So random, January '25

We start the month (and the year) with a Failbook memory, from January 3rd, 2022.

Adam and Mei together.  Both of them need new eyelashes now.

January 4th I took this image of my vintage Skipper crew, which had by then grown to three.

From left, Living Fluff, Pose 'n' Play Skipper, and straight-leg Skipper.  I'll discuss these in more detail around March or so.

Bae Day Mondays this month went with the various Coleco years, and January 6th was for 1983 and 1984.  I have no Cabbies at all from 1983, but I have three from 1984.  From left, Valencia Rose (Coleco), Nathan Hunter (Coleco Preemie), and Candela Laura (Jesmar). 

I am still casually looking for a fuzzy boy; they are strictly 1983.  But these will do just fine for now.  After taking in Gary Collier and getting the electric bill I need to take a chill pill with Cabbies.  January was colder than average, so the bills were outta sight.

January 11th.  Candela Laura flew solo that night.

It was cold that night, and I was listening to a YouTube documentary about Texas Tower 4.  The saga of Texas Tower 4 is not a happy one, so I lightened the mood with Candela.  The Cliff Notes version of the ill-fated tower can be found here, and an excruciatingly detailed version can be found here; the latter was the one I was watching.

January 13th, Bae Day Monday.  The years this time were 1985 and 1986.  For them I have my popcorn girls, Idalia Gale and Beryl June (both 1986)...

...Matt the Brat and Kitrick Randolph Fergus (both 1985)...

...Hugo Jack (1985) and Ernest John (1986, Preemie)...

...Elisabeth Clara and Shelley Fred (both 1985)...

...and finally, Stella Rae (1985, Preemie).  Her friend and carer Angela Fitzpatrick agreed to sit with her.

Angela cares so Stella doesn't have to, LOL.

January 17th I learned that there's a special term for Cabbies with arms like this.  

See how Matt's arms angle up and out rather than straight out?  Apparently this is called the cheerleader pose, and out of forty-six Cabbies (including figurines and clones) Matt the Brat is my only one like this...for now, anyway.

January 20th.  The years were 1987 and 1988, with that latter year being the earliest I could conceivably remember.  As a result I'm fond of dolls from this era...and yet I only have two big ones, Karen Sheila (1987) and Andrea Doria (1988)...

...and two little ones, Esmond Brant and Cara Raelean, both from 1987.  Esmond is a bean-butt and Cara is a Preemie. 

Also very early on January 20th, I took this head shot of Gary Collier. 

Gary had proven popular with my Failbook friends by this time, and I can see why.  He's a cutie.  I can also see why Treesa couldn't initially see his teeth, as they're ridiculously hard to photograph!  I personally didn't think I'd like the #17 head, but now that I have it in my collection it's not so bad.  That leaves the #18 head that I'm not enamored with...no, Moony, stay off eBay!!!  But yeah, when I started collecting Cabbage Patch Kids the #4, #15, and #30 heads were my favorites, while #5, #17, and #18 were deal-breakers.  #5 and #17 grew on me after I added them to my collection, so #18 potentially could too.

January 21st.  Y'all know how I like opposites, and Draculaura and Venus McFlytrap are pretty much that. 

I tried to take a conservative approach with G1 Monster High dolls, and as I've said before it bit me in the butt.  So I'm not playing this time around; if I really, really, REALLY like a doll, I'm goin' after it, budget or no.  Luckily for me I haven't seen any that I'm absolutely dying for yet...except maybe Cupid.  I've always loved Cupid.

I returned to clippings from the Cabbage Patch on January 22nd, with a new outfit supplied by who else?  Mama!

I knew immediately that this would have to belong to Clio Teresa.  Her yellow body matches the trim around the waist, and some of the letters match her hair.  Some of the letters match her hair bows too, but that's hard to see.

January 23rd.  Venus McFlytrap returns, this time with Skooter, who'd joined the Skipper Squad by then. 

And I thought that Draculaura couldn't be more opposite of Venus!

January 27th, another Bae Day Monday.  1989 got a year of its own, and Cleopatra Chantale and Gavin Andrew share it.

