At last: Asha! (Made To Move Barbie)

The other day I was sorting some old pics I'd saved on the hard drive and came across the first one I found of the then-rumored new body with 18 points of articulation that Mattel was claimed to be releasing soon. Well, now it's almost exactly year later, and I finally have my first Made to Move doll in hand! Asha arrived last week, courtesy of a fellow doll collector with access to a timely sale. By now I think you're all familiar with the abilities of the Made To Move body, so I'm not doing a review or anything. But of course there are pics - grainy, pseudo-nude ones.

Asha showing off her articulation while technically wearing underwear.

She came disassembled, which resulted in even more body horror than usual.

So far I've only noticed two problems: I wish that her upper arms would come in closer to her body so she could fold her arms properly, and her ankle joints probably shouldn't have passed QC: they're a bit floppy, and while that might be ok in most joints, ankles need to be tighter so they're able to carry the weight of the body without folding. A little floppiness goes a long way to severely diminishing a doll's posing ability. :( Well, luckily it can be fixed. I haven't tried the superglue trick on these kinds of exposed joints before, so I just wrapped a couple of rubber (or rather silicone) bands around them to give them more traction, and it's working so far.

Ankle joints fold at the slightest weight :(

Solution: silicon bands! Not the prettiest, but it's reversible - and it works.

Apart from that she's practically perfect - and practically glue-free! Her head is completely soft and squishy, the only trace is a small hard lump that seems to be hanging on a tuft of hair inside her head and can only be felt if you squish the head practically flat. While this is making me happy, it also makes me mad - because apparently Mattel are perfectly able to make dolls that aren't self-destructing straight out of the box! They just... choose not to??

I don't know, maybe it's time for another petition.

A blurry profile

I knew straight away I'd try to get a hold of Asha first, because I was pretty sure she'd never be sold in Sweden (sadly the AA dolls often never make it here) and I didn't have a doll with this mold. I liked her curly hair and that her hairdo was pretty realistic instead of the oceans of hair on some dolls, but apart from that I didn't have much of an opinion on her. But she quickly grew on me and now I'm completely in love with her. <3

Since she can't be wearing that neon yellow top all the time, I made her a blouse. The pattern is the blouse of a clone doll that I took apart and modified slightly. I'm often prone to perfectionism, and something that's helped me is to look at badly made massproduced doll clothes and realize that they look pretty ok, even if they aren't perfect. Hell, the clone doll's skirt is literally coming apart and I still love it.

Pictured: not quite ok, but within the acceptable range

Pictured: pretty ok. Although with some room for improvement.

I found this polka dot fabric scrap for cheap and as usual I've been hesitating to use it, because what if I waste it on something that turns out ugly? Well, my fabric crate is a mess and I couldn't find anything better, so I decided to take the plunge.

Former clone blouse; new bluose-to-be

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out: pretty ok.

Asha, on the other hand, looks like she's considering leaving this modeling job out of her resumé

It's still a bit of a mess, mainly since some of my modifications didn't turn out, and the back was mostly... missing, really, from the original blouse, so I had to figure something out and I'm not great at that.

But yeah: it's recognizable as a blouse, looks a bit like something you could buy in a shop, and the pattern is pretty. So I'm happy. Pretty ok. :)

Clone Loot: Who Wore It Best?

Side not: I always thought of this sculpt as Nichelle, partially due to Mattel's confusing naming practices, but also because it makes the doll look a liiitle bit like she's about to sneeze: slightly wrinkled nose, squinting a bit, mouth open, plus sometimes they give her those angry eyebrows... But the name of the sculpt is actually Asha. But I keep thinking of her as Nichelle. But naming her that would be confusing... I think I'll compromise and call her... Neisha?

Clone doll jewelry store play set (thrift store find)

The thing is, I've got a whole bunch of cool thrift store finds I've been putting off posting about, since all the photos I take somehow end up looking like crap. But in the end I decided this thing was too good to not share, so you'll just have to bear with me.

Ooh how exciting!

There's three separate pieces, I just pushed them together to fit in the frame.

It's some kind of... jewelry store? Beauty salon? Dressing room? I'm not quite sure actually, but it has so many of the things I love in doll furniture. Working lights! Oddly designed jewelry! Even more oddly designed compartments to hold the jewelry! Actually sort of looks like a believable room! This is probably the best thing I've found in a long time in a thrift store - and it was reasonably priced, too! (I will never understand their pricing policy, in fact I don't think it can ever be comprehended by any human mind.)

