Question On Liv Doll Skintones

[yarwel]

There are some jointed barbies from the 90's that are pretty good too. They have flat feet but no ankle joints, though. Also no wrists, but they do have a very nice waist joint, and knee and elbow joints. I personally like the flat feet because the dolls are able to stand unassisted(unless their knees are loose) and it's easier to make shoes that fit. The body type was used for a lot of different dolls, including various gymnasts[the 1996 olympics dolls(more than one skin tone)] and the earliest Mulan dolls. There is also a ballerina variation of the body that has jointed ankles, molded-on shoes and different fore-arms.
The disney store versions of the princess dolls are pretty good too, I hear. The newer ones are fully jointed. Occasionally the disney store's web shop has them on sale; I've seen them as low as eight bucks.
Hope this helps.

[WhiteDove01s]

There are some jointed barbies from the 90's that are pretty good too. They have flat feet but no ankle joints, though. Also no wrists, but they do have a very nice waist joint, and knee and elbow joints. I personally like the flat feet because the dolls are able to stand unassisted(unless their knees are loose) and it's easier to make shoes that fit. The body type was used for a lot of different dolls, including various gymnasts[the 1996 olympics dolls(more than one skin tone)] and the earliest Mulan dolls. There is also a ballerina variation of the body that has jointed ankles, molded-on shoes and different fore-arms.
The disney store versions of the princess dolls are pretty good too, I hear. The newer ones are fully jointed. Occasionally the disney store's web shop has them on sale; I've seen them as low as eight bucks.
Hope this helps.

I'm plotting shoes out of polymer clay to hide both pointy barbie feet and obitsu teeny-squishedflat feet. And I plan to order a bag of teeny magnets off Amazon to put in the bottoms of the shoes. Soon, all my dolls can have magnet feet! And only when I want them to, making it safer to have them around my computer.

That does help a lot. I'd heard of earlier gymnastics barbies that were jointed, but not just how well and what year to try looking for. I'll have to search for the Disney Store site. The heads are cartoony for what I have in mind, from what I've seen on Amazon, but more bodies is a good thing! I can always find heads I like better. About what year did they start being fully jointed? Just this one? And only the Disney Store ones, so I can't trust the ones on Amazon to have joints, yes?

Speaking of Barbies, I've found it harder to identify the newer bodies than the older ones. There are lots of sites on IDing 'vintage' barbies, but the back room pile are mostly 80's and 90's. I'm trying to ID the ones I use anyway, for my records. Sheer luck meant I managed just a few minutes ago to ID Angela's head as formerly being part of a California Dreaming Midge (there were two in the pile, I used the one with the damaged faceup since I was going to remove it). I've still had no luck IDing Denia's former body, but maybe it's related somehow to the gymnast ones you mentioned. The date on the back of the body is 1995 and says Mattel Inc and China. The head sculpt is also dated 1995 (and yes, I know neither date means the doll came out in 1995, but at least means she couldn't have come out earlier than that. The wrists aren't poseable, but the elbows have a hinge joint with a metal pin in them. The knees just have the barbie internal click joint. It has a twist-waist, so pre-bellybutton era. The head had green-blue eyes and really light blond hair with a brown streak in it. No bangs. Sound familiar?

[DollyKim]

Doctor Dominique Forman http://dolfielittles.com/hyb/110.jpg

With skin tones I never compare until I have them in hand. As for Barbies I feel lucky to get the name of a head mold right. For my website I pretty much stick to "belly body" or "pivotal" or what ever the common term is, forget what year it came out. And a few years back I changed those I want to keep around to 100 poses bodies so they can pose but wear a life time of clothes I've accumulated. I've only kept one of each body type for the sake of my website but I couldn't tell you when or where they came from.

I'd ned to see a picture of the pin elbow girl, especially her feet, to get an idea. Around the turn of the century the Generation Girls came out with those arms and legs but weird feet that weren't quite flat or high heel.

[WhiteDove01s]

Doctor Dominique Forman http://dolfielittles.com/hyb/110.jpg

That is a really good scale match! Bratz are definitely back on the wishlist now... I have a few Skipper heads around.

With skin tones I never compare until I have them in hand.

I'm starting to realize a lot of things like that where I really just have to see, and not as images on the computer. Like the Volks body I got recently I thought would be right for one chara/head... and ended up being perfect for a completely different one!

I'd ned to see a picture of the pin elbow girl, especially her feet, to get an idea. Around the turn of the century the Generation Girls came out with those arms and legs but weird feet that weren't quite flat or high heel.

