So random, May-June '25

May and June were both kinda slim.  Since I use a walker to get around now I can't carry my dolls here and there like I used to.  I'm brainstorming a solution for that, but in the meantime I merged May and June this year.  We begin on May 3rd.  My Sasha family grew to three.

The black baby's name is Cara, according to multiple sources.  I would've thought she was Cora sized down, just as Sasha Baby is Sasha sized down, but she's not.  Cara is an entity all her own.  These Sasha babies could prove addictive, by the way, as they fit nicely into my hands and are just as high-quality as the big dolls, AND they have the same neutral expressions.  With my hip being sore and the number of loonies rising in my town, I've worn the same expression on my face lately, one that is blank but can convey irritation, ennui, impatience, frustration, or full-tilt outrage.  But then on the opposite end of the coin, it can also mask amusement.  What can I say, I have a resting bitch face, and to a certain extent, so do Sasha dolls.

May 5th.  I had a mondo backache and wanted nothing more than to lie down, but alas, I had to wait for FedEx to come (they needed my friggin' signature for something).  George and Anna kept me company. 

I think Anna was as tired of waiting as I was at that point.  Nothing bothers George.  The package did come, by the way, and the contents were...very special, shall we say!  As for these two, these two are the type that I'd like to take outside and photograph in a tree, in the grass, ANYWHERE, but right now I can't.  George and Anna give great hugs, though!

May 7th.  Macy arrived in the mail, as did Bubblecut Dawn's head, worn atop the body that Treesa sent.

Dawn was a little miffed that I photographed her without clothes, but I promised her she'd have something nice to wear soon, and in the time that's elapsed "soon" has come.

Etsy shop is LoriPalekDolls.

May 11th, memory from 2021.  I described her as Barbie on acid in the Failbook post.

I did buy this doll, by the way.  I named her Tano and intended to review her, but...well, you see one Barbie doll and you've pretty much seen 'em all.

May 18th.  The Binky Buddies.

From left, Ayla, Candela Laura, and Solana Sunburst.  I've said it before but I'll say it again:  I love it when a doll can take a pacifier.  I loved Cabbies with the #4 head before I was even a fan of the dolls themselves; a brief notice ran in an issue of Doll Reader showing a full-sized Kid in a diaper and booties, plus a pacifier.  The caption noted, "Although she wears a diaper and booties, she is a Kid."  She predated Preemies and was thus a full sixteen inches, but oh, was she cute!  She had blonde hair, just like Candela Laura does.

May 19th.  Candela Laura strikes a pose with another baby doll, Mary/Baby All Gone.  Mary probably could take a pacifier too, but Baby All Gone didn't have one.

This was the same night that Fayetteville got hit, by the way.  These two helped me keep my mind settled.

Same evening.  Not a doll, but something for one.

These belong to my new doll with the long legs and the watermelon outfit, the one that came on May 5th.  The green hat and the red hat are made of yarn that glows in the dark, and they glow very well.

May 22nd.  One of my Failbook groups asked for double pony Cabbage Patch Kids, so I acquiesced with these three.  From left, Valencia Rose, Valencia's Playmate Titania Rosalind, and Elisabeth Clara. 

I always will wonder why Cabbie fans call this 'do double ponies instead of pigtails or dog ears.  I've always heard dog ears from the older generation and pigtails from my own generation.  But Cabbie fans call these double ponies, and double ponies is what I'll go with.  

May 23rd.  Ernest John got something new in the mail. 

I love the elephant onesies!  And yes, those are my battleship hips he's sitting on, though Christa from Newfoundland pointed out that there's only room on each hip for one Cabbie.  She has a point, as at one time two could've fit on each hip.  Diets suck, but they're worth it in the end.  On this particular evening Mary was content to sit by me rather than on me, though she also spent part of the evening on my lap.  In addition to cuddling my dolls when life's a drag, I also cuddle 'em when life's good or just for the heckuvit.

I freaking love this doll, Treesa.  I don't know what it is about her, but I love her.

May 25th, dark and rainy with a fair amount of thunder.  We were half-expecting it to get violent again, but it didn't, thank God.  Even so, Ernest John and So Surprised Suzie got cozy.

Ernest John is my eternal ladies' man.  Girl dolls love him.  Suzie in turn loves baby dolls that are close to her in size or smaller, though she treats everyone she meets with a fair amount of enthusiasm.

May 27th.  Chatty Cathy got a clean bill of health after a long battle with mold.  To celebrate I put her in a dress she's never worn before. 

