The Maine Cottage

 

My project for the past month or so has been finishing up (more or less) the 1:24 Maine Cottage that I started in the fall of 2020. (It had a long hiatus from early 2022 to early 2024.) The base is a Melissa and Doug portable cottage that I'd been eyeing intermittently since the early 2000s. It showed up at the Savers on Boston Post Road for $4, missing one of its dormer roofs (since replaced by Dad's cutting me a new piece).

Since I'd just been to artist-colony Ogunquit, my plan at the time was to paint it blue-gray and make it an artist's retreat. This winter, I ended up picking a new shade of blue that's more in line with the vintage Marx furniture chosen for the house.

The resident, Augusta, is a vintage Tweakie Toy made by J. Chein for a single year, 1969. Her workers and repair people are Playskool Lil Playmates from 1978-84. As you can probably guess, I'm not aiming for realism.

Part of the appeal with this house is having space for a dining room. 

The corridor kitchen is highly efficient. The "Milk Raw" sign is from an antique shop in Massachusetts. The astronaut just dropped in.

Upstairs. the bath is barely visible. On next year's to-do list for this house is figuring out how to hang a bathroom mirror on a sloped wall.

One of the decorating challenges was that, if I put the bathroom and bedroom walls in reasonable spots, I was left with a large upper hall for the stairway. So I turned it into a little library.

The blue room is the bedroom of Augusta's adult son, Stanley. During the week, he lives in Boston, where he's a businessman. His hobby is photography.

Here's Augusta's room. Long-term plan is to put a portrait of Augusta as a young woman over the fireplace, but nothing I try for that goes quite right.

Here's Augusta's studio. The brown desk has always been one of my favorite vintage Marx playset pieces, so it was one of the first things I hunted down. The easel is an improvisation, as the one I bought somewhere in late 2020 was in pieces and I could not figure out how to fix it.

Having a third bedroom was the triumph of this floorplan. My closest prior approach to a 3-bedroom house was Mom's Arrow Dream Dollhouse that I'd furnished with vintage Renwal, but I sold it instead of wallpapering and accessorizing it. Please note Augusta's cat, Kittery.

Here's Stanley himself, showing off his toys in the garage. The birchbark canoe was another Massachusetts gift-shop find. The ATV is from one of the dollar stores.

Barely glimpsed behind the vehicles is the laundry room. After taking pics, I finally realized I had the right tile for the laundry room floor, but otherwise, it's on next year's improvement list.

With this "done," my major uncompleted dollhouse project is the little birdhouse village. Next up, it's time to sew clothes for the Kid Kore Katie Krew!

Family portrait, February 2024

While I was tidying the cabinet where I keep fashion dolls, I posed the entire gang for a family portrait.

Back row, L to R.

1. Kid Kore Kelsey with titian hair. Fully intended to be my only original-flava Kelsey ever, since IMHO she's the best Kelsey.
2. Kid Kore "Legends of Ancient Lands" blond gladiator, now named Sylvester, with the widest hips ever. I'm not looking forward to fitting pants on him; maybe he'd like to wear kilts.
3. Manbun Ken, a.k.a. Kenzo. 
4. Kid Kore "Chief White Eagle" in his Philadelphia Eagles sweatshirt, called Brodie by most friends outside his tribe. His hips are not quite as wide as Sylvester's.
5. Kid Kore Kelsey with inset eyes, now named Kenzie. This is a late 1990s iteration of the Kelsey idea.
6. Remco Babysitter's Club Kristy, younger sister of Kenzie. Kristy creates the dilemma that I now kind of want a Claudia (the Asian one), but their bodies are so meh and there's not a good substitute that keeps them young and short.

Center row, L to R.

1. Dollar Tree knee-jointed Black fashion doll with replacement Monique wig, named Delilah.
2. Dollar Tree knee-jointed Black fashion with darker skin, straight ponytail, and excellent shades, now named Joy. Second daughter of Delilah.
3. Elspeth, consisting of a white-label clone head, an AliExpress jointed pregnancy body, and a Monique wig. Wife of Kenzo.
4. Fashionista Teresa from 2012. Half-sister of Kenzo.
5. Totsy Teen Fun Lacey from 1990s. Sister of Sylvester.
6. Cool Sitter Teen Skipper from 1998, girlfriend of Lacey.
7. Kid Kore Baby Allison. Daughter of Sylvester, niece of Lacey.
8. Creata Today's Girl Hilary. Younger sister of both Kenzie and Kristy. Grateful to have a name that doesn't start with K. When I bought her, I was so besotted with the look that I expected to get more of her size, but so far, I've resisted.

Front row, L to R.

