Throwback Thursday review: Ideal Look Around Crissy

In the time between Cherry Merry Muffin's review and this one I've learned that it's possible to automatically post these posts (just set the schedule for the date and time you want and then hit "publish").  This knowledge has taken a tremendous load off my shoulders, as sometimes I sleep late or am busy on Thursday mornings and don't get my reviews published until later in the day.  All I have to do now is make sure the post is up-to-date and complete before the scheduled time!  With that out of the way, let's begin.  This review will be one that is in the same vein as Penny Brite's review, in that I've had the doll awhile and showed her on the blog before, but never really thought to review her until now.  I'm a hardcore Ideal fan and a casual Crissy fan, so what better time to review her?  Crissy (sometimes spelt "Chrissy") came with several gimmicks during her run in the sixties and seventies, and this one is the "Look Around" version.

Crissy was the center of a line of dolls that spanned parts of three decades, and the focus of the line was on hair play.  Crissy and all her friends and family had hair that grew, not unlike Tressy's hair, which is ironic considering that Ideal turned down Tressy's prototype (a Patti Playpal-sized doll named "Suzy Snippet") on the grounds that no one would "want a doll with a hole in its head"!  Then after American Character tanked, Ideal bought all the patents and the seeds for Crissy were sewn.  Rather ironic, I think, that the company that assumed no one would buy a doll with a hole in its head would be the company that made a killing.  Or at least I THINK Crissy sold well; she was around in some way, shape, or form until 1983, and she had a bootle of friends and family members (one friend was even named Tressy).  Given those factors and the amount of information that is available online, I think it would be fair to say that Crissy was popular.  They weren't the prettiest dolls on the planet, but apparently that hair was fun to play with.  After all, it did grow.

Crissy's hair is red, and her hair mech functions in a manner similar to American Character's version of Tressy.  There are some differences, which I'll show when I do the body review.  But the head?  Not much difference there.  Tressy has a chin-length bob of rooted hair with a longer shank that pulls out, and Crissy does too...or she did.  Someone cut her base hair, which would normally be grounds for me to launch on a tirade about destructive little brats, but in this case someone actually did a pretty good job!  Crissy now has a fringe cut rather than a bob, and it's really not bad at all.

I detect no signs of abuse to this hair, no big clumps of missing hair or lines of empty plugs, and the fall works as it should.  The rooted hair is a little thin around the fall, though I suspect that may be normal.

The fibers in the fall show some wear; notice that the end are a little frizzy.

It still makes a good smooth braid, though!  My particular Crissy has hair that falls to her hips, by the way.  The earliest Crissy dolls had hair that would grow "right down to her toes," as the commercial put it, while all dolls from the second wave onward had their hair shortened to about hip level.  The slogan was changed too, with Crissy now having "hair that grows and grows."  I love those commercials, by the way; they're very dated for today's sensibilities, but they're also very cute, and they show the kids actually playing with the doll and acting like they're having fun.  Remember that I took issue with that back when Moschino Barbie was a thing, with those little kids gushing on and on about a doll they can't actually play with.  Digression over, Look Around Crissy is one of those later dolls with hip-length hair.  Here her fall is fully extended and hanging loose.

When the fall is all the way retracted...well, that's when Crissy's chopped locks get a little problematic.  When Crissy's fall is fully retracted it's supposed to be even with her base hair like my Tressy's hair is.  I refer y'all again to Tressy's review.  Now notice how Crissy's fall hangs when it's fully retracted.  Due to her haircut the fall does not hang seamlessly over the base hair like Tressy's does...and due to age Crissy ends up looking like a sheepdog when she wears her hair like this anyway.

I like Crissy's fringe cut the way it is, so a reroot is out of the question for now.  I may attempt a reroot in the future, but my current solution to the problem?  Leave the fall all the way out, and braid it to keep it out of the way.  Problem solved.

The rest of Crissy's head is made out of vinyl.  She wears no earrings (which would've been a cute touch) and very little makeup.  Her sleep eyes have cheerful, light brown eyebrows, thick rooted upper eyelashes, and painted lower lashes.  The eyes themselves are...BLACK???

