Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Doll-A-Day 2017 # 59:Mooshka Tots Karia

  I've been limping around here lately with an injured foot.Today I am keeping it simple with a simple little doll.She's from the Mooshka Tots line and her name is Karia.


Karia is about 9" tall.


Her dress is removable,with a Velcro closure in back.
As you can see from her tag, she's a Zapf Creation, but sold by MGA,who also make Bratz and Moxie Girlz.
She originally came with a finger puppet doll in her pocket.
As you can see from her arm, our cat mow has taken to sleeping on the dolls I have laid out for posting.


I love the Mooshka dolls.They are so cute, and the colours are very appealing to me.


 If my girls were still little they would have been given Moshka dolls...whether they wanted them or not!



I have shown you a couple of Mooshka dolls before.One was a soft,stuffed Mooshka, Ina,similar to this Karia, and one was the beautiful little 3 1/2" Mooshka Fairy Tales Casia doll.

  Tomorrow we'll see another doll. 


Monday, February 27, 2017

Doll-A-Day 2017 #58: Rainbow Ripple Renee

  Not long ago I showed you a tiny Yummi Land doll. (You can see that post HERE.)In researching to find out which doll she was I came across a picture of another doll I have that I hadn't yet identified. It was today's doll.She's a Yummi Land Ice Cream Pop Girls doll,Rainbow Ripple Renee!

Phew! That's alot of names.

Renee is one of the larger, 12" Yummi Land dolls.

She has a large head and big eyes.

She also has some red ink marks on her face and lots on her lips.Can anybody offer any suggestions on removing them? I'm not totally averse to trying a total repaint on her, so if it involves some pretty drastic measures I still might go for it.I have used Mr.Clean Magic eraser on other things, and ,maybe it's me, but I can't get them to do anything. Also, this red is soaked into the vinyl,so it's no longer a surface problem.
She's the only one of these dolls I've ever come across,which is why I didn't know who she was when I found her. As I've said before, I never saw the little ones in stores either.
She originally came in this dress, tall orange boots, and a strange hat.

(I borrowed this picture from a sales site, and I will be glad to remove it if asked.) I guess the hat fits her or the penguin.
She also came in a large pop bottle,had a pet penguin, and they were both scented.(Renee and the penguin that is, not Renee and the bottle.)

Her arms and legs are soft rubber,and can't hold a pose.

Her left leg is made with a slight bend in it.

Her head only turns side to side,without any up or down movement.But her arms and legs move out to the sides, as well as up and down.

Her hair was very ratty when I bought her at the thrift store.It was pretty hard to get smoothed out,even after washing and soaking it in conditioner overnight.(I don't do Downy,or any softener, because I don't like the smell and don't use it on my laundry either.I have had pretty good luck with human conditioner on dolls,although sometimes I have to use the heavy duty stuff for extra dry hair.I find it works best if you comb the hair while the conditioner is still in, and then rinse in extra warm water.)

It's still a little crispy. 


And still a little damp. I guess my living room is too cold to dry very wet doll hair overnight.

  Earlier I couldn't keep the internet on for more than a few seconds, or minutes if I was lucky,at a time. Now it seems to be ok. Come back tomorrow and see if I managed to get a doll posted!

Sunday, February 26, 2017

Doll-A-Day 2017 #57: Commander Keonig

  Since the Academy Awards will be awarded tonight we're marking the occasion by featuring an
 Oscar winner: Martin Landau as Commander Koenig from Space 1999.


 Space 1999 was a British TV series, which ran from 1975 to 1977.
Space 1999, with Martin Landau, Barry Morse, and Barbara Bain. Barry Morse is best known to my children as 'the guy I saw in the post office' in London one day.

The doll was made by Mattel in 1976.


Although the head sculpt was a nice likeness of Martin Landau, the body was recycled from The Sunshine Family dad.



The body and legs are hard plastic, but the arms are softer.The knees are jointed.


Sorry.I don't have any space age chairs.

In Britain,Palitoy produced a series of Space 1999 figures with more jointed bodies and different head sculpts that weren't nearly as accurate likenesses.

Plus they called him 'Captain' Koenig,commander of Alpha Moonbase,instead of Commander Koenig. Around here,Ken's the expert on "Space 1999", and he refers to the character as 'Commander Koenig', so I'll take his word for it. And while I'm at it,I got this figure for Ken, so technically,it's his.
The series premise was that the crew of Moonbase Alpha,and the moon itself, are left hurtling through space after the moon is knocked out of orbit by an explosion of nuclear waste at a disposal site on the far side of the moon.

Commander Koenig was played by Martin Landau.


Martin Landau was born in Brooklyn, New York in June, 1928.

One of his early roles was as a villain in Alfred Hitchcock's 1959 film "North By Northwest". He also appeared in "Cleopatra" in 1963,and 1965's "The Greatest story Ever Told".

From 1966 to 1969 Landau was one of the original stars of Mission Impossible,(You can see the classic opening and hear that magnificent theme HERE.)where he played disguise expert Rollin Hand.


Unlike the other stars,and at his own request, Landau was contracted year by year, rather than the usual five years. His wife at the time,Barbara Bain,appeared as another agent,Cinnamon Carter. (Married in 1957, they divorced in 1993.) After three years both actors left the series.(Thus ruining my favourite Mission Impossible cast!)

In "Space 1999" Barbara Bain played Dr. Russell.The doll made of her is a terrific likeness.



Martin Landau has been nominated for the Oscar three times: for "Tucker,The Man and his Dream" in 1988, "Crimes and Misdemeanors" in 1989, and the third time, his win for his portrayal of Bela Lugosi in "Ed Wood" in 1994.

Martin Landau in his Oscar winning role as Bela Lugosi in "Ed Wood".

   These days Martin Landau is 88 years old, and lives in California.
Martin Landau in 2015.
Tomorrow we'll look at another doll. 

Saturday, February 25, 2017

Doll-A-Day 2017 #56 Shrunken Saturday: Holly Hobbie's Friend, Clubhouse Girls Carrie Baker

  This Shrunken Saturday doll is Holly Hobbie's friend,       .

She's one of the modern Holly Hobbie  dolls.She's from the line called Clubhouse Girls.
This is an update.I finally found a picture of what Carrie looked like in her package.So now I know her original outfit and what she came with.

She stands about 4 1/4" tall,  but I attribute that extra 1/4" to her big hair.
I have no idea who this dress originally belonged to, but it fits her perfectly.

These are her original shoes and jeans,but I'm pretty sure her shirt is a Lil Bratz Boyz shirt.

She's a perfect size for a 1/12 scale doll house.

And she has a sweet little face.

It has been absolute torture keeping the internet on long enough to just load these pictures!Come back tomorrow and see if I manage to post anything!