Doll-A-Day 2023 #303: Tre

   Today's doll is Tre.

Tre is a Flavas doll. If you want to read the history of Flavas, you can go to my post on Flavas Liam and   Flavas in general, HERE. To see some other Flavas, you can check out Favas in the sidebar. 

  Tre has blue eyes and a tiny mustache and beard.

 There were at least four versions of Tre. Two versions had platinum blonde hair, and two versions had black hair. I'm not sure if there were any more.

  

Tre originally had two gold earrings.

 Like all the Flavas, Tre has some extra articulation besides the regular five points. He's jointed at the neck, shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees.

His hip joints allow his legs to move out to the sides, as well as back and forth.

  Tre didn't have any of his original clothes, which is why I couldn't tell which Tre he is. He was forced to wear this set of Ken clothes from the Barbie Life in the Dreamhouse line, that I happened to have laying around.

 Just a note, I tried those shoes on both feet, and they looked like they were on the wrong feet either way.

They looked this way on either foot.

  That's the doll for today. See you again tomorrow.

Doll-A-Day 2023 #222: Flavas Bike Date Set

   Today's doll are Liam and Happy D, from the Bike Date boxed set.

  This set was new in a mint box until we had our fire. It got wet in the room below the fire and while it looks okay at first, there is a problem. But we'll get to that.

The set was sold in 2003.

  As I said, this set features Liam and Happy D. There was another Flavas Bike Date set that had Tre, the only other make doll in the line, and Kiyoni Brown, one of the other girls. There was another Liam doll, who was blonde and clean shaven. I kind of like this version. I have another, unboxed one, that I posted HERE. That post also has some information on Flavas dolls, if you're interested.

Happy D has two tone hair, kind of like Cruella DeVille.

Flavas premiered in 2003, and lasted through 2004. They were nicely articulated, and had some interesting, well made clothes. Thee two both have faux leather jackets and boots, with jeans for Liam and 'leather' pants for Happy D.

  They also both have helmets, but the elastic holding them has disintegrated over time. Originally Liam was holding his own helmet.

There's also a pretty sharp motorcycle.

At least, I think Happy's pants are supposed to be leather.

  And now for that problem...Liams pants have some mildew on them! I don't think it will leave any sign when they are washed, but it does mean i have to undo Liam's restarints and remove his pants for washing!

   These two were to be sold. They have lost some value now. 

  Those are the dolls for today. Come back tomorrow for more dolls.

Doll-A-Day 2017 # 99: Flea Market Goodies and Flavas P.Bo

  So yesterday my friend Lori and I went to the flea market. It was a good day. Mostly... We stopped and had lunch on the way. I broke my diet for the day and had CHEESE and a really good apple drink. (I love apple drinks. My favourite pop used to be Apple Slice. They stopped making it when it kept fermenting in the cans.This stuff wasn't quite as fizzy,but was alot more like fresh apples.) When we got to the flea market we found that it was the one with no entry fee and only one $5 parking fee instead. (Yay!) I found some good stuff,although nothing phenomenal. We had a lot of fun and laughed alot,as usual. When we started home afterward the light came on that there was a tire with low air pressure. Lori and I started looking out for a gas station where we could get air,but we had quite a while on the highway before we came to civilization. Finally we spotted a gas station in the distance. The tire was feeling very low,and causing the vehicle to pull to one side. Lori slowed down, a little worried. Then it started sounding weird. She slowed down some more. Then there was the explosive sound of the tire blowing apart. It was totally shredded. We 'limped' to the gas station. The tire looked like this:

Lori began looking for a place to get a tire changed,but it was Saturday,after 4:30, and every place in the area seemed to be closed. I went off to search for somebody who might  know a place that was open. Luckily the first person I found didn't know the area either, but offered to help,in spite of the fact that he works away from home 6 days a week,and still had a three hour drive to get home for his one day.  (We found all this out in conversation with him while he was fixing the tire.)
  Even though Lori and I both know how to change a tire in theory,neither of us had never done it. As it turns out, we couldn't have done it anyway. The wheel had corroded and the guy had a really hard time getting the old one off to put the new one on. He had a can of penetrating oil in his truck and had to spry loads of it on the wheel. He kicked it and kicked it, and finally had to resort to a sledge hammer, which he also luckily happened  to have. In the end he wouldn't even take anything for helping us. What a nice guy.
  Well, after that adventure story, here's the haul from the flea market:
I got this 1/6 scale kettle and cooking pot for $1 each...

The lids do come off.

