Happy Halloween!

 

While Kelsey takes three Katies and Hilary to the spa for intense hair treatments (the fourth Katie has a cold), the other grown-up and teen members of the community decided to throw a Halloween party. They grabbed whatever was at hand for costumes.

Kenzo: Extra on Supernatural who gets killed in the teaser.

Kylie: Sexy witch. She's regretting this and wishing she'd picked something with a serious message, or at least easier to sit down in.

Skipper: Emmy award, mostly because she's been looking for an occasion to wear this dress.

Lacey: Daughter of international diplomat, dressed for visit to Asian country.

Teresa: Also a sexy witch. Not regretting it.

Cinderelsa: Doesn't need a costume because being a bodiless head is creepy enough.

Seen in Family Dollar

 None of the discount stores seem to be gearing up for the holidays the way they did before the pandemic. Toy aisles here are the same length as during the year, with relatively few new products.

This here is the second instance I've seen this year of small dolls that appear to be Chelsea knock-offs rather than Kelly knock-offs. I could even be wrong about that -- there have been dolls about this size released with a horse as Spirit knock-offs, so Chelsea may have nothing to do with it. 

I find it interesting, though, that Kelly was replaced by Chelsea in 2011, at which point there was a split in "youngest sister" types:

• Branded younger sisters, like the little Moxie Girlz Friends Minis, went down the Chelsea route of being taller and thinner. 
• Clone younger sisters, like the Sparkle Girlz Minis, stayed Kelly size, with more Kelly-like face-ups. The dollar-store minis have consistently been 4" dolls like Kelly, with the Kelly face-up slowly devolving backward to something fish-like.

The little child in this family set is admittedly skinnier than Kelly clones of years gone by. I expected family sets to be a big trend this year, and so far that seems true. Mom is the same as the blonde Career Doll (the one I re-bodied onto a Curvy MTM and am in the process of re-hairing). Dad is chunkier than the Dad that comes with the sharp-featured woman clone by another clone brand. I did not buy one, as I know from Emma that the body quality is terrible, and Dad's head doesn't merit a rebody in my book.

Meanwhile, MGA celebrated the prior new year by launching a budget line to take shelf space from knock-off Settla Brown. I'm now seeing them in stores. Not being a Rainbow High collector, I don't have a strong opinion: there's a clear lack of articulation, the clothing is simpler, but the hair and face-up look nice.

A tribute to 2016-era Fashionista Kens

Together, we face the future. Stiffly.

These three are the remnant of my Ken Phase, which might have persisted longer if Fashionista Kens of the body-diversity period had articulation -- or clothing packs for Skinny and Broad. I did and do love the concept of the variety, and I think many of the Kens are handsome and have more personality than Kens of Yore. Around late 2021, I had six or seven Kens forming a (highly representative) gay social club, with picnics on my back porch and a pair of skinnies holding hands in ugly Christmas sweaters from Target.

One of the symptoms of my different life on the left coast, after dealing with Mom's clean-but-still-a-hoard collecting, is that Kens are also not clicking with me as they once did. I'd considered rebodying my last three, but the enthusiasm is there for only one of them.

Brown Skinny Ken and Black Broad Ken are good-looking guys, and they'll make some thrift shopper very happy.

My heart will go on.

This leaves Manbun Ken as the sole surviving Ken. This is the Ken that we went to every shutting-down Toys R Us in northern California to find. He is my absolute favorite Ken ever.

Now that the Ken colony is no longer balanced with varied body rep (he's a Skinny), Manbun Ken can be rebodied onto an articulated male body. I'm pretty sure AliExpress sellers have bodies that come this pale, so in my next order (which will probably be in 2024, since Cinderelsa's body won't arrive until mid-November 2023, and my calendar is kind of full until January) will include a new body for this Ken.

A tribute to 1990s articulated Stacie

 

Look upon me, mortals, and despair!

This articulated Stacie from the 1990s was a thrift store find around Christmas 2014, when my parents and I went on a tour of all major thrift stores in East Bay, and it was epic. I'd been wanting an articulated Stacie at that time, and it was Dad who found her. I sewed her dress for Easter 2015.

Kelly's head is almost bigger than mine!

While I found a Whitney of my own later, this one is from Mom's collection because she was in better shape. (She's tagged for Miranda, because that's the name I gave my redhead at the time.)

Kelly is also from Mom's collection. Kelly was going to leave us, but then I started getting more into 4" dolls and decided that one Kelly was not excessive.

While Stacie has worn the same dress for 8 years, my krowd of Kid Kore Katies is growing at ridiculous rates.

