Fifth, I help corrupt my youngest sister and we tackle the question of Korean dolls

Miss Hanzo has a mission for Minion Rei.

Leather pants! Why don't I have a pair of leather pants?

After unpacking and rebodying the Sailor Scouts, I started to feel creeping tentacles of guilt, as while Sailor Mercury (Ami) had been "my" Sailor Scout (geeky one who likes math... yup), I remembered quite clearly that Sailor Mars (Rei) had been the moral and philosophical property of one of my younger sisters (fiery spirit with a conscience... yup).

While Esteemed Youngest Sister hadn't expressed any recent interest in dolls, my conscience kept prodding and poking and prodding and poking... until something HAD TO BE DONE.

• The existing body situation was untenable, as Sailor Mercury's head fell off the Liv body at all possible opportunities.
• Putting her back on her old, chunky body would have made her more authentic, but not at all a fun doll, as her poseability would be limited, and she wouldn't be able to wear standard fashion-doll clothes.

On one of my thrift-store jaunts, I'd acquired an extra Julianne body with a not-particularly-exciting head. Would the head knob fit Rei's head better than a Liv body?

Yes, it would! The loss of ankle and wrist articulation seemed worth it to not have Rei's head fall off.

Then she needed clothing, which meant I finally had to bite the bullet and learn to make pants.

• Pants from My Froggy Stuff's instructions, and I watched the video at least seven times before overcoming my trepidation. I had very thin pleather just hanging out in my stash, for some forgotten reason.
• Silver tube top from My Froggy Stuff's tutorial (the apparent blue streak is the reflection of either sky or Ami's hair).
• Trendy Asian designer jacket from Perestroika Designs. In theory, my version is reversible. It is made with two different extremely slippery silky fabrics, both of which behaved surprisingly well.
• Lovely Patsy shoes, and I cheated with a little blue tack to keep them on.

I know you'll be happier there, Rei, but I'll think of you often.

So I got to our parents' house a couple days before Esteemed Youngest Sister. While unpacking, I sheepishly showed Mom that I'd brought along Rei in order to return her to her rightful owner. But wait! There was a little stash of Wee Wild Things that Mom had hopes of sending home with Esteemed Younger Sister, since they'd been nicely boil-washed.

If we were barking up the wrong tree, we were, at least, barking up the same tree.

To our massive relief, Esteemed Youngest Sister was pleased both with a fashion doll that sort of represents her style (she's ethnically Korean) and with a little nostalgia for small, cute things with neon hair... so it was obviously the moment to dig out her Korean Barbie and BOIL-WASH her hair back to a more pleasing state. We were collectively pleased to find that this particular Korean Barbie has more subdued make-up than most of the ones listed on eBay in the same outfit. (The only photo I took was during the washing process because I was trying to research the doll and needed a reference with me.)

나는 깨끗한 머리가 기쁘게 생각합니다
I am pleased to have clean hair

So Esteemed Youngest Sister went home on her train, while our parents and I repaired to Tuesday Morning, just in case it was more exciting than my local Tuesday Mornings. It was mostly par with the least exciting of the four around here, except... (and I can show this because Esteemed Youngest Sister already knows she's getting this on her next visit)... there is an apparently Asian Winx Club member: Musa, guardian of music.

나는 사랑 그 옛날 바위와 롤

At some point, Esteemed Youngest Sister had asked the logical question: "What kind of fashion dolls do they have in South Korea?"

Interestingly, what they don't seem to have is Korean-looking fashion dolls. I found a blog entry helpfully titled Let's Visit Toys R Us in Korea!, which identifies the major fashion dolls as JouJu and Mimi, both of whom resemble Licca-chan, and both of whom run blond.

JouJu appears to have a complicated existence as a Magical Girl, with her own video series. She also has her own Dream House-equivalent, sold as the Secret Town, and designed to show Barbie the true meaning of pink.

The other item that shows up in searches for Korean dolls is the Ddung doll, which is an exercise in how aggressively cute it is possible to be. In the International Cuteness Tournament, the final bracket is usually the Ddung going mano-a-mano with Hello Kitty.

그 키티의 점심을 먹을 것이다

Bizarrely, we found a Ddung in a mixed package on one of our thrifting trips -- and even one that sort of looks Asian! So now this one can go live with Esteemed Youngest Sister and admire the glamorous Asian ladies.