Dodging the storms

Treesa was trying to dodge the bad weather when she shipped her latest box, and she succeeded by the skin of her teeth.  The package arrived on Tuesday afternoon, then the storms moved back in Tuesday evening, though they were nowhere near as violet as they were at the beginning of the month.  Treesa's margin of success would've been even greater had St. Louis's sorting and distribution centers hadn't played hockey with the package, but then that's St. Louis for y'all.  Anything I've got coming gets caught there for a day or two.  But anyway, it's here and has been for a couple'a days now, but I had posts scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday so yeah.

Alrighty!  First thing I pulled out was this frog, from Treesa's personal Build-a-Bear collection.

Happy Go Lucky Frog is his name, but Treesa named him "Glen" after a song that Kermit the Frog sang on Sesame Street.  Good ol' Kermie!  Y'all know how I love frogs, so Glen is the perfect edition to my plushie collection.  Yep, I have a collection of plushies, but I try to keep it smaller and more manageable than my doll collection.  It's a mishmash of Build-a-Bear, Vermont Teddy Bear, a few special Beanie Babies and Ty Plush, and some childhood friends (Baxter!), nothing super special, but just the same Glen is a welcome addition to my collection.  Anything unique like this is always welcome.

Happy as I was to see Lucky, he quickly took the passenger seat to this little gal, whom I very recently discussed.  She's got a lot of hair for a baby!

That, folks, is none other than Baby All Gone, whom I talked about in my post about nineties dolls.  Treesa says that this doll is her sister A's doll, and apparently was yard sale-bound at one point because she was in a yard sale box.  The accessories are long gone, which is no biggie; indeed, I got a laugh at the fate of the cherry jar and spoon.  Treesa's second sister L nabbed the items for her niece, LOL!  Treesa says that A had a fixation on the name "Mary" when she was small, just as my sister liked the names "Kenny" and "Jenny."  So "Mary" will be my Baby All Gone's pet name, in honor of her roots.

Now that I have Mary in my hands, I see a bit of resemblance to Emily, the My Lickety Treats doll.  Granted, Mary doesn't have eclipse eyes or a fabric tongue, but...well, they just remind me of each other. 

If nothing else they're a cute pair, and Emily also has a lot of hair for a small child.  Not as much as Mary, maybe, but enuff.

In a similar vein, Treesa sent these.  Makes me think of Liberace, and how lighting crews always had a bear of a time with his sparkly outfits.  

These belong to Li'l Miss Magic Jewels, whom I discussed in the same post that covered Baby All Gone.  Sigh...now that I've got the accessories I want Li'l Miss Magic Jewels, but killecrankie, those dolls are expensive when they've got all their parts!  Still, it's nice to have some extra pieces just in case I do find an affordable one.  The jewels are about the size of a nickel and have Velcro on the back.

The ring has flaps of fabric that can accommodate one gem apiece.  

Reminds me of one of my dad's giant insect movies.  I don't remember which flick this was, but I remember that during daylight the monster's eyes were orange like a car's emergency lights.  Then at night the eyes glowed.  The eyes were big, regardless of the hour, and these jewels remind me of that, LOL.  My dad and his horror movies!  Anyway, I may not have Li'l Miss Magic Jewels, but having some of her accessories is great.  Treesa said she was holding onto these items in case the doll and her wand turned up, but so far, no dice.  Treesa, if she does turn up, let me know and I'll give her stuff back.  All dollies deserve to sparkle.

Then there's these, which I've discussed with a couple'a y'all in the comments section.  These six are some of Mattel's Littles.  The Littles were a family of dollhouse-sized dolls that came with furniture and housing items.  I remember four of the girls, Hedy, Daphne, Flossie, and Belinda, and these here are the parents and the youngest child.  Fittingly, they are Mr. and Mrs. Littles, and Baby Littles.  One trio is marked "Phillipines," and the other is marked "Taiwan."  Big surprise, I'm loving Mr. Littles's hair.

When Mattel named these dolls the Littles they weren't joking.  A full family unit can fit comfortably in my hand.

To further pound my point into the wood, here's how Baby Littles measures up to my thumbnail. 

I love the expression on Baby Littles's face, by the way!  The story of the Littles is worth a blog post of its own, but I'll leave that to Tam for now.  When I have enuff room I'll start collecting the Littles' stuff; they had a house and everything.  One of my new viewers, Sue Ogden, has offered me some other Littles things as well, and...I may take you up on that offer, Miss Sue!  The Littles don't take up much space.

Next item, next item...<grabs randomly>...these are handkerchief dolls.  My grandmother had a couple'a these and I associate them with little girlhood.  These two are really cute. 

Here's a better look at their faces.  The pale one...

