Story time!

If you've been in the doll hobby long enough you'll eventually have at least one story that will make your friends either laugh or raise an eyebrow.  I've got several, so I think I'll waste a few moments of everyone's time and share my moments of dolly humor.

STORY #1
When my sister was a toddler she had a peculiar way of treating her Barbie dolls.  Within five minutes of opening the box she'd disrobe the doll and...leave it that way!  Such behavior amused our parents and annoyed me, because even back then the clothes were the best part of the doll.  We never learned my sister's reasoning behind this until an incident involving Sonja, my Sun Jewel Teresa.

In her fairly recent Dolly Dress Discussion I spoke of Sonja losing her swimsuit in a humorous manner, and this is how it happened.  My sister was playing with the doll on a Saturday morning while Mama did laundry and Daddy and I watched a little TV.  As small children often do, my sister suddenly lost interest in Sonja and shifted her attention to some other play item.  She peeled Sonja's swimsuit off, tossed the suit in one direction, tossed the doll in another direction, and tore out of the room.  Daddy was stunned.
  "Hey, go over and get that doll!  Bring her and that swimsuit here!" he said.  I did as instructed.  Daddy spent the next few minutes dressing Sonja and setting her right, and set her on the coffee table.  A few minutes later my sister came back into the room, saw her doll redressed, and pitched a minor fit.  She proceeded to disrobe Sonja a second time, then ran out of the room again.
  "That little turd!"  Daddy exclaimed, and he once again made Sonja look decent.  Soon after my sister returned, and upon seeing Sonja dressed again she flopped onto the floor and threw a fill-tilt tantrum.
  "What in the world is the matter?"  Daddy demanded, bemused by this sudden tizzy.
  "WANT HER TO BE SMOOF!!!"  my sister shrieked, and she pulled off Sonja's swimsuit again and stormed out of the room.  We didn't try to dress the doll again, and the swimsuit eventually vanished.  It turned out that "smoof" was my sister's word for "smooth," and in this case "smooth" meant butt naked.  My sister never explained why she preferred her dolls "smoof" despite our repeated asking, and we eventually chalked it up to her toddler mind working in a very unusual way.  This story sets the stage for story two.

STORY #2
A month or so passed, and a few more dolls came into the house, some of which (oddly enough) were for me.  I wasn't a dolly lover during my early childhood, but I did get a few that I had to keep up out of my sister's reach, lest they suddenly become "smoof."  Anyway, one day my sister got this doll.

This is Maggie, and I have no idea which Barbie she used to be, but that's beside the point.  Maggie was the first doll either of us kids had seen with molded-on underwear.  Nowadays that's fairly common among play dolls, but back then it was a surprise for us.  My sister subjected Maggie to the usual treatment, taking off and promptly losing the doll's clothes...but since the underwear was molded on, there was no way it would come off!  And since it was TEXTURED, there was no real way for the doll to be completely smooth all over.  Not that my sister didn't try, of course!  She spent the better part of that weekend trying to get those molded britches off.  Finally she admitted defeat in dramatic fashion, flinging helpless Maggie across the room and screaming her lungs out.  This sudden outburst shocked us all, and we showered her with the usual "what's" and "why's."
  "WANT HER TO BE SMOOF!!!  SHE WON'T GET SMOOF!!!" my sister bellowed.  Daddy laughed at such an idea and gently explained that not all Barbie dolls could get "smoof."
  "I DON'T LIKE THAT DOLL!!!"  my sister wailed, and she made such a fuss that Mama put her to bed early.  When my bedtime came, about an hour and a half later, I could still hear her raising Cain over that doll.

STORY #3
This happened when I was...oh, I'd say about eleven.  In one of my parents' less-than-bright ideas my sister and I were packed into a single room.  Supposedly it was for security reasons, but I think it was really so Daddy could have a man cave.  That got annoying after awhile, but that's beside the point.  At some time during the beginning of this arrangement I obtained my aunt's Chatty Cathy.

Now Chatty Cathy and her equally talkative dolly associates are creepy enough in the face without the talking feature, but this particular doll had a backstory to go along with the vacant face.  She no longer talks, and Daddy informed us that as the doll started to wear out her voice shifted from June Foray's to something more like Freddie Krueger's.  I found the story amusing, but it freaked my sister out a little.