I could have also bought a tankard and a coffee pot, but they  didn't have bottoms,and I like realism.

...I got all 3 of these for $1: two 1/6 scale jugs and a pitcher...

 

 

I got these cute nick nacks for $1 each too.

My favourite is the dancing guy,even though Ivy says he looks like he stepped in a giant wad of gum.

For some reason his base is stained gray,and I couldn't get it to come off. I scrubbed it with a toothbrush and dish soap, but I may have to resort to baking soda.

  I got this red haired Kelly doll...

Anybody recognize which one she is?

Her curly hair has a part down the back.

...and today's doll. She's Flavas doll called P.Bo.

Definitely NOT her original outfit!

To learn more about Flavas and see my post on Flavas Liam,you can go HERE.

She needs a bit more work, but I did sort her hair out, back to her original 'do.

Seen from the side she has a weird, alien shaped head.

She's quite posable.

The maroon wooden cupboard was a recent Goodwill find for $2

I also got a couple of other small dolls and one larger one that we'll see soon.

Doll-A-Day 2017 #33 Flavas Bike Date Liam

  Today's doll is Bike Date Liam, one of the Flavas dolls.

Liam has been redressed.

The Flavas line was introduced in 2003.

You can watch the commercial for Flavas HERE.

   Flavas were made by Mattel, who had tried to compete with Bratz the previous year with the more typical My Scene dolls. After that failed and Barbie sales were reaching an all time low, Mattel rushed Flavas into production only three months after they were designed.

Here's what Wikipedia has to say about Flavas:
"They are multi-ethnic and have an urban, hip hop style...described as "ghetto-fabulous" by Newsweek....They were marketed as "reality-based" and "authentic" and have more points of articulation than traditional fashion dolls for more expressive posing."

Liam has all the usual articulation, plus a tightly sprung waist joint which doesn't hold a pose,(I think that's intentional. It's meant for moves, not poses.),jointed elbows and knees, and hips that allow his legs to do poses like this:

  Flavas failed to please pretty much anybody except adult collectors who liked a bit of diversity...and even some of those. People were offended by their look: They were too tough. They were stereotypical or not authentic. They were accused of being too hip hop or not hip hop enough. Parents thought they looked like a bad influence. In spite of praising the dolls' ethnic diversity, the St. Petersburg Times Floridian complained that the girls "come in bendable poses that are attitude-friendly, seem to be ready-made to just stand on a corner frontin'."

And lest you think they thought any more of the fellas: "Liam and Tre, the boy dolls, look, stereotypically, like little street thugs, with big ol' jeans hanging off their behinds, revealing undies." This person has never walked around a small town in Ohio. Everybody dresses like that.

   They didn't like the packaging either: "Mattel even provides a cardboard graffiti-strewn urban spot for the kids to hang out. Seriously, there's no Malibu beach house or motor home for Barbie and Skipper this time around. Just a street corner." Pull my street stand from the box so I have a spot to hang out," the ad for Flava Dolls proposes. Is it me, or is this offensive? So, hip-hop kids have nothing better to do than loiter? Couldn't Mattel have provided two turntables and a microphone? Couldn't these Flava Dolls be doing something creative? Couldn't they be spray painting on a canvas?' Mattel says Flava Dolls are about celebrating a "cultural phenomenon." Are they? Funny. Mattel makes it look like hip-hop youth are concerned with little more than flashing big ol' jewels, loitering on street corners and vandalizing public property."
   Wow. That's a mouthful. For such short lived dolls they sure did stir up a lot of controversy. And short lived they were. The line was discontinued after less than a year.
 

There were six dolls in the line, four girls and two boys. The other guy was Tre.

There were several different versions of each character. Our guy today is Bike Date Liam. He came with a motorcycle and his date, Happy D.

The other versions of Liam had blonde hair and was clean shaven.

Each doll had their own face sculpt.

They were even of varied heights, to make them more realistic. With all that and the extra jointed bodies, they were more expensive to produce than regular fashion doll lines.

For such a rush job I think they did really well. The dolls are well made, interesting, and all unique.

There was also a Flavas car made, and a series of fashions.

This is not one of them.

I find Flavas occasionally, and they are holding up pretty well. I mean, this guy is 14 years old, and his jointed body is still doing well, as is his flocked hair.

Love them or hate them, and even if you wouldn't want your kids to have them, Flavas offer a bit of variety to an adult collection, where so many of the fashion dolls look alike, especially the guys.

  See you again tomorrow for another doll.