...and the cream-colored one.  She reminds me of a Waldorf doll in the face.

My grandmother's handkerchief dolls didn't have faces of their own, but they did have plenty of charm.  These new dolls are small enuff to serve as dolls for my larger dolls, so that's what I'll do.  George and Anna have already said that they like 'em.

There's a little cross stitch project that Treesa never finished.  I never have done cross stitch, but I love to sew so I'll give this a whirl.

The last unwrapped item was what I suspect is a Build-a-Bear cape.  Good for Christmas and winter.

Peppermint Sloth will probably get this.  She's...well, Peppermint Sloth!  She's winter and Christmas the world over.

I also forgot to photograph the mini books, but there are five miniature Little Golden Books in the mix.  I saw one about Pound Puppies, and The Three Little Kittens, the latter of which I had in my childhood collection.  I have a deep fondness for Little Golden Books, and those were greatly appreciated.  My larger ball-jointed dolls can read those.

The rest of the stuff was wrapped, but most of it was labelled.  This is a nummy-looking fruit drink for the eighteen-inch contingent.  It used to be a kitchen magnet.

This one is a package of Barbie jewelry.

Treesa says that Fashion Photo Barbie's jewelry is here, as is Superstar Ken's.  When I opened up the package I was greeted by a plastic roll-on backpack, which I like.  Some little Barbie will get some mileage out of that.

In addition to the jewelry there are some plaid mystery pants and mmm-mmm, a bag of potato chips. 

I haven't had potato chips in almost a year, but the weight I've lost from quitting junk food cold turkey is worth it.  Anywho, here's the jewelry:  a full set of Barbie stuff and Ken's bangle...and is that Ken's earring or ring?  I can't remember. 

Now who will get these???  I have a few Barbie dolls from this era who are missing jewelry, and any Ken I choose can wear the bangle.

These items will go well with a post that I'm working on, as they're Dawn clones.  To be specific, they are a Lesney Dawn clone, Dawn herself with a faded body, and a spare Dawn body.  Lesney!  I haven't talked about them since I reviewed one of their Ginny dolls.  By the way, these little gals looked like soft tacos when they were all wrapped up.  Mmmmm...I'm getting hungry!!!

Open sesame!

I know Treesa said that there was a spare body mixed in, but I still giggled when I saw it.  It's a nice body, though.  Green at the knees, inevitable for Dawn, and the hips were locked up, but it's still a nice body.  I'm gonna look for an orphan head.  As for the complete dolls, they're nice too.  Their hair is smooth and not mussed.  Here's the Lesney doll's face; she reminds me of my old Barbie clone, Jennifer.  I'm unsure of a name, but I love her hair.

Here's Dawn herself.  She's a very pretty example of Dawn, with eyes that don't stare into eternity like those of some of her friends. 

I'm working on a post that compares Dawn's Topper and Checkerboard selves, and these will help tremendously.  As with the Littles, I love Dawn dolls and Dawn clones.  They're small, but they have clothes and accessories that make them a lot of fun.

Lastly, there's...this thing, wrapped in paper and nestled in a bag.

Inkpen?  Leggy doll?  No, I think Leggy is longer than that.  Treesa's note gave me no clues.

Off comes the paper...oh my!

Somebody knows my love for the macabre!  In all honesty I don't know what this is.  It's definitely not an inkpen, and I don't know of any doll that utilizes a tool like this.  Maybe it's a walking stick for a doll or teddy bear?  Whatever it is, I like it.  It's intriguing.  It has the letters WBEI on the side, so maybe that'll help.

The star of this box, though, is definitely Mary.  Here she is decompressing after her journey, with a very happy Violet listening to every word.

I've liked all the packages that y'all have sent me over the years, but the sentiment behind Baby All Gone really got to me.  That's your sissy's dolly, Treesa, and you sent her to me!  That really means a lot.  Please let your sister know that Mary is in good hands and is already one of my favorites, largely because of the feeling and the memories behind her.  And of course the rest of the stuff is appreciated, especially the Dawn dolls.  I have a head en route for that body, by the way.  That's a long-winded way of saying "Thank you, Treesa."  I desperately needed cheering up when that box arrived, and it did the trick, so thank you.  I love y'all a lot.

Violet, the Blooming Doll, has a review in the works, so stay tuned!

Cheers,
RagingMoon1987

Throwback Thursday review: Lesney Ginny

Second Ginny doll now.  I originally intended for the two posts to be back to back, but then...well, then Morrada and Priscilla happened.  When I got my first Ginny doll (Aminta) I initially thought she was too perfect to disrobe and redress.  That was problematic because I'd just bought that cute little yellow dress...y'know, the same one that Aminta ended up wearing for most of the summer anyway.  Yeah, so much for not redressing her.  As y'all will see in the coming weeks I tend to go back on my word quite often, at least when it comes to the doll hobby.  Anyway, when I bought that dress I wanted a little fixer-upper doll to wear it, and that's how this second Ginny found a home.  That, and I like her face.