She does have feet like that! I thought she'd been left out in the sun or something and they'd partly flattened out. One foot has a little chewing on it and one finger was missing, so not an unreasonable guess - just dead wrong. XD

And that was enough for me to Google search and narrow her down to probably a Generation Girl Tori. The stripe seems to be in the right spot, tho so far I've seen them with pink and blue and dark blond but not dark brown. XD

[DollyKim]

My Tori is mostly blonde with light blonde on the top of her head.

[WhiteDove01s]

Denia's head has a narrow stripe like this Tori, except in brown. And it's a little more over to one side. I guess she could have been a Barbie not a Tori, but at least I'm fairly sure she's from that line now. (Not that I might not be wrong, but she DID have those odd in-between feet)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/i_doll_you/3000395960/

And I can't be certain, as most of her factory makeup is now gone, but she doesn't have the little stripes in the color of the eyes. Sadly, the only 'before' image I really have is from my Work In Progress video on altering her. Here's my attempt at a few screencaps from it.


That's the best I could get at an unaltered picture. I should have kept better records. These two are after I'd removed some of the factory faceup (with the rotary tool), and had pencil marks where I wanted to work, but the first shows the stripe and the second shows her eye color where I left most of the iris and pupil to use as guidelines when I paint her face - I'm a little concerned about my ability to get pupils just right. XD



And here's how she currently looks, a square-jawed little old lady.


I still need to do a little sanding and smoothing, especially with the acrylic caulk on her jaw. I'll have to completely paint the head as the start of the faceup, so I'm not too worried about the body I get for her matching it - it's color isn't relevant. Instead, I'm trying to match the skintone the chara needs and will match the head to that when I mix the paint for it. She needs to be roughly a 'coffee with two creamers' shade. Hence why I thought Daniella or Alexis would work (depending on the tone of the Alexis). And I suspect older Alexis (the lighter version) will be the one I need. 'Toffee' color sounds about right.

[lemondolls]

Your Denia looks like a Teen Skipper, she has the same body as Generation Girl Tori. (Generation Girl Barbie has a bigger bustier body.) You can see photos and read more about Teen Skipper here:

http://www.fashionave.info/teenskipper/

from that site:

Teen Skipper debuted in 1997 with both head and body marked © 1995. The same head mold was used on Barbie's friend Becky (1997-1999) and the African-American version of Happy Family Midge (2002-2004). Other dolls that have used the Teen Skipper body include Generation Girls Tori, Chelsie, and Mari (1999-2001), Mystery Squad Kenzie (2002), and Princess of Japan (2003).

[WhiteDove01s]

Your Denia looks like a Teen Skipper, she has the same body as Generation Girl Tori.

As it turns out, you're right! Thank you so much! Based on what's left of her eyes (so I'd have faceup guidelines to get the pupils right), I'm pretty sure I've got her head ID'd now as Cool Sitter Teen Skipper. Someone on Flicker had a closeup of the face and I went over mine with a magnifying glass. Same eyes, down to the little yellow bit in the green. And the same brown hair stripe shows in other pics.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/paranoya86/3412273726/

I would have never thought of looking at Skipper dolls... I'm still so used to her looking much younger. Which is a good sign that I haven't played with Barbies in over a decade. XD It used to be one of my cousins who was into them, while I alternated between just having a few to sew clothes for and playing with Transformers. I actually liked my Spectra dolls (no relation to the Monster High girl) better than her Barbies, and pretended they were 'bots. Much more fun, poseable, and shiny. And stuff I sewed for them still fit my cousin's Barbies, so it was all good. I'd hoped to find them in the back room, but they're still missing.

Denia's still very Work-In-Progress, but my little old lady now has her head stuck on a lighter-toned Alexis/Liv body. And, yes, I do plan on posting pics when she's all done. Dropper bottles arrived today for thinning and mixing my paints, and my magnifying visor should be here soon...

[WhiteDove01s]

Sorry for doublepost, but Cool Sitter has too much brown in the hair in another pic. She's definitely a Teen Skipper tho! And once I get a view of enough good face shots to match the hair and eyes exactly... well, then I'll know just which one. XD

Edit: Hey, I learned how to use the edit button instead of doubleposting! Yay!

And it must have been just the lighting in that image. All other images of Cool Sitter Skipper are a match. And given the prices on some of them, I almost feel guilty about OOAKing her... until I remember she had fingers broken off and a chewed foot. None of the Back Room stuff is really in collector condition. XD

[DollyKim]

Don't worry about OOAKing a common doll, it's yours and Mattel made thousands upon thousands of them. Keeping a doll perfect in its box is for the anal, just because one person gets a zillion bucks it doesn't mean everyone else will. You've taken something every day and made it interesting and unique.