He said, She said

I mentioned yesterday that my little Sailor Moon doll came in a bag with 2 dolls in it.  I didn't immediately recognize the second doll while she was in the bag; her mass of curls were obscuring her face.

I took her out of the bag, and still did not recognize her.  Here she is:

I lifted up the mass of curls from the back of her neck and saw it was stamped with Ashley Tisdale.  You remember Ashley Tisdale from High School Musical?  Here is the link to her Tumblr so you can catch up with her:

http://ashleytisdale.com/

According to my research, this caricature looking girlie is an Ashley Tisdale "He Said, She Said" doll made by Huckleberry Toys.  Here is a link to one in the box I found on eBay:

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Ashley-Tisdale-Barbie-Doll-2008-He-Said-She-Said-Poster-Sticker-Sheet-Card-MIB-/261797523470?hash=item3cf459300e:g:Yl0AAOSwBahU6VA2

From this picture, it *looks* like her outfit is complete, save the accessories.  Her necklace looks like it was stitched to her shirt, and have come undone on one side.

I've read it's supposed to say "Headstrong", but it's hard to make out the wording (especially on a poorly focused photo!  Sorry about that).

Her hair is pretty stiff with blonde ringlets.  I'm not going to brush it; it looks still in decent shape and I don't want to end up with a giant frizz ball.

Her molded shoes are attached and aren't removable, but they do turn at the ankle, giving her 9 points of articulation.  Her knees bend as well (she has the rubbery legs with internal joints).

Her outfit is cute, I'm just not sure about that face.  It comes across as comical to me.  What do you think?  Do you have one of these dolls?

Thanks for looking!

Moon Prism Power!

I was close to Value Village today and decided to stop in and peruse the toy section.  I saw Sailor Moon and I instantly had to have her.  I love Sailor Moon.  That was really the only anime cartoon I got into, aside from Astro Boy.  I got her in a pack with 2 dolls in it for $4.99.

Her hair is a bit of a mess, and her outfit needs a couple stitches here and there (causing the plunging neckline).  Her gloves and boots are molded/painted on.  She is a 6 inch doll, made by Irwin.  Apparently this is the company that got all the other Sailor Scout's hair and or shoes wrong.

A bit of a wardrobe malfunction!  Love her little tiara.

Here she is with her hair washed and re-styled.  She looks so much better!  I just need to fix her dress, find some red baubles for her hair meatballs, and she can go back to fighting evil in style!  Tuxedo Mask is sure to swoon.

Since I've already mentioned Astro Boy, I will show you my Ban Dai action figure.  I picked him up at Liquidation world a few years ago.  I don't remember how much I paid for him.  The eyes light up red when you push a button on the back of his head.  He's pretty neat.

The only one I've seen on eBay is listed for $120 USD.  Maybe I'll just keep him in the box.

Thanks for looking!

Cleaning up Hayden

I was taking the photo of my Liv doll collection to post for you all, and decided to clean up this Hayden immediately after.

Her wig needs some serious brushing...and she's got some sort of sticky stuff on her "underpants".  Here is my arsenal I use when cleaning up dolls:

Tea tree oil (gets off all kinds of stuff!) with some cotton swabs, a microfiber cloth, a magic eraser (to get out more stubborn marks), shampoo and conditioner (I don't know if the conditioner actually helps anything, but it at least makes the hair smell good), and a kettle for a boil wash if needed.

Here she is after!  Much better, even though her eyes are a little wonky!

Now just to air dry.  Thanks for looking!

Vintage Gems...and Jem!

I was recently going through my old toys at my parent's place, to see what I had left.  Among the Barbies with now horribly frizzy hair, mismatched outfits and lost accessories, I my stash of My Little Ponies.  I had to have a lot of dental work as a child, and My Little Ponies were my reward for good behavior. I had quite the collection!  I picked out my favorites:

Glittering Gem Princess Brush 'n Glow.  Is still my absolute fave :)

Ringlets, my Brush 'n Grow pony.

Ringlets, with her tail fully extended.

My babies: Baby Cuddles and Baby Sundance (both with Beddy Bye Eyes) and Baby Sticky.  I'm still looking for their accessories.

I found out their names (I couldn't remember them, of course) from this website:

http://strawberryreef.com/Index/G1/Country/us.html

It is all things MLP.

Now onto the dolls I found.  First up, is Maxie.  You remember Maxie dolls?  Like Ringlets, my Brush 'n Grow MLP, her hair also "grows".  It's still in pretty great condition, too, surprisingly!

I've been trying to add captions to these photos, but it keeps moving the photo around.  Grrrr.  I give up.  Anyway.  This is "Dance and Romance" Moxie with "Grow so Pretty" Hair.  I found the dress and the shoes, but those are all the accessories I could find.  Even her earrings are missing.  Boo.

 Hair goes down....

Hair goes up...

I think she's pretty cool.  On a side note, I discovered her shoes also fit the Liv dolls.  Outrageous!

Speaking of outrageous...you know what's TRULY outrageous?  Jem, of course!  I was stoked to find my Jem doll, although the only parts left to her outfit was the dress.  No shoes, microphone, belt, tights, or the Jerrica outfit.  It also appeared that her earrings were missing, until my DH took a closer look.  Turns out they were actually jammed inside her head.  He took it apart, and realized her earrings were just little blinky lights.  He replaced them with new LEDs, and this is what resulted:

Showtime, Synergy!!

Jem's earrings flash like they've never flashed before.  I think she could double as an emergency beacon now ;)

Thanks for looking!