Lesney took the helm for Ginny during the 1970's and gave Ginny a face lift, making her slimmer and taller, and shrinking the size of her head.  They also increased the racial diversity a bit, coming in both black and white varieties, and probably other races too!  My knowledge on Ginny is pretty lacking, but I do know that a black version was created, and boy, is she cute!  Anywho, here's how Aminta (Vogue) and Ginny compare visually with their clothes in situ.

Like Aminta, Ginny is about the same height as Penny Brite, being just a smidge shorter.

I hope that means Penny and Ginny can share clothes (hey, their names rhyme!), but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.  Just for the heck of it, here's how Ginny compares to some of my other small dolls.  She's taller than Kohaku, Cherry Merry Muffin, and Lime Chiffon, but shorter than Rosa Lee and Licca-chan.

 Now, hair.  I didn't get to do as much with this hair as I'd have liked.  Like Aminta, Ginny has sleep eyes, and depending on the mechanism involved, sleep eyes can rust when they get wet.  I didn't want that to happen to Ginny, so instead of a night in THE PLASTIC BAG OF DOOM she got a hair-washing with Dawn and a cheap wash-out conditioner.  The result?  Ginny's hair is clean and smells nice, but it also looks like she spent the afternoon playing quidditch with Meygana Broomstix.  It was once nice hair, but this little gal has seen some hard time as a plaything.

Unlike Aminta and Bozena, Ginny has a full head of hair.  The roots are spaced fairly widely and have big plugs of hair.

Peeps, that's a lot of hair, especially for a little doll like this, and unfortunately copious hair and rough play do not usually mix well.  Due to the amount of hair and the rough shape that it's in I just tie it back, and even that doesn't look great.

I've heard that a steam iron on a very, VERY low setting can help hair like this, so I may give that a whirl in the future, and if all else fails I can cut the crap and get her a wig.  But for now I'm just going to suck it up and move on to the face.  These Lesney dolls are very different from the Vogue dolls in the face.

Hmm...looks like I was a little TOO careful around those eyes, as there's still some grit in there.  Time to bust out the cotton swabs, I guess; Aminta needs an eye cleaning too so I'll just do a two-for-one.  I definitely prefer the Lesney face to the Vogue face, though.  Also (fortunately), Ginny doesn't have the eye difficulties that Aminta has, with rogue paint or mold or whatever covering one iris.  Like Aminta, Ginny's eyes are blue sleep eyes with molded and painted lashes, and unique, arrow-shaped eyebrows.

I've never seen doll eyebrows like these, and I love that unusual shape!  They're a little too dark to match Ginny's hair, but they're close enough.  Ginny's eyes aren't clouded over to the extent that Aminta's are, but they do occasionally like to stick in the sockets, which isn't a huge problem.  If one of Ginny's eyes freezes up I just shake her gently and the stubborn eye works again.  The lower part of Ginny's face is less pinched and cherub-like than Aminta's, though her lips still pout and her chin still has a deep dimple.  I like the overall shape better though, and I like the shade of Ginny's lips.  They're a soft brick red shade.

Not bad at all!  I think I'd like Ginny dolls better if their faces all looked more like this.  Oh sure, I like Aminta, but I've just never cared for Vogue Ginny faces.  Ginny's older friend Jan had a much better face.  These Lesney dolls aren't half-bad, though; my girl's face isn't as pinched and cherublike as Aminta's is, and the mouth has a hint of a smile, something that could have greatly helped Aminta.

Now to the body.  Ginny has a little girl's body, but it's not toddler-shaped like Aminta's is.  Ginny has a cute little rounded belly like Aminta does, but her overall shape is longer and leaner than Aminta's.

It's also made from different materials.  Aminta is all-vinyl, while Ginny is made of vinyl and hard plastic.  Her arms and torso are the hard plastic bits, while her head and legs are vinyl.  Furthermore, the head and legs are made of different types of vinyl; the head is matte and stiff, while the legs are shiny and a little on the squishy side.  The hard plastic appears to have taken to the mold better than the softer vinyl did, as Ginny's hands are very graceful, much more so than Aminta's.

They're also molded in slightly different positions; the left hand points out a bit, and the right one curves inwards.

Ginny's legs are a little unusual.  She has delightfully shaped knees, complete with what appear to be little kneecaps...

...but her feet look more like flippers than feet.

Ginny can move in all the ways that Bozena and Aminta can, and she can even sit more gracefully.

In addition, she also has these to be seen.