Some of my favorites come from 1989, but I only own two of them.  The rest of my Cabbies are 1990 and beyond, or clones.

Also January 27th, a memory from 2021.  I was comparing Always Sisters Vanessa to my beloved Courtney Moore.

This came from an aborted review of the Always Sisters line.  I was excited about a doll that was soft like the Hot Looks but had honest-to-God joints, but Vanessa's internal skeleton was too warpy to make the joints enjoyable.  I can't say as I've gotten much enjoyment out of my Always Sisters dolls, though they have sweet faces.  But as always, if anyone wants a review I'll root 'em out of storage.

Not much of a month for dolly photography, actually!  More same ol', same ol'.

Love,
RagingMoon1987

The Temu baby

Well, I finally did it:  I heeded the call of trendy online shopping site Temu.  Temu offers lots of things for ridiculously cheap, but they also back up their online listings with reviews and owner pics...I think.  Maybe those reviews were done by Temu employees.  But anyway, I ordered a reborn baby doll...sort of (she's mass-produced), and I did this for three reasons.  One, to see if Temu was worth the hype.  Two, her sales pic was cute.  We all know how enticing sales pics can be...and also how misleading they can be.  Three, reviews said she's soft...which is exactly what eBay said about one of my other baby dolls, Mei.

Mei is a Ping Lau sculpt, something I can't resist, but she is definitely NOT soft!  Her vinyl is fairly hard, like that of a Wal-Mart baby doll or a Middleton doll like Adam.  For the record, Adam was not advertised as having soft vinyl...or at least, his Middleton brothers and sisters were not.

I like Adam better than Mei, overall.  He feels like a real baby in my arms, and who could resist that smile?

I will note that while neither Adam nor Mei have squishy vinyl, their cloth bodies are very soft.  With the right tools, both dolls could make superb reborn dolls.  Alas, I don't have the tools, the skills, the space, or the time to get the job done, so that's why I bought my own reborn.  

Bloviating over, my package came wrapped in orange Temu plastic and copious tape, but I was able to get it all cut off with no fuss.  The baby came in this box, entitled iCradle.  Never heard of it...<pauses to consult Google>...yep, they're mass-produced!  Wal-Mart and Amazon carry these, for about the same price (forty to fifty bucks American) that I paid for my doll.  Here's the box.

The box was not fastened shut, so I flipped it open and was mildly chagrined to see that this baby had zero padding.  She does have a plastic bag holding her together, but nothing else to protect her from scuffs.

As it turned out, I didn't need to worry about scuffs too much, but we'll see why in a bit.  Are y'all ready to see her?  Here she is!

Well...her hair certainly looks mass-produced!  See how it's painted like Mei's?

Wait a minute, I forgot to show y'all how the new baby compares in size to Adam and Mei!

Adam and Mei look like bigger dolls, but that's largely because the new doll's legs are molded in a bent position.  My Real Baby, Geneva, genuinely is bigger than the new girl. 

Geneva is just a big doll, period.  She would be a lapful for Sandy McCall, even more so than Salome was.  Anyway, the new doll has visible sutures in her skull.  See her soft spot?

I don't know beans from bull's foot about babies, but I do know that the sutures only tend to be visible when the baby is very small.  I remember Miss Emily musing about this when she was reborning Saskia, because Saskia was clearly an older baby...but she still had sutures visible.  But anyway...my mama calls this baby "Sandra," so I guess that's what I'll call her, but regardless Sandra has visible sutures.  She's also got visible veins in places (Mei, Adam, and Geneva do not, nor were they meant to).  I knew that reborn dolls sometimes have this (one of Miss Emily's dolls did), but with Sandra being mass-produced I wasn't expecting it.  Maybe someone did take the time to reborn this gal a little before I got her.  I had a hard time photographing the veins, but if you look closely you can see one right in front of her ear.  It looks like a little red lighting bolt.

She even has manicured nails!

Pretty cool!  Some folks don't like this level of realism on their dolls, and for other folks a few painted veins wouldn't be realistic enuff.  I'm not picky, so Sandra does me just fine.  She does have more blushing than I'd like in places, though.  Her wrists and her ankles are the pinkest.