Oh yeah, working lights:

For once the awful lighting conditions work in my favor!

It's those two things by the mirror - I forgot to take a close-up, but they're like little sconces with facet cut "glass" shades. Very tasteful! I'm thinking the mirror section could actually look great on its own in a dollhouse or diorama.

For a sale, it's surprisingly tidy.

There's all sorts of weird jewelry: a couple of tiaras, necklaces, different kinds of Also there's a bag that doesn't open and a pair of fake human-size make-up brushes (one of which are missing in this picture). Why? Who knows. They remind me a bit of the fake make-up set I had as a child: a white and pink compact with plastic squares in different pink shades to rub the little plastic brush on. At the time I think I was vaguely annoyed that it was such a pointless toy (it could have had watercolor in it at least!), but as an adult I love weird fake toy versions of real things. There's also that golden comb, and that... bottle-looking thingy, which I think is supposed to be a perfume bottle? Except the carefully designed compartment has it placed upside down, plus it opens in half but it doesn't seem to be actually good for anything. I've decided it's actually a hip flask, for the poor unfortunate soul that gets dragged along to watch you try on jewelry for hours.

The jewelry itself isn't actually super useful: personally I'm not a fan of this kind of fantasy style 1/6 jewelry, and the shape of the necklaces is a bit off (or made to fit a particular clone doll?) so they don't always lie flat around the doll's neck. But there's one or two I like, and the earrings with the green jewels (well, stickers) are pretty cute, although I'll have to double-check the pins for sharp plastic edges that could tear the earholes before I use them on a doll.

Another fun feature is that the hair clips come with replaceable parts, for whatever reason. It is a pretty odd choice, and it makes them extra big and clumsy, but I like the idea in all its ridiculousness.

Why? Well, why not?

Also, all the little jewelry parts have their own little place that's made just for them, except they're designed more for show than for convenient storage, which is one of those typical breaks in realism you get with this kind of playline furniture. It does make it pretty easy to determine exactly what's missing, though.

As usual, I marvel at the fact that pretty much all the accessories are still there. There's only one or two missing - yes, I know there's more missing in the picures, but that's because I lost them while I was unpacking, cleaning and setting it up to take the pictures! And I still haven't found the little pink clothes hanger you can see in the first picture. So no, I don't really understand these children who don't lose their toys, but I will be forever grateful to them for eventually donating the intact playsets to goodwill, giving me a chance to lose the little earrings instead. Thank you, whoever you are!


I don't have a definitive ID yet, but I actually came across a picture of a very similar set completely by accident. This is by toomanypictures1/Susan Hall on Flickr:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/smh223837/5701601284/

It's basically the same set, but a slightly different version: mine doesn't come together into one unit like this, and instead of the floor thing each separate section has its own lavender-colored socket. Someone in the comments suggests it's from a clone doll line called Fashion Corner/Lucky Dolls, but I haven't been able to google up any useful info on them. Come to think of it, I feel like I've seen a similar set sold for Jenny or Licca dolls, but I may be mistaken. Anyway, if you know where it's from I'd appreciate any info.

This "C&M" stamp on one of the necklaces is the only marking.

(There's a couple more photos at my flickr.)

New Twilight Teens

At least, it seems like it! Someone on flickr posted a photo today of a Catty Noir knockoff doll whose box design looked very familiar. Simba's site didn't have any new pics, but I poked around a bit and found these on German ebay. 

Pneumona? 

Like the person who took the photo in the store mentioned, there's a panther girl, a ...voodoo priestess? and Neptune's daughter or something.  Panthera's leotard is pretty great, and I just realized Nemona's body seems to be transparent. Not sure what to say about Voodoona. One thing is for sure, though: Simba Toys are terrible at names.

(For newcomers, Twilight Teens is Simba Toys' line of Monster High clones. They're a bit cheap, particularly the clothes, but since they use the same body as Simba's Super Model dolls they do have pretty good articulation. The downside is they all have the same face mold.)

Wild Girlz spooky horse and carriage

Speaking of Wild Girlz and their accessories, I just saw this spooky carriage on Flickr: 

It says Wild Girlz, but I'm not sure it's the same Wild Girlz - that doll hardly looks like a big-headed clown at all. I guess there's only so many different combinations of spooky/scary/goth/mystic/magic + girl(z) you can name your clone doll. Anyway, I thought it was pretty cool!