The mysteries of goodwill stores

To be honest, complaining about goodwill stores feels a bit wrong. I'm sure they're doing a great thing, and I've made some amazing finds there - but still: I really really wish they woudn't split up sets! Sometimes I wonder if they do it on purpose. You know: put the jacket on one Ken doll and the pants/shirt combo on another and hope that people buy both? (Spoiler: I won't, because I'm kind of poor.) Or when they package random doll furniture into bags, maybe the're just trying to portion similar amounts of good stuff/meh stuff into each one, regardless of whether it fits together or not? That would explain how Sindy's bathroom sink ended up with the patio furniture and the bath tub with the Sears Beauty Salon (which is missing the floor section that has the power sockets for the battery-operated hairdryer. That piece doesn't look much on its own, and I'll be forever wondering whether it got lost somewhere in the sorting process).

The weirdest thing is when stuff gets split up over larger distances in time and space: weeks apart, in different stores. There's a certain goodwill organization that has at least 5 stores in different parts of town, and whenever I'm near one I try to take the chance to pop in.

Today I when I visited one of them, I found:

• 1 brown Bratz Kidz boot (found the other one at another of their stores last week, but left it after having spent 10 minutes digging through the crate in vain for the other one), 
• the top from 1990 Babysitter Skipper's outfit  (found the skirt two weeks ago in yet another of their stores)
• a 5cm (2'') strip of white fabric. Doesn't sound like much, I know - ecxept I'd bet my head it belongs to the slightly mutilated Hollywood Hair Barbie outfit worn by one of the dolls I bought three weeks ago from yet another store.

So then you're standing there in line with one tiny boot or one single piece of doll clothing, wondering whether they'll insist they're only allowed to sell a complete set, and if they do what will become of those odd bits and bobs (thrown out at the end of the month?). Also, I have a sneaking suspicion lately they sometimes simply cut up doll's clothes when they're too small to fit (like putting a Barbie shirt on a babydoll), or cut a dress in two and split it between dolls just so you can sell it as a dressed doll. (And then there's the parents who let their kids play with all they toys until they break and then leave them strewn all over the shop for others to step on/trip over, but the staff are probably more annoyed at that than I am.)

Yeah, I know: I can't really complain. Honestly, if it weren't for goodwill stores, my doll collection would be a rather meagre affair indeed. But all my doll photos lately have come out looking like grainy garbage, so I'm frustrated and have no content of substance to post! So instead, you get moaning. And I guess in a way these little annoyances are a part of what makes thrift store shopping interesting. It's like a carefully designed quest in a video game: that little neon pink polka dot skirt will be worth much more to you after you've had to spend weeks searching for it all over town.

Hornby Flower Faries: Fairy Bedchamber play set

Hornby Flower Fairies is one of those doll lines I vaguely remember from my childhood. They were dolls in the 7''/20cm range dressed as fairies with wings and dresses resembling different flowers, vaguely based on Cicely Mary Barker's paintings of, well, flower fairies. As a kid, I don't think I could imagine anything more awesome than tiny pixies wearing flower petals. I never had any of the dolls - and looking back, they were kind of ugly - but I did buy one of the outfits sold separately: a blue dress with a skirt that looked like a harebell, plus a green plastic belt with little green stylized hook-like sepals (yes, I had to google that) and a pair of wings that never fit on any of my dolls since they had little pins to stick into corresponding holes in the doll's back. Actually, the dress never really fit any of my dolls either, but I still thought it was awesome because come on - flower dress!

Somehow I managed to keep the dress in good shape during all these years (maybe because none of my dolls could wear it). When I bought my first Monster High doll a couple of years ago I dug it up again to see if I'd have better luck this time. It's a bit too big for MH, but the Ever After High girls are pretty close to the right size. Their torso is a lot longer though, so it probably depends on the style of the particular flower dress whether it works or not. I have photos of my 12DP Hadley/Ashlynn Ella hybrid modeling the dress somewhere on my old computer, I'll try to dig them up some time.