I wonder why the joints are the most blushed here?  Babies don't crawl on their wrists and ankles!

Odd blushing aside, sometimes reborn dolls come with accessories and sometimes they don't.  I was delighted to see that Sandra did indeed come with several little freebies.  She's got her own headband, binky, bottle, and birth certificate, and I retained the tag for the sake of future reference.

Here's what the back of the tag says.  It's got a couple of examples of Engrish.

CHOCKING hazard!  LOL, it gets the point across, but I can't help giggling at that.  I love translation foibles!  I want to point out the binky, because...well, because even though it LOOKS like a real binky...

...it's not.  Adam and Geneva won't be using this bad boy!

It's got a magnet in it, as does Sandra's mouth.  Sandra can thus look like she's sucking on it, AND I can turn it any ol' way I want!

Usually babies get the binky oriented in their mouths correctly, but not always.  This comes off easily, by the way.  The magnet holds, but it only takes a gentle tug to separate doll from binky.  I make note of this because we all know how magnets can cling, and how babies can be stubborn!  

I'll also touch on the headband, even though it's just a soft piece of elastic with a lace bow attached.  

It stretches to fit and looks very becoming on Sandra.  It would probably fit Mei and Geneva too, but I'm leaving it on Sandra.

If Sandra is like all the babies I've known, then she probably HATES "having that ol' thing on her head," as my grandmother would've put it.  If Sandra were a real baby I wouldn't force the issue, but since she isn't real I'm having my way, LOL.

Overall Sandra is about what I expected from Temu.  She's a nice doll, but not on equal footing with the ridiculously priced uber-reborn dolls one can find on eBay.  She reminds me a bit of Adley and Annabelle, the two little semi-reborns that visited me at the library last fall, except that like Adam and Mei they were bigger than Sandra.  Even though Sandra isn't super-duper detailed she IS a nice little doll, one that could stand up to gentle play from a child and a fair amount of cuddling from an adult collector, just as Adley and Annabelle could.  She's also a good doll for a newbie to the reborn world, like I kinda, sorta am.  She is soft, just as advertised, and I've never, repeat, EVER had a doll that could hang on to her own binky.  I am curious about what iCradle's other products are like now; do they all come with little veins, or did someone legit work Sandra over a little before sending her to me?  I don't know, and I have no intention to find out since I don't need another baby in this size.  Adam, Sandra, and Mei are quite enuff for me!  Oh yeah, and Geneva, but she's kinda in a class of her own.  For some reason I'm extremely fond of Geneva, and I may do a post just for her one day.  

Baby Love,

RagingMoon1987 

Annabelle and Adley visit the library

There's no need to fear, Underdog...actually Underdog is on vacation, so y'all are stuck with me for another day.  Warning:  I have another post scheduled for tomorrow, so beware.  But today two little girls introduced me to their reborn dolls, and of course now I'm sharing them with y'all.  Meet Annabelle (the brunette) and Adley.

According to the girls' mother, Annabelle's nickname is "I Gotta Pee."  I didn't think to ask why, LOL.  Anywho, these two are semi-reborn and were purchased off of Amazon.  They apparently were not cheap, and I can guess why!  I didn't get a picture of their hands or feet, but they have blushing and manicured nails.  Their binkies are attached with magnets; underneath they have open mouths.  Unfortunately I didn't think to photograph that.  But they were very similar in weight, size, and expression to my Middleton doll, Adam.  Hmmm...Adley, Annabelle, and Adam.  LOL, what a trio that would've been!  Even though I need another large baby doll like I need a third head, I'm now off to Amazon to see what the going prices are for dolls like this.

Much love,
RagingMoon1987

Oh deer!

Since Halloween is on a Sunday today, my town is holding trick-or-treating a day early.  Since I don't have an original bone in my body I've chosen to do the same thing.  Remember the costume that I said I was gonna try on Reagan?  Well, it fits!

Reagan and Airy are ready for trick-or-treating...well, ready as they'll ever be.

