Old dollies

In the time that has elapsed since my last post, I have done...well, I've done nothing.  Nothing at all.  Well, take that back; I have been working on doll clothes quite a bit.  Most of the dolls I've been knitting for have been my handful of vintage dolls (Crissy, Kissy, Chatty Cathy, Kathy Cry Baby, and my mother's old Barbie).  These older dolls, these relics of a bygone era, fascinate me.  I love the styles that they wear, I love their faces, I love the themes (hair play, dress-up, and the like), and I love the overall innocence of the era.  No stiletto shoes, no uber-revealing outfits, no "I'm-sexy-and-I-know it" messages plastered on chests.  Now don't get me wrong, sometimes I like my dolls dressed a little more revealing.  But I don't want a steady diet of that.  This admiration of the older dolls, coupled with my fondness for the 1960's (a time that I sadly missed out on), has had an effect on what dolls I pursue.  I still like modern dolls, and I'll still buy the ones that I really flip over, like the new Life in the Dreamhouse Midge.  But I'd like to focus more on these vintage dolls.  I've already made good on this vow and have made some very nice additions to my little dolly family.  This blog post will be devoted to them.

Little Miss Revlon (Ideal)
Owning my mother's old Kissy doll and a Look Around Crissy have made me into a fan of the Ideal Toy Company.  The company lasted from 1907 to 1982, and was founded by the folks who made the original Teddy bear.  Ideal produced a number of successful dolls and toys, including Rubik's cube, my dear little Crissy, and this lovely little lady.

This is a somewhat grainy image of my Little Miss Revlon in her original habitat (the local antique store).  Back in those days, dolls with adult female physiques were something new; breasts and feet that accommodated high-heeled shoes were something the dolly world had not seen.  A number of doll companies jumped on this bandwagon, including Ideal.  There were several different sizes of their Miss Revlon doll (who were used to advertise the then-new Revlon makeup), and the smallest ones were called "Little Miss Revlon."  That is what my doll is; when I found her she was barefoot and had green earring holes from those old, tarnished earring posts, but the price was reasonable and her makeup bright so I bought her and brought her home.  In the short time that I've had her, Wendy (as I have named her) has become one of my favorite dolls.  Within eight hours of owning her, I even had an amusing anecdote.  Check this out!

I lay Wendy on the couch and ran out of the room to do something...I don't exactly what it was that I was doing, but I left the room.  When I came back I found Wendy leaning back against the cushion, her eyes hooded, like she'd just laid back and gone to sleep!  I couldn't fault her; it had been a rather busy day for the both of us.

After about a week or so I grew weary of seeing the dark, corroded wires that had once been Wendy's pearl earrings.  I didn't get a picture of these, but they were not pretty at all.  According to one of the restoration sites that I accessed, these earrings were hooked on the inside and could not be pulled out without serious damage to the vinyl.  So I bought some jewelry makings and some wire cutters, and I nipped those little bums off.  After lopping off the loops, I spent the rest of the afternoon fashioning a set of jewelry for Wendy.

I gave her a new set of earrings, a bracelet, and a necklace.  Both the necklace and the bracelet have little dangles on them, not something I've tried with beads this size before.  The earrings will need to be treated with Super Glue so they won't make Wendy's green ears worse, but overall I think I did pretty well.  Plus, these earrings can be removed, so I can make more and switch 'em if I want to!  All Wendy needs now are some fifties-style undergarments and a pair of shoes, and she'll be all set.

Aida Ballerina (Valentine)
I don't know much about Valentine dolls or the Valentine company, but I do know that said company made some lovely dolls.  What little I do know comes from this link to DollReference.com.  Apparently, Valentine was well-known for their ballerinas, because that page is full of them; I'd estimate that half of the dolls on the page are ballerinas.  One of them is this one.

My doll is Aida, another antique store find.  She is one of Valentine's less limber ballerinas.  Some Valentine dolls have joints in every conceivable point, from neck to ankle.  Aida is jointed at the neck, the shoulders, and the hips.  Her legs swing back and forth, while her arms can move back, forth, and sideways.  Her neck swivels.  She has a hard plastic body and a vinyl head which is very pleasant to touch.  My example, above, has her full outfit.  Her hip-high tights have some rips and tears, which is to be expected for a 55-year-old doll, but she's otherwise in very good shape.

