Time to gripe followup: finally a boy?

Yep, it's Monday again!  I don't think I'll ever outgrow my hatred of Mondays, despite the fact that Monday is my day off.  Getting the day off takes the edge off of my Mondays, but there's still that...just that Monday taint over the whole day.  On the plus side, today is Memorial Day, and when a holiday falls on a Monday I get the next day off as well...so I get to stay home tomorrow!!!  Thus this Monday is a little less Monday than other Mondays...but it's still Monday.  Opener over, I'm gonna cut right to the chase with this post.  In the last post I said that I'd bought a mini Cabbage Patch Kid, and it came last Saturday (real quick, in other words).

I was surprised that eBay didn't have a lot of these.  Indeed, there were only two of the single dolls (mine and a cute little Oriental that would've cost forty bucks) plus a set of triplets that came with a bunch of extraneous crap that I didn't need.  Maybe these weren't that popular???  Miss Emily had several, but then again maybe the small size was off-putting for children.  Or maybe everyone who has one is holding on to them!  LOL, I dunno, but there aren't a lot of these running around, especially sealed in the box.

I didn't pay much attention to the images on eBay when I bought my doll, so though I knew s/he had brown eyes, I didn't see his/her hair.  Thus I was pleasantly surprised to see that I got a brunette with tan skin!

Ah yes, dark hair like my sister and I both had when we were first born.  It's weird, because she and I were both born with dark (almost black) hair, and then it turned blonde, and then it turned dark again.  Human physiology is weird innut?!  Indeed, my sister and I both had vaguely Oriental features when we arrived, except for the blue eyes!

Right then, back to my brown-eyed, dark-haired poppet.  By now the Baby Born Brigade is itching for a boy just as badly as I am.  But first...look how small this Cabbie is compared to them!

The Baby Born Surprises are close in size to an L.O.L. Surprise figure, while the mystery Cabbie is about the size of a Lalaloopsy Mini.  I love how the shape of this box mimics the shape of the full-sized boxes, by the way, with a slanted front.  Good ol' Cabbage Patch, always sticking with what works, no matter the holding company!  Now...did I finally, FINALLY get a boy???  Pop the box open.

Miss Emily's dolls all had white diapers that were a little TOO transparent, but my doll came with a green one that conceals the diaper pretty well.  The baby also came with a bib and a bottle that do a good job of further concealing the gender.  I love the combination of green and yellow, by the way.

The green cloth diaper does a good job of covering this doll's front, but it doesn't cover everything.  In the back the painted diaper is visible...and it's blue.

I GOT A BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  A brown-eyed brunette boy named...

...Graham!  Very original!  Graham's birthday is June 12th, right around the corner.  According to the Zapf leaflets that would make him a Gemini like Riley.

Oops, I forgot to tell y'all that these dolls sit in front of their birth certificate, effectively concealing their names?  Yep, that's the way it went with these mini dolls.  Taniyah Yasmin also had a surprise name, but usually Cabbies have names that are visible without opening the box up, like Elsie Penelope here.  I wish Elsie Penelope was mine, by the way!  Wicked Cool Toys has some neat Cabbies available, but Elsie is my favorite because she has a cute face  Most Cabbies aren't that cute in the face, but Elsie is. 

Now that Graham is out of his box y'all can see a little more clearly how small this doll is.  The Zapf babies dwarf him...

...while the Quints are closer to him in size.  LOL, as fond as I am of my Quints I'd forgotten that I have two boys in that family!

These guys might be able to share clothes!  I'll have to try that out and let y'all know how it goes.

I really was certain that I'd get another girl, so Graham's presence here is truly a delightful surprise.  I also like that his skin tone is different from the Zapf crew and from my Quints set.  Quints only came in black or white.  The Zapf babies do come in a medium skin tone that's lighter than Addison's and darker than Quinn's and Peyton's and Riley's, but I haven't gotten one yet, and since the Zapf babies are almost thirteen bucks a pop I've been trying not to buy any more.  Now that I finally have a boy in my miniature nursery I can hold on to that promise a little better.