Anyway, that's not what this post is about.
After unexpectedly finding that boxed Arco office play set at goodwill, I've started to pay closer attention to the boxes in the toy corner - turns out they're not all puzzles and board games! Last week I found this Flower Fairies play set in its original box, and in good condition.

Fairy Bedchamber with box (sticker says "Doll not included!")

As I mentioned above, I loved the idea of flower fairies as a kid - and I still do! Also, I love things that are made to look like flowers and twigs and little toadstoals or whatever - particularly if they're made of an incongruous material like plastic and ends up looking a bit cheap and ridiculous. Like they had this great, fantastic vision of Fairyland that they just couldn't convey in actual physical, economically viable materials. The reason I like this is, I think, because these things actually did look pretty magical to me as a kid, despite the cheap materials and at times lacklustre design.


Anyway: Flower fairies, obviously, sleep in a flower. Or a converted flower? I'm not sure. It looks like some kind of ...lotus?

My Little Lotus: Gold Spray Paint is Magic

There are instructions:

In case you can't read it, step 5 is to fit flowers onto the bed posts. Yes, the little nylon flowers (included) are an integral part of the structure. You use them to keep the curtains out of the way (duh!). No word on whether they're load-bearing.

Also a list of contents:

Man, I can't believe you only get 3 Joining Clips with this set!

Did I mention this thing is ridiculous? Because it is ridiculous:

This is what nature looked like in the '80s.

There are exactly five (5) little plastic-and-nylon flowers included in this set, and they all have their place (in The Circle of Life, I presume). They look exactly like any other cheap nylon flower you've ever seen, but don't be fooled: this is highly specialized building materials we're dealing with here! Apart from the two used to tuck back the curtains, these go on top of these plastic flowers and butterflies (???), which in turn go on those little green fiddly things with four pins, and these in turn slip onto the green I-beams flower stems that hold up the flower bed. Whew! Who knew nature was this complicated?!

Pillow, duvet, mattress, curtains. Crown goes on top.

The bedding material is considerably more straightforward, and actually really cute. Very good condition, no snags or stains, but I cleaned it anyway to be sure. The mattress is basically a paper plate with a thin layer of nylon stuffing glued to one side and the whole thing stuffed into a pink fabric envelope, but it does the job.

So. Close.

The curtains bear the classic playline accessory insignia of skimping on material: just one more centimeter and it would have hung perfectly over the edge of the bed, like the picture on the box. Aaaarrghh! Or maybe I managed to shrink it when I washed it?

The Da Hornby Code

Also, the bottom section has a molded Flower Fairies logo. This is one of the telltale signs this set is almost unused: there's no sign of dirt or icky grime along the edges of the letters. Still, a funny place to put it, like some secret stamp of authenticity.

Notice the address: Fairy Treasure Department!

There was a Flower Fairies catalog too, which didn't contain any revolutionary new information apart from this token offer, which honestly reminds me more of a well-padded casket than a toy. Or a toy casket, I guess.

There was also a catalog for Hornby's Flower Fingers, which was a series of sets of even more plastic flowers plus little plastic pots to put them in. It's an incredibly '80s product, and one of those things that just leaves you wondering "WHY??". Well, the previous owner had included one or two (incomplete) sets in the box, and if you put them next to a big plastic gold spray painted flower with I-bar grass and flowers on top of butterflies, they actually look comparatively sane. Or at least they fit right in. I forgot to take a proper photo, but I am now the proud owner of a little white plastic swan and a little white plastic watering can (with a non-working spout), plus a bunch of fake flowers to stuff them with. Looking at the catalog, I kind of wish I had the little white plastic bird bath or tiny white plastic bridge, because they would make great 1/6 garden decorations. Also, some sets seem to have come with those little plastic frogs that seemed to be everywhere in my childhood, so that's their origin explained I guess.

The price was a little over $4, which isn't bad for a complete set in good condition. All goodwill stores have their pricing quirks, and I've noticed this one tends to overprice their dolls while dollhouses and other structures are really cheap. All in all, a really good find!

ID needed: Pink hearts + mysterious wedding gown!

ETA 9 sept: Wedding gown has been identified over at Flickr as 1990 Wedding Collection #8289. Thanks to FanofBarbie! Still no ID on the heart print dress though, so I'm keeping the post as it is.
 
