Dolly Delicacies

Frozen Anna and Elsa 16″

Posted on April 20, 2015 by Susan Bischoff

Anna’s and Elsa’s Flickr Collection Page

I might have mentioned that I really like 16″ dolls. I looked at the two of them on my birthday, but decided I couldn’t afford $80 worth of dolls that day. A week or so later I was still thinking about them, and had gotten some gift monies, so I went back to the store, but only found Elsa. After several weeks, there are still tons of Elsas, with no Annas in sight.

After scouring the Disney parks, and still finding no sign of Anna, I knew it was time to brave eBay. Now, you know I hate the scalpers with a fiery passion for sucking all the joy out of toy collecting. It’s one thing when you’re selling something legitimately old and/or rare, but this business of brand new toys flying off shelves, available nowhere but eBay at inflated prices–that just makes me crazy.

I bid on an open box Anna, waited days for the auction to be over, watched it count down to the end, and was bid-sniped in the last minute–no doubt by a bid-sniping service. I loathe those as well, which is why I only do Buy It Now on eBay. So much for making an exception. Not doing that again. Grrr.

Anyway, I was able to find this one from a sell who actually charged the retail price. Because sales tax is so high where I live, even after I paid the shipping, I still paid a dollar or two less than I would have had I just gotten her here in the first place. So yay for that.

Elsa is very happy to have her sister home, and hopefully will now stop glaring at me.

I wish I had bought more of the 16″ princesses when they were available. The main reason I didn’t (other than Disney collectibles always disappearing and being painful and expensive to track down) was because they sing. I don’t think dolls should make noise. Silence is one of their best qualities. Another reason is that they don’t make princes in this size, and that’s kind of sad. Dollies need love too.

If I had to choose just one, I probably would have gotten Anna, because Elsa’s blue hands freak me out. (Two by two, hands of blue…) That’s going to look weird if I ever get around to making clothes for them. So I was happy to get Anna, who would make a better model. Or so I thought. Surprise! This is what I discovered when I took her clothes off. When she sings, her heart glows. For some reason, that necessitates her entire torso being blue. So that off-the-shoulder gown from the coronation? Not really working. What are you thinking??

Lastly, I lined them up with some 16″ fashion dolls so you could compare. From left to right: Alex by Madame Alexander, Ellowyne by Tonner/Wilde Imagination, Tyler (Shauna) by Tonner, Anna by Disney, Elsa by Disney, Gene by Odom

Posted in Collecting | Tagged 16 inch, anna, disney, dolls, elsa, fashion, frozen, princesses | 3 Comments

Brigit

Posted on April 17, 2015 by Susan Bischoff

Brigit’s Flickr Collection Page

Brigit Brigit Sullivan is a Lati Yellow, a resin ball-jointed doll made by the Korean company Latidoll. She was purchased directly from Latidoll.com in Spring 2008. (Lati only opens for orders quarterly. When they’re not accepting orders, dolls appear as “soldout.” Keep checking back.) She has the “renewal” size body, which is 16cm (~6 1/4″) tall, Lami head mold, and normal skin tone resin.

When I got her, I believe she came with both hook and magnet hands and feet. I think right now I have her with magnet hands (easily removable for changing clothes) and hook feet (feet are held on by S-hooks at the end of her elastic stringing. I find it easy to lose magnet feet accidentally).

In the first photo, she has a new wig. Monique “Dimples” size 5/6. I think the color is light blonde. In other photos she’s wearing Monique “Lexy” size 5/6, in golden strawberry. Her eyes are 14mm acrylics from Junkyspot in Pale Blue. Faceup by me.

Brigit plays with scissors Brigit is the fourth of the six Sullivan sisters. I think Ciara and Dana would agree with me when I say she’s the most mischievous of the family. But it’s just because she’s high-spirited and very curious. Here she is playing with scissors. Brigit in the garden

Posted in Collecting, Doll Profiles | Tagged 6 inch, abjd, ball-jointed dolls, bjd, dolls, lami, lati yellow, latidoll, tinies | Leave a comment

Leia

Posted on April 16, 2015 by Susan Bischoff

Leia’s Flickr Collection Page
This is Leia. She’s an Iplehouse ABJD from their JID line. She has the Amy head mold, and the JID body with the small bust and mobility thigh. She’s a slim MSD, 43cm (17 inches) tall. I purchased her head and body from two different sellers on the Den of Angels forum marketplace in 2009. I don’t usually buy dolls with faceups, but the price was right. Seeing this one in person, I’d say Iplehouse faceups are definitely worth the extra $50. It’s exquisite work. I’d love to have more Iplehouse dolls.

