Dollieh Sanctuary

My big box of dollies has arrived. Shipped in a greasy penzoil box... I'm still not complaining, as I have a feeling I got them as cheap as I did because someone just wanted rid of them and was only barely willing to take them to the post office instead of chuck em in the trash. (And there were only smudges on one or two that wiped right off...)

So, here's the haul, with better pictures and a few remaining questions. (Also, if my tenses get funny, it's cause I'm typing this up while I sort and take pics, with plans to cut, paste, and post when done. And also because the dolls weren't the only thing to arrive and Aunt Flo makes my brain funny.)

Easy stuff out of the way first.

One older twist-waist barbie, one of the newer bellybutton types, and a Mary-Kate-or-Ashley character doll. Also two knockoffs. The darker haired one is stamped as a 'Family Dollar Lovely Patsy'. The blond knockoff with the huge eyes just says 'Chic' and 'made in china'. As for Mary-Kate-or-Ashley, while proportions are just slightly different it looks like she can share clothes with my old-style Skipper.


Next, there's the Evil Overlord's Mermaid Fantasy Christie. We learned, sadly, that the reason she was wearing an ugly dress in that listing was probably to cover damage to her tail.

Luckily, I had a spare Fashionista Body in my 'body parts bin' that was a color match... so I did a quick head swap onto a spare Fashionista body I had laying around that was luckily the right skin tone, and the mermaid is now 'beached' until I can turn up some way to possibly repair her tail.


Moving on: Two barbie princesses identified as an unknown Cinderella and unknown Rapunzel.

Cindy has jointed knees and some thing on her waist that looks broken. No clue what's going on there. Her body is stamped 2010 on the butt. I don't think she's as cute as Rapunzel, mostly because she seems to have this tense 'gritted teeth' grin... (Well, no one claimed glass slippers were comfortable...)

Also there is this rubber band around her arms - I don't know if it's a bit of leftover packaging or what it's for. Anyone else know? I'd like to just snip it off if it's not important somehow.

Someone has, sadly, apparently given Rapunzel a haircut. (I am having slight temptations, if I keep her, of someday buying a human kanekalon hair extention for the sole purpose of rooting her with hair twice her body length... but it would be a hassle to deal with) Otherwise she is beautiful, even tho she has hard plastic legs and a molded on bathing suit. I'm guessing she's some kind of water play version? Her body is stamped 2012 Mattel. There's a good chance the Evil Overlord will end up with both princesses, even tho I think Rapunzel especially is cute. If all of the Princess and their variations have different body sculpts, it just wouldn't be that fun for me to sew for them... I like making patterns I know might also fit other dolls.

Then there's this girl.

Her body is just a basic 1999 bellybutton Barbie, but the oddity here is her head. She has a tiny head for a barbie.

Not just tiny for bellybutton era, but even tinier than the twist-waist girl's head, as shown in the picture. She also has rather oddly colored eyes and stripy hair. I don't know what she's supposed to be (I'm still sure she's pretty much just a bellybutton barbie, maybe from just before they decided to make em all bobbleheaded), but I do like the tinier head... She may just win the Bellybutton spot on my 'unnamed models' shelf. (note: I do think I have another Barbie head or two laying around that seemed smaller than normal, but this girl's seems even a smidge tinier than that!)

Fairy... maybeia?

Someone said this one might be a Fairytopia doll, but most of the ones that come up when I google have Barbie proportions and are covered in glitter, painted on clothes, or skin and hair in odd colors. This girl is nude, has fairly normal (for a fashion doll) skin, pretty auburn hair, and while there's glitter it's fairly understated.

She also has much tinier proportions than a Barbie, especially in the torso. Her back is tramp-stamped 2007 Mattel Inc Indonesia, followed by a serial number of 1118. She also has one of those little rubber bands around her neck and arms that I'd like to know if it's safe to remove.

Hobbitses! And one that isn't.

I have two hobbit girls! I didn't have any before, and I do like shorter barbies I do. One has 'normal' Barbie high-heel feet, the other has bigger hobbit feet. And then I have an oddity... see the redhead on the end? She has a normal 1999 bellybutton body, height an all... but hobbit feet. I am confused... Also, the hobbit with hobbit feet has something strange wrong with her hair. The entire top half of her head feels hard as a rock, and her hair just feels slightly wrong. I'm not sure what's going on there. but it seems to be deforming her face slightly.

Also the redhead has this odd spot on one leg that almost looks like a chemical burn. Could it be from the box they were shipped in, maybe? Something's reacted with the vinyl there...

Oh, and the poseable Ken I was so excited about?

His knee joints are a bit loose... but he's already over on my 'in progress chara shelf', making friends with an obitsu I'm waiting to get hair for...

