Something soft

I thought for sure that cutting out the junk food and eating better would improve my health.  And it has to a certain extent; my skin is clear and no longer feels sticky to the touch, and my stomach isn't in a state of near-constant uproar like it used to be.  On the other hand, my joints (particularly my knees) continue to misbehave, to the point that getting up in the middle of the night is both difficult and excruciatingly painful...and unfortunately, when one has kidney stones midnight bathroom breaks are a must.  I also don't sleep well because my left leg has descended from weak and immobile to spastic and painful.  Bottom line, I get incredibly frustrated and sometimes want to punch someone, and when I get to that point I need to grab something soft, curl up in a ball, and act like a toddler for a few minutes.

Enter these two.  Their names are Talia and Alice Helene.  

There's a young lady that I like to watch on YouTube (link is here), and she loves pastel colors so many of her dolls and toys either wear pastels or ARE pastel-colored.  She affectionately calls her bunch the Pastel Army, and she's where I learned about Alice Helene's line.  Alice is from a Hasbro line called Love 'n' Care Baby, and from what I can tell this line was intended for small children, small like my sister and I would've been around this time.  Alice is about the size of a bean-butt baby like Esmond Brant.

Because I'm a glutton for punishment, here's how she compares to a Coleco Preemie (Ernest John, left) and a Jakks Pacific newborn (Taniyah Yasmin, left).  See how short Alice Helene's arms are?  I shouldn't have griped about Ernest John's ridiculously long arms.

To give y'all an idea of how fickle I can be, I said to myself as recently as last month that I'd NEVER own a Cabbie with permanently attached clothes.  Well, guess what Alice has (besides teeny-weeny arms).

Permanently attached clothes, just like My Lickety Treats and the Beans brothers.  Now I don't usually mind permanently attached clothes, but part of the fun of owning a Cabbie is changing their outfits.  Alice Helene won't get to do that, but she's at least well-dressed.  Her little nightie can be tied together at the bottom, like so...

...and it can also be completely undone, like so.  Notice that Alice's legs are semi-normal in length, and that her cute little shoes are permanently attached. 

Alice's collar has a little hood that accommodates her head (not all dolly hoods do that).

Indeed, the hood is a hair too big!

Her bib is bowled in a bit, and that accommodates her (permanently attached) bottle.  

Alice's nightie also has a few other features that were common on toys for small nineties children, stuff that helped with dexterity like buttons and zippers.

I had a Mickey Mouse doll like this when I was a kid.  He had buttons and zippers and shoelaces and...I forget what else.  One day my toddler self was throwing a tantrum, and I threw poor ol' Mickey out the car window!  Good thing we were in a parking lot or it would've been bye-bye Mickey!  Anyway, Alice Helene ekes Mickey out by being...well, soft (Mickey was overstuffed).  I was hoping that Alice would be squishy like a Puffalump, but she's not.  She's just nice to carry and have around.  And by the way...that thing I said about not liking Cabbies with permanently attached clothes?  I forgot about these two.

Now...speaking of Puffalumps, that's what Talia is.  She'd fit into the Pastel Army nicely.  I need to ask that YouTuber if she owns any Puffalump Kids. 

Okay, back up, Moon Girl.  Puffalumps (not to be confused with heffalumps) were made by Fisher-Price from 1986 to the early nineties and were these ridiculously soft, lightweight, machine-washable stuffed animals.  I remember them being made out of this tough, satiny stuff, and sure enuff sources say they were made from parachute fabric.  Being Fisher-Price almost always means that the toy in question is geared toward small children, and so the Puffalumps were.  There were a number of subcategories over the years, and one of those subcategories was Puffalump Kids, little dolls with vinyl faces.  Talia, being a doll, is thus a Puffalump Kid.  She's your lapsitter type just like the Cabbage Patch Kids are, and she's roughly the same size as a full-sized Kid (and thus bigger than Alice Helene is).

Talia goes a step further with her subcategory.  See her braids?

Some Puffalump Kids had hair like this, and they were thus called Pretty-Hair Puffalumps.  I personally am glad that Talia's hair is braided, or else it could've become a tangled mess.  

Now...remember how I said that Alice's clothes couldn't come off?  Most of the Puffalump Kids also had permanently attached clothes, but these Pretty-Hairs do have removable dresses.

The rest of Talia's clothes are sewn on, including her shoes and hat...

...but I can at least give her a new dress if I so fancy one.  Some of the Kids also had names, easy stuff to remember like Greg and Heidi, but as far as I know Talia didn't have her own name.  Hence her pet name, Talia.  Unlike Alice Helene, Talia is very, very soft.  I love squishing this doll in my arms, LOL.  I also love monkeying with her face.  Talia has something that precious few of my dolls have:  a soft vinyl face with cheeks I can (gently) pinch.

The only other dolls I've got with faces like that (Saucy, Teenie Talk, and Baby See 'n' Say) have a hard frame underneath.  Talia and the other Puffalump Kids have "mask" faces, by the way.  Their faces are vinyl, but the rest of their heads are cloth, like the heads of some stuffed animals like Puppy and Kitty Surprise and the Rushton bunch.  Setsu-P, if you read this, kindly avert your eyes, as Puffalump Kid heads are even flatter than Baby Alive heads.

LOL, even I have to admit that's freaky!  But as with Baby Alive I can get over it.

Awww, who am I kidding???  I'll hug any doll I can grab when I'm feeling rotten.  It all depends on who's the closest.  I have to admit though that Talia is now one of my favorite go-tos, simply because she IS so soft.  Alice Helene isn't as soft, but she's still fun to hold.  She doesn't weigh a ton like some of my other dolls do, so holding her is easy.  It's really down to preference, kinda like the softness of a mattress.  I prefer my soft dolls extra-soft, so Talia is the winner here.

Cuddly love,

RagingMoon1987