Throwback Thursday review: Stardust Classics Kat the Time Explorer

I could be steppin' through a time zone!  Oh, if I could do that I'd turn the clock foreward about a week so this God-forsaken ice would all melt.  A bunch of freezing rain fell Monday night, Tuesday night brought another pulse, and Wednesday night brought still another wave.  The roads are slicker than snake snot, and the library has been dead as a doornail as a result.  But since I'm not in control of time or the weather I'll just suck it up and get on with the review.  Today's doll could be considered a relative of sorts to both Rebecca and Ana Ming.  She's Kat the Time Explorer.

The heavy emphasis on fantasy and Kat's connection to time travel bring Carpatina to mind.  Like Stardust Classics, Carpatina has three main characters (Julia, Kohanna, and Ana Ming), and they could travel through time with the help of a magical moonstone necklace.  Kat utilizes a time machine rather than a necklace or a spinning blue police box, but I digress.  The backstories are similar, and when I put Kat with Ana Ming I realized that the dolls themselves are similar.

Kat's original box would've looked a lot like Ana Ming's (blue with an oval window in the front), and it turns out that there's good reason for this.  Both dolls were designed by the same guy using the same three-dimensional computer animation.  Not bad for the late nineties!  That's all I know about the connection between Kat and Ana Ming, but there's bound to be more to it since Carpatina sold Stardust dolls for a brief period.  Not that that matters to Kat and Ana Ming; they're already in a hurry to start talking.  Unfortunately, I've gotta separate these two and review Kat.  Like a great many of my dolls Kat is eighteen inches tall, just like Ana Ming, like Rebecca, and like...oh, fancy meeting you here, Luciana.

"You're a time explorer, are you?  Do you come from Gallifrey?"

"Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies."

Houston, we may have a problem.  You pull that time lord victorious crap on me and I'll wallop you one, Miss Kat.  Ugh, if there was ever a time the Tenth Doctor needed a good, sound slapping it was at that moment...and if I'd been standing there he'd have gotten it.  But I wasn't, and he didn't.  Silliness aside, according to her books Kat is 100% human as opposed to a fairy or a princess or a God-knows-what.  Stardust Classics dolls had a healthy dose of fantasy, but only one of the dolls (Laurel) was not human (she was the aforementioned fairy).  Alissa, the princess, dabbled in white magic and thus probably could've been considered a witch, but...witches are humans, aren't they?  Pity there wasn't a mermaid or something water-themed, since most little girls would eat a story like that up with a spoon.  Whatever, you two stand still and let me compare your heights.

Yep, same height.  Maybe Kat is a teeny bit taller than her friends, but it's hard to tell.  She certainly LOOKS bigger in that dress.  Regarding overall looks, Kat is your stereotypical blue-eyed blonde with a head full of loose curls (for comparison, Dream Dolls Libby, Emma, and Cassie had tight curls).  This hair reminds me a lot of Caroline Abbott's.

Kat is wigged like Ana Ming, like Rebecca, and like the American Girls.  I have no idea what size wig she takes, but if one wanted to go the custom route they could probably take the wig off.  In addition to the copious frizz and curls Kat has a slight right-handed part and feathered bangs.  Her part appears to be a zig-zag part.

I never had any luck weaving a zig-zag part into my own hair, and that drove me nuts because a zig-zag part made my hair look thicker.  Kat's hair is way thicker than mine, zig-zag part or no, but as with all wigged dolls her wig cap can be seen if the hair is parted just-so.

Par for the course with wigged hair, in other words.  Since Kat has been out of her box for awhile her curls look pretty tortured in a few places, just like Zoe's do.  The short curls by her cheeks are the worst.

The hair looked especially bad when I first got Kat out of her box, but I was able to fix that with a little patience and elbow grease.  I pulled Days of Future Passed up on YouTube, brandished my dog brush and squirt bottle, and got to work.  It took the full album and some change to get Kat's hair where it is now, and probably in the future I'll have to do a stent with boiling water and curlers (such a stunt will require a longer album, something like Quadrophenia or The Wall, LOL).  I've learned from folks who own dolls like Caroline that gentle brushing from time to time is necessary to keep these curls neat, so that's what I'll do for Kat.  Just moisten the hair, wind the curl around your finger, and brush with the grain.  The curls look reasonably smooth now.