The one you think is a fairy is actually a doll from the movie Barbie and the Diamond Castle. She's one of three Muse dolls called Phedra. http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/3427/img0855oc.jpg You might end up hating her hair before you're done. I'm not sure what they did with these dolls but the hair tends to feel greasey no matter what you do to it.

I think, but don't quote me, that the strange one with the belly button-hobbit feet is a Beach Party Summer doll. http://www.joylot.com/afullsize_thumbs/ss/609188175.jpg They were a short lived line of dolls. You could not get shoes for them because they never had them. None of the hobbit feet dolls did.

Nice!!! Great set of dolls there!! Good for you!!!

As for the Princesses---the first you list is a Mattel Cinderella and those elastics around their arms are usually just there to keep a necklace in place. I'm having to snip those off on almost every Princess doll who has a necklace so it's perfectly safe to remove! :laughs:

Anyway, good luck and can't wait to see what you do with your gang!!! ^^

The second Hobbit footed one is from the Barbie Beach Glam series, also short lived. I'm not sure of her name, though. I think this sculpt was one of two Barbie Barbie from the line. She is wearing a suit very much like the Nikki of the line, though Nikki's is yellow and pink not blue. I can't find a picture of this one but here is one of Nikki from it. http://www.barbievalues.com/barbieimage ... 85_600.jpg

The mermaid one is from a line called Mermaid Fantasy. Her name is Christie. Sadly the tails, though pretty in the box, tended to tear along that same point on all of the dolls in this line. They were poorly designed with the soft rubbery tail going too high in the front for them to set. When you tried to make them they tore. You're best, and really only option to fix it is to cut it down to allow for more motion. Here's a pic. http://mybarbiedoll.files.wordpress.com ... .jpg?w=600 http://shop.fashiondoll.nl//images/03436.JPG

Also, be careful of handling the tail. There is a section along the hips that if you push on it the knee joint moves back and forth. Though a cool design idea the flopping motion tends to wear on the fin joint causing the rubber there to split and crack over time. It also splits and tears along the knees as well. I had one of these and thought it would be cool at some point to strip her of the rubber and see what a cloth tail would look like.

Faydreams wrote:The one you think is a fairy is actually a doll from the movie Barbie and the Diamond Castle.

Faydreams wrote:You might end up hating her hair before you're done. I'm not sure what they did with these dolls but the hair tends to fell greasey no matter what you do to it.

Ooo! ThanksI It was driving me half-nuts trying to figure out what the deal was with her. Hmm, so far her hair actually seems kind of dry rather than greasy, but I'm just about to give it a wash, condition, and combing... so I'll see then. Maybe I've gotten lucky and almost all of the whatever-it-is has worn off this one. So far all I've noticed is that the front part of her hair that I had to take down for cleaning has a kind of hard gluey feel... similar to what I noticed with that one poor hobbit (who is now sporting a shoulder-length layered bob because I quickly tired of trying to comb it. It broke comb tines.)

... Ok, I won't quote you, but I do think you're right about the Summer.

SetsunaKou wrote:those elastics around their arms are usually just there to keep a necklace in place. I'm having to snip those off on almost every Princess doll who has a necklace so it's perfectly safe to remove!

Thanks! I was pretty sure it was just packaging remnants, but with some of the things I've seen on dolls... XD Glad to know it won't cause her arms to fall off!

Faydreams wrote:The second Hobbit footed one is from the Barbie Beach Glam series, also short lived. I'm not sure of her name, though.

Little Miss Glue-head is what I've been temporarily calling her. XD But I doubt that would have been on a box...

Faydreams wrote:Sadly the tails, though pretty in the box, tended to tear along that same point on all of the dolls in this line. They were poorly designed with the soft rubbery tail going too high in the front for them to set.

Somehow, I'm not surprised. She was one of the few I'd managed to completely ID, and just sitting and examining the damage for repair ideas is enough to reveal that that would be a very common problem. I've actually considered work from ways to glue/repair the covering to even just cutting off the rubbery stuff and completely replacing it with a cloth cover made to look like a scaled fin. Still pondering that...

addendum: You are definitely right about the Barbie Beach Summer. Her original bikini was in the box. XD

As a note on the chemical burn, It looks a lot like something I've had on a couple dolls that came right out of the box new like that.
I think it's a factory defect from inferior or contaminated plastic, as this seems to happen on all body parts made of the same plastic type. I've even had one doll start to peel, so keep an eye on it and try not to mess with it too much if it looks like it's peeling.

Interesting. I've only seen it on one other doll before, also on the leg of a secondhand Barbie, so you could very well be right about a defective vinyl batch. I'll make sure to keep an eye on it in case it does anything interesting, like try to spread. For now, the affected area seems fairly stable.