Those shoes look ridiculous IRL.  I need to find a Minnie Mouse costume for them.  Otherwise Cathy looks...well, about as good as a Chatty Cathy doll can.  I'm glad I didn't have to send her to a professional dolly doctor, though I may in the future anyway.  Her face is terribly pale, but I've read that that's kinda normal for these dolls.  Will you play with me???  LOL

May 28th.  Yet another new Cabbie came in the mail.  Malinda Irisa is her name, and November 1st is her birthday.  She is a neon Preemie. 

Neon Preemies have bodies that are a more vivid shade of pink than that of the average Cabbie.  I was actually looking for a Preemie with green eyes and the body didn't matter much, but Malinda had green eyes, the neon body, AND all her papers for fifty bucks.  Can't beat that with a stick!  

May 30th.  Someone online asked for a comparison between a neon Preemie and the regular one, so I obliged. 

Ernest John is your regular...actually, he's a little darker than your average Preemie, but his body is more or less the standard tan.  Malinda Irisa is very, very pink, pinker than your average Preemie.  That's all a neon Preemie is, but like Cabbies with popcorn hair some collectors go ga-ga over them.  For me the neon bit was just a nice bonus, as I was after a Caucasian #3 Preemie to complete the eye color triad.  Remember:  Caucasian Preemies with the #1 head have blue eyes, dolls with the #3 head have green eyes, and dolls with the #4 head have brown eyes.  Afro-American Preemies are brown-eyed, full stop, and no Preemie that I'm aware of used the #2 head.

June 3rd, as I was getting ready for work and humming "Ode to Billy Joe."  I noticed how cute my dolls looked all jumbled together, so here are some of my Cabbies and one American Girl. 

Back row, from left: Karen Sheila, Rowena Skylar, Gavin Andrew, and Julie. Front row from left: Alice Helene, Ernest John, Tabitha Renee, and Malinda Irisa.  Allie Kathleen's left arm can be seen sticking between Alice Helene and Karen Sheila.  Tabitha Renee looks like a TB patient, she's so pale, and Christa from Newfoundland thinks she looks high as well...which she kinda does!  I'm also noticing that FOUR of these dolls are redheads.  I love redheads, but I did NOT deliberately cluster them together.  It just kinda worked out that way.

Also pale is my new-to-me girl.

This is McGuffey Ana (pet name will be simply "Ana"), and she's a big girl!  She's about nineteen inches in height and is fully composition.  Heavens, it's been forever since I talked about compo on the blog!  The eBay seller suspects that Ana had some restoration work done, and indeed her composition is a little too perfect, and I found a repaired crack on her cheek.  But she's still wicked awesome, and that restoration work will add a few years to her life.  I've never owned a composition Madame Alexander doll before, by the way, and McGuffey Ana dates from the late thirties to early forties, so she's my oldest MA.  More information on McGuffey Ana can be found here.

June 5th.  I decided that I wanted to ID the cute baby doll that Setsu-P sent me last spring, so I brought him to work with me. 

Here he's peeping out of one of the pockets I have in the bag I hang on my walker.  The doll is a Little Mommy Mini, by the way; these are still in production and have cute little faces.

At the opposite end of the emotional spectrum is Chou Chou.  I'd worked on her review that evening and Chou had had about enuff.

Chou Chou reminds me of Tardar Sauce, even more so than Anita does.  She's not always this miserable though, even though she looks the part.  She's leaning against the box where my Dawn dolls live, by the way.  I've got quite a few of 'em now.

June 7th, 2018.  This was in my Failbook memories.

G1 Catty Noir, clad in a getup that probably belongs to Lagoona Blue. 

June 8th.  My resident sleepyheads, Hedda Get Bedda and Bedsie Beans.

I don't know why I leave Hedda's sleeping face out all the time, but I like her the best that way.

June 8th was the first nice day we'd had in almost a week, so Mama and I went out to eat.  I took a couple'a friends along.

That sun was BRIGHT that day!

Same day.  I was working on the Amooooore Doll review and got this candid of Xue. 

Xue could see Chou Chou, just out of the frame to the left, and Chou was in one of her moods.  Xue was afraid to approach her.

June 9th.  A familiar face steps out of the ether.

Alistair was tired after making the move from Casa Luna to Casa Pizarro, but he felt well enuff to wave to the crowd.  His state of dress gives y'all an idea about how long it's been since I played with him.

Twist 'n' Style Tiffany arrived in the mail that day, and I promptly posed her with Alexis/Pretty Crazy Curls.

Tiffany is a short little gal!  Alexis is about the size of a Wellie Wisher, and Tiffany is a couple'a inches shorter.

