Throwback Thursday review: Geoffrey, Inc. Laura Ashley

This will be the last AG knockoff that I do for awhile, I promise!  I know eighteen-inch dolls aren't everyone's thing.  Like Sasha, the name "Laura Ashley" is the name of this doll line as a whole, though unlike Sasha there are no dolls in this line actually named Laura Ashley.  Laura Ashley is the name of a group that sells clothes and home furnishings, while the dolls were Toys 'R' Us exclusives, thus...well, I don't understand the connection!!!  But anyway, these Laura Ashley dolls bore a strong resemblance to Geoffrey's Girls on the Go line (not to be confused with the line Madge is from), and they have cute faces, so y'all know where I'm going with this.  I've got a Laura Ashley doll for today, but as I said above her name is NOT Laura Ashley.  All of the Laura Ashley dolls did have a first and a middle name, with this one being Katherine Alyse (I threw in a last name, as I often do, but that was my doing and not Geoffery's).

Like Shifra, this one needs a change of clothes.  Border collies for the win!

I apologize for the state of my grandmother's carpet; that particular area gets a lot of foot traffic and has been pounded flat over the years, but it's the best place in her house for doll photography.  According to Just Magic (yep, them again!), there were two brunette dolls in this line:  brown-eyed Rebecca Louise and blue-eyed Katherine Alyse.  So when my doll turned up with GREEN eyes I was initially thrown for a loop.

Little Raven Creations notes that Katherine Alyse actually has green eyes rather than blue, and they provide clear pictures so I know they've got it right.  Little Raven Creations also mentions a fifth character, a dark-skinned pet named Alana Michelle.  I love how these girls all have first and middle names, but the name "Katherine" is a little problematic for me since I have a couple of dolls named "Katherine" or some variant thereof.  But it's a nice name and a family name, so I'll stick with it.  Despite having the company name "Geoffrey, Inc." attached, Katherine is apparently a Lotus doll like Shifra (I didn't learn this until I just about had this post complete).  As a result Katherine has a build similar to that of an American Girl doll (my usual girl is shown), but a little on the slimmer side (like Madge and Shifra).  Notice that Rita Cheryl also appears a little taller than Katherine, though that may be because of her thick-soled shoes.

Hair first, as always.  Katherine is a brunette, with maybe the slightest hint of some red?  It doesn't show here, but in other pictures there's another color in there besides brown.  Little Raven calls it auburn.

Unfortunately, even without me monkeying with her hair there's this to be seen.

The rooting was a disappointment but not a surprise, as Little Raven noted that hair thickness could vary widely in this doll line.  Some dolls have thick tresses and some do not, and this phenomenon wasn't specific to characters.  I just happened to get a Katherine Alyse with thin hair. 

Most of this hair is worn loose, except for the very top part (Little Raven recommends that this be left intact).  That part is gathered together in a wrapped ponytail that is still smooth after twenty-some-odd years.

Like Madge and Shifra, Katherine's hair needed a little maintenance after her trip from Selden, New York, and her hair was...between Madge and Shifra in terms of difficulty.  It was much easier to tame than Madge's, but nowhere near as easy as Shifra's.  That said, Katherine's hair is low-maintenance despite its length.  I'm constantly having to brush Shifra's hair to keep it from tangling again, and Madge's hair is just plain hopeless, but Katherine's hair just needs a quick comb and she's ready for her closeup.

Now let's get face to face.  Like my Dream Doll Designer Rebecca, Katherine has a slightly snarky expression, but unlike Rebecca all Laura Ashley dolls look a little like this.  It's the angled eyebrows, mostly, and the bangs that cover parts of the eyebrows.

Ah, green eyes.  I have a thing for eyes in general, but green and gray eyes are my favorites on dolls.  They seem to turn up less often than the various shades of brown and blue.  These irises are a little hazy though, making me wonder if they won't one day change color. 

As I noted in Shifra's review, Katherine's eyes sleep like a lot of doll eyes do.  Note that she has painted eyelashes as well as rooted ones.

The lower part of Katherine's face is a bit more made-up than I'm used to.  

She blushed cheeks, pink lips, and more than the two teeth sported by Chatty Cathy, Shifra, and the American Girls, plus some lips that are a very pretty shape.  With the way the mouth is painted Katherine can look like she's trying to talk...or she can look like she's drunk.

Hmmm, I thought Madge was good at looking drunk, but Katherine may have her beat!  What say y'all?

