plushies almost as much as I like dolls, especially if they're unique.  Or gifts, like my mini Furskin.  So I need to finish excavating my house, gather all my plushies together, AND FIND FLAXIE!!!  I DON'T KNOW WHERE SHE IS AND I WANT HER!!!  I've also got a Squishmallow and some other cute things that I've never shown y'all, and some sentimental things that I've kept from childhood.  Not a ton of stuff, but worth showing just for the memories.

Fuzzy love,
RagingMoon1987

Dolly Dress Discussion: Bitty Baby and Tiny Tears

My sister's birthday is today, and as a result babies are usually on my mind when September 9th rolls around.  My sis was the first exposure I had to a very tiny baby (I was a month shy of four years old when she came along), and she was a very pretty baby.  So yeah, babies (and thus baby dolls) are on the ol' psychie today.  Recently I measured my Tiny Tears doll, discovered that she's fifteen inches from head to toe, and remembered that Bitty Babies are also fifteen inches long.  That in turn made me wonder if they could share clothes.  So long story short, here's the stars of the show today.  Kiara is the Bitty Baby on the left, and Eve is Tiny Tears.

Eve is something of a slouch.  Here's a better look at her face.

Y'know, I don't know what in the world possessed me to buy a Bitty Baby!  I always liked 'em, but I never super-duper wanted one until one day in 2022 when I decided "Hey, I want a Bitty Baby!"  Y'all see the result, LOL.  Eve was a gift from my mama, and right now neither of them have anything appropriate for the season.  Kiara does have something winter/late spring, but of course I don't know which crate I put it in.  I've gotta start labeling this stuff!  As for Eve, well...she has this hat, sized for a Cabbage Patch Preemie.  Big surprise, since it's got a Halloween theme, Mama likes it.

It fits Kiara too, though it's a smidge big on her.

But then again, hats are universal; they fit just about everyone.  Let's see how well Bitty Baby and this size of Tiny Tears can share back and forth.  I really, REALLY hope they can share clothes.  And...

...first of all, Eve has a seam in her singlet that's come undun and will have to be mended.  Right there at the crotch, see?

I didn't put that on Kiara since she's got her own undergarment...I guess.  Do diapers count as undergarments?  Anyway, I also didn't try Eve's socks on Kiara since Kiara's feet are bigger than Eve's.

Kiara's clothes are a little big on Eve, but not so big that she looks ridiculous.  The main issue I have is with the leggings; they will cover Eve's feet if I don't pull them up a bit.

As for Kiara, Eve's dress looks cute from the front, but it doesn't close in the back.

So Eve's clothes are too small for Kiara, and Kiara's clothes are just a teensy bit big on Eve.  Based on that I'll say that some Bitty Baby clothes are alright for a fifteen-inch Tiny Tears, but maybe not all of them.  Shoes might be too big, and hats might be too small.  Bitty Baby has too wide a body to wear Tiny Tears clothes.

Quick little aside, I turned to hurricane lists from the fifties and sixties to name Eve, and some of those names were HORRID!!!  I'm not going to name names since the names might be your name, or the name of someone you love, but they were not something I'd want to name a baby doll.  Uncle Man-Child's suggestion ("Shasta") also sucked.  I like Shasta soda pop, but a modernish name like that is not what I want for a vintage doll.  Mama cast the vote for "Eve," from the 1969 list, so Eve she is.

Love,

RagingMoon1987 

So Random, July-August '25

At the beginning of July I was unsure what my immediate future held, so I combined two months again.  First picture was taken on June 30th, a few hours after the last random post went up.  I had yet another new dress for Chatty Cathy.  I was only then realizing that I had nothing patriotic for her, but this getup will do nicely. 

Or rather, it was new to her.  I'd had it laying aside since she looked so cute in white, but I was ready for a change.  I had someone comment on Cathy's hair when I shared this image on Failbook, by the way; the friend noted how red Cathy's hair is, and I don't remember it being this red.  I do know that Mattel hair from this era can change colors with time, so maybe that's the deal.  But if that's the case, then the change only took ten years.  But either way my Chatty Cathy is a strawberry blonde now and I'm not gonna knock it.

Also from June 30th came a Failbook memory, dating back to 2016.  Alistair decided to channel his inner C.C. DeVille.

