Time to gripe: THREE HUNDRED BUCKS???

Hola, compadres, it's RagingMoon1987 once again.  I'm still not feeling 100% depression-wise, but I'm feeling well enuff to do a gripe post.  With Barbie and American Girl both being Mattel entities now it makes sense that one day the two would cross paths.  They sorta did in Julie Albright's collection, with Julie's Quick Curl Barbie styling head, but as far as I know that was it.  Courtney, Nicki, and Isabel don't have Barbie dolls in their collections, though Courtney does have Molly.  So, fast-forward to the present day, and American Girl has this.  A simply dressed, flaxen-haired American Girl with specialized face paint and painted nails, wearing naught but a bathing suit and shoes.  The price tag?  Three hundred bucks.

Granted, the cost probably comes from the doll having Swarovski crystals attached to her clothes and having the Swarovski name attached to her, period.  But THREE HUNDRED BUCKS for a doll in a swimsuit???  No thanks.  For me the FAO Schwarz doll was a better buy, as she came in a full outfit.  But that's just me, and I didn't buy her either.  If I were gonna spend that kind of money on a collector AG doll, it would've been this one, because she has an eye color and a wig that the other dolls don't have.

That one offers more bang for one's buck, I believe.  AND she was twenty-five dollars cheaper than the Barbie-themed doll.

I like the Barbie/American Girl mashup, but I think AG could've done that better.  They could've put AG Barbie in a dress like one of the ones Barbie wore in the fifties or sixties; "Solo in the Spotlight" would've been perfect.  That dress had sparkles that could've been simulated by the Swarovski crystals, and everyone would've been happyish.  I will admit that I love the nod towards the original Barbie doll, but for a doll in a swimsuit three hundred dollars is too much.  I could throw my Rita Cheryl in a similar swimsuit, sew on some nice crystals, and have a doll with the same aesthetic for twenty to thirty bucks...but then again, she wouldn't have the Swarovski label attached to her.  Some folks like that kinda thing.

Oh, and if you fancy more Barbie (or a good laugh), check out Larvie the Teen Age Fashion Maggot.  She's a scream!

Sparkles,
RagingMoon1987

Random post about cute stuff

My mental state is a little bit better today, and because my fluff posts tend to do well...here's a fluff post.  During a few browsing sessions I found some little dollies that attracted my attention.  Some of 'em are old, some of 'em are not so old, and a couple I remember from my little kid days.  Because both space and money are an issue ATM, I won't be buying or reviewing these, but I want to comment on them.  I apologize for the quality of the images; all the pictures I could find online were auction pictures on eBay and Etsy, so y'all get crummy screenshots of commercials I saw on YouTube.  All apologies.

NAME:  Little Miss Echo

COMPANY:  American Doll and Toy Company

YEAR OF PRODUCTION:  1962-1963

WHAT I THOUGHT OF HER THEN:  Wasn't around then.  My mom was eleven, LOL.

WHAT I THINK OF HER NOW:  That's a strange name for a doll, but a wicked cool idea.

OTHER COMMENTARY:  At thirty inches tall, Little Miss Echo wasn't so little!  This one was a talker, but instead of having prerecorded phrases the owner could teach her whatever.  Hmmm...I wonder if that means she could be taught to cuss!  LOL, Little Miss Echo appears to be an obscure doll, but I was able to learn that she has a thirty-second tape recorder inside her that allows one to "teach" her what to say.  That means that yes, she can be taught to cuss!  Maybe in the future I'll grub her up just for that!  Unfortunately Little Miss Echo wasn't a huge hit, and I'm willing to bet that she was expensive to produce as well.  Kinda like that Bonanza-themed chuckwagon that eventually spelled the company's doom.  Either way Little Miss Echo was a interesting concept, not unlike some toys I had when I was a kid.

NAME:  Sweet Licks

COMPANY:  Mego

YEAR OF PRODUCTION:  1979

WHAT I THOUGHT OF HER THEN:  I wasn't alive then, LOL.

WHAT I THINK OF HER NOW:  Deja vu!  I thought My Lickety Treats was an original concept, but was I wrong!
OTHER COMMENTARY:  I definitely would've discussed this doll during Emily's review had I known she existed then.  Sweet Licks had the exact same concept, only her tongue moved when you squeezed her tummy gently.  The commercial went a little further than that, stating that this little goober could lick your face.  While that SOUNDS weird, I know from personal experience that kids do do that!  I did it just to drive my mom nuts, LOL.  Otherwise Sweet Licks appears to be a rag doll, with not even the vinyl limbs that my Emily has.  She's cute, but kinda goofy too.  Likely if I'd reviewed her I'd have included "WTF" in the tags.  Sweet Licks is wicked cute, though.  I love dolls that have a lot of personality, and she's got it.  Yeah, baby, she's got it!  LOL, next doll!

