Playing Dolly Doctor: Kennedy, Elvis, and Basma

Today I took three of my "new" dolls, members of what I have dubbed The Sack Gang, and made them look beautiful again.  If you may recall, Elvis, Beyonce, and a blonde My Scene doll were all in the mix, and they were all naked.

Strutting around naked (or darn near) is what the real Beyonce does best, but I will not tolerate such behavior in my house.  This little vinyl lady is about to get some morals bestowed upon her! 

The makeovers were about as rudimentary as doll makeovers can get, by the way.  I gave them each some new clothes (Barbie and Ken clothes purchased at Wal-Mart) and restyled the girls' hair in simple ponytails.  However, even the simplest of makeovers can do wonders for a doll.  Here's what the My Scene doll looks like:

Here's Elvis:

And here's Beyonce:

Not bad!  I managed to refurbish three dolls for under twenty bucks.  All is right with these dolls now...except for the fact that both girls appear to have taken an interest in Elvis.

See, Sasha Fierce?  You can attract a man without taking your clothes off!  These three will have to work out the battle over Elvis on their own, though.  I hate Beyonce Knowles with a passion, by the way (if you couldn't tell from the above commentary), so from now on my Beyonce doll will be referred to as "Basma."  The doll has a gorgeous smile, and "Basma" is the Arabic word for "smile."

Yours truly,

RagingMoon1987

Costume Bash Jade and a sack of old Barbies

Yesterday was a very dolly day for me.  I hadn't intended for it to be; Mama and I had only gone to Wal-Mart to buy eye drops.  But as usual we both got sidetracked, and I found this in the sales bin.

She's a Costume Bash Jade, one of the newer Bratz with the rescaled body, and possibly the only one I'll ever get like this.  I recently heard that the Bratz are going on hiatus again, which to me sounds troubling since they just came out of hiatus four years ago.  MGA has announced that there will be no new Bratz dolls in the U.S. during 2014, and that preparations are being made for a huge comeback in 2015.  Sheesh, if Bratzillaz and these tall Bratz aren't cutting it then I don't know what will!  But that's for another blog post.

I had planned for this post to be a review on Jade, but that's not the way it went.  I probably WILL review her in the future, but not today.  No, Jade got upstaged by a very, VERY unexpected visit from a friend of mine.  Said friend, whom I'll call Miss Jo, is an older woman who has access to older Barbie dolls.  Today she had a sack of them for me.  Not one or two, but A SACK FULL OF BARBIE DOLLS!!!  And she gave them to me!  With Jade sitting beside me, momentarily forgotten, I opened the sack and began pulling out dolls.  There were two Asian dolls in the mix.  The one in white looks like Western Fun Nia, and I later learned that the one on the left is likely Animal Lovin' Nikki.

There was Malibu Barbie, whom Miss Jo pulled out of the sack to show off.  I'm very excited about this one.  She's wearing a dress that Miss Jo made, which makes her even more special.

My friend was also eager to show me Beauty Secrets Barbie, whose arms move when her torso is gently squeezed.

The sack contained another, smaller doll with an arm mechanism similar to Beauty Secrets Barbie.  I assumed that she was a Skipper of some sort, but my friends on Facebook say that she is likely a Starr doll.

I was particularly happy to be reunited with my childhood friend Maxie, whom I owned when I was a toddler.  She came out of the sack in the arms of a 90's Ken (who unfortunately is nude).  

Another pair of dolls took some time to get acquainted.

"So, do you come here often?"

My Scene Barbie was there, but at first she was too shell-shocked from the trip to take a good picture.  She collapsed next to one of the Asian girls and promptly went to sleep.

"Jeez, I'm beat."

She eventually agreed to stand up and be photographed.  She has pretty lip paint.

The contents of the sack were very star-studded.  Elvis was there, albeit in the buff.

Mary Poppins also showed up naked, so I put her in this Gemini dress which had been crammed onto a doll with much bigger hips.

Dorothy Gale was there, sans ruby slippers.

Beyonce Knowles also made an appearance, which Jade wasn't too happy about.

