All about Real Baby

For some reason I kept singing the My Child jingle while throwing this post together, even though Real Baby and My Child have nothing in common besides being baby dolls from the eighties.  I think I said in my post about the Temu baby that I'd do a post for Real Baby, so y'all shouldn't be surprised that I'm bazooing about baby dolls again.  I'm not going to review my Real Baby in depth, but I do want to talk a little about this brand because it's kinda obscure.  Indeed, I didn't know about the brand until Tam discussed her on her blog.  The doll in the linked post may look familiar...

...because I own her now!  I named my Real Baby "Geneva," to my mother's considerable chagrin (she hates the name).  In the original commercials girls were naming their dolls easy-for-a-kid-to-remember stuff like "Katie" or "Jessica," so I tried to be a little more original.  Anyway, Real Baby was made by our old friend Hasbro during the mid-eighties, not too long before Yours Truly was born.  They were designed to be...well, realistic baby dolls!  There were boys and girls, though because their bodies were/are cloth the doll's owner could make their doll whatever they wanted.  Unsurprisingly, I think the boy dolls are awfully cute, especially since some of 'em have freckles.  There were....I think two ethnicities...no, Tam reports three:  black, white, and Hispanic.  The head molds varied a bit; there was Sleepy Real Baby, Wide-Eyed Real Baby, and apparently just plain Real Baby.  My Geneva is open-eyed and open-mouthed, and I presume that she's the Wide-Eyed variant.

Other little dolls had laughing mouths or closed smiles, or even serious expressions on their faces.  Sleepy Real Baby had closed eyes, and I don't like those much because they look kinda, sorta dead.  I think all of them had applied hair.  Not rooted or wigged, mind y'all, but applied.  As in, applied with glue.  You'd never be able to tell it from looking, though!

Baby blonde!  I've also seen darker blonde shades, a few brunettes, and a handful of redheads.  Regardless of hair color the dolls with applied hair can lose their hair as time passes; indeed, the handful of bald Real Babies I've seen had glue marks, suggesting that they did at one time have hair.  Just thought I'd throw that out there.  Geneva's hair is much more neatly applied than my M&M's doll's hair was, by the way.  Just let that sink in:  a mass-produced doll has neater hair than a doll that's meant to be a collectible.  As a recap, here's Red's hair.  You can see the glue in places.

I wasn't too impressed with Red anyway.  In addition to having crummy hair, his onesie stained him badly.  I'm not too impressed with Ashton-Drake dolls in general; I like Delilah Noir okay, but she too came with some issues that AD could've rectified.

Moving along now.  I can't get over Geneva's eyes!  They're blue, but they're very, very dark.

There's a baby that comes into the library with his family, and he's...oh, by now I think he's about three months old.  He has blue eyes, but they're a very dark, almost hypnotic shade like Geneva's are.  I took note of that because...oh, I don't know much about babies, but isn't it unusual for them to have eyes that are that dark a shade of blue, especially that young?  I know babies and children have eyes that can turn colors as they age, but usually if they're born dark they stay dark.  Or DO they?  Y'all always set me straight when I'm grossly mistaken, so if I'm wrong, please let me know.  Either way I like Geneva's eyes because they remind me of someone I know.  Said baby is super-little, like I said above, but I'll hopefully get to watch him grow.

One thing I DON'T like about Geneva is that she can't suck her thumb.  She looks like she can, but her arm won't stay unless I hold it.

I've NEVER owned a baby doll that can suck its thumb!  Not without help, anyway; Geneva can, but as I said I have to hold her arm in place.  Adam is the same way.

Oh, it's not a huge deal, really.  I just think it's cute when little kids suck their thumbs.  My sister used to fall asleep with her thumb in her mouth, and I probably did too!  Indeed, I was such an ardent thumb-sucker that when my teeth grew in I wore a blister on my knuckle and had to stop.  Seriously, I remember that!  I remember wondering why my gums weren't smooth anymore, why there were these obnoxious little white things in my way, why there were marks on my thumb after a thumb-sucking session, why my thumb suddenly hurt after said thumb-sucking session!  Eventually my baby brain put the pieces together, but not before I had a big, green blister on my knuckle that Daddy had to lance with an X-ACTO knife.  That part was SCARY, but I don't remember the procedure hurting.  Yep, as big and strong as Daddy was, his huge hands could do delicate work like painting tiny figurines and lancing his baby daughter's blister without making the wound worse.  Sure, the lanced blister looked ugly for a couple days, but it healed and my thumb was no worse for wear.  Don't ask me how or why I remember all that, by the way, because I genuinely do not know.  But I remember it, and despite that I still love it when baby dolls can suck their thumbs.  One day I'll have one that can...

Another thing I don't like about these dolls in general is that their faces can fade.  See Geneva's fade marks?  For some weird reason they're the worst around the creases on her eyes and cheeks.