Works for Courtney and Gabby and Rael, semi-works for Zoe.  For some reason I have a hard time getting Zoe's curls to behave, even though they're essentially the same as Courtney's.  Either way the method should work for Kat, but such maintenance does not fill me with enthusiasm.  I prefer Ana Ming's smooth, bangless hair to Kat's curls, and I prefer Rebecca's low-upkeep bob over both Kat's hair and Ana Ming's.

Since I brought up Rael, Kat's face reminds me a little of a My Twinn head.

Definitely not Rael's smirky Ariel head, nor Justin's sublimely happy Allison head, but maybe something like a Teresa or a Rosemary head.  What do y'all think?  Do Kat and Rosemary favor, or is it just my imagination?

Mama thinks that Kat looks a little duck-lipped, but she's not as bad as some dolls I've seen...I guess.

Yeah, she is duck-lipped.  But then again, so is Ana Ming when photographed in profile.  

On the other hand, Rebecca has thick lips, but they don't pout as much as the others' lips do.

Just Pretend's three lines appear to have had three head molds:  one like Rebecca's, one like Kat's, and one like one of Rebecca's Dream Doll Designer friends, Mallory.  I don't own the third head, but here's how the other two compare.

Allison, Cassie, Emma, Jada, Kim, Kiri, and Libby all share a head with Rebecca, while Alissa, Angie, Jessica, Laurel, Maggie, Natalie, Sarah, and Sydney share a head with Kat.  Diana, Mallory, and Tasha may have Rebecca's face too, but they look happier and their noses look wider so I'm not sure.  Of the three faces I actually like Kat's the least, partially because her prominent lips make her intensely hard to photograph.  Parts of her face throw shadows if I don't get the flash angled just right, and she can subsequently look like she's got a slight moustache!  Y'all may have noticed that in Kat's introductory photo, but if y'all didn't, I'll spare y'all the need to scroll up.  

Rebecca doesn't have that problem.  Neither do Ana Ming or Luciana...or ANY of my other dolls!  Snarky as Rebecca can be, I prefer Rebecca's expression to Kat's, and I like Ana Ming's the best.  None of these three are what one would call "cute," but Ana Ming looks the happiest.  

For the record, I've been trying to figure out since last week which of them has the biggest head.  What say y'all?  They all have so much hair that it's hard for me to tell.

Alrighty, so Ana Ming wins the expression contest, but let's look at nitty gritties.  Kat's eyes are bright blue with rooted eyelashes, and they have alarmingly yellowed scleras.  May want to have your liver tested ASAP, Kat.  Her irises are unnaturally blue and look a lot like the eyes on my old Fairy Tale High Sleeping Beauty.  At least they're not grape juice-colored like Teen Rapunzel's eyes (Miss Emily wasn't a fan of those, LOL).

Seriously, I've seen discolored eyes on dolls (Rebecca, Xenia), but it's almost always the irises that turn.  I can't remember seeing yellowed scleras.  As old as Kat is, this is probably age-related.  More troubling to me is Kat's slightly hypotrophic right eye; see how it droops a little?  This tends to make Kat look a little or a lot drunk.

One of my American Girls also has this problem, so I used that as an excuse to have her wear glasses.  I'll see if I can't find the right pair for Kat.  Since Kat's right eye does droop it's probably obvious to y'all that her eyes close on reclining, just like Ana Ming's do.  There are painted eyelashes to be seen. 

That always looks so weird on a sleep-eye doll.  All the new American Girls have this feature too for reasons I'll never know, but we learned about the AG lashes in the six-o'clock news, and we'll hear more at eleven.  Tequila Rose, one of my custom American Girls, also has painted eyelashes.  She looks a little funny on reclining, more so than Kat.

According to Just Magic, Laurel and Alissa came in sleep-eye and fixed-eye versions, with the sleep-eye dolls being older and of slightly higher quality.  Kat only came with sleep eyes, making me wonder if she wasn't discontinued at some point.  Indeed, Laurel seems to be the easiest one to find on eBay (I wasn't able to find Alissa at all when I looked), and like Rebecca I found plenty of Laurel dolls with eyes that had changed color.  Fortunately Kat's eyes appear to be fine, but her puckered-up lips are bubblegum pink.