Time passed, and Sister and I continued sharing a room.  Cathy occupied the tallest shelf in the room, flanked by our American Girls (just Felicity and Molly at the time), and their shelf was right in front of a window.  Every time light came through that window it made the stereotypical big shadows that one sees in horror movies, so the setting was perfect.  On one particular weekend a middle-of-the-night thunderstorm came through, one of those that comes out of nowhere during warm weather and scares the crap out of small children with overactive imaginations.  I was old enough at that time to know that not all thunderstorms spawned tornadoes...but my sister wasn't, and I could hear her thrashing about in the bed.  Remembering that Cathy was still on the top of the shelf, lording over the both of us, I lay very still in my bed and growled in my best June-Foray-meets-Freddie-Krueger voice, "WILL YOU PLAY WITH ME???"
  Sister gasped in horror.  "Was that you?" she asked in a small, frightened voice.  Being the evil sister that I am, I lay completely still, not letting on that anything was out of the ordinary.  About five minutes passed and she lay down.  Still thirsting for a good prank I continued my charade, this time growling "I KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE!"  Sister gasped again and whimpered for awhile, while I went back to sleep.

I learned much, much later (about ten years after the fact) that my prank had some very long-lasting consequences.  Sister informed me that she cried under the cover for the rest of the night, and she NEVER liked dolls again.  At Christmas she received another American Girl doll (Samantha that time), and she never once played with her.  Nor did she want to play dolls with me, especially if I brought along the possessed Chatty Cathy.  Within a year of that prank she'd given me both Samantha and Molly, stating that she wanted nothing more to do with them, and she's hated dolls ever since.  On a very recent visit home she ventured back into my spare bedroom where I keep my inanimate crew, and her response to the sight was "Dammit, that's a lot of dolls."  I'm mean, you say?  Read the next story, which is a classic "God'll getcha for that" moment.

STORY #4
This story took place about five years ago.  By this time I'd extended my collection to include a few composition dolls, including Tommy and Sally (better known as the Creepy Babies)...

..Anita, who is also a little creepy...

...and Lili Marlene, who usually isn't creepy.

I don't know who made Tommy (he's unmarked), while Sally, Anita, and Lili are Horsman dolls.  I like Horsman dolls almost as much as I like Ideal dolls, but that's beside the point.  I don't remember why, but one night I lifted Lili out of her basket and put her on the bed next to my head.  I occasionally did this to dolls, but usually the one I did this for was my mother's old Kissy doll, who is much loved among the family and isn't even slightly creepy.

See?  Wouldn't harm a fly.  Anyway, I put Lili on my bed next to my pillow, snapped off the light, and went to sleep.  The next morning I unfortunately woke early (never a good thing on a Saturday) and the first thing I saw when I woke up was this.

"HOLY S**T!!!" I yelled, half-jumping out of bed.  Then I remembered that I'd put Lili there the night before, for reasons I'd since forgotten and still don't remember.  Mama, who was in the next room, heard nothing, but Sister did hear and came running.  When I told her what had happened she burst out laughing and responded "That's what you get for scaring me with that Chatty Cathy doll!"  Indeed, it was. 

STORY #5
This happened about a year ago, when I was new to the ball-jointed doll hobby and when Johnny was the only one I had.  I wagged him around with me everywhere, so pleased was I to have my first BJD, and one of the places we often went was my grandmother's place.  To set the scene, here's what Johnny was wearing on the evening this story took place.  Normally his glasses are on straight; I must've knocked them sideways when I set the picture up.

I didn't intend for Johnny to be this big of a fop, but sometimes ball-jointed dolls have minds of their own.  Anyway, one of my uncles resides with Grandma...I think I referred to him as Second Uncle in a past post (I have two of them).  Anywho, Second Uncle is pretty stuck on himself.  If it doesn't have anything to do with spies, exercise, boxing, lousy modern pop music, or some trashy-looking young female, he doesn't care about it.  I'd already told him twice before that Johnny was/is a boy doll, but apparently this had gone out of his head once again.  So there I was, getting a stubborn old recliner ready for sitting in.  Johnny was nestled on a cushion waiting to be picked up, and I suddenly realized that my rear was between the TV and Second Uncle's line of vision.
  "I'll get my butt out of your way in a minute," I reassured him.
  "Oh, don't mind me," Second Uncle responded.  "I'm just sitting here looking at your Barbie."
  "Oh, he's not a Barbie," I casually responded.
  "He?" came the shocked reply.
Third time wasn't the charm, either.  I constantly have to remind Second Uncle that Johnny and his friend Alistair are boys.  I'll admit that they both look a little girly when they're wearing yukata, but this happens even when they're NOT in yukata!

