Loads of Recent 1/6 Scale Finds and One 18" Doll Scale Goody

  Here are just some of the fun 1/6 scale finds I've made recently. I didn't find them all in one day, or even the same week, but all were found at local thrift stores.

A Fashionista Ryan (?),with jointed elbows and wrists, (but unfortunately not knees.),mail box,chest, rocking chair,pile of real bricks, and tiny Rudolph ornament.

The rocking chair was a picture frame, but I removed the picture holder part in the chair back. I'm going to put in a padded back made from upholstery fabric that looks like needlepoint. I'll need to replace the knobs on the chest.

The mail box was apparently originally a bank. The hole in the front is where there was originally a key lock door. There must have been a burglary... The top flap, which says 'packages bills', even opens so you can put stuff (Like money.) in.

Hey! That's not nice!

Hey Emma, are you getting George Harrison from this guy?

Cool real 1/6 scale bricks. I have a whole box of these in my basement somewhere, but I can't find them! These were in a bag in the craft supply section of Salvation Army.

And I almost forgot this...

No, not the fireplace. The 'screen'! I'd been passing this thing up at S.A. for ages, thinking it must be good for something besides the napkin holder it was made to be. Then one day it just hit me that it was the right size for a 1/6 scale fireplace screen! It is slightly short for my Byers fireplace, but I still think it works.(Of course, it does cover up the nice realistic looking log and andirons.) I might try to remove the back half if I can figure out how to do it without bending the whole thing to pieces.

Ryan warms his feet in front of the fire.

My last 1/6 scale find is one I showed you a pack of last year too. These Russell Stover Iddy Biddy Bunnies.

Still tiny, still delicious, and still only a dollar.

Last Easter Tammy World helped me show you how delicious and to scale they are...

Yes! Russell Stover IS our favourite chocolate!

With Easter coming up these would be great for putting in your kids' dolls Easter Baskets. (The kids can 'help' the dolls eat them of course!)
I came across one item for 18" dolls too. I've seen them before, but there was only one left and I didn't know if they would get any more, since it was at Big Lots. It's this canister of 'tennis balls':

They're actually gum balls! The canister is perfect though, and the gum looks just like tennis balls.

Samantha shows you the scale.

Replace the gum balls with polymer clay tennis balls, or some of those tiny key ring tennis balls.
  Just a quick mention, I have recently started a Flickr account where you can see some of the pictures from the blog, (without all the talk! ), and eventually other pictures too which don't end up here. You can go to it HERE.
  Well, those are the finds for now. Keep your eyes open. Cool minis are everywhere!

A Happy Reunion: One Woman's Search for Her Favourite Childhood Doll

  I received a message in my comments the other week that led to a story I have to share with you. The message was from a lady named Debbie,who had seen my post on  Doll-A-Day 94. 

The star of Doll-A-Day 94 was this red haired girl with freckles, wearing a pretty flowered raincoat.

  The doll was the same as her favourite doll from her childhood. Here's what she wrote:
"I have been looking for this doll for a bizillion years....it was my favourite doll when I was a little girl. Any chance you remember where you found it? Or would you be willing to part with it? Please let me know. Thanks so much!!!!"
  I asked the lady to send me her email address and we would discuss the matter in private. She did, and we have exchanged several emails. I have several dolls with similar faces and bright orange hair from my own childhood. That and the pretty rain coat are what attracted me to 'her' doll. I wondered if it was the face that was the same as her old doll,or did hers actually have the raincoat too. She was pretty sure this was the same as her doll, raincoat and all.:
  "It's funny you say that you have some other dolls very similar with bright orange hair. My old doll did have bright orange hair but the same or a similar face to this one.  I then thought maybe I remembered the hair wrong,  lol. I had named her Cindy but my Mom thought maybe she was already called Cindy when she got her for me.   I have been looking for her for many many years but am going by memory as I don't have any pictures of her.  :( "

  I had described the raincoat girl as having 'strawberry blonde' hair. I sent her some pictures of other dolls with a similar face and bright orange hair in case one was closer to her old doll. She was still pretty sure it was the same doll though.
 "I think I could be remembering Cindy's hair being brighter but in reality I think it's like the flowered raincoat doll. I got the doll when I was very wee so not sure what outfit she originally came in and then one day I decided in my youthful non-wisdom to sell her at a garage sale. I've been searching practically my whole adult life for her. And this is the closet I've been ever able to find!" (It's just as I always say: Beware all you teens who can't wait to sell your childhood loves for a dollar here and there! Someday you may regret it!)_
  I had another look at raincoat girl's hair, and it was a brighter orange than I thought. So yay! Even closer!