I'm not sure what's worse, Kat's candy pink lips or Ana Ming's orange peel lips.  Rebecca's lips are dusty rose and have a lovely color, so she beats both Kat and Ana Ming in coloration.  On the other hand, Rebecca has some paint scuffs on her lower lip that neither Kat nor Ana Ming have.  As I stated last week, I'm not sure if that's a factory flaw or if it came from being played with, but either way Rebecca has some minor paint defects.  Kat does not.  Oh yeah, I forgot to show y'all her blush.  They're just teeny weeny little spots, and they're...orangish.  Pair that with the drooping, yellowed eyes and Kat doesn't look the healthiest.

Kat's vinyl is not as nice as Ana Ming's.  It's about like Rebecca's:  thick and robust, but slightly rough to the touch.  For the record, I've yet to find a doll with vinyl as nice as Ana Ming's.  She's hard and smooth all over, almost like resin.  Now granted, said vinyl isn't without its drawbacks.  Before I'd owned Ana Ming a day I'd managed to scrape her cheek and eyebrow...

...and her joints have become very sticky over the span of eight years.  I can't remember if I discussed this at length in Rebecca's review, and I don't know if y'all can see it, but Ana Ming's neck joint is covered with this oily, sticky crap that undoubtedly leached out of her vinyl.  It thankfully hasn't gotten on her lovely meet outfit, and I'm trying to keep it that way.

My American Girl dolls are not sticky at all.  Amanda is my oldest, Danica is my youngest, Julie is my most beat-up, and Marina is probably my mintiest, and NONE of them are sticky.  Rebecca is not sticky either, and she's about Kat's age from the same company, so I have high hopes for Kat.  At the same time I wonder what Carpatina did differently from Just Pretend, to make Ana Ming age the way she has?  Regardless, Kat isn't as nice to the touch as Ana Ming is, but she's not sticky either, nor does she appear to have any scuffs like Ana Ming does.

Great time to segue into the body review, though this portion will be brief as Kat's body is the same as Rebecca's and Ana Ming's.  The only difference is coloration (Kat's coloring is the fairest).  Kat's joints are also the same as Ana Ming's and Rebecca's, meaning that she can move in all the same ways.  She's not as loose as Rebecca is, so she can hold poses better.  Both of them can hold their arms up like this...

...but Rebecca only held this pose because her sleeves provided some extra friction. 

Hands and feetz are the same as Rebecca's...

All three of the Stardust Classics came in full outfits, and like the American Girls they could also have little add-ons that added to the aesthetic a little.  Here's Kat's full getup, plus part of her accessories.

All these girls wore long dresses (Laurel in green, Alissa in burgundy, and Kat in pink), and both Laurel and Kat wear low-cut numbers that like to slide off their shoulders.  I freaking HATE that!!!

Kat's dress is a feast for the eyes, no question about that.  It's this long Victorian thing that covers just about everything...except Kat's bosom, that is.  This shade of pink is quite pretty, with a very subtle lilac cast to it that doesn't photograph very well.  It looks bubblegum in pictures, but trust me:  there's a teeny splash of lilac in there.  But I'm not a big fan of how this fabric handles.  It doesn't snag on everything like Ana Ming's brocade clothes do, but it feels rough to the touch and doesn't drape well, and it's holding a few wrinkles quite nicely.

As I insinuated above, Kat's neckline is deep and wide, the perfect getup for breastfeeding...except that Kat is WAAAAAAY too young for that!  Good thing for her there's a lot of lace that covers a few sins.  The lace at the neckline is soft and drapes fairly well, though it would still catch crumbs like mad if Kat were eating cookies or something.  I guess now I know what "crumb-catcher neckline" means.  The lace is also a bit yellowed.

Indeed, when I took this outfit off the underlayers held a faint reek of Eau du Cigarette, so I think I may know now why the lace (and Kat's eyes) are yellowed.  Have I ever mentioned that I freaking HATE cigarettes???  If you smoke, more power to you, but I can't stand the things.  Anywho, I think this waistline is a princess-cut waistline, but don't quote me on that.  This overall outfit is supposed to have an overall Victorian theme, and indeed this dress looks like it could easily accommodate a corset.  The seam is trimmed with a string of fake pearls, and to my delight the string is sewn on with the teeniest little stitches.  I had been afraid that they'd be glued on, but they're not.

Now...this skirt.  This skirt!  Victorian skirts didn't play, y'all!  Granted, Kat isn't wearing a bustle, but there's enuff volume in this skirt to pretend that she is.  There are three layers all told, so buckle up.  The top layer is the shortest layer, made out of that pink fabric. 

This top layer is gathered in two areas, and the peaks of these gathers are decorated by white bows with three pink flowers.  Like the lace at the neckline, these bows have yellowed somewhat, though not quite as badly as the lace.