"What am I, chopped liver?"

I never have been a Beyonce fan and I never will be, but I'll still admit that this doll has a lovely face.  Look at that big smile!

Joe Jonas and Demi Lovato rounded out the celebrity group.  

This Barbie had a number of map pins thrust into her head.  I pulled the pins out before I photographed her.

Who does stuff like that???  Why on earth would anyone want to shove map pins into Barbie's head?  Luckily, Fashion Fever Drew escaped such treatment.  She is wearing a slinky black dress which I love.

Lastly, there was this very regal looking Midge, whom I've renamed "Amber" and given the title of princess.

In all, there were nineteen dolls in that sack.  They are varying ages, in varying states of dress, and in varying conditions.  Some of them just need a pair of shoes and a hair fix to make them look good again.  Others present a formidable challenge.  All of the Ken dolls need clothes, but they can't wear any of the outfits made for modern Ken dolls.  Good thing I know how to knit!  Maybe this Christmas my boys can have an ugly sweater party!  In short, I'm thrilled with my sack full of surprises.  Malibu Barbie is only my third vintage doll, and seeing Maxie was like being reunited with a long-lost friend.  I look forward to making Beyonce and Elvis look like A-list dolls again, and I'm excited over Joe Jonas's joints.  These next few weeks and months look to be a lot of fun.  I owe a debt of gratitude to my friend Jo for giving these dolls to me.  Thank you, Miss Jo!

Very happily yours,

RagingMoon1987

Who gets to come along?

As of right now it doesn't look like I'm going to be continuing my schooling this fall.  I have LASIK surgery scheduled for the second of August and I don't know how long the recovery will be.  The clinic sent me an information packet yesterday, and I'm afraid.  I wasn't afraid until I read the disclaimers and the side effects, but now I'm very nervous about it.  Anyway, the recovery may be lengthy so I will probably be staying close to home this fall.  Add to that the fact that I don't have an apartment or a set of wheels yet, and all that equals up to a firm anchor in Malden for the next couple of months.  While I'm here I plan on getting my affairs in order, getting my bags packed and my things organized, and making some plans.

One of the things that I do want to do is decide which dolls I want to take with me.  The dorm rooms at SEMO were horrendously drab, and I ended up taking some of my girls to liven the place up.  This time around will be no exception, but I can't take ALL of them with me.  Who stays home?  Who goes with me?  Who can I live without?  Who am I so protective of that I won't even photograph?  Who can be easily replaced in the event of a theft?  Who has a place to stand in my room?  Who doesn't?  LOL, that's a lot of "who-this" and "who-that!"  Cue the guitars, LOL.  But that was what I had to ask myself.  Eventually I got it whittled down to thirteen names.  Thirteen out of the three-hundred-some-odd dolls in my group.

My Scene Nolee and Svetlana (Barbie dolls)

Back in the days when I hadn't worked out all the bugs with my watermark.  LOL

Perhaps a third of my doll collection consists of Barbie dolls, but these are the only two My Scene dolls I've ever owned.  They didn't appeal to me when they were in stores; I bought Nolee at Dollar General shortly after they were discontinued because I fell in love with her black hair.  Svetlana was a secondhand find; I found her at one of the antique marts that I frequent.  Back then that particular store carried modern dolls for reasons I'll never know.  But anyway, I bought Svetlana, combed her hair, and redressed her.  The two of them joined me at SEMO and served as conversation pieces.

Cinderella (Heritage Signature Collection)

This porcelain doll channels more of a Rapunzel vibe than a Cinderella vibe, but she has glass slippers so that leaves little doubt about her identity.  Cinderella was a Christmas present from my grandmother one year, and since I had no place to put her at home she joined Nolee, Svetlana, and me at Cape Girardeau.  She was the biggest doll I had there, and I always liked to pretend that she was supervising the activities of her smaller dolly friends.  Yes, I still like to pretend!  The year that I had her, I had plenty of reasons to want to daydream.  But let's not revisit that little nightmare.