Warm regards and happy Memorial Day,
RagingMoon1987

Time to gripe: where have all the boys gone???

Well, ladies and germs, it's hotter than hell in the Bootheel again (the storms on Tuesday fizzled out and did NOTHING to cool things down), and my AC is on the blink again, and waiting for the repairman to come is taking forever.  I'm thus hot and itchy and tired of watching leftist Missourians' heads explode over the new abortion laws, so being the escapist that I am I've thrown together a post for y'all's enjoyment...or eye-rolling, take your pick.  I haven't done a griping post in awhile, so that's what I'm going to do.  My post on the Baby Born blind bags was not a popular one, but I did comment on those fairly recently.  Here's my first girl, Riley.

If y'all bother to reread my post about that you'll see that I was desperately hoping for a boy.  I also was hoping for a boy when I deboxed my Cabbage Patch Surprise Newborn, but that one too turned out to be a girl, albeit an adorable little smirky girl named Taniyah Yasmin.

Miss Emily got one boy with her Surprise Newborn Twins, but she notes in a later post that Howard Edwin was the only boy she got in any of those blind bag/blind box things.  Cabbage Patch Kids are usually good at representing both genders, and yet with their blind bags they fall a little flat, producing a plethora of girls and very few boys.

As for me, I've bought a few more Baby Born Surprises since I think they're cute and since I'm still hoping for a boy, and guess what?

From left, their names are Peyton, Addison, and Quinn, and they're all GIRLS!!!  Every danged one of them!  They all look different and they all came wrapped in different snugglers (Quinn's is a bee!), but they're still all girls.  Boys are a little more prevalent among the still-popular L.O.L. Surprises, but again I've yet to get a boy in any of my pods.

I do tip my hat to MGA Entertainment for making a nice range of ethnicities though, and for not getting stuck in an eternal "dogs and cats only" rut for their pets.  I ended up with two dogs for my first two cracks at the pet pods, but there are other options too, like this horse.

Her name is...<pauses to read her leaflet>...Neigh Majesty.  Neigh?  Neigh???  That is arguably the most uninspired name for a horse I've ever heard!!!  Anywho, Neigh is one of those "fuzzy" pets available right now.  Here's what she looked like when sheathed in her fuzz.

I much prefer the fuzz to the jelly that the little extra outfits are still stored in.  But as usual, I digress.  Speaking of cats, dogs, and blind bag babies, here's a relic from my childhood.

Kitty Surprise!  Miss Emily reviewed a couple of these too, and if I recall correctly most of the babies she had were girls.  There WERE a few boys mixed in there, but not a lot.  I think I also read that if any twins happened to be born, they were always girls.  Sheesh, that's a lot of estrogen!  Anyway, I bought Toffee here as a complete set with three kittens, and...

...girls outnumbered boys here too!  I got two girl kittens and one boy, not counting the pink and purple "foster."  By luck of the draw, I managed to get a boy that time, though it did help that I could see the color of his ribbon; blue is for boys (of course) and pink is for girls.

The Magic Nursery dolls of the early nineties were also largely female.  Boys DO exist and they're plumb cute (this one reminds me a little of Leo Sayer with that mop top), but I've yet to see one opened up in any of the blog posts, or in any of the videos on YouTube.  I refer y'all once again to Miss Emily's series of posts (first one is HERE), and to this YouTube video, and this one, and this one.  The woman in that last video notes that she had a ton of Magic Nursery dolls during her childhood, and the only boys she ever got were in the miniature sets that were available.  No stuffed boys at all.  This collection does have a few, but the boys were probably hand-selected by the collector rather than unwrapped, and they're STILL outnumbered!  If the boy dolls were sentient, I wonder if they'd all feel like this little boy did when he learned he was getting a third sister?  I know I would've felt that way if I'd been surrounded by brothers!