Yep, black!  I refer you back to Crissy's commercial, where a child says "She has beautiful eyes!"  Like fish, she does.  These are darker than my MiM doll Hailey's eyes are, and that's saying a lot!  I assume the eyes are supposed to look brown, and I guess in certain lighting they do look brown, but I'm still not a fan.  The eyes aren't moldy though, so that's a good thing.  These Crissy dolls can sometimes get this icky-looking white mold on their eyes, and guess what?  IT'S CONTAGIOUS!!!  The mold can be removed and eradicated with little fuss, but I'm glad I don't have to contend with that and I hope I never will.

Moving lower, Crissy's cheeks are lightly blushed, and her open smile consists of pale pink lips and a narrow band of white paint for teeth.  She's got some nice molded smile lines too.

When they said Crissy's makeup was sparse, they meant it was sparse!  Not too shabby for a doll that's supposed to be a preteen, though.

Speaking of preteen, great time to segue into the body.  Crissy is of similar height to dolls like American Girl and My Life...

...but she's quite a bit slimmer than both Denise and Alissa are.

Being a preteen doll means that Crissy does not have a lot of definition all over, with a mostly flat chest and a curveless waist. Some Crissy dolls did have flat little nipples molded on, but my doll doesn't have those.  She does have all her mechanisms here, though; from the front it's possible to see a button and what looks like a waist joint.

From the back Crissy's hair knob and a butterfly-shaped pull cord are visible.  Notice that her lower torso is held together with three screws...and notice where one of those screws is!

Remember when I said that Crissy's gimmick was slightly different from Tressy's?  This is how it differs.  Tressy's fall is retracted with a key, while Crissy has this knob.  Turn the knob in back, and the fall retracts.  Push the button in front and gently pull on the fall, and the fall pulls out.  It's as simple as that.  I once thought that Crissy's fall no longer functioned, particularly since non-functioning gimmicks are fairly common among dolls this age, but the fall winds up with very little fuss.  The butterfly is a little more complicated, as this activates Crissy's "look around" mechanism.  To get the mech to work, simply pull the butterfly (gently) and then release it.  Crissy's upper body will then rotate back and forth like so...or it should.  Here's what happened when I tried to activate the mech (cheesy video warning).

Yeah, that's a bummer.  I try to keep my dolls nice, so I'm a little peeved with myself over that.  The cord did eventually retract on its own...two days later, while I was cleaning my dolly room and Crissy was lying under a pile of doll dresses.  I jumped out of my skin when I saw that pile of clothing move!  Truthfully though, I don't think the look-around gimmick was all that special, especially when Ideal already had a Crissy that talked.  To me the talking gimmick is better than the "look around" gimmick, at least for a child.  Talking dolls tend to make games of make-believe a little more interesting.

It should be fairly obvious by now that Crissy is made of hard plastic, with the exception of her arms (and her head, of course).  Her hands are among the most expressive I've ever seen; they're slender and delicate, molded into some very graceful positions.

It would've been great if Crissy's elbows could bend so she could put those dainty little hands to good use, but alas, she can't.

Crissy's legs are not as expressive as her hands, but then again I don't guess legs are supposed to be terribly expressive.  She has little kneecaps visible, with a mild but not terrible case of cankles.

The feet are small, especially for a doll this size, with elevated heels and toes that are slightly sculpted in.

Without shoes Crissy cannot stand on her own.  Usually when I stand her (propped up, of course) she stands with her knees and feet together, as seen above.  However, I've gathered from online images that when wearing her shoes Crissy had to adopt a more wide-legged stance in order to stay up.  I wouldn't know for sure, because I don't have any shoes for Crissy yet.  When I do get some shoes I'll update this post and let y'all know how she really stands.

Since my Crissy doesn't have a waist joint or a neck joint, her repertoire of poses is very limited.  She has rotational movement in her shoulders and hips, but that's it.  She's largely restricted to standing, sitting, and slightly robotic arm motions, like so.

Also, because Crissy's hips are V-cut, she has to sit in a mildly unladylike position.

I'm more inclined to forgive this though, because I've got dolls Crissy's size that sit way worse.  Remember how Xenia sits???  She's gotten better with time, but she'll never be a champ sitter.

Poor Xenia.  Those eighteen-inch My Twinn dolls could've been miniatures of their larger selves, but...no.

Now to clothes.  When I bought Crissy, and when she first appeared in the blog, she was wearing a sage-green dress.  In the time that I've owned this doll I've managed to acquire her original dress, but not her shoes or panties.  Both those would've matched her dress; the shoes were forest green, and the drawers were made out of the same fabric as the dress.