NAME:  Telephone Tammy

COMPANY:  Mattel

YEAR OF PRODUCTION:  1994

WHAT I THOUGHT OF HER THEN:  Don't remember her. 

WHAT I THINK OF HER NOW:  How nineties can a doll get???
OTHER COMMENTARY:  I reiterate, how nineties can a doll get???  The hats that the little girls wear look hauntingly like the ones that Truly Me dolls wore around that same time.  Also, stereotypical little girls apparently talked on the telephone a lot back then.  Goodness knows my sister and I didn't (our phone bill was a bit of a concern), but I knew a lot of little girls who did.  They did in cartoons, they did in some of the games, and Telephone Tammy wasn't the only doll to chatter on the phone (I loved Phone Fun Skipper, LOL).  Granted, Phone Fun Skipper didn't actually "talk" on the phone like Tammy did.  Tammy actually does "talk" to a certain extent, in that her mouth moves as her voice mech runs, in a manner similar to Playmantes dolls Amazing Ally, Amazing Maddie, and Amazing Allysen.  The other "Amazing" girl, Amy, did NOT have a moving mouth.  Other Mattel dolls also have moving mouths, but Teenie Talk and Baby See 'n' Say are WAYYYY older than Telephone Tammy is.  Just the same, Telephone Tammy would've fit in nicely with my post about talking dolls.  Interestingly though, when one gets a full look at Tammy one can see that she's got curved baby legs, kinda like a Baby Alive doll or like my last Paola Reina doll.  Usually kids that are that small aren't talking on the phone in full sentences...unless Tammy is just bow-legged as all get out.  There's a little kid in my neighborhood who's like that.  

NAME:  Emily

COMPANY:  Horsman

YEAR OF PRODUCTION:  1997

WHAT I THOUGHT OF HER THEN:  Had no idea she existed. 

WHAT I THINK OF HER NOW:  A cute doll with production issues. 

OTHER COMMENTARY:  Emily was actually a cute little doll, one that could be found in stores.  I think she was American Girl competition, but as y'all can see in the image above her eyes were very bad about changing color.  My My Twinn's eyes turned grape juice-colored, but Emily's demonic red eyes are far freakier.  Later models had painted eyes and were also attractive, but poor Emily didn't stick around long after that.  Too bad, because she was cute.

NAME:  Pretty Love Lashes

COMPANY:  Toys R Us, and whoever made toys for them

YEAR OF PRODUCTION:  1998

WHAT I THOUGHT OF HER THEN:  Okay, that's a weird one.  And her eyelashes are crazy!

WHAT I THINK OF HER NOW:  Admittedly I'd never heard of butterfly kisses as a kid, so Pretty Love Lashes's gimmick was lost on me.  It makes sense to me now, but I still think this one is kinda strange.
OTHER COMMENTARY:  I was a beginning doll collector around this time, and this was the first time I realized that not all dolls were equal.  Back then I thought they were all worth collecting, but the commercial made it obvious that Pretty Love Lashes, with her cartoonish eyes and odd gimmick, was a toy.  Even now I can't help thinking "Butterfly kisses?  Why not just real kisses, like Mama's old Kissy doll?"  I also wonder why this doll wasn't just named "Butterfly Kisses"?  It would've been a better name than "Pretty Love Lashes"!  Just the same this one is an interesting little doll, one that would make an interesting addition to a collection...if she weren't a stinkin' toy!

NAME:  Skateboard Shannen

COMPANY:  Tyco, which was a division of Mattel by then
YEAR OF PRODUCTION:  1998
WHAT I THOUGHT OF HER THEN:  My exact words were "Oooh, she's cool!"
WHAT I THINK OF HER NOW:  I still think she's cool!
OTHER COMMENTARY:  Remonte control-operated Skateboard Shannen is the doll that I'll always associate with my sixth grade teacher.  Right before Christmas in 1999 our teacher asked us all what we wanted for Christmas.  The conversation went as follows:

MRS. B:  What do you want for Christmas, Moon?
ME:  I want an American Girl doll.
CLASS BULLY:  Awww, she wants a doll at her age, the baby!
MRS. B (ticked):  Alright, Bully.  My daughter C is older than all of y'all, and do you know what she wants???
CLASS BULLY:  ...what?
MRS. B:  A Skateboard Shannen doll!
CLASS BULLY:  <humbled silence>
ME <grinning>:  Oooh, she's cool!  Is C gonna get her?
MRS. B:  I got her in the trunk of the car!