Leia is wearing a Monique “Navajo” wig in dark brown, size 7/8 that I unbraided. She’s wearing 12mm brown glass eyes that came from Lati.

Leia sweeping If you’re looking into the JID line to add to your slim-MSD doll family, be advised that these girls are a bit bigger than most, and don’t share clothes as well as other dolls.

Leia is sweet and quiet. Even though she can be a little shy, she’s not afraid to pitch in and help out when needed. She loves to bake, and her goal is to someday open her own bakery.

The pictures below show her opening her loot from a Santa Swap we participated in on the Den of Angels forum.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged abjd, amy, bjd, iplehouse, jid, msd, slim | Leave a comment

Dana

Posted on April 15, 2015 by Susan Bischoff

Dana’s Flickr Collection Page

Dana is a resin ball-jointed doll by Latidoll. She’s from Lati’s Green Line, and has the Grown-up Coco head mold. Lati opens for orders quarterly. When they’re not open, all the dolls will show as “sold out.” Keep checking back. I purchased her as a basic doll (blank face, no wig or clothing) directly from Latidoll in the summer of 2008. She has normal skin tone, and faceup by me. The wig pictured is “Lexy” by Monique in Golden Strawberry. Her eyes are 14mm green acrylics purchased from Junkyspot. She is 30cm, just shy of 12″ tall.

In the Sullivan clan, Miss Dana is the second oldest. She’s very responsible and often takes care of her four younger sisters while her older sister works. While she’s generally good-natured, this responsibility has made her a little bit bossy.

In the photo below, Seraphina models an outfit Ciara has just finished for an order. Audrey helps to lace it up while Ciara eyes her work critically. Dana sits on the floor, keeping two of her younger sisters busy with the wrappings so they stay out of trouble.

Posted in BJDs, Collecting, Doll Profiles | Tagged abjds, ball-jointed dolls, bjds, coco, lati green, latidoll, tinies | Leave a comment

Alex

Posted on April 14, 2015 by Susan Bischoff

Alex’s Flickr Collection Page

Sometimes there’s that thing as a collector where you want something to fill a hole in your collection but you just don’t like anything that fits. I try to stick to collecting doll bodies, and while I have every Monster High character and every Disney Princess in the Animator’s Collection, I mostly TRY not to do too much duplication like that.

I love 16″ dolls, and I needed a Madame Alexander “Alex,” but I could not find one I liked. Then I spotted this girl at the Twickingham Doll Show in Huntsville, Alabama. That’s always a great show and worth going. I drive four hours each way for it.

This is Madame Alexander’s Elle Woods “Grand Finale” from the Legally Blonde collection in 2008. My research tells me this is a Sienna Evans mold, and that she has the Alex body. Yay!

Elle Woods Grand Finale by Madame Alexander I haven’t played with her much in the year and half she’s been here, so I don’t know very much about her, but she seems to get along well with the rest of the 16″ fashion doll set.

Posted in Collecting, Doll Profiles | Tagged 16 inch, alex, doll, elle woods, fashion dolls, legally blonde, madame alexander | Leave a comment

New Doll: Tonner’s Changing Moods Penelope

Posted on April 13, 2015 by Susan Bischoff

Many many things I don’t do enough. Among them:

Box openings
Making good records about my collection
Getting my collection here to the website to share with you

So this is my new, gorgeous girl from Tonner, Changing Moods Penelope. I opened her up on Sunday and took box opening pics, and gave her a page over here if you’d like to read a little more about her.

Posted in Collecting | Tagged 16 inch, changing moods penelope, deja vu, doll, fashion, penelope, tonner | Leave a comment

The Differences Among Disney’s Toddler Dolls

Posted on August 9, 2014 by Susan Bischoff

Edited to add: Please at least skim to the end of this article, as I have some updated information about the dolls with “reflection eyes” that have been coming out fall/holiday 2014. Thanks.

Flynn Rider todder, Disney Princess & Me Rapunzel, “My First” Princess Rapunzel

One day, in Toys R Us, I saw a toddler doll of Flynn Rider (Eugene Fitzherbert) from Rapunzel. Had. To. Have. So I snatched him up and took him home while the gettin’ was good. I was on vacation, so I waited until I got home to go pick up a Rapunzel. Both of these dolls had “My First” on the packaging, but I didn’t think much about it.

Another day, shopping with my mom, I expressed a wish to have “all the Disney Animators’ Collection dolls” because they’re adorable. I now have a whole bunch. Thanks, Mom!

LIBBY for Disney Animators’ Collection Do you love how her little toes turn in?