On the other hand, Second Uncle has been very positive about the hobby.  Grandma is humorously negative, reserving a special vitriol for Johnny's unorthodox wig.  One evening she glanced over at the doll, turned to Second Uncle,  and said "Don't you think he's the ugliest thing?"
  "No, I think he's kinda neat!" Second Uncle responded.  That one time he remembered that Johnny is a he.  Undeterred, Grandma begged me to "get that poor doll a new wig!"  Johnny's character is supposed to have uncombable hair syndrome, hence my admittedly odd choice for a wig and my refusal to change it.

STORY #6
This one is the most recent, and...let's just say that I never expected to have to yell something this weird at one of my cats.  I was putting the Little Miss Revlon review together when this incident happened.  Remember that one?

Underneath her green dress Wendy wears a little pair of underpants in matching fabric.  As with 99.9% of my dolls reviews I had to take the her clothes off (WANT HER TO BE SMOOF!!!).  I set the clothes (dress, sash, shoes, petticoat, undies) aside in a fairly neat pile, took the pictures I needed, and started the redressing process.  All this went as planned until the redressing step, when I surprisingly discovered that Wendy's cute little skivvies were MIA.  At the same time, I noticed that my youngest cat Lily (not to be confused with Lili the doll) was swatting something around the kitchen floor.  Something green and flowered...
  "HEY!!!  You gimmie back those panties!" I yelped.  It took a short chase around the kitchen table, but I got the panties back, and the petticoat that Lily had also absconded with.  Life with cats is rarely dull, but that's one thing I NEVER dreamed I'd have to say to Lily!

Soooo...do any of y'all have any good stories?  Share your memories.

Yours truly,
RagingMoon1987

Dolly Dress Discussion: Sun Jewel Barbie outfit

This post hearkens back to a summer many years ago, back in the days when summer break seemed to last forever, when Fourth of July meant a huge cookout and an equally huge cache of fireworks, when my sister and I were small enough to think that plastic kiddie pools were very deep.  Seriously, those things looked a mile wide and felt a mile deep when we were little.  Anyway, I remember one summer in particular...it had to have been the summer of '93, because my sister and I each received a doll from the Sun Jewel Barbie line.  She received a Teresa and I got a Kira.  Ken and Skipper were in there somewhere too, but they belonged to different lines.  Each Sun Jewel doll came with a sheet of stick-on jewels for doll and child to share back and forth, and when we weren't in the pool my sister and I played with those jewels nonstop.  We stuck them to each other, to our dolls, to the windows, to the walls...oh, what fun we had with those tiny stickers!  Indeed, when we moved out of that house six years ago I found a lone stick-on gem, still plastered to my bedroom window after all those years.

Of course time had to pass and we kids had to grow up.  I don't know whatever happened to my lovely Kira, but Sister's Teresa is still with us.  I stopped calling her "Teresa" long ago, favoring the name "Sonja" in order to differentiate her from other Teresa dolls (I have several).

I don't know how I managed to do it, but somehow I got Sonja jammed into this Cali Girl Lea swimsuit, a swimsuit that's intended for a doll with a much slimmer body.  This Sun Jewel line had some gorgeous faces, by the way.  Sonja is a knockout, and so is her glittering beach buddy Shani.  Both of them have metallic green highlights in their eyes.

Sonja lost her clothing (a green swimsuit) in a very humorous incident involving my sister and her odd treatment of Barbie dolls as a child, and being the way I've been lately I wanted an extra outfit for her.  Here it is!

