Bye Bye Blog

“Bye bye blog
Bye bye happiness
Hello loneliness
I think I'm-a gonna cry.”

No, not really.

This is my last post for this blog series. I have actually really enjoyed having carte blanche to write about one of my favorite topics. To be able to write at great length and detail about any aspect of doll collecting has been a lot of fun. In my former work life, I did not really get to tap into the creative side of me, so this has been a great experience.

I have reflected on my history with miniatures these past ten weeks. My first recollections were not from my childhood, but my teenage years when I admired lighted Christmas ceramic buildings from the Department 56 collection. I started to collect these in earnest when I got my first full time job.

My interest in miniatures veered off in a new direction, when I started paying attention to Barbie in my search for toys for my niece. This is when my interest in fashion dolls, their clothing, and their accessories started to develop. I discovered Etsy, an online marketplace where people sell and buy handmade items. I have purchased many clothing items for 11 inch dolls on Etsy. This is also where I found a source of miniature foods. I devoted an entire blog post to the various miniature foods I bought on Etsy, posting pictures of little desserts and Asian food items. In essence, I got to experience the details of them all over again. This was nice because my miniature foods are all stored in a drawer right now so I haven’t looked at them in a while.

I opened up my very first blind boxes. I shared this experience in a blog post and posted pictures of which Hallowe’en Hello Kitty figurines I got in my “mystery mini” adventure.

I discussed doll photography, some of my favorite websites, and also my favorite YouTube toy reviewers. The Internet is a place where one can find not only many other people who share the same interests but also various ways of indulging in and exploring these interests. I discovered an online community and also a new lingo for doll lovers.

I devoted three entire blog posts to the dolls I gifted to myself for my birthday. Talk about indulgence! Once again, writing about all these dolls was a way of experiencing them all over again.  I commented on each and every mini Lalaloopsy doll I own, posting pictures, and discussing why I liked these particular dolls. I also shared pictures and descriptions of dolls I have from Integrity Toys. Once again, this was a nice thing since these three dolls are all still in their boxes. I was forced to open up the boxes to examine them some more.

Perhaps I will be able to find a job where all I do is write about dolls all day long.

I wish.

 

Happy Birthday to me - Part 3

This will be the last post on my birthday haul. I was excited to write this post because it gave me a good excuse to re-open up the boxes for these two dolls.

These dolls are from the Dynamite Girls line from Integrity Toys http://www.integritytoys.com/page/landing . In addition to my Tulabelle doll (described in my previous post), I still haven’t actually removed them from their boxes yet. You might ask, “What is the point of buying them if you're not going to take them out and enjoy them?” I agree with your line of thinking. I just haven't found a good place to display them yet. I am a little short on space at the moment.

Compared to Tulabelle, I would say that the Dynamite Girls have a more youthful look and playful fashion style to them. Here is their write-up on the Integrity Toys website http://www.integritytoys.com/page/brands/name:dynamite_girls :

“The Dynamite Girls are fun, fabulous collector quality fashion dolls created in 2007 by Integrity Toys.  These cuties live in a world of candy-colored, retro inspired styles, influenced by current trends and pop culture. The line was created to showcase a more playful side to collecting fashion dolls.”

The first Dynamite Girl I will describe is named Holland.

 

 
You can view a video review of Holland on Mike N` Elio’s YouTube channel, which I mentioned in a previous blog post https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Xy6qzxXyOQ .

Holland has rooted eye lashes and gorgeous strawberry blonde curly hair. I have not seen this subtle hair color very often in dolls. Her makeup is made up of very pale shades of pink. Her eyes are painted such that she is looking off to the side. What I love most about this doll are the many items of clothing that she comes with. She is wearing a belted dress that is patterned with swirly ribbons of pink. She is also wearing finely meshed pink tights. Underneath her dress she is sporting a turtleneck. What is best about her clothing is the articles of winter wear. I do not have many dolls with winter clothing. She has a jacket made of turquoise vinyl and green fur material. Her boots are high heeled with fur trim and silver button accents.  
 
The second Dynamite Girl is named TJ.

TJ has dark hair that is styled in a high pony tail. She has rooted eyelashes. Her eye makeup consists of vivid colors of purple, blue, and green. Her lips are a dark brown-red. Like Holland, she comes with many articles of clothing. She is wearing a collared lime green blouse that is closed with button snaps down the front. On top of her blouse she has a dark pink v neck sweater. Her skirt has a similar pattern to that of Holland’s dress. The pattern is of swirling ribbons but in this case, the ribbons are in shades of blue. She is wearing dark pink tights with a larger mesh pattern than that of Holland’s tights. Once again, the best thing about her outfit is the winter wear. She has a white jacket with fully functioning zipper. The hood of the jacket has black fur trim. Her black boots are high- heeled and accented with silver buckle straps.

Both of these dolls are fully articulated and come with stands. The posing possibilities are endless.