This is what Aida looks like up close.  She has blue eyes that are still clear (old doll eyes are bad about clouding over) and a little rosebud mouth.  She wears no other makeup, and no jewelry.  Her hair is adorned with a rhinestone headpiece that doesn't show in the pictures.

Barbie/Francie hybrid (both dolls by Mattel)
I'm not going to go into a huge history of Mattel, because there are plenty of sources out there.  I am merely going to show you my very unusual Barbie, only the second vintage Barbie doll I've owned.

I named this Mod-era doll Mary Anne, and if you look closely you'll see that all is not right with her.  Oh sure, she's great doll.  She's in great shape, too; her rooted eyelashes are intact, her knees both click three times (as early bend-leg Barbie knees should), and her hair is completely intact.  She's a little grubby in this pic, but all is well...or is it???  Mary Anne is actually what I've termed a Barbie/Francie hybrid.  The head is a 1971 Hair Fair head, with pierced ears, eyelashes, and this cute hair cut.  The body however, belongs to a TNT Francie doll.  For those of you who may be unfamiliar with Barbie's history and family tree, Francie is/was Barbie's cousin.  Her body was smaller than Barbie's but bigger than the Skipper dolls of the time.  Francie therefore had her own wardrobe, and it was full of bright colors and splashy, Sixties-esque patterns. She was a cute doll, and so is Mary Anne.  However, she presents to me a conundrum.  I like her the way she is, but I also like the way Francie looks.  And I love Barbie-sized Mod clothing; Francie CAN wear Barbie's clothes but they look like a sack on her, like the dress above does.  So...decisions, decisions! Do I dismantle Mary Anne, find a Mod Barbie body for her head and a Francie head for her body?  Or do I leave her as is and enjoy her?  I'm still on the fence about that one.  Right now it looks like Mary Anne will stay the way she is; I enjoy her uniqueness and her variety.  Oh yes, and I also enjoyed her five-dollar price tag!

This is what Mary Anne's face looks like up close.  As I said earlier she's in very good shape, especially considering the fact that Mod Barbie dolls are bad to fade, turn yellow, turn pale, get spots, or get green ears (my doll's earrings are missing, thus she dodged the green ear bullet).  She has turned a little yellow, but her cheeks and lips are still bright, and she has a full set of eyelashes.  I love the rooted eyelashes on these Mod-era Barbies, by the way.  So Twiggy!

Liddle Kiddles (Mattel)
Of course Mattel doesn't make just Barbie.  The company has produced a vast array of successful (and not-so-successful) dolls, toys, and games.  In the late sixties, right around the time that Mattel was making dolls like Mary-Anne, they also were making Liddle Kiddles.  These small dolls ranged from one to four inches tall, and the majority of them had soft rubber bodies that surrounded wire frames.  Some of these dolls were walkers rather than benders, but most of them were rubber and wire with a large vinyl head.  Most of the dolls had themes, such as cooking, bathing, or playing make-believe.  These themes combined with the rubber-and-wire combo made for some very little, very cute, very limber dolls.  Unfortunately, that rubber-and-wire combo also led to their downfall.  The wires would poke through the rubber and become very dangerous.  Or they would corrode and turn the doll's body green.  Or both!  For those reasons, I considered myself lucky when I found these in such good shape:

The majority of Liddle Kiddles came with names that ended in "-iddle," so be prepared for some goofy names.  From left to right, my dolls are Greta Griddle, Sizzly Friddle, and Liddle Diddle.  All three of these have the rubber-and-wire combo, and they're in relatively good condition.  They are by no means perfect; Greta has some small holes in her body, both Greta and Siz are a bit dirty, and all are missing their accessories.  I also had to yank a huge plug of...of something out of Greta's hair.  It was food or candy of some sort (I'm not sure what) and it took me forever to get that crap out of Greta's locks.  Also of note is Sizzly, in the center.  She is NOT wearing her original outfit!  Sizzly, as her name may suggest, came with cooking supplies and corresponding garb.  The dress and bloomers she is wearing however, belong to a nurse doll named Florence Niddle.  Greta also came home in the wrong outfit; she was clad in a sunshine yellow dress that belongs to a walker named Sheila Skediddle.  All this switching and swapping of outfits certainly made these dolls fun to identify!

