Bobeck's back!

Here's something surprising I discovered last week: apparently Mimi Bobeck dolls have become popular! Not because a new generation discovered The Drew Carey Show, but because doll collectors use her as body donor for Blythe. I'm not really into Blythe so this was all news to me, but from what I understand the trend started about a year ago. If you google or search on flickr you can find lots of blog posts and photos, and laments that the prices on Ebay have gone up (although I checked and most listings weren't all that outrageous, so maybe that was temporary). I have to agree it's a good idea: the result looks a lot like a regular old-fashioned fat babydoll, and the huge Blythe head looks a lot more proportional on Mimi's body than on a regular skinnier doll.

It seems people have encountered the same problem as I did when I bought my NRFB Mimi a few years ago, which is staining. She has a row of purple spots on her thighs from the elastic in her pants. Personally I've just decided they're varicose veins. The bright green staining from her shoes is more difficult to explain away (smelly feet?). Luckily, she didn't have stains around her neck like Drew himself (he wore a black suit jacket which gave him a big black mark on his neck - hmm, street brawl?).

As usual, shoes are the big problem. Mimi has tiny, absolutely flat feet, and most doll shoes have at least a little bit of a heel. That may not be a problem as long as she's sitting down, although she doesn't do that very well either so I prefer to try and make her balance. So far I've only found a few pairs that sort-of work: a pair of Liv sneakers that look pretty oversized on her, a pair of vintage Barbie shoes that I had to carve out the inside of because they were made for high-heel feet, and the black slippers from the new cat themed Barbie accessory set I bought recently. They have a bit of heel, so she can't stand in them, but they're close enough to fitting that I'm counting them anyway.

Barbie 2015 slippers on Mimi Bobeck doll

There's also the single red vintage ballet flat that is almost perfect for her, but I'm not sure what doll it belonged to: it could be Skipper, but her shoes are usually too long and narrow for Mimi, or it could be Francie, but doesn't her shoes usually have a bit of a heel? Anyway, I only have the one, but at least I know they're out there...

Of course, if you prefer the typical Blythe style with big shoes it's easier: you can just fill them out with socks!

Steffi Love shoe fashion set

Steffi Love shoe fashion set! A complete impulse buy, but you can always use more shoes, right?

(Don't worry, that's not dollars!) 

As you can see the heels are all different heights, so I assume they're intended for the newer articulated Steffi Love with ankle joints. (The old articulated Steffi body has articulated ankles too, but those feet are bigger and flattet, more like Liv's.)

I wanted to see if any of them might fit my other dolls too, and since the price was about half of what those Barbie accessory sets cost (and you only get two pairs with those), I felt I could afford to experiment!

I already have two of the yellow pair, except pink. Why couldn't these have been black??

I was hoping maybe the lavender pair would fit Anastasia or Skipper (who both have those semi-high heeles feet that are really hard to find shoes for), but they were too small. 

Only one pair fit Fashionista: the pink and straw wedges. It's not a perfect fit, but she can balance without problem. I was hoping the green pair would fit (because look at those heels!), but those were sliiiiighty higher. 

 

Typical.

Left: Kara, right: Kenya

(Both the green and the pink pair kind of fit the slightly wider and shorter classic Barbie feet, seen here on SiS Kara and Kenya. The green ones are still too high, but as long as the doll is sitting down they look ok.)

Liv is about to fall over here.

The cowboy boots were HUGE. They're hollow almost all the way into the toe, so there's some wiggle room for different types of feet, but Liv can't stretch her ankles enough and risks tipping over forward. Old articulated Steffi can, but both of their feet are too wide and make the sides bulge out. 

Obitsu wore them best - even better than Steffi herself (whose narrower feet couldn't quite keep the boots from slipping off). They're still comically oversized, but they do stay on and she can balance in them.

Of course, she IS an Obitsu. I'd expect her to balance in anything.

The boxer boots are actually high heels pretending to be flats, which is just silly (particularly since articulated Steffi CAN wear flats). Since there's an obvious line where the sole starts, I'm considering slicing them off, hollowing the shoes out, then gluing them back together. 

Old articulated Steffi and Liv. Nope and nope. 