Katie's are like potato chips.

Here are the articulated gals with the first of the Katies, the Katie that was the camel's nose under the tent. I'm up to four Katies and honestly a lot more excited about 1990s clones these days. If I move on from Stacies, I'd have an opening for a redheaded Katie to go with redheaded Kelsey, as well as for a Creata Today's Girl adolescent.

If I find a redheaded Katie, a Kid Kore Carla, a Creata Today's Girl middle schooler, or a Stacie clone I haven't heard of on today's antiquing/thrifting trip to the southern San Joaquin Valley, I'm taking that as a sign that Stacie and Whitney are ready to move on to someone who is excited about them. They may move on anyway, but that would force my hand.

Wigs arrive!

 

My order of wigs from out-of-business Monique arrived today from Factory Direct Crafts. I feel a mix of excitement and trepidation.

Here they are! The three brown wigs are candidates for Career Gal Emma. The blue one is the back-up for Cinderelsa the Project Doll, and the dark one with pink streaks is my first choice for her.

To review who these dolls are, this is Emma, who came from Family Dollar with her guitar and keyboard, and who now is rebodied onto a MTM Curvy body. Her hair looks okay-ish right now but is sparsely rooted and will age poorly.

This is Cinderelsa, my Project Doll that I found at Hope Chest, who was once sold with gift baskets by local distributor Wondertreats. Cinderelsa is waiting for her new body to arrive from China in mid-November. Cinderelsa has a pretty hair color but the most absurd rooting possible.

Seriously, look at this rooting pattern. And look at that border around the top of the skull and the actual point at the top! 

There was no realistic way to re-root this doll with her existing rooting. My favorite cheap-doll-hair method of dipping the head in glue, then in glitter, also wasn't going to work because her head shape is so distorted. A wig it's got to be!

But first, I'll have to get all those tufts out. Some come by just tugging, but most are in surprisingly firmly for the low quality of this doll. 

However, I can try on the two wig candidates.

The pink-streaked wig fits better, but I'll need to be careful with how her hairline is revealed. It also feels truer to the concept of Weird Barbie. The blue wig may be a little too large for her, though it doesn't look bad.

I was going to deal with Emma later, since her original hair is decent, but then I figured the point of wigs was to do wigs.

I chopped off Emma's lavish locks and started trying wigs. These two seem small for her head, though I might re-try the first one once the spiky remnants of her lavish locks are pulled out.

These two fit better, especially the blue one. I feel like the blonde one is cute but a little aging and a little boring. In the blue one, Emma starts showing a personality -- one that calls for a better dress than her current bland Curvy outfit.

My next little while will be spent pulling stubborn cheap hair fiber out of stubborn cheap heads.

Totsy "Teen Fun Lacey" joins the fam

Meet the new-to-me Skipper-equivalent from circa 1994, Totsy's "Teen Fun Lacey." I bought her on eBay unboxed, so figuring out her identity involved lucking into finding a listing for a similar doll on its card (and priced at $40! -- but I don't buy vintage dolls NRFB or MIB because I don't like boxes. Leave them for people who do!

 

It was the 1990s, curling irons were a gal's most important accessory.

I love her face. She even has dimples at the side of her mouth. She spent two weeks basking in a baggie of baking soda because she arrived reeking of cigarette smoke. The seller had a rant in her listings about how buyers are ridiculous over smoke scent and she has no control over lingering scents from estate sales where she buys... but I think she herself is a chain smoker, because this scent was not lingering. It was racing ahead to announce itself. (I left her positive feedback anyway, because the rant was a red flag I chose to ignore due to wanting the doll a lot.)

To you, it's a dollar-store small size. To me, it's a lifetime supply.

Lacey has also had a full day of soaking her hair in fabric softener, which seems to work better on 1990s hair than conditioner. This came out well enough that I didn't boil wash her, and I'm thinking of running all the 1990s gals through intense fabric softener treatment.

Lacey is 9.5" tall and has the reached puberty, but not blossomed to Barbie degrees yet. The 1990s were the era of aging up Skipper, so Lacey is probably intended to be in her mid-teens, while the main Totsy fashion doll slides into adulthood along with Barbie.

Her feet are flat. Her legs are a different, softer material than her arms, and they look a little wiggly for a reason.

She has the wired, bendy legs that Kid Kore was known for in this period! (She's definitely Totsy, though -- the marking is on her back.)

Here's an awkward size comparison parade, made more so by my not having a standard-sized Skipper of any era.