Take that, class bully, you fat prick!  He had a sad home life so I should be more compassionate, but he was still a fat prick.  I'm only slandering his weight because he had the nerve to call ME fat, the little pot-calling-the-kettle-black jerk.  Mrs. B's daughter was in eighth grade, so her wanting a doll was a tremendous comfort to me.  Anyway, Skateboard Shannen hails from a time when skateboarding was still kinda a boy's thing.  Tony Hawk was the name of the game in those days, but girls and young women were steadily taking up the sport as well.  Shannen was a good way to introduce girls to the sport, as she could do a few simple tricks if the controller so chose.  She also had a pretty little face, so she was kinda the best of both worlds.  A doll that did something, AND a doll that was cute.  Unlike the other dolls listed above, I have considered buying Skateboard Shannen at one time or another, but I talk myself out of it.  It's that old aversion to battery-operated toys that I discussed when I reviewed Bouncin' Babies.

NAME:  Shining Stars

COMPANY:  Mattel
YEAR OF PRODUCTION:  2001-2002
WHAT I THOUGHT OF THEM THEN:  Hey, glow-in-the-dark stuff!
WHAT I THINK OF THEM NOW:  Hey, they've got cute faces to go with the glow-in-the-dark stuff!
OTHER COMMENTARY:  Glow-in-the-dark parts?  Star-shaped snuggler that allowed for cuddling and carrying?  One of the colors was yellow?  STARS?  Yes, please!  LOL, I was fourteen by the time these came around, and while I did think they were cute I had several American Girls AND vintage dolls owned by my mother and my aunt, so I just said "Shining Stars are cute" and went on with my life.  Indeed, there's not much to the dolls themselves.  They're cute little baby dolls with rooted, brushable hair and baby bottles that glowed, and they travelled in the aforementioned snugglers that were awfully cute, but that was about it.  Oh yeah, the dolls also invited kids to study the stars on their own, and to pick out their own star and name it.  Yeah...I'm pretty sure that any star you find in the sky has a name of its own, but it's still a cute idea.  The glowing bottle freaked me out a little though, because at fourteen I already knew there'd been a time where people drank radium water for their health.  Y'all can probably figure out how well THAT went!  Edit, 11/25/2023:  Tam kindly allowed me to use one of her pictures.  See how cute these dolls are?

I think I need one of these now, LOL.  Tam's full post can be found HERE.  If you scroll down to the comments, you can see that I left two comments...and one of 'em said I'd never heard of these before!  That turned out to be a fib, as I remembered these when I saw the commercial on YouTube.

NAME:  My Friend Cayla

COMPANY:  Genesis Toys
YEAR OF PRODUCTION:  2014-2017
WHAT I THOUGHT OF HER THEN:  Wasn't aware she existed.
WHAT I THINK OF HER NOW:  Not the prettiest thing in the world.
OTHER COMMENTARY:  My Friend Cayla was a talking doll that could interact with her owner kinda like Julie did back in the 1980s, but being a product of the past decade meant that she was more hi-tech.  She utilized some sort of Bluetooth mech that allowed her to talk to her owner and semi-personalize the conversation.  Pretty cool, right?  Unfortunately her technology proved very easy to hack, and there were rumors that the voices of the dolls' owners were stored in some big database, and there were whispers of espionage crap and...well, to quote my dad, it was a mess!  Countries started banning the doll due to said whispers of spies, and eventually poor Cayla ended up being pulled from store shelves.  She still can be found on Mercari for reasonable prices, though.  I personally think the poor little thing is kinda homely, and her voice is a monotone kinda like M3GAN's.

There was also a baby doll I read about earlier in the year, one where you bought the doll, called some lady on the phone, and told the lady your doll's name.  Or something like that.  My brain partially melted during the summer so I don't remember further back than early June (LOL).  But if I  can remember that doll's name I'll talk about her.  It was yet another interesting gimmick that made an otherwise ordinary doll original.  So how about the rest of y'all?  Do remember any of these?  Did y'all own or want any of 'em?  Discuss.

Much love,

RagingMoon1987 

Gonna hitch a ride...