This trio of dolls presents a challenging task that I'd like to accomplish.  Remember when I mentioned that they each had themes and came with accessories?  Yes, accessories.  Accessories that none of my dolls came with.  Greta appears to have been playing make-believe; her accessories were a table, two chairs, and fixings for a tea party.  Sizzly, as a mentioned before, is a cook; she came with an apron and chef's hat, a grill, a spatula, and a long fork.  Liddle Diddle is a baby; she had a crib, blankets, and a toy ducky to play with.  It won't be an easy task to replace all that stuff, but I'd like to try just for the heck of it.  I'd also like to find Florence Niddle and Sheila Skediddle so they can have their clothes back!  Finding Florence and Sheila may be an easier task, because the antique store where I got Greta, Siz, and Diddle had plenty of other Kiddles.  The dolls were packaged, singly or in twos and threes, into Ziploc bags (my particular bag had these three here).  It is entirely possible that the person who bagged these dolls up put Florence or Sheila (or both!) in one bag, and landed their clothes in another bag.  If this is so then I am in luck...because according to the lady who owns the store, I'm the only one who ever comes into that store for dolls!!!  If so, the odds of me finding Florence and Sheila there are fairly good.  But I'm still keeping my eye on eBay!

Happy dollin', y'all!
RagingMoon1987

Time to gripe: Dolls of the World under attack

Recently Mattel has revived its lovely and popular line entitled Dolls of the World.  For those of you who have been living under a rock, or who don't focus your collections on Barbie, the Dolls of the World (hereafter referred to as DOTW) are Barbie dolls that represent various world countries.  Some of the countries are pretty obvious (France, Germany, and Italy), while some are more...well, they're not the countries you would've pictured Barbie visiting, but beautiful nonetheless (the Philippines, Thailand, Peru).  The line dates back to 1980, took a hiatus, and then recently came back with a smattering of new dolls.  And of course, someone decides to cause trouble.

Where does the trouble lie?  It's not among the camps usually guilty of throwing Barbie-related tantrums; parents appear happy and feminists have kept their big fat mouths shut this time around.  No...the flack lies with THIS DOLL!!!

"What's wrong with her?" you ask.  "She's a pretty doll in a pink dress with a cute little chihuahua."  She looks pretty harmless, doesn't she?  Well...not if you're a nitpicker, she's not!  Here it is one solid year after Mexican Barbie's release, and she's being pegged as racist.  That's right, racist.  Some folks are ticked that the doll is carrying a chihuahua; some nobody named Jennifer Morales tweeted that she should be carrying a taco instead of a dog, "just to be really clear."  Stay classy, Jen; that comment is even more stereotypical than Barbie's little pooch.  Adriana Velez at CafeMom.com finds a laundry list of things to gripe about, including Barbie's dress.  She whines and moans at length about how it's inauthentic.  Okay, I'll concede that one...the darned thing is HOT PINK, for cripe's sake!  Why, oh why, must pink be Barbie's color of choice?  Why couldn't it have been green or blue or GOLD?  But hating the color of the dress is my problem, and it's hardly a racial issue.  Is lack of authenticity really a huge issue?  If you need some help deciding, check out France Barbie and Holland Barbie.  Are their costumes authentic to the countries they represent?  No, not really.  But is that really a racial issue?  

Moving right along, the thing that has the most people up in arms is the inclusion of A PASSPORT!!!  That's right, a passport...you know, that thing that Barbie couldn't cross country boarders without.  Mexican Barbie has one.  Another face in the crowd named Savannah Lime tweets "she doesn't want to be deported!"  Our touchy friend Adriana Velez is also up in arms about this.  Given the current debate about illegal immigrants and what should be done about them (which frankly shouldn't be an issue), a Mexican Barbie with a passport seems almost like a political statement.  