L:R Kid Kore Kelsey, Petite Barbie, Lacey, Teen Skipper

Lacey is shorter than Petite Barbie and much shorter than Kelsey or Teen Skipper. (This moment was when I decided Petite Barbie was ready to leave for a new home. I was so excited about the new Barbie body types when they were released, as well as the more visible ethnic variety, but the face-ups have not aged well with me, except on Kens, which we'll talk about later. I find myself preferring 1990s dolls, even though that wasn't my childhood and I have no specific nostalgia for the era.)

I'm so cute!

Lacey can wear some Sparkle Girlz clothing, like the dress above. The day before she emerged from her fabric softener adventures, I'd been at Dollar Tree and found a sparkly green dress, in the standard Barbie-esque clothes, that I was pretty sure would be a good fit.

Ready for prom!

It fits perfectly! The heeled shoes do fine on her little flat feet because her ankles are flexible.

Here, she's settling in with Skipper and Kelsey, looking a little younger than both. When I eventually find a Kid Kore Piper that hits right, she'll get a same-sized friend.

Bass Pro Shops dolls

I didn't buy either of these gals, but they're not bad if one wants a more outdoorsy, athletic doll with a lot of articulation and has $30 to spare. 

 

Bass Pro Shops runs massive stores that are cathedrals of hunting (decorated heavily with taxidermed wild life), dedicated not just to hunting gear, but to the hunting lifestyle. This includes its own line of toys.

Honestly, I would have been a lot more excited about Lammily if she'd had this level of articulation. These gals are not hyper-glam, nor exaggeratedly skinny, but they'd probably still intimidate Nicholas Lamm because their survival skills are superior to his.

Arvin Lebec gets a chopper

He don't want a pickle.

 Arvin Lebec turns out to be a motorcycle fan. He's a little large for this Harley Heritage Springer, but Arvin is built on a massive scale compared to his standard 1:12 peers.

I could pick you up and tie you into a pretzel, except you are not articulated.

Arvin Lebec is a 7" Mego Lion Rock Heroes of WWII figure. I haven't yet figured out which one. We were driving home from Santa Clarita at a time when the two antique stores in the Tehachapis, near I-5, were open, so we stopped at both. At the larger one, in Lebec, this highly articulated muscle man was sitting naked and cheerful on a shelf, marked $4. He has 14 points of articulation and can use 1:12 furniture -- he just has to stoop a bit sometimes, which, as a tall person myself, I do not consider unreasonable.

He's currently wearing a pair of pants I stole from Chelsea when I moved her on to a new life, as I haven't had time to sew for him. It would be handy if stores did little sweaters as Christmas ornaments this year!

Hey.

He's named Arvin for the official post-office name of the settlement on the Valley side of Wheeler Ridge, where the outlet mall and chain restaurants are.

I do yoga to deal with my PTSD.

Arvin is incredibly flexible and can touch his own face. He promptly moved into the big gray mansard dollhouse that I built with Mom and Dad back before 2018. Mom had "done" it as loosely period Old West, with costumed inhabitants, which wasn't a look I wanted to maintain. In the past year, I've dithered around about this house, as I want to keep it -- it's got big rooms on a small footprint, it goes with my bedroom, and I put my own effort into building it -- yet I keep feeling like adding wallpaper or repainting anything is messing with Mom's toy. I have a great book of scrap paper for it!

To have a house that reflects his personality, Arvin first needs a personality. We were at the big antique mall in Salida, where a dealer had 1:12 motorcycles for $3 each. I bought two because Arvin will eventually have a friend, and they'll want to ride together.

At the moment, Arvin is living in the upper-floor studio apartment, with my cherished Dolls House Emporium compact kitchen and a sofa bed that Dad built back in the 1970s, as he fixes up the rest of the house.

The bond between a man and his dog...

Haunted mansion sighting

 

This house, done in the manner popularized by Samantha Browning in 2020, was in the window of an occult supplies store in Merced. I don't think it's an actual Browning piece, since it's solid black, but it's fun to see one of these projects in the wild.

Downtown Merced is stumbling toward a renaissance, gaining small shops aimed more at the university market (including a modernist tiki ironic sort of antique store that was selling NRFB Barbies). It's a tough claw up the ladder of decaying Central Valley towns, as UC Merced is sited way, way to the east of town, so students won't see downtown without a car. Young faculty presumably need somewhere to buy their harvest gold lounge chairs and vintage Libby tumblers, as well as their crystals and tarot cards. Modesto and Turlock (to the north) are not great for these things (the antique store vibe is more "wine country" for reasons I've tried and failed to fathom), and Fresno (to the south) has mostly lost its good antique stores.