The older I get the more depressing Thanksgiving is.  When I was young the dining room table was bursting at the seams.  At our biggest gathering there was...hmm...my maternal grandparents, both my uncles, Mama, Daddy, my sister and me, my grouchy great-aunt who loved dolls, and my aunt on my daddy's side.  <pauses to count>  That's ten of us, enuff that Aunt on Daddy's Side, Sister, and I all had to sit at the card table.  During meal prep Uncle from St. Louis took us kids over to the school playground to keep us out of the kitchen, and true to stereotypical fashion the women cooked and the men did nothing.  But it was a good Thanksgiving, warm and filled with love and delicious food.  Nowadays with a lot of the adults being deceased and us kids being grown, well...y'know.  Sister, Brother-in-Law, and Uncle From St. Louis all elected not to battle the traffic and the weather, so this year it's Mama, Uncle Man-Child, and me.  Mama and I did all the cooking and all the cleaning, while Uncle Man-Child sat on his a$$, asked stupid questions, and told stupid half-truths about himself.  I couldn't say a word to Mama, even in a whisper, without him demanding to be included in the conversation.  And this guy is a few years shy of seventy!  You'd think he was still thirteen!  I suggested to Mama that we just skip Thanksgiving this year, but she wouldn't hear of it, so here we are.  Add to that the fact that I had to bury another cat this past weekend, and you've got one sad Moon Girl. 

Yep, another cat.  Week before last it was Lola, and last weekend it was Edgar, one of my mom's cats.  Edgar was solid black, and that earned him the name "Edgar," after Edgar Allan Poe.  My aunt found him at the bank when he was just a kitten, and he was a knucklehead from the word "go."  Before he was a year old he'd swan-dived off our kitchen table and broken his foot, and we had to doctor him through that.  Three weeks in a cast and in a cage, three more without the cast but still in a cage...I don't know who hated it more, him or us!  The foot healed at a slight angle and Edgar limped on it a tiny bit, but he didn't let it slow him down.  He lived to be twelve, insisted on going outside a lot even if it was raining, and last Friday night it apparently caught up with him.  I found him the next morning in a neighbor's yard.  He didn't have an outward mark on him, no blood or cuts or anything, but his spine was twisted in a way that spines are not supposed to twist, and his pelvic area was flattened a bit.  Based on that I believe that he was hit by a car and managed to drag himself out of the road before dying.  Sigh...we knew that was a possibility when he went outside, but if you've ever owned a cat then you know how difficult it can be to keep them inside.  Mama's other two cats couldn't care less about going out, but Edgar had to be the oddball.  He was always the oddball, the one who liked to run around like a wild ape, the one who wanted to be the first to the food, the one who liked to lie on his back so the sun could warm his belly.  I have a picture of him doing that.

He loved the sun.  That may have been the reason why he liked going outside; when the A/C ran in the summertime it would get cold in the house, so he went where it was warm.  Then going outside became a habit, and that was that.  We see how it ended, but thank God, I at least know what happened to him and I was able to bury him properly.  He didn't disappear into thin air like a friend's cat did recently.  But it still hurt.

All that has culminated in me being unusually depressed, and unlike times in the past I can't seem to shake it.  Even playing with my dolls has brought me little pleasure, but I do it anyway.  As always, my doll is Rita Cheryl, and today she is...decidedly oddly dressed, much more so than she was last Thanksgiving.

Pandas, Boston and Doctor Who.  What a combo.  Anyway, it's warmer today than it was at the beginning of the week, so Rita Cheryl did a little traipsing around in Grandma's backyard.  She isn't as young as Camille and thus didn't dream up a ton of imaginary games, but she did find a nice hiding place.

She also found a nice pinecone.  Dern thing was sharp, though!

I will admit that while Thanksgiving leaves me feeling melancholy, it's still a helluva lot better than this past summer, when things were so cotton-pickin' hot.  Probably by the time April rolls around I'll be longing for thunderstorms, LOL.  Right now I'm just tired and overwhelmed.  I'm ready for the mold to be gone from my house, ready for the water to be back on at Mama's, ready for spring...time for a nap!  Don't wait up!

Love, 

RagingMoon1987 

Minikane/Paola Reina Imani review

Sigh...the Moon Girl has been a sad Moon Girl lately.  Mama and I are still away from home (both our places are gonna need some renovations), so I'm away from my animals.  Oh, I go in twice a day to feed them and spend time with them, but I haven't been able to snuggle with them in bed and I miss that.  Then last week Lola, one of my cats, grew a tumor the size of a golf ball in her belly and had to be put to sleep.  She went from being mildly chonky and bouncing around to skin-and-bones and lethargic in a week and a half, so losing her was quite the shock.  We haven't heard from my sister since September, and I personally am getting sick to death of that.  Mama ended up signing her life away to pay bills.  And at the moment it looks like it'll just be me, Mama, and Uncle Man-Child for Thanksgiving.  So I've been...oh, I'll say mildly depressed.  Not enuff to spend my life in bed, but just kinda sulky and pouty and "oh, leave me the f@%k alone."  So being the escapist that I am I've turned to my dolls for comfort.  After reviewing Abigail and Mar, I think it's only fair to review Imani, the baby of the Paola Reina bunch.  Like my other Paola Reina girls, "Imani" is the name she came with.  It's an Arabic name that means "belief" or "faith," and it makes me think of David Bowie's wife (LOL).