Of all the stock outfits that Crissy came in, I think this one is the prettiest.  These dolls wore some cute things during her run, but I absolutely love this dress.  Let's put my adulation aside for a moment though and look at it with a more critical eye.  The dress is made out of plaid taffeta, one of my favorite fabrics.

I can't photograph this part, but the dress smells vaguely of vinegar.  I think I may have washed this dress in the past before I stored it away, and that's what gave it the smell.  Looks like it's gonna need another bath!  Anyway, the colors are still bright after all these years, so that's some good news.  The sleeves are fitted and have pleated frills on them.

The neck has this same frill.  I thought maybe it should lie down, but stock photos show it standing up like an old-fashioned high-neck dress.

The bottom hem does not have a frill; rather, it's trimmed with white eyelet that needs a little more cleaning.

The waist is trimmed by this red and white ribbon (it goes all the way around instead of stopping at the waist seams), and the "sash" is in turn trimmed by a pink flower that's seen better days.  I need to reattach the flower, by the way; it's only held on with one stitch and that stitch is getting loose.

For the most part the dress is in good shape, but there are some unfortunate signs of wear.  The hem and one sleeve each have some loose threads...

 

...and worse, there are a few small holes here and there.  Thankfully, they're little holes and don't show too much.  This makes me think of the Christmas gown I have for Felicity, though; it's made out of taffeta like Crissy's dress is.  I'd better take care of it so it doesn't get holes like this.

To my great surprise, this dress opens up all the way in back like a hospital gown.  It is held closed with three metal snaps (notice a hole in close proximity to this particular snap).

Since this dress does open up like a hospital gown, it shows a little of Crissy's backside...just like a hospital gown, but not quite as bad.  Still, the three snaps that hold the dress closed are not enough to preserve Crissy's modesty.  Since this dress DOES gap open, I can see why this particular Crissy was sold with panties that matched the dress, but as I said above my doll's drawers are missing in action and presumed long-dead.  So I bought her these.

I love rhumba panties on dolls!  These came from idressdolls.com, who as far as I know does not carry these any more.  They're made of white satin and have the prerequisite lace panels that all good rhumba panties should have.

They fit Crissy well, but the waistband sometimes slips into her waist joint.  This is more of an aesthetic problem than a mechanical one, so I'll let that slide.

The dress (and indeed, the outfit as a whole) is strictly for Crissy, as it's very fitted and would have no chance of fitting over the chunky American Girl/My Twinn bodies or the slightly slimmer My Life bodies.  Even my next-slimmest girl Ana Ming can't wear this dress.

"Nope."

When the tables are turned Crissy doesn't have too many options either.  B.F.C. Ink clothes are too small, and most of everything else is too big.  Xenia's pajamas are too big...

...as is Alissa's flower fairy costume (which I never took her out of until now)...

...and Denise's cute ladybug dress is WAY too big.

Ana Ming's dresses do fit and look a little nicer, but they're loose as well.  I'd put Crissy in this blue one again, though.

This outfit is one that is supposed to fit those big Barbie dolls that have been in stores, but just for grins I tried it on Crissy.  It drowns her and looks better on Ana Ming.

I also have some items that I crocheted for Crissy, but those came out hit-and-miss too; some are too big and some are just right.  The red dress came out perfect, for example, while the yellow dress is a bit too big.

One of my knitted dresses is just plain bizarre.  Dig this!

Even so, Crissy is easy to sew and knit for, and if I dig around online a bit she's easy to buy for too.  Prepare for a tangent...and a commercial as well.  As I said earlier in this review, most of the Crissy dolls available had adorable stock clothes.  The Look Around dress is my absolute favorite without a doubt, but I also like the dress that black Crissy dolls wore for the first few waves.  Crissy's white self got an orange lace number that was becoming but didn't jive too well with her coloring, while the black dolls got the same dress in...guess what color.  My favorite color:  GREEN!!!  It's one of my favorite shades too, being Granny Smith apple green.  It looked great on Crissy's dark vinyl and would look great with my Crissy's red hair, but these dresses are hard to find in decent shape.  That lace tears like mad, apparently...but all is not lost!  Jan's Doll Closet offers a reproduction of the apple green dress, and it's affordable!  I've seen other things at Jan's Doll Closet, so a dolly dress discussion may be in the not-too-distant future.  The shop also offers a dress for Crissy that somewhat resembles a Dollheart fer, so that one may also go on my wish list.  By the way...why, OH WHY do Dollheart fers only come in SD sizes???  I'd love one or two in MSD size for my girls.