In addition to looking drunk Katherine and her Laura Ashley friends can at times look too made up for a little girl, kinda like Grace Thomas does.  Keep in mind that Grace only wears lip gloss, not honest-to-God lipstick.  To top it all off Katherine can be very photogenic, but she can have her difficult moments too.  Y'all saw how she looked above, and last Friday night she really had her hands full!

In this case Katherine had been given the unenviable task of keeping Little Honeymoon still.  Little Honeymoon is almost flat, as we'll see in the weeks to come, but that doesn't stop her from being active!  Anyway, like Shifra Katherine has a face that's no gray area, though it's a bit more conventional than Shifra's is.  It's very nicely painted and the vinyl tone is pretty, but the paint is a little heavy, particularly on the lips.  But that's largely my own gripe; I kinda have a hangup about young girls tinting their lips.  You've got all of adulthood to do that, kiddies!

I'm gonna start the body discussion with a rabbit trail, but I guarantee y'all there's a point to it.  Like Madge and unlike Shifra, Katherine came in part of her original outfit, consisting of a purple plaid dress.  She apparently once had white tights, black shoes, and a hat, or somesuch like that.  I was able to replace the tights and shoes with stuff from Etsy, and even though I like it when my dolls wear hats Katherine looks okay without one.  The Etsy tights did leave some bruise-like stains on Katherine's legs, but that's my fault because I should've washed them.

Katherine's stock dress also stained her.  See the rings around her arms?  They're faint, but they're there.

Both Denise and Silver Bird have had to deal with staining in the past, and I've learned that with time the stains just...fade, just like bruises.  You'd never be able to tell now that Silver Bird arrived stained all over.  Her arms are covered here, but her legs are not and it's easy to see that she's free of stains.

Another two of my dolls arrived stained after spending ten-plus years in their boxes.  The cuffs of Lola's jacket caused her stains (left), while Madge's cousin Penny (right) has some stains from her dark blazer.  

Hopefully Katherine's stains will fade like Denise's and Silver Bird's did, but if not I can always try Stain Devils or peroxide in the sun.  But before I do clothes I want to skim this body.  Since Katherine is a Lotus doll I'm predicting that she'll have a body similar to Shifra's, and indeed she does.  A little weebly, but not terribly so.

Unfortunately that means that Katherine has no sideways play in her shoulders and hips.  She's restricted to straight up and straight down in the arm department...

...and front-to-back splits in the leg department.  She also sits very well (better than Madge), but not gracefully.  

Her head turns smoothly.

I forgot to make note of this in their reviews, but both Madge and Shifra use cable ties to keep their heads on.  Katherine does too.

Rita Cheryl has the old-style cotton cords.  I tied hers in a bow so they wouldn't look weird under her blouse.

I do have a few American Girls who don't have the neck strings, but being older and thus able to take off a doll's head with no ill effects, I prefer the strings.  Still, it's good to know that I could get into Katherine's body if I needed to.  I don't know if I could perform an effective body swap between Katherine and an American Girl, though.  Katherine's vinyl is very fair, so obviously a medium-toned American Girl like Rita Cheryl would be a terrible match.  Currently River Song and Arista are my two fairest-toned dolls, and as you can see, neither of them match Katherine's vinyl.  To my considerable surprise, Katherine is a little darker.

Why is this all important, you ask?  Well, it's not really.  I'm just exploring options in case I want Katherine to be a bit more limber.  Arista would NOT be a good candidate for body swapping in that case, as her limbs also only swivel.  But she's paler than Katherine, so no problem!

Moving on, since Katherine is a Lotus doll her hands are a similar shape to River Song's and Rita Cheryl's, but a bit smaller.

Her feet are similar in size but quite different in shape.

Here it's possible to see that Katherine's feet are narrower than Rita Cheryl's, but her calves are thicker.  I wasn't expecting that. 

Here's what the sole of Katherine's foot looks like.  Like Shifra, she's got some details in there.  As I said last week, American Girls have completely flat feet.  Yee-ouchie!

Par for the course, I've stored Katherine's stock dress and forgotten exactly where, so that won't be getting a review.  But I do have some other things that merit a looksie.  This hippie-flavored getup was piecemealed together from Etsy stuff.  The blouse came from TreasuredDollsUSA (a shop that I love), the jeans are from Bellaboo's (I love that shop too), and the shoes came from 

I'm glad that I shoved this on Katherine, because now I can tell y'all how it fits.  The shirt has no opening in the back and subsequently has to go over a doll's head, but it stretches a little so I got it on with no fuss.  The jeans are tight all over, possibly due to Katherine's thicker legs, and possibly because these would be better for My Life As dolls.  I dunno which.  Once in place the jeans look adorable, though they slide off Katherine's butt a lot.  As for the shoes, I was afraid that they'd easily fall off Katherine's smaller feet, but they actually fit her nicely.  I did have to go looking for a shoe at one point, but I think that may have been my own doing.  So Etsy's American Girl clothes are pretty safe for the Laura Ashley crowd, providing one keeps an eye out for tight pieces.  That's true for ALL dolls this size.

