So an update.
I actually DID manage to get Howliday Draculaura. Twice in fact. lol. typical.
So I arranged with a friend in the US to nab me one but it was a bit uncertain whether the order would be fulfilled because of Mattel's spotty distribution so when I got a stock alert for the uk stockist I jumped on that as well figuring I could always cancel it if the US supplier came through. At the time UK stockist was saying March for their estimated delivery so it felt like a pretty safe option.
of course, because it's bloody typical (not that i'm actually complaining lol) the stock came in simultaniously so the day I was told "oh she's shipped" from my US friend I also got a dispatch notice from the Uk stockist to me.
Whoops.
So when the US one arrives i'll be rehoming one most likely.
But yeah, that review will happen at some point when I have the energy to open boxes and take a bajillion photos.
but it's dark and cold and rainy here in the UK at the moment and Christmas, as long time readers know, is my "grump" period of the year where I feel crappy and generally struggle with my mental health a bit.
this year was substantially better than some years have been, my meds really have helped, but I still ended up impulse buying things right up til christmas itself. <_< >_> of course, that was aided by the Inlaws sending a wad of cash as they always do in lieu of actually seeing us. Thank you Inlaws, i'll take that sweet cash.
Ahem.
So flush with cash what did I have to stop me from impulse buying? Self control? What's this self control you speak of? HAH.
so I nabbed a few more interesting bits and bobs because why not.
YOLO and all that. *cough*
Let's get into it.
(seriously, actual reviews will resume when I have the energy. I'm just really struggling with executive dysfunction at the moment and general lethargy.)
I've found over the past few years that my interests in dolls tend to ebb and flow. One week i'll fixate on Sindy, another it'll be Monster High. Sometimes i'll have a period of several months where one line is my "big thing" and i'll really fixate on it, other times I just don't feel the same pull.
before Christmas I got bitten by the Bratz bug again. I'm a bit fussy with my Bratz dolls, there's quite a few of them I really don't like, but there's others I think are absolutely gorgeous.
This girl was listed as "blonde cloe doll with red streaks." I can see how someone who didn't know Bratz would assume that, but this isn't Cloe at all. This is Oriana. She was one of the Twins/Triplets MGA released but goodness knows what happened to her sisters. (maybe she Highlandered them. <_< )
Excuse my camera quality. It's really dark and dingy and my flash is acting up.
Oriana is a stunning doll. She doesn't have her original clothes but honestly I quite like what I found to put her into. The red jacket helps pick out the red streaks in her hair.
She was pretty cheap, particularly for this particular doll, so i'm feeling quite fortunate to have her. The price of Bratz lately have skyrocketed and it's making scratching this itch a little difficult.
I'd love to find her sisters, but i'm not willing to pay ebay prices for them.
Speaking of Ebay,
of course a few more tlc bundles turned up which got my attention....
It looks like someone's abandoned customs projects. There's a load of Monster High in various states, several reroots and blank other dolls and two Sindy dolls which is kinda random.
You know what happens to me when I spot random sindy dolls in bundles.
I had to bring this wierd little job lot home.
So first I separated out the vintage dolls. We have some sort of clone doll with holes stabbed in her titties (ouch), a 70s/80s Skipper, a similar era Barbie with badly stained face, Action Girl with hacked hair and two Sindy dolls also with hacked hair.
Not sure what Barbie this is but she came wearing Angel Face Barbie's dress so that's my assumption.
also not sure what the staining is, I thought it was the same makeup that one of the sindy dolls had on her but nope. On Sindy it wiped right off, Barbie has had the blue seep into the vinyl.
I also wondered if it was from the metal earring but the earring has no corrosion and the inside of her head didn't look blue.
so... I dunno.
Oh also she has two badly coroded play rings around her neck which means that someone had to pop her head off to put those on there. Wierd.
Here's both Sindy dolls. One has really good lashes, the others are a little sparse on one eye. Both have had their hair hacked short and as these 80s girls have really sparsely rooted hair to begin with, it's not very helpful.
I should be able to restore them to their former glory though.
poor clone girl has a terribly hollow body and has been abused. her hair is dry and horrible.
Skipper has some marks on her face but she's okay. She's kinda cute I suppose, but i do definitely prefer the earlier Skippers.
they also came with a load of clothing. The red jacket is incredible, it's some sort of vinyl material and textured. It's labelled "action girl" and it's missing a button but i should be able to find a little seed bead to replace it without too much hassle.