The pink slippers didn't really look good on anyone, not even Steffi. Oh well.

Actually I'm not sure "slippers" is the right word here. They do keep slipping off, though.

In conlusion, I'm a bit disappointed none of them fit the dolls I was hoping for, but at least Steffi has all the shoes she'll ever need now, and as a bonus both fashionista and Obitsu got a pair each. Also: cheap! 

Hey! Come back with my shoes!

Sneakers that fit Liv: Only Hearts Club

They were selling the last Only Hearts Club dolls for 50% off, so I thought "why not?". (And although I know perfectly well why not, I went ahead and bought one anyway.)

They're poseable cloth body dolls and the little booklet calls them "wholesome" and "age-appropriate" several times. I think the target group is "parents who want wholesome dolls for their kids", which ...isn't really me (and the way I remember it, Barbie's relative lack of "wholesomeness" and "age-appropriateness" was the whole point for me as a kid), but I read The Toybox Philosopher's review and thought the realistic face sculpt was pretty cool, and I so wanted one for the collection.

Yes yes, but what about the sneakers?!?

She doesn't fit very well with the rest, though, and I haven't decided what to do with her yet (keep as is? Rebody? Pass on to my friend's kid when she's old enough?) BUT I did discover that she comes with very nice sneakers that look really good on Liv! Liv has sneakers of her own, of course, but they're hard plastic and pretty clumsy (the pair I have and the ones I've seen). These are squishy rubber and pretty realistic!

Left: Liv, Right: Only Hearts Club. The pink sneakers are Liv's.

If I get around to buying more shoes for the Liv body, I think I'll try to find another pair of OHC shoes rather than some of Liv's own. There are a few OHC fashion packs on the 'bay (although nobody offers reasonable shipping to faraway exotic EU at the moment). I'm not sure whether the other shoes would fit, but a few of them come with sneakers in different colors (seems like the same model, though). These have pink yarn for shoelaces that unfortunately has stained the rubber and the doll's feet a bit, but a white pair should be safe.

They're so wholesome they don't need pants!

Canvas sneakers for Ken!

When I said I would scale down on the doll stuff shopping, I didn't include shoes!

 

I've wanted these canvas sneakers for a while. Originally I wanted red, but then GoodStuffToGo had the blue version for about half price (closing sale! :( ). There is a male and female model, but they're action figure sized, and according to the pictures I saw the male shoes are HUGE even for action figure shoes. The female model is about 4 cm and looked like it might fit Ken or other male fashion dolls.

They come with a bag and box, which I knew would probably get beat up in the mail, but I don't care. It's patina!




The socks have pretty thick printed strips that stretched and cracked a bit when I pulled them over Liv's heels. Ken doesn't need them, but they fit Monster High pretty well!

(Cheap unarticulated Ken, but I think the feet are the same, more realistic mold as, say, Fashionista.)


Some random comparisons:


Action Man's and Triad Omega's feet are too wide!


Ballerina Barbies feet are too small!


Compared to the "micro sneakers" for fun.


Some of the eyelets don't line up. Also I think the skull logo ended up on the wrong side, but I can live with that. I looked, and the logo seems to be exactly where intended, although I have to wonder if it wouldn't look better placed on the other side? The glue residue looks bad but that's mainly due to the camera settings.


These would probably fit more 1/6 scale male fashion dolls if they weren't so narrow! Is it just me or do action figure shoes generally have a pretty odd length/width ratio? They always make the feet look super long.

Re: scaling, I remember reading a complaint somewhere about the neck on the Omega body being too long. Someone suggested this was deliberate, to allow for several layers of clothing made of not-quite-1/6-scale fabric without making the neck look too short. That's actually pretty good thinking: some things need to be tweaked in order to look good in 1/6 scale, and I'm wondering if there could be a similar reason for the extra-long and narrow shoes. Can't think what it might be, though, but someone who owns more than three action figures might know?




These are probably the nicest shoes any of my dolls own. I kind of wish I had bought two pairs while I was at it, but like I said they only had blue left and I've only got one doll who can wear them anyway... I might save up for a red pair from the Bay of E sometime, though.