I'd just gotten a fukubukuro wig bag for my ball-jointed dolls, and Alistair promptly claimed this one.  I'd gotten some beautiful champagne-colored eyes in another package, and the pairing made Alistair pop.  Up until this point I'd had a hard time bonding with him, but this combination made him.

Failbook memory again, this one from July 1st, 2021.

I'm glad I found this picture, as it's the only one I know of that shows all three Magic Nursery triplets in their original outfits.  Not long after this I threw Lulu (left) in a Build-a-Bear Small Fry dress and she hasn't been out of it since.

Another Failbook memory, from July 1st, 2016.  This one also concerns Alistair, and my attempts to tame his hair.

I thought Alistair might make a good decora boy, but as y'all can see Alistair is having none of it.  He reminds me a little of that scene from Beauty and the Beast, where the Beast is getting gussied up for his date with Belle...and a hairstyling session goes a smidge awry.  

July 2nd, in the aftermath of my visit to the hospital with a torn-up ankle, and possibly Day One of a depressed spell (I didn't really start perking up again until July 22nd).  One of my Failbook groups declared it Maryellen Week.  Alas, I have no Maryellen, but Silver Bird does.

Had I the room I would add Maryellen and Addy to my collection in a heartbeat.  I freaking love them both. 

My ankle was killing me that afternoon, so I passed the time by monkeying with the dolls I had within arm's reach (quite a few, LOL).  During this time Aimee gently reminded me that she hadn't been played with in awhile.  By the next evening I was in much less pain, so I moved Aimee up front and let her pose with Flower Magic Mary. 

My, oh my, the aesthetics sure changed in the twenty years separating the seventies and the nineties.  Big eyes were prevalent both decades, but...oh, I don't know.  There's more than just the clothes that tell me Aimee is older than Mary.  But of course dolls are ageless!

July 4th, 2016.  Another Failbook memory, another goofy wig for Alistair. 

I didn't like this one on him as much as I did the golden wig, and I think Alistair was ready for me to just pick a look for him already. 

Same day, present day.  I changed Terri Lee out of her patriotic dress and into something else.

This is a case of "I saw it in a window and had to have it."  I saw those jewel tones and knew my doll had to be the one who got it.  It's not tight across the shoulders like the patriotic dress is.

Same evening.  My mobility sucked on Independence Day, so I'd let quite a group of dolls accumulate on the back of the couch.

Flower Magic Mary and someone else's My Child doll are the focus here, but Candela Laura can also be seen on the right of the image.  On the left Aimee chose not to look at the camera this time; I joked that she was trying to be artsy like the members of Pink Floyd did back in the day.  In the linked image Syd Barrett is staring into space, while Roger Waters is turned away from the camera in an Alfred Hitchcock sort of way.

July 10th.  One of those pictures that I grabbed while I was getting ready for work.

Chou Chou and Xue don't look like the happiest little dolls, but they've become fast friends due to their somber expressions and their similar heights.

As I stated in a prior post, it gets chilly in Casa Pizarro, and Candela Laura decided to steal my blanket.

We can share, LOL!

July 13th.  I was watching a distant lightning show, and my pretty Francie was watching me.

Like me, Francie is thankful for what she's got (a home, new friends, a soft coat), but she also dreams of a life without pain.  Unlike Ilaria, Francie's broken knee does hurt her some.  Not long after this I stabilized it with some brightly-colored duct tape, and now Francie is happy again.  Treesa, Francie and the rest of the Pennsylvania Gang send their love.

July 15th.  This is Mariannina. 

Mariannina is another Furga doll, one that is quite popular on one of my Failbook groups.  Seriously, EVERYONE in that group has some variant of this doll.  Mariannina is small enuff to ride in the bag on my walker, and sometimes she does exactly that.

July 26th.  Alistair sort of got a redress.

All I had to do was take off his cardigan, cap, and scarf.  He was wearing a red T-shirt and a black tank underneath all along.  As if y'all couldn't tell, Alistair's favorite color is red.

July 27th.  Suzette made a reappearance after a long battle with mold.

I'd just cleaned her eyes, and one of them momentarily stuck shut.  Normally these dolls don't wink unless one manually holds their eye shut, but Suzette did it for me.