I've had Imani quite awhile and she's been in and out of the blog more than once.  She's interesting in that she's created by Spanish toy company Paola Reina, but she's distributed by Minikane, whom I think is a French bunch.  As a result Imani and her Minikane cronies can't be found on Paola Reina's official website, but they can be found on secondary sites like eBay and Etsy.  These Minikane babies come in their birthday suits, and as such it's our job to dress them, kinda like it is when we actually give birth.  The Minikane bunch is a lovely, racially diverse lot with both boys and girls, and word of warning:  the dolls are all anatomically correct.  Being thirty-six, this doesn't bother me much, but it might bother some of the more lily-white people in this world.  Anyway, the Minikane lineup includes boys and girls, with hair and without, in black, white, and Oriental tones.  Imani stood out because she's dark-skinned with bluish-gray eyes, kinda like Sayuri in Memoirs of a Geisha.  I'll show y'all those when the time comes, but size comes first.  Imani is thirteen inches from head to toe.  When seated she's close in size to my old booty call, So Surprised Suzie.

Mar and Imani are WAAAAY out of scale. 

Most of the Minikane babies have a lot of hair, probably more than babies their presumed age should, and Imani is no exception.  She has a full head of curly black hair.

The gap pictured above is the result of me trying to find/make a gap!  It was not easy, but I was finally able to dig through and find the rooting.  The rooting is pretty good, with plugs that are thick and tightly spaced.  The fibers are curly and feel surprisingly natural, though they do have that synthetic feel that all synthetic hair has.  You can't avoid that.

It should be noted that not all of these Minikane babies have this much hair.  Some of 'em have it short and molded, and that's fine too.  Indeed, I kinda prefer molded hair on baby dolls, since young babies tend to have thin, wispy hair or no hair at all...unless they're like my sister and me, LOL!

Eyes are going to be of some importance in the weeks ahead, as the dolls I'm fixing to review have very pretty eyes.  But then again, Paola Reina eyes tend to be pretty as well.  Some Minikane dolls have sleep eyes and/or big smiles, but Imani's eyes are fixed and her expression is neutral-happy.

Here's those eyes I was tellin' y'all about.  I don't have too many dolls with eyes this color; they're either unquestionably blue or unapologetically gray.  Imani's eyes are right in the middle.

They're ever so slightly metallic in appearance, just like Abigail Witch's eyes are...

...and like Mar's eyes aren't.

Last week I gave Mar a hard time about her eyebrows, but Abigail's are even darker than Mar's are, AND they still look kinda cheap.  Imani doesn't have any eyebrows at all!  Pardon the eternally present dust.

Babies tend to have wispy, faint eyebrows, so I'll let Imani's lack thereof slide.  Like most Paola Reina dolls Imani has big lips that are both detailed and painted a lovely color.  When I complain about Barbie and her bubblegum lips, this is usually what I have pictured.

Oh yeah, Imani's cheeks are also blushed a little.  Kinda fitting for the weather we've been having lately:  mild, but with a fairly sharp breeze.  Anywho, I'm not gonna lie, I don't like Imani's face as much as I like Mar's or Abigail's, but it's very nicely painted and has just the right expression for a young child.  And as I insinuated heavily above, I love Imani's eyes.

Off with the clothes now, and here's where things get a little fun.  Minikane dolls are anatomically correct.  It's not a huge deal; indeed I kinda like it when baby dolls are anatomically correct, but that can make it a little awkward when one reviews a doll on a blog (LOL).  Interestingly, even though Imani is all-vinyl she is not a drink-and-wet doll.  She probably could've been, but Paola Reina elected not to go that way and Imani is probably better off because of it.  Drink-and-wet dolls can run afoul of mold if they've got water in them often enuff.  Anyway, here's the usual front/back/side stuff.

It probably goes with out saying that Imani cannot stand.  Few of my baby dolls can.  Like Mar and Abigail, Imani has five joints that rotate but do not pivot.  She can turn her head to look at me...

...she can wave and reach...

...and she can kick her feet.

