Doll-A-Day 2023 #302: Okoye

   I haven't completely disappeared! We went to Ivy's on Wednesday to see her for her birthday, and to take her a bunch of her stuff. If you will recall, we had worked our butts off going through Ivy's room and digging out the stuff she wanted, and carrying it all downstairs and loading the car. You might remember that that meant I went upstairs, for the first time since the fire, the week before. It had to happen sometime. The first time I tried to only look where I had to go. The second time, when we were getting her stuff. I did look around. I have been in my bedroom. Because our door has been closed to keep the cats out, it still smells like smoke in there. The walls have black streaks up them. I didn't give the room a good look over, and I was doing it with only a small lamp for light, because it had already gotten dark. I'll brave it very soon with a decent light. 

  And I actually went in Fuzz's room Monday night. There is still some wall left. The floor will definitely need a refinishing. The trunk Fuzz and I made for The Pirates of Penzance play Fuzz was in is more burned than Ken thought, I think. I opened the lid to look how the contents had fared, and a piece broke off in my fingers. But that part is only  three thin boards I bought to make an edge, so it looked more like a trunk lid. (The rest was made out of old wood I found in Lori's barn, and the hinges I scrounged off an old piece of barn door.) I can replace that, if that's the worst of the damage. The weird thing, as with so much of the stuff in that fire, was the contents of the trunk. Everything I could see inside it looked fine, including an inflatable Captain Underpants THAT WAS STILL INFLATED! Just weird. 

  While I was in there, my light went out. Ken was downstairs, having taken some of Ivy's stuff down. I was trapped in the darkness, and I couldn't even find the doorway in that tiny room. It was pitch black. Fortunately Ken was close enough to hear me and I could hear him, and he came up with a light. I was starting to panic a little, and who knows what level I would have gotten to if Ken hadn't gotten me out of there so quickly. The last time I was trapped in the darkness up there, unable to find Ken or my way out, that room was on fire. I think I did pretty well considering. I got downstairs, and I admit I did have to cry on Ken for a minute. It wasn't being trapped in the darkness, it was how awful everything was.

  But anyway, awful things are our life, because things can never be good, or even easy most of the time. We got to Indiana, got all Ivy's stuff into her apartment. But not before I got to the bottom of her stairs, and fell again. This time I tripped on a rug, or the edge of the staircase, that juts out at the bottom. I'm not sure. This time I also fell on my butt, but managed to bang my arms up a bit on the way down. After we sorted Ivy and her stuff out, so we weren't leaving her with a mess that wasn't put away, we went out for dinner. I was having trouble with both shoulders and getting sleepy, so Ken and I stayed the night at Ivy's. 

  In the morning we went out for breakfast at a place called Wild Eggs. Oh my goodness! If you live near one, or even if you live far away from one, RUN, don't walk, and get the pumpkin pie pancakes! They are AMAZING! I don't know how they get them like pancakes, and yet gooey and like pumpkin pie. I would sell Ken for another one! (Well, maybe not. But they are great!) 

  After breakfast we headed back to Emma's. We hadn't gone too far when we started to over heat. Now we just had that taken care of about a week ago. We had to pull over and Ken added some oil. The coolant level was fine. We went a little further, and had to pull over again. After cooling off we added more oil and started again. It looked like we were going to make it for a minute. Then the needle went from middling, to hot, to the middle again, to cold, to hot. It was all over the place. I thought, there's no way the actual temperature is changing that fast. Maybe our gauge just doesn't work any more. But then I saw the smoke blowing out behind us. We had to pull over again. This time I didn't have a gas station or something to pull off into. I pulled off the highway and drove down the road a little and parked in someone's driveway. There was nothing nearby. Ken had to call off work, because no way were we going to make it in time. After cooling off we got back on the highway, and luckily we weren't too far from actual civilization. We were also about a half hour from my sister's house. We ended up having it towed to the only car place near my sister that could look at it the next day, instead of the next week, and my sister took us to her house for the night. 