August 1st.  Johnny Hailey made a reappearance, with my present for Courtney Moore in tow. 

That, in his arms, is a Pillow People character, Mr. Sandman.  The Pillow People were pillows and stuffed dolls rolled into one, and they had a number of different themes.  Thunderclap, from the Nighttime Sounds category, is my favorite, though I'll maintain to my dying day that things that go bump in the night don't necessarily want to be my friends.  Yes, apparently the tagline for that subgroup of Pillow People was "These noises in the night want to be your friend."  When I was growing up the absolute last thing I wanted to hear in the middle of the night was a friggin' thunderclap, and I still don't 100% love it because it means I have to pop out of bed and unplug my phone, lest it get fried by an errant lightning strike.  But I still love the Pillow People character.

As for Johnny, his clothes are a little worse for wear than Alistair's, because Johnny was right next to my open window during a couple of very hot summers.  He's dusty and his clothes need a bath, and as usual Johnny is none too happy about it.

"Admit it, you forgot about us."

Y'know, I never realized until just now what a sad expression this head has!  Not the paint, but the head mold itself.  Here's how it looks without spectacles.  

Those eye wells...but then again, that's what I wanted.  All of my ball-jointed dolls have backstories with a healthy amount of tragedy, and Johnny lets his feelings show.  Alistair tries to hide his.

Oh, and that musical instrument by Johnny's side?  He's taken up playing the balalaika.

I have no idea why, but I like a well-played balalaika so I won't complain.  Marillion may have had something to do with it; I love their song "Estonia," and it features a balalaika.

August 2nd, 2025.  The resin takeover of Casa Pizarro continues.  This is Wozzeck, my eternally sleepy, eternally chill Wishel.  Despite my claim on his original post, Wozzeck is not a Festivous Wishel, but rather an Unbeknown.  Festivous had angel wings and a halo, and Wozzeck does not have those features.  Unbeknown Wishels COULD have angel wings and halos, but they could also have demon wings and little horns, or a single horn like a unicorn, or none of the above!  Unbeknown or Festivous, Wozzeck is a Wishel, and Wishels are tough to find.

His hair isn't that red IRL.  Surprise of all surprises, none of my ball-jointed dolls are gingers...not yet, anyway.  I do have a red wig, waiting for a doll to wear it, but that'll have to wait...that is if bugs haven't eaten it.  More on that at eleven.  I apologize for the glut of ball-jointed doll chatter.  I spent a decent amount of money on those dolls and am only now trying to pay attention to them again.  In the time that I've been away most of the Etsy shops I went to for BJD stuff have closed, so finding things for Alistair, Johnny, and Wozzeck is going to be no easy feat, but I've got several crates of stuff so it's all good. 

August 7th.  The first picture I got of Ayla Diamond.

I like these My Mini Babies a lot, but I only want the one.  I don't want her to have to share clothes with someone else, LOL!

And now for the eleven o'clock news!  August 9th I retrieved Chloe from Casa del Luna...and the aforementioned bugs had destroyed her wig!

Darn it, the shop where I got that wig isn't open anymore!!!  

August 16th.  Johnny got some new threads.

As usual Johnny doesn't want his picture taken, but since I'm bigger than him I prevailed.  His new clothes came from ETDolls, and since most of my favorite haunts for BJD clothes are no more I may hit this ship up often.

August 22nd.  Mama nearly measured herself in the middle of the night and knocked over some of my dolls in the process.  While I was setting things back up I got this picture of Bunnie Candie and Malinda Irisa.  Please ignore the Blue Emu in the background.  That stuff is good stuff.

Once again it's possible to see the difference between a neon Preemie and a non-neon.  These girls need Halloween clothes, but unfortunately finding themed clothes for Preemies is pretty tricky.  Take that back, Christmas items are semi-easy, but Halloween and fall?  Forget it!  I really need to whip out my sewing machine and start making doll clothes myself.

I must say, the past two months have been very dynamic.  At the beginning of July I was depressed, tired, and hot, and now the end of August has come and I'm...well, not depressed.  But I get frustrated more easily, and that's new.  I don't like that.  What can I say, going from gimpy but ambulatory to full-tilt crippled in less than a year is infuriating, and I don't think fibroid surgery is gonna be the cure-all I was hoping for.  But it's a step in the right direction.  Come the middle of September I'll know for sure what the future holds.