June 10th.  I got a second-wave Buried Secrets doll, and lemme tell y'all, the lids on that wave are pink.  I saw those and thought "Dang it, I got ANOTHER Draculaura."  But this isn't Draculaura, not by a long shot.

I didn't mind Cozy Creepover Draculaura's stiff body, but poor Frankie looks like they're terribly uncomfortable.  Their upper body looks like some spinal disorder, like scoliosis or worse.  I like Frankie's pink prosthetic leg, but the rest of this body...yucko, not a fan.  I understand now why fans hate polypropelene hair too, as Frankie's hair is stiff and difficult to control.  Look at Frankie's paint, though!

They've got a lovely face.  I was having trouble picking a G3 Frankie Stein, and then one just lands in my lap and they're...well, they've got a lovely face.  I wish these Buried Secrets bodies were jointed though, especially since G1 budget dolls were jointed.  Nevertheless I've become a fan of the Buried Secrets bunch, and I'm already excited for the third wave.  It looks like it's gonna be a masquerade theme.

That same evening I posed Stella Rae and Candela Laura together.

Stella Rae was still in a Christmas dress (in June!), so I...well, I fixed that!

June 13th.  My friend Donna presented me with this.

Her name is Emily, and she came from Kmart.

According to her tags she plays "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy."

June 16th.

Different eyes, different hair, different dolls.  From left, my usual Candela Laura, Martina, one of my equally-loved Furga dolls, and Vincent, one of my My Child dolls.

Same day, different doll.  Elisabeth Clara got a new dress.

Bumblebees?  Gnomes?  POLKA DOTS???  Yes, please!

June 20th, the first truly hot day of the year.  In past years we might've already had a few scorchers.  I wasn't sure where else in the blog to fit Li'l Imp, so she goes here.

Li'l Imp is from Vogue, like Ginny and like Brikette.  ATM I have neither the room nor the money for her sister Brikette, but Li'l Imp will suffice. 

I must say, Vogue didn't do red hair or green eyes half-cocked!

June 21st.  I took Li'l Imp to work with me and she was bushed.  

I think Imp and Vincent are both contenders for the title of "ultimate ginger."

June 26th.  We go from the ultimate ginger to sour apple green.

I warned y'all (and myself) that Mia could be hazardous to my wallet!  I have three now, and I'm sizing up the one with short blue and black hair too since she's a bit edgier than the others.

Well!  Combining two months proved to be a bigger job than I predicted!  I may have to do the same thing at the end of August, as I'm unsure what the next two months will bring.  I have an MRI scheduled for July 2nd, and until then I won't really know what my future will hold.  Hip surgery is inevitable at this point, but I still have no clue when it'll be.  Just gotta go about my routine until then!

Much love, 

RagingMoon1987 

Throwback Thursday review: Kenner Glamour Gals

Casa Pizarro's money woes continue.  On Monday the battery on Mama's car went blooey, and since the car had a few other issues Mama had them all fixed at once, which wasn't cheap.  We all (Mama, Uncle Man-Child, and me) chipped in to pay so we're all strapped for cash.  Good thing I've got reviews scheduled until August, yes?  These little dolls are two more that Treesa sent, but not in the same box as Violet.  Shara is the blonde, Loni is the brunette, and they are Kenner's Glamour Gals.  I was pretty tickled by these, as I'd never heard of the Glamour Gals before.  I can already tell y'all that they'll be great dollhouse fodder.

The earliest Glamour Gals date to 1980, the year of Mount St. Helens, the Night of the Twisters, and a ridiculously hot summer.  That year another Kenner doll was also finding her footing, a sweet-smelling redhead named Strawberry Shortcake.  I bring Strawberry (or rather Orange Blossom) into the mix because she and the Glamour Gals were both Kenner products, but the two dolls couldn't be more different.  Strawberry saw tremendous success, while as far as I know the Glamour Gals did not.

Glamour Gals stuck around until 1983, which is actually a pretty good run for a doll line that wasn't considered a huge success.  Kenner certainly gave the line the ol' college try, supplying these little dolls with playsets, small habitats to live in, and even a Firebird.  There were eight boys and eight girls of varying races, hair colors, eye colors, and outfits.  So Kenner did try with this bunch, and no doubt there were children who liked these dolls, but apparently not a lot of 'em.  Anyway...I'm gonna largely focus on Loni during this review since she and Shara are so much alike, and because typing "Glamour Gals" over and over again gets redundant.  Loni and her girlfriends are 4.5 inches tall, meaning that they're smaller than Dawn (Topper Angie, left and Checkerboard Shannon, right) and smaller than the Rock Flowers, but a smidge bigger than the Fashion Teeners, who tried and failed to compete with Dawn.