As y'all saw, she's also very good at sitting.  Regarding molding, Imani has more to see than Mar and Abigail did.  Indeed, if she were a boy doll I'd say she's got moobs, LOL!  Oh well, lots of babies have moobs whether they're boys or not, LOL.  At least Imani isn't a shar-pei baby.

The backs of her elbows look like they're smiling.

Imani has appropriately chonky little hands, with thick, short fingers and creases on the knuckles and at the wrists.

Imani's palms have more definition than Mar's and Abigail's do, complete with suggestions of head and heart lines.

Being a baby means that Imani has curved (bowed?) legs and can't stand on her own, but her legs make up for it with more nice molding.

Since Imani's feet are not designed for balance she's got decent molding here too.

That's a pretty fine little foot!  I think her little toes are funny, though.  They're round like little grapes, and they remind me of the scene from Superfudge where bratty Fudge Hatcher tries to pull his baby sister's toes off.  I don't understand why Fudge's parents don't just bust his a$$, by the way.  My sister and I NEVER would've gotten away with some of the shenanigans that little pistol pulled.  Spankings aside, Imani came in her birthday suit, so it was up to me to dress her, and spoiler alert:  she's been wearing this same outfit for about a year now.  It was closing in on winter when I bought these items, and now it's closing in again.  That said, I wasn't expecting to unpeel Imani like an onion.  Her sleep sack, cardigan, and hat are visible, but under that she's got more pieces!

<sings off-key>  I feel winter creepin' in/I'm tired of this town again, yeah...wait a minute, that's summer that's supposed to be creepin' in.  They BOTH tend to creep in, and I tend to get tired of both seasons very quickly, but with the right clothes winter is tolerable.  Imani will demonstrate.  Here's the cardigan set; it's made of soft gold yarn and has one of my favorite stitches, the bobble stitch.

Or maybe that's the popcorn stitch.  Either way I love the way it looks.  The buttons thread into actual buttonholes, and I like that too since so many buttons on doll clothes are decorative only.  I think these buttons are wood, but I'm not sure. 

Since I bought the cardigan set I didn't want something else to cram over Imani's arms.  At the same time I DID want something to layer over her legs, and this sleep sack fit the bill perfectly.  It's reversible, though I like the the purple the best.

Of all the little garments that I've bundled onto Imani, this is the only item I've got that is tagged.  Notice that the straps also snap together.  They're plastic snaps, but they hold up nicely.

I kid y'all not, I dressed Imani immediately after I got her and I haven't changed or undressed her since.  As a result I completely forgot that she had this little hedgehog sleeper underneath the sack and cardigan.  

A year under wraps has left this pretty wrinkled, but I can fix that.  The neck stretches, but getting it over Imani's stiff little arms is a challenge.  All the more reason to leave it on her for an extended period. 

Underneath it all Imani has a lemon-printed diaper.  This fastens at the sides with Velcro. 

Diapers don't sound very exciting, but I'm always excited when my baby dolls get one to wear.  Baby dolls kinda NEED that sort of thing, and since they don't mess themselves it's okay to put them in something cute.

All the items pictured above are from various shops on Etsy (I've long since forgotten which ones), and they're all impeccably sewn.  Minikane dolls can wear specially made clothes that are sold on Etsy, and also stuff from Paola Reina.  They can also wear Waldorf clothes if the size is right; my Zlata is a bit too big to share clothes with Imani, but a slightly smaller Waldorf doll could share with no problems.

Since I'm biased towards Paola Reina dolls anyway I'm just gonna skip my usual good/bad spiel.  I like Imani.  Not as much as I do Mar, because I prefer fashion dolls to baby dolls, but I do like her.  She has all the good qualities of the brand, and admittedly a few of the bad (stilted posing).  I also appreciate how easy it is to find clothes; finding clothes for the other sizes isn't the simplest thing in the world.  So if you like baby dolls one of these sweet-smelling all-vinyl pets might do well in your nursery.  As I said above, they come in a wide variety of ethnicities and hair colors, and they come as both boys and girls.  Just be forewarned that they are anatomically correct, LOL.

Cheers,
RagingMoon1987

Dolly Dress Discussion: Bratz Boyz clothes

Beware, y'all.  It's another Bratz post.  LOL, I wanna talk about Cameron, my lone boy.

Cameron is kinda special, because he's the only boy doll I own in this "smaller than Barbie but still a fashion doll" category.  I think I said that once.  A special doll needs nice things to wear, but up until recently all I had for Cameron to wear were the outfits that he came with.  Both outfits are nice, with pieces for mixing, matching, and layering, but it's time for a change.  Two weeks ago I bought this lot off of Etsy.