Lastly, I don't have any shoes that will fit Crissy...AT.  ALL.  My Life shoes are too big...

...as are these off-brand shoes that my American Girls wear...

...and Xenia's bunny slippers...

...AND Ana Ming's slippers.

Ana Ming does have a pair of sparkly sandals that almost fit Crissy...

...but they're very loose too.  Crissy is proving to be harder to shoe than to dress; that was why I bought that stupid B.F.C. Ink outfit in the first place (those shoes were too big too, by the way).

That squares it away, so let's wrap this puppy up!

BAD
*I BROKE HER LOOK-AROUND MECH!!!!  That isn't a huge loss really, but the principle of it irks me.  I don't usually break dolls.
*Eyes are too dark; they look a little lifeless.
*My particular doll has thinning hair around her fall.
*Posing is poor
*Can't share clothes with any of my other dolls
*Dress is showing wear, though that's due to age, not shoddy construction.

GOOD
*Hair-grow mech still works.  I'm not sure how sturdy that mech is, but I'm glad it works.
*Face is expressive, but not too much so; not all dolls have this level of character in their face, and some of Crissy's friends and family have too much!
*Hair is in decent shape.  It's a little thin in places and the fall is a little frizzy, but otherwise this hair is in good condition.
*Dress is nicely constructed and fits Crissy like a glove
*Arms are graceful; I don't normally see hands that are this nicely sculpted.
*Clothes are fairly easy to find or make if one knows where to look.  The internet has patterns, and online shops have a few ready-made outfits.

This doll is worth the effort for those who like hair-play dolls, or for those who like to sew, or for those who owned a doll like this and want another one.  Word of caution to those who may want a Look Around doll though:  don't try to turn the doll's head!  I suspect very strongly that that's how I broke my doll's look-around feature, and I'm still kicking myself over that.  Also, if the dark eyes give you the creeps, I'd skip this one and go with a Velvet or one of Crissy's other friends; their eyes look more alive.  Despite Crissy's dark eyes, stiff limbs, and current difficulty to dress, I can see why these dolls were popular way back when.  They have sweet, approachable faces, and what little girl doesn't love to play with their dolly's hair?

As a last little tidbit, here's something cute I took for a Facebook group.

I think it was during the taking of this picture that I broke Crissy's look-around mech.  I turned her head to see if it would turn, and I guess I broke the mech that way.  No great loss, I guess.

Much love,

RagingMoon1987

On American Girl's Create Your Own line

Today American Girl launched (after some delays, I've read) the Create Your Own line.  The Truly Me line offers a lot of nice options including three bald dolls to simulate cancer and alopecia patients, but up until now one had to specially request a custom doll or make one themselves.  Not anymore!  According to both the wiki and to Lissie and Lilly one can cherry-pick a doll's features with the Create Your Own option.  There are to be five face molds, three skin tones, seven eye colors, thirteen hairstyles, six hair colors, six outfits, six accessory sets, and options for other things like glasses, braces, earrings, hearing aids, and freckles.  That's a lot of stuff to choose from, folks!  The hair alone has 112 possible variations based on the large number of styles and colors.

I don't know about y'all, but this custom option looks pretty darned enticing.  I can think of multiple companies that offered dolls that were at least semi-customizable...and as far as I know none of them are in existence anymore.  Lorifina, Make it Mine, and My Twinn are discontinued, Mattel's custom Barbie line has been out for at least a decade and a half, and the Makies appear to be gone as well.  I'm particularly miffed about not getting a Makie when I had the chance, by the way.  I'd loved to have seen if they could share clothes with a Hujoo Berry.  Monkfish might know...she has a Berry like mine and several Makies.  I'll ask her if they can share.

The main problem with this custom option is that it's quite expensive.  At the time of writing the asking price for a Create Your Own doll is two hundred bucks.  Compare that to the eighty-two bucks that my parents paid for Felicity back in the day, and to the one hundred fifteen that Felicity's reissue costs.  One-fifteen is a hefty chunk of money for a doll, but two hundred is even steeper.  Nevertheless, the idea is still an interesting one, one that I've already been tinkering around with.  If I had two hundred bucks to spare, here's what my custom doll would look like.

