The Fixer Upper Files: My Twinn (part 1)

Oh dear... I fell head-first into My Twinn last summer. I don't remember how I went from "eh they're pretty I guess" to being completely obsessed but I'm pretty sure it involved a lot of posts from The Toybox Philosopher and a several day Pinterest session. Anyway, I went from having no My Twinn dolls, to three of them in about two weeks. And being me, I didn't want perfect (and expensive) My Twinn dolls, I wanted dolls that were a little beat up, or at least cheap, and in need of a good home. I wanted a project. I didn't get the project part so much with my first two, but they were cheap at least. 

Meet Olivia (redhead) and Kate! They are both Kissy Kate molds, I've been told. Olivia has eyes that are starting to get pretty cloudy, and Kate had (at the time) no eyelashes and still has a wig that is matted enough to need replacing.

You can see a little better here how Olivia's eyes are pretty cloudy compared to how clear Kate's are. They're not cloudy enough to bother me yet, but I did buy replacements when I bought new eyelashes for Kate. At some point I'll document the process of replacing them, but for now I'm going to leave Olivia alone.

With these two I had caught the My Twinn bug and wanted at least one more doll. I wanted one who needed some love, maybe one I could repaint...

Ah yes. Perfect!

Ariel is an Ariel mold and was probably a boy at one point. I didn't get that impression from her at first and so I bought a long wig for her, but now that I have it glued onto her head, I definitely see a more boyish look to her face. Ah well. Perfect for my repainting plans!

So here's what each doll is getting:

Olivia: new eyes (not right away)

Kate: Eyelashes, new wig

Ariel: Eyelashes, new wig, face repaint.

Sweet Kate was pretty easy as far as eyelashes went. I will link the store I bought her's and Ariel's eyelashes and Ariel's wig from later in this series, but that will require some searching and I want to get this post up soon. If you read The Toybox Philosopher, it's the same store she used. But all I've done so far with Kate is glue new eyelashes on her. It was pretty easy to trim the eyelash to fit, and then spread Tacky Glue along the band with a toothpick. At first it looks really messy, but the glue dries clear. I still want to get her a new wig, but for now I think she's looking pretty cute!

Next post will be about getting Ariel's wig and eyelashes on her, as well as my other My Twinn, Danielle!

My Life As Dolls

The "My Life As" dolls... I've always heard of them as just "The Walmart Dolls" (since they're sold exclusively at Walmart) with sometimes a positive tone and sometimes a negative one. I have several of their accessories, since they're wonderfully cheap and sometimes the accessories will be something I want from American Girl, but can only get in a larger (and thus very expensive) set or it'll be something that American Girl hasn't done yet. But I've never owned one of the dolls before.

A while ago (back in 2018) I saw pictures coming out on other collectors Instagram stories of a My Life As doll with a prosthetic leg. I love dolls that have something different about them, and I also love including diversity in my collection. A doll with a prosthesis is something that I've wanted to see for a long time, but never got around to making myself nor have I seen it in other companies. So when I saw this doll, shortly after I decided I needed to get a My Life As doll for comparison purposes, I knew that THIS was the one. She was hard to find, I went to several Walmart's in my area trying to see who had her in stock, finally checked to see if I could find her online, and figured out that the newer "fancy" Walmart in my area had her.

The My Life As dolls are another contender in the world of 18 inch play dolls. Like most (if not all) they're made of vinyl, and they also have sleep eyes (meaning the eyes are open when the doll is standing or sitting and closed when they're laying down.) These dolls have rooted hair, meaning that the hair is attached to the doll's head by being threaded through little holes (think of Barbie's!) so if you want to customize their hair, you'll have to cut it before you put a wig on them. You could also try re-rooting the hair, I don't think I've seen anyone do that! (Hmm... maybe a future project for me??)

The good things... I am in love with the concept of this doll. I think the world of 18 inch play dolls is getting better about diversity through an increase of offered skin tones, hair types, and facial features, but that's where it ends. So seeing a doll with a prosthetic limb, yes!! I am really excited for what this could mean for the world of 18 inch dolls. I would absolutely love to see more dolls with prosthetic limbs, and I really hope that this doll is the starting point for that. And to make her a gymnast? Yes please!