My First Review: "Fashion Girl" from Dollarama

I don't normally buy dolls from the dollar store, as I find them poor quality (as I'm sure most of you do).  But, I was browsing the toy aisle (shopping for my Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes), and these caught my attention.

I was first drawn in by the one with the pink hair (I'm a sucker for pink hair), and noticed their familiar face shape to the Ever After High dolls.  I decided I should look into these further.  For only $3 each, why the heck not.  There were a few different ones to choose from, and I picked another one that looked like had a decent outfit and hair.

The boxes are fairly simple, cardboard with a plastic window.  They could have come up with a title more exciting than "Fashion Girl".  Meh, what do you expect for $3 I guess.

The back of the box.  It shows pictures of other doll characters, but there are no names, back stories, or other descriptors.  

There's an illustration of a ring box on the front.  Maybe they are all engaged?  Or maybe they just like some bling.

I decided to start with the pink one.  The brush on the inside looks Ever After High-ish, but I don't own an Ever After High brush to know for sure.  She comes with a little purse.

Normally I just rip into doll boxes with wreckless abandon, but since this is my first review, I opted to be a little more careful.  She actually came out quite easily, the cardboard insert slipped right out.  Only one tie to snip around her waist.  The other tie was for the brush.

Out of the box, her purse is strapped to her hand with a small elastic.  Snip, snip!  

My apologies for the shadow.

The little purse.  It doesn't open.  Boo.  It reminds me of a cross between Little Red Riding Hood's basket and the apple from Snow White.

The brush.

The shoes are cute.  There are even little slits up the back to help get them on and off.

I could tell from the back of her head that her hair was sparsely rooted underneath the pig-tails.  I was too lazy to take it down.  Plus, I didn't want to mess up the cute curls.

The dress is very stiff, the outer layer seems to be a thin, sparkly vinyl.  The under layer is a softer fabric.  The stitching seems decent.

Since I only have two (rescued) EAH dolls, I stood her next to Raven Queen (in a dress and necklace made by me).

Her upper torso and arms reminded me of an older Bratz doll, so I got one out for comparison.  Pretty much identical upper body (I think, anyway).  Her arms are thinner than the Bratz, though.

She can wear the Bratz doll's dress.

Her feet are oddly small, though.  I tried Barbie shoes on her, but they were too big.  I wondered if they were the same as La Dee Da doll feet.

Nope...La Dee Da's are bigger.  Since my La Dee Da is a thrift shop find, she currently has no shoes to try and share.

Her blonde friend de-boxed the same way, and I wanted to check out her hair.  The rooting pattern is a bit strange to me, but overall her hair is thick, soft, and shiny. 

She has the same shoes as the other doll, just in a different color.  I left her bag strapped to her arm for the moment.

Fashion Girl only has 5 points of articulation.  Her knees don't bend and her head only moves side to side.

However, for $3, I don't think this EAH/Bratz hybrid is a bad doll.  Her face, hair, and accessories are cute, and I think any little girl would have fun playing with this (as long as she's not expecting EAH quality).  I think the 6+ age rating on the box is a bit much, I would think 3 or 4+ would be sufficient.

Thanks for looking!

Outfits

This pattern is available for free on: http://undeadthreads.moonfruit.com/

A few outfits I've made for rescued Monster High dolls, since of course, they were naked.  Without shoes, I might add.  I ordered a lot of shoes off eBay from China.  The patterns I bought off Etsy.

My Bloginning

I've always loved fashion dolls.  As a child I had a plethora of Barbies. I remember the first Barbie I bought with my own money.  My dad took me to Craig's in Vermilion, and I bought a Barbie that had a hair clip that turned pink in the sun (I don't remember her name, and I can't find her on Google now).  My grandma taught me how to sew...and from there I learned how to sew my own Barbie clothes.

Even into adolescence, I still played with my dolls, and had all my Holiday Barbies displayed in my room on a shelf.  Then I moved out of my childhood home...and my collecting took a hiatus...for a few years?

In my 30's now...my collecting is back and more fierce than ever.  With two young girls at home, it's easy to peruse the toy section.  In fact, my kids have gotten so used to it, they pull a doll from the shelf and say "Don't you want this one, mommy?".  Soon they're going to be the ones getting ME dolls for Christmas!  They never got into playing with dolls as much as I did as a child, and it's a shame!

Only now, my collection has broadened from Barbies.  The dolls that actually got me back into was Monster High.  I was fascinated by their superior articulation.  Now my collection includes not only Barbies and Monster High, but Bratz (old and new), Liv dolls (a shame they were discontinued!), a few Disney store dolls, some Ever After High dolls, among others.  *Most* of the dolls I own now are my "rescues" from thrift shops.

I've also gone back to my parent's to go through my bin of old (vintage, now?) Barbies.  Why did I tell my mom she could donate most of them??  Clearly I was NOT thinking.  Good bye, Holiday Barbies (*tear*).  What I had is now reduced to about 5 Barbies and 3 Ken dolls.  On a high note...I found my vintage Jem!  Her earrings still work!  Too bad all her clothes were missing.

I'm not sure yet what direction this blog is going to take, but I've stumbled across SO MANY interesting and inspiring blogs, I wished to start my own!  Luckily it's free...so I don't have anything to lose!

Shout outs to the following blogs that have inspired me:
http://www.toyboxphilosopher.com/
http://adayinthelifeofmydolls2.blogspot.ca/
http://fashiondollstylist.blogspot.ca/

Forgive me if I've done that wrong!  I'm learning ;)