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Once in a while I like to try and put a name to the doll clothes I pick up at goodwill. Sometimes this turns out to be surprisingly difficult. Here's two dresses I'm having trouble identifying. One I'm not sure about, but the other one is definitely Barbie - which makes it all the more frustrating that I can't find out what it is.

Mystery frilly flocked heart dress

This frilly, slightly frayed thing with pink hearts doesn't have a label. I'm guessing mid-90s. It's too big for Sindy, and I can't find anything like it on this Sindy ID page anyway. The style reminds me of Petra, but I haven't found any match so far. Of course it might as well be any Barbie size clone doll.

Mystery dress + matching bow

Fun fact: about three weeks later, in a completely different goodwill store (although run by the same organization), I also found this bow that looks like it came with the dress. I'm guessing it was part of a hairband that's disintegrated since. Donated sets get split up between stores all the time, so it's not unheard of, but it's such a tiny scrap of fabric and I'm surprised I even spotted it.

The elusive wedding dress with its tag

Now, this one has been ridiculously difficult to pin down. It has a tag, so we know it's Barbie, and I'm pretty sure it's a wedding dress because, well, look at it.

The design is simple: the skirt is a single layer of shiny, ribbed nylon fabric. Many Barbie wedding gowns have a layer of tulle on top, but this one hasn't, and there's no sign of any having been cut off either. The top is made of lace with long puff sleeves and a fairly high neckline, over a bodice of the same shiny nylon as the skirt. The waistline is V-shaped.

Inside the bodice

It looks a bit on the cheap side, so it might be a fashion pack rather than a doll (but that might just be because I hate the look of the fabric). Going by the style and materials, I'd say '80s-90s. Should be easy, right? Wrong.

I've googled, ebay-ed, flickr-ed, and gone through this entire list of Mattel wedding dresses and not found anything like it. Well, I've found several that looks a bit like it, but there's always some part that doesn't match: Wedding of the Year (1982), Private Collection outfit (1987), Wedding Party (1994), or Bridal Collection outfit (1995). Although the last one has a pretty similar style and uses what looks like the same shiny fabric, so maybe I'm getting warmer?

Close-up of bodice with V-shaped waistline (ignore the hat)

I originally thought the hat was from the same set since it kind of matches, but I've ID'd it as most likely being from the set Romantic Wedding (1986) and that dress is quite different.

So there you have it: a tagged Barbie dress that seems to have mysteriously disappeared from Mattel's online annals of fashion. Any leads are greatly appreciated!

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 fabric store and a shirt for Lottie

Good news: I found a fabric store that sells thin cotton fabric with cute prints by the decimeter! Not only that, but they had the exact red-and-black striped fabric I've been looking for for years. I don't know anything about the fabric business, but it's a pretty generic striped fabric so maybe it's just been continuously in production for decades? I only had a tiny square, probably from one of those discount scrap bags, and thought it would make a good Ken shirt, but I messed up when I cut it and didn't have enough for a second attempt. Well, now I know where to find it. For now I just got some cheap white cotton fabric, the thinnest I could find. It really makes a lot of difference when sewing in 1/6 scale.

While I was out and about, I took the chance to go look at the newest Lottie dolls in the flesh plastic. I'm afraid I have to report that Finn looks even more like a troll IRL, and the shoes in his fishing accessory set don't look as good as in the photos. Oh well. The Lottie doll I was mostly interested in is School Days Lottie, who comes with big black glasses and - surprise! - some kind of school uniform. The outfit looks a bit cheap unfortunately, although the backpack with the cat on it is really cute. The doll itself looks pretty much identical to the one I already have (Pandora's Box Lottie, dark brown hair and brown eyes) so I think I'll go with the Robot Girl instead if I get another one.

(Also, there's a hair care set for Lottie now. I don't know what they were thinking, since the brush has what looks like thick bunches of bristles set really far apart - it doesn't look like it would be at all suitable for doll hair. Just give the kid a comb instead!)