Behold, I found a doll that makes Dawn look big!  I may have to do a follow-up to this blog post, discussing the differences between Dawn's Topper and Checkerboard selves.  Shannon is identifiable as a Dawn doll, but she and Angie have a few differences. 

I had no idea that Shannon was the same size as Angie, by the way.  When Treesa sent her to me I hadn't handled my other Dawn dolls in quite awhile, and thus Shannon was bigger than I remembered.  So Topper and Checkerboard are the same size, but I don't know yet if they can share clothes.  I bet they do, but it's always best to make sure.

Getting back to the Glamour Gals, Loni's hair is rooted, and sources claim that she's a redhead, but she doesn't look any more red-haired than I do...yeah she does in some lights.

Loni sports a center part with bangs up front, and the rest of it hangs to her rear like so.  It curls under and sticks out a bit...hmmm, looks kinda like Jessie from Team Rocket.

Prepare for trouble, and make it double!  LOL, now that I look at Jessie I realize that her hair is actually purple, albeit a different shade from her partner James's hair.  It sure looked red when I was a kid!  Anyway, the rooting is pretty good for a doll this size.  Loni has a bald patch showing, but I had to dig to root it up.

Shara's hair is blonde and parted on the left, and it has a bit more volume than Loni's hair, but the length and the rooting are the same.

The fibers are soft enuff, and because these dolls are little there's not a lot of hair to get ratted up, but because they're over forty now the hair isn't as smooth and shiny as it was.  That's to be expected; doll hair ages, 'nuff said.  I can still comb it and make it look nice.

Tiny dolls have tiny heads with tiny faces, and tiny faces are often landmines for paint gaffes, but let's look closer at Loni.  She's a devious-looking little cuss!

I dunno, those eyes look kinda handpainted!  Loni's eyes are green, shadows and all, with light clusters but no pupils.

Loni's mouth is your stereotypical fashion doll mouth, with teeth showing like Superstar Barbie's.  The paint is pretty good for a doll this tiny, though her lips are a little narrow.

Blick, I need to wash Loni's face.

Shara's eyebrows are a little less devious, and she has blue eyes and darker lips, but otherwise the paint job and the head mold are the same.  Her face is even dustier than Loni's is.

Neither of these dolls have earrings, which was probably a smart move.  I don't think their teeny-weeny little ears could handle piercings, and painted earrings would've been way hard on a scale like this.

These little faces remind me a bit of Farrah Fawcett, who was a big name in 1980.  Charlie's Angels was winding down by the end of the Me Decade, but ol' Farrah was a star nonetheless.  Regarding these heads...I haven't seen Erin, the blue-eyed brunette character, up close, but I think she may have a different head from Shara and Loni.  She's got a lot of teeth showing, kinda like Starr's friend Tracy does.

The clothing review and the body review will be one and the same, as both of my dolls have their threads molded on.

One interesting thing about these dolls is that their clothes are often both molded and fabric.  My two are poor examples of this since they're both wearing painted and molded clothes, but more often than not these dolls wore a combination of molded and cloth duds.  Each "outfit" was named, with Loni's getup being christened Totally Tangerine.  According to online sources, this outfit was produced in 1981.

Hmmm, that color looks more Basically Blush to me, or maybe Groovy Grapefruit.  Tangerine is more orange than pink, or it is if the skin of the fruit is any indication.  But either way the name is Totally Tangerine, and the shades are a touch different where the plastic type changes.  Loni's vinyl legs are a smidge lighter than her plastic body.  The difference is subtle, but it's there.

Loni's ensemble may be all vinyl, but her body does have some nice molded details to suggest clothes, stuff like creases on her sleeves and buttons and lapels on her blouse...

...and folds in the legs of her slacks.

Loni's shoes appear to be slip-ons of some stripe, with closed toes and flat heels.  Oh, and they're pink like the rest of her clothes.

Notice that Loni's ankles are painted to look like skin, by the way.  Her hands are too.  I guess it was easier to paint those features than to mold them in a fleshtone.  As we'll soon see, Shara's body took a different approach. 

Rounding out Loni's ensemble is a brown vinyl hat.

In truth the hat is just a ring of vinyl that slips down over Loni's hair.  See?  You can see the crown of her head poking through (and something that I need to scrape off the vinyl).

Still, the hat serves its purpose well, and it throws some dramatic shadows.

Shara's clothes look more tangerine to me, but her ensemble is entitled Bronze Beauty.  This outfit also dates from 1981.