Melody and Miss September (Barbie dolls)

Melody (left) is a redressed My Melody Barbie, and Miss September is a redressed Miss Sapphire Birthstone Beauties Barbie.  Both of these were gifts from a friend, and both have the Steffie face that I'm so fond of.  They suffer from a problem similar to Cinderella's:  my room is too crowded for them!  They have no place to stand, so they lie on top of another doll's box.  This is no way to treat dolls, especially dolls that were gifts, so they will probably come with me.

Alice in Wonderland (Madame Alexander)

This Madame Alexander #1551 Alice was a very recent gift from my mother, so perfect that she even has her hangtag on her wrist.  She resides in the box that Melody and Miss September lie on top of.  I consider her too pretty to hide away in a box, so she will be coming with me as well.

Lucy Ricardo (Mattel)

You may remember Lucy from this blog entry.  She is one of five dolls that I had up on a very high shelf in the front room.  I don't know how, but one of my cats got up on that shelf and knocked all the dolls over.  No serious damage was done, which I consider lucky since Lucy has small parts that are easily lost (the bottle, the spoon, and her shoes).  Now Lucy and her shelfmates have to sit in a curio cabinet.  This would be fine, except that the shelves are not tall enough for the dolls to stand up straight.  That won't do.

Katniss Everdeen (Mattel)

Katniss is another doll that I have reviewed, and was another of the dolls up on the shelf.  She has three arrows that could have been lost had she been knocked to the floor.

Life in the Dreamhouse Midge (Midge doll)

Midge is the third victimized shelf doll.  I have very recently reviewed her.  Her poseability and all-around cuteness make her a must-have.

Miranda and Mary (Barbie dolls)

Miranda (left) is a Pioneer Shopkeeper Barbie, and Mary is a Barbie had a Little Lamb.  They also were shelf dolls, and Miranda got the worst of it.  She did get knocked off the shelf, and one of her shoes got lost.  I have the other shoe tucked away in my pocket, but I'm still looking for the mate.  I'm not going to cry too loudly if I don't find the shoe (a lot of pioneers went barefoot anyway) but it's the principle of the thing!  I've had Miranda ever since I was eleven, and she was the first really special doll I'd received so I kept her nice.  She was perfect, nothing missing...and now those shoes are gone.  I was ready to strangle the cat, I was so ticked.  Mary's lamb also got knocked off, and I consider myself lucky that one of the dogs didn't find it and chew on it.

Heather (Seymour Mann)

She's just a tad creepy...and difficult to photograph.

Heather is a large porcelain ballerina made by the Seymour Mann company (one of my favorite companies).  She is one of the items I got during my most recent antique mall hop; we originally went in the hopes that I could walk off my kidney stone, and my mother insisted on spoiling me a little while we were there.  I ended up coming away with four dolls, and Heather is one of them.  She, like Cinderella and most of the other dolls on this list, has no place to stand and look pretty, so she'll end up coming with me as well.  I do need to get her a proper doll stand, and then she's good to go.

Sophie (Midge doll)

Sophie is my booty call.  Whenever I need a doll to photograph or model a new outfit, I get her out.  Sophie is very special to me because she has red hair and a Steffie face, and she was one of the first Steffie-faced dolls I bought.  I've also done some cosmetic work on her and photographed her in some unorthodox places.  Based on that history her presence in my apartment is not really an option.  She HAS to come.

That brings the count to thirteen dolls.  Two porcelain, one vinyl, and ten Barbie dolls.  Diverse enough to be interesting, small enough to be controllable.  Of course, I can't guarantee that I won't gather some more newcomers while I'm at Mountain Home; I did that when I was away at SEMO and I probably will again.  When I do, you can guarantee a new review.  Until then, cheers!