Looking at these dolls once again, I am very pleased with my choices. I look forward to having them dressed in different ways and having them swap outfits. A bonus is that they are similar in size to certain types of Barbie dolls so there is wardrobe sharing potential in this too. Maybe one day I’ll have time to actually take Holland and TJ out of their boxes and enjoy them the way they should be enjoyed.

Happy Birthday to me - Part 2

I will now describe the second part of my birthday bonanza. These toys are more of the fashion doll variety than the Lalaloopsy dolls I wrote about in my previous post. All three of these dolls are from the Integrity Toys line http://www.integritytoys.com/page/landing . If you ever look at doll photography, it will be most likely these types of dolls that are featured in the photos. To be honest, I had seen a lot of the Integrity dolls but had never quite been taken by then. It was more than just the price level but also that the dolls often had a severe look to them. I did not find their appearance appealing.

One day I came across Poppy Parker. Now this was a beautiful doll. There are many Facebook pages devoted to posting pictures of this doll. There are many versions of her with different hairstyles, face paint, and clothing. But in all these version, she has that distinctive whimsical look to her. Poppy Parker is from a past era, the 1960s, and her style displays this. If there was any doll from Integrity that I would consider purchasing, it would be Poppy.

 

Picture courtesy of

https://www.facebook.com/PoppyParkerFanPage

 

Picture courtesy of

https://www.facebook.com/PoppyParkerFanPage

 

Picture courtesy of

https://www.facebook.com/PoppyParkerFanPage

 

Picture courtesy of

https://www.facebook.com/PoppyParkerFanPage

 

Picture courtesy of

https://www.facebook.com/PoppyParkerFanPage

 

Picture courtesy of

https://www.facebook.com/PoppyParkerFanPage

 

Picture courtesy of

https://www.facebook.com/PoppyParkerFanPage

 



Picture courtesy of

https://www.facebook.com/PoppyParkerFanPage

 

Picture courtesy of

https://www.facebook.com/PoppyParkerFanPage

 

Picture courtesy of

https://www.facebook.com/PoppyParkerFanPage

 

 

The above pictures are from the Facebook page "PoppyParkerFanPage".

https://www.facebook.com/PoppyParkerFanPage

The following are a few other Facebook pages devoted to Poppy Parker:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/151551875023804/
https://www.facebook.com/poppy.parker.980?fref=ts

However, her price can be in the hundreds of dollars. In addition, Poppy is very popular. From what I gather, in order to directly purchase from Integrity, you need to be a member.  Then when new dolls are issued, you need to be at your computer hitting the refresh button in hopes that you can get what you want before supply runs out. Because of this, it was likely I would have to buy Poppy on the secondary market, such as eBay. And these dolls would be at even higher prices.

Because of what I heard about the prices and the availability, I had never seriously looked into buying a Poppy Parker doll. But this past summer, I decided to go big. Literally. I decided to buy a 16” doll. I decided to not buy Poppy, but to instead purchase Poppy’s granddaughter Tulabelle. As I said, Poppy is from a past era but Tulabelle is from the current times and best of all, she inherited some of her grandmother’s clothing. So her style is the best of both worlds.

To give you an idea of what 16” means in doll world, I will say Barbie is 11” tall. Here are some pics of a 16” doll with a Barbie-sized doll for comparison.




At left, Barbie sized doll. At right, 16" doll.
Picture courtesy of The Toy Box Philosopher
http://www.toyboxphilosopher.com/

Picture courtesy of The Toy Box Philosopher
http://www.toyboxphilosopher.com/

 

Here is the Tulabelle doll I decided on.

 

There are a few features I love about this doll. Her hair is a distinctive red. She is fully articulated and comes with a stand. I will be able to sit her down, have her stand, and pose her in many ways. I also love her outfit. It is a nice mix of dressy and casual. The leather look blue jacket is very stylish. With real belt buckles and a functioning zipper, it is displays great workmanship. The boots are funky and stylish. Underneath her leather jacket, she wears a gold dress with a mesh overlay. I wish I had this outfit!

She also comes with a clutch purse that opens and several jewellery accessories.

I have not yet taken her out of the box, but I am really happy with my choice. There are collectors who do not remove their dolls from the box. They keep them in their original packaging in order to keep them pristine and untouched. The values of the dolls may increase in the future. You may see terms like MIB or NRFB on sites like eBay. NRFB stands for 'Never Removed From the Box', which means the item has never been taken out of the original box, thus never handled. MIB stands for 'Mint in Box' which means this item is in mint condition and in its original box. So an item that is MIB may have been taken out and displayed or played with. Most of the dolls I have do not cost much and I don’t buy dolls to make money from my collection.

It seems that I have run out of time so I will end this post at this point. Next week I will describe the other two dolls that I purchased from the Integrity Toys line. They are from the Dynamite Girls collection.