That Ever Present Wish List

    Let's start with the obvious: It's been HOT lately!. Ken and I have been surviving in our house without air conditioning, but we have had to retreat to my sister's house a couple of times to cool off.

Tammy World came along for the ride, and because she gets hot too. She posed with my sister's rock collection, and a very colourful plant I've forgotten the name of.

 It's nice to get out of the heat, and it's nice to hang out with my sister, but it's an hour and a half drive each way, and by the time we spend any amount of time there, we have to drive back in the dark. The time before last we came close to hitting several animals, including a group of three deer, a mother racoon and her two babies, two more deer, and two more large lumps that I think were large raccoons. I hate driving at night these days. I'm tense the whole 90 minutes of the way home.

  I've been working on this post for ages. I don't get on my computer much any more because to charge mine we have to unplug Ken's. Then his dies, and he has nothing to do. My computer doesn't stay charged very long any more, so I can't get much done on a charge. We have minimal electric outlets we can use because of our wiring, so we're limited on outlets. We are a bit paranoid about another fire, so we don't want to leave anything charging in a room we aren't in either. Anyway, I'm sorry I don't post much any more, and sorry some of the posts have been a bit boring.

  As for Ken, he is doing well. He has been taken off medication after medication, and his recent blood work came back with great numbers. He has been released from occupational therapy, (but told to keep up his exercises and work on his muscles.), and will start physical therapy again in November. (Thanks to Medicaid  refusing to pay for more therapy right  now.) He passed his stroke-aversary July 14th. We forgot all about it until I happened to think of it much later.  

  I have taken loads of pictures of dolls I wanted to talk about with you, but I have never gotten around to posting them. I will try to do some of that soon. I'm still scooping up free toys via the Mini Brands displays, or at least I was. Yesterday, for the first time, I was told I couldn't have an empty box from our local Walmart. At least before that happened I managed to FINALLY snag the Lord of the Rings one, Two different Harry Potter boxes, and two different My Mini Baby ones. Walmart, it's not like I like you anyway. You're not doing yourself any favours. If it wasn't for the fact that I like your wet wipes, and you are the store most often selling yellow corn, I wouldn't even darken your door.    

  Reader Treesa sent me some wonderful Christmas gifts that I have yet to show you. I'll get to that when I have more time, but in the meantime, she asked me recently if I had any grail dolls left that were unattainable, for whatever reason. Well, of course I do. Those things are never ending, especially those expensive ones that are never going to be accessible.  So I thought it might make for an interesting post, to see what dolls I have wanted for ages, but will probably never get. 

  I have gotten pretty much all the dolls I wanted as a child, but never got as a child. Those include That Kid, which you're probably sick of hearing me talk about...

This particular boy was ruined in the water damage from the fire. He was amazingly quickly, (and cheaply!) replaced!

If not, I have several posts on That Kid. You can access them in the side bar, under That Kid.

...Mrs. Beasley.

Poor perfect Beasley, with glasses, got smoked in the fire  I have yet to get around to cleaning her.

The same goes for The Bease. I have a few posts on her, but the LONG one about her history is my most viewed post ever, and continues to get record views every day. You can check out the Mrs. Beasley posts by clicking that name in the side bar.

  My dream Beasley, which I got at a yard sale got all smoked up in the fire. I haven't tried to wash her yet. If I had had her at Emma's, with access to a washing machine I could trust, (as opposed to one at the laundry mat.), I would probably have given her a wash. She is sitting upstairs, all sooty. I will probably try to clean her up this summer and see how she does. I have a back up Beasley that was supposed to get sold, and she even has her glasses, so I might end up keeping her. Dream Beasley's glasses were on the vanity in my bedroom during the fire, and they melted a bit. They're still glasses, but they are a bit misshapen, and might not stay, (or even fit), on her head any more. I would never get rid of her though. I run into her original owner every now and then, and I can still tell her that her girl has a good home with me. Not so good that she didn't get smoked like a piece of meat, but still...

  I also got multiple versions of the Drowsy I always wanted, including the original kitty cat PJ version I didn't even know existed when I was a kid.

  You can see those by clicking Drowsy in the sidebar.

  I would still like some other dolls that use the Drowsy head sculpt, like  Baby Charlotte, and maybe Teachy Keen.