Heck yeah, swimwear, just in time for pool weather...or not.  This May has been kinda cool thus far, but then so was the May two years ago, right before it got blisteringly hot!  Whatever the weather, Shara also comes with a little yellow towel, kinda like Malibu Barbie initially did.  Shara gives me Malibu Barbie vibes all over, but that may just be because I love Malibu Barbie. 

Malibu Barbie was still a thing in 1980, by the way.  So!  Being a swimsuit doll Shara is much more simplistic all over than Loni.  She has few molded details on her body and could easily wear the cloth ensembles that some of the other Glamour Gals wore.  The only molding I see is along Shara's bosom, like so.

Indeed, when I first opened Shara's package I thought she was nekkid, so dim was the light in the front room at the time!  Like Loni Shara also wears a vinyl hat that squeezes over her ample hair (this one is red with scalloped edges)...

...and she wears a pair of tangerine-colored wedge heels on her feet.  These are permanently attached, just like Loni's shoes are.

I used to like wedge heels, back in the day when I could wear high-heeled shoes.  I was never adept at wearing stilettos, but I wore the heck out of wedges and platforms.

Y'all probably saw this in some of the above pictures, but both Shara and Loni came with clear plastic X-style stands.  I've seen Barbie and some of her clones utilize stands like this, where the X bit in the center supports the legs, but these stands also have tiny pegs that fit into the dolls' feet, kinda like Dawn doll stands do.  They work pretty well.

Pretty well, mind y'all.  Shara and Loni can't balance in every pose I try to stand them in, and that takes us to joints.  For such tiny dolls the Glamour Gals are pretty well-endowed, sporting a neck joint...

...a waist joint...

...and shoulders and hips.  All of these joints rotate only but that's really good for a doll this little.

In addition, the dolls legs are wired, so I can bend their knees.  I don't do this too often because I don't want to stress those wires, but I do it every so often.

They can run, though this is one of those poses where the stand won't hold them.

They can dance, though this also requires careful balancing.

They can even...I'm not sure what Loni's trying to do here, unless she was trying to outshine my new Dawn dolls.

I took that picture on May seventh, the day I received one new Dawn doll in the mail, plus a beautiful head for that floating body that Treesa sent.  I was fussing over the two of them a bit, and I guess Loni saw the need to strut her stuff. 

I believe that covers it!

BAD
*These dolls are very small, which might be problematic if you're a fumble-fingers.
*I'm not in love with Loni's face, but that's my opinion.  Some of y'all might like Loni better than Shara.
*Uh...long discontinued?  There's not a lot bad about these dolls!

GOOD
*Few small parts to lose.  These dolls have hats, and I think Loni had a purse at one time, but they're not going to lose their clothes or shoes.
*Teeny-weeny faces have a surprising amount of personality.  Loni looks kinda snarky, and Shara looks friendly and approachable.
*I love when dolls come with stands!  The stands aren't perfect, but they're better than nothing.
*Since these dolls are small they're easily stored.  That's becoming increasingly important in Casa Pizarro.
*Surprisingly poseable!  Little dolls like this are usually pretty stiff.

I must say, Treesa had a penchant for picking out the more interesting and obscure dolls that the eighties had to offer.  There were the Blooming Dolls, and now here's these Glamour Girls.  I like the Glamour Gals quite a bit!  I've never owned a Fashion Teener, but their main flaws were their easily lost shoes and their outfits that were both tiny and frayed easily.  Glamour Gals avoid both those problems with painted shoes and outfits that are at least partially (or wholly in my dolls' cases) molded on.  Do the molded clothes cut down on these dolls' versatility?  Maybe a little, but I didn't gripe about that with my other dollhouse dolls.  Keep in mind that most of them have permanently attached clothes too.  Anyway, in addition to being small and unobtrusive the Glamour Gals had accessories, stuff like cars and dancing hovels, things that hadn't been seen since Dawn's time, so I'm surprised that these little dolls weren't a bigger hit.  Maybe they, like the Blooming Dolls, got outshone by Strawberry Shortcake and the Cabbage Patch Kids.  Still, Glamour Gals are cute examples of early eighties toys and fashion, and they'd make great little dollhouse inhabitants.  Despite my money woes, I've been casually shopping for more of these dolls on eBay, I admit it!  Camping Cutie Blair, Fancy Dancer Loni, and Golden Glitter Erin are my favorites.  And maybe Jungle Jade Jessie, since she's blonde and brown-eyed and wearing green.  Long story short, the Glamour Gals get a passing grade from me; if I were giving out letter grades I'd give 'em a B+.

Hugs,
RagingMoon1987