Yep, clicky knees!  They don't have a tremendous range of motion, but it's a delight to see jointed knees at all, especially on a Ginny doll.  Vogue also gave Ginny knee joints, but they were external and I don't know how well they worked in the long run.  I've seen dolls from that era with cracked and broken knees, but I've also seen them with intact and fully functional knees, so buying a Ginny with jointed knees may be in the cards one day...

I have my doubts that my two Ginny dolls can share clothes, but let's look at this dress anyway.  It's part of a Lesney set that came with shoes and a hat.

Apparently this was originally some sort of light tan or yellow shade, but my dress is now a grayish-green shade.  I gave this outfit a wash in THE PICKLE JAR OF DESPAIR, so I can only guess that the color has faded over time.  It's still a decent little garment, though; the collar and the cuffs of the sleeves are made out of this nice brown velour that's very soft to the touch.  Sometimes velour can feel stiff, but not this!

Matching the velour trim are four brown buttons.  These are just your small plastic buttons that shine a little when the light hits them just so.

I originally thought that a fifth button went here...

...but having consulted online images it's clear that there was never a button here.  This outfit closes with snaps (the buttons are just for show), and the threads that hold this center snap are very conspicuous so another button or a belt would've been nice here.

The interior of this dress is so-so.  It's tagged inside the right edge, with a tag that reads the ever-popular MADE IN HONG KONG.

It's possible in the above picture to see some of the loose ends hanging out, but here's a better picture.

The hem of the skirt is nicely serged, though, so no loose ends hang out there.

To my great surprise, some of the more stubborn stains didn't come off during the dress's stay in THE PICKLE JAR OF DESPAIR.  See 'em?  Good thing Carbona Stain Devils are still being made!

And...that's all Ginny came with!  No socks or shoes or panties or anything, just that dress.

Now...Ginny is...well, she's between Aminta and Penny in size, so the forthcoming round of Dolly Dress Shuffle may be interesting.  Here's what they look like in terms of body size.

Ginny has long, slim limbs like Penny and big feet like Aminta, and her hands are larger than those of either Penny OR Aminta.  So maybe she can get into Aminta's sleeves and maybe she can't.

To my surprise Ginny is able to wear all of it, though it's a little baggy in places.  The socks are particularly baggy...

...and the shoes are too big with or without socks.

I already know for a fact that the yellow Vogue dress is too big in the bodice, but for the sake of completion I'm including it anyway.  The top snap is missing from this dress, so I might be able to improve the fit on this by adding a new snap.

Equally surprising is the knitted Blythe dress, which I often put Penny Brite in.  This fits Ginny like it was made for her, armholes and all.

Kohaku's Licca-chan dress also fits, though I had some trouble fitting those sleeves over Ginny's splayed fingers.  The waist is a little low and the bodice is roomy, but it works.

Lastly, the yellow Blythe dress from Etsy fits.  Licca-chan and Mami normally share this around.

None of Licca's shoes fit, by the way; Ginny's feet are too big for that.  That leaves a decent amount of stuff that Ginny can wear though, so I'm pleased.

Time to sum it up now!

BAD
*Hair is pitiful, though it's not the doll's fault
*One eye likes to stick, though again I think that's age related
*Can't share clothes reliably with the more traditional Ginny dolls, and none of my shoes fit her either

GOOD
*Eyes are in better condition than Aminta's
*Hair is rooted better than either Aminta's OR Bozena's
*Body is nicely constructed and has bendable knees
*I much prefer this doll's face to Aminta's, though that's strictly my opinion.
*Can share some clothes with Licca-chan and possibly Blythe

After the seventies were over Vogue reverted back to the toddler-sized Ginny dolls, thus why my yellow Vogue dress fits Aminta but not the Lesney doll.  Thus while my Lesney Ginny is not what hardcore Ginny collectors expect, she's still an important part of the doll's rather lengthy history.  In fact, those who might be put off by the original Ginny's overly cherublike face will likely prefer these Lesney dolls.  As for my own doll, Ginny is a decent little plaything...but that hair.  It'll take more than the shampoo I've given it to make it look halfway decent again.  Indeed, I'm not sure if I want to try and cut the stuff, or if I want to pull it out completely and get Ginny a wig, OR if I want to take a big risk and try to iron the hair flat.  That will be a huge risk if I do do that, since this hair is the type that can and will melt if heated too much.  The hair isn't Vogue's fault though; indeed, I've got Barbie dolls that look no better, and that's because they saw hard time as a plaything, not because they were poorly made.  In short, I like this Ginny better than the more traditional Ginny dolls, enough so that I'd recommend her to anyone who likes child dolls.  Just beware of rat's nests.

Cheers,
RagingMoon1987