Familiar faces

My recent musings about Sindy were brief and a bit in passing, but I got to thinking "Where's my Sindy?  Can I find her???"  Well, I found her.  She was chilaxing atop a pile of stuff.

I found some of her friends too.  Please ignore the fact that Sindy looks like she's patting Mariclare's rear.

I don't know how Mariclare's dress got so filthy, but it did.  She's currently in the buff while I find a new dress for her.  I don't know if she can wear Barbie clothes, but I'm willing to try it.

Shelley, on the other hand, has the same little outfit that I found her in.  She can wear Tammy's clothes, so finding new things for her won't be a problem. 

Shelley has popped into my blog twice, and both posts are titled some variation of family faces.  I never did review Shelley like I said I would, by the way.  Tam did it better.

Then there's Claudie, a member of my peanut gallery.  My peanut gallery was a gang of small dolls that I used to take to the library, though the gang disbanded after I stopped carrying them.

Oh yeah, there was also this in my mailbox.  It arrived around ten-thirty Saturday night, so it ended up staying in my mailbox during part of Columbus Day weekend. 

In Korea (South Korea, I presume) there exists a line of brightly colored dolls called Secret Jouju.  They're similar to (but not the same as) fellow Korean Mimi and Japan's Jenny...except that this one that I have is a little one.  She's about the same size as a Kelly doll, or one of Licca-chan's little sisters.  This Jouju has a birthday party theme and seats for two, so stick around because my new little coppertop may invite someone to a party.

In the meantime, I need to get on with finding an outfit for Mariclare.  I like her too much to leave her in the nude.

Love,

RagingMoon1987 

Birthday box

Quick recap of the week's events.  Hurricane Milton is offshore and has been for awhile now.  Death toll as of writing was twenty-six, and the folks that came through it say it was the worst hurricane they've ever experienced.  Hurricane Helene's death toll (230 and rising) is rivalling Hurricane Camille's (259), and eleven of the dead were from the same family.  Three houses, eleven people, one mudslide.  Again, something similar happened in Hurricane Camille; thirteen were taken from one family, and three were left.  The two storms were so similar it's a hair frightening.  Milton, on the other hand, was a full-tilt freak.  I've never heard of a hurricane forming in the Gulf of Mexico and then just plowing straight east; usually they hook north or northwest and hit Texas or Louisiana.  But then again, tornadoes are my ballywick.  I've not studied hurricanes as extensively, so Milton's equal may exist somewhere in the annals of hurricane history.  As for me, my spider bite is slowly but surely healing.  It still looks ugly, but not as ugly as it did.  I even ran into someone else who tangled with a brown recluse, one of my favorite library patrons, a fellow Whovian and cat lover.  His bite looked worse than mine, but he was putting medicine on it so it should heal eventually.

Now...Treesa told me that she knows people that were in Milton's crosshairs and were having trouble evacuating.  The videos Ryan Hall shared confirmed the gridlock, so Treesa, I hope everyone is safe.  Have you heard from them yet?

Speaking of Treesa, birthday box time!  Treesa warned me ahead of time to read her letter, so by jove I read it carefully this time!  Sometimes I don't, LOL.  These two are the stars of the show. 

The Cabbage Patch Kid is named Gillian Ida...or maybe it's with a J (Treesa isn't sure).  Her papers are long gone, as are a lot of my dolls' papers.  It's not like anyone would ever want them again, right???  LOL, Treesa said that when she chucked that paperwork she thought she'd remember her Cabbies' names forever, and I admit that I think the same now.  Then I trip and call Gillian "Gilda," LOL again.  Gillian is a Hasbro Splash 'n' Tan Kid, and Treesa admits that she never really bonded with her.  She hypothesizes that it was because Gillian was all-vinyl.

Admittedly Gillian isn't the most cuddly thing, but she makes up for it with her unpretentious little face.  I love her eyes!  

Can y'all see the stain on Gilly's nose?  Just barely.  Treesa warned me that at some point in the past Gilly had been stored next to a teddy bear clad in red velvet, and said velvet stained Gilly's vinyl in a few places.  Her right arm is the worst off, but she's nowhere near as badly stained as my Ashton-Drake dolls, Red and Delilah. 