Yours Truly,
RagingMoon1987

Dolly Wars

I imagine everyone knows by now that Mattel and MGA Entertainment have been feuding for some time.  Barbie, that oh-so-perfect Mattel doll who has trumped countless rivals in the past, finally got a run for her money when MGA released the Bratz.  Edgy, trendy, a little trampy...at the time they were everything Barbie was not.  They became hugely popular, and a couple of competing products that Mattel released (MyScene in particular) prompted a lawsuit by MGA.  Mattel counter-sued, and the fallout from this legal mess is still going on today!  If you look at the two sets of dolls below, then you'll understand why there's such a fuss.  The top doll is Bratz Catz Jade, one of MGA's more recent creations.

The pair below are My Scene Barbies.  Svetlana is either a Barbie or a Kennedy (the two characters looked similar), and the other doll is Nolee.  Even the most devout Barbie fan cannot deny that these two look like the Bratz.

Anywho, ever since the lawsuit began Mattel and MGA appeared to be in an arms race of a sort.  A competition to see who can create the trendiest, cutest, most original doll.  MGA lost the first part of the lawsuit and released Moxie Girlz as a replacement for the Bratz (which eventually made a comeback after MGA won an appeal).  When a third toy company, Spin Masters, released the highly articulated LIV dolls MGA responded with Moxie Teenz (which are highly similar to the LIV dolls) and jointed Bratz dolls.  Below are a Moxie Teenz (left) and a LIV doll (right).  The joints are obvious on both, as are the inset eyes, a trait common to both lines.

Mattel countered with the Fashionistas, which have enough joints to rival Living Barbie...

...and with the Monster High dolls, which are also very poseable.

The LIV dolls are now discontinued, and had been decreasing in quality for some time; the last ones did not have jointed elbows, and their knees were very different from the earliest ones.  Their replacement for the LIV dolls are the La Dee Da dolls.

These dolls are very cute and very colorful (just like the LIV dolls) but they are not anywhere near as poseable as their predecessors, and their overall appearance is downright cartoony...vaguely like the Bratz dolls.  I will discuss the La Dee Da dolls in more detail in the future.  Anyway, with poseability out both Mattel's dolls and MGA's dolls have become decidedly stiffer.  The Barbie Fashionistas are no longer fully jointed (I do not own any of the new Fashionistas so I can't give you full details) and MGA's Moxie Teenz appear to have been phased out altogether; I haven't seen a new one in the local Wal-Mart in almost a year, and I've only seen ONE extra fashion pack (that being the pink nightie that Tristen is wearing in the image above).  However, MGA does seem eager to cash in on the hole the LIV dolls left in the souls of doll collectors, as they have released a new line of Bratz dolls called Bratzillaz.

These are jointed with glass eyes (just like LIV dolls), and have a witch theme.  It seems almost like MGA is trying to rip off Mattel's highly successful Monster High dolls with the Bratzillaz (both of which have a lot of the scary-but-cute theme factored in), but that's not all MGA has been up to...more on that later.

Meanwhile, what's Mattel been up to?  They never bothered with inset eyes, which is probably a good thing since the last Barbie dolls with eye gimmicks (Miss Barbie and Western Winking Barbie) were downright creepy.  No, instead Mattel released the Stardolls, Barbie dolls that are apparently based on a web game where one can have their individual little avitars and dress them up.  Sort of a virtual paper doll game, I guess (I've never tried it; it seems like it's too similar to Zwinky, which I HAVE tried and quickly got bored with).  Anyway, these Stardolls are only jointed at the arms and neck; no leg joints at all.  They basically stand there and look cute.  Oh, and their bodies are proportioned differently from both playline AND collector's line Barbie dolls (yet another body change!), so finding extra clothes and shoes that fit them is very challenging.  Mattel has released some accessory packs for the Stardolls, but so far there have been only four (there are eight dolls as of writing).  I have one, whom I named Raven.  Raven is very cute but very stiff.

I didn't think Stardolls would shake up the doll world too much.  Yeah, my dolly friends on Facebook like some of them (most appear to prefer the one I've got, coincidences!), and I like them, but they don't make great toys for kids.  And yet...MGA's latest little idea brings to mind both the Stardolls and Monster High dolls.  Enter the Novi Stars, a line of intergalactic themed teenagers with huge inset eyes, rooted eyelashes, and long flowing hair.

