Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!  I adopted the girl on the right from a nice lady on one of the doll forums.  She's a Kidz 'n' Cats Galina. ... The doll on the left is my Kidz 'n' Cats Kiki (rewigged).  I love these dolls!  They have a sweetness that's hard to match.

I made the dresses.  :)

Deja Vu's new wig

New wig!  It's a Monique Gold Collection "Jojo" wig in size 5-6.  My Deja Vu Basic is also wearing an old Gene Marshall outfit called "The Perfect Gift."  It's a nearly perfect fit.  The skirt fits exactly around the waist, and although the top is a little loose in the bust, it still looks nice, I think.  Good enough for a Christmas photo, in any case.  LOL! 

In this getup, she looks like she's playing the role of The Ghost of Christmas Present from "A Christmas Carol."

Deja Vu Emma

This girlie's hair looks EXACTLY like my hair did back in college! 

This is the 2013 Emma Jean McGowen Basic Black, from the Deja Vu line of dolls by Tonner.  She was supposed to be 1920s-themed, but I felt she was more at home in modern, casual clothes.  Cute hair?  Heck, yes!  Since she has my college hair, I thought she should put on some comfy college student gear.  This City Girls outfit suits her nicely.  The top is a perfect fit; the leggings are a little tight, but almost perfect.

I want to make her more of a punk-style outfit some day when I have time.  She'd be smashing in black leather pants and a rock concert tee!  I definitely want to punk her out a bit.  She exudes a bit of a cool vibe to me, and I'm not sure she's the gown type.  She seems more like she should be sitting cross-legged on a beanbag in an oversized shirt, reading poetry.  At least in my world, this is how I envision her.

Her face sculpt reminds me a bit of one of Tonner's other dolls, Evangeline Ghastly.  I think it's the cheekbones and nose more than anything.  She's 16" tall, but thinner than most other 16" girls.  She's a little cartoonish in a way I like, and has a slightly large head and hands like an animated character.  She's like a wonderful 3D cartoon lady who has stepped out of my TV set to sit on my desk.  LOL.   

The hands pull out to make it easier to redress her in tight sleeves, AND you can also use alternate Tyler Nu Mood hands with the body, as well, according to the Tonner Doll Company web site.  I haven't gotten extra hands for her yet, but this is one thing I'd be really interested in trying out.  Next time Tonner has a free shipping offer, I'm going to get the extra hands.  They're sold in a set of three.  That is, the Nu Mood set comes with three different pairs of hands, all in different positions (one pair of "holding" hands, one "relaxed" set, and one set of fists ... all mix and match). 

Oh, and I should mention this is a wigged doll.  The hair is held on by velcro tabs.  I'll have to put her in a couple other wigs and take more pictures.  She wears a size 5-6" wig.  I think most of the Deja Vu dolls are rooted, but there are a few that are wigged, including the Emma Jean Basics (both red and black). 

I'll have to do another photo shoot with this girl some time. 

The shading on the eyes is wonderful.

I think she looks cute in profile.

Kidz n Cats Kiki, again

Just some more pics of Kiki, my Kidz 'n' Cats doll.  In some of the pictures it looks like I cut her hair, but I didn't.  I actually peeled off her original wig and gave her a new wig entirely.  LOL.  She can change from one wig to the other now whenever I'm in the mood to change her.  The wig is a size 8-9", but it is REALLY tight on her and I could barely get it on.  A 9-10" would be better. 

The clothing (except for the sweater and hat) is from the Our Generation doll line.  The fit is OK.  It fits a bit loosely around the chest, but looks fine, I think.  The Our Generation shoes fit nicely in the length, but are slightly wide for the Kidz 'n' Cats girls.  If it's a closed shoe, then it doesn't matter because you can't tell.  If it's a sandal, though, then you'd be able to see that the shoe is a little bit too wide for the Kidz foot.  I've heard Journey Girls shoes are a better fit. 

The sweater and hat were custom made by some talented person on eBay, but I don't remember who it was.  Sorry!  I wish I did.  I bought the set a long time ago, so the information isn't even in my eBay history any longer.

