Falling In Love With Your Old Dolls...

[magkelly]

We all love the new dollie on the block, but I have a habit of re-falling for dolls that I've had for a long while and put away for a bit when I take them out again. I go to look at them sometimes with the idea of selling them and I just can't do it. I'm admittedly a total dollie miser. I hardly ever give one away or sell them. You? I'll show you all this weeks dollie love in just a bit. I'm waiting on a phone call but after that I am going to redress this particular doll and show her off here. She's an old doll for me. One of the first 16" fashion dolls I ever owned and she has one of the most beautiful face paints ever, IMHO. She's aged a little since I bought her in like 2002. Her head skin has darkened a tiny bit and gone just a bit olive toned. Her body is a bit lighter than her head now, but she still looks good and she's not a doll that most doll collector's of the type know very well so you may not even recognize her. I have like 5 of her various incarnations, but this is the only one I bought. The rest were gifts. She was the one that got me started collecting her though and I still think she's got to be one of the most lovely fashion dolls ever.

This is Basic Eve. You can see the redhead on this page. I decided I'm going to wait to dress her. I want to make her a new dress before I show her off online. I want to pull her sisters out of their box and take pics of them with her, show you the whole crew with the new one when she arrives. It's been a while since my Wakeen dolls got any love or time out. I think I am going to find them a shelf and dress them all up, do a real photo session of them all with the photo lights. There's so little by way of Eve presence online. I have a doll blog I never seem to write on. I may just revive it with that photo session. Eve deserves a lot more attention than she's been getting lately. She's a beautiful doll, face and body. Her arms are not articulated but she's got a great shape and a wonderful face paint. She's really curvy compared to most 16" dolls, a very sexy doll.

http://lareba.com/Eve_Dolls.htm

I have Gold Expressions Eve, Midnight Magic Eve, Premiere Eve, Basic Eve RH and now the Garden Party Eve or a Cassie. I'm not sure which. It's rather hard to tell from the auction pic. I'll have to compare her with the pics of Cassie and Eve on here later. Likely she's an Eve. Cassie was very limited and the early Eve's looked a lot like her anyway. It can be hard to tell which is which sometimes. Basic Eve with the long hair is more sophisticated. Her makeup is less country blue and more city oriented. I tend to like the later Eve's better for that reason. MM is a nice looking doll too. Dark curly hair really suits Eve. I'll probably wig the new one to something more thrilling than mouse brown with bangs. Most early Eve dolls you could. They were wigged to begin with. Later ones were usually rooted. The RH isn't quite as bright haired as the one in these pics. Mine is more a light copper. I don't think that's faded over time so it could be they had color variances or went with lighter red hair after the convention demos maybe?

I'm glad I started collecting her back then actually rather than now. She's gotten a bit scarce the last few years in certain incarnations. Prices have gone up and I do think people are starting to catch onto her wardrobe as being suitable for other 16" dolls. I used to be able to pick up her own clothes a lot cheaper than I can now. I can still get the early blond Eve for under $70, her original price, but those later Basics are often up to $100 plus now. I'm really glad I got the RH when I did. She's quite hard to find now and commands a nice price. I love mine. It's an absolute keep her doll. I'd never sell her, MM or Reflections Eve. I like the others too, but not nearly as much. I've thought about selling them from time to time, but never actually gone there. That's my holy trio of Eve dolls though. They're just not for sale...

[richila]

She is pretty. I had never seen Eve before and her clothes are great. I am glad my Mei, Nefertari, didn't see them.

[Gift_in_Edge]

I really like her look, very classy.

[EAB]

How did you know?
I was browsing on Flickr, looking at something not bjd related, and saw that someone had spiffed up a little doll like the ones from my childhood. I still have them, and I started looking at my old dolls (in my case, we're talking about the 1950s), and I've discovered how beautiful they are all over again. I looked at my antique and antique repro dolls, too, and they are lovely.
I guess I've been blinded by bjd beauty for several years, so I never look at anything else, but I'm glad I did. I want to bring them out and play with them, spruce them up and enjoy them.
Because this is Dollieh Sanctuary and no dollieh is left behind, I may photograph them and post them in a bit.
Right now, I am buried in house cleaning, as I stupidly decided to clean out ALL my closets and ALL my drawers. If I keep working steadily, I might be done by Christmas.