Apparently one of the characters is wigged (I'm basing this information on some images I saw on Flickr, so I don't know how accurate that info is).  Currently there are five characters, each with her own little gimmick;  Alie Lectric is green and lights up, Ari Roma is purple and bubblegum scented, Una Verse is blue and filled with water and glitter, Mae Tallick is metallic pink and talks (she is the one I saw that was wigged), and Nita Light is a greenish-white color and glows in the dark.  Nita also comes with a pod that lights up.  Alie Lectric and Una Verse both have frozen legs like the Stardolls.  Alie, as I mentioned, lights up and the lighting mechanism necessitates a stiff pair of legs.  And Una Verse's body is fluid-filled; any joints in the legs would allow the fluid to leak out, so her legs are stiff as well.  Overall, it's a cute concept, BUT...

Remember when I said that it feels like MGA is trying to cash in on Mattel's success with the MH dolls?  Yeah...I'm gonna explain why in a little more detail, and it directly concerns these intergalactic little minxes.  Has anyone noticed how much the Novi Stars are like Monster High?  Each of them comes with their own little pet, their own distinct hobbies and personalities, their own little quirks, and their own colors--just like the Monster High characters.  Una Verse is particularly questionable; her "skin" is a sparkly shade of blue, and her hair is white with colored streaks.  Does that sound like anyone we all know???  Hmmm, which Monster High character has sparkly blue skin and white hair with colored streaks.  Could it be ABBEY BOMINABLE???  And I suppose if one wanted to nitpick one could draw comparisons between Draculaura and Mae Tallick, with their pink coloring and pigtails!  But one would really have to be nitpicking to do that.  So since I pointed it out does that mean that I'm a nitpicker?  Haha, sometimes having an eye for detail isn't so much fun!

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the new Novi Stars.  I am particularly fond of Una since blue is one of my favorite colors.  Everything that I love about Abbey is present in Una, and that is unfortunately where I can see problems arising.  If the similarities between Abbey and Una are that obvious to a flaky twenty-four-year-old like myself then they will be obvious to any sharp-minded nine-year-old.  She'll look at Una and say "That looks just like Abbey" or vice versa.  Hey, if you don't believe me then take a look at this Flickr user's photo!  I can't help but wonder what Mattel thinks about the Novi Stars?  Will they look down their noses and say "oh, MGA is making another pathetic attempt to outdo us; it'll never work!" or will they call foul and file a lawsuit?  If you will recall, the result of the last lawsuit was Mattel demanding the cessation of production of the Bratz dolls (which proved to be temporary). In addition, I also am pondering Mattel's feelings about the Bratzillaz.  They are jointed like Monster High dolls, they come with pets like Monster High dolls (though it is worth noting that Bratzillaz pets are sold separately from the dolls), they have a school theme like Monster High dolls, and they have different colors and themes like Monster High dolls!  That's a lot of similarities, folks.  The dolls I'd be most concerned about are Cloetta Spelletta and Meygana Broomstix.  Cloetta has heterochromia (bi-colored eyes), two-toned hair, and a sewn-together pet...just like Frankie Stein and her Whatzit. As for Meygana, she has a steampunk theme going on with a lot of blue thrown into the mix, highly similar a new Monster High character named Robecca Steam; it isn't quite as big a similarity as the one between Cloetta and Frankie, but it's there!  Pretty wild, eh?  I can't wait to see what Mattel says about this!  Who knows, they may turn a blind eye and not throw a tizzy of a lawsuit after all.  As for me myself, I'm going to grab an Una Verse and a Jade J'Adore (another of the Bratzillaz) off that store shelf, crack open a bottle of Snapple, and watch it all go down.

As a final word, the Toy Box Philosopher offers a thorough and excellent review of both the Stardoll I have and Meygana Broomstix.  Based on her word, I advise you to be wary of Meygana's hair, ESPECIALLY if you plan on getting her for your daughter.  The Stardoll's review can be found here, and Meygana's review is here!

God bless,

RagingMoon1987