The Holidays are Here Again, and With Them Come Dolls

   I have a doll show post nearly ready for you. Until then, I thought I'd talk about some interesting dolls I have seen lately. The holidays are coming up, and the toys are screaming for attention in the stores. The toy catalogs from the stores arrived ages ago.

Of course, it's not so close to Christmas that Kroger should  have been selling cut Christmas trees for WEEKS now, but they have been! 

  In any case, here are some dolls that have found my attention.

  The My Life As line has Willy Wonka themed dolls, and they come with a tiny plush Oompa Loompa.

  And there are the 18" Harry Potter themed toys from My Life As.

  

The success of "Wicked" has brought The Wizard of Oz to the forefront again. Walmart has these costumes, costume pieces, and these small dolls. The dolls are about the size of the Disney Store small versions of the Animator's dolls.

And then there are the Oz dolls from My Life As.

Wow. Toto looks more like a Chow than a terrier!

    

Walmart.

A couple of years ago I posted about the Best Friends Forever dolls sold at Dollar Tree. They're still being sold there, and now they have a couple of new characters. Our Dollar Tree also finally got the wig sets and clothing sets. 

  The Christmas dolls are coming out. I think this is the first time there has been a Holiday Ken. The Barbie movie has given Ken new life.

  The Holiday Barbies are out. You have a choice of three this year. There's also an 80th anniversary Barbie. It's Mattel's 80th anniversary, not Barbie's.

  And speaking of "Wicked", the new "Wicked" movie is out, or about to be, and the new dolls are out too. There are new versions of Elphaba and Glinda...

Meijer has small Wicked dolls in balloons, and a singing Glinda doll.

Walmart.

...as well as new characters like Dorothy.  In spite of the fact that the blue and white gingham dress is MGM's version of Dorothy, and has nothing to do with the original book description or illustrations, and that "Wicked" is a Universal release, and that Warner Brothers owns the rights to the MGM "Wizard of Oz", (I always have to think of the original studio rivalries and imagine how Louis B. Mayor must be absolutely turning, nay, spinning, in his grave to think that Warner Brothers now owns the rights to all his movies now!), the "Wicked" Dorothy comes pretty close to the MGM version.

  But my favourite new doll is the Wizard, played by Jeff Goldblum. The doll is a Walmart exclusive, and he is great. He really looks like Jeff Goldblum.

  The Kawaii Hi line is newish.

  They aren't new, but the line seems to be expanding, and I think they're cute, so I'm including the Hey Bestie dolls here.

  They're about 6 inches tall, with cute, actually+

 removeable cloth clothes and loads of accessory sets. They're cute, and have jointed knees and elbows.

They have a bunk bed set.

They have cars.

There's a cafe.

There's a hair salon.

So they only have a bedroom to live in, but they can get their hair done and eat out, and drive to the places to do it. Really, can a house be far behind?

  And there are loads of characters.

  My favourites are the red head...

...and the short haired girl on the right in this picture.

  They all have the same face though.

  Oh! I like the girl in orange too.

  And of course, there's always Barbie.

This is Meijer.

  Wednesday and Monster High are still popular.

Meijer

Walmart

  Meijer has an 18" doll line called Wonderfully You, which has the old Madame Alexander My Life As head sculpt.

  So there you are. That's only a start on the dolls that are available. There will hopefully be a lot of fun stuff out there for the holidays. And even better, it might get clearanced afterward!

  See you soon with the last doll show post of the year.

Doll-A-Day #15 18 Inch Baby...and She's Free!

   Today's doll is another freebie! She's another childhood doll of the lady who would like to find good homes for her dolls, and is offering them for free. She has offered them to me free of shipping, but as we are still cleaning up from the fire, moving things around and rescuing and cleaning a lot of our own stuff, I really don't have anywhere to put more dolls right now. Since she will be shipping the dolls out individually instead, I do worry it will run her to more money than she's expecting. I hope not. It would be nice if you offered her something for postage if you adopt one or more of her kids. But she has not asked for anything. I will be keeping one tiny thing from the things this lady has, and I'll show you that in a minute. In the meantime, here's today's girl, She's this sweet baby.