What gives?  Some little girls happen to like boy dolls!  I liked boy dolls when they were given to me; indeed, one of my favorite dolls as a kid was a boy.  As a child I was not a dolly lover, as I've established ad nauseum, but one day after school (I was a first-grader at the time) Daddy hauled off and surprised me with a baby doll.  It was a little bald boy, clad in pajamas and a soft blue bathrobe.  He did everything that baby dolls of the mid-nineties did:  he drank, he wet, he went to sleep when I reclined him, he smelled like talcum powder, he had the sweetest little smile, and he was all-vinyl for bathing.  I was delighted with him and I wish I still had him.  I think I should point out that William, as I called him, was NOT a blind bag doll, but the fact that he existed at all pleased me.  I guess modern-day toy companies assume that little girls would prefer a doll that's a girl like them, and that makes sense.  However, blind bags and blind boxes that advertise boys ought to make boys a little more prevalent, just as boy babies are more prevalent in real life.  Indeed, baby boys seem to outnumber baby girls a little every year, and that appears to be a completely natural process...or it appears to be the natural thing in the British Isles.  Other parts of the world...well, let's just say that some countries do bad things to baby girls, because a lot of families want a boy to carry on the name.  But anyway, I hope that the doll companies will take note and start making more boys.  It's just...more fun to have that element of surprise, ESPECIALLY when the gender is supposed to be a surprise to begin with!

Ah well, can't have everything, I guess.  I suppose I should cheer up and be pleased that the Hairdorables are releasing a line of boys.  The Hairdorables are the absolute LAST line that I would've predicted to have boys, but they appear to be doing just that.  They're going to be named the HairDUDEables, which is almost as stupid a name as "Neigh" is, but they look like they're going to be a lot of fun like the girls are, complete with real rooted hair and real fabric clothes in bright, splashy colors.  I haven't bought as many Hairdorables as I have Zapf babies and L.O.L. Surprises, but I still am quite fond of them and I hope the boys are as popular as the girls.

As a last little addendum, I found a Jakks Pacific Cabbage Patch Kid Babyland Mini on eBay.  I have a sneaking suspicion that it too will be a girl, but...we'll see.  When s/he arrives there'll likely be a postscript put in.

Cheers,
RagingMoon1987

Isabelle comes to play

I had another special visitor at the library today.  One of my younger girls brought her Isabelle doll for me to see.  Yes, this Isabelle, the one that I complained about at length in an old Time to Gripe post.  She's a much prettier doll IRL than she was in her stock photos.  I absolutely love those gold shoes!!!

Isabelle made fast friends with my Hot Looks doll Chelsea, who accompanies me to the library along with the Peanut Gallery.  Indeed, the Peanut Gallery was quite interested in making friends with Isabelle as well.

Oh, did this child and I have some fun!  While her mother worked we...kind of, sort of spread our dolls out on the countertop and had a game.  We played "house," "school," and an "American Idol" type of game.  And no, I didn't let this interfere with my work; the few patrons that did come in were taken care of in a timely manner, and my playmate's mother was able to get her work done in no time flat.  I don't plan on making a habit of using slow days at work to play around, but in this particular case I wasn't about to say no to a seven-year-old.  When children are not around the smaller dolls sit under my desk, while Chelsea remains topside and provides a conversation piece for inquisitive patrons.

In other news, my old My Child doll got a new dress.  Here's what her usual attire looks like...

...and here's her new one.

Morgan's new dress is another Magic Nursery toddler dress, like this one.  The skirts on the Magic Nursery dresses are an eensy bit short, but not short enough to deter me from putting them on Morgan.  Hey, it's easier than digging up vintage My Child clothes!  Mama says that the bold colors on this new dress make Morgan look like a whole new doll, and I have to say that I agree.  I like Morgan's original dress, but it does make her already-pale "skin" look even more washed out.

With the day officially over (I arrived home fifteen minutes ago), I must now shower, settle my rear in, and wait for the wave of thunderstorms that the local weathermen have been predicting for over a week.  This storm had better put up or shut up, so great has the hype been.  Dare I mention that it was seventy years ago today that Cape Girardeau got hit, by the tornado that made my grandparents fear for their lives on the eve of their wedding?  Yeah...let's pray that we don't have a repeat.