If you look closely it's possible to see that NONE of these outfits are actually meant for Cameron.  I have three for Dylan, two for Koby, and one for Eitan.  This is significant because like the girl Bratz, the Boyz have varying skin tones and snap-on shoes.  Inevitably parts of these shoe-feet have skin showing, and if the outfit is put on a doll that it's not meant for those feet are gonna look funny.  This could've been avoided for the Boyz by painting on some socks, but I don't guess MGA thought of that.  Luckily for Cameron, all of these outfits have long pants and will thus cover his ankles.  Outta sight, outta mind.  

Before I begin I'll say that I never knew any boy during high school who was this sharp a dresser.  We were all working-to-middle class.  We either couldn't afford designer crap, or we owned it and didn't want to yuck it up with football practice or farm work or what-have-you.  Besides all that, the boys I knew were more into comfort than style, and if they did follow a style it was usually "macho."  Of course there's nothing wrong with wanting to look masculine or be comfortable, but when one of the boys did dress up we all took notice (usually it was for a job interview after school).  Cameron's wiki insinuates that he prefers to dress to attract the ladies, but that his preferred overall look is "sporty."  The wiki also states that Cameron likes leather jackets, so this first outfit ought to suit him.

One of Dylan's getups, "Chance Encounter!" incorporates the jacket, plus khakis (uh, khakis?) and some stuff that would flatter Dylan's dark coloring.  See the shirt?

Dylan's wiki doesn't outright say that he's black, but he was produced with a small Afro once, so I figure he's probably either Afro-American or biracial.  Either way he was the darker of the first two Boyz, and this orange would thus look amazing on him.  I hope Cameron will look okay too.

I ended up being mistaken when I said these pants were khakis.  Both they and the jacket are pleather.  This is problematic because pleather and time are not friends.  Cameron's man purse is pleather, and see how rough it looks?

I need to see what I can do to prevent further deterioration.  Anyway, Cameron's new jacket creates another problem, one that is fairly common to pleather or any sort of doll jacket.  His arms are restricted to a slightly-out-to-the-side position. 

I sometimes wear jackets that are like that too, Cameron.  It's a pain in the posterior.  Cameron looks okay in this outfit, but I doubt he'll wear it much.  It's stiff, and I worry about tearing those pants.  They fit pretty tight.

The next outfit is...dare I say it?  It's a suit!  "Dream Date!" was originally meant for Koby.

Koby is fair-skinned (possibly even more so than Cameron), and his style is also listed as "sporty."  I'm not sure how sporty a suit is, but I like the maroon with the gray.

This getup reminds me a lot of the suit Sandy McCall was wearing when I met him.  Cameron doesn't look much like Sandy, but we'll see how he looks in gray.

Those shoes don't do Cameron's feet any favors, but then all Bratz have big feet.  This outfit was ridiculously hard to get on Cameron.  The maroon shirt's sleeves are full-length, and they wanted to bunch up inside the sleeves of the jacket.  The cuffs are Velcroed, but that didn't want to hold so I had to fight with these sleeves to get them in place.  Then I had to tuck the shirt tail in.  The end result looks good, but overall it looks kinda mature for the sixteen-year-old that I presume Cameron is.

Rounding out the top row is another of Dylan's getups, "Phys Ed Funk!"

This one kinda had an analogous outfit in the girls' line, with "Just Do P.E.!"  Hmmm...those shoes don't look like athletic shoes.

Or they don't look like the ones I'm familiar with.  This outfit looks nice and comfortable for the class I hated most in high school.

Who in blue blazes works out in blue jeans???  Oh sure, I reckon it could be done, especially if the jeans are loose enuff, but I never did it, LOL.  I like this outfit better than the first two because I can actually picture a teenage boy wearing something like this.  It's stylish, but it also looks comfortable.  Plus, it can be worn with or without the jacket.  I like.

First getup on the bottom row now, this is the last of Dylan's outfits.  "Saturday Night Style!" is the name. 

S!  A!  T-U-R!  D-A-Y!  NIGHT!!!  LOL, I never can hear that song without picturing Mr. Peanut dancing wildly.  I dunno about y'all, but for me Saturday night is for staying in, popping open a bottle of Snapple, and catching up on some T.V., particularly if one has to be up early the next day.  I unfortunately haven't gone to church in years, but when I was younger one had to be washed, clean, and in bed by ten on a Saturday night.  If it was stormy we all went to bed even earlier, LOL.  But ANYWAY, this is another outfit that I could picture Dylan in; the print shirt underneath isn't as eye-catching as the orange shirt accompanying "Chance Encounter!," but it'll definitely do on the dance floor.  Plus, blue jeans!  Dig this belt buckle.