When I got home, I decided to take some inspiration from the less-than-inspired Lottie school uniform and use my new fabric to make a simple shirt for Lottie. I was too lazy to make a proper pattern, so it took a few failed attempts, and I never got the collar quite right. Most of the mistakes are cleverly hidden in the back though, so it's all good. The skirt is just a scrap held on with pins, and a decorative safety pin like on the dress I had when I was a kid.

Cheating with pins!

Also, here's the Dora the Explorer kitchen section from last week! The clear plastic in the oven was missing, so I just cut a replacement piece from some packaging material. Like I mentioned, the ...burners? light up when you press them, but they require those weird AAA batteries so I don't know if they're working or not. (Come to think of it, isn't it kind of weird to have a toy that actively encourages children to touch a hot stove top?)

NOOO Lottie don't touch that

LPS Blythe, tiny '80s heart prints, and the cruel fate of well-loved dolls

So while I contemplate a possible blog move/duplicate, I'll keep double-posting my latest thrift store finds here and on Flickr.


The Kid Kore doll from last month has been washed and detangled and has a new hairdo. Her hair had frizzy ends and I had just bought a set of cheap colorful hair accessories, so I decided braids was the best option. She needs a dress to match but I've been too lazy to make one.

Reminds me of those early '90s United Colors of Benetton Barbies

The hip joints on this doll are hideous, but I kind of like that the design is so no-nonsense. Doll needs to be able to sit? No problem, we'll just slice of a bit of plastic - BAM, done. And, well, she does sit better than many other dolls with more esthetically pleasing joints, so... 

Function over form!

Here's a surprise from the bargain bin: a Littlest Pet Shop Blythe! I think she's called Tokyo Tea something or other. I've been able to resist Blythe so far, but she was in such good shape, with only slightly tousled hair, and with actual clothes! and shoes! that can be removed!! that I decided to add her to my collection.

So cute!

 I think her outfit is adorable, although I wish she could have flat feet so she could stand properly. (Not that she'd be able to anyway with that head.)

Tiny feet, tiny shoes.

Also found a first edition Rockers Diva that was way too expensive, but her hair was in pretty good shape and she had some of her original clothes (and I thought that orange vinyl belt buckle was really cool), and I've gotten it in my head that I ought to hoard Diva molds whenever they appear. Now I realize I'm not at all a fan of the makeup on the 1st ed dolls - I was going to say something about repaint, but we all know how that ends up, right? She's on a fashionista body now and doesn't fit in her original outfit, but Betty does:

I don't know how that belt works, but come on: orange vinyl!

For some reason I've found a lot of romantic '80s outfits with little prints lately. I considered gathering them all in one photo for Valentine's day, but then I got lazy. Anyway, here's two of them:

Usually the edges curl the other way

This lavender set has tiny printed hearts and one of those big '80s collars of flocked syntetic material that always curls up on itself after washing it in hot water, unless you carefully press it while it dries. Which I didn't. I don't know what the deal is, but I have at least three Barbie dresses/shirts with this type of collar. The blouse and skirt itself are made of a rather course cotton. It could have been home made, except there's a tag (MADE IN CHINA). The stripes on the skirt may have been white originally, but they still kind of match the buttons.

Aya is wearing the heart print skirt that I found laying all by its lonesome in one of the doll bins last month. It's not usually you find good doll clothes on their own at goodwill, and I've never really figured out whether it's ok to buy them separately - most likely they fell off some doll, but usually it's impossible to tell which one since they're all wearing pretty much whatever, or nothing at all. There's a lot of wear and tear on the toys at thrift stores, particularly since kids don't really understand the concept of "toys everywhere! except you're not allowed to play with them" and parents often don't seem to care. Sometimes I'll see a doll with missing legs and no clothes that was whole and dressed the week before.