BUT...our overly PC friends at Twitter and CafePress.com fail to see two things.  One, all of the current DOTW dolls come with passports; Mexican, French, Irish, Dutch, all of them.  If you want proof, meet my Irish DOTW doll, Maeve.

Maeve's outfit isn't the most authentic, by the way...I don't think I've EVER seen an Irish girl dressed quite like that.  But that's beside the point.  Here is Maeve's passport:

Unlike DOTW dolls of years gone by, these dolls come with stickers packaged inside the passport to make kids happy, and Maeve is no exception.  This allows kids to take some artistic liberties with their passports.  Now...is that really all that racist?  Or is it just AUTHENTIC???  Blogger Laura Martinez seems to think the former; she hates the idea of passports with all dolls!  C'mon, folks, you can't travel abroad without that sucker!  You can't even make it to Canada without it; Nik Wallenda wouldn't have been able to cross Niagara Falls on that tightrope if he hadn't had his passport!  It's a little thing called COMMON SENSE!!!

And I haven't even touched on point number two.  Remember when I said that all of these dolls came with passports?  What if they DIDN'T have passports?  What if Mexican Barbie (and all the DOTW dolls) came without papers?  What would you prefer, a Mexican doll with papers or one without?  I wonder if passport-hating Laura Martinez thought of that!  Frankly I think including passports with these dolls was a smart move.  

Folks, this is getting to the point of ridiculous.  Kids can't have something to enjoy anymore without someone having a fit.  Katniss Everdeen has a bow and arrows?  Let's have a boycott!  Tokidoki Barbie has a tattoo?  Let's raise a stink!  Barbie's box is made of cardboard?  Let's lie and say that cardboard was made from Indonesian timber.  Barbie wears a fake fur coat?  Oh heck, no...call PETA!!!  Mexican Barbie has a passport?  Ooo-wee, that's racist!  What next?  Will dolls with hair be considered offensive to people without?  Oh wait...they have.  Seriously, folks...Barbie's just a toy!  Whatever happened to the days when Mom and Dad decided what their children played with, but didn't try to ruin the fun for everyone else?  I don't know about you, but all the controversy has prompted me to search out a Mexican Barbie for my own collection.  I was originally apathetic about her; my ancestry is European and Celtic, with no Mexican blood at all.  However, I love causing a stir, and I love being ornery.  AND I love thumbing my nose at overly-PC fools like Adriana Velez.  Miss Velez, if I were you I'd be pleased that Mattel even thought to represent Mexico at all.  They could just as easily have overlooked Mexico and chosen another country that hasn't been represented, like Guatamala or Samoa.  Instead of getting your panties in a wad, I suggest that you chew that thought over.  

Yours Truly,

RagingMoon1987

Update on the B.F.C. Ink outfit

I know it's been awhile since I've posted, and I apologize for that.  There is a new review waiting in the wings, but I keep dragging my feet with photographs.  That being said, I recently went on a rampage through my room, organizing my dolly clothes and accessories and redressing some of my girls, when I stumbled across that old B.F.C. Ink outfit.  For those of you who don't remember, this is it:

In a prior blog I discussed this outfit and the difficulty of finding a doll that can wear it (B.F.C. Ink dolls are discontinued and hard to find).  My vintage Look Around Crissy doll looked like a possibility, but the clothes proved to be too tight, and the shoes too big.  Plus, I don't think it really flattered her.  Here's what she looked like:

Fast-forward four months to early March.  Yours Truly has been scouring eBay and other Internet sources, not only for a B.F.C. Ink doll, but for clothes and shoes for Crissy.  The search for Crissy threads has also proved problematic for a number of reasons, the main one being that half of eBay's listings are clothes sized for Crissy's younger cousin, Velvet.

Now...I'm not a tremendous fan of Velvet.  I don't say this often, but I think she's creepy.  However, Velvet is smaller than Crissy by a considerable margin.  My B.F.C. Ink outfit is tight on Crissy.  Therefore, a tight outfit on Crissy could very well be a good fit for Velvet.  Unfortunately...guess what.  I DON'T HAVE A VELVET!!!  I've seen them, but they're all either in rough shape or extremely expensive...and I don't really like any of them.  But I'm VERY curious about the fit of B.F.C. Ink clothes on these goofy-looking dolls, so that may be enough of an incentive to find one.  Velvet does have two friends who are somewhat better looking than her, so I may seek one of them out instead.