Also, the My Life As doll line is very pretty in the face. Even when I would just pass by the dolls in their boxes on my way to look at the accessories I was struck by how pretty their facial features are. These would be fantastic dolls for a display, as models for doll clothes, or for anyone with a doll photography hobby.

Unfortunately, though, I do have a complaint, and it's a pretty major one: these dolls are made extremely cheaply. The vinyl on this doll is extremely squishy: I can squeeze every single part of her! The face isn't as malleable but I can still squish it without too much effort, and so I don't think these dolls would do well if left in a car or if they were in a warm storage building. At first I thought that's just how cheaper dolls were (I grew up with American Girl) but I gave my Our Generation doll (which runs at a similar price point to the My Life As dolls) a squeeze and no part of her budged. So this is a case of the vinyl the company uses being very very cheap.

Possibly related to this... I can't get her to sit! I don't know if it's just this doll in particular or what. I'd like to say so, since I know these dolls are pretty popular play dolls, but it makes me nervous that this happening with other dolls would even be a possibility. These dolls are cheaper than some, but money is money, and for a doll to have good play value, they need to be able to move their joints. With most of my dolls, I could take her apart to figure it out, but these dolls have a partially vinyl chest, so this one is going to be harder to take apart than my American Girl's to figure out the problem, and I'm unwilling to risk not being able to put her back together again. But making a guess, I'd say it's a combination of cheap vinyl and the way the joints are put together.

I love the concept of this doll so much, and I wanted her to just be perfect, but these dolls are so cheaply made that I find it hard to recommend them for anything more than a display or clothes model. I don't understand it: the My Life As accessories are awesome, I have several sets in my collection and I don't plan on stopping collecting those, so I thought the dolls would be just fine. But based on my experience with this doll, I think she'll be the first and last My Life As doll in my collection. For the money, Our Generation dolls appear to be much better quality, and they run in the same price range, or even a few dollars cheaper.

If you'd like to check out these dolls (or their AWESOME accessories) you can find them at your local Walmart! 

American Girl Introduction

I'm starting my series of American Girl posts this way just as a sort of introduction to what I'll be doing. For anyone who is unaware, American Girl has so many doll lines now that if I were to try to write about all of them in one post I'd be working on that post for about six months... and it would take you about that long to read it. When I was sitting down to figure out what posts I was planning on doing for this blog (since I'm trying to get back to actually writing... I looked at the date my last post was published and just hung my head) I kept having to come back to add more to the AG series, since I kept forgetting about the different doll lines!

I'm going to cover all currently active lines. So older lines like the Hopscotch Hill Girls or the AG Minis or Girls of Many Lands or Bitty Twins will not be covered (well, Bitty Twins will more than likely get more than a mention in the Bitty Baby review but not a review of their own.) While most of the Contemporary line is scheduled for retirement, at the time I'm writing this they're still currently active so I'm going to get to them before year end.

If you're one of those people who are so familiar with the history of American Girl that you can recite it in your sleep, then you can stop reading here. This next bit is for those new collectors, or the parents whose kids just said "I just found these really cool dolls online and I want one" and would like to know what in the world they're getting into.

The world of eighteen inch dolls is pretty vast at this point. Everybody has their own lines, and everyone has their own preferences. There's American Girls here in the United States (and while they will ship to other countries there are no stores in other countries except for like two in Canada) Our Generation dolls at Target, My Life As dolls at Walmart, Maplelea dolls in Canada, Journey Girls in the now defunct Toys R Us, the eighteen inch My Twinn line (which is also no more) and... well there's many options. And I'll get to the "but why American Girl" question in the individual reviews, but unlike the rest of the above list (well, except for Maplelea) it's impossible to refer to American Girl as anything but American Girl. American Girl has become its own entity, its own crazy world, and it can be hard to navigate if you're new.