White label clone and the future Weird Barbie

Next to the counter at the big Hope Chest thrift shop, there was a phalanx of these clone dolls on cards.

Hi! I'm Princess Bendable!

She has a really nice knock-off of the Barbie CEO face, but that alone wouldn't ordinarily have motivated me to do much. However, I took a look at her card information.

Modesto is where I live (this is not a secret). I'd never heard of Wondertreats, though a quick Googling reveals they sold gifts in some way. This is one of those clones that businesses buy on Alibaba or Taobao to be labeled with their own information.

Now, I knew this practice existed. Heck, dolls identical to the Dollar Tree Beauties show up with other labels. But this was the first time I'd had in my hand a definite example of the practice. And local too!

Had the checkout clerk not been scrutinizing me like I was about to shoplift a Christmas tree, I'd probably have taken a picture and left it at that. But for $2...

What sealed the deal was that I've been thinking about making a DIY Weird Barbie but any doll I like enough to do it with, I like too much to do it with. Here's a head I like that has no inherent value!

I think I had a little too much punch at the ball.

Here she is, off her card. She doesn't stand well, due to have tiny Cinderella feet. Her dress doesn't fit (which is wild, since she's going to turn out to be on one of the standard Chinese clone bodies).

We're all feeling a little soft-focus today.

Her face looks better in person, but she's so shiny that she repels efforts at photography.

Meanwhile, I did some digging on Wondertreats. Their address is in an industrial park, and it seems they sold gift baskets, largely filled with cheap Chinese imports. Their web site is down and their item listings on Walmart.com are gone, but there's a mild eBay secondary market in stuffed animals and toy cars labeled with their name.

I tried identifying the maker of the doll from their shipping records, since she doesn't show up in a superficial search of Alibaba. No luck -- they had hundreds of shipments a year, from numerous Chinese factories, and it's just too much paperwork.

Her elaborate hairdo ends oddly.

I followed a "hair hack" from Five Minute Crafts!

So of course I had to undress her to see what was what.

Her tramp stamp.

Her back has a stamp repeating the information on her card. Searching by the product number gets me nothing. Given that Wondertreats had been in business since the early 1990s, and our gal's attire suggests she wants to be both Cinderella and Elsa for Halloween (Cinderelsa?), she could be back stock from years ago.

So what's she like naked? She's awful.

The Prince was enchanted by my tiny legs.

She has the most basic clone body, with the chopstick legs. This gal has got to be rebodied. Admittedly, I was looking for an excuse to order a body from AliExpress.

The fairy godmother used a full can of Aquanet.

No, I wasn't scalped. I was born this way.

Taking her hair down revealed that her rooting is just as bad as expected... and there's a ridge on her skull that's going to interfere with coating her head with glitter, as I did for Ambiguous Brown back in the day.

I tossed her in the Project Drawer without introducing her to the other dolls, as her quality is so poor that she was overpriced at $2. This is the kind of doll that was 15 cents wholesale, with free shipping.

Then I discovered that it is not necessary to reroot Barbie-sized dolls. You can buy wigs. Anyone in the BJD community could have told me this years ago, but I'm a primitive plastic playline person.

Not only can you buy wigs, you can buy Weird Barbie-ready wigs.

Monique Synthetic Mohair Brown Black Hot Pink Frankie Doll Wig

I need to get cracking on this, as this one's almost sold out, and what Factory Direct Crafts has is close-out from Monique going out of business. Admittedly, at $10.49, it's worth 5x more than the doll -- but it's all kins of awesome. To get myself free shipping, I may buy Career Gal Emma a wig, too, as her clone hair isn't going to last forever. (Oh yikes! Free shipping is $50 minimum. Do I stock up on obsolete wigs?)

For a body, I have to look at AliExpress, as no real Barbie is going to match the pink sheen of Cinderelsa. And look what I found!

Doll Body For Barbie Accessories 11 14 20 Joints Can Change Head Foot Moveable Female 30cm 1/6 Girl Toys For Children

Again, I've got to figure out who (present or future) might like a cheap articulated body to get the purchase over the minimum price for a 15-day shipping guarantee. But this is gold. Weird Pregnant Clone Barbie, with a close-out wig and the hot 2023 trend in bodies.

Shortly after originally posting this, I sat myself down to pick wigs and bodies. I ended up buying 5 doll wigs (since the maker is out-of-business, so I won't see them again) and four doll bodies. This is a substantial investment in a project that started with a $2 doll, but it's all in the vein of things I'd been vaguely intending to do anyway. It especially seemed like the moment to make sure I had some articulated Black bodies.