The lower edge of this topmost layer is trimmed with lace, but it's a different stuff from the lace fringing Kat's collar.  It's stiff and has no drape, and it would be terribly itchy if placed next to bare skin.

So that's the top layer.  The second layer is white and evenly cut all around.  It looks like it too is trimmed with lace but (spoiler alert) it's not.  It's just a plain ol' white layer, put in (I presume) to break up all the pink.  This white layer has no more drape than the pink stuff does.

The third layer is also pink, and it's the layer that is trimmed with lace.  It is also evenly cut all around, and is the longest layer.  This dress as a whole is the perfect length for tripping on unless one takes "little baby steps," as Felicity Merriman once put it.

This lowest layer is the one that's trimmed with the lace.  This stuff is the soft kind, like the stuff trimming the neck.

Now...NOW, underneath the skirt is nothing.  American Girls usually have period-appropriate skivvies (a shift in Felicity's case, pantaloons for Kirsten, NOTHING for Kaya, and so on).  Kat has white lace-trimmed underwear and lace tights that we'll soon see, but as for things attached to the dress, all there is to see is a tag, marked with the warning "DRY CLEAN ONLY."  So much for giving this dress a spin in THE PICKLE JAR OF DESPAIR.

The sleeves are layered similarly to the skirt, though there's only two layers:  a pink overlayer and a gathered white underlayer.  The sleeve is trimmed with more of that itchy-looking lace.

To my considerable chagrin, this dress closes with Velcro.  It's covered in lace, a material that will snag like crazy, and it closes with Velcro.  I presume that this is to make an otherwise fancy dress a little more kid-friendly, but I'm still not thrilled.

Okay, I was lying a little when I said that Kat wasn't wearing anything under her skirt.  As I said above, she has white lace stockings.

I guess I should call these tights, since stockings are more like socks.  Either way these have an open weave in a diamond pattern, like so.

The toes and heels are nicely reinforced.  I don't see that too often in doll tights.

Other than that these are pretty average doll tights, though holy moly, look at this seam!  It's holding together just fine, but it looks like a snake!

Underneath it all Kat wears simple white panties with lace around the legs.  These have no stretch whatsoever and would thus be hideously uncomfortable if they were real panties.  But since they were protected by the tights and the dress, they have not yellowed.

The skivvies are a step up from what Ana Ming has (hers don't have lace).  Rebecca is missing her drawers so I can't comment on what she's wearing, but since Rebecca and Kat came from the same company around the same time I presume that they wore the same britches. 

On her feet Kat wears pink slippers that match her dress, and they're the weakest part of her outfit.

Oh, they're pretty enuff, and they match Kat's dress to a T, but the glue is yellowing badly and is losing its tack.  Both shoes are missing their soles.  

I can mend that with some white or pink craft foam, but durn it, I shouldn't have to!  Ana Ming's slippers are head and shoulders above this, though granted, there is a ten-year age gap between Kat's shoe and Ana Ming's.  Here's the top side of both...

...and the sole side.

Kat's shoes are nicely decorated, so that's a positive.  The lace is very securely sewn on, and the toes are decorated with tiny pink bows and pearl loops that also are sewn on securely.

What a pity that those shoes were glued together, but then again a sewn shoe probably would've drawn production costs up.  One can't sew a shoe that tiny, by hand or by machine, without going half-blind.

Kat, Alissa, and Laurel all could be bought with an extra accessory set that was very much like the meet accessories that accompanied American Girls.  Laurel and Alissa both got outerwear, a headpiece, and something to hold, while Kat forewent the outerwear for a parasol.  In addition to the parasol she had a white lace fan that matched the parasol, a cameo choker, and a hair bow that was attached to a comb.  Alas, my Kat has only her bow.

It matches the bows decorating Kat's skirt, and it's yellowed a teensy bit (not as badly as Kat's eyes, though).  The teeth of the comb are long enuff to hold this firmly in Kat's hair, and as such it can create quite a few styles.  I hope to find the cameo choker, as Kat has a longish neck and it looks bare without something on it.  Overall this outfit is attractive and robustly constructed (I found not a single loose thread), but boy howdy would I hate to wear it!  I don't know how women in the Victorian era survived, and Kat doesn't even have the worst components of that period's fashion!  She's not wearing a corset, nor is she wearing high-button boots, neither of which look a bit comfortable.  Kat looks very pretty in this dress though, and thank goodness, it hasn't stained her body.  Alissa's wine-colored meet outfit apparently did stain, as does Kat's silk coat and cap.