Treesa also included a humorous anecdote about Gilly's state of dress.  Hopefully I can share this without embarrassing the snot out of her.  Splash 'n' Tan Kids wear swimsuits, some of 'em were skimpier than others...and poor ol' Gilly got saddled with the skimpiest one.  Neither Treesa nor her mother liked that, so Treesa's mama tried crocheting a one-piece swimsuit for Gilly...and it didn't go over too well.  The swimsuit was too fuzzy, too drab, and the added purple bow didn't match Gilly's hair bow.  Treesa did acknowledge her mother's effort, though!  For the oncoming cold weather Treesa dressed her up in this Just Play getup that's...maybe a bit too big, but that doesn't bug me much.  The outfit is retro just like I like, and it's my two favorite colors, green and blue.  It's even got a little purse and a fuzzy jacket.  I love this!

Here's how the outfit looks with the jacket.

This is a weird little rabbit trail, but the chenille and the color of the jacket make me think of the American Girl Minis.  Do any of y'all remember those?  They were these tiny little room sets with components that plugged into a small light box and lit up themselves.  The first rooms that I remember were the purple room and the blue room, and the blue room had a chenille coverlet for the bed that makes me think of that jacket.  They were a cute concept, but I'm told that the light boxes were notorious for developing shorts or just not working at all.  Mattel also said that production costs were pretty high, so the Minis weren't around too long.  Oh, and FYI:  if any of y'all do run across one of those mini rooms, Lottie is apparently a compatible size for them, as are small ball-jointed dolls.

Right, where was I?  Oh yes, Treesa also sent Gilly's original swimsuit and sunglasses.  Told y'all it was a skimpy little number!

Treesa also included the hair bow, but being the dodo that I am I dropped it in the floor and didn't photograph it.  The bow IS alive and well, though!  Life is better with a bow.

Gillian's friend is a doll that I have never, repeat, NEVER heard of.  Here's a good look at her; her brand name is at the bottom of the image. 

She is a Blooming Doll.

Treesa named her Violet, and I'll keep that.  Violet and her blooming buddies are cloth hand puppets that morph into flowerpots...or they're flowerpots that morph into dolls, one or the other.  This is what Violet looks like when she's folded up.

Indeed, Violet is an African violet...or a flower that looks like one.  Treesa named her well.

Here's a closer look at Violet's face.  Her eyes are pink, her hair is blue, and her lips and freckles are...green.  I have exactly one other doll with green lips, one of my O.M.G. dolls, Sways.

Well, Violet DOES have a flower growing out of her head!  I figure her blood and her skin pigment have plenty of chlorophyll.  It surprises me though that I'm a fan of the Ghost Of the Doll website, but I've never seen Blooming Dolls.  Their entry is here;  the dolls apparently came in two different sizes and could have either plastic or painted eyes.  The characters had no individual names.  Apparently these were extremely poor sellers, so much so that their holding company (CapToys) darn near folded.  Treesa apparently loved hers though, enuff so that she and Violet did some brief ventriloquist work.  Treesa admitted to me that her skills as a ventriloquist weren't great (nor are mine), but it sounds like she and Violet had a lot of fun anyway.  They did a piece from The Sound of Music.  Based on that anecdote I'll take good care of Violet.  She'll make a fine companion for Talia and Zlata...and Gilly.  Gilly and Violet will always be friends, Gilly swears.

Of course no box of Treesa's is complete without at least one Build-a-Bear item.  First, the stuffed animals.

From left, a polar bear in knockoff pajamas that fit him perfectly, Read Bear, who was available in McDonald's Happy Meals, and a pink sloth in a blue skirt.  Pink Sloth will need to be stuffed, but luckily that's easy.  My closest Build-a-Bear store is eighty miles away, but commercial stuffing will work too.  There's also a lace-edged tank top, which Flaxie and Summer Daisy will have to bicker over...if I ever find Flaxie.

This thing...It's a scrunchie, I know that much, but I don't know who it's for.  It's SO SOFT, though!

Might make a nice headband for Kiara or...maaaaaybe Geneva?  Geneva's head is pretty big.  Kiara could wear this easy-peasy, though.  I need to get Kiara in her winter clothes, by the way; she's still wearing her crayon dress, and that's more late summer/back-to-school than mid-fall.