1. Wulf, Kenzo's dog. A Target Xmas ornament some time between 2018 and 2021.
2. Ben, a Kid Kore Katie who's socially transitioned to being a guy. Younger brother of Kelsey.
3. Tigger, Sylvester's tiger.
4. Evi Love, youngest daughter of Delilah. 
5. Neveah, a Kid Kore Jodi of the early 2000s.
6. Simply Fresh Kylie on a MTM body. Oldest daughter of Delilah, half-sister of Kenzo, mother of Neveah.
7. Bette Mae, niece of Brodie. A Kid Kore "Dancing Brook." Officially Seminole.
8. Mr. Peabody, pet dog of Skipper's family.
9. Brooke, my first Kid Kore "Dancing Brook." Younger sister of Brodie.
10. Rosa Lee, a Romany Kid Kore Katie.
11. Kelly, younger sister of Skipper.
12. Lucky, a Lucky Industries Tommy clone. Younger brother of Lacey and Sylvester.
13. Isabelle, a Kid Kore Katie. Younger sister of Lacey and Sylvester, older sister of Lucky. It should be apparent that instead of buying more Today's Girls, I became addicted to Kid Kore Katies.
14. Joelly, a Kid Kore Jodi with brown-red hair. Younger sister of Kenzie and Kristy. I thought when I bought her for $1 at the Alameda Point Antiques Fair that she was titian-haired and would be my sole Jodi as younger sister to Kelsey and Ben, but her hair is browner.

More Dolly Insider questions, because I'm easily influenced

While I'm managing not to get around to a photoshoot for the Kid Kore Jodi I found for $1 at the Alameda Point Antique Faire, I've been experiencing feelings similar to the dismay of Teatime Tangents at the Dolly Insider questions being a one-year series that ended with 2023.

Admittedly, my answers after a while get boring and predictable: I collect mostly 1990s clone dolls, particularly Kid Kore; I sew and do light customization; yay me.

So I grabbed a couple questions that made me pause to think.

35. What doll would you like to see re-released?

If Mattel were to do a Mod TNT head mold on a playline doll with articulation, I'd at least think about getting one. I'm not up for buying collector versions, though, which makes me useless to Mattel. Alternately, bring back the 2010-ish Fashionista articulation as the playline standard.

39. If you could visit any doll company, which one would you visit?

I'd want a full tour of one of the doll factories in China, including a meeting (with translators, as needed) with their VP in charge of strategy or marketing or sales -- whatever role(s) are involved in the decisions about what to clone, what to offer as white label, and when to hop on a new trend.

Failing that, I'd go for Simba Toys, makers of Steffi Love and Evi Love. I'd like to learn about how the Love ecosystem is developed, particularly why Steffi can come in a pregnant version without anyone raising a ruckus. Also, why are there so few non-white Steffi and Evi variants?

45. What five dolls would you like to add to your collection?

This is a tough question because I've managed to find cheap most of the dolls I want. Acquiring the two Kid Kore guys was a big step toward completion. Let's see:

• Kid Kore Piper (dark-haired) or Morning Dove (Native American). This is the Skipper-equivalent.
• Kid Kore Girls Club or Carla. This is the 6" doll with a Katie face and a suspiciously similar to Creata Today's Girls ballerina body. She precedes the existence of Mattel Stacie.
• Creata Today's Girls "Middle School" sister. This is presumably a Skipper equivalent.
• Totsy Asian 11.5" doll, presumably a Mulan clone. She's tremendously pretty , and I've seen her only in a large lot with dolls I didn't want.
• Mattel Jazzy (Barbie's cool teen cousin in the 1980s). This is a maybe -- periodically I look at her on eBay, bookmark about twelve of them, then decide none of them quite hit right to buy.

47. What long-discontinued doll line would you like to bring back?

I'd be most entertained by seeing a full revival of Topper "Dawn" and friends, but I don't think I'd personally buy it.

48. If you had $100 to splurge on doll items, what would you buy?

A full 1:6 kitchen would be a good starting point. 

51. What were your 2023 dolly wins?

This was the year I got back into collecting, found a lot of neat stuff, and bought it because it didn't cost very much.

The big cosmic win was when Dollar Tree started offering dolls with articulated knees, though.

52. What doll goals do you have for 2024?

Sewing outfits for the oddly sized members of the herd. I don't think this is the year for build them a house, but I might surprise myself.

Brodie, Kenzo, & Sylvester wish you a bountiful 2024

 

They're a bit of a ragtag crew at the moment. Kenzo is both thrilled and intimidated not to be the only adult male in the community. 

I'd been thinking about Kid Kore men for several months, mostly on the subject of "no." The reason for "no" was that I was intending to rebody Kenzo... only finding a body that's skinny and pale enough turns out to be a challenge. 

By December 26, Sylvester, who is the blond gladiator 1280 from Legends of Ancient Lands, had been on eBay for weeks with a 99-cent starting big and no takers. The end of the year is the logical time for sellers to move failed listings to the "donate" bin, and if he's donated it, he'll be somewhere far, far from here. So I bought him for 99 cents.

At the same time, Brodie, who is Chief White Eagle. was given a substantial markdown that would take him below $20 with shipping. He's in good shape and I kind of love his jersey, so I bought him too.

Skinny Ken looks very, very skinny between these boys. (Nude dolls after the jump.)