She's so cute. I love her cozy footie pajamas!

She was measured by her owner at about 19 inches tall. But she is marked 18 5S2, so the 18 may be a reference to her size. Sometimes it's hard to know when measuring dolls: Do you mash the hair down? Do you measure to the top of poufy hair? I have an idea that her curl hair may have added that inch to her height, as when older dolls were marked this way, it's usually in reference to their size. For example, 1950's Ideal Shirley Temple dolls were marked ST, and then the height for that particular size doll, as Shirley came in various sizes.

Plus the toes of those jammies can be confusing too. As you can see, she has sleep eyes.

As I said, she's marked 18 5S2. There's no makers mark. (Of course there's no Maker's Mark! She's too young to drink!)

  I looked up the markings though, and found that she's an Allied Grand/Eastern doll. I still don't know which one, but she's definitely by Allied Grand/Eastern.

  She also comes with this collection of clothes. Except for the little gloves. Those are the only things I requested to keep from these things the lady wanted to send me.

  So if you want to bring this baby home, just leave a comment with your contact information and I won't publish it, but I'll get you in touch with the owner.

  See you tomorrow for another doll. There are still a couple of these freebies to go.

Doll-A-Day 2023 #13: Vintage 'Miss America' Doll... and She's Free!

   I am still at Emma's, and will be indefinitely. For those of you following the story of the fire, I actually learned from Ken today that he found me laying on the floor of the landing, and dragged me to the top of the stairs. I was getting impossible to drag and he couldn't breathe and had little strength left. He had to go down to the first landing to breathe himself. The neighbour was banging on the door and he managed to go the rest of the way down and let her in, and she then helped him get me on my feet and down the stairs. I had no idea I had actually fallen. I just remember thinking I was pretty close to it. I can't imagine how scared Ken was, with me nearly passed out, and him getting closer to it himself, and not able to get me out of there.

  I feel stupid and pointless even writing the blog. But there isn't much I can do from here. Today I scrub a couple of things, but I am waiting on some laundry soap and white vinegar to hand wash the Christmas stockings, which were still laying in the bedroom, waiting to be put away. They got pretty blackened from the smoke. Most of them will be easy to clean, but I am afraid to wash my stocking. I've had it since childhood, and my mom wrote my name on it with marker. I'm afraid her handwriting will wash out.

  Today's doll has had an unusual path to the blog. Just before the fire I received an email from a lady who had come across the blog, and wanted to know if I took donations of dolls! She offered to send me pictures if I was interested, and if I wanted them, mail them to me...at her expense! Quite a generous offer! But they are her childhood dolls, and she just wanted to find them a good home. That's very sweet. 

  So, I obviously can't take the dolls myself at this point. I couldn't put them in my house, as we are trying to clear up such a stinky, smoky, wet mess. So I told her, if she sent me more pictures, I would feature the dolls on the blog, and let you all know that they are available for adoption. All her dolls come with some clothing, which I will also show you pictures of. Some of it may be homemade, but some of the clothes are obviously factory made. I was able to at least partially identify most of the dolls, as she went back and took pictures of the markings for me, once I told her where to look. If anybody can identify  any of the dolls or clothing I couldn't identify, please leave a comment, even if you aren't interested in adopting. I'll update the blog. That will help others to find them. 

  She was willing to send the dolls at her cost, but if she is sending them out individually, not only is that a lot of trouble for her, but also pretty expensive. So if any of you are interested in adopting one of her lovies, please offer to pay shipping for her. 

  The owner says all the dolls are basically from the 1950's. The first doll is dressed as Miss America. I'm not sure if that's a homemade outfit, or her original. It does have a crown.

She has no markings, so I wasn't able to figure out who she is.

Or is that something near the joint in her neck, on the left?

  She's 18 inches tall. I would say she was a competitor for Miss Revlon.

She comes with some clothes. 

The green dress with plaid trim looks familiar.

