Yard Sale Haul (Sorting and Cleaning)

The Boy's neighbor had a yard sale.  His mom, urged to "get Jeanie up here", instead opted to just buy me an entire bin of assorted used dolls.  The hair is going to be a challenge, but otherwise they are in pretty good shape.

Here they are after the communal bath, standing around naked, as you do.  The Boy's mom stripped them for me and washed the clothes.  (Thanks!)  All I have to do now is sort them out, decide who is a keeper, find homes for the others, and assign roles to the keepers.

Two soft-body dolls, after a run through the washer and drying in a patch of sun.  Use of a commercial dryer might damage the hair, so we avoided that. I love the face on Purple Slippers.

Google wasn't a lot of help with the trio on the left.  Obviously they are Strawberry Shortcake characters, but I found little to no information on 12 inch dolls in that line.  The long-legged things on the right are Winx dolls.  Again, I don't remember this specific line.  All the Winx I ever saw were leggy, but not to this extreme.  All five of these dolls have the basic five points of articulation and click knees.  Winx faces are gorgeous but they are so... wispy? Well, they are meant to be fairies. 

UPDATE

The "Strawberry Shortcake" dolls are Holly Hobbie and the "Winx" are a line called Hi Glamm.  Thanks to Treesa for the correction!

A plethora of Wee Three Friends.  The bodies are dated 2000.  My only real recollection of them is being mad that they gave Stacie boobs.  The whole reason they introduced her was to fill a void left by the aging-up of Skipper!  Google tells me the friends are Whitney Hadley (kin to Midge, I assume) and Janet.  Most of these have the standard five points of articulation and click knees.  Some of them have jointed elbows. 

Bratz.  Like the Monster High dolls, I love the clothes and accesories but I'm not a fan of the dolls.  Giant noggins, tiny bodies...   Most of their clothing will fit Stacie and friends.  The clothes from the smaller ones will fit the toddlers. Five points of articulation and click knees on most of them.  I did spot a few jointed elbows.  I'm eyeing the boys as body donors for Kevin... he don't even have click knees.

Assorted others.  Two "Lovely Patsy" dolls, Monster High, Steffie Love, a Diva Star, and I think Farrah Fawcett.  She's a Mego from 1977.  I hope to find the Monster High boy's forearms, but no luck.  Others in the doll community have told me he's a good match for Kevin's skin tone.

Another assortment.  These look to be dollar store finds, mostly with click knees.  That little Ariel in the front was wearing a Snow White dress.  That gray-bearded fella is definitely moving to Barbieville.

Mattel Disney Princeses.  Jasmine, Aurora, Belle, Snow White, Rapunzel, and Anna.  Poor Anna is missing a foot. Click knees on most, if not, all of them.    

And the actual Barbies!  That gal in the back left, with the crazy hair, I cannot place.  I think she's one of The Rockers. I'll get a closeup of her face in a later post.  Kyra's identical twin (Secret Spells Kayla) in the back row, between the headless and the brunette with working elbows. 

That poor Ken on the end doesn't even have click knees. Mixed in with the Barbies are some My Scene and maybe a couple of celebrities.  At least one of them will end up being Cho's mommy.

Bits and bobs, as I call them.  Clothes that were missed during the inital stripping. The swimming pool does hold water but needs a bit of railing replaced.  

And the clothes.  There were several dresses that fit my bigger gals.  Only a handful of items were not usable - in part because I don't want kindergarteners in corset tops.  Next step is rescuing the hair and deciding who goes and who stays. 

Collector? Not me!

Despite the combative sound of that title, it's just a comparison.

I'm a player, myself, but I've seen many of my dolls for sale at prices that blow my mind.  My Kyra is "Secret Spells Kayla" and apparently she's pretty rare.  Of course, mine had been removed from the box and even rebodied, so her resale value is - well, not good.