[magkelly]

I didn't. That's just my own thoughts talking. Guess we were on the same page? I have so many dolls that I have a hard time displaying them all in my current space. I pack them away and bring them out. Some dolls I don't see for a year. That was the case with Eve. I had her packed away for lack of space. I saw that auction though and I thought about her and realized I missed her and I started rotating some dolls, putting some of the Barbies away so I could display my bigger dolls.

The Fashion Fever and later the Barbie Basics have had me really intensely collecting Barbie again now for several years. I'm a big playline collector, always have been. 90% of my Barbies are under $25 dolls, $5 bargain dolls, or $1 thrift dolls. I think I have 5 that retail cost more a little more than that. (Those $45 favorite Barbie by era ones and even then they didn't cost me $45. I bought them all on sale at half off except for Ken who was a gift.) I dearly love them but you know they can spend some time boxed for a while. It's the big dolls turn to shine again. I miss them and I'm starting to sew for them again so I really need more of them out.

16-20" fashion dolls they are my BJD's actually. It's the same larger size but not with the large price tag. Most BJD's are way beyond my normal range for any doll. I want one but every time I go to look I get sticker shock and don't. I'm contemplating a used Delilah Noir actually because she's actually the size I like and she's in a price range I can afford used. I like her face too. But $500 BJD's? In my dreams maybe. Even if I get her she's not going to have a lot of BJD company because I'm not into giving up my Tonners and such to own one.

I'm a doll pack rat and I'm the first to admit that. I took a count of my big dolls in 2006 and I think I came up with 55 including my Jaks Elle dolls which are more like big Barbie dolls than Tonner's. That was about 30 or 40 big dolls ago though so that figure is almost twice that now probably. Maybe not quite that many I've lost about 10 to age and damage actually. Barbies and other 9-12" dolls? I have 400 easy plus all kinds of clothes. Big girls? I have at least 60 official outfits of various kinds. That sounds like a lot and it is, but it actually doesn't represent a lot of cash outlay for me. I've got the people in my life trained. They buy me dolls for every major thing. I trade locally. I do search work for vendors. I ID things, help them sell at the flea market sometimes and usually I get paid in dolls. 20% of my collection I've bought. The rest? Barter usually or gifts.

Birthday, Christmas, et all. I don't get clothes like other people do. I get TRU, Amazon, and lately Tonner gift cards and even when I do shop I shop used or I shop on clearance. 99% of the time I'm buying deeply discounted dolls. I live for the Tonner sales where the 16" dolls are $35. For Goodwill finds. I just don't buy dolls at $200 no matter how much I sigh over them. The most I've personally ever spent for a "16 doll is $75 I think and usually they were a lot less than that. My parents have bought me few 16" dolls at retail but usually they just hand me a $100 gift certificate for a favorite store and I wait it out until I can buy 2-3 dolls for the price of one basic doll on clearance or on auction. All my Tonner boys except one I paid $25-50. All of them were listed at $150 or above originally. I'm a very patient, savvy and ruthless shopper. Have to be to afford my doll habit, laugh.

If I didn't have roommates I'd have room. But I do, necessity demands that right now, so I have to rotate them all and live with doing that. I do have shelves. I probably have 60 Barbies out and 30 of the big dolls that are all out all the time. But I really need more shelves and my extra bedrooms back to be able to display all my toys. Depending upon how the photography thing goes I may just rent out this place to them and get another one to live in someday. Use one for my photo studio and park some of my dolls there too. Mobile homes are cheap around here, lots cheaper than studio space actually...

[Lamia of the Dark]

...... >_> I almost got rid of Clover after her personality changed, and I decided that I liked Obitsus better. <_< I'm glad that I didn't as she is one of my oldest (not counting my anime collection) and most beloved (again, not counting my anime collection) dolls.

[EAB]

Gasp! I'm so glad you didn't get rid of Clover.

[Lamia of the Dark]

Gasp! I'm so glad you didn't get rid of Clover.

So am I, lol.

I can't imagine my dollieh family without her anymore!