Brodie, Kenzo, & Sylvester wish you a bountiful 2024

 

They're a bit of a ragtag crew at the moment. Kenzo is both thrilled and intimidated not to be the only adult male in the community. 

I'd been thinking about Kid Kore men for several months, mostly on the subject of "no." The reason for "no" was that I was intending to rebody Kenzo... only finding a body that's skinny and pale enough turns out to be a challenge. 

By December 26, Sylvester, who is the blond gladiator 1280 from Legends of Ancient Lands, had been on eBay for weeks with a 99-cent starting big and no takers. The end of the year is the logical time for sellers to move failed listings to the "donate" bin, and if he's donated it, he'll be somewhere far, far from here. So I bought him for 99 cents.

At the same time, Brodie, who is Chief White Eagle. was given a substantial markdown that would take him below $20 with shipping. He's in good shape and I kind of love his jersey, so I bought him too.

Skinny Ken looks very, very skinny between these boys. (Nude dolls after the jump.)

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.

2023 in Review 1: the great decluttering of Mom's collections

 These are the survivors from decluttering my late mother's extensive doll collection (we are talking over 1000 dolls spread across four rooms!) and my much smaller collection. Obviously, I've bought more dolls this year (at a pace I don't intend to sustain), but that's for another day.

This 2023 recap is a monument to having sold, donated, or given away on FBM so, so many dolls and dollhouses!

Some of my favorite moments:

• In selling the dollhouses and some of the Playmobil, I consistently met delightful buyers who were so excited to get a bargain. One of my happiest afternoons was sitting with two buyers and a box of furniture and accessories that I was letting them have free or cheap, listening to them be delighted over items I'd ceased to care about. This whole process has surely done something to boost dollhouse love among a younger generation. I met a number of lovely people as repeat buyers or freebie takers, too. And the son of one of Dad's friends is now the Playmobil Tycoon of his kindergarten.
• Photographing vintage playsets was fun, and those buyers were nice enough.
• Kelly collectors are adorable, and Kelly lots were the most fun to sell.
• One My Twinn buyer told me about how she chose that doll because it reminded her of a childhood friend. There was also a buyer of over 100 vintage dollhouse dolls who was charming and saved me so much listing and shipping time.

All this stuff is out in the world, giving more joy than it could possibly have given to me alone, even if I'd liked more of it.

The survivors are:

• Fashionista Teresa, who I'd found at a thrift store and given to Mom for a birthday.
• Manbun Ken, my grail doll from the TRU going-out-of-business sale.
• Articulated Kelly, who was a long-time grail doll from Mom's collection and makes a good body comparison doll. I'd originally intended to trade her in for a different doll from the same line, but she grew on me.
• Scarlet the Sparkle Girlz Mini, who I bought in Connecticut. 
• Vinyl dog and white tiger from Mom's collection, because they're cute.
• Felted dog from Target because I was totally taken with those when I bought it.

What I learned was that I'm happiest with a leaner, more focused collection, where I have space and time to make clothes and furniture for them.

A later recap will discuss the dolls I've bought this year, which was definitely a pace I won't be keeping up in future years!

It's a Boy!

 It turns out I don't have a natural talent for flocking doll heads. However, my extra Kid Kore 7.5" doll has now had his gender affirmed as Ben, a boy doll who has socially transitioned and takes his place in the community as Kelsey's younger brother. I've pleased with the match between their hair colors, and I'm close to what I wanted in giving Ben a curly texture.

Kenzo, as the only adult male role model in the community, is ready to take Ben out to play catch.

Next year, I will probably remove and redo the flocking, but hey, let's give it a chance to flake off on its own. Building the crown of Ben's head with flocking so that the little plastic edge didn't make him look like the offspring of a Kappa was quite the project. (Monster High has lost an opportunity here.)

For the next 3 weeks, personal and business travel rule out much in the way of crafting, so this is a good point for calling Ben's transition done and tidying up.

Kenzo babysits Evi Love in her new Dollar Tree finery

 

They have matching outfits!

Dollar Tree got in new winter outfits for their Friends Forever Club dolls, with pants and tights. I grabbed three that seemed most flexible.

My original hope was that they might fit my 6.5" Creata "Today's Girl," who is obviously larger than Kelly but smaller than classic Stacie. However, one look at the pants next to Hilary's legs showed me that I don't have a good eye for doll sizing.

So it was time to try an outfit on Evi Love, who is a little too big for Kelly clothes. The pants are a titch long, but that looks cute on a toddler. Otherwise the top-and-pants (one piece) garment fits great. 

Sleeves on the overshirt are too narrow for Evi's hands. Since these will never see rough play, I took a seam ripper and removed the first couple stitches at the end of the arm. Next time I'm hand-sewing, I'll put a knot to stop the seam from coming undone any further.

Alas, the shoes were not only too small for Evi's solid little feet but also too small for Kelly! So I'm back to square one on finding shoes for Evi, since hot pink is not an all-purpose neutral.

Meanwhile, Kenzo is looking a little stiff. I'm torn between wanting to give him an articulated body transplant ASAP and wanting to postpone decisions about a friend for him (which would need to be in the same AliExpress order) into the new year. Fortunately, apathy and indecisiveness will probably work in favor of the second option.

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.

A tribute to 2016-era Fashionista Kens

Together, we face the future. Stiffly.

These three are the remnant of my Ken Phase, which might have persisted longer if Fashionista Kens of the body-diversity period had articulation -- or clothing packs for Skinny and Broad. I did and do love the concept of the variety, and I think many of the Kens are handsome and have more personality than Kens of Yore. Around late 2021, I had six or seven Kens forming a (highly representative) gay social club, with picnics on my back porch and a pair of skinnies holding hands in ugly Christmas sweaters from Target.

One of the symptoms of my different life on the left coast, after dealing with Mom's clean-but-still-a-hoard collecting, is that Kens are also not clicking with me as they once did. I'd considered rebodying my last three, but the enthusiasm is there for only one of them.

Brown Skinny Ken and Black Broad Ken are good-looking guys, and they'll make some thrift shopper very happy.

My heart will go on.

This leaves Manbun Ken as the sole surviving Ken. This is the Ken that we went to every shutting-down Toys R Us in northern California to find. He is my absolute favorite Ken ever.

Now that the Ken colony is no longer balanced with varied body rep (he's a Skinny), Manbun Ken can be rebodied onto an articulated male body. I'm pretty sure AliExpress sellers have bodies that come this pale, so in my next order (which will probably be in 2024, since Cinderelsa's body won't arrive until mid-November 2023, and my calendar is kind of full until January) will include a new body for this Ken.