Best wishes to all,
RagingMoon1987

R.I.P. Grumpy Cat

Yeah, yeah, I know this is supposed to be a doll blog, but this morning I got the news that Tardar Sauce died.  Tardar Sauce, also known as "Tard" or "Grumpy Cat," was felled by a urinary tract infection that apparently resisted treatment.  She was only seven, like my blind baby, Pebbles.  Tard split my ailurophilic sides on more than one occasion, with her eternally grouchy face augmenting meme after meme.  My favorite one was this one, addressed towards Tard's littermate brother Pokey (who was quite grouchy-looking himself).

I also loved the meme that inevitably surfaced during every Super Bowl.

I feel that way every time the Patriots go to the Super Bowl, Tard.  Indeed, I feel that way about every Super Bowl that doesn't have the Titans, the Chiefs, the Jets, or the Vikings.  In other words, every Super Bowl.  

Then there was this one, which always made me laugh since "Go hug a cactus" was a taunt I frequently threw during my high school days.  I was soooooo mature back then, LOL!

And of course, who could forget the classic?

Heck, I sort of had a meme of my own, though it was only tangentially connected to Tardar Sauce.  My old composition doll Anita wears an eternally grumpy expression, to the point that I call her the Tardar Sauce of my collection.

 This is especially so when I pair Anita with a more cheerful doll, like Gerb.

It's rare that I give liberal-rag Huffington Post any attention, but HuffPo loves animals and did not let Tardar Sauce's passing go unnoticed.  They wrote this very nice article that highlights some of Tard's accomplishments, some of her celebrity friends (Stan Lee!), and several condolence tweets.  It's really sweet.

Having recently lost one of my own cats, I semi-understand the sadness that Tard's humans are going through.  No one grieves the same, but I still sort of know what it's like.  I doubt Tabatha Bundesen and her family will see this, but if y'all do, I'm sorry for your loss.  Tardar Sauce was a great joy to a lot of us, and she'll be terribly, terribly missed by cat lovers and meme lovers everywhere.  She'll live on for a long time in the memes and in the hearts of her fans.  I hope Pokey is doing okay; I know that animals are just as capable of mourning as people are.

Much love to all,

RagingMoon1987

Throwback Thursday review: Little Miss Revlon clone

And the Moon Girl's fondness for clone dolls lands her another poppet that she needed like a hole in her head.  As y'all may or may not remember I'm a Little Miss Revlon fan.  I have one, my lovely little Wendy, who was the focus of a review a couple of years back.  In the time that's elapsed since then I...haven't done much with Wendy.  I clean her earrings and make sure her elastic is still holding strong, and of course I'm always on the lookout for new clothes, but other than that, nothing.  It was during one of these hunt-for-clothes-on-eBay sessions that I stumbled across this young lady.  I've chosen to name her "Belle," and she is a Circle P doll, or Little Miss Revlon clone.

Since Belle IS a Little Miss Revlon clone it should be no surprise that she and Wendy are the same height.

Just for grins and a reminder, here's how these dolls compare to the 11.5-inch height standard set by Barbie.  The Barbie in this case is my mother's #3 ponytail.

Brief tangent:  I found a nice old vintage dress for Barbie!  The dress in question is "Fancy Free."

Pardon the yellow cast in that picture; the sun was setting when I took it, on the same day that I took this picture of Annika.  LOL, I remember that day quite well; we'd had a lot of rain and I made the mistake of sitting on the ground in my late grandmother's yard.  Normally that wouldn't be a huge deal, except that Grandma's yard used to be the site of a sizeable frog pond, and to this day it still gets marshy when the rain comes.  My butt and knees were covered in mud, but Barbie and Annika came out alright.  LOL, there's a story for y'all!  Maybe Belle and Wendy can wear Barbie's new dress, though???  Sometimes Barbie dresses could fit on these Little Miss Revlon dolls, so I'll test that later.