In the meantime, I'm going to reach out to YOU, my dear and loyal readers.  Do any of y'all have any Velvet dolls and B.F.C. Ink clothes in your midst?  If so, have you tried the outfits on your Velvet dolls?  What were the results?  Do some outfits fit better than others?  Do ANY of 'em fit at all???  If you have the answer to any of these questions, please give me a holler; your info will be greatly appreciated.

Love and kisses,
RagingMoon1987

President Barbie review

This is the second of my Barbie/Barbie-sized Christmas dolls.  She is the President...or at least, what Barbie would look like if she were President.  WARNING:  this doll has a unique set of joints and is partially nude in some pics to show these joints.  Proceed with caution.

BarbieCollectors.com says that she is no longer available, but some versions of this doll are still in stores.  Mattel released four versions of this doll:  white, black, Latina, and Asian.  Mine is the Asian version; I thought she was the prettiest, and I love Oriental dolls.  She reminds me of one of my favorite political figures, the beautiful and intelligent Michelle Malkin.  And Michelle she has become.

Before I get into the review, it's time for my usual tangent.  Note how I said in the last paragraph that some versions of these dolls are still in stores?  I have been to five different Wal-Marts, one K-Mart, two Targets, two Big Lots, and one Toys R Us, and the vast majority of the dolls in stock are the Caucasian version.  To compound matters, the Caucasian doll is your typical cookie-cutter Barbie:  blonde, blue-eyed, with a big dippy grin on her face.  Why, oh why, must the majority of white playline Barbie dolls look like that?  There ARE brunettes and redheads in this world that like to be represented too.  Anyway, during my search I occasionally saw a couple of black dolls or Latinas in stock, but TRU was the one and only place that had my beautiful Asian doll.  Lo and behold, I didn't have money...but my sister did.  On the day that I obtained Moonlight Dance Daniela, my sister nipped over to TRU, found my coveted Asian president...and ripped the very last one out of another woman's hands!  According to Sister, said woman was furious and yelled various explicatives down the isle, insisting that the doll was "for her granddaughter."  My sister gave her some sass right back and left the store with the doll.  My doll.  The last one in the store.  I feel pretty darn lucky to have her...and such an awesome sister!

Tangent over, let's look at Michelle:

She's a lot more simplistic than Lucy is.  Her hair is straight and black with a deep side part.

She has a very attractive face, with brown, almond-shaped eyes.  Her eyes are highlighted with pink eye shadow and an outer layer of shimmery stuff.  She has brown eyebrows and long painted eyelashes.

I'm not a huge fan of that pink crap around her eyes.  I'm not a makeup expert, but I don't think the pink eye shadow matches.  Brown or gold would've been better.

Michelle's mouth has an open smile.  Her lips are pink.

Again, I'm not a huge fan of the color.  It is washed out in this pic; the color matches the clothes that she's wearing, but I don't find it particularly flattering.

Speaking of what she's wearing, let's take a gander at Michelle's clothing.

Michelle wears a three-piece suit, or rather, an outfit that looks like one:  she has a jacket, blouse, and skirt.  The "blouse" is actually a panel of baby pink stretch material sewn into the front of the jacket.  It has a slight sparkle to it.

The rest of the jacket and skirt are made of thick hot pink material that I can't visually identify.  The pink has an acid-washed effect to it.  It looks almost like it was hand-dyed, which I love.  This material has no stretch to it whatsoever, and I don't love that.

The jacket has a gathered patriotic edging on each seam.

There's also this button.

It's the Barbie logo, but in this case it serves as a campaign button.  It is sewn on.

The skirt is a pencil skirt.  It has three horizontal gathers at the top and fits Michelle very tightly.  The skirt is so tight that I had difficulty maneuvering it over her shoes.  These dolls are best left dressed.

Michelle's jewelry is minimalistic.  She wears a plastic "pearl" necklace and matching earrings, both of which proved to be near impossible to photograph.  Not that there was much need anyway; the jewelry is plain white plastic.