Kyra and her second body donor

(Bye, click knees)

A while back, my world collapsed and among other things, finances were tight.  My sister was a seller on EBay and she sold a lot of things for me.  I knew I wouldn't make much from the ones my minions played with, but did have some still-in-box Collector Dolls.  What I discovered about my "investment" was disheartening.  Pretty much anything with "Collector" on the box sold for less than I'd originally paid!  (Granted, these were fairly recent productions and they weren't coming from a pet-free home.)  That was pretty much the end of my career as anything resembling a serious collector.

After I got through, I was given three dolls still in box. One was a knock-off collector edition.  The other two were Kelly and Tommy as The Flintstones.  The giver intended them to be investments, like the ones I'd had to sell.  I managed to keep them in box for a good while, watching the value guides I had access to.  The knock-off wasn't even listed in most of them, and when she was - I could have had a fast food lunch.  The Flintstones' value was better, and they took up a lot less shelf space.  I decided to keep them in the box (despite their pleas for freedom) and free the knock-off.  She wasn't a keeper but I'm pretty sure I still have her dress and shoes!

Fred and Wilma continued to plea for freedom.  And they were just so darn cute.  The only ones bringing in any sort of value were the complete set of four - I didn't have the Rubbles - still in intact boxes from smoking- and pet-free homes.  My boxes were pretty beat up and I lived with three cats.

I moved.  Fred and Wilma lived in their boxes, on a corner of my desk.  Every day I debated and finally I gave in.  Wilma's hair was uneven when the updo came down.  After a trim and even a couple boil rinses, she still looks like a wild child!  I guess it's rooted weird.

Fred in the front, green shirt

Wilma in the back, patchwork dress

Of the things I had to sell, the items I miss the most are my VW Minibuses.  I want them back, dang it.  😢  I love me some vintage VWs.  I love me some doll cars that hold more than two. Best of both worlds!  Also, one of them was my favorite color - purple!

Anyway...  I hold no ill will towards the collectors.  I have simply embraced that I ain't one of them.  Unless it's some discontinued (scandalous) play line doll I stumble across, anyone who crosses my threshold will be unboxed so they can play!

Naming the Nameless

Many of my dolls come with names, but sometimes they don't or there's already someone with that name in Barbieville.  None of them are named "Barbie". 

Samantha was Barbie and she came with two nameless puppies.  She was a gift, so I let the giver name her.  But not the pups - she was suggesting things like "poophead"!  One is light gray (almost white) and the other is darker gray.  Based on that, I call them Ash and Soot.

Kevin, Nikki, and Courtney were given the names of previous friends of Skipper with which they share traits.  I didn't have a "previous" name for Claudia so I named her after my favorite character from The Babysitter's Club books.  (You know, because the Skipper friends are Babysitters Inc)

Tanner was a duplicate Hunger Games Finnick.  He's named after the main character of Damnation Alley, keeping with that whole dystopian theme.   When I brought Dean home and asked my handy minion for a suggestion, the minion said he looked like a "Dingus".  I decided it was kinda mean to call the poor guy Dingus and shortened it to Dean.

Some of them just get their names altered just slightly.  High School Musical's Sharpay became Charmaine.  Because... Sharpay?!  Kyra was originally Secret Spells Kayla.  Zenobia was Zia. Rose-Grace was simply Grace, but she was wearing roses and I couldn't decide which name I liked more.  Candy was Candy Glam Theresa.

Sometimes it's about their physical features.  I mentioned in a previous post that my Flavas Tre ended up being Frodo because he was short and had big Elijah Wood eyes. Violet has a purple streak in her hair.  Midna (who was originally Fairytopia Sunburst) has red/orange hair like the character from Twilight Princess.  Rachel - one of my sisters suggested that name and it suited her face.

One of the horses is a thrift store find.  Soft gray, almost silver, with a lighter mane and tail.  I was pondering color-based names and that handy minion suggested Silver Stream.  If you read Warrior Cats, you might recognize the name!

Due to circumstances beyond my control, there are no photos this time.