Nitty gritty time now!  Some of the Circle P dolls are not as pretty in the face as Little Miss Revlon is, but Belle...Belle holds her own against Wendy.  See?

In fact, Belle outshines Wendy in one crucial way:  her eyes are clear.  Wendy's are not, and she looks a little DEAD as a result.  I wonder why Belle's eyes remained shiny while Wendy's did not?

Before we ponder eyes too closely let's move up to Belle's hair.  She wears her dark, curly hair short, as many women in the fifties did.

The fibers are wiry and have a mind of their own, more so than Wendy's do.  The plugs are of an average size but are well spaced; indeed I had to dig some in order to find a decent gap for photographing the roots.  The plugs are tight in there, and what scalp I could find was painted brown.   So...here's the hairline.

Belle has apparently spent a lot of time either lying down or leaning against something, as the back of her hair is pretty flat.

Nothing a nice dunk in some warm water won't cure, though I'll have to take care with those eyes.  I suspect that it may be moisture that causes doll eyes to fog up, though I may be full of crap.  Wouldn't be the first time, LOL!  I have based my assumption on circumstantial evidence though, in that Wendy's eyes didn't fog up until after I washed her hair.  I didn't shield her eyes in any way, and now I'm ruing that.

NOW let's talk about the paint.  I think Belle looks a little more mature than Wendy in the face.  Here's the same picture from above so y'all won't have to scroll up.

I think it may be those eyebrows that age Belle a little.  Belle's are wider and less arched, making her look more sure of herself and...less naive, I guess?  She just doesn't have Wendy's placid innocence.  Sort of like a geisha, in a way; the more senior the geisha, the wider her eyebrows.  I tend to place that rule on these two as well, even though Belle and Wendy are definitely NOT geisha.  On a more positive note, Belle's eyebrows are centered.  Wendy's are not, nor are the eyebrows of a great many Revlon dolls that I've seen.  I wonder why that is???  I'm not terribly bothered by this apparent Ideal idiosyncrasy, but I still wonder why so many Revlon dolls have off-kilter eyebrows.  Anywho, here's a better look at Belle's eyes, complete with her perfectly centered eyebrows, and her less-than-perfect eyelashes.  Notice that the lashes don't connect to the eye socket (Wendy's lashes do).

See how clear Belle's eyes are compared to Wendy's?  Poor Wendy is starting to look a little possessed, with those eyes fogging over.  Wendy has promised to slap the first person who calls her "Annabelle," by the way (LOL).  Both Belle and Wendy have sleep eyes, and this sleep motion is where Wendy evens the playing field.  Wendy's eyes slide shut with no problems, but more often than not when I recline Belle THIS happens.

In fact, both eyes can do this!

This is a common problem with sleep-eyed dolls of all ages, and it's not a huge deal.  All I have to do is shake Belle gently and her rogue eye pops shut.  Strangely, I find this effect rather charming, as it reminds me of a scene in a book I loved as a teenager, a child's book by Rebecca Caudill entitled The Best-Loved Doll.  In this book the best-loved doll in question has sleep eyes, but only one of them works (among other problems).  Cute read, one that I may have to find for Malden Library (they don't have a copy), or just for myself for old time's sake.

Lovely day for tangents, isn't it???  Belle has a slightly wider nose than Wendy does, and her lips are red but are not painted in as fully.

The corners of Belle's mouth turn down a little, giving her a more serious expression than Wendy, not unlike that of a Coty Girl.  Her cheeks are very subtly blushed, much less so than Wendy's, and much, MUCH less so than the clownish high-color Revlon dolls.  Strangely, Belle's ears are not pierced.  Wendy has pierced ears, as do most of the Revlon clone dolls that I've stumbled across, but Belle has no holes at all.

On the back of Belle's neck is her mark, and the reason why she is often called a "Circle P" doll.