Pleasant Rowland started Pleasant Company in 1986, with the mission of teaching children, and girls in particular, about history in a way they could identify with. Pleasant Company (the American Girl Collection) launched with three dolls: Molly, Samantha, and Kirsten. In 2018 Molly and Kirsten are retired (although rumor has it that Molly may be getting a rerelease in 2019!) and Samantha has been retired, brought back, and partially retired or "cubed" (meaning they only sell the doll, accessories, and books in stores) again. The oldest dolls have white muslin bodies and are typically called "white body" dolls. They typically carry a slightly heavier price tag since they're easily identified as older and rarer, and some dolls (and these come with VERY hefty price tags) are even signed by Pleasant herself.

When Felicity was released in the early 90s, there was a dilemma. Historically, Felicity's clothes would have had lower necklines that, on a doll, would reveal the difference in the body and the vinyl skin. But they couldn't just have one doll with a tan body and the rest with white bodies, so they made all the bodies tan. Pleasant Company later released Addy and Josefina. 1995 saw the release of the "American Girl of Today" line (which has gone by many names, such as Just Like You and My American Girl but in 2018 is known as Truly Me) which were modern girls, whose story was left up to the girl to create: they even included blank books with the doll for girls to write in.

In 2000 the company was purchased by Mattel (the purchase began in 1998 but wasn't completed until 2000) but Pleasant supposedly had a heavy hand in creating the next two characters released: Kit and Kaya. In 2001 American Girl began the contemporary "Girl of the Year" line, starting with Lindsey Bergman, which still continues into 2018. In 2004, American Girl began releasing "best friend" dolls, or companion dolls to the already existing historical characters made from a character in their books.

The best friend dolls are now retired, and many of the historical characters have either been retired outright or are "cubed," leaving the longest running character (with a full collection) as Josefina. Both the Girl of the Year line (often abbreviated as GOTY) and the modern "pick your own character" line, which began as "American Girl of Today" and is now called "Truly Me" still survive.

Bitty Baby has been around since 1995 (earlier incarnations were Our New Baby and are highly sought after among collectors) and used to come with a little five inch bear called Bitty Bear. The older babies have somewhat softer face paint than the newer babies (which have distinct eyebrows) but are generally unchanged.

The WellieWishers are new dolls, and are smaller at 14.5 inches, and designed with the same age range as Bitty Baby (younger girls) in mind. They don't have cloth bodies but are still not designed to get wet!

And there you have it! My crash course on "what in the world is American Girl?" Hopefully you know what you're getting yourself into (or what your child is getting you into...) or at least have a better idea. It can be overwhelming to walk into an American Girl store for the first time (just ask an associate to explain the layout and everything will be fine.) If you're online only, it can be easier to find things, but you often might not know what you're looking at! Hopefully this crash course helps.

Hearts for Hearts Girls

These girls have been a recent obsession of mine, their face molds are just too cute!

The Hearts for Hearts Girls are girls around the age of 10, from different places in the world. The diversity of this line was one thing I really latched onto; that and their sweet faces! Not only are there dolls with multiple skin tones, but they have unique backstories that make an effort to teach kids about different cultures worldwide. Of the available dolls, two are from the United States (Dell, from Kentucky, and Lauryce, from Louisiana) one from Ethiopia (Rahel) one from Mexico (Consuelo) one from India (Nahji) and one from Laos (Tipi- not pictured.) Each doll comes with a plastic comb (which I don't recommend using if you want to keep their hair nice! A wire wig brush is best for doll hair, or wire hair pick for curly hair like Rahel's) a bracelet, and a little booklet telling her story. The booklets are not as detailed as they could be, but they offer a good background and are likely meant to be more of a starting point for kids to look up things they're interested in. They're journal style, but not very long. Nahji's booklet, for example, mentions henna tattooing, and that she is the first girl in her family to get an education, but doesn't go into detail about what henna is or her schooling aside from her "walking to the education center."

The dolls in stores and available new online are a re-release. They originally debuted in 2010, made by Playmates, but were discontinued by 2015. Now, they're back! MPA Sales bought the license from Playmates, and so far has been re-releasing all the old favorites. Starting with Dell, Nahji, Consuelo, and Rahel, they've since released Lauryce and Tipi online only, and the Hearts for Hearts Girls facebook page has announced the planned re-release of Shola (from Afghanistan) and Mosi (Native American) this fall. I'm unsure if their re-release will be online only, or if they'll also be able to be found in the toy aisles of Target, where the first four were primarily found. Online, they can be found on Amazon. 

