Salvation Army Moxie Finds

  Once again I made a good haul at Salvation Army. I found a bag of 6 or 7 dolls for $4.99. It contained these three Moxie Girlz, and my first Moxie Boyz doll!

And they all have clothes, and best of all: shoes!

His name is Owen. He's from the Magic Snow series, like the Kellan I showed you a while back.

I wish they had actually done his hair like the picture on the box.

Hey! I think I have that hat!

I prefer the hair laying down, as opposed to his sticky up style.

   I tried to make it lay down and to the side, but because it wasn't rooted that way it left him a little thin on top.
  The blonde girl is Magic Snow Avery.

I actually found her hat at the same time, in a separate bag of shoes and accessories.

I didn't know I had her hat until I was going through the stuff at home.

Most of the shoes were Monster High, but only about half were pairs. I now have a bunch of single shoes, so I need to go through my Monster High dolls and see who might have the matching single shoe. I know I have some who are only wearing one shoe.
  The two dark haired Girlz might both be  Lexa.

"Who did you say you were?"

It's a little confusing because they have different skin tones and different colour eyes.

I like that their hair isn't just one colour. It's made of several different shades, so it's very realistic. The hair on the brunette Moxie Girlz dolls is also very smooth and nice to comb. I can see where kids who love to play with their dolls hair would love these  dolls. The blondes are a different story though. Their hair tends to get crispy on the ends. Avery's was kind of crispy and matted when I got her.She took extra conditioning.

 Here's the denim dress one in her box. Seems to be a different doll from either of the ones I got. She has the darker skin tone, but green eyes and black hair.

I have had that Teddy bear for ages, but I didn't know what it went to!

The one in the denim dress has sparkly eye shadow. It's not the first doll I've seen with this, including the new Avery, so is it original?Or was it something kids could add to their doll?

She has sleeve damage on one side, but I think I have another of these dresses.

My favourite of all of these is the Lexa in the Hoodie. I love her dark hair and that cute hoodie.

She's I Am Smart Lexa. 

In the bag of accessories that had Avery's hat I also got one of Lexa's cute knee socks with the anime character on it. (Anybody know who it is?) Unfortunately it was just the one sock, and I didn't get her skirt or anime shirt.
  Moxie Girlz are made by MGA, who also make Bratz,(As if you couldn't tell.) They look younger and sweeter than Bratz though, and a lot more innocent. I don't like Bratz, (Except for some of the Bratzillaz.),but occasionally there was a nice coat or cool pair of shoes that I would have liked to be able to use. Unfortunately, the Moxie Girlz, even though they share the same annoying removable foot trait as Bratz dolls and are made by the same company, can't share shoes/feet. The peg and hole in Bratz dolls legs/shoes is just slightly bigger than the Moxies.
  I like Moxie Girlz.,but I need to trim down the number of them I own. (I keep hoping to replace my favourite one. She had a mark near her eye, and in trying to remove it I removed part of her eye!) When I first started finding them at thrift stores and yard sales a couple of years ago, they seldom had feet. Now when I find one they not only have feet, but have never even been taken out of their original outfits.Maybe it's a sign that the generation that were buying these dolls have begun to tire or grow too old for them, and are now only going through the motions: They still buy them or are given them as gifts out of habit, but they no longer bother to play with them.
  See you again soon.

Doll-A-Day 227: Review of Moxie Girlz Friends Tally

  To begin with, I have to thank Emily at The Toybox Philosopher for her wonderful review of this doll. (And if you're one of the couple of doll collector's in the universe who haven't checked out The Toy Box Philosopher and have somehow stumbled onto my blog instead, you really should  check out Emily's blog too.) It's where I learned about this line in the first place, for one thing. And as usual, Emily did a great detailed review. Her reviews usually make any other review of the same item pretty much superfluous, but this particular doll had some problems. So I thought it would be helpful to see if another of the same doll had the same problems as Emily's, or if hers was just a fluke.
  The Moxie Girlz Friends are 5" dolls. They're sort of the Moxie Girlz version of Barbie's Kelly/Chelsea. They're about the same size, and can serve as great little sisters for the Moxie Girlz.There were four available from the line at the Target I went to: a blonde, an African American, a red head, and a vaguely Hispanic girl. I bought Tally, the little red haired girl with freckles because I love red haired dolls, and because my favourite Moxie Girl is Kellen, the red head and I have one to pair Tally with..
The boxes are very minimal, which I like. It means less waste, and do we really need all that extra packaging?