This is not unique to Geneva, kinda like fading eyes wasn't unique to my particular My Twinn doll.  I don't like that Geneva is fading, but I knew she was fading when I told Tam I wanted her, so I knew what I was getting into and I can live with it.  Besides, it's not like Geneva's eyes turned grape juice-colored like my My Twinn doll's eyes did!  If push comes to shove I can cover those fade marks with a dab of my makeup...or is that safe for dolls?

One thing I do love about Geneva in particular is that her hands are a little bit curled, just enuff to accommodate my finger.

Again, I love it when babies grab onto my fingers.  One time a baby cousin even grabbed my hand and tried to put it in his mouth!  I cooed and awwwed and acted like a complete idiot, and then Mama made me take my hand away because of the old classic:  it had germs on it.  LOL, but I love it when babies grab fingers, and I love it that Geneva can at least look like she's doing that.  This winter I'll talk about two dolls that actually can grab fingers.

Geneva is a big baby, made of stuffed fabric with a head and limbs that are very heavy vinyl.  Tam says that she weighs three pounds, and I've seen other sources that back that up.  Thus Geneva is heavy enuff to be an armful for me, and a friend on Failbook noted that her daughter couldn't even carry her Real Baby because of what she weighed.  Being a Real Baby, it would make sense that Geneva and her brothers and sisters would be weighted like real live babies, and this includes up top.  Geneva's neck is very loosely stuffed, so she often lolls over like so.

When I carry her I brace her head so she doesn't smash into anything or compact her stuffing further.  Or I carry her close to my shoulder, like mamas and daddies do with real babies.

Regarding clothes, Geneva is almost all-original; when Tam had her she was missing a sock and a shoe, so nine times out of ten I leave Geneva barefoot when she's in her original outfit.  Geneva was also wearing a real diaper, but the first time I changed her dress the diaper fell off, so she's missing that as well.  But other than that her stock outfit is perfect!  She came in what Mama would call a "bubble butt dress" and a matching bonnet.  I think this may have been one of the more popular outfits, because there are a lot of dolls out there in yellow.

The bonnet needs a gentle wash, but that's all.  LOL, the bubble butt dress makes me giggle a little, as both my sister and I had one when we were little.  It was the same one; Mama and Daddy didn't start giving clothes away until my sister was about three.  Our dress was bright yellow with white polka dots, and it looked amazing with my sister's dark hair.  It probably looked halfway decent on me too since I also had dark hair, but that's one memory that did not stick with me.  Anyway, Geneva is big enuff that she could wear real baby clothes, but for now I'm sticking to dolly clothes.  I got two of the outfits that Hasbro released (one lavender and one pink), and one homemade dress from MamaPsCrafts.  Y'all got a glimpse of that last one in the Temu baby's post, and a better look in this post.  But since I'm a glutton for punishment, here's Geneva modelling the lavender outfit.

I love lavender on babies!  Usually pink is the color of choice for girl babies and girl baby dolls, so this lavender getup is a pleasant change.  That being said, Geneva's other Hasbro dress is pink, and super-cute at that.

This one came with a hat and a bib!  Always a must-have for a baby or a baby doll...or a dog.  I had a friend once whose dog wore a bib, LOL.

The bib was sold separately, if the eBay listings are any indication.  Here's how it looks with Geneva's pink dress.

The bibs my sister and I had were NEVER this fancy!  Since bibs are meant to protect the baby's clothes and chest from food splatters, our bibs were made of cotton or terry cloth or something that washed easily and didn't stain.  There sure as heck wasn't any lace, LOL!  But Geneva is a doll and doesn't eat, so her bib can have lace on it.  I also want to point out these little socks, as they're open-work knitting.

I've not yet tried my hand at knitting socks, but I have done basic lace and it's...not as hard as it sounds.  Anyway, despite my resistance to pink doll clothes, I have to admit that I like the pink outfit a lot.  Etsy shop where I got those was MADDOG1313DIECAST, and they specialize in die-cast cars (in-package, if any of y'all like those), though they have some vintage doll stuff too.  Spoiler alert, I've got a Cabbage Patch Kid coming from there.

As for the Sylvester and Tweety Bird dress, I'll just show y'all that again and be done with it.

It has little bloomers underneath, which is greatly appreciated.  I always appreciate things to cover a dolly's nether region, especially since Geneva's diaper fell off.

Tam has sent me a great many nice dolls during our friendship, and while I love them all (especially quirky Elmyra and joyous Adam) I think Geneva is my favorite.  I don't know why, but I'm very fond of her.  She's a well-constructed doll with a nice heft to her, and unlike poor Aimee it's easy to find clothes and accessories for her.  I couldn't be happier with this doll.  I will admit though that I asked for her on a whim.  Her little face, fade marks and all, appealed to me and I told Tam "I'm interested in this doll."  I regret nothing; Geneva is oodles of fun to own.  However, I will admit that I'm sorely tempted to find a friend for her.  LOL, I don't need another Real Baby, but the smiling redhead that I saw on eBay sure is cute.  No, Moon Girl, you don't need another big baby!

And to Tam, if you could please shoot me an e-mail with your address I'd greatly appreciate it.  To quote a gal on Bridezillas, I got sumpthin' fo' ya!

Love,
RagingMoon1987