My doll will likely have a medium skin tone with green eyes and red hair in a pixie cut.  Her head mold will likely be the Josefina mold (referred to online as the "B" head).  I'll want her ears pierced and her nose freckled, and it's hard to tell from that picture, but I picked braces as well.  She will be dressed in this green "flower child" outfit (Let's Daydream) with the matching hippie-style accessories (not pictured).  And since I'm going all out with this little gal I even filled out options for a background (I chose the farm), a favorite hobby (arts and crafts), and a favorite pet (cats, of course).  Hmmm...maybe two hundred dollars isn't such a bad price after all considering what all I can pick!  I can even pick a doll that has heterochromia if I want, which is an option that I don't think My Twinn offered.  As for a name...well, I've always been fond of the name "Nevaeh," and I don't yet have a doll named that, so this doll may be my Nevaeh.

It may be a long time before Nevaeh gets to come home with me, but she'll remain a pipe dream of mine for the time being.  Maybe some sort of present for myself, maybe something to celebrate my first year heading Malden Library without a huge screwup, or to commemorate finally getting my driver's license.  Something silly like that.  When I do order this dolly I'll let y'all know.  If y'all want Talolili's opinion on this, give me a holler and I'll ask her what she thinks.  She's a big American Girl fan herself.  I'm also curious to see what Miss Emily thinks; she has Keira, Lea, and some neat accessories already, but this customization option looks like something she'd like.  Beastsbelle has already had some fun with the options; her post and some of her creations can be found here.

Much love,
RagingMoon1987

LMAO

I just want to apologize for posting a review on the Funville Sparkle Girlz without actually completing the review!  Here lately I've been scheduling reviews for automatic posting on a certain  time and date, and to do that you have to hit "save," then "publish."  If the date is set for a certain time in the future the post will be marked "scheduled" and it'll linger in Draft form until the date comes.  I have no set date for the Sparkle Girlz review, so when I hit "save" and "publish" it got published in its current, very rudimentary state!  So this is my first big foible with this blog, and I hope y'all will get a chuckle out of it.  I wish to extend my gratitude to our follower Phyllis for calling me out on it, and for showing interest in the post in the first place.

To keep this from being a totally boring post, here's my Sparkle Girlz, Kayleigh (left) and Larkspur, the latter of whom I introduced yesterday.

I would've taken them outside and taken advantage of the beautiful weather we've been having, but praise God, today it decided to rain HARD.  I love sunshine, but we really needed the rain.  The farmers particularly needed it, as the corn was starting to look a little droopy.  Maybe Tuesday will be better.

God bless,
RagingMoon1987

About a blue-haired fairy...

In a semi-recent post I griped about a lack of fantasy hair colors among ethnic dolls.  Oh sure, they're out there.  Mattel has plenty, but they're the type that have specialized bodies and rebodying a doll of color can be a pain in the patootie.  So I created a post griping about that and other things, and wouldn't you know, I went to Wal-Mart tonight and found this!

Do my eyes deceive me, or is that a doll of color with hair of color???  Yes indeed, I saw this young lady peering out at me from a rack of Sparkle Girlz, and I just had to have her.   Her hair is blue all over, too!  It's not just a few streaks.

The rack had several of these fairy dolls, every single one was different...and almost all of them were black with some sort of fantasy hair color.  I regrettably did not photograph the others, but one had orange hair, one had lavender hair, and one had black hair with royal blue streaks in it.  The white dolls were equally fun to behold, but they didn't make as big an impression on me.

I hope that Funville will keep making dolls with color combos like this, because this one looks fantastic.  Now she needs a name and a proper review!

Cheers,
RagingMoon1987

Throwback Thursday review: Cherry Merry Muffin

RagingMoon1987 back with Throwback Thursday, and this doll is about as different from last week's doll as night is from day.  Is it just me, or did the eighties and early nineties have a fascination with sweet-smelling, brightly colored dolls themed around baked goods and visual effects?  Rainbow Brite and Jem focused heavily on the visual side of things, while for those who loved junk food there was the Strawberry Shortcake line, the Cupcakes line, and this doll, Cherry Merry Muffin.