I looked at all the Tally's they had. This one seemed to have more of a neck than the others. Most of them look pretty stumpy.

Emily mentioned that the dolls at her local Target were heavy on the dirty faces and messy hair, and she wondered if it were due to the open packages. I didn't find those problems at all with the Moxie Girlz friends at the Target I went to, so maybe her Target just got a bad batch, or have employees who don't take care with the merchandise.

Her feet were held in, and her shoes held on, by clear rubber bands.

 She was attached to her packaging mostly with clear rubber bands, but also with tiny plastic ties on her skirt...

...and bigger ones in her head.

I found this out after I opened up the layers of the package to reveal all the attachments on the back of the inner layer.

I cut the clear rubber bands and yanked her out of the package. That then left me to cut the giant plastic thingies out of her head. I cut them as close to her head as I could without snipping hair, and then shoved them into her head the rest of the way so they wouldn't show.
  Out of the package she had some messy hair in the back, including some that was actually in her neck joint. I had to ease her head up a little and pull it out.

She has a cute face, with a somewhat concave forehead in profile, just like the regular Moxie Girlz.

Her hair looked pretty good. I could feel that her hair was only rooted along the edges. And having read Emily's review about how the hair isn't rooted all the way (Because of it being in ponytails.), I didn't dare take the ponytails down. I'm not good with hair, and I knew she would never look as good if I did. But what about little kids who like to play with the hair? At $2.99 these dolls are about half the cost of a Chelsie, but the hair seems to be one of the cost cutting features. It does feel soft though.
  Emily had some trouble with the clear rubber bands on the shoes/ankles causing bad indentations on both. My Tally did too, but not as bad as Emily's I think.

My Tally seems at first to have a little knee cap detail too, but then I noticed it's only on the left leg. Maybe it's just a defect.

Her shoes weren't nearly as misshapen either.
  She did seem to have one of the other flaws Emily's Tally had though: She can't stand up. She leans to one side.

  She had to do a lot of leaning on the background to stand up. On close examination I see it's because one of her legs is considerably shorter than the other!

On the other hand she has a beautiful face with nicely detailed lips.

  Now if only one of our dolls had done that you could say it was just one bad doll. But two? It seems to be a flaw in the design. how could they not notice that the right leg is so much shorter when they ere designing/making these dolls?
  Another cost cutting move seems to have been not finishing all the seams in the clothing. I didn't have the stitches that didn't catch the whole skirt hem that Emily had, but I had the same raw edges on the bodice.

All along the neckline, (Wasn't that a Jimmy Hendrix/Bob Dylan song?),and the arm holes the edges were just asking to start fraying.

And one shoulder just wouldn't come up even with the other. No matter what I did it was still one sided.
  On the positive side, she has soft rubber arms that you can move around, even if they can't actually hold all the poses you can do wit them. She has the usual articulation that this type of doll has. She can raise her arms up.

And her legs move back and forth. That's it. Her head turns side to side, but doesn't have much, if any, up or down movement.
  I decided to compare her to a current Chelsea doll, but I didn't have one handy. Oh, I reviewed Darrin recently. He has the same body as Chelsea. He won't mind...

Darrin seems oblivious to his situation, but Tally looks a little uneasy.

  She's a little more cartoon like than the Chelsea line, especially with her big head and less realistic face design,but then, Moxie Girlz are more cartoon like than Barbie.
  They have a similar long, thin body with long legs. Darrin has much bigger hands,(And since it's the same body as Chelsea, it's not just because he's a guy.), but only slightly bigger feet.The Chelsea/Darrin body also has more of a lower torso, which is what accounts for the difference in height. Tally just seems to go from crotch to waist, with nothing in between.

Like Chelsea/Darrin, Tally has molded on underwear.