Just for the heckuvit, here's what Katherine looks like in a cheerleading outfit.  Mama got this for me.

Katherine is a Buckeye girl, and my lovely mama has an Ohio State uniform on the way, but for now Katherine is content to be a Tiger.  LSU is a family favorite school for various reasons, so it makes sense.  This getup fits Katherine like it was made for her, so I won't complain any.  She also looks amazing in purple, LOL.  Duh, she CAME wearing purple!

I'll end this post with Katherine as she looked in the beginning.  I think I said above that this is a My Life As outfit.

Once upon a time these outfits didn't fit American Girls or similarly sized dolls, but now for the most part they do.  The jeans fit particularly well.  They LOOK tight, but Katherine can sit in them with no problems.  The My Life As Shoes that I bought did not fit around her thick ankles, so beware of shoes that don't fit.

That settles it!

BAD
*Hair is a mixed bag on these dolls.  My Katherine's hair looks good, but the roots aren't great and the fibers feel a little stiff.
*Like Shifra, this face is a little characterized.  I like it and Mama likes it, but some collectors might not.
*Posing isn't great.  Three dolls in three weeks, and none of them have socket joints.
*I had a hard time finding shoes for Katherine.  Etsy shoes work, but the ones at Wal-Mart were too small.
*I'm not sure I trust those eyes!  They look like the type that could shift color as time passes.
*Stains...fairly easily.  Beware of dark clothes on these dolls, and wash any dark Etsy items before use.

GOOD
*I don't trust the eyes, but I do love the color!  Green eyes are always awesome!
*Well-painted, with an expressive face.
*Her hair is a lovely color, and I love the stock style.  As long as I don't monkey with it much it should be okay.
*Can share clothes with...just about all of my eighteen-inch dolls, except for the all-vinyl ones.  Just be wary of tight pants.
*Y'all will have to take my word for it that her stock dress is nice.  It stained her a little, but it's well-made.

Well!  Three weeks, three American Girl alternatives.  I think that of the three of them Katherine is probably the best, unless Shifra's character face won you over.  Shifra also has the best hair, though none of these dolls have AG-caliber hair.  Overall I'm pretty pleased with Lotus's forays into the eighteen-inch world, and I'd recommend both Madge and Shifra as friends for that special American Girl.  Just watch out for staining, and treat all hair with a gentle hand.  And be wary of doll shoes; the shoes I got for Katherine were too small, and the ones Shifra has are too big, so be very careful about picking that special pair of shoes.

Now, a not-so-brief postscript.  Not too long ago Barb the Evil Genius asked me how my other eighteen-inch dolls are taking the newcomers.  The answer is...they're not paying too much attention.  Doremi is mad that she can't push them around, Luciana has had her head too far up her telescope to say much, and Rita Cheryl has had her head in the clouds as well.  Funny, Rita Cheryl has never been much of a dreamer, but here lately she has done it a lot.  Maybe the heat got to her.  But that's okay, because Madge, Shifra, and Katherine became fast friends in their own right.  They all arrived with in a week of each other and thus forged a strong bond...kinda like Arista and River Song did, and Gabby and Danica too for that matter.  In this trio I see Katherine as the gregarious chatterbox, Madge as the practical, level-headed one, and Shifra as the quiet, innocent type.  Since Shifra is a little younger, but Madge and Katherine do everything they can to protect her.  Katherine has also grown thick with Zoe and Justine-Marie, both of whom like to play dress-up, and Shifra has grown close to Denise and Lindsey, with whom she worships.  Madge relates more to the baby dolls and the fourteen-inch battalion.  

Take that back, Rita Cheryl seems to like Katherine quite a bit.  She says that Katherine's gift of gab reminds her a bit of Luciana.  Here's what the two friends did after I wrapped up photography. 

It's been a long, hot week, and it's not over yet.  Weekend daytime temperatures will be dipping into the eighties, so Mama and I may get to go home in a few days, but until then I've been staying under a functioning A/C.  And don't worry about my pets; they...act like they like it, the crazy things!

