Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Happy New Year!

Be brave, be bold, be passionate.  

Wishing you health and happiness for 2015!


Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Alazne Barbie

I recently got an Alazne Barbie from barbiecollector.com, when there was a discount, on top of her already reduced price,  plus free shipping.  Of course, I got her with the intention of unboxing and undressing her. 

She was so nicely boxed, I almost felt guilty taking her out.

 While looking for a way to remove her headpiece, I noticed a clear liquid at the top of her right ear.

 It was also coming out of the back of her head.
Getting off her headpiece was difficult (I found out later that there is a peg in the headpiece that fits into a hole at the top of her head).   It required that I firmly hold her head, while twisting and pulling the headpiece in the opposite direction.  Because I had to squeeze her head, more liquid leaked out.
I had a closer look at her head and noticed that it was actually in two pieces. 
The dark area, with the hole at the top, was a separate piece and the liquid oozed from the seam where the two pieces met.

I also had to deal with the tape that was used to hold the dress in place.


I rubbed off what I could with my fingers, then applied talcum powder and rubbed some more.

After cleaning her up, I redressed her in one of my handmade tube dresses.  She is such a beauty, even without hair. 
But, I wondered how she would look with hair, so I had a little fun trying on some of my Kemper wigs.
  size: 3 / 4
 size: 3 / 4

 This silver one looks nice.
size: 3 / 4

 size: 4 / 5

I
 size: 4 / 5

 I think think I like this one the best.
size: 4 / 5

I also got Fan Bing Bing in the same order.  Because her packaging is so pretty, I think I'll wait a bit before I unbox her.

Sunday, December 28, 2014

Barbie Style Girls

During Amazon's Lightening Deals earlier this month, I got the Barbie Style Floral Jacket doll.


 Things I like about her:
  - Her skirt with the front faux zipper.
  - Her bracelets.

  - Her boots, faux slouch socks (they're more like gathered leg warmers).
  - The appearance of her handbag (it's molded plastic).
 
Things I'm not so fond of:
  - Her handbag is closed at the top, even though it's hollow.
  - Her biggish head and puffy face.
                 
      Here she is next to a Barbie from the '90s.  I prefer the smaller head.

_________________________________


A few weeks ago, I got the Barbie Style dolls with the ankle joints.

Things I like about them:
- The look of  the ankle joint and feet - so dainty.
 - Their cute shoes.

- The clutch that came with one of the blondes.
- The new face on the blondes (even though they look a little puffy to me).

Things I'm not so fond of:
- The loose weak-kneed feeling of their knee joints and lower legs.
- Teresa's distressed look.  I don't think the eyelashes help. 
          I decided that she would donate her body to Summer.  
          **As an aside, when I removed Summer's head from her original body, 
              I found glue and hair stuck to her neck post.
               Summer is enjoying her new articulated body.
Things I'm not so fond of (cont'd):
- Raquelle's hairstyle.

- Raquelle's black top's too-exposed armhole (otherwise it's a nice top).

- Teresa's high heeled boots, which are too tight and are really difficult
   to put on and take off.  This surely puts stress on her tiny feet and ankles.

- Their inability to sit with their knees together.  See an earlier Fashionistas body
   on the left and Summer on Teresa's body on the right below.

I wonder if we'll see more dolls, with ankle articulation, in the future.

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

A New Barbie Fashionistas Girl

When I saw this new set of Fashionistas on Amazon.com, I knew I wanted to add Summer to my collection and eventually change her to an articulated body.

I finally got her last week and she's even lovelier in person.

Her packaging was easy to open, as it was held closed with plastic tabs:

There were no wires, but these plastic tags (I think they're called Kimble Tags). I have always dreaded having to cut off the ones at the back of dolls'  heads, as I am scared of damaging the doll's hair.   The ones at the back of the box were not difficult to cut, though.

After carefully cutting off her head tag, here she is, out of her box,  and I didn't damage her  lovely hair.

I saw this line on her skirt and thought that the top was stitched incorrectly to the skirt.  It turned out that it was just the impression of the plastic tie that was across the doll's midsection that created a crease.

These are the shoes that she came with.  I don't really like their bulky appearance:


 Plus, her left shoe is slack and keeps falling off.

So, I switched to the shoes that came with the University Cheerleader dolls.  They are neater looking and a much better fit.



I was enjoying her so much that I almost forgot that she had a pair of sunglasses on her head; and, horror of horrors, it was secured with a tag!  It was secured very close to her head,  so there was the risk of damaging the lens of the sunglasses and her hair.

 Even after I had cut off the horizontal piece of the tag, the sunglasses still wouldn't budge and I couldn't see what was keeping it so secured to her head.  Me and my aging eyes.

After parting her hair bit by bit, I saw the clear plastic band looped around the nose of the sunglasses and around the doll's head.  Good grief, why didn't I see it before?


At last!  Or so I thought, as my relief was short-lived. I still couldn't get the sunglasses to disengage from her head.  Instead of being able to pull the sunglasses over her head and pull her hair through the loop of the band at the base of her neck, the band just wouldn't come out from under her hair. 

It was tangled in the hair at the back of her neck.  I wondered if I had inadvertently tangled it, but I didn't twist and turn the band or her head.

I turned her upside down to get a better look at what I was dealing with and found a mess of tangled hair.  I didn't want to pull at her hair and make it worse, so I cut the band.


The last row of hair plugs at the base of her neck had wavy, tangled, frizzy strands, unlike the straighter, smooth hair on the rest of her head.


There were also several strands of hair coming out of the base of her head at the back of her neck.  Eeeek!

I just don't know what to say.

 Neither does Summer.


Despite her issue, which she has successfully hidden, she has settled in with her new family, after being warmly welcomed by (self-proclaimed) Princess Stardoll Kayla (a Barbie Basics Model #5, collection 002 on a pivotal body) on the left and Lea (a 2012 Ballerina Barbie on a Liv body) on the right.
Sisters Three.