Sonja and Shani will likely get to share this, as they're both in the Sun Jewel line, and silver and white match every skin tone imaginable.  All of the Sun Jewel outfits were in this color scheme, so it's impossible to go wrong.  Unlike most of the other outfits I've got, I just chose a random outfit from the line and was done with it.  Most of the other outfits I picked were due to a fondness for a certain color scheme or style, but all these Sun Jewel sets are quite similar to one another.  However, there was one crucial thing omitted from an otherwise stellar clothing line.  The Sun Jewel series included Ken, dressed in a swimsuit that was...not the most masculine, shall we say.  There were extra outfits available for Ken and his handful of male buddies...but the Sun Jewel line had nothing for boys.  Four outfits, and they were all for the girls.

Poor Ken, left out again!  Gee whiz, what was poor ol' Ken in the early nineties, chopped liver?  As far as I know, Mattel didn't start releasing Ken clothes on a more widespread level until Fashion Avenue debuted in 1995, and he STILL doesn't get the treatment Barbie gets.  But that's enough blather.  This outfit looks like it's going to be fun to review!

This is one of the more elaborate outfits I've got for reviewing, having four pieces plus shoes.  What I thought was a top is actually a star-spangled swimsuit.

The presence of this swimsuit instantaneously renders the whole ensemble worthy of comparison to the Barbie Dolphin Magic outfits that I reviewed earlier in the week.  With that, let's look at Sonja's new clothes.  The swimsuit is made of white stretchy fabric with silver stars printed on, and the bodice has a small gathering at the bust.

The sleeves/straps are made of stretchy silver material that feels fragile.

The back closes with Velcro, and I wish it didn't.  I always prefer snaps on material like this, because Velcro has a penchant to snag.  It's nice to see the print extending around the back, though.

This swimsuit would've looked cute with some kind of ruffle along the legs, but Mattel didn't do that.  For some weird reason, the sleeves make me think of ruffles and wish for one last little dash of silver.  But then again, ruffles on the legs would've made it harder to put these pants on.

These are simple white knee-length shorts, made out of stretch fabric and tailored to fit.  They can be worn with another top or over the swimsuit.

For reasons I'll never know, Mattel included a second coverup in the form of a sarong.

At first glance this looks like it might tie closed, but it doesn't.  It's got Velcro tabs.  The bit that looks like it'll tie is just for decoration, and for some reason, it looks like a leaf.

Okay, that's three pieces.  What did I forget.  Oh yeah, this thing.

This thing is supposed to be a child-sized charm bracelet and indeed, it fits easily around my own wrist.  I'm not about to wear this thing in public, though; there's no rule against it at the library, but I think I might get some strange looks.  Luckily, this bracelet can also double as an accessory for Barbie, so I don't have to wear it.  The cord is made out of white and silver woven threads...

...with Velcro at the ends.

The three charms fit in with the Sun Jewel theme by being sparkly.  Two are plastic "gems" in the form of a blue star and a pink oval, and the largest one is a purple cloth flower.

These come off the bracelet easily and can be used as hair baubles or some other adornment for the doll.  They serve this purpose quite well too.

Lastly, shoes.  They are the high-heeled pumps that we've all seen in reviews past, but in another new color that I've not yet owned:  clear with silver glitter.

Like so many other things that Barbie had during my youth, I took these pumps for granted and now miss them dearly.  The mold is plain and ordinary, but it's also very versatile so I can see why Mattel used it a lot.

Now to Sonja.  I fixed her hair a little and put her in her new swimsuit. 

I showed the outfit with all pieces involved, but this getup can be worn without the shorts, or without the sarong, or with just the swimsuit.

The necklace can be worn in a number of ways as well.  It can serve as a lei, a belt, or a sash.

It makes for a passable choker too.

I was hoping I could use this as a headband too, but it looked silly.  I love this outfit, though.  With its multiple pieces in a neutral color scheme it can be mixed and matched with any other Barbie-sized outfit.  It will also look good on any doll I put it on; I didn't try this outfit on Shani, but Shani rocks everything I put her in so I know she'll look good in this.  Given the star theme, this might also look good on my All-American Teresa doll, Pilar.  I'll have to give that a whirl.

Next outfit is the last of my swimsuits.  I'm hoping I'll get it up tomorrow, but no promises.

Cheers,
RagingMoon1987