Dolls with this mark tend to make the world of LMR clones confusing, at least for this little black duck.  The Circle P mark was used on knock-off dolls from the God-Knows-Who Company that Belle comes from, but Miss Coty, an Arranbee product, also uses the Circle P mark.  I can't tell if Belle is an Arranbee doll or not, but judging from her expression I'm leaning towards the positive; Belle looks ever so slightly sulky like the Coty Girls do.  Oh, and as an aside, when I was browsing through pictures of Miss Coty I stumbled across this girl wearing a very familiar frock.  It's been eons since I last discussed this dress, so here it is again, modeled on Tammy.

I still haven't identified this dress, by the way.  But I own one and one of my friends on Facebook owns one, and now I've seen it on a Coty Girl so I know it's mass-produced.  If anyone has any info on this dress and who made it, let me know.  It fits Little Miss Revlon and all like-sized dolls, Tammy, Tressy, and TNT Barbie, and I probably am missing a few others who can wear that dress.  Digression over, I have no idea who Belle is now, though I haven't ruled Miss Coty out definitively.  There are a lot of differences between Belle and Miss Coty, but those faces are so similar!

Down to the body we go now, and to the main reason why I chose this particular doll over the other Circle P dolls that eBay had to offer.  This body is...ONE PIECE!!!

I have exactly two dolls with a vinyl body like this:  Eegee's Softina and Deluxe Reading's Psycho Cindy.  Oh yeah, I also have a Poison Ivy doll from Mattel, and her body is like this but it poses better, probably because she's much younger than Tina and Cindy.  Both Tina and Cindy sport a one-piece vinyl body that covers stuffing and a wire frame, and such a body works out well for large dolls like Softina and Cindy, though the vinyl does become immobile with age.  But I've never seen a similar body utilized for a doll Belle's size so this review should be interesting.  It LOOKS alright, but how does it move?  Well...her neck rotates...

...and that's the extent of Belle's movement, y'all!  I suspect that she has a wire frame inside her body and the vinyl was once soft enough to bend in a manner similar to Licca-chan, but the body hardened with time as objects made of vinyl will sometimes do, and thus I can't get Belle to hold a pose.  Both Softina and Psycho Cindy are this way, as I insinuated above.  This is just the way vinyl ages, but it's also a tremendous pain in the patootie in Belle's case since I can't seat her or move her arms around like I can with Wendy.  Wendy sits like a bimbo on Quaaludes, but at least she can sit!

Belle's lack of joints suggests very strongly that she is NOT an Arranbee doll, as all the Miss Coty dolls I've seen have joints.  Nor is she another Circle P doll that I've seen named Miss Marie, since Miss Marie also has joints.  She is also not the little cowgirl Sally Starr, since Sally was a blonde doll.  That leaves yet another Circle P doll named Little Miss Rose Mary (two words, yes), but I can't confirm that Belle is or isn't her.  Rose Mary's shoulders were covered in the two pictures I found, thus rendering it impossible to see if she has joints.  However, Doll Reference states that Rose Mary had pierced ears, and if that's the case then Belle is not her either, as her ears are definitely not pierced.

Okay, so Belle flunks the posing test with flying colors.  However, that stiff vinyl did take to a mold well, with her fingers and toes being free of big plastic tags and possessing all the requisite nails and creases.

Belle has painted nails just like Wendy does, but the paint is sloppy in places.  To be fair, Wendy's paint isn't 100% perfect either, especially on her toenails.

Belle's feet are large and highly arched like Wendy's are, and I think these two can share shoes, but we'll get to that when we come to it.

Good place to segue into clothes.  Belle is currently not wearing the outfit she came in, but rather one that I bought for Wendy, one that was a smidge tight on her curvy body.  Belle wears it well, but for the record it wasn't what she came in.  THIS is what she came in.

This is a full-skirted, strapless number that fits both Belle and Wendy very well, though being strapless means that the occasional nip slip is inevitable.  The bodice is not hemmed...

...nor are the skirt or the wrap that comes with it.