 

 

And now for the wigged pictures.  I think she looks cute.  :)

 

 

 

Later,

Crazy here

Gah. ... It's been almost a whole month since I last posted, and I have so many dolls and things to show you!  It's been crazy here for the past month, though.  First my 5-year-old daughter got really sick.  She got a lung infection and was having a hard time breathing, and we ended up spending two scary days in the hospital.  She recovered nicely, though and went back to kindergarten for about a week. Then I realized she was getting sick again.  I took her to the doctor only to find out it was a totally different illness this time ... a wicked bad virus that's been going around recently.  She was sick all through Thanksgiving.  Then my sweet little girl gave it to me (thanks, Eva!), and I got super sick for a whole week.  I'm only just now recovering, myself. 

LOL.  So, needless to say, my mind hasn't really been on updating my blog for the past several weeks.  I'm only just now getting into the swing of things again.  I haven't even gotten to set my Christmas tree up yet! 

EDIT for Dec. 11th:  I finally got to set my Christmas tree up!  Yay!  Plus, I finally had some downtime to take more doll pictures, too.  More to come.  :)

Later,

Review of Kiki from the 2013 Kidz 'n' Cats line

I'm pretty enchanted with this beauty.  Kiki is my first Kidz 'n' Cats doll, and I wasn't disappointed with her.  She's the first Kidz doll to have a slightly tanned skintone, and it's gorgeous!

Kidz 'n' Cats are more expensive than many other 18" play dolls, but you can immediately see where the extra money goes.  The wig quality is wonderful; the eyes are beautifully detailed, and the face is painted perfectly.  The clothes are made from quality fabrics as well, with finished inside seams.  She has panties on under her capris.  The quality of the vinyl is even nice. 

The eyes are expressive.  No blank stare, here!  I always said if a doll actually looks like it's thinking, it's the mark of an extremely talented doll artist. 

There aren't many negative things I can say about her.  Kiki has the newer 11-joint body, which the Kidz 'n' Cats dolls have had since 2011 (before 2011 they did not have wrist joints).  She's strung with elastic cord, and her range of motion is not perfect, but still better than any other 18" child doll out there.  Her biggest flaw is the knees:  When she sits down, the knees bend slightly, but if you try to bend them too far, the tension on the elastic inside will just make them pop back up again.  Beyond this limitation, though, her posing is pretty decent.  You can position her arms rather naturally, which makes her really nice for photographs.

 

Kiki can also stand on her own, and sits nicely without falling over. 

Her outfit is stretchy.  There is no back fastening on the dress, because the dress simply stretches over her head if you want to take it off.  The overshirt has a flamingo on it, with the words "Hawaii Island."

The flower in her hair is on a barrette, so you can take it off and/or reposition it if you want to.  

I had to photograph her in front of my chrysanthemums.  They're so showy this time of year!  Every doll I've ever owned has at one time or another been photographed in front of these flowers.  LOL.  I actually just planted some rust red chrysanthemums recently.  Maybe next year I can get some pictures with some rust red flowers in the background.

More later.  :)

Poppy Parker 16" Fashion Teens: Winter Wowzers and Magic Moment

Movie star.

I always have high expectations from Integrity Toys, but these two actually exceeded my expectations.  I think they're just lovely.  They are "Winter Wowzers" and "Magic Moment" Poppy Parker, from the 16" Fashion Teen line.  I only had one other 16" Poppy: "It's a Wrap" from last year's Integrity Toys convention.  There were a total of four dolls from the 2013 collection.  The other two were the blondes "The Glad Game" and "One Fine Day."  I believe the four were supposed to represent the four seasons, with the redhead being autumn and the raven being winter.  Very cool!  I love that.  Each doll was an edition of only 300. 

MAGIC MOMENT

I instantly loved "Magic Moment," the redhead.  She reminded me of Ginger from Gilligan's Island.  I grew up on that show.  I love this doll's hair color; love her dress; love the black faux fur wrap.  It's so soft!  Her eyes are an interesting grey/aqua color that is absolutely lovely.  Each eye is half grey and half aqua in a very literal sense ... very unusual.

The Professor and The Skipper approve.

I didn't attempt to put on her long black gloves.  I did examine them, and noticed they have a unique design.  They aren't open all the way down their length, but they have slit openings on either side of the wrist.  It looks like Integrity meant for you to take off the doll's hand to slide the bulk of the glove on her arm, and then try to fit her hand inside the opening on the side of the glove.  Theoretically, it should make it easier to put on the long gloves this way.  I attempted it briefly, but it wasn't worth the effort.  I wish Integrity would make optional, removable "glove hands" that have the fingers close together.  I start stressing even THINKING about putting gloves on those splayed fingers Integrity loves to put on their dollies.