Angel Face Barbie's outfit and Day to Night Barbie's outfit too.
Skipper came wearing one of her fashion pack outfits which is a cute little purple tunic dress thing.
And there's a badly stained and fraying pink floral dress which is frustratingly familiar to me, a spotty stained jumpsuit and a few other bits and bobs I don't recognise. Also a wig. A really over rooted wig.
go figure.
Next is the monster high bits. These are the orphaned parts. Bodies with no heads and a head with no body. Odd. Avea's head has the start of a reroot in white.
And the reroots (including a decendant doll). All these reroots are over rooted with far too much hair in each plug which makes it very difficult to style or get to sit flat. The hair is very soft though. Not sure what it is.
The Descendant doll actually has a wig glued badly to her head.
Rochelle also has the remnants of an attempted faceup. I find the paintwork on her eyes quite interesting actually. The eyebrows need completely redoing but the rest looks okay, it just needs touching up.
her hair is unmanageably huge though. I attempted to cut it into the fringe/bangs she was rooted to have but now I can't get that to sit flat either so I dunno. I don't know what to do with her.
More bodies. A winx body and a giant Frankie body. I wonder where their heads went.
The custom fodder. Deuce has lost his snakes. Abbey is yellowing badly.
and the mostly intact dolls.
three lagoonas (mad science, dance class and swim class), an inner monster, catty (missing both arms and her tail), Skelita and Dot Dead Gorgeous Ghoulia missing one hand.
Also intact is this Fail Fix girl. I really liked the Fail fix dolls, their gimmick was dumb but the dolls themselves were exceptionally cute. Kawaii QT is adorable. She has a mark on her face i'll have to try to get out but otherwise she's fine.
More faceless dolls. A Bratzilla, A disney doll, some Barbie, a Regal Accademy doll (I thought she was a winx but no) and a Once Upon a Zombie.
OUAZ look super wierd without their faceups.
Oh and that descendants doll from earlier also has epoxy elf ears. They're quite crude and chipping.
Blank Frankie got a repaint inspired by the faint marks I could see from where a faceup was planned. There was a ghost of stitching across her face which I kept and incorperated the colours I could make out as well (the orange and red eyes)
She got an outfit from a budget Frankie I got in another bundle.
I think she's Scaris Frankie but i'm honestly not sure. The white of her hair has yellowed like a lot of Frankies and she has random short bits.
Emoji Frankie, the budget doll I stole these shoes off had incredibly detailed boots but they were spoiled by being unpainted and just plain blue. I spent some time picking out the detail and wow, the detail put into these is astounding. There's even little patches in the "leather" of the main boot but I couldn't work out how to pick that out without it looking messy.
so much work only to get religated to a crappy unarticulated budget doll.
Mattel did this boot sculpt dirty seriously.
Doll collecting is a wierd hobby. How many other hobbies can you say "yay, my bag of disarticulated body parts arrived!" lol.
This was a wierd bundle that caught my attention. It's a huge load of random Sindy parts.
I figured there were enough parts here to make up several complete dolls to reroot and extras for repair and such.
as it turns out there's a LOT here.
We'll go back to them.
because shortly after I also picked up THIS bundle (again, not my photo).
you might be thinking "why?"
let me explain.
The Sindy body for a start, given I have a huge pile of random heads that need bodies.
but also a monster high body and some extra bits for spares. Plus a Bloodgood.
Now, the Bloodgood I got in the big suitcase full of dolls I picked up a few months back has a good head and both arms but has a broken knee, so her leg falls off constantly. This one needs new arms. I figured by mixing both together i'd get a good condition Bloodgood. And so that's precisely what I did.
I now have one intact Bloodgood and one random lot of parts that I don't know what i'll do with.
The extra mh parts ended up useful because Catty got one hand (so now only needs one replacement hand) and Ghoulia got one of these random unmatching hands.
Not sure what i'll do with the vanity. It looks to be in okay condition, it's just missing all the tiny bits and bobs. MH playsets aren't that easy to sell so I dunno.
But I got one more Sindy doll out of this and a complete Bloodgood so that's good enough for me. Especially as I paid very little for the whole lot.
