Readdressing Belka

I'm certain that none of y'all remember Belka, better known as the cross-eyed doll who picks her nose.

Belka came to stay with me last summer.  She was a rather humorous gift from a good friend, and since I was feeling a little depressed at the time she was greatly appreciated.  Belka's box and tag both had the name D'anton Jos on it, a name that I knew nothing about.  At the time I just shrugged it off, laughed at Belka, and welcomed her into my collection.

So that was last summer.  Now it's winter and I'm bored as all get-out, and with nothing better to do during my evenings I googled "D'anton Jos dolls."  It turns out that Belka is one of many of these dolls, each one uglier than the last, called the Rotten Kids.  These dolls are all character dolls, and they laugh, pout, weep, stick their tongues out, and dig in their noses like my Belka does.  A couple of 'em are little karateka that sport bruises.  A lot of 'em come in pairs, making me wonder if Belka has a counterpart out there somewhere.  I also saw the name Berenguer thrown around in a couple'a sources.  D'anton Jos has some sort of ties to Berenguer/JC Toys, whose soft little baby dolls I covet, but I'm not sure what sort of ties.  Maybe D'anton Jos is the designer and JC Toys is the company, kinda like how Ping Lau is a designer for Marie Osmond's company?  I dunno.  One Worthpoint listing claims that these dolls are all based off of real little children, but I don't know how true that is either.  Certainly would be interesting if it WERE true!

As for my little Belka?  It turns out her name isn't "Belka" at all!  Upon learning that these dolls had names I looked more closely at her tag, and I found...

...see it?  Crammed toward the top of the price sticker?  My doll's name is Lucy...and she wasn't exactly cheap when that sticker was applied to her tag.  Shucks, with her being cross-eyed like she is she could've been named "Mary."

Cross-eyed Mary!  Hmmm...maybe not the best comparison considering Cross-eyed Mary's occupation, LOL.  Lucy is the name of an early hominid fossil, so I guess that's a fitting name for this doll since she looks a little like an extinct hominid herself.  I do have to wonder who'd have paid sixty-five bucks for a cross-eyed doll who's made out of rigid plastic, picks her nose, and looks like a monkey?  But then again, not very many people would cough up a hundred bucks or more for a secondhand American Girl doll that needed a wig and clothes as soon as she got here (like I did with Justine-Marie).  I will say that Lucy has pretty eyes; they're sort of a cross between blue and gray.

Shame that one's looking up and the other's looking down.

I don't see how that could've been avoided though, since Lucy's eye sockets are uneven.  Her head sculpt is asymmetrical all over, and I like to deride it as an ugly sculpt, but it has a lot of personality and probably was not easy to create.  Lucy's lips even have little creases, like real lips do.

No, Lucy will not win any beauty contests, but she and her rotten brothers and sisters are characters, so that's saying something.  Not all dolls have this kind of character in their face.

That's all I've got for y'all today.  Next week I should have Sasha's review ready.

Much love to all,
RagingMoon1987