Here you can really see the defect that looks like knee cap detail, and how much shorter the left leg is. Not much in the way of disfigurement from the rubber bands on the ankles though.A little shiny, but not too bad.

But can they share clothes?

Tally actually looks really cute in Darrin's clothes. The colour even looks good on her.

 But the pants look a little Steve Urkle.

"Got any cheese?"

The shoes are a little big.

Foot size comparison. Tally on the left, Darrin on the right. His feet are a little wider.

But her shoes fit Darrin fine. Hold on. It gets worse...

I'm really sorry about this Darrin...

"Not half as sorry as I am..." Before anybody gets upset, he's ONLY A DOLL. I'm just comparing body types. He's plastic. I don't think there'll be any permanent damage done to him.

 
But at least I didn't show your face. No one will ever know it's you.

The dress wouldn't go up over the shoulder on the Darrin/Chelsea body at all on the left side. And it wouldn't Velcro in the back either. But doesn't that hem look nice?!
  And after taking the dress off Tally, and putting it on...Darrin...it was really fraying at the neck and shoulders.

This is going to be bad, especially since it has to be tugged extra hard to get it up on her left shoulder. Conclusion? This dress would never last through even a couple of days of normal play. I think they should definitely have stuck with cotton fabrics and finished those upper body seams. Of course, the finished seams would add to the cost.
  In general though, I think the dolls are a nice alternative to the Chelsea line. For the price of one Chelsea a kid on a budget could buy a couple of these dolls. (I think I might pick up an Amorie myself! I really wanted the red head, but I think Amorie might just have the cutest face in the line.) I think the doll itself will last nearly as well as a Chelsea, but those clothes will be a problem. The dolls would  make nice little party gifts too, and at $2.99 that might even be affordable (As long as your kid doesn't invite everyone they know.)
  Here's Tally with Moxie Girl Kellan,since they make good sisters.

They should have had matching eye colour though, to make them look more alike.

The Friends don't have the Moxie Girlz pointy chin. Just look at Tally's beautifully detailed mouth. Kellan's freckles are much less uniform, and more realistic looking.

That's not completely necessary though. My girls have different eye and hair colour. (From each other that is. Well, they have different colour eyes than their hair too...)

So there you have it. Don't forget to check out Emily's review too.

Fantastic finds of the week!

  What was that I said a few posts back about not being able to top the Larry the Lion find the rest of the summer? Well, this may not top Larry, since he was a life long yearning, but it's pretty good!Get comfortable. This may take a while!
  I went yard saling Friday and found some nice dolls.

  I'd been wanting a Flynn from "Tangled". I don't like this Rapunzel as much as the other two I have, but I didn't want to break up a couple! Two more Moxie Girls, and they both have feet!I have also wanted the new Stacie and Skipper, but I didn't want to pay store prices. These two have all their original clothes too, which was great.And yes, that's a like new Twilight Jacob in his original stuff. He'll either help pay for the stuff I'm keeping, or he'll don a shirt and be somebody else.A My Scene guy, fully clothed and with shoes!The guys from Mulan and Pocahantas:you never come across them. And two Monster High girls in their original stuff too. If anybody knows who the short doll in the blue and white dress is, let me know. She's marked 2001 Mattel.

These came from three different places in groups of 10,2, and 5.I think my total was $17.00, but I got some other stuff in with them. I also got these cute girls for a dollar a piece. They need some rehabilitation, but I couldn't resist rescuing them.Their bodies are oil cloth, I think.

 I think they look like the old actress Nanette Fabray.




 

  On Saturday I was heading to a big 'community sale' at a housing development just outside of town. On the way I stopped at some sales that were being held on the grounds of the high school and found this.