Ana Ming briefly modelled this last summer, and I have to confess that it looks better on her than it does Kat.  But since it IS Kat's coat, here's what she looks like in it.

Pity that that coat isn't meant to go over Kat's pink dress, because it does indeed look lovely.  Just Pretend intended for this coat to go over another dress, one of plain dark blue velvet with a gold belt and red shoes, and having seen both the blue accents on the coat and the narrower sleeves of the dress I think that was a good pairing.  I've had no luck so far finding that dress, but I'm not giving up (Carpatina sadly does not offer a similar option).  Like Kat's dress, the coat is constructed well, but unlike Kat's dress it is capable of staining.  The coat came in a garment bag, and the coat stained the bag in places.

As an aside, at the top of the garment bag is this sticker, proclaiming that the coat can fit other eighteen-inch vinyl-bodied dolls.

It should be no surprise by now that Rebecca, Ana Ming, and Kat can all share clothes, but Rebecca soundly refused to wear more pink.  But trust me:  they can share clothes. 

Interestingly, despite being long out of her box Kat arrived with her hang tag still tied to her wrist, and said hang tag included some very interesting information.  I don't know if Dolls Unlimited was the holding company for all of these poppets or if they were just a distributor, but either way they had some advertisements for dolls that were...NOT Just Pretend dolls.  There was a Bitty Baby competitor called My Li'l Punkin.

I like the looks of those; the way they're posed suggests that they're softer than Bitty Baby.  My little Kiara is so stiff that she can't sit properly, and most of the other Bitty Babies have that same problem.  Oh well, not all baby dolls can be nice and floppy like Baby Love 'n' Touch.  Anyway, this next advertisement threw me for a loop, because these are DEFINITELY not Just Pretend dolls.  These were made by Gotz.

If you are/were/still are fans of beastsbelle's blog then you may recognize these.  She had three:  two of the brunette and one of the redhead.  These Little Sisters are significant for another reason, as one of them will be appearing in next week's post.  Stay tuned for that...but right now I've gotta finish up Kat.

BAD

*I don't like these eyes.  They...stare too much.  I thought I was immune to the glassy gaze of a doll stare, but apparently I'm not.
*The hair is long and curly, and as such is hard to handle.
*Similarly, Kat's dress is a lot to manage, even though it feels very substantial in my hands.
*Kat's eyes and parts of her outfit have a lot of yellowing, but I don't think that's her fault.
*Shoes are falling apart at the seams.  Again, this is age-related.
*Some clothes have a problem with staining.  Kat dodged that bullet, but her friend Alissa did not.
*Can't share clothes with American Girls, but that's not a huge deal.  Just thought I'd throw it out there.

GOOD
*Hair was easy to whip into shape, but if you're a kid, ask an adult for help.
*With the exception of the shoes, these clothes are robust.  I wasn't expecting that, not after handling Ana Ming's clothes for so long.
*Poses well, but be wary of loosening joints on these dolls, as they're strung.
*Shares clothes with Carpatina and Magic Attic, and Sasha can wear her clothes (though mine didn't want to).
*I love the concept of this line as a whole, with all the fantasy that encourages kids to play "make-believe."

Yeah, Kat has a lot going for her, but despite her positives I doubt she will be one of my favorite dolls.  I rarely say this about dolls that I own, but I don't like her face much.  Rebecca does very little to hide her snarkiness, but Kat...there's something about her expression that reminds me of a woman I know, a woman who plays the friendly, intelligent, churchgoing PTA mother, but is mean and nasty once one gets to know her.  But then again, her wry little smile also suggests a sense of humor, one that snarky Rebecca and sedate Ana Ming lack.

Peek-a-boo!  Okay, she may grow on me with time.  I think a change of clothes might help, as she's hard to handle in that long dress.  I don't want to damage it OR her, even though the dress doesn't feel delicate or fragile.  But a simpler outfit, or a similar one with less frills would improve my enjoyment of Miss Kat.  Overall these old Stardust Classics are not everyone's taste, but someone who prefers all-vinyl eighteen-inch dolls would probably like these.  Just beware of dresses that stain, particularly if you choose Alissa, and know that if these dolls have fixed eyes, they'll probably change color like Rebecca's did.

Happy Groundhog Day,
RagingMoon1987