Next...these very pretty crocheted booties.  I don't know yet who's gonna get those, but SOMEONE will.

These other shoes are for my mini Furskin, Hattie.  Remember how she only had one shoe?  Treesa sent some replacements which are greatly appreciated.

I don't dare unwrap these, because they're doll eyes and I have no good place to put them, but those may come in handy very soon.  From what I can tell they come in a number of nice colors.

Treesa says that this jacket was in a thrift store lot.  It'll fit American Girls, and since Doremi loves pink she'll probably be the one who gets it.  Again, it's wonderfully soft.

Blythe sewing patterns!  I knew about these ahead of time and was excited for them to arrive.  I've GOT to get my sewing machine fired up and try some of these!

This last young lady would've made nice fodder for my mishmash box.  She has an adorable face, but I don't know who she is.

She's not this dour in real life, I promise!  Little dolls with Mona Lisa smiles can be tricky to photograph.  She's about the same size as some of the blind-box ball-jointed dolls I've got, and she's got joints like the old Kelly dolls.  She's sweet.

As usual, Treesa, I appreciate the box, and I appreciate the stories behind Gilly and Violet as well.  That makes them feel all the more special.  I own plenty of nice dolls, plenty of them secondhand, but I don't know the stories behind them.  I don't know why Danica, a customized Create Your Own American Girl, ended up on eBay.  I don't know why where she came from or what her old name used to be.  Same is true with Salome, my golden-haired golden-eyed My Twinn, and her red-haired friend Angela.  So I appreciate it big time, Treesa.  Thanks!

Cheers, 

RagingMoon1987 

Target

Black, white
Day, night
No one's fussy, I'm a target!
--Joe Jackson, "Target"

My doctor diagnosed me with a brown recluse bite, and indeed said bite is beginning to take on the classic bullseye look.  It's hard to tell in this picture, but it's doing it.  Please do not shoot at me.

I'm currently on a strong oral antibiotic and a topical medicine, and I was told to keep a sharp eye on it and to keep it uncovered.  So that's precisely what I'm gonna do.  On the good side of the moon, I've lost twenty-three pounds since February, and the doctor said my carotid artery sounds clear (she took a stethoscope and listened!).  So except for the bite on my right leg and the arthritis in my left leg I'm in pretty good shape!

So I'm kicking back, taking my medicine, and watching mayhem unfold in Florida.  They've already had a trillion tornadoes, and the hurricane hasn't even made landfall yet.  As usual, both to keep myself occupied and to put something, ANYTHING doll-related in this post, here's my cuddle buddies for the evening.  I've got the new girl, Margot Madeline, and my old favorite, Beryl June. 

What a couple'a hams!

Love,
RagingMoon1987 

Spider bite!

Moon Girl let a spider bite get a little outta hand.  She's goin' to the doctor today.  The little b@st@rd presumably got me early Friday morning, and I thought it was just an ingrown hair...but then the red part got BIGGER!  This is on the outer side of my right leg, just below the knee.

Or I think it's a spider bite.  I found a flattened spider on my knee Friday morning before I saw the mark, and when the mark was young it had two open bits in it.  The flattened spider was...dare I say it?  It was brown and nondescript, just like a damn brown recluse.  Shudder, I HATE brown recluses!  I feel sorry for them because they can't help looking creepy and being venomous, but they still make my skin crawl.  

To keep this post from being too boring, here's a couple'a Disney Doorables that I grabbed yesterday afternoon.  I got Pinocchio and Simba in one box and RC and Tiana in the other.

I think Justine-Marie collects these, but I'm keeping these for myself for now.  Y'know, just in case an Adoorbs doll decides to move in.  The Adoorbs kinda remind me of Shopkins Shoppies; there was the line of blind box toys, and then the dolls followed.  Same sorta thing with the Adoorbs.  They also look kinda similar, with their inflated noggins, big eyes, and goofy expressions.  See?

I like the Adoorbs better.  Their eyes don't look as blank.  They have sparkly inset eyes like the Doorables do and...and I just think they're cute.