The red head in the nightgown, top left corner, is Baby Charlotte. Teachy Keen is the girl in the pink coat.

  I also had a desire for a talking Baby Beans. 

  I think the reason I never got one as a kid was that I was a little too old for a baby doll. I still wanted one though. I had a really nice Talking Baby Beans as an adult. That was years ago. But she still talked and was super clean and perfect, and she got sold. Now I have a not so clean one that doesn't talk. She'll have to do.

      Over the years I have gotten several dolls on my list that I thought I would never get, dolls like Betsy McCall. I now have multiple Betsys, in varying sizes. You can click on Betsy McCall in the side bar to see them.



I got this one at a doll show 

This girl was cheap at a doll show because she had dirt on her nose that the dealer thought was a nose nick!

This girl was cheap at a doll show for two reasons: The dealer knew nothing about dolls, and I had to fix her eye.

  Another was the Maru and Friends Savannah. She was more than I generally spend on a doll, and I thought I'd never get one. You can see Savannah's post HERE.

   Then I bought a big one and a little one from Emily at The Toybox Philosopher. And you can see little Savannah's post HERE.

 I wanted a Zwergnase doll, but they are so expensive. But Emily also gave me a really good price on one of those, so I ended up with one of those too. 

You can see her post HERE.

  I wanted an Agnes Dreary, and I did manage to get one for only $50 when they were clearanced on the Tonner website years ago.

You can see Agnes' post HERE.

  I love Dianna Effner dolls, and wanted a :Little Darling. Well that was never going to happen, until amazing reader Dorothy SENT ME ONE!

You can see her post HERE.

  I still can't believe she was so generous and thoughtful. Thanks again Dorothy!

I always wanted a Garden Patience, with her red hair and pretty dress, but I have given up and settled for the naked, dark haired Prom Patience I got cheap on Ebay years back. She's rooted, not wigged, so I can't make her into a red head, but the wigs are expensive anyway.

  Now for the dolls I didn't get. Of the dolls I wanted, but never have gotten that are not quite as expensive, there is the Barbie Life in the Dreamhouse Midge that I never got.

  She was the first Barbie Life in the Dreamhouse Midge, I think. She went up quite a bit after her original release, but she seems to have dropped in price lately.

  Of the dolls I still want, but will almost certainly never get, I still yearn for the Mezco Dr. Zaius Planet of the Apes doll.

  (I'm sure there are people who will insist that this is an action figure, not a doll, but let's be honest:  we all know they're the same thing.) He was affordable, (barely), and then his price rose on the secondary market. It looks like he's occasionally more affordable now, but he's still out of my price range these days.

  I still want a red haired Brikette by Vogue, but I'd even settle for a Jinx, by Kaysam or Jolly Toys,  which looks almost exactly like Brikette.

This is a beautiful Brikette I saw at a doll show.

  I still want that red haired Klumpe girl with glasses, and a suitcase. I can't find a stock photo of her, so you'll have to use your imagination...and your Google search. The closest thing I can show you is my red haired Roldan gardener girl, which is neither Klumpe, nor holding a suitcase. But Roldan's are kind of like Klumpes, so...

My Roldan gardener girl, the closest I'll get to the Klumpe suitcase girl.

   Something I always wanted came out when I was 13. Maybe I didn't get him because I thought I was too old for such toys. I don't remember. I did go through that stage, believe it or not. I still want one though. His name is Hugo, Man of a Thousand Faces.

He was made by Kenner. He's a puppet that came with loads of disguise pieces, like scars and wigs and false chins and noses. He even had sunglasses and an eye patch. If you've ever seen the pre-Playhouse 'Pee Wee Herman Show' HBO special, you'll have seen Hugo. He's so expensive these days, that unless I run across one in a thrift store or yard sale, neither of which I frequent very often these days, I'll probably never get one.

  I also still want the Mattel Squishies  witch I saw when I was nine years old. I saw her one time in a J.C. Penney while shopping with my mom, and I still want her. 

  You can see my post on her HERE.

  But the newer dolls that I want that I will undoubtedly NEVER get include Tonner's Wilde Imagination Hamish doll...

He has become REALLY expensive.

...and Sad Sally. I most want the red haired one, but I can't find a stock photo of the red haired Sad Sally dolls. I think there were two, the very first one, and a later one called Sad Little Witch. They both had crazy bushes of red hair. If you aren't familiar with Tonner/Wilde Imagination's Sad Sally line, I can direct you to my post on Sally's friend Bashful Burt.

