this was a mistake - Ebay bundle

So as you know, big bundles are my weakness.
I can't help myself.

So here's another one.

Only this time i'm honestly not convinced i'm gonna make my money back. Hmm.

I mean usually I at least break even and keep a couple of dolls but this time...

well,

let's get to it

The auction photo.

So intitially what jumped out at me was the Sindy on the far edge in the pink. That's a side or center part Sindy and she looks to have all her fingers.
Sweet.

So I figured if I could get the whole lot for about the cost of her, i'd be pretty happy.

Also I was insanely curious about several of the bigger dolls which are mostly 50s and early 60s dolls.

Dusty at the front in the purplish suit is a very unattractive doll to me but she's vintage and interesting.

Also a lot of barbie dolls which tend to resell fairly well even in iffy condition.

So I admit I paid more than I really should have for this, I got sort of caught up in the moment. *headdesk* because i'm a fool but I still figured it'd be worth it for the Sindy doll, the Barbies and a couple of the big dolls that looked quite interesting.

So to their credit, the seller posted these super fast and they arrived two days later.

Unfortunately, as I opened the HUGE and very heavy box it became clear that a couple of the girls hadn't made the trip unscathed.

Heartbreakingly, one of the victims was Sindy.

What makes this more devastating is that her hands and feet are absolutely perfect. Finding a Sindy from the 60s with her hands intact can be a right chore.

But the poor girl has been crushed and her hollow torso couldn't take it. It's cracked apart in several places, shattered along one edge and several of the shards have disappeared into the ether.

That poor poor doll.

The Maori girl has also suffered a similar fate, her hollow plastic body couldn't handle the weight either, shattering her pelvis and causing her legs to fall off.
The shards are scattered throughout the box but at least with her she's effectively worthless anyway and I didn't really want her.

*sigh*

So I put the disappointment aside and set to investigating the rest of the box.

I got this girl out first. I thought she was a Revlon doll but her markings are wrong. She must be a competitor.

She's quite pretty in a retro sort of way but oh dear god she's covered in white... I don't even know what. I'm HOPING it's wetted talc and not some sort of fungal bloom but it's thick and disgusting and on every damn inch of her body, between all her fingers and inside all her joints.

AIEEEEEE

I set to scrubbing.

Her shirt is actually authentic Action Man and is a really nice army jacket in immaculate condition beyond being coated in white shit. I washed it.

The skirt I think is home made.

Dusty had... her own issues to deal with.

that there? that's melt.

It's sticky and feels rather like chewing gum.

i PEELED her out of her clothing, the melt was so bad she had seeped through her underwear and skirt, ewwww.

Her legs and arms and neck were all frozen in place by the melt.

This is so gross.

The plastic of her pelvis has mostly gone squishy, which is absolutely horrific.

This is some BAD melt. Like holy fuck it's bad melt.

I took a scalpel to it, which improved her mobility but sure as heck ain't pretty. I think I took too much on one hip but it was so squishy and gum-like that I couldn't figure out where the hell the melt ended and actual molded torso began.

Disgusting.

But a scalpel fixed a lot of the issues. Though I slipped at her neck and carved a chunk out. BAH.

Dusty here has been voted "ugliest fashion doll" before now and while I can't say I much like her (She looks drunk!) I have to say, i've seen far uglier dolls. No, she's not very attractive and the white lips do NOT help (I don't think they were originally like that, I assume they faded over the years) but I kinda like her wierd chunky body.

Maybe with a less psycho head...

Dusty was made by Kenner back in the 70s, she was a sports woman or something, to counter Barbie's at the time "hollywood glamour" Schtick.

Sports dolls don't ever seem to do very well. Face it toy people, most kids who play with dolls don't want to pretend their doll is playing golf or football.

Moldy in the middle scrubbed up fairly well. She has a stained body but it's not too bad.

There were also four other dolls in the bundle that had similar pedicured high heeled feet.

the tallest is marked "Chiltern, Made in England" and she's 20 inches tall.

She has brown eyes which is VERY unusual.

One leg is longer than the other, much like a lot of the Made in England Sindy dolls lol.

The second tallest is unmarked, as are the two smaller ones.

This poor girl has lost her lashes, has a lazy eye and almost all her makeup has come off. Oh dear.

Medium has green titties, I don't know why or how ahahah.

Also a lazy eye.

Poor dolly.

And finally the shortest of them who's about 15 inches tall has a perminant tilt to her head and her earrings are made from twisted wire with a bead on that are then rammed deep into her skull.
Ouch.
She's also missing half of one thumb.

I actually really like her body. She and her taller sisters have the same body just at different scales and it's quite a mature body with big hips and thick thighs which I enjoy.

I wonder if any heads would fit such a large neck...

mouldy is actually really pretty. She has pearlly bead earrings rammed into her skull too but is in much better condition than the other dolls.

She's marked B18, whatever that means.

I think she's really pretty, not the sort of doll i'd usually find appealing but there's something quite quintisentially 50s and early 60s about her. She's one of those pre barbie fashion dolls and they're facinating.