  I REALLY wanted one of these, but they are so expensive.The guy selling it cut it down from $15 to $10 for me,so I let myself have it! It's 1/6 scale.(And cast iron and weighs a ton!) It's missing one lid, but it has the coal shovel,and the thing to lift the lids with, as well as a skillet, a pan,and the coal scuttle.
  From there I went on to the community sales.I got some doll stuff, a CD, and some other things. I was there for two or three hours and decided to head for home. But the real find of the weekend still awaited me.I went home by a route I don't normally take. I don't know why. I was on the far end of the street I actually live on when I passed a yard sale with what I though were Miss Revlon feet sticking up out of a box. I whipped into a parking space and went to check it out. When I walked up to the sale I forgot all about Miss Revlon. There spread out before me were four old doll cases, filled with clothes and dolls. One of the first things I spotted was a pink skinned Ricky doll. I wanted a pink skinned Ricky and Ken (My husband Ken, not the doll.)bought me one online a few years ago. He was affordable because he has a barely noticeable nose nip. This guy was nice,and no nose nip. The guy running the sale said he would take "$100 for all the doll stuff." I neither had $100, nor wanted to pay that much. The dolls were mildewy and dirty and might not clean up very well. There was a nasty faced Midge wearing the Floating Gardens dress though, and the cape was in one of the cases. I thought if I could get the stuff for a reasonable price I could sell the Floating Gardens so I could afford to keep what I wanted. After some haggling I got some of the stuff for $40 and went home. After fortifying myself with a soy 'chicken' sandwich and rounding up the troops, we went out for ice cream. The guy still had his sale on so I stopped back and offered him "the grand total of everything I have left in my purse", which was $16. He insisted he had to have at least $25, so I said ok and left. Before I could get back to my van he called me back and relented. So here is what I got for my $56.Those of you who are offended by non-anatomically correct naked plastic, beware...

A Barbie only body, Skipper and a spare body,the Miss Barbie swing canopy,clothes,and Allan, in desperate need of medical attention for those arms. At least they were both there!

Ricky, TNT Barbie (wearing the Suzy Goose rug as a dress,Midge in Floating Gardens, Senior Prom,Trailblazers,Pak clothing,Francie's Fresh as a Daisy,FQ wig, and more!

Some paper dolls, including Scooter and...Jane? How did she get in there? (I wanted one though, and she even has her shoes.)

Some of the same, plus Francie,her Concert in the Park dress and hat and It's a Date dress,a bubble cut, Fashion Queen head and a wig, and the unfortunate legless girl. Unlike Allan's arms, her legs were nowhere to be found.

                                                         

A suspicious looking Allan (Maybe she ripped his arms off...)with the girl who started it all. She turned out to be a nobody.

Tiny Thumbelina (with knob--and she works!), her original dress,slip,and one bootie, her pink corduroy outfit with hat,Chatty Cathy's flannel PJ's and blue dress with over blouse and crinoline, plus more clothes and a couple of Pee Wees.If anybody can identify any of the other clothes, I'd love to hear from you.

More Barbie clothes, a Tressy dress, the Suzy Goose vanity, and a very nasty Tammy doll in Barbie's Pak playsuit. (And yes, I had a Tammy as a kid. For some reason my mom threw her away when I was very small. I still have her gym suit and shoes though.)

Poor Tammy.

   Luckily, they cleaned up pretty well. Here they are after their initial trip to the Tam Spa.

  Turns out Tammy has lovely strawberry blonde hair and a high colour face. Midge and Francie will need eyebrows, but I can do that. Francie's had a haircut, but it kind of looks like an American Girl Barbie cut. Twist and Turn looks pretty good. Allan's arms went back on (and in the case of the one, out) easily after putting him in very hot water. They aren't even swingy.

Beautiful Ricky!

And Midge looks pretty good in Senior Prom.Actually, I'm going to put it on a red haired Midge,but shh. Don't tell her...

Here's what she looked like before. She looks like she's been in a fight.(Maybe that's what happened to Allan's arms...)

   The cases were a couple of generic cases,a common blue Skipper case, and the Barbie case with Sophisticated Lady on the lid.
 So the moral of the story is,don't overlook mangy looking dolls. Sometimes they can clean up to be beautiful. I'm pretty tickled with these guys. My family is unimpressed,especially Ken, who can't get over that I spent $56.
  Oh, I forgot.On Friday I got this girl. She doesn't have any markings.Does anybody know who she is?

  She needs her arms restrung, but she has teeth!Aww!

  Ok, that's it. I've done my happy rant. Thanks for listening.