Cheers and teddy bear hugs, 
RagingMoon1987

Throwback Thursday review: some kind of Lotus doll

This doll is NOT a Gali Girl, as her heavy eye makeup shows, but she's got the same face so I gave her a Hebrew name and I identify her as Jewish, like I do Denise.  Her name is Shifra, and she's another Ohio girl.  Madge came from Mansfield, and Shifra hailed from Piqua.  Piqua is a respectable distance from Mansfield, but is not too far from Xenia, LOL.  Anyway, here's Shifra...or rather, how she looked shortly after I got her.

Phew, too hot to be thinking of snowflake sweaters, as cute as that sweater is!

Much better!  Lotus is not the juggernaut that Mattel and Hasbro are, but the company has been around longer than I have, and Just Magic lists their dolls as respectable and affordable alternatives to American Girls.  They are responsible for the Jewish-themed Gali Girls, for Laura Ashley dolls (whom I'll be discussing next week), and for a number of other lines that Mommy's Doll Club touches on.  

Let's dive in.  As I said above, Shifra's hair needed some work when she arrived, just like Madge's did.  Unlike Madge, Shifra's hair was more responsive to water and my dog brush.  It only took forty-five minutes to brush it all out, plus a couple more minutes to find and restore the part...and then I waited the rest of the night for her hair to dry.  The picture on the left shows Shifra fresh out of her shipper, and the one on the right shows her immediately after I fixed her hair.

Of course that was November and this is July, so Shifra's hair has frizzed a bit since then, but that's nothing the squirt bottle and the dog brush can't fix.

Poor Madge, I wish it had been that easy for her, but can't have everything!  Shifra doesn't look fresh-out-of-box either, so Madge needn't feel too bad.  Regarding nitty-gritties, Shifra is an obvious blonde, and her hair is rooted.  The rooting is pretty good, good enuff that it doesn't show when I tie her hair back.  That's not the case with one of my newer dolls, but we'll cross that bridge in...oh Lordy, it'll be at least November before I get that review up!  As is the case with most of my dolls, Shifra's hair is tightly rooted close to her face...

...and further back it's more gappy.  Pigtails could happen with this doll, but it would take very careful parting.

Shifra has a side part so I've added my usual hair do-dad.  This one came with the outfit, but when she's not wearing this outfit she relies on those mini-JoJo Bows that are too small for my head.

Not bad hair overall.  Not AG-caliber, but definitely better than Madge's.  It does require some maintenence to keep it looking nice, so if you have one of these Lotus dolls keep that in mind.  As an aside, Little Raven Creations notes that she's only found one red-haired doll with this particular facial sculpt, and she was a Gali Girl.  Since Shifra is blonde she's probably NOT one of the Gali Girls...at least, not that I know of.  Miriam had red hair and Reyna was essentially Ana Ming with bangs, so Shifra is neither of them.  However, there were blonde dolls and some of them had left-handed side parts, so I can't rule out Gali Girls as Shifra's brand.

Good time to segue into the face.  Like Meritus's Girls on the Go, Lotus dolls have some variation in their paint, and in their head molds.  Some of the dolls look similar to the Journey Girls, but Shifra has this head instead.  No other doll that I have owned looks quite like this.  Shifra appears to be in awe of something, rather like my sister and I did when we were her presumed age...and younger.

<sings off-key>  It's enuff for this wide-eyed wonderer/that we got this far...I've always preferred "Circle of Life," myself.  But speaking of eyes, Shifra's eyes give me a bit of an idea about which line she may belong to, because they're fixed in place.  Two lines, Today's Girl and My London Girl, utilized this head with fixed eyes.  Shifra's eyes are bright blue, similar in shade to Famosa Nancy's and to the blue-eyed My Life As dolls.  Her eyelashes are long and a little heavy for a small child.

They've also got a little makeup, more than I would've worn when I was Shifra's age.

These eyes are fixed, so Shifra looks a little weird when she joins Madge and Katherine for a sleepover.  Please forgive Shifra's wardrobe change, LOL.

According to Little Raven Creations, Lotus's Today's Girl and My London Girl lines had fixed eyes, so that may help me figure out who this doll is and which line she belongs to.  Indeed, I found a My London Girl on Etsy who looks exactly like Shifra...and I mean EXACTLY.  Same part, same eyes, same eye makeup.  Regardless of the brand, this particular head has big, detailed lips with molded creases and a slight opening.

The lip paint doesn't covr the whole lip area, especially on the bottom lip, and as a result the lip looks a little funny.  Just a little; it's not noticeable from a normal distance...nor is the red blop of paint on Shifra's lower lip that looks like a blister.  Yee-ouchie, I get mouth blisters from time to time and they are no fun at all.  Anyway, as I was fooling around with this mouth I noticed that Shifra's teeth are legit molded in.  They're not spots of paint like an American Girl's teeth are.