This is my original second-wave Cherry Merry Muffin doll, believe it or not.  Why I got rid of my MLP collection and my old Cupcakes doll but kept this one, I'll never know.  I do know though that this was what I desperately wanted for Christmas back in...oh, the year had to have been 1989, because that was the year that this particular doll was available.  I was two then, still an only child, and I didn't play with dolls much at all, but the cute commercial and the promise of a cherry-scented doll won my toddler heart.  When asked what I wanted for Christmas that year, my response was prompt:  "I wanna Cherry Merry Muffin doll!"  Obviously I ended up with my doll, and nearly three decades later, I still have her!  I even yanked her out of the throw-away pile one time, loudly insisting that she stay even though her hair was matted and her clothes were dusty.

The best thing about digging around for information about an old doll is that you discover all sorts of neat stuff that you didn't know beforehand.  When I started doing research for this post I thought that Cherry Merry Muffin was just a cute little one-off.  Wrong answer.  Lose all your money, go directly to jail.  I loved the commercial when I was a little kid, but I obviously didn't remember all of it or I would've remembered that Cherry enjoyed several waves, and each wave had a different theme with new friends.  My doll dates from the cake-themed second wave, which was released in 1989, as I noted above.  Cherry was very much like both Strawberry Shortcake and the Cupcakes in that she was cute little doll that...well, she didn't really do anything.  She just looked cute and smelled nice.  My doll has most of her pieces, though she's missing her comb...and maybe some underpants???  I can't remember what this doll had on underneath, or even if she had anything.  She's got everything else though, including this hat.

The hat is a large pink and white cupcake-shaped piece of plastic.  The presence of a cupcake-shaped hat on a muffin-themed doll threw me for a loop until I remembered this doll came from a wave that had a cake theme.  Lemme see...I typed that...'bout five minutes ago???  How quickly I forget, and how strange that I can remember a conversation I had twenty-eight years ago, but can't remember what I just typed!  Anyway, the hat was once held on with a strand of elastic (the nice kind, the kind that was wrapped in thread), but the elastic gave out long ago so I cut a ribbon off a balloon and tied the hat to Cherry's head that way.

Yep, that piece of ribbon is around twenty-five years old!  When I was a little kid I was an expert jerry-rigger; when I needed something tied together, I used bits of ribbon and dental floss.  It worked very well at the time, but it looks a little silly now, with that ribbon being orange instead of pink.  Easy fix!  Anyway, according to the box this hat could double as a bracelet for the kid that owned the doll.  Since I was two when I got the doll I didn't see that part, nor did the idea of using the hat as a bracelet ever occur to me.  It would've made a cumbersome bracelet anyway, seeing as it's about two inches tall from brim to stem.

The brim is unpainted and molded to look like a fluted cupcake wrapper.  The upper part is painted pink with white molded/painted icing, pink sprinkles, and a big cherry on top!

The paint job has stood up fairly well to the test of time.  It's rubbed a little thin in places but overall it's in good shape.

Underneath the hat Cherry has a head full of waist-length blonde hair.  It's much thicker than the hair of her fellow baked good, Lime Chiffon.

Needless to say I had to give Cherry a hair wash before this review.  Like both Lime Chiffon and my Cupcakes doll Beri Blue, Cherry still had vestiges of her original scent before I washed her.  Now she smells softly of Dawn and conditioner, which is nice enough, but I think I preferred her smelling faintly of cherries.  The hair bounced back very well, though.  I'll have to give Cherry a longer stay in THE PLASTIC BAG OF DOOM before I'm fully satisfied, but this will do for now.  As to the overall look, Cherry's hair is thick and is done up in crimps that were so popular during the late eighties and early nineties.  She originally came with the front portion tied up, so I redid that.

In the front she's got a full set of curved bangs.

Very simple, kid-friendly hair.  Short but thick, easy to play with and easy to wash.  It tangles easily, but the short style makes it a snap to comb out.

Cherry has an expression similar to Beri's, with an open-toothed, wide-eyed, apple-cheeked grin.  She's a smidge wall-eyed as well.

Cherry has eyebrows that are slightly orange in color, plus eyeshadow that matches.  Her eyes are two shades of blue and are set at a slant, which I assume is meant to make them smile along with her mouth.

If I get the camera angled just right her eyes genuinely do look like they're smiling...but if I get the camera angle wrong Cherry looks just as devious as Beri Blue!