What Michelle lacks in jewelry, she makes up for in some very interesting footwear.  Check these shoes out:

Pink, of course...no shock there.  They are enormous slingback wedges with a very unusual shape.  There is a good reason for their odd shape.

The 2012 President dolls are billed as the first Barbies that can stand on their own.  Michelle can do this, but she has to be carefully balanced on a hard, flat surface.  She does faceplant sometimes, but like all play dolls she can take the abuse.  One other thing of note is that those shoes are molded to Michelle's feet.  She can't take them off AT ALL.  I've seen molded shoes on Barbie dolls before, but they were always flat shoes.  This is the first time I've ever seen molded high heels on a Barbie.

That takes us into the body.  Again, I have never seen a Barbie body like this.  Michelle has a one-piece torso with the standard swivel neck and ball-jointed shoulders.  Her arms are jointed at the elbow and wrist:

The range of mobility in these joints is lousy, however.  This is as far as I can bend either joint, and I even took her tight jacket off to free up those joints!

These joints are so hard to pose that even the position below is a challenge:

Compare this to Katniss and Alexandria (Barbie Fashionistas Wild), both of whom have similar arms.

Breathe easy, Katniss...this isn't President Snow.

Alexandria can fold her arms like a champ.  Katniss cannot cross her arms, but she can bend her arms to a much sharper angle than Michelle can.  Overall, Michelle's arms are more similar to Katniss's than they are to Alexandria's.  It's a bit odd that Michelle the toy would have similar arms to Katniss the collectors' item, and not to Alexandria the other toy.

Odd as Michelle's arms are, they were nowhere near as big a surprise to me as her legs!

They look normal at first sight, but these dolls do NOT have the rubber click-knee legs that the majority of my other playline Barbie dolls do.  Nor does she have external knee joints like Alexandria and Katniss do.  Heck, she doesn't even have the wimpy peg joints that Musa and Artemis have!  Michelle's legs are all hard, probably hollow, plastic.  The knees do not bend AT ALL!!!

Michelle does have mobility at the hips, obviously.  However, this movement is drastically restricted by that tight skirt.  In all, Michelle has nine joints.  That's more than the three that my Stardoll has, but it's nothing like most of the play dolls available right now.

Michelle and Raven compare arms.

Under normal circumstances I'd find it odd for a play doll to have such stiff legs.  However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it makes sense.  This doll's main gimmick is being able to stand on her own, right?  If she had rubber bendy legs OR jointed legs like most of my other dolls, then she probably would not have the strength to stand on her own.  But then again, I do have dolls who can stand perfectly well on their own...and they have jointed knees.  Again, we turn to Katniss for a demonstration.

Katniss has jointed knees and flat feet, plus some very substantial boots, and she can stand on her own.  Thus it is indeed possible to make a doll with bendable knees that can stand unaided.  Therefore I don't know what Mattel's deal is with the President dolls.  Perhaps they didn't want to take a chance with any dolls not being able to stand?  Maybe they feared warped legs, like Artemis and Musa have?  Or maybe those high heeled shoes threw things off a bit?  I don't know.  Your guess is as good as mine.  If any of y'all have actual, verifiable information about why Mattel designed this doll this way, please give me a holler.

So let's sum it up.  This doll has good things and bad things, and my mother always taught me to break the bad news first, so here goes.

BAD
*Poor posability.  The doll's arms are stiff, and the legs only have a hip joint to keep them from qualifying as "frozen."
*Standing feature isn't the greatest.  You have to play with her a bit to get her to cooperate.
*The clothes are too "Barbie."  Nothing but pink, pink, and more pink, with only a bit of patriotic ribbon to break it all up.
*Certain ethnicities are hard to find!  In my area, only the blonde doll was ubiquitous.  The other three were very hard to find.  Either they were more sought-after by collectors and children alike, or there were just fewer of them.  Again, I don't know which of those is the true story; maybe both are true!
*I'm not a huge fan of the pink makeup; it doesn't look good with her skin.
*Not too versatile.  If I were playing Barbies with my little cousin, I could see Michelle playing the president she is supposed to be, or a lawyer, or a businesswoman.  But that's about it.

