Rainbow High Color and Play House (Part Two)

 

I noticed another creepy.  This is the back "window" of the room with the emerging faces!  I can't decide if these gals are the stalkers or the stalkees.  Anyway, it's up against my wall, so no biggie there.

Building the second house was quicker, mainly because I knew what I was doing this time.  No backward dividing walls this time, I promise!

The smaller first floor room is going to be a little library.  I had scrapbook paper that was books, but it wasn't big enough to do the whole area, so I went with this nice pink. I still need to secure the edges with clear tape. I sure wasn't going to try maneuvering around the trompe l'oeil plant again, but I kept the wainscoting on the side walls.  I do like wainscotting.

The larger first floor room will be the living room.

Gotta figure out what to do here.  My dolls do have some nice big shelving units that they might be able to hide it behind.  Curtains or a fake door are options, as well.

This is the second floor where the houses meet up.  Same solutions are being considered, even if this one might work as is.  Looks like a glass door!  

 This side of the first floor joining could be a pass-through.  Maybe I can find some low enough shelves to fill the bottom of the doorway on the other side. We shall see.

Fluffy cat moved in already.  Brought a candle and basket of playing cards.

I hoped to put the two attics together or the two decks.  Then I considered not using the center attic and having a really big deck.  But I decided to just have a weird looking house.  

These are the included  furniture, etc.  I have two of each because I got two houses.

Clockwise starting on Rusty's lap: Beds, kitchen appliances, bathroom sinks and toilets, couches, dining tables and chairs, markers, and assorted doodads.

I will definitely be replacing my current kitchen with the bigger and less pink set.

The bed that came with the house is just a teeny bit short.  The My First Barbie bed is much longer because My First Barbie is 14 inches tall.  I bought it because it's wide enough to be a double bed.  Note the trundle bed on the MFB. Since I'm going to have six bedrooms, they will all be used.

The blue sectional in the corner is the RH couch.  The other blue is Monster High and the pink/gray daybed is, of course, Barbie.  I have a lot of living room furniture to choose from.

This is how things looked when I stopped for supper.

Zoe, Chelsea, and Kelly Wardrobe

 WARNING!  NUDE AND CROSSDRESSING PLASTIC CHILDREN AHEAD! 

These are my Kelly/Zoe hybrids.  Wilma, Jenny, Tommy, and Fred.  They are still wearing the Zoe outfit their body donors wore.  (Please see previous blog post for a review of Zoe.)  I finally got around to going through the wardrobe for my brats.

The babies are hoping for hand-me-downs, as their wardrobe is very limited.  (They do get to wear the smaller shirts in the brat wardrobe.)

Mattel outfits.  Made for Chelsea or Kelly.

From various sources, thrift stores and yard sales.

Monster High shirts make dresses for the brats.  Strawberry Shortcake and Lil Bratz are roughly the same size and some clothes can be shared.  I did take in the plunging neckline on one of the dresses.

These were on knock-off princess dolls.  

Some of the clothing in previous pictures will vanish at this point.  Anything in need of serious repair or flat-out hideous.  I didn't even try those on the dolls.

Body mold comparison.  Most of the height difference in in the legs, but there is a bit in the torso.  My Chelsea dolls are awaiting body donors.  My Chelsea dolls have more variety of skin tones and a more natural pose, so I gave the Kelly dolls dibs.

Halloween Costumes!  Fred and Wilma are wearing their original outfits, but he needed britches for modesty.  Wilma looks more like the character she was based on with that shorter skirt.  Jenny's full-length wizard robe now only reaches the knee.  The babies inherit pumpkin, but gingerbread is too big. 

The original group trying on the costumes.  Slight alterations to gingerbread are needed (feet holes). Look for it come Halloween!  Pumpkin can be worn with britches, but loses cuteness, so it goes to the babies, where it is appropriately cute.

As I expected, all the Kelly/Chelsea brand things fit.  Skirts and pants are just shorter.

I only kept three of the princess gowns.  Fred and all the girls had a draft in the back.

You might notice repeat uses of britches.  They were outnumbered by shirts.  Those pink shorts on Jenny might end up in the baby wardrobe - they fit, barely.  Jenny and Fred are wearing open shirts.  The white shirt on Tommy feels sticky/tacky, so it went in the reject pile.  Wilma's holding down the bib on her overall skirt to show the shirt beneath.  Make sure you look at it! Don't make Wilma cry!

Wow, that patchwork dress is short!  Good thing it and Wilma's skirt have a modesty panel! Kept everything here except the white thing on Malachi.  Somebody's drunk grandma made it.

Monster High dresses.

