Roll call of vacation acquisitions

There was doll-acquiring on my visit to my parents. I've been slow about taking photos because of a long "first I really need to.." list. I finally decided that the only true "first I really need to" is that everybody should be wearing clothes for the occasion.

What started out as "I don't have room in my luggage for anything" turned into six newbies. I am practicing saying things like this without shame, as they're clearly going to happen.

Back row, L-R: another Liv Hayden, two clones.
Fronr row, L-R: two Bratz and a Moxie.

There are stories. There are always stories. Want to hear them?



It all started with a visit to the thrift store where we'd found the original Liv Sophie that sparked all this madness. There we found...

A fully articulated Bratz doll.

I'd assumed that what was meant by "articulated Bratz" mentions were the larger size ones with jointed elbows and click knees, not a fully articulated regular-sized Bratz.

After I bought her, my mom remarked that she had a Bratz hanging around from a Neglected Fashion Doll Two-Pack and I should take that one home, too. They look like two editions of the same character, but it's possible that the unarticulated one is Oriana and the articulated one is... maybe a light-skinned edition of Fianna?

I'm throwing up my hands and naming them Emmanuelle and Oriana. I boldly sewed a dress for Emmanuelle while still visiting, but Oriana needs a decision on whether she gets a new body.

Emmanuelle: I need some feet.
Oriana: I need a dress that fits.
Together: We both need a boilwashing!

So I'd sworn I'd never buy one of the Moxie Girlz. Then we came down with the need to go admire the CVS that used to be a much better Long's... and there was this sweet, non-sullen Sophina.

Unusually in a Moxie, I do not look as if I'm about to serve detention for showing attitude.

Sophina is the Moxie equivalent of Yasmin, and it seems I cannot resist anything Yasmin-like.

We then all went thrifting in the next biggish town over. My mother picked up a Hayden she liked. I kept rummaging through the rack, picked up what I thought was the same Hayden, and asked why she'd put her Hayden back.

No, it was an identical second Hayden. It being Mother's Day, it seemed appropriate to acquire mother-and-daughter Haydens. (Also, the thrift store was giving out gift cards to mothers, so our Haydens were free.)

My Hayden to the left, Mom's Hayden to the right.

We figured some little girl named Hayden got deluged with Haydens for every holiday and had simply had enough. Since I've got a Hayden and a Hallie, this one has to be Hollie.

At this point, there was no way that the new citizens were fitting in my luggage, as I fly Frontier, where you will be charged for anything above a large purse. I had, therefore, packed for the entire trip in a large purse -- including my laptop, because I had inescapable work projects on my calendar. I put everybody in a box, padded with my dirty clothes so that my purse would be mostly empty, left the box with my parents to ship, and put myself on the regional train to go meet the commuter train to spend a couple hours in the big city before catching my plane. (It is a longstanding joke -- promoted by a newspaper columnist back in my childhood -- that my hometown is deliberately made really difficult to get to from the nearest metropolis.)

In the big city, I went into a little ethnic market and found clones! Due to lack of luggage space, I deboxed them over lunch, and the nice thing about a dive ethnic restaurant in a big city is that if one is deboxing dolls around one's tortilla chips and sangria, one still probably isn't the craziest person in the room.

We are the harbingers of the clone army.

The one on the right first caught my eye, as she's obviously intended to be a Bratz, and I'd never before come across a Bratz clone in person. She is sold as Amy Gal -- Your Companion. The redhead on the left looks to me like a My Scene Barbie clone -- sold as My Life, in a box that even refers to the My Scene Shopping Spree! -- but it was the gray lips that sold me on her. She's presumably a knock-off of Kenzie.

The two together were a whopping $8 ($5 for the Bratz clone and $3 for the My Space clone). I think Amy Gal needs to be Deirdre, since she's obviously related to Desiree, and Faux!Kenzie is destined to be Kandie.

Desiree (on Liv body) checks out her cousin Deirdre, who seems a little... downscale.