I just read PlastigFfantastig's post about the tiny handmade fashion magazine from the '60s she found in an eBay lot, and it got me thinking about the fate of thrift store dolls in home-made clothes. Lately I've spotted a few dolls that I kind of feel like I should have saved for posterity, even though they're not my usual type. Usually it's a cheap knock-off doll, the kind with hollow plastic "bubble" limbs and no stamp, and with hopelessly cut or frizzled hair, and with clothes made by kids or at least not someone who's good with a sewing machine. Unhemmed edges, big stitches, will probably fall apart if you try to remove it. Not pretty, but it's obvious that someone loved that doll, even though the monetary value may not be very high. Usually when I see dolls like that I take a photo if convenient, but since I don't have unlimited money or space I don't buy them. And then I come back a week later and someone's tried to pull off the dress and torn the legs off in the process. That usually makes me sad, and I'm starting to think maybe those dolls would be more worth collecting than just another Fashionista body for the ever-growing rebody pile. A sociologist might find those dolls quite interesting.

Doll talk: news, stuff I'd buy, frankendolly plans...

Some stuff I'd want to know if I didn't, about dolls I'd buy if I didn't already have them/weren't broke/saving for something else:

Cedar Wood just dropped to £9.18 on amazon.co.uk, in case you're in the EU. I'm tempted to get another one in and see if the mold seams are as bad on all of them, but I'm done with doll shopping for this month.

I hadn't realized that Grace and Nikki are the next generation of Style dolls - with articulated ankles! As expected the flat shoes are the same as the one in the cat themed accessory pack. Not a fan of the clothes on either, unless Grace's top is in two pieces.


Re articulated Nikki: I recently got an articulated Cali Girl and someone suggested frankendollying the legs onto an early Fashionista Nikki (the ones with hinged knees and legs held on with elastic) to get an even better articulated "bigfoot" doll. So that's what I'm on the lookout for now when I go thrifting - ironic, since I never liked the old style knees and may have passed on one or two in the past... Anyway, last week I found a hybrid body I've never seen before: torso joint, new pivotal knees AND rubber band hip joints. I thought the knees were changed before the hip joints? Although from what I understand, Mattel have always been in the habit of throwing dolls together from whatever parts are laying around. Finding unexpected combinations shouldn't be a surprise - plus you get to feel like an archaeologist once in a while! Of course this one had to be a Barbie and too pale for cali girl/Nikki, but those legs might come in handy sooner or later.

Articulated Sarah Love and other thrift store finds

This week was a good week in thrifting. I found some pretty cool stuff today, but I need to clean it and take some photos first. Meanwhile, here's some stuff I found the other day that's not too shabby either:

Chairs! Or a tiki bar stool and an 80s rocking chair, I guess. Nothing special, I just thought they were cute. Also you can never have too many chairs. 

I didn't really need another Betty Teen, but this one had articulation! The doll crate was a mess with headless bodies everywhere (why is this hobby so scary sometimes?) so at first I didn't realize this was a Betty. The body had some random head on and I was just going to buy it to rebody one of my Simba Disney princesses (the photo doesn't really show it, but she's quite pale). Anyway, the stamps on the back and head match so I'm pretty sure this is her body, even though the colors don't quite match. Her hair is so-so, but you can hide the frizz among the curls, and the bangs look pretty good. Like I said, she was supposed to be a body donor, but it's starting to feel like this body is already taken... So I guess she'll stick around for now. 

head: (C) TONG, back: M&C CHINA 

Weird white stuff on neck knob. At first I thought it was glue, but it seems more likely it's some kind of chemical reaction to the head. 

She came in this amazing Sindy sweater with a happy palette and paintbrush print. I guess that means she's claiming the Sindy drawing desk? 

 

I also bought a completely useless clone doll with broken legs just to get this dress. It may have belonged to a bigger doll originally - it's a bit large even for regular Barbie-sized dolls - but Aya wears it best, I think. 

All pretty good stuff, but the best thing was this: 

Sarah Love, little sister/Skipper equivalent of Steffi Love. I've never seen these dolls here but I knew they exist, or at least used to - this looks like an 80s doll. 

And guess what - she's articulated too! 