GOOD
*In spite of the instability, this doll does stand.  Once I have her in the right position she stands very solidly.  She lives up to her promises...unlike certain other politicians!  LOL
*The lack of posability adds a certain degree of durability to this doll; she feels very sturdy when I pick her up, though I am not willing to subject her to my "throw the doll across the yard and see what happens" test (LOL again).
*No warped legs!
*The molded shoes won't fall off and get lost.
*Nice hair.  Soft, smooth, and yet not ridiculously long like some other Barbie dolls.
*The clothes are an unusual shade of pink.  Michelle's suit looks like it's been acid-washed, or maybe tie-dyed.  Furthermore, that pink may actually be a blessing in disguise; instead of the Republican red, Independent white, or Democratic blue, she's her own party's color.
*The clothes are well made.  They feel like seersucker or some sort of ridged fabric like that.  I wouldn't mind wearing a suit like that myself...in a different color, of course!
*This doll is not very pretentious.  Mattel said she is supposed to be the President, and she looks the part.
*She's pretty!
*She looks like the ethnic group she's supposed to portray, without being too stereotyped.
*My particular doll is a gift, which is always a positive.

Perhaps the most important good thing is that she's unique.  There's something about this doll that I just can't put my finger on.  She doesn't blend in with all the others.  When I put her on my shelf with the other dolls I have on display, she had a very commanding presence.  If my dolls were alive, I could see them flocking to her for advice and leadership.

"Vote with your lady smarts, not your lady parts!"

Maybe all that pink is a benefit after all!  Or maybe those stiff legs are what does it.  Either way, this is a very special doll.  Hats off to my beloved sister for bringing her home to me!

Happy last day of February!
RagingMoon1987

"Lucy Does a TV Commercial" dolly review

Well, I certainly have been dragging my feet with reviews.  Here it is February, Winter Storm Q is upon us, and I'm only now getting around to completing these.  I got both the doll highlighted in this review and the one in the next review on Christmas Day.  Talk about being lazy!  Sloth is definitely my deadly sin.  Anyway, this is "Lucy Does a TV Commercial," from Mattel's Barbie Loves Lucy line.  WARNING:  some dolly nudity will be present.

The Barbie Loves Lucy line grew to be quite large; I was in high school when I saw the last one in collector catalogs.  "Lucy Does a TV Commercial" was the very first one, released in early 1998.  I was ten years old.  I took one look at Lucy, remembered my mother's hysterical laughter at the Vitameatavegamin episode that the doll is based on, and said "I want her!"  My intention was to share her with my mother, but my father said no.  "She's too expensive," he said (she was $39).  I was upset but soon got over my disappointment.  Life went on, and new dolls came and went, some of which I got and some of which I didn't.  Now, fifteen years later...I finally have my Lucy!  My mother found her on Ebay for what must've been a good price (I haven't asked what she paid).

That being said, let's look at my lovely Lucy.  First of note is the face.  When it comes to celebrity faces, Mattel is very hit-and-miss.  Sometimes the celebrity dolls Mattel makes look like the people they are supposed to emulate; Grace Kelly and Elizabeth Taylor are good examples.  Sometimes they don't; this Marilyn Monroe comes to mind, though subsequent Marilyn dolls were much better.  So...where does Lucy fall?  You tell me.

You may think differently, but I personally think the doll is a spitting image of Lucille Ball.  So let's start at the top:  Lucy's hair.  Lucy's gorgeous red hair.  I love redheads, and I partially credit Lucille Ball with my affection with the color.

Lucy's hair is curly and tied up in a simple ponytail.  The style looks like a bun since the hair is so curly, but it's just a ponytail, fastened by your standard clear rubber band.

Sewn to Lucy's head is this cute little hat.

It is made of fuzzy black material (not velvet, but still fuzzy), and black lace.  The front part has a veil hanging down over Lucy's bangs.  It feels substantial, but I'm always a little leery of netting.  Sometimes it rots with time.  This, however, looks like it should hold up.

Now let's look closer at Lucy's face.  The doll, not the real person, haha.  Lucy has large, round, blue eyes.