  Keeping to the red haired dolls, there's also Helen Kish's Creamsicle Lark or Lark of the High Seas...

Lark of the High Seas.

Creamsicle Lark.

...and then there's Kish's Raggedy Riley. 

  These are all from years ago now. Of newer dolls, I wanted a red haired Ruby Red Fashion Friends doll. I have a Siblie,but I wanted the full size version. They do a lot of special edition dolls, and there was one I really loved, but I was willing to settle for Rock Star Stella, even though I don't care for her clothes.

  I'm sure I've forgotten something that I really want, but this has been hanging around in draft form long enough.  So, here it is. At least you know I'm still alive. Also, I do show up in the comments on other people's blogs sometimes. I will try and not leave it so long between posts in the future. See you soon...I hope.

New Hand Painted Dianna Effner Maru and Friends Dolls! And a Sneak Peak at an Upcoming One!

   There's something new from Maru and Friends, and it's pretty great! Two new hand painted dolls, sculpted by the late Dianna Effner are on the website now, and today you're seeing the new doll that isn't on the website yet!

  All three are 13 inch Mini Pal sized dolls, with hand painted faces by Ashley Rose, a certified artist from Dianna Effner's Dreamer's Guild. A certificate of  authenticity is provided, and the dolls are signed by the artist. All three dolls are limited editions of 100 pieces world wide.

  The dolls are all vinyl, and the first two have jointed elbows, as well as the usual articulation at the neck, shoulders, and hips. They have removable wigs, and can wear the other Mini Pal wigs available from Maru and Friends. 

   The dresses are fully lined, and close with snaps. You may have read in my reviews of Maru and Friends dolls how much I love the quality of their regular doll clothes. The fabrics are always so nice, and the clothes look and feel like human clothes, with real buttons and snaps. 

  As I said, there are two of the new hand painted dolls on the website, and I will be previewing a third in this post. First look! 

  Of the two on the  website now, let's start with  Charlize.  

 Charlize has dark auburn hair with red highlights, and a wonderful hand painted Dianna Effner face. She's available with blue or green eyes. Her skin tone is light, and she has rosy cheeks.

   Her dress is made from zibeline silk, (a less cruel silk made of wool or other animal hair which can be sheared. Silk from worms is obtained by boiling the worms alive. This may not matter to you, but it matters to me.), with forget-me-nots with faux jewel centers, on the shoulders.

  Her outfit is completed by underwear, white tights, and black Mary Jane shoes with tiny side bows.

 The second hand painted doll on the website is Isabella.

  Isabella is a blonde with blue eyes. (Unlike Charlize, Isabella is available with blue eyes only.)

  Her dress is a mix of silk and chamois fabric, with a pink bodice and pastel rainbow skirt. The bodice features pleating, faux pearl beads and daisy appliques. Her outfit is completed by underwear, white tights, and the same black Mary Janes with side bows, worn by Charlize.

  Now for the new doll, which hasn't been seen yet! Her name is Willow, and she's my favourite so far.

Willow has great red hair, and blue eyes, a fair complexion, and freckles! 

Her blue dress has an interesting collar style. She also comes with underwear, white stockings, and black Mary Jane shoes.

     These dolls are beauties. They are one of a kind works of art, so they are pricey. Charlize and Isabella, who have jointed elbows, retail for $800, held by a $200 deposit. Willow doesn't have jointed elbows, but  is priced at $545. As I said, Willow isn't on the website yet, but the other two are available for preorder on the Maru and Friends website. 

  That's it! See you soon!

Review Time!: Maru and Friends Billie Jean Pop Star Doll-A-Day 2023 #177

   Today's doll is also a review. She's Billie Jean Pop Star, the latest doll from Maru and Friends. She was provided for review by Maru and Friends, but, as usual, I'll give you my honest opinions.