The back does fasten with a snap, though!

Being a fashion doll with high-heeled feet, Belle unsurprisingly has high-heeled shoes.  These are plain black shoes in flimsy plastic with a fair amount of cracks.

This is the worst of the cracks, in the sole of the left shoe.

I'm hoping desperately that Belle and Wendy can share shoes, because I find these beat up black pumps rather unsightly.  I'm optimistic, but similar dolls can have different shoe sizes.

As it turned out Belle and Wendy can share shoes quite nicely, and I am glad.  Belle may be stiff as a board and not good for anything but modelling Wendy's clothes, but she still deserves to have some nice shoes.

Regarding clothes sharing, Tammy and Tressy ensembles are at a premium in the Moon House, but I've got a lot of Barbie stuff, including the new dress that Barbie now has on.  Even though Barbie is a lot taller than Belle, I'm just itching to try "Fancy Free" on Belle to see how it does.  Barbie can in turn wear the Revlon set...if it fits her, that is.

Mmmm...I can live with that.  "Fancy Free" is a lot longer on Belle than it is on Barbie, and the bodice is baggy around her smaller chest.  Interestingly, despite having a bigger chest, Barbie can wear the Revlon set quite well, though I have to admit that the shirt hangs better on Belle.  Notice that Belle can put her hands in the rather ample pockets of "Fancy Free."  I haven't tried that with Barbie yet since her hands curve outward some.

I think that settles it!  Can't think of anything else I want to say!

BAD
*Lacks any ability to pose other than turning her head.
*Eyes stick, but that isn't a huge deal.
*Painting isn't as precise as it is on the brand-name dolls
*Hair is wiry, but again this isn't a huge deal since Wendy's hair is also wiry.

GOOD
*Eyes are not fogged over...yet.
*NOT BLONDE!!!  Too many of the dolls from this era are blonde.
*Sturdy.  This is one of the few dolls who'd survive my "throw her across the yard and see what happens" test.
*Can share dresses with Barbie, albeit imperfectly.  Can also wear Little Miss Revlon stuff, though that's probably fairly obvious.

Hmmm...looks like I got suckered by a novelty again!  Oh, don't get me wrong, Belle is a nice doll.  She'd still make a nice plaything for a modern-day kid, tough as she is.  But that inability to do more than stand there probably would get annoying for a child of today, so accustomed are they to having dolls that can sit at least a little.  Belle probably could've sat when she was a younger doll and her vinyl was softer, but NOT ANYMORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I think I'll try to avoid all-vinyl dolls of this age from now on, as they either stiffen like Belle and Softina and Psycho Cindy, or they wear out like Tutti, Todd, and the Liddle Kiddles.  As she stands Belle is only an attractive mannequin, rather like Mattel's Stardolls...but maybe she can take a rebody.  If I can find some Little Miss Revlon parts I'll try that out and get back to y'all.  But right now Belle is just Wendy's stiff second banana.  I like her enough to use her as a dress model, and I like her face, but she's not much for playing with.  She does look nice with a group of vintage dollies though, and her eyes aren't clouded over like poor Wendy's are.  Hopefully I can keep it that way.

Joy to the world,
RagingMoon1987

POSTSCRIPT:  I think I've identified Belle!  Doll Reference's Jolly Toys/Nasco page has absolutely nothing about Claudie, my little Tressy/Crissy wannabe, but at the bottom of the list of products it mentions a Little Miss Revlon-clone.  Jolly Toys's clone doll was marked "Circle P," was jointed only at the neck, had a hollow one-piece body, and was named Jean.  Thus I'm almost certain now that Belle is actually "Jean."  This creates potential for more confusion, as Nasco also had a little girl doll named "Jean," one that bears a passing resemblance to Claudie.  Does this mean that Belle and Claudie are sisters?  LOL, as to the name, I like the name "Belle" a lot, much more so than "Jean," so maybe my dolly can have two names.  Belle-Jean?  Jean-Belle?  I kinda like Jean-Belle, LOL!