All done modeling and ready to play!  C'mon over!

Downsizing Is Hard (Part Three)

 

I already mentioned that the adolescents in the classroom are either Harry Potter, Creatable World, or Claudia.  My dollhouse family males are hybrids, but the girls are not.  Jeremiah is a Fashionista and the twins are Finnick from Hunger Games, all three on MTM bodies.  Fred is a Kelly on a Zoe body.  Diana is Wonder Woman.  Belle and Hermione are from the recent Harry Potter line. Emma is the Hermione doll from the 90s.  Samara is a Babysitter Skipper baby.  

The children are mostly Chelseas and Kelly/Zoe hybrids.  Dan is the Harry Potter from the 90s.  Roxy is a Gymnast Stacie.  

The shoe holders house everyone else.  Most of the dolls pictured here are hybrids. 

MTM, Inspiring Women Susan B.  Anthony, and two wrestler ladies.  I'm pretty sure the wrestler ladies have the same body mold as Diana.  Divergent couple, Navajo Code Talker GI Joe (broken talk box), and Happy Family Grandma.

Cutie Reveals, Star Wars, and Barbie Extras.  

Fresh dolls, BMR 1959s, and two hybrids.

BTS, Barbie The Look, and a BRM 1959.

Harry Potter adults and a BTS.

Hiding in the bottom of my closet.  Wheelchairs, donor bodies, stands, etc.

Up top in my closet and neatly labeled.  Okoye's box (with all her stuff in it in case I decide to display her) and Western Fun Barbie in her box.  The Western Fun Barbie is notorious for not aging well and mine is no exception.

The display dolls are in the living room.  Two 18 inch Pocahontas dolls, Video Girl Barbie (who does work), Monster High Cleo and Lagoona, and Rusty.  I dress Rusty for upcoming holidays.

Monster High Is Back

Back in the day, when I first saw a Monster High doll, I was intrigued by the concept:  The teen daughters of classic monsters, all going to school together, with all the drama that goes along with that.  That doll was either Frankie or Draculaura, I'm not sure which, but I remember wondering if they'd do a werewolf and later seeing Clawdeen.   

I was put off by the dolls themselves, though.  (Some of these things I see as flaws were excused by them being monsters, I know.  Please don't yell at me.)  They were skinny.  No, skinny is an understatement - these gals are outright gaunt.  They had huge heads, a flaw that seems to be quite the trend these days in almost any doll line.  Both of those were strikes against them in my book. 

I did, and do, love the furniture and accessories for Monster High.  Most of the original Coffin Bean set in in my dollhouse as we speak.  Nikki Pike sleeps in Spectra's bed.  I picked up the original school playset at a yard sale.  Things like that.  I wanted Draculaura's car until I realized it only seats two.  

One on the things I love about Monster High as a concept is the devotion to the source material.  For example, one of the boys who eventually came along (as we all knew they would) is the son of a Gorgon.  His hair is a mohawk style made of snakes and his pet is named Perseus, both references to the original Greek Myth.  

There are other aspects I've not mentioned.   The entire message of Monster High is "be yourself, be a monster", which spoke volumes to pretty much anyone who felt marginalized.  It's really not a stretch to say this franchise saved lives!  The cartoon featured things like a couple's parents resisting because they were different types of monsters.  One character became an analogy for non-verbal autistics.

As happens with doll lines, the popularity faded.  Some of the current dolls lines still use features innovated (or introduced to the general public) by Monster High. One that many doll lovers of today seem to take for granted is the pop-off hands that make dressing our little plastic people in mesh or tight sleeves so much easier, as well the wrist articulation that goes with them.  

There was a short-lived "reboot", which included dolls now largely disliked by collectors.  They featured unpopular things like only five points of articulation - neck, shoulders, hips - and molded-on clothing.  Which might work out well for me in the long run, but I'll get to that.  Then Monster High went away.  

I was gifted a pair of the reboot dolls, by a friend who combined my love of dolls with my love of Halloween.  I'd recently buried my long-tern feline companion, and I have it on good authority that she's the reason one of the dolls is Cleo DeNile. 

 

Since the "reboot" dolls are so unpopular, they actually have a better chance of  gaining value than many dolls considered collectable - thus my earlier comment about it working out well for me in the long run.  Such are the absurdities of collecting.

But they don't meet residency requirements for Barbieville, although if a guest in my home wanted to play with them, they could certainly visit!  They've joined a handful of other display dolls I am adverse to altering.  Not that I could shrink the 18 inch Pocahontas twins.... 

Now that y'all have had a history lesson, I'll get to my point. 