  I have to say, this review has been a challenge. I have been trying to keep up with the daily posts, do work at the house, take care of things rescued from the house, do housework to help Emma out, do extra laundry, washing clothes and things rescued from Fuzzy's room, (There has been more rescuable clothing and bedding than you would have thought possible. Plus odd things like toiletries and Chapsticks! The closet door is mostly charcoal, as I found Monday when I saw it for the first time, but there was unburnt Chapstick!), and any number of other things. Every picture I've had to take for this blog, for the last couple of months at least, has had to be taken 3, 4, or even 5 times, at various focus',  just to make sure I get one that's in focus, since my autofocus is out of commission. Then I have to go through all those pictures and delete all the out of focus ones. (Or the ones where the crack in my protective lens makes such a glare that it renders the picture unusable. That problem reared it's head quite a few times during Billie Jean's photo shoots, because they were sunny days.) Just doing the pictures for a post has taken forever. And I do a post every day. I have my phone, but I'm not really good at taking anything but landscapes with my phone camera. I'm going to have to get good though, because yesterday Ken tried to remove that cracked protective lens again, and ended up breaking my whole lens! Now I can't even manually focus. We are still sleeping on an air mattress, which naturally loses air over time. Without even noticing it has lost air, it loses enough that sleeping on it gives me terrible shoulder pain. (I understand the back aches, but the shoulders?) I have been hardly able to move my left arm some days. That makes typing with my laptop on my lap, or editing pictures, pretty painful and difficult sometimes, and there's no desk or anything here to use. Not sleeping well has meant that every day about 4 or 5 o'clock I can hardly keep my eyes open. That makes it hard to concentrate! Add to all that the approximately three weeks Emma spent in the hospital, where I was with her every day, and still managed to keep up with the daily posts. Shew! But here we are, finally done!

    Now! Enough whining! On to the review!

   Let's get the less interesting stuff out of the way first. Billie Jean arrived in a cardboard shipping box, within which was her regular box.

The box was tied with a pretty gauzy ribbon and sealed with a Maru and Friends sticker.

The box has an open front with no plastic. Good for them!

Billie Jean was held in by ribbon ties, and protected from the ribbon by foam strips.

Her hair is protected by a hair net and her accessory, which we'll talk about below, is in a plastic bag.

  She's the first doll in the anniversary limited edition series. Maru and Friends is celebrating their 15th anniversary. Billie Jean comes with a certificate of authenticity.

Her head sculpt is by the late Dianna Effner, and you can see it in her face.

  Is it just me, or does she look like Jennifer Aniston? 

  She has a slightly tanned complexion. 

  Billie Jean is another first too. She's the first fully articulated doll from Maru and Friends. In addition to a jointed neck, hips, and elbows, she also has jointed wrists, and jointed knees and ankles.

We'll talk more about that in a bit.

 Billie Jean fits right in with the other Mini Pals from Maru and Friends. Here she is with mini Savannah.

Billie Jean looks a little older than Savannah.

  Her blue eyes are made of glass, with a realistic blend of colours. 

  She has very long lashes too. Real top lashes, and painted bottom ones.

Her eyebrows are made up of a soft solid line with individual strokes painted over it. One of my doll's didn't line up though.

Her lips are painted with a light stripe down the middle, to give them depth I suppose. It looks okay from a distance, but a bit odd up close. 

I would have preferred a more natural look. But I guess she is supposed to be a pop star.

  Her hair is a wig. She has a little silicone wig cap to hold it on.

It worked really well, until I took her out for her second photo shoot. It was really hot that day, and I think the heat made the wig not adhere to the wig cap as well. Once I took the wig off to show the wig cap, it didn't want to stay on any more! Her hair kept slipping off! I think it was just the heat. I've had other Maru and Friends Mini Pals with wigs, but theirs were held on with Velcro, so I haven't dealt with the silicone caps on Maru and Friends dolls before. I was always afraid the hair would get caught in the Velcro and get ruined. There's not that fear with the silicone cap. Just don't take your dolls wig off out in the summer heat! 

The wig is made with shades of brown and red.

  

Billie's hands and feet have some nail definition. 

 

 The bottoms of her feet are smooth, but the palms of her hands have some detail.

Used the phone for this one. see how blurry it is?

As usual, the clothes on the Maru and friends dolls are almost like human clothes. They are so well made, using quality fabrics. Billie Jean's outfit is faux leather, and consists of a jacket with matching skirt. 

The Maru and Friends label is inside.

  The clothes are fully lined, just like human clothes.

The skirt closes with a hook and eye. I assumed it was a snap and pulled so hard I tore a stitch through! It's not a snap!