And to top it all off, it's Leif Erikson Day.  Nope, SpongeBob didn't make it up!  It's also D-Day for Florida.  I hope they're all where they need to be.

Hinga-dinga-durgen,
RagingMoon1987

The mishmash box

These dolls are kinda like the small items that I'd call "treasures" when I was a kid.  When I was about eight I had a small wicker basket, and in that basket I kept about a dozen items that I'd taken a liking to.  These items were two Silly Putty eggs, a ballerina cake topper, a pink dinosaur charm, a polished tiger's eye rock, a decorative ceiling fan pull chain, and a cap from a bottle of peach soda, and they were my treasures.  Small, easy to carry, and special for this reason or that.  In a similar manner, I've rounded up the dolls in this post and I keep them in a box of their own, largely because I want to display them but don't have room.  So they reside here, in a cardboard box similar to the one that my Barbies, Joie, and the Fidgie Friends live in.

I ran into Amanda Jane on Failbook.  She was made in Hong Kong and sold in England.  This is my little pet; they don't all look like this.

Some Amanda Jane dolls have huge eyes and bear a passing resemblance to Little Miss No-Name, while some, like mine, are babies.  I don't know what size the little girl dolls are, but my doll is six inches from head to toe.  Here's what her little face looks like; it has a slightly anime-ish look to it that makes me think of Licca-chan and her doe-eyed cronies.  That white powdery-looking stuff is part of the doll, by the way.  It's not some sort of dust or gom that I could remove.

Her expression reminds me of Sindy too, particularly these cute little Tesco dolls reviewed by Purple Monkfish.  Scroll down a smidge for the cute dolls; the first few dolls Monkfish discussed were...not the cutest things.  Oh, and while digging around for images of Tesco Sindy...look what I stumbled across.  Looks like Ashley's Sindy (who is a Tonner doll, not a Tesco) crossed paths with the Eleventh Doctor.  Sigh...I'm jealous.  ANYWAY, Amanda Jane came with a number of items, including this pink carrying case.

This puppy is made of pleather, but it's holding up pretty well.  The top part has a lace-trimmed hood, and the flaps zip so that Amanda Jane won't fall out.

Amanda Jane also has a blanket that I probably should've bundled her up in...

...and a handful of cute little outfits.  Kinda makes me wonder if Amanda Jane was a semi-big deal at one time.  

I was able to glean a little bit more info off of Etsy, but not much.  Amanda Jane was listed as a 1970s thing, and she did indeed have several different outfits.  This Flickr page has more information, though I still don't know what company made her.  In addition to her baby and girl selves Amanda Jane had a "Jinx" variant that was apparently supposed to be a friend for Vogue's Ginny.  And get this...this article says that Amanda Jane's holding company was alive and well as of 2021.  I need to learn more about this little doll!

On Reddit I met Lily Lime, one of the Pop Playmates.  The Pop Playmates live in little plastic soda cans.  Y'all know how I'm fond of soda.

Lily had at least two friends, Dolly Cola and Molly Orange, Reddit also reports a peaches 'n' cream doll.  Shudder...I can feel my kidneys cramping just thinking of that combo!  Certain orange sodas and almost all colas are laden with caffeine and are thus kidney stones in a can.  Too bad too, because they taste great.  Anyway, Reddit goes on to state that Lily and company appears to be a knockoff of a certain Furga doll named Dolly-Cola.  That Dolly-Cola also has a friend, Fanny-Fanta (both Dolly and Fanny can be seen here).  Oh, Furga...I like Furga dolls (see my posts here and here).  I like Fanta too; their orange soda doesn't have any caffeine in it so I can indulge from time to time.  Now...here's a better look at Lily's face.  Like Amanda Jane, she looks familiar...and more than a little sad.

This face reminds me of Li'l Gumdrop, one of my Strawberry Shortcake knockoffs.  Lily's vinyl also feels like Gumdrop's does, so maybe Eugene Toys had a hand in production somewhere...and maybe not.  Maybe Lily and Gumdrop just look similar by coincidence.

Lily Lime and Amanda Jane arrived on the same day, by the way.  They arrived on October 2nd, and they actually arrived at a reasonable hour!  Lily's pop can is about the same height as Amanda Jane is when she's seated.