I had no intention of unboxing the Animators’ dolls until I got a case for them (and who knows when that might happen), but, after I released the LIBBY pattern for the “My First” doll, I got an email from a mom who was trying to sew for daughter’s birthday. The pattern she had bought, for a 15″ doll, was way too big–I assume because it was for a 15″ baby doll and they’re chunkier, larger in scale. I could see by holding the “My First” up to the box that the Animators’ would be a little taller and a little chunkier. It wasn’t until I broke open the box that I realized there were a number of differences between the two dolls.

MIMI for “My First” Disney Princess

I did a handful of patterns for each of these dolls, including MIMI for the “My First.” MIMI has long and short sleeves, and I thought it would be a cute cover if I photographed the two versions on Anna and Elsa from Frozen (which I also had from my mom because I’m spoiled like that. 😉 ). So I broke into Elsa’s box only to find that the todder dolls not labeled as “My First” are much shorter and slimmer! A slightly different body style and a TOTALLY different size.

This really ticked me off. I could see the Animators’ being different because they’re very stylized and marketed to collectors as well as children. But for these two play dolls to be so similar and yet such different sizes–grr! It’s bad enough that the doll companies are treating our girls like adult collectors and hardly offering anything in terms of clothing for dress-up play. (There’s a rant for another day.) They don’t need to make it hard for us to sew as well.

Disney Animators’, “My First,” and regular line toddler dolls. (And an annoying cat’s paws.)

So this article is here to give a heads-up to all those sewing for and shopping for clothes for these girls that there ARE differences among these three doll lines. I want to try to give you some help if you’re not sure what doll you’re sewing for.

Animators’ Collection

This is what the Animators’ packaging looks like. (Not dented, hopefully.)

The Animators’ dolls are 15 1/2″ tall. They’re generally sold in Disney Stores and at the shops in the Disney theme parks and resorts. They’re adorably stylized with large heads, large eyes, and have the most expressive faces. The imprint on the back and back of the head reads (c) Disney and also China. Packaging indicates Disney as the manufacturer. Patterns in my shop that fit this doll should be tagged with “DAG for Disney Animators’ Collection Girl.

Height: 15 1/2″
Bust: 8″
Waist: 9 1/4″
Hips: 9 1/2″

“My First” Princess

“My First” Disney Princesses have the phrase on the packaging.

You can often find these at Toys R Us, Walmart, and Target. They are toddler dolls, and not to be confused with the baby dolls that share the same name and often similar packaging. Besides the obvious difference of the baby body with slightly bent limbs, the baby dolls also seem to all have short, molded hair, not rooted like the toddlers. The face is much more generic-child than the Animators’ (though I think there was a release of dolls with bigger eyes). The imprint on the back of the dolls’ head just says (c) Disney. Packaging indicates they’re made by Jakks Pacific. Patterns in my shop that fit this doll should be tagged with DMF for Disney “My First” Toddler Princess.

Height: 14 1/2″
Bust: 7 5/8″
Waist: 7 5/8″
Hips: 8 1/2″

(See also Stephanie’s comment below about two different sizes within this line.)

Toddler Princess

I’ll try to get a photo of the generic packaging. This is the Frozen box.

I’m not sure what to call this line. I’m not even sure how readily available these dolls are because I’m not coming up with much in a Google image search. Comparing my Elsa to my Rapunzel (see comparison photo above), the faces of these dolls are a little more sophisticated with a heavy black line to indicate their lashes. They are also smaller and slighter than the “My First” girls. The mark on the back just says (c) Disney. Packaging indicates they’re made by Jakks Pacific. Patterns for this doll should be tagged “DTP” for Disney Toddler Princess.

Height: 13 1/2″
Bust: 6 1/2″
Waist: 6 1/4″
Hips: 8″

I hope this helps you figure out what doll you have and what size pattern you need. All the patterns in my Etsy shop that are made for Disney character dolls can be found in the Disney Dolls section.

Edited to add: I need to find time to write this up new, but for now, I just want to let you know about the dolls that are new for fall/holiday 2014. These are the ones with the “reflection eyes.” They have large, plastic eyes rather than painted like the previous version. The body for the these is slightly different, but they share clothes with the 13 1/2″ princesses above. Going forward, I’ll be fitting to the 2014 doll.

The new “My First” collection dolls with “reflection eyes” seem to have the same 13 1/2″ body. Anyone sewing for that doll will want the “DTP” patterns, not the “DMF” patterns.

The Princess Sofia dolls with “reflection eyes” (I found this doll at Target) are much larger than any of the dolls on this page. None of these patterns will fit that doll. (But I hope to have some soon, so let me know if you’re looking.)

If you are rescuing an older doll of this type that has a Playmates 2002 marking on the backside, those dolls fit the patterns currently titled with “My First” and tagged “DMF.” Be aware that the fit is a little snug through the chest. You may want to add a little to the back seam.