Her gloves seemed to have had all the fingers separated in her promo pics, but the gloves on the actual doll do not have separate fingers.  Maybe they really wanted to give the gloves separate fingers, but came to the conclusion it would be too difficult on a doll this scale?  Don't know. 

Bettie Page, without the bondage gear and cheetahs

WINTER WOWZERS

I got Wowzers mostly because I have a weakness for raven hair.  I wasn't expecting to love her face coloring as much as I do.  She's a sultry vixen!  A bit Bettie Page.  I don't normally like blue eyeshadow on dolls, but it totally works for her.  She manages to outshine "It's a Wrap," with Wrap's more subdued coloring.  I think if the two of them were in a room together, all the boys would be looking at Winter Wowzers, and poor Wrap would feel left out and sad.  LOL. 

Out of all four of the 2013 Fashion Teens, I liked Wowzer's outfit the least.  It's OK, just not totally my style.  I wish they'd toned down the BRIGHT BRIGHT BRIGHT on the sweater a bit.  (I guess I'm not into BRIGHT unless we're talking about IQs.)  I wouldn't have chosen a (dalmation? cow? cat?) spotted print for the coat.  I'm just nit-picking, though.  Winter Wowzers is pretty special.  She's fierce and sweet at the same time.  Overall, it's a good look.  I do like her pants and cute boots, and of course the clothes on both dolls are high quality, fully lined and impeccably tailored, like the clothing on all Integrity dolls. 

Cruella DeWowzer

L-R:  It's A Wrap being totally outshined by Winter Wowzers.

 

The sweater hurts my eyes, but then again, this girl likes attention.

I always loved you more than Mary Ann.

Please click on the pictures to make them bigger. 

Trampires!

Happy Halloween! 

These two were my favorites of all the Brides of Dracula dolls, with the original blonde Contessa as a runner-up for third place.  There were two runs of the Brides: the first run was in 2010, and was a collaboration between Integrity Toys and Ashton-Drake.  It was followed a year later by another set of vampire dolls by Integrity exclusively, who had the rights to the head sculpts.  The two in these pictures are 2010 Mina, and 2011 Lucy.

Red-haired Lucy is wearing the black dress and earrings from FR2 "Strict Elegance" Luchia.  The dress fits her perfectly and looks amazing on her.  Gah! ... I love her hair color!  It's such a beautiful shade. 

 

 

 

 

Click on the pictures to make them bigger.  :)

Gearing up for Halloween ...

Doing some pictures of vampires for Halloween.  This is "Lucy" from the Brides of Dracula series by Integrity Toys. I couldn't decide whether I liked the black-and-white or the color version better, so I'll just post both.  :)  I think this is about as close as I get to being artsy.

Our Generation Fashions

Probably everyone who has a little girl has noticed the Our Generation line.  The dolls are 18 inches tall, roughly American Girl sized, but more accessible to the casual shopper because stores like Target carry them.  Outfits are (most likely) interchangeable between the two doll lines.  I have a sneaking suspicion the Our Generation fashions are quite popular for use on ANY of the 18" tall child dolls, from any company.  They had quite a big selection of outfit sets when I was last in Target, as well as separate shoe sets and sock sets, and all kinds of fun things for that size doll.  It was like shopping for clothes for your own kid.

I recently bought two of their fashion sets to examine, to use on an 18" doll I have on the way.  (More on that later. ...)

These two fashion sets are called "Red For Anything" and "Sweet in the Heat."  I'll just give them a quick once-over for anyone who's never seen these outfits in detail.  I have to say, I found these outfits a better quality than I'd expected.  The fabrics were soft and a nice quality on both of them, and although not all the inside seams were finished, the neckholes and armholes were finished quite nicely.  The straw hat is even soft and pliable, not stiff.  They have the predictable velcro in the back. 

The shoes were nothing special. ... Just typical playline plastic doll shoes.

I love that the sets come with clothes hangers!  The "Red for Anything" set also comes with a headband, red tights and cranberry-colored shoes.  The dress is all one piece, not a separate skirt and top.  "Sweet in the Heat" also comes with that wonderful hat, pink shoes and a pair of white ankle socks.

That's all for now.  Ta.