  So there's the first free doll. I hope someone would love to give this lady a home. If you can add any information, for the benefit of the post, or to help a future owner find her, please leave a comment. If you are interested in the doll, please leave a comment with contact information, (which won't be published.), and I will put you in contact with the owner. 

Congratulations Ivy! And a Sekiguchi La Cheri Doll from the Doll Show!

   I am exhausted. It has been a busy couple of weeks. Between trying to get the yard back in order, (The grass had gotten quite tall because of all the rain, and me feeling too crappy to mow for a while.), gradually getting rid of our fallen tree, trying to clean up our yard after Winter and a windy Spring, (Being on a corner, every piece of trash in the neighbourhood blows into our yard.), lots of driving, including going to Ivy's college graduation this past weekend, (With traffic slow downs it was about  5 hour drive there.), loading our car, and Ivy's, like a game of Tetris, to bring home what she wasn't going to need and  send what she was going to need with her to her new job, driving back home, unloading the car and taking Ivy's stuff upstairs to her room, (Ken did most of the hauling it upstairs.), and then driving 1 1/2 hours to her new town yesterday to take her some things she forgot, like her Social Security card, which she needed for her new job, I am wiped out! I'm so tired! My feet and legs are killing me, and the muscle in the back of my right calf hurts so much! I have fallen behind with some other things I need to do. Raging Moon and Michelle are still waiting for their dolls, but it will be worth it ladies. I have reviews to do, and a book post to get ready. I have dolls photographed that I want to share with you. Emma's birthday is coming up very soon, and all her gifts need wrapped. But, Ivy now holds two Bachelor of Arts degrees: Film History, and Theatre. 

Family friend Erin, me, Ivy, Ken, oldest daughter Emma and boyfriend AJ. 

She already has a job at Cedar Point until at least August, and maybe further, taking care of the costumes for the nightly parade, and helping with changes. She might continue there, or she might go back to her college for what's called a 5th year internship. Eventually she wants to go to grad school for costume design. I'm so glad she has a job she loves doing. You can make loads of money, but if you hate what you're doing, it's not worth it.  When she was a little kid I predicted that she would become an interior designer, because she was always drawing designs for cool rooms or furniture, or a clothes designer, because she was always designing 'pretty dresses'. I almost got it right.

  Now, what you're really here for, dolls. I got this doll at the recent doll show. 

This is her original outfit. The pinafore and dress are separate pieces, and she is also wearing a slip and bloomers, and white stockings, a straw hat, and blue Mary Jane shoes.

  

I'm still not sure exactly why. 

She was a really good price, and she had such a nice feel to her. I could imagine being a kid and hugging her.  She has a stuffed cloth body, firm, but soft and very huggable.

She has a vinyl head and hands.

She has hardly been handled. Her hair is still in it's original sausage curls and hair ribbons.

She's about 18 inches tall. She posed in our fallen tree, which was then in full bloom. I delayed cutting it up for disposal while it was blooming, because various types of bees were enjoying it so much. The bumble bees were, in fact, quite possessive of it! I enjoyed the blooms too. I cut a couple of bunches of blooms for my bedroom vase. They didn't really have a smell, but they are beautiful to look at. Luckily we still have another tree like this, and several young ones I can replant in better spots. I'm not sure what kind of tree it it. It looks a bit like a dogwood, or a flowering crabapple, but there's no fruit. 

She has a sweet, calm face, with the hint of a smile.

She has her original tag. She's a La Cheri doll, made in 1982, by Sekiguchi, (who also make Monchhichi.) and distributed by Mattel.

She's numbered.

Her shoes are just about the only thing on her that show age. These faux leather things usually do though.

Sekiguchi dolls are made in Japan. Taht accounts for the vague anime' look to her face.

She has inset brown eyes.

  I was thinking I was going to have to mow the grass again this evening, to keep up, but it has rained on and off since last night. I'll have to pass. I am grateful now, but I'll pay the price when I do get to mow, because it will be even harder. (Remember, I use a non-motorized mower.)

  See you soon with another recent find!