I got a little package in the mail today. The note inside was signed by "The Main Giant" of Imagineville.
I often muse on how individuals can diverge in their toy play. I'm a doll gal, myself, so I'll be saying "doll" a lot, but this does cover the broader toy category. I've often defended Barbie by telling people Ruth Handler insisted the doll is about possibilities, and my online "Barbie group" proves it!
I'm not one to join every group that comes down the pike, so I was wary when invited to join Toy StorieS on Facebook. The second word in the name was what got me interested. The same friend had invited me to other doll groups, but I'm neither a collector nor a displayer. My dolls are for play! Toy StorieS is a play group and WOW can we take the same doll in different directions.
This guy is a good example. He is the Albus Dumbledore doll from Mattel's Harry Potter set. It seems, though, that the only thing my Albus has in common with the Albuses of other people is that his beard has been trimmed! Biker Grandpa seems to be a popular role for him.
A lot of people have paired Albus with the doll version of his fellow Hogwart's teacher. I thought about that, but when I put him in regular clothes and the Bellamy Brothers started singing "Old Hippy" in my head, I knew that wouldn't work.
Another good example is Monster High. I got these two for Christmas and they had to join my few display dolls. (I do have a few, of the wrong scale and unboxed. Guests are allowed to play with them. Hardly the usual life of a display doll.)
I could rebody Cleo, but Lagoona is not a human skin tone. Lots of other doll universes do go into the supernatural, but I keep Barbieville reasonably realistic. Lagoona in one of those other universes could be an alien, the "daughter" of a mad scientist, or even just the monster she's designed to be.
And every single possibility, every one of them, is okay.
It's so much fun to see what others do with the same toy, to explore a doll universe so unlike my own.
Jeanie,so true! I haven't seen so much possibility with a doll and his character as Dumbledore. When I first started collecting dolls(even if you play with doll you are collecting dolls to do it), there weren't a lot of OOAK artist, they were a specialty. You would see their dolls in places like Barbie Bazaar and maybe the artist had a site.
ReplyDeleteI like seeing older people in movies, tv shows and doll! Dumbledore wasn't the first older doll but unlike Heart Family or the Happy Family grandpa everybody seems to love to play with his look and character. Is it the long beard, the price point, or that he was sold at so many locations or that he is articulated (which is a big plus)? Almost everyone who has purchased him has done something to him. He has sparked the creativity of many people.
I think it's all of the above!
ReplyDeleteHi, nice blog ... 🙂
ReplyDeleteIt is fascinating to see the different character and story directions that doll people go in. There seem to be two general schools of thought when it comes to crafting a dolly world. Either the dolls are characters in a self-contained fictional universe, or the dolls exist in our world and are secretly alive like in the Toy Story films, with or without their owner's knowledge. The earliest doll blogs I read regularly were in the latter category, and my own blog uses that format. However, I also appreciate the work of doll bloggers like yourself who go the former route. You've created an extensive network of characters in Barbieville, and though I only recently discovered your blog I'm really enjoying getting to know them. Although it's a bit harder for me to remember who's who since you took down the census page. I'm hoping you only removed it temporarily in order to update it. Thank you for making the doll community a little richer with your 'doll universe' and have a pleasant day.
ReplyDeleteSigned, Treesa
Thanks, Shasarignis. Treesa, the census page is still there. You might have tried to look at it while I was updating it.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason, the census page is not showing up when I view the blog. Maybe there's something wrong with my browser. Or maybe it's because I'm using a laptop and not a smartphone. I'm not really that computer savvy, so I have no idea.
DeleteSigned, Treesa
I fixed it. Somehow it got "turned off". But its back now and freshly updated!
Delete