2023 in review 5: 11.5" and 12" fashion dolls

 

The population feels like it grew fast, but it's still only 7 dolls.

Simply Fresh Kylie, now on her MTM body, is what touched off this wave of doll collecting. I still like the idea of the Fresh Dolls/Family Dollar collab, but I keep making changes to the actual doll. Kylie's face is very much in line with the mainline Fresh Dolls faces, though.

Delilah, now Kylie's mother because her new short wig makes her look older, was indulgence in a Dollar Tree Beauty to celebrate the new jointed knees.

Only the original head remains of Cinderelsa, because her concept ($2 at a thrift store) was compelling yet terrible. She is improved by a wig and a cheap articulated body. Cinderelsa is married to Kenzo, the Manbun Ken in the back row. He's my grail Ken and the only survival of Ken culls.

Teresa is the longest-owned doll in this group, as I found her in a thrift store and improved her back around 2014. She's Kenzo's half-sister by a common Latina mother, while Kylie is Kenzo's half-sister by a common father. Teresa's father was Latino. Kylie's mother is Delilah (Black) and her father was Hawaiian. 

The back row gals, the two Kid Kore Kelseys, are where the fresh excitement is, but first, let's look at bodies, arranged from least to most articulated.

The 1990s girls really stand out from the post-2000 body molds. Kenzie's 1997 mold also varies significantly from Kelsey's 1991 mold, with a larger waist and lower bosom. (Yes, the second Kelsey is now Kenzie. This gives me Kelsey, Kenzie, Kenzo, Kylie, and Kelly, which is ridiculous! But no other name I try sticks, and I've called the original Kelsey "Kelsey" for so long that I can't make it a species name and give her a fresh name.)

From the back, we get to see different eras' views of doll buttocks. Kylie's MTM body is ridiculously modest, while Teresa has junk in the trunk.

The dolls who most need comparison are Kelsey and Kenzie, since they're iterations of the "same" doll: Kid Kore Kelsey, the big-sister equivalent to Barbie.

Kelsey definitely is the older and more sophisticated of the two!

The original appeal of Kenzie -- the reason I was eventually going to get one -- is the inset eyes. I took a look at FashionDollz to see what changed in Barbie head molds in 1996-7, and the answer is... nothing. The new CEO head mold for Barbie is marked 1998. The change isn't Bratz-driven, either, as those aren't released until 2001. Kid Kore just launched a new head mold with inset eyes, using it largely on cheerleader dolls, because... they felt like it?

Combined with her eBay lot-mate, Babysitters Club Kristy, and my Creata "Today's Girls" Hillary, Kenzie makes a reasonable "sisters" set! 

She's quite a different look from her more sophisticated cousin, Kelsey, though. I envision Kelsey as being in her early 20s, while Kenzie seems at most college freshman age.

Cinderelsa's body is here!

 

Cheap articulated body variety pack!

My AliExpress order arrived! All four bodies are here, undamaged.

The pinkish pregnant body is slated for Cinderelsa.

The baby bump comes off to reveal a flat stomach insert. I can hear rattling behind it but haven't yet figured out how to get the flat insert off to find a baby.

The quality is decent, not brilliant. The plastic is translucent, and the joints bend when they feel like it. This is still a huge improvement over Cinderelsa's original body! It's in line with what I expected in ordering $5 bodies from a toy distributor in Shantou. I wanted a Chinese body to give me the best chance of an acceptable color match with Cinderelsa's cheap clone head, which... well, it depends on the lighting.

Finally, I get to take a load off!

Her head is on! It has to be pushed down hard to stay on, but that's not a huge surprise in joining a cheap knock-off head with a cheap knock-off body.

In this light, her head looks noticeably pinker than the body. In other lights, it looks like a good match. Cinderelsa may take up high necklines. She is so very pink, and I ordered from a distributor whose positive reviews noticed that bodies ran pink, so there's no better I'm going to do.

Practicing pushing and breathing.

Cinderelsa can achieve a birthing position of sorts!

Kenzo is excited for fatherhood! Cinderelsa is awkwardly clothed in whatever fit, which was a pair of Broad Ken pants and a Curvy Barbie top. My long-term plan is to sew her a glamor wardrobe, but I'm supposed to be doing paid work today.

I'd hoped that these bodies would allow me to agonize in an ethical dilemma over whether or not to rebody Simply Fresh Kylie (merits of the authentic body as conceived by its designer versus allowing her to interact more freely with her peers through articulation). Alas, she is too sallow for both tones of brown, so original vision it is.

Happy Halloween!

 

While Kelsey takes three Katies and Hilary to the spa for intense hair treatments (the fourth Katie has a cold), the other grown-up and teen members of the community decided to throw a Halloween party. They grabbed whatever was at hand for costumes.

Kenzo: Extra on Supernatural who gets killed in the teaser.

Kylie: Sexy witch. She's regretting this and wishing she'd picked something with a serious message, or at least easier to sit down in.

Skipper: Emmy award, mostly because she's been looking for an occasion to wear this dress.

Lacey: Daughter of international diplomat, dressed for visit to Asian country.

Teresa: Also a sexy witch. Not regretting it.

Cinderelsa: Doesn't need a costume because being a bodiless head is creepy enough.

Wigs arrive!

 

My order of wigs from out-of-business Monique arrived today from Factory Direct Crafts. I feel a mix of excitement and trepidation.

Here they are! The three brown wigs are candidates for Career Gal Emma. The blue one is the back-up for Cinderelsa the Project Doll, and the dark one with pink streaks is my first choice for her.

To review who these dolls are, this is Emma, who came from Family Dollar with her guitar and keyboard, and who now is rebodied onto a MTM Curvy body. Her hair looks okay-ish right now but is sparsely rooted and will age poorly.

This is Cinderelsa, my Project Doll that I found at Hope Chest, who was once sold with gift baskets by local distributor Wondertreats. Cinderelsa is waiting for her new body to arrive from China in mid-November. Cinderelsa has a pretty hair color but the most absurd rooting possible.

Seriously, look at this rooting pattern. And look at that border around the top of the skull and the actual point at the top! 

There was no realistic way to re-root this doll with her existing rooting. My favorite cheap-doll-hair method of dipping the head in glue, then in glitter, also wasn't going to work because her head shape is so distorted. A wig it's got to be!

But first, I'll have to get all those tufts out. Some come by just tugging, but most are in surprisingly firmly for the low quality of this doll. 

However, I can try on the two wig candidates.

The pink-streaked wig fits better, but I'll need to be careful with how her hairline is revealed. It also feels truer to the concept of Weird Barbie. The blue wig may be a little too large for her, though it doesn't look bad.

I was going to deal with Emma later, since her original hair is decent, but then I figured the point of wigs was to do wigs.

I chopped off Emma's lavish locks and started trying wigs. These two seem small for her head, though I might re-try the first one once the spiky remnants of her lavish locks are pulled out.

These two fit better, especially the blue one. I feel like the blonde one is cute but a little aging and a little boring. In the blue one, Emma starts showing a personality -- one that calls for a better dress than her current bland Curvy outfit.

My next little while will be spent pulling stubborn cheap hair fiber out of stubborn cheap heads.