When Lily is out of the can she's dwarfed by Amanda Jane.  She'd make a very fine dollhouse doll.

Just for shizzles, here's the top of Lily's can.  It has a pop top molded in, but this isn't the part of Lily's can that comes off and lets her out.

Lily is showing her age a teensy bit.  If I shove her into the bottle in the wrong position, her right arm pops out, like so.  It goes back in easy-peasy, but I wouldn't recommend a doll like this to modern children for that reason.

From what I can gather, Coca-Cola sponsored the Pop Playmates.  When I root Kleo Cola and Cherry Fizz out of their hiding places I'll compare the three, because how many soda-themed dolls can y'all name???  Oh yeah, I forgot Betsy Bubblegum.  She and her pet seal live in soda bottles too.

A Zapf Jolly Dolly egg.  Miss Emily discusses these in this post.  These particular Jolly Dollies follow the theme of unusual hovels.  I own dolls that live in fruits, in cabbages (of course), and in soda containers, and I've seen dolls that reside in peanuts, in baby bottles, in...in shoes???  Yep, there was one wave of Baby Beans that came in shoes.  They came in cans too, but that makes more sense.  Anyway, for a spell Jolly Dollies came stored in eggs and wearing bunny pajamas, I presume for Easter.

I've just got this one, and the eBay seller showed her inside her egg, so I knew who I was getting ahead of time.  She looks exactly like one of the dolls Miss Emily got.

Doesn't make her any less cute, though!  Look at that face!  I love it when babies LOL like that.

The full-sized Jolly Dollies are cute too, so I may have to grab one of them in the future.  Oh yes, I didn't show y'all the bunny on the front of this doll's sleeper.  He's got some stitches showing and thus reminds me of the Velveteen Rabbit.

Regarding a name, I ripped yet another page out of Miss Emily's book and utilized the Baby Name Genie for this doll.  I've never used that website before.  When the time comes to name Cabbage Patch Kids I utilize names that flow well together, or the names of flowers or hurricanes.  Anyway, the Genie named my Zapf girl Luna Macy, so that's what I'll go with.  I'll have to remember to use that website the next time I adopt a Cabbage Patch Kid without its papers.  Relying on hurricane names is fun until the hurricane in question turns out to be ridiculously deadly and destructive, as Helene sadly was.

Just for grins, here's how Luna compares visually to Casa Pizarro's other Zapf resident, Narcissa. 

They're not at all alike, but they ARE Zapf babies and they're both ridiculously cute.  Just for the heckuvit, here's Narcissa on her own.

I stopped collecting these Baby Born Surprises long ago, but I'll always think they're cute.  Narcissa is a gift, so she's a little extra special. 

This next doll has arguably one of the most horrid names I've ever heard, though I'm fairly certain it means something else in another language.  She's Ddung.

Ddung is a Korean entity, and the dolls always look eternally shocked.  My particular doll is a member of the constellation series, and since I'm a Libra, that's the constellation I chose.

Ddung can be used as a keychain...

...but at four inches, she's a bit bigger than a keychain I'd use.  She's also very fair in complexion and would easily grow dirty. 

I was going to call this doll "Moon" since that's a common given name in Korea, but this doll's box makes it loud and clear what her name is.

I wonder what that means in Korean?  Anyway, on the top of her box Ddung offers to be one's friend if one plays with her.

Not a tall order!  Indeed, playing with someone when they're young can determine whether they grow to like you further on down the road.  For example, Uncle Man-Child hid from us when my sister and I were small, and Uncle from St. Louis loved to wrestle and tickle and give piggyback rides.  Guess who my sister and I like better, LOL.  Little things like that show someone you give a crap.  Anyway, Ddung fits nicely into my hands and fits in well with my league of small dolls, so she'll be getting plenty of playtime.

Of course no mishmash is complete without at least one Barbie knockoff.  On Reddit I met Tong's Betty Teen.  She too was made in Hong Kong, and in-box examples have "M&C" on the packaging, so I'll include that in the tags.