Her cheeks are lightly blushed and have molded dimples, and her lips are an appropriate shade of pink with a band of white teeth.

When viewed from the side Cherry appears to be sticking her tongue out.  Here it's also possible to see what a dinky little nose she has.

No earrings for Cherry.  Fair enough, considering that she's supposed to be a fairly young child, but I've got to admit that little cherry studs would've been a nice touch.  She's got cute little ears though, earrings or no.

Basically, Cherry is your generically cute little doll in the face with a touch of spunk.  She doesn't look constantly mischievous like Beri Blue does, but she can look just as ornery.  As an aside, my little doll has a different head mold from that of her 1988 self, and she also has a different molds than the one that her cake-themed friends used.  All of the dolls in 1988 had a closed smile, as did all of Cherry's friends in the 1989 cake line.  Go figure; I kind of like the closed smile better, but beggars can't be choosers, right?

As with many dolls of her era, Cherry is dressed in an outfit that is sparkly, pink, very cute, and maybe a bit over the top.

It's a little dress, but there's quite a bit to talk about, as there are at least three types of fabric and three types of trim involved.  The bodice is made of fabric that is dominantly white, with some arboristic pink patterns printed on.

By contrast, the sleeves (which are really just gathered strips of cloth) are made of pink fabric with white polka dots.  As some of y'all may remember, I'm extremely fond of polka dots.

Part of Cherry's skirt is made of this same polka-dot fabric.

Topping Cherry's sleeves are small crescents of iridescent fabric.

This same fabric is used for a large ruffle on the skirt.

This iridescent fabric is thin but stiff, and it holds wrinkles like mad.  Cherry has a section of skirt that won't lie flat due to this fondness for wrinkling.

The bodice is trimmed with this cute plastic cupcake button.  The frosting on this button is yellow, making me wish that this outfit had more splashes of yellow added in.  I love pink and yellow together.

The dress is trimmed with lace in multiple places, and this trimming varies almost as much as the fabric itself.  The sleeves and neckline are trimmed with stuff like this...

...while the skirt is trimmed with stuff like this.

Mattel was still using snaps in 1989, but Cherry's dress fastens in the back with a small patch of Velcro.  This isn't a huge deal here because none of these fabrics should snag.

Over her skirt Cherry wears a small apron.  It's made from more of that iridescent fabric and is trimmed with both a strip of iridescent pink cord and the same lace that trims the skirt.  This apron is held on with a strip of pink satin ribbon.

Okay, so Cherry's getup isn't as over the top as some other dolls from this era, but that's one busy little outfit!  I don't mind the presence of two different lace shapes on this dress, but it does make the overall look a little less cohesive.  I also wish that the cake theme were a little more obvious, as the presence of all that iridescent fabric makes me think more of ice slivers and frozen treats like ice cream.  Ice cream WAS used as a theme for these dolls, but the ice cream wave didn't see daylight until 1990.  The ice cream line didn't use iridescent fabric either; they appear to have gone heavily on the tulle instead.

Being a little girl doll, Cherry has a little girl doll body.

No boobies or dinky waists or impossibly long legs...I've never been one to beg toy companies for realistic toys, but I still like seeing this little gal shaped like the child she is supposed to be.  Her little tummy even sticks out a bit!  Poseability is nothing to write home about though, as Cherry's shoulders and hips can only swivel.  She can lift and move her arms...

...and she can sit with no problems.

Splits are a no-go due to the way Cherry's little tooshie is shaped.

Cherry's neck can swivel, and to my great surprise it can also tip a teensy bit in all directions.  I never manipulated her neck much when I was a child, so I had no idea she could tip her head.

Cherry's T-strap shoes are molded and painted on, in a shade of pink that matches her dress.

Cherry's hands are molded like they were meant to hold accessories.  See how they're in a slight gripping position?

My doll originally came with both a tray of muffins and a comb, but God only knows where that comb ended up.  The muffins are made of pink plastic and once smelled delectable, even more so than the doll herself.

They detach from the tray, like so.  Here it's easy to see that while there are six muffins, they are all interlocked into one piece, I assume so they wouldn't get lost.

Cherry can indeed hold the tray, but strangely it doesn't fit into her hands.  I have to balance it on top of her arms like so...