These dolls are 14 inches tall, and are comparable in size to the WellieWishers (14.5 inches) and Glitter Girls (14 inches.) They make perfect "little sisters" for 18" play dolls! I do not personally own any WellieWishers or Glitter Girls to compare them directly to, but I do own clothes from all three lines to try on the Hearts for Hearts girls. WellieWisher clothes are a bit wider, I don't think they'd be able to fit into Hearts for Hearts clothing comfortably, but Hearts for Hearts girls can wear the clothes from all three lines. The only exception, is shoes, which is where you really see a difference. 

Above, in order, are a WellieWisher shoe, a Hearts for Hearts shoe, and a Glitter Girl shoe. WellieWisher feet are shorter and broader than Hearts for Hearts girls by quite a bit, which makes sense as the Wellies are meant to represent 4-to-6 year olds and are proportioned that way. While it is possible to cram the Hearts for Hearts feet into the Wellie boots, it's a lot harder to get them out, it might even be impossible for a child, so I can't say that even those are interchangeable among the doll lines. 

On the other hand, Glitter Girls clothes and shoes fit like they were made for Hearts for Hearts dolls! The shoes fit perfectly on the Hearts for Hearts dolls, which really opens up shoe options for these dolls, especially since there are no other Hearts for Hearts doll clothes besides the outfits the girls come in. There were a few outfits released for the dolls under Playmates, but those are harder to come across on the second-hand market and are likely to run you at least $40 USD per outfit, depending on what you're looking for.

I haven't had my dolls long enough to tell if this is still an issue, but with the 2010 line, there was a manufacturing defect with the dolls eyes. After just a few years, many of the original dolls eyes have turned purple and cloudy. I'm not sure what the pattern for this is, as my Lauryce is older but hasn't had this problem, but a lot of Rahel's, Consuelo's, and even a few Dells and Nahji's I see on ebay have had this happen. The eyes are inset, and it's possible to replace them, but I haven't personally tried so I don't want to give out any false information. 

Other than a potential fix in manufacturing the eyes, the only difference I can find in the original and re-released dolls is the hardness of their limbs. My newer dolls all have slightly flexible limbs, softer vinyl, while my Lauryce has very rigid limbs that almost feel like hard plastic. This isn't an issue for me but for anyone who wants to customize their doll, I suspect that the newer dolls would be easier to work with. As far as play value, though, the only thing I've noticed is that it is slightly easier to get clothes on and off the new dolls, even clothes that are a tight fit, like the blue dress Rahel is wearing in the group picture. 

Overall, I absolutely love these dolls! They're absolutely beautiful and made of good quality materials. My only criticisms of the line are the marketing, and the accessories (or lack of them.) I'd love to see extra outfits available for these dolls, as well as accessories. I'd also like to see proper hair brushes! I've heard of these girls being seen at Toy Fairs, but beyond that I haven't seen a lick of advertising for these beautiful dolls! 

I can't wait to see where this new release will take these dolls. I'd love to see all of the original dolls re-released, of course, but I'm really eager to see what new dolls MPA Sales will come up with for this line!     

I'm not a dragon, I swear... (welcome to my blog!)

Hello, dear reader!

Thank you for clicking on my blog! I may not update the most often, but I promise you I have the best intentions. You can expect to see reviews of dolls and toys, collection updates, posts about doll shows, and my doll restoration projects! As far as projects go, I feel bad for dolls very often so you can expect quite a few of these! There are several of my dolls that I ended up buying just because someone was selling them as a potential "creepy Halloween decoration" and I sat upright in bed and said to my computer "EXCUSE?? Someone loved that baby!!" and then I bought them.

My name is Kathryn and as of posting this I have seventy-nine dolls crammed into the living room of my one bedroom apartment! No, I don't expect that one maintenance man to come back. I think it might have been Toodles' "follow me" eyes that was the final straw for him. My main dolly interest is American Girl, but I have lots of vintage dolls, rag dolls, and a few other modern play dolls as well!

You can find me on youtube! My channel name is Inky Starlight Doll Videos, and here's a link to my channel! 

So... welcome to The Dollhouse!