8 Barbies were in the bundle.

they are... well.. all of them have chews and damage, some worse than others.

The first girl is pretty much the Barbies I had to play with as a kid. BORING AS FUCK to me. This one has paddle hands, what the fuck happened there? I mean that's more than chews, her hands are FLAT!

Also her hair is cut.

The girl next to her has big pink earrings with flowers on them but I don't know who she is.  Her hands are fucking mangled.

White legs has some chews to her hands but her biggest issue is that she's missing the tips of her toes!

The next girl along has a detatched head and cut hair.
but she has purple eyes! Which is really unusual. I think she's actually extremely pretty for an 80s barbie and she'd look STUNNING with either dark hair or some funky fantasy reroot (purple? pink? She'd look fucking awesome)

Girl with the necklace and crimped hair is glitter beach barbie I believe. Her hair is nice and soft.  Her arms and feet are very very chewed up.

The next girl has long crystal earrings and some nibbles.

The next girl has stars in her eyes! fancy.
Her leg is busted with the mechanism poking through. Ooouch.

and finally we have squish face. She has a squished up face and some sort of electronic thing. She has chewed toes.
Her nails were painted by some creative child lol.

There's also some unmarked shittily rooted clone with sticky legs, an ugly as sin Britney Spears doll (honestly if I were Britney i'd be SO offended by this likeness), Dusty as I already detailed, Todd and two Hasbro Sindy dolls.

Crimped hair sindy has had a choppy haircut.

The other girl is "Party Lights Sindy" and her hair is supposed to light up? But she takes super wierd batteries and I have no idea if or even how to make her work.

Todd was covered in mildew and it turns out, his head is broken. He also has a nipped nose *sigh*

his head was held on with a pencil which I admit, works actually really well lol.

Sticky clone has bunches. Her hair is only rooted at the parting and a few strands near her ears. It's really bad.

There's also a lot of musty smelling clothes.

The blue shiny dress is Make Me Up Sindy's, the leotard and yellow pants are sindy too.

Dusty's skirt was too engrained with melt, I don't think it'll come out.

I dig the yellow dress, it's so fabulously retro.

The gold and fur dress is interesting too, I think it's home made but it's really heavy and lined.

The biggest doll in the lot is this bride. She's absolutely freaking enormous. Her face has discoloured and her body is hollow but her dress is beautiful. It's very very fragile made with a lot of very thin lace and such so  it has a fair few tears and snags but honestly given how bloody fragile it is to touch, im surprised it's even still mostly intact after all these years.

She had nail polish on her feet and lips and her eyelids have been painted with glitter paint by some creative little dear lol.

I swear one of her eyes is bigger than the other.

She scares the shit out of my middle child. Poor old bride.

These two were wet when I took their photo because I couldn't be bothered waiting for them to dry.

I think they're a lot more modern than the rest.

The shorter one has elle or something on her neck, it's hard to make out. Her hair is gorgeous, it's super soft and shiny and really pleasant to handle.

the other girl has rough nylon hair and no markings.

The matching knitted booties amuse me.

I haven't a clue who either of these girls are. They feel fairly decent but not as hefty as the vintage ones which are honestly really bloody heavy. These two are mostly hollow plastic and rubbery limbs rather than hard solid plastic.

There was also a crushed doll at the bottom of the box who was crushed in the auction photos but she's a  hollow shitty doll and I can't be arsed trying to fix her.

I glued this girl back together and cleaned her up. Her body is like a fucking jigsaw puzzle and there's several bits missing meaing there's big gaps and her arm needs reinforcing but at least she's in mostly one piece for the time being *sigh*

What's most upsetting is taht honestly? For a 1970 centerpart, she's in quite good condition. Intact hands, intact legs, unwobbly head, most of her hair (She has a few missing plugs) and some sparse lashes but her facepaint is bright and she's looking good for her age.

if she hadn't been fucking crushed, she'd have been so perfect.
and it just breaks my damn heart.

Yes, I got her back in one piece and when dressed you can't really notice that she has huge scars and gaping holes in her torso but the point is she shouldn't have needed to be glued back together and there's no way I would have paid what I did for a doll in the state she was when she arrived.

I'm kinda... bleh. I mean, on the one hand, she's a beautiful doll. I'm glad to finally have a centerpart in my collection.
On the other, I wish she had arrived in one piece and not five.

As for the rest of the bundle, well I knew they were used but I wasn't really anticipating so MUCH damage honestly. The Barbies are ALL very badly mangled and will all need rebodying because they're so chewed up. Which I just don't want to do because I can't be arsed with barbies. I'll rehome them.

The other dolls are interesting but they'll get bundled up together as well.

Now they're clean and mildew free they should be a bit happier at least.

So why did I say this was all a mistake? Because honestly? I could have gotten an intact centerpart for about what I paid for the bundle and I really don't think I can recoup those costs. *sigh* But i'll have a go.

A couple Sindy dolls will stay but i feel bad about this purchase. It was a bad impulse and one I should have had better control over.

That's life I suppose.