Betty is a Barbie clone, and she was apparently popular in Russia as a Barbie alternative.  Thank you to Debbie Behan Garrett for that info; she has a lovely example of a black Betty on her blog.  Unsurprisingly this means that Betty is Barbie's size, but like Amanda Jane her eyes have that Eastern aesthetic.  She's actually quite pretty, especially for a clone doll.  Someone on Flickr paired a Betty with two Sindy dolls, but Betty doesn't favor Sindy as much as Amanda Jane does.

This doll has a cute face, regardless of who she favors.  Not overly glamorous, not bitchy, just sweet and approachable and attractive all in one.  Her eyelashes are very short, but they're rooted nonetheless.

I heard through the grapevine that Betty loaned out her head to Steffi Love and a handful of other Barbie alternatives.  I think I can see the resemblance in this doll, but that Steffi isn't as cute as Betty is.  Not that Steffi is a bad doll, of course; indeed, she's on my radar.  But my eye is on one of the more modern ones, with rainbow tresses.

Betty's friend is from a company called Camay, who made plastic girl dolls and clones of Barbie, Sindy, and Tammy.  This doll looks a lot like Midge used to, with that flip.  I don't know if she has a proper name, so I'll call her Marlo.  Marlo was immediately curious about her new surroundings. 

Marlo wears her hair like Midge and like some Twist 'n' Turn Barbies, but her face is...pretty much her own.  She reminds me a little of Tressy.

Like a great many Barbie clones, Marlo has a stiff hollow plastic body, and as such her posing isn't great.  She sits like the ol' bimbo on quaaludes.  LOL, been a long time since I've said that!

In Marlo's defense, the earliest Barbie dolls were also stiff as a board.  They can keep their legs together when they sit, but their legs jut out like rigor mortis.  Marlo also feels robustly constructed.  I can't say that about all Barbie clones

Rounding out the Barbie-sized trio is Isolde.  She is a legit Barbie, albeit a heavily customized one.  

She's got that beautifully painted Odile head, just like my Nerida.

I told y'all that everyone is going hog-wild over this head!  More often than not the ones I see are rebodied onto Made to Move bodies, as Isolde has been.  Isolde also got a hair makeover; notice that it's a lot shorter and wavier than Nerida's hair.  The eBay seller included a fuzzy little kitten and a little box with a cell phone, but Isolde made a beeline for the kitten.

It was a crazy day and a long trip for Isolde, and she quickly became overwhelmed.  Marlo tried to offer some comfort (her road trip was even longer)...

...but ultimately Isolde decided to just crash on the back of the couch away from everyone.  

Marlo admitted that she also had a minor freakout when she met some of her bigger housemates.  Margot Madeline is a bit too much doll for a little girl like Marlo. 

Luckily for Marlo the Patch is full of gentle giants.

While researching Camay dolls I ran into an article that went to bat for clone dolls, discussing how even the cheapest, poorly molded clone doll has its own character.  Now most of my clone dolls are pretty well-made.  Mariclare has wonky face paint and Katya is just poor quality all over...but notice that I've not given them up.  I have special memories of Katya, and both of them are good models.  Clone dolls are just fun dolls in general.  They add a lot of nice variety to a collection and I'm glad to have them aboard.  In a way the same can be said for the rest of these dolls; the only one that appears to be any sort of big name is Amanda Jane.  The rest are kinda, sorta...little plastic nobodies.  No big-name brand behind them, no company information stamped on their backs, just a simple "Made in <fill in the blank>."  All the same, they're sweet little dolls.  They're not unlike the off-brand dolls that I might've received from an aunt or a grandparent, or from my own parents.  Kids aren't usually concerned with the brand name as long as their toy doesn't fall apart at the seams.  I know I wasn't.

Now, parts of the country are having to batten down the hatches for another violent hurricane!  Hurricane Milton was a category five storm this time yesterday, and Ryan Hall says that he will probably regain that rating sometime today.  He probably won't hit Florida at that strength, but he WILL be extremely violent.  The only good thing I can say right now is that people have apparently learned from Helene; the roads out of Florida are PACKED!!!  All I can say is if you're in that area, I'm prayin' for y'all!  By the way, I find it ironic that the meteorologists have predicted a rough hurricane season, but the violent ones don't start coming until the alleged end of the season.  But then some seasons are like that.  

Cheers,
RagingMoon1987