So let's go back to those Sindy dolls...
These are the "complete" ones cobbled together from all the parts from all these various bundles.
The girl with string around her waist has this because I can't work out how to get the wire inside those 70s legs to actually connect. I'll have to get clever to figure out a way to keep her legs on.
All these girls need reroots, but that will have to wait til I have energy and motivation. Sindy looks amazing with new hair, but it's a lot of work for me.Sometimes I like that idea, other times I dread it. So for now they are sitting in a box waiting for their new dos.
the big parts bundle had 13 heads in it. So I have plenty of heads left over to play around with.
Sindy is an awkward doll to rebody because of how her neck attachment works. She uses quite a large ball thing so finding appropriate alternatives is not an easy task.
But I might find more sindy parts in more bundles lol.
this was the last bundle I ordered before christmas and I only did so because, as is typical for me, I spotted a Sindy.
She's a 70s one at that, which is an era I don't have too many examples of. I'm drowning in 80s Sindy dolls but 70s ones are a little more elusive.
This was a wierd bundle too because most of it is modern dolls and then there's just this random 70s Sindy dolls. How's that happen?
Husband claimed Batgirl and Harley Quinn for his desk (lol) and I rehomed the disney dolls and the ever after high dolls, both of whom had absolutely disgusting glue head. Like holy crap it was disgusting. Rock hard heads and stickiness galore.
I don't like EAH enough to go to the effort of fixing that grossness.
But there were some interesting pieces in here as well.
But first Sindy got cleaned up, redressed and united with one of the short haired girls from the earlier "unfinished customs" bundle.
Both of them scrubbed up pretty well. Short haired girl has rather annoying hair that likes to flick up all the time but it's all present, just cut too short. If I can get her a hat to hold it down I think she'll be fine like this. Sindy often looks quite sweet with short hair.
The 70s girl is probably a "Skinny Leg Funtime" Sindy from 1974 and just like the example photographed for Petradolls id page, she has one wonky leg lol. Ahh Pedigree QC...
Her boots came in the big bundle and were split down the front. They're too big for Sindy but I reglued them and they work with the jumpsuit she stole off one of the other dolls inn the bundle too hah. It's a modern Barbie piece but it's kinda cute and very retro to my mind.
70s Sindy always looks so sad to me, more sulky than her later counterparts.
Short hair sindy is wearing a vintage Sindy skirt but the top is from one of the Sparkle Girls from the disney bundle that I cut the skirt off of and rehemmed. It has little peep shoulders, it's really cute.
These were the other interesting bits. We have an articulated Sparkle Girl which i've never seen before, an articulated Steffi Love, Art Class Barbie, a Barbie Extra, Forces of Destiny Hoth Leia, A Boxy Girl, A Spirit Riding Free doll and "angry Cinderella".
These two are pretty. Art teacher of course has the typical bullshit printed nonsense that Mattel are so fond of but I always liked this face sculpt. it's so much nicer than the Black Barbie face sculpt they used throughout the mid 2010s which I always hated for that manic grin she had. *shudder* I HATE grinning barbies.
This Barbie Extra I thought was really beautiful but the price of them coupled with their frankly hideous clothing always put me off. This one has been changed into a fashion pack outfit which I think really helps to draw attention away from her clown attire and to her really lovely face. She has gold eye makeup and a soft neutral lip colour which is really flattering.
I do wish the Barbie Extra dolls had used Made To Move bodies instead of the very outdated Fashionista body but ho hum. At least she has some articulation.
I also love her hair, it's a lot of fun with these two very very long braids which you can either have worn long or wrap around her afro puffs like I have.
I really like her, she's gone straight into my "keep" pile.
Art teacher i'm not so sure i'll keep. Her static body is very limited and much as I do like this sculpt, i'd rather have one with a jointed body and more interesting makeup and hair.
These were three articulated bodies I haven't handled before. I've seen the Spirit dolls before of course, but never actually handled one. They aren't really my thing.
Now that said, I do not understand why Just Play didn't modify THIS body for their Hairdorables Hairmazing line and went with the bandy legged nonsense which can't support the doll. This doll has really heavy solid legs that while they don't pose too well, DO hold her up well and feel like they'll withstand a lot of play.
I fully intend to put a Hairdorables head on this body and see how it looks <_< HAH.