Hmmm, looks like I need to bust out the canned air...and maybe the fine-grade sandpaper as well, since Shifra appears to have a ding on her chin.  I don't know how well this plastic would handle sanding, though.  It's higher quality than Madge's vinyl, but it's still not like the tough stuff that Denver-era My Twinns are made of.  Overall this is a nice character face, though some collectors might be bothered by the eternally gaping mouth.  I personally could do without the eye makeup, but it's pretty subtle.  I can see why Lotus used this face for so many doll lines.

Shifra's body is quite a bit like Madge's, but there are a few things that I'd like to point out.  First here's what it looks like; it's a little "weebly," meaning that the torso looks like one of those Weeble toys.  Miss Emily invented that term when discussing Our Generation dolls.

Like Madge, Shifra's joints only swivel, meaning that she can sit, stand, wave, and turn her head like Madge, but also that she has no sideways movement in her hips and shoulders.  She is more firmly stuffed than Madge and thus can stand more easily, but her posture isn't great.  Also, and I'm only making note of this because I think it's interesting, but look how tan Shifra is compared to Madge and to Katherine.  Madge's vinyl has a pinkish tone that's bordering on unnatural, while Katherine is very fair.

Regarding molding, Shifra's hands are shaped like an American Girl's hands but are a little smaller all over.  

Shifra's feet are a completely different mold from American Girl feet.  Her little toes are a bit more well-defined, complete with creases and nails.

Look at the soles of her feet!  They've got lines molded in!

Usually larger dolls like this have soles that are flatter than the Oklahoma panhandle, with the main exception I can name being the My Twinn squad.  A pretty average body overall; Shifra can't move her joints sideways or out, just like Madge can't, but she's stuffed a little better and is a pretty color all over.

Regarding clothes, Shifra didn't come in her original clothes, and I have no earthly idea what she originally would've worn.  She arrived wearing a sweater dress from American Girl and a pair of jeans from goodness-knows where, so I knew right off the bat that Shifra could share clothes with the AG crew.  With summer being in full swing, I've now got Shifra clad in this cute little Etsy number that is kinda Easterish.  It too is sized for American Girls.

I hate those shoes, by the way.  They're cute enuff, but they slip off Shifra's feet way too easily...but then again that's probably not the fault of the shoes.  As I said above, Shifra's hands and feet are smaller than those of an American Girl, and that's probably why these shoes are a poor fit.  The rest of the outfit is alright, though maybe a bit heavy for this time of year. 

Good thing Shifra has plenty of other things to choose from, though the next two outfits are also more for spring or fall than summer.  I'm just going to skim these, since Madge wore these last week.  On the right is the Go Anywhere outfit, and on the other right is the ily 4EVER Jasmine ensemble.

Shifra is more solidly stuffed than Madge, so she fills out her clothes better than Madge does.  The waistband of the Jasmine skirt doesn't look like it's trying to cut her in half.

Like I said last week, I'm not enamored with the quality of these ily 4EVER outfits, but Shifra looks adorable in it.  Both of these little outfits look good with Shifra's blonde hair, though i prefer the Go Anywhere getup on a brunette doll.  That's just a matter of preference.  

That's about all I want to say!

BAD
*Shifra's face is a little divisive.  Mama thinks she's pretty, but I've run into other folks who aren't fans of her slack-jawed expression.
*This hair needs a lot of maintenance.  It's better than Madge's, but it still needs a lot of brushing.
*Feet are smaller than those of American Girls, so shoes may be loose.
*Mobility is poor; Shifra's shoulders and hips only rotate.  Balance isn't great

GOOD
*I happen to love Shifra's face.  It's got a lot of personality and a lot of detail.
*The hair, as I said above, is better quality and in better shape than Madge's.
*Coloration is pretty.  I love a blonde doll with a tan tone.
*Can share clothes with American Girls and ily 4EVER.
*Cheaper alternative to American Girls, though the only place to find these now is eBay.  Gali Girls are SUPER tough to find.

Overall I think Shifra is a superior doll to Madge.  Her hair isn't perfect, but it's certainly easier to control than Madge's low-quality mop.  Her face is a character face rather than a dolly face (remember me talking about those), so she may not be everyone's cuppa tea.  But she adds some nice variety to an eightteen-inch doll collection, and she did so without me having to go to the poorhouse.  I just wish I could find more clothes that were marketed for these Lotus dolls.  I'd like to review them and report back to y'all on their quality...and about the size of the shoes.

Love,
RagingMoon1987