It's hard to tell from that image, but Lucy has rooted upper eyelashes; she's only the third doll I've owned with that feature (my Swan Lake ballerina and my Stardoll are the first two).  In addition to the rooted lashes Lucy has painted upper and lower lashes; these are quite long.  Her eyebrows are dark reddish-brown; they match her hair color better than some of the other dolls I've got.

Lucy's lips are painted bright red.  It's not a garish red (unlike the crap I wore during high school), but it is eye-catching.

This is my favorite part of Lucy's facial sculpt, by the way.  Mattel went to great lengths to make it look like Lucille's mouth, and the results are stunning.  My particular Lucy wears no other makeup besides this lipstick, by the way.  Her eyes and cheeks are completely natural.  There are no paint flaws.

Regarding clothes, Lucy is wearing an asymetrical black-and-white houndstooth suit.  This whole outfit is seamed and hemmed nicely, and the skirt is lined inside, but it's too narrow to get a good picture of the interior.

The dress is one piece, with a line of black "buttons" down the front.

It has a belt:

White cuffs at the sleeves:

And a matching white collar.

The left half of the skirt has a peplum that is sewn in place.

The back opens and closes with snaps, which is a huge relief.

Snaps on a Mattel product suggest to me a higher quality product.  In the case of this doll they are also a vast improvement over the alternative (Velcro), because Lucy has these under her dress!

Seamed stockings!!!  I absolutely LOVE this touch.  I won't be removing them, though; part of the hose appear to have melted to Lucy's hip.  Bummer.

Simple black high heeled pumps complete the look.

These don't stay on very well, by the way.  They were held on with clear rubber bands, but Miss Genius took them off.

Topping off the look are "pearl" earrings and a matching necklace.

Regarding the body, Lucy has the pre-redesign Barbie body, the one with the huge breasts and the hourglass waist.  I'm not sure whether the body is the old TNT or the Shani body, which is slightly slimmer.  Either way, it's an older model with a twisty waist, a body which I took for granted during my childhood, but have since grown to miss.  The arms are bent at the elbow and have the shoulder joint typical of 99% of the Barbies in the world.  One hand has a hole for a ring, but there is no ring.

The legs are jointed at the hip (back and forth motion only) and have the click knee joints.  The narrow skirt restricts hip movement.

It's a relief to see this old body on a doll, because it reminds me of the dolls I had when I was a kid...back when folks had some common sense and building up a child's self esteem was the job of Mom and Dad, and not TV or toys (Barbie's body measurements were scaled back a bit because they were "too unrealistic").  I could go off on a tangent about how I feel about the size of the new bodies and about dolly realism in general, but that's not the point of this blog post.

Back on topic, Lucy has three accessories:  a spoon, a bottle of Vitameatavegamin, and a two-piece stand.  The stand is your basic stand.  It's made of black plastic and has the episode name on the front.

It doesn't fit Lucy too well.  Her feet can't rest on the platform.

The medicine bottle has a tiny label on it with "information" about the contents.  ;-)

"It's so tasty, too!  Just like candy!"  The bottle also has a peg on the back; this fits into the hole in Lucy's right hand, enabling her to hold it on her own.

The spoon is silver plastic.  It has grippy bits on the handle that fit on Lucy's left hand, but this connection is not solid.  The spoon is best left rubberbanded to Lucy's hand.

So, does Lucy deliver?  Well...I waited fifteen years to get my hands on this doll, and yes, she delivers!  She looks like the person she is supposed to portray, and her outfit and accessories are authentic to the episode in question.  I really don't have much negative to say about her; besides the melting hose the only real gripe I might have about my Lucy would be the fact that she's one of the plainer Lucy dolls.  Later additions like "Be a Pal" and "Lucy Gets In Pictures" are very elaborate and colorful, and I like them.  But those two weren't the ones that got away.  And it wasn't those two episodes that left my mother in stitches.  When it comes to Lucy dolls, only this one would've done...and she does do!  LOL

The roads are slick, the trees are icy, and I'm not going to be going anywhere, so stick around for my other Christmas doll!

Yours truly,
RagingMoon1987