...and even then the tray often slides off or makes the doll top-heavy so that she tips over.  That's a shame that Cherry can't hold these any better than she can, because when I do get the muffins properly balanced she looks adorable.

I haven't tinkered around with clothes sharing much here, because there isn't really a lot that Cherry can share with her like-sized friends.  Penny Brite is too skinny, Suzy Cute is too chunky in the torso, and Lime Chiffon is just too small altogether.  So at the moment I'm at a complete loss for extra outfits unless I want to dig around on eBay for some things. 

I've said everything I can think of, so time to wrap it up.

BAD
*Scented doll, therefore she might aggravate allergies.  I've only recently learned that scented dolls can do this, even though I should've known it all along.
*Face is generically pretty and can look mean from some angles
*Dress wrinkles
*Hair tangles easily
*Can't wear other dolls' clothes
*Can't easily hold her tray of muffins

GOOD
*Hair tangles easily, but can be untangled easily
*Theme is child-friendly and matches well with several other dolls of the era
*Outfit is cute and well-made
*The smell, when the doll was new, was not terribly overpowering.  Some scented dolls can be rather cloying, but this gal was not.
*Shoes won't get lost
*Accessories are/were relevant to the theme, instead of being random bits and bobs of crap.
*Cute!

Cherry Merry Muffin lacks the charm that the Strawberry Shortcake line had, but she is a very cute doll in her own right.  I had to nitpick a little to find things wrong with her, but she does have issues.  My main problem with this doll is probably a result of her age and improper storage in the past:  her skirt won't lie flat.  This is likely something that I can fix with a warm, damp cloth and a hair dryer, so no sweat.  My favorite thing about this doll, both now and when I was little, is that her shoes can't fall off.  Sure, they're pink and don't go with everything, but when a doll belongs to a small child those molded-on shoes are a godsend.  Removable shoes can be easily lost and worse, they can be a choking hazard if the doll in question is geared toward small children.  I knew better than to put things in my mouth at the age of two, but not every kid does.  So if this were a doll of today I'd recommend her to a kid in a heartbeat.  Would I recommend her to a collector though?  Well...not unless said collector owned one as a kid, or if said collector just likes Cherry's cute face.  This is strictly a toy, collectible only to nostalgia lovers or fans of Strawberry Shortcake and toys of the eighties or nineties.  That being said, I'm glad I still have mine.  I didn't keep too many of my toys from that era, but this is one I did keep and I'm very happy I did.

For reasons that should be obvious, I originally wanted to have a three-part series on these sweet-smelling foodstuff dolls, but...well, life happened.  For grins, here's Lime, Cherry, and Beri all together.

Cherry is the least original of the three, having come long after Strawberry Shortcake and not being as innovative as the Cupcakes are/were, but she still makes a good companion to Lime and Beri.  I love how they're all different colors, by the way.  If I'd kept my childhood Cupcakes doll I'd have had two that were wearing pink, so maybe it's a good thing that I gave her away.  As I've said before, I like pink but I find it overused in the doll world, though it suits Cherry nicely.  This flavorful troupe needs a doll dressed in yellow, though...maybe Lucy Lemon from the Jelly Bean line???  I just can't get over my current fascination with yellow!  By the way (tangent alert!), the Cherry Merry Muffin line did not have a lime-flavored character, probably for reasons I can understand.  Lime is a good flavor for lots of treats, but I doubt it would work too well in muffins or cake unless one wanted to use the zest.  A lime-flavored character might have worked out well in the ice cream wave, but I guess Mattel didn't think about that.  The Strawberry Shortcake line did have a cherry-flavored character though; she was Cherry Cuddler, one of the babies, and she was adorable.  Beri's line of Cupcakes had a cherry-flavored character as well; her name was...(pauses to consult Google)...Cherry Chip.  Her pink is a much more garish shade than Cherry Merry Muffin's is.  It's just now occurring to me...if I had all three cherry-themed dolls, I'd have three dolls from three different lines with the same first name!  Lordy, glad I didn't do that!

As a final little tidbit, Tam at PLANET OF THE DOLLS has a review up about her own Cherry Merry Muffin, which is a first-wave doll.  Tam was quite a bit older than I was during the eighties and doesn't have the same nostalgic feelings for Cherry that I do, thus her doll will not be staying with her.  Still, her post is worthy of a read.  It's not biased with childhood sentiment like mine is.

Cheers,
RagingMoon1987