  I was curious as to how she finally managed to spot my pictures and find 'her' doll after all these years. Here's what she said:
 Basically I have been googling "red or orange hair dolls 1960s" and it brought up a bunch of pictures as well as sites.  I was looking through the pictures and came across the doll and then clicked and found your website. Very excited as it was the doll I remembered.  When I showed my brother the picture he immediately remembered my doll Cindy.  It was fantastic.  I have spent many years going antiquing and to doll shows and not finding anything close to what I remembered about my doll. Until now.

Wow! I am thrilled to be able to reunite her with her 'lost love'!  "Cindy's" new owner is pretty thrilled too.:
 "This is sooooo exciting.  I can't wait to see my pretty doll again in person!"

   Today I got an email from Debbie saying 'Cindy' had arrived home at last.

We got the doll today. Yay!!! I'm so happy to have her here. Thanks so very much again. I can't 

thank you enough for reuniting me with "Cindy".

She even sent me a picture of the two of them, together again:

   What a wonderful story! I'm so happy I got to be a part of it!

Ai Ball Jointed Doll Lagrus Mini Review

 The snow is pretty much melted and the muddy gray grass is showing. But a couple of weeks ago when we had lots of snow, (or was it the week before?) I took some pictures of  my Ai doll Lagrus. I have done several reviews of Ai dolls, so I'm not doing a detailed review of the packaging or fine details.  If you're interested in that and want to see the other dolls, you can find their reviews here: Coreopsis , Leptospurmum ,Bee Balm , Phlox , Hyacinth

   The Ai dolls in this series are all named after plants. Apparently lagrus looks like this:

And the doll looks like this:

She has a beautiful coat, and I love coats.

It has a removable capelet...

...and the hood has bunny ears!

They match the bunny ears on the front of the coat.

 Ai dolls are made by Jun Planning.

 They are ball jointed, and have changeable eyes and removable wigs which attach to the head with Velcro.

She has a really beautiful skin tone that I was finding hard to capture in these pictures. And her eyes are a really dark blue.

There are four different Ai head molds.There is a sleepy eye mold, a closed eye mold, and two open eye molds. One open eye mold is smiling and the other has a slightly turned down mouth.Lagrus has the open eye mold with a slightly turned down mouth, like Coreopsis
and Leptospurmum.

 She's just about 5" tall.

She also came with a pink dress. I took the opportunity to photograph her recently in a less snowy setting, so she is comfortable without her coat on.

Her little shoes even have tread on the bottoms. The straps velcro on the side.

She also comes with a matching set of bunny ears on a head band.

They match her coat.

By the way, the stairs are part of an action figure display from The Matrix.

 I bought it at a yard sale. I only got Keanu Reeves with it, (The figure. Not the real guy...), and I have no idea what I ever did with him.

Like all of the Ai dolls I have, her stringing is really tight, and it's hard to get her to hold some poses. Her head doesn't tilt much either.

She can stand on her own.

I've been waiting to use these stairs. I think these pictures came out pretty good!
 I think she looks pretty cute with Coreopsis' wig on too.

The great thing about having several of these dolls is that you can switch around the clothes,eyes, and wigs, and make a lot of different dolls. The Ai dolls all come with putty to hold the eyes in place so the dolls can look up or down, straight ahead, or to the side, or however you want.The dolls are small, but have pudgier bodies than Kelly dolls for example. (Very few Kelly clothes will fit them, mostly coats made to have clothes underneath.I covered a few clothes that will fit in my review of Bee Balm.) From what I have been able to find out, Ai dolls are larger than Pukipuki's, but smaller than Pukifees and Lati Yellows. The wigs are size 4-5, and the eyes are about 10mm.There are so many of the Ai dolls, and they're all cute. Tuesday Morning stores have had them sporadically over the last couple of years. It was quite a while back that I saw any there, but you never know. The price is great there too. For only $29.99 you can get a cute little ball jointed doll that is well made and comes with some neat accessories. The Ai dolls are plastic, not resin, but the quality of the plastic is really nice. It's beautifully smooth and most of the dolls have a lovely glowing skin tone.
  See you soon!