  We had to get a new radiator. That's just what we needed with the house to get rewired and all. But we were able to get back to Emma's. At that point, all I wanted to do was take a shower and get my gross hair washed, and put something on that I hadn't had to wear for three days. I ate after my shower, and was just too tired to do anything else. I went to bed around 8:30. So you can see why you haven't seen a new post for days!

  Today we're going to look at one doll, and we'll try to get caught up this week. No promises. We are getting near the end of the year, and there is a lot of catching up to do, so I'll have to get on the ball. For today, we're looking at my sister's Black Panther Wakanda Forever 'Okoye' doll.

She's from the Fresh Fierce Collection by World of Epi.

  I first photographed her when my sister was going to keep her in her box. 

And she does display well in the box.

  I even tried to get my sister to do a guest review and unboxing. She held of unboxing her for a while, but she weakened. However, she forgot to take any unboxing pictures for me. So here is Okoye out of her box.

  She's fashion doll size, and she has lots of articulation.

She has jointed knees and elbows, and jointed swivel wrists.

My sister also has the 6 inh versions of the characters, including Okoye.

I haven't seen the movie, but I am assure she bears a great likeness to actress Danai Gurira, who played Okoye in "Wakanda Forever".

The doll features Okoye's tattooed head.

  Her outfit is very detailed.

  Her boots, which are split in the back for easy on and off, look strangely stumpy. My sister says it's because they made the doll with high heel feet, so the boots are made like this, instead of with a regular foot.

It just looks weird. It seems to be the one big flaw in an otherwise nicely made and pretty screen accurate doll. Pretty dumb. 

  If you like this doll, she's on sale on the Target website right now for $14.99, a far cry from the $50 my sister paid. The other two dolls in the series are also on sale for the same price.

  That's the doll for...today? Wednesday? Whichever you prefer. I'll see you again tomorrow.

Doll-A-Day 2023 #283: Lexi

  Today's doll is one I got at the bin store a while back. She cost me a whole dollar. I was going to open her and use her for a post, but I really didn't want to keep her. Then  I thought that I shouldn't open her, because then I can donate her to a Christmas toy drive. So, we're going to look at her through the plastic. Sorry. She's Lexi, from The Fresh Dolls, by World of Epi.

She is very pretty. in fact, she's 'brought to you by positively perfect'. 

She has gold earrings and beautiful eyes.

  She's fashion doll sized. Her head is a bit larger than, say, a Barbie's, but I wouldn't call her a big head doll, like a Bratz or an Ever After High, or Rainbow High doll. She's still within the realistic range.

  

  Her outfit is simple. She has a three quarter length sleeved turtle neck blouse, and a rather stiff looking skirt. i didn't photograph the evidence, but I can tell you that she has no underwear, 'not even of any kind', to quote "The Importance of Being Ernest". She doesn't even have painted on underwear. She does have jointed elbows though.

And jointed knees.

She has long brown hair. It looks like it might be a bit thinly rooted. But she's not an expensive doll, even if you don't get her at a  bin store. She normally costs about $12.

  Finishing off her outfit, she comes with red heels.

The info about the Fresh dolls is officially as follows:

• We create a diverse line of multi-cultural Dolls (African American, Afro-Latina, Latino/Hispanic, Caucasian, and mixed-race/biracial) loved by children of all ages
• Our sculpts are one-of-a-kind pieces of art, with unique facial features, custom blended skin tones, various hair textures, and bodies more representative of real women
• This doll comes brand new in the box, waiting to be loved
• All fresh dolls stand approximately 11.5 inches tall (29.5 centimeter), not including the hair, and they can bend and pose with articulated joints at the knees, hips, shoulders, and elbows. The head can tilt and turn from side to side.
• All fresh dolls have soft, washable hair

  The Fresh Dolls are the invention of a lady named Dr. Lisa. Here's what the back of Lexi's box says about the Fresh Dolls.

There are several Fresh Dolls in the line, and there have been fashion packs too.

There are some very interesting looking dolls here. This is the 2020 line, according to the copyright on the box.

  That's today's doll. There will be another one tomorrow.