I can hold my own in a conversation with a MH fan, but I'd never go so far as call myself an expert.  I see all the happiness it brought to people.  I repeat, I love the concept and the accessories, but not so much the dolls themselves.   And I am thrilled to see the return of Monster High. 

They have sturdier (and more varied) bodies than they used to.  The face mold looks more like a high schooler and they have even more features that point to their parentage - Draculaura's hair echoes Bela Lugosi's widow's-peak hairline and she has pointed ears, which goes back to Bram Stoker's novel. Frankie isn't just made from dead people, Frankie has a prosthetic leg and is nonbinary.  (More inclusion, which I honestly thought wasn't possible.)  

They do still have the giant noggins.  But... new playsets!  Clothes that might fit more non-MH dolls! Human skinned body donors?  I know the original "mansters" are beefy enough to be body donors, but now some of the "ghouls" might be, too!  

Doll Universes

 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.  

 

Yard Sale Haul (Choosing Keepers)

I was surprised to see that most of the dolls did not need extensive trims.  Almost everyone's hair combed out with little effort.  Those I don't keep will appeal to a new human more if they don't look like they just got hit by lightning.  

After that was done, the selection process began.  Since my space is small, I limit the number of dolls in Barbieville.  One of my friends added more dolls to her dollyverse than I had in total during 2019!

The Mattel Princesses and Barbies.  There were a few here I knew were keepers from the start, even without working knees and elbows.  I was hoping some head swaps would help with that.  Also, I hoped some of the boys would be body donors for Kevin and Jeremiah.

Clone dolls, Monster High, and Hi Glamm (previously identified as Winx).  Only one of these was a keeper - the man with the gray beard.  The rest suffered from poor articulation, deformities, and/or Vapid Face.

Bratz.  Neither boy was suitable for Kevin or Jeremiah, even with feet attached.  The lemon-on-a-toothpick proportions are just too far from reality for me, so none of these dolls will be keepers. 

Holly Hobbies (not Strawberry Shortcake) and Wee Three Friends.  I debated these for quite a while.  The combinations of childlike features and adult shapes or sizes led me to decide against them.  I even had the Wee Threes with jointed elbows in my keep pile for a while.

This is the gal I mentioned in the previous blog, with the wild hair and face I really liked.  I thought she was Diva, from Barbie And The Rockers, but once I tamed the hair... she's Midge.  Every Diva I've ever seen had really heavy eye makeup, but I can't remember a Midge with super curly hair.  Research provided only the information that Diva and Midge share a face mold.

I think these three are celebrities.  Pretty sure the one on the left is Brandy Norwood.  

Shoes.  Lots of sizes and only three orphans.  They will all stay except the orphans.

Cinderella figures.  I waffled on these because that one of the stepsisters makes me giggle.  Decided not to keep them or break up the set.

Bratz feet and snap-on hair for one of the smaller gals.  I was bummed to see the black boots were Bratz.  None of my dolls can wear them.  Same with the roller skates.

Happy Meal toys.  Bratz and Barbie.  These will go into Doll County Day Care's toy stash.

Madame Alexander Happy Meal toys. Not keepers, but I stole what clothes I could for the toddlers. Was mad when the pumpkin costume didn't fit anyone.  

Cabbage Patch Kids.  Happy Meal toys,  Not keepers.

Sally Secrets Happy Meal toy - her feet are hole punches (one makes stars, the other hearts).   Debated keeping her just because she's so cute, but decided against it. I wouldn't use her.

 Wedding cake and bowling set.  Those balls are not the original ones - they're stress balls. The kind that clank against each other, not the squeezy kind.  The cake is a double of the one I already have, just in a different shade of pink.  The stress balls will probably go away but I'm keeping the pins and cake.

I have no idea what this is.  I thought it was the cap for a pencil-shaped pencil case, but it has what looks like Hebrew characters on it.  A dreidel?  I'll be keeping it for now.

After some head swapping and debate, these eight will be the only ones kept.  My Scene Chelsea, Gray Beard, Rapunzel, Hula Hair Barbie in rear. Brunette, Midge/Diva, Cho's mommy, and Purple Slippers in the front.

Hula Hair Barbie is on a My Scene Kennedy body - her own was very floppy and she chose to be less articulated.  Also, she gets a nice shoulder tattoo.  A snowflake in colors that match the dyed portion of her hair.  I kept Rapunzel because I thought they made a nice mom/daughter pair.

Midge/Diva and Purple Slippers upgraded to jointed elbows and a solid body, respectively.

I've got roles in mind for Gray Beard, the brunette, and of course Cho's Mommy.