Adam is ready too, though his outfit is more pajamas than a costume.

The awesome thing about baby dolls is they'll never outgrow their clothes like real babies do.  In this case I'm glad of that, because this outfit's got Snoopy on it.  Vampire Snoopy, no less!  I guess Snoopy decided not to be a WWI flying ace this time.

I hope ol' Chuck gets something besides a rock this year!

Kissy isn't dressed up for Halloween, but I put her in the blog anyway because I love Kissy.  My mom wasn't thrilled with this getup.

It's the ill fit that she didn't care much for, and I can't say as I'm thrilled either.  But if I get anything tighter I may break her kissing mech and that would be bad.  I guess that's the bad thing about baby dolls; they can't outgrow clothes, but they can't grow into clothes either.  Oh well, I suppose I can hem those sleeves and pants if need be!

So that's Halloween for me!  It's gonna be another quiet one, but that don't worry me none since I prefer my Saturday nights quiet anyway.  Some folks like to party or fight on Saturday nights, and I like to stay in.  No candy for me since I'm trying to lose weight, but I'll find a way to have some fun.  Or I'll try...my mother has had some health problems crop up, and neither she nor I are sure what the next two weeks hold.  Basically, Mama's hemoglobin levels are elevated, which could be a number of things ranging from the innocent to the malignant.  To be on the safe side her nurse practitioner has already referred her to an oncologist.  Mama has also been hitting the water hard, since she doesn't drink enuff water and dehydration can cause elevated hemoglobin levels.  We're hoping and praying that the fix is as simple as that, but time will tell.  In the meantime she and I have been laughing, cutting up, and buying pajamas for American Girls like the pajamas are going out of style, but there's that undercurrent of worry there, in both of us.  Prayers would be greatly appreciated.  Cancer rates are frighteningly high here in Malden and in the surrounding area, and I blame that on the crop dusters and their constant spraying of this, that, or the other chemical.  Granted, most of the sick friends we've got have battled successfully and won (or are winning), but...well, it's still cancer.  So if y'all pray, please pray for my mama.  With most of my family being far away she's really all I've got.

Happy Halloween,
RagingMoon1987

"Alice" comes to visit

Bob Ross used to say "We don't make mistakes.  We have happy accidents."  Well, yesterday I fell victim to an accident that was...well, for me it was quite happy.  This young lady looks a little like Alice in Wonderland, so that's what I'm calling her for now.  UPDATE, 10/14/21:  Tam says that this young lady is indeed Dorothy, so I'll be changing the name.

Please note that this young lady will NOT be staying with me!  She belongs to Beth in WV and I'll have her in the mail ASAP!  I'm sorry I tore the box open, Beth!  Tam has sent both Beth and me things in the past, and she accidentally put Beth's name and my address on the package!  If it has my address on it I don't pay attention to anything else, so I'm sorry I messed up, Tam and Beth!  She'll be in the mail either today or tomorrow.  Anyway, this lovely little pet is one of the dolls Tam and her husband rescued from the highway.  She's missing a shoe and her poor little face has some scars.

Nothing a little paint and fray-stop won't help.  Anyway, Tam said that Alice Dorothy was marked under her wig, so I quickly dribbled that off and found both a date and a production number.

Attached to Dorothy's wrist is a handwritten paper tag (Lindsay also has one of these), and it says that Dorothy's maker is someone called Dianne Durand.  Dorothy was apparently an eBay find, obtained in 2002 for twenty-five bucks and some change.

A quick perusal of the web revealed only patterns, no premade dolls, for the name Dianne Durand.  This makes me wonder if Dorothy wasn't handmade by someone at some point.  

So Dorothy will be headed off to West Virginia soon, but I wanted to document her brief stay in the Bootheel.  Lindsay, my highway adoptee, and Adam, my Middleton doll, enjoyed the visit too.

I'll have her in the mail by the end of the week, Beth!  Thank you for sending her to me, Tam, even if I wasn't supposed to get her.  Adam and Lindsay send their love!

Yours always,
RagingMoon1987