Belt buckles are great, but if one isn't careful they can be dangerous.  My parents told of an incident that occurred when they were dating.  While he was getting dressed, Daddy somehow popped himself in the mouth with his very heavy belt buckle.  He didn't lose any teeth, thank God, but he did a number on the soft tissue!  He and Mama went through with the date, and Mama told me things got interesting when one of Daddy's wounds opened up.  Hopefully Cameron will be more careful. 

I know from personal experience that blue jeans aren't always the easiest things to dance in, but then the only dances I can do are the Twist and the Drunken Giraffe (LOL).  Cameron looks to me like he can do a mean moonwalk.  Unlike the jackets with "Chance Encounter!" and "Dream Date!", these sleeves are big enuff to slide over the shirt with no fuss.  That said, the shirt itself was tough to put on due to loose ends inside the sleeves.  Still, I really like this outfit.  Hell, I'd have worn something like it myself once; I'm not opposed to wearing men's clothes from time to time.

Now...while Dylan is out stylin' on Saturday, Koby is feverin' on Friday.

Gotta fever of a hundred three!  If I had a fever that high I'd be hitting the doctor's office instead of the dating scene, but apparently that didn't occur to either Foreigner or Koby...or John Travolta either, but that's Saturday again.  The packaging for this no-frills outfit suggests that Friday nights are when these Boyz tend to chillax, and if that's the case then this is the perfect getup for chillaxing...except for pajamas, of course!

This outfit was the easiest one to put on so far.  The shirt has short sleeves, so I didn't have to cram the jacket onto Cameron's arms.  Everything is soft and comfy, again like something I'd have worn when I was a teenager.  I could also picture some of my guy friends wearing this, especially in spring or fall when evenings might be a teeny bit chilly.  

Quick aside now, since Ive made a few classic rock references.  If I toss Foreigner into my CD player, I usually go straight for "Juke Box Hero" or "Cold As Ice."  Never was a big fan of the song "Hot Blooded."  If y'all bother to click the links, look closely at "Cold As Ice"; I do believe one of those men is left-handed!  I know that some folks play their guitars left-handed even if they're not, usually to emulate Paul McCartney or Jimi Hendrix, but when that guy waves at the end of the video he waves with his left hand.  Pretty cool.  

Alrighty, music trivia, over, last outfit!  This is Eitan's getup, "School is Cool!"

School is coolest when you're loading up your backpack after last period.  You've got a full bladder and a full colon, but the bathrooms are full too, and sweet relief is only a two-minute car ride away.  So you bid your best friend adieu, whisper "You're a bitch" to the school bully, and go sauntering away like you're not about to mess yourself.  Best part of my school day, and yes, I always made my opinions on the school bully known, LOL.  Anyway, of the four initial boys Eitan's style is the most ambiguous.  His wiki lists him as such, also noting that he has a punky edge to him.  He is darker than Cameron and Koby, but lighter than Dylan, though that won't matter since Cameron's ankles don't show in ANY of these ensembles.  

I rest my case!  Once again MGA paired a long-sleeved shirt with a jacket, but I didn't have too hard a time getting the jacket in place.  No, the hard part here was getting the shirt on, because the cuffs of the sleeves were very tight.  Still, Cameron does indeed look like he's ready to head off to school, especially on a chilly day like today.  If one of my high school guy friends was feeling particularly dressy during the winter, he might've worn something like this.  I only knew one guy who did habitually dress like this, and he was the school heartthrob so it would make sense for him to be stylish.  Seriously, everyone loved that guy, all the girls (and probably one or two of the guys) had at least a little crush on him, and he was popular because he was nice to everyone, not just because he was attractive and well-dressed.  It CAN be done, kids!  Popularity can be achieved just by being kind, though it does depend on what the rest of the student body is like too.  Anyway, I like to pretend that Cameron is like my friend, kind to everyone AND a sharp dresser all in one.

With all that said, Cameron's wardrobe is full now!  "Friday Night Fever!" is my favorite outfit of the bunch due to its multiple pieces and its soft, comfortable look.  That kinda getup is the stuff that my friends would wear while relaxing (male and female alike).  Some of us would wear something like that to school to, particularly if it were during finals or if we weren't feeling too well.  "Dream Date!" is my least favorite, as threading Cameron's shirtsleeves through his jacket sleeves was a pain, and because the suit look doesn't really suit him (pun intended, LOL).  But I still like the suit enuff to put Cameron in it from time to time.  

God bless our veterans,
RagingMoon1987