See that gap? I did that!

The jacket closes with metal snaps and a real buckle.

She also has a pair of white undies.

Her boots are faux suede, trimmed in pink faux fur. 

The laces really do tie and untie. And they have to be untied to get them off. She's sockless though, so they slip on and off easily when untied.

The soles have a slight texture.

For a final accessory, Billie Jean has a pink faux fur purse to match her boots. 

The purse really opens and can hold small items. There's a zipper so the stuff stays in too.

  I was impressed that Billie Jean's articulation holds even with the leather like clothing. If she had strung joints, I don't think it would. But because she has actual metal joints, they hold tightly against the less flowy fabric.

See that cloud' in front of her face? The sun hit the lens crack just right. I lost most of the pictures from that day because of that!

  And let's talk about those joints. Okay. They aren't the most attractive joints in the world. But then joints are usually not very attractive. Her legs sort of look like she has skin socks on.

Her arms fare a bit better, but I always look at that wrist joint and think there should be skin there.

But these joints do hold a pose, and that's what it seems to be all about these days: posability. 

There is a great range of movement in those arms, and they do hold a pose really well. They can even hold a tight pose through that faux leather jacket.

  Billie Jean has it over a lot of dolls in some of her posing aspects, and doesn't meet up in a couple of others. It's a trade off I guess. For example, she can pose all day when it comes to her wrists, elbows, knees, and ankles.

(Her knee and ankle joints swivel in place too, which means sometimes they got a little wonky on me, even if it also meant they were more posable. I was never good with swivel joints, as my G.I. Joe will attest!)

  Those aspects are great. I love Billie Jean's posability. Previous Maru and Friends Mini Pals didn't have those joints, (except for  Pinocchio, and Pepper, who had jointed elbows. (We'll get further into that in a minute.) You can see my reviews HERE and HERE.), but they had great flexibility in that their arms and legs could move out to the sides as well as back and forth. That helped them stand upright and also do poses that looked good, even if they needed some support. On the other hand, who looks more natural in this 'relaxing and looking at the sky' pose? 

Billie Jean can't move her arms and legs out to the sides, but with jointed elbows and knees, its not quite as necessary for interesting poses, especially with her elbows and knees having a swivel feature too. 

  One of the best things about posing a Maru and Friends doll, even the Mini Pals, was always the way they could tilt their heads. With those cute Dianna Effner faces, it was so great to be able to tilt their little heads in cute poses. They could tilt side to side, as well as look up and down. Billie Jean is the first one I have had that can't tilt her head, and I miss it. Hopefully Maru and Friends will bring back that feature, and keep the articulation in the future.

  The difference between the jointed elbows on Pinocchio and Pepper, and the jointed elbows on Billie Jean is, their elbows were strung, and although their elbows could be posed, they didn't pose very far, or hold the extreme pose, or hold much of a bend with thick sleeves. Strung joints tend to bend, but not be able to take extreme bends without snapping back a lot. Billie Jean has those metal joints, and can do a more extreme bend and hold it, even through her sleeves. I just wish the jointing could be more attractive, especially the wrists, and the lack of smoothness on her legs below the knees. One benefit of the metal joints over the strung joint is that strung joints get flabby after a bit. Stringing wears out, and needs redone after a fair amount of play. The metal joints may have a longer life. The drawback would be that if they break, they can't just be simply repaired, like restringing would be.

  You know I love cute Dianna Effner face sculpts. I'm always a bit confused by the juxtaposition of the sweet children's faces and the adult style clothing doll companies sometimes dress their dolls in. I know kids dress like adults these days. I am sometimes concerned that doll companies try to make even the child dolls look 'sexy' or 'flirty', (or even that real kids clothes do the same). I'm old. I like to see a little kid dress like a little kid. I suppose that doesn't sell well to kids these days. They want dolls that dress like they do, and they dress like adults. But I'll always prefer a child doll dressed like Savannah to one dressed like Billie Jean.(Even if I didn't like to wear dresses myself as a kid.) Of course, you can always change her clothes, and Maru and Friends does sell some really cute traditional children's outfits too.

  Billie Jean sells for $149, but at the moment she is on sale for $130. In fact, there is a sale on a lot of the dolls, and clothing, on the Maru and Friends site right now. And while you're at it, check out the new doll they have coming up, that I am really excited about!