All of my love,
RagingMoon1987

I'm going to gripe about pink again

DISCLAIMER:  I solemnly swear that I DO NOT HATE PINK!!!  Indeed, I love wearing certain shades, and I love dressing my dolls in certain shades.  I love how my dark dolls look in a light shade, for example.

Last night I went browsing through American Girl's wiki because I haven't done that in a hot minute, and let me say that I was sorely disappointed in the current wardrobe and its glut of pink.  Last year was an Olympic year so there were some cute patriotic offerings like the Team AG Sweater and Skirt Set (left).  Another Janie and Jack collab brought with it the Rose Fair Isle Sweater.  I could see Rita Cheryl or Gabby or Danica wearing either of these, and fair isle knitting?  Yes, please!

But so far there's nothing like that in the lineup this year.  The new clothing releases of 2025 have all been dominantly pink, with the exception of the Glam Shimmering Ocean Outfit and its accompanying accessories.  I'd dress Marina in that outfit in a heartbeat.  But the pajamas are pink...and the ballet outfit is pink...and all three of the new meet outfits are dominantly pink.  

I actually like the Truly Me meet outfits, though I've yet to meet a little boy who likes wearing pink.  Big boys, yes; I had guy friends in high school and college who wore pink, especially in October.  But younger boys, the ones who might actually be the target age for these dolls?  The ones I know are still solidly in the "Pink is for girls" rut.  But the Long Hair Looks outfit goes overboard.

Honestly I don't care much for the Long Hair Looks dolls, period.  They look cheap and gimmicky, like something one might get at Wal-Mart.  But then some of my buddies on Failbook have 'em and like 'em a lot, so that last gripe is probably just me needing something to gripe about.  But overall I can't say that I'm impressed with the clothes for AG dolls this year.  Too much Barbiecore, not enuff originality.  I do sort of like the Glam Sparkly Concert Outfit...

...but that's because it's modelled by one of my favorite current JLY dolls, #115, better known in my household as River Song Woodruff.  And for the record, despite those blonde locks, River Song is not fond of wearing pink.  The only doll I've got that's obsessed with pink is Doremi, and she's currently off gallivanting around somewhere in her own little world, so that's that.  I like Etsy clothes anyway, so for the foreseeable future that's where I'll be going for American Girl threads.  I hope they get out of the pink rut soon.

Blue love,
RagingMoon1987

Under moonshine

So much for me only owning one Baby Face doll.  Meet So Mischievous Moonbeam.

She's a custom job, made from So Innocent Cynthia.  The eBay seller says she got a dye job, new eye chips, new eyelashes, and a restringing, proving that these dolls can indeed be restrung.  I don't know how, and Suzie doesn't need it (thank God), but it can be done.

Truth be told, the So Innocent dolls (Cynthia and Charlene) are not my favorite Baby Face dolls.  They look like they should be named "So Freaked Out Cynthia" rather than "So Innocent." 

Blue hair, custom doll, moon theme, I'm not gonna be picky about faces.  I do wonder, though:  is this a dye job or a reroot???

I'd suspect that a dye job would've dyed Moonbeam's scalp, so I figure this is a reroot.  No biggie, it's blue freaking hair, just like I desperately wanted once.

Interestingly, Moonbeam has a name bracelet...and it doesn't say "Moonbeam"!

Tina???  Oh well, it's short and easy to remember.  Name not withstanding, Suzie acts like she's glad to be have a playmate her size.

So my Baby Face group is now up to two.  Im not going to go out of my way to get a huge collection of these, but if I see another custom job like Moonbeam I'll get her...or less likely, him.  Some folks do make boys out of these girls, just as they do American Girls.  WELL THAT'S ALRIGHT, THEN!!!  Suzie and Moonbeam need a boy to play with.  Or a So Merry Kerri.  I'm not betting on finding Kerri since she's one of the rarer Baby Face dolls, but like the perfect Simon and Halbig or a Cabbage Patch Kid with the #30 head, never say never.

Love and moonbeams,

RagingMoon1987