She has a smaller version of the older articulated Steffi body, which is also the same as Betty above has, and a bunch of other clone dolls too. Her left foot was nowhere to be found - I dug all the way to the bottom of the crate, but to no avail. It seems the feet are the same size as the bigger body's, so if I find a cheap clone doll it should be easy to fix her. That's the big upside with these bodies, actually: the range of movement may not be the best, but all the joint hinges have pins that are relatively easily to remove and so you can switch out a limb if you need to. For example, for my last Frankendolly project I switched the ugly feet on the modern articulated Steffi Love with a better-looking pair from a clone body I had laying around. 

ETA 24 Oct: I checked the articulated Steffi bodies, and their feet are actually bigger than Sarah's. It seems it's just the Betty/Gloria body that has extra small feet - in fact, they're even slightly narrower than Sarah's. So, good to know when looking for a donor.

Size comparison. L-R: Arklu Lottie, Sarah Love, old Skipper, Volks mini.  

The Only Hearts Club soccer outfit is a bit big, but the ball is just perfect! 

Post #101: mostly thrift store finds

Ah yes, the difficult 101st post.

I'm quickly running out of disk space, so I've started uploading my doll pics to Flickr instead. The downside is that after tagging and organizing them (and writing comments explaining why there are 15 photos of a doll's elbow), I'm no longer in the mood for writing a proper blog post about them as well. :( But on the upside, I'm not dead at least. 

Anyway, here's what I've been up to lately, dollwise:

• Upgraded/finished the Steffi Love hybrid!

Since mine was an incomplete thrift store doll I bought a new one to get the baby and the detachable outer belly, plus some clothes that fit. She can hold the baby too! 

• Found two Disney Store dolls at my local thrift store! 

Pretty unexpected, since I'm fairly certain we don't even have Disney Stores here (I guess I'm not the only one who knows about online shopping). 

Their face sculpts are pretty bad imo, I only got them for the articulation. Merida is fully jointed! Rapunzel's click-knee legs might be a case for Dr. Frankendolly. 

Rapunzel's hair is the worst mess I've ever seen, but it might be salvageable for rerooting. Maybe. To be honest I'm still working up the courage to deal with it.

• Stripped Mattel Rapunzel's head!

She was my test subject for The Talcum Powder Temporary Cure for Greasy Hair, but then I decided I couldn't be bothered (note to self: don't test these things on the doll with the MOST hair to comb through). Since her screening was so wonky I decided to just get rid of everything at once. 

This mold is a lot better than the Disney Store one, but she looks a bit creepy without eyes.

I wanted to make sure all the glue was definitely gone, so I scrubbed the inside of the head with sugar AND steel wool. Hard to tell if it made any difference, but at least it probably didn't hurt. The glue-soaked Nikki I rerooted last time had a pretty sticky scalp even after I washed it, so to be on the safe side I gave rapunzel's scalp a sugar scrub too. I don't know if it was sticky before, but at least it isn't now!

L-R: Raquelle, Rapunzel on Simba super model, Liv Katie, Disney Store Merida (from above)

This is one head I'd really like to have on a shorter body (the original was ~25cm), but she's too pink for Simba's Super Models and not pale enough for Obitsu. For full-sized bodies someone suggested Raquelle/Midge, and it looks like Liv Katie might be an acceptable match too.

• New doll: Mattel Belle! 

Probably my favorite thrift store find in a while. Belle from Beauty and the Beast, by Mattel. Not exactly sure which version, but she came in an original dress (stained and missing the apron). As you can see she was also wearing a pair of boots that looked like they belonged in a sci-fi anime rather than medieval France, but at least the colors matched.

(Fun fact: that price tag on her dress has three stickers on top of each other with three different prices. Lately I've come to the conclusion that thrift store pricing is completely random and mostly up to the individual employee, and this only confirms my suspicions. And no, the last price wasn't the lowest. :( )

Her hair was pretty frizzy, but luckily all it needed was a boil perm (it looks like kanekalon, so I'll have to be careful if I do it again). The bangs were a bit trickier - the hot water removed the frizz, but also all the volume, and I had no idea what to do with them. Finally I tried combing them flat to one side, and that turned out a lot better than I could have hoped for.

Then I put her on a Fashionista body and gave her all of Style Teresa's stuff (did I mention she's my favorite?).

I also seem to recall renaming her, but I've forgotten what. Nina? I should write this stuff down.