Steffi has wierd legs. Those knees are waaaaay too low and it bothers me so much. Her waist joint is also super annoying and very very loose. She flops all over the place and feels fragile.
The Sparkle Girl has a hollow plastic body that's already coming apart at the seams. I kept her shoes on because they're the only thing keeping her leg seams together. YIKES. But given these dolls are only like £3 or something, I can't really expect much more. The fact she's jointed at all is a surprise.
I wanted to test out their articulation. All of them have about comparable arm articulation. About 90 degrees at the elbow. This is pretty standard for primitive articulation. We've been spoiled by modern engineering allowing dolls to actually touch their own damn faces and stuff.
Spirit and Steffi both have decent hip motion allowing both to sit up straight and have 90 degree knee articulation which is fine for most play. Both can sit normally. Steffi has an added ankle joint that allows her to point her toe but i'm not sure what it really adds beyond giving her another failure point. Her feet are so small and her shoe options so limited that in most cases you won't even be able to see this feature anyway.
The Sparkle Girl however has seriously limited hip and knee articulation. Her knee barely bends and her hips splay outward so she can't sit without manspreading and toppling backwards with her crotch bared. Classy.
Spirit can't splay her legs outward, like a lot of modern dolls there's a stopper that prevents this.
Steffi and Sparkle girl however can go full gymnast mode there.
Steffi can't actually hold her arm straight at the shoulder, for some reason. The other two can. In fact the Sparkle Girl has really loose joints at the shoulder and can move her arms quite a bit. Wierd.
Steffie has up and down neck motion but zero side to side. The other two can tilt their heads side to side.
Steffi has an extra joint at her waist which allows her upper body to tilt side to side but it looks wierd because you get the ridge of the lower piece and ultimately all it really does is make her body feel unstable and broken.
Overall, the Spirit doll is the sturdiest even if her articulation isn't great. But then she IS the substantially more expensive doll.
Both Steffi Love and Sparkle Girls are super budget dolls that cost less than £10 (often less than £5 in fact, they're crazy cheap) and that's reflected in their old fashioned engineering and flimsier build.
Still, it's super interesting to me that Sparkle Girlz even bothered with articulation. Their static little dolls seem to sell okay judging by how many I see in charity shops. They're extremely cheap but fairly well made, while the articulated version feels very very flimsy and easily broken. (as I said, she's already coming apart at the seams anyway)
But might be an option if you're desperate for a very very cheap articulated body in the Skipper sort of size range.
And of course more Bratz. Because I mentioned I was fixating right?
Here we have Flashback Fever Cade, Cameron and Fiana with Campfire Yasmin.
Fiana came from Vinted, listed just as "bratz doll". I snapped her up asap. She came in part of her original outfit and a big bundle of Bratz clothes I also bought came with other bits. I'm only missing her alternate shoes and her trousers.
I gave her the headscarf to keep her hair tamed because Cameron stole her hat <_<
Yasmin I got from a carboot sale at one of our local schools. I didn't find much but this Yas was nearly complete and cost me like £1. I added the hat from the bundle of clothes and fixed her hair as it was a bit of a mess but she's beautiful.
Cameron has lost some of his hair at the front but a hat covers that damage. He would have originally had a similar hat anyway.
He came from ebay along with Cade in one bundle, though he's missing quite a bit of his stuff. This shirt though is gloriously retro.
Cade came with Cameron and like Cam, he's missing quite a few of his pieces. But he's glorious. The 80s leather tie is quite a touch lol.
I love flashback fever, it was such a fun line but it's so hard to find these dolls now. I have Koby somewhere as well, though he's missing a lot of his stuff too.
I hope MGA rerelease this whole line including the boys. Please MGA? If i'm real good can I have rereleased boyz?
Finally, after this very long overview of shit I bought because I have no impulse control... impulse had nothing to do with today's final purchase.
I spotted this in the charity shop for £4 and it was immediate "NEED"
It's a conjoined bear! Two heads, three arms, two legs. The arms and legs are all jointed.
they are so soft and cuddly and so freaking wierd.
I love that they mixed and matched the parts, it really adds to the overall look of the thing.
And the extra arm is an added level of "wtf" that I find delightful.
I've seen two headed bears before online, but i've never seen one with three arms.
I love them so much.
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