11:22 pm and the Winner is Announced...

And it's ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't believe I won the first Project Dollway at Home challenge. I am so excited. Wow, I just don't know what to say. I'm not used to making acceptance speeches, LOL. Well here is my design.
Well now that the winner has been decided, I can share my pics of my outfit and my thoughts while making it.
Our first challenge was Vintage. My thoughts flew back and forth through the centuries. I love the Victorian and Edwardian clothes, but such a challenge to design for. Then I thought of the era I grew up in........the swinging 60s!!! I loved the boldness of colour and pattern and texture. I knew that was the era I had to design for. Ellowyne Wilde is my model and while splashes of wild colour and patterns don't seem to be in her repertoire, I noticed that she was really smiling when I tried on the vintage 60s outfit I had designed for her. With her darker colouring and her black hair, I think she is going to be the perfect model for this adventure.
So I thought about what I wore in the 60s as a kid and what my older cousins wore. I looked at books and websites and researched and I think I came up with something that will fit my philosophy for Project Dollway at Home(PDW@H). Here is what I sent to the judges with my entry:
I chose the sixties as my vintage era, partly because I grew up in the sixties and loved the variety of styles, from Austin Powers to Flower Children, and partly because of the use of bold colour and wild patterns. Anything seemed to go together in the sixties!!! I would like to take this bold use of colour and build the collection on it by bringing this boldness of colour to the styles of the 21st Century!!!
If you would like to read more about PDW@H please check out this excellent blog: http://projectdollwayathome.blogspot.com/
The PDW@H site is on MySpace, you might have to join to see the entries, but here is the URL: http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewImage&friendID=414135773&albumID=821494&imageID=6537735#a=821494&i=6537735

Doin' the happy dance!!!

Project Dollway at Home

Well, we were supposed to hear this, Sunday, morning who won the first challenge in PDW@H, but there is still no word and it is 8 pm here. Apparently there is one judge still to give their points in. Well I have been busy working on challenge 2 pleats. I think I have a really good design, but construction is really the problem on this one. Very finicky. I guess that is about all I am allowed to say. Would love to post some photos, but no go until the judges have given their votes in.

Maybe some Guild Wars would help, LOL!!!

Just had to share more pics of Pru

Here they are!!!

I won, I won, I won

I'm so excited......I entered a Hallowe'en Costume Challenge and I won!!!
I designed the outfit and dressed Prudence Moody as the cutest little Hallowe'en witch with her cat Esmerelda. They were the Notsowicked Witch and her Notsoblack Cat.
WOOOOOHOOOOOO!!!

A Mystery

I translated the FLC blog today and Kiki talked about it being sewing day on Monday. She also mentioned CCS and Momoko, but the reference wasn't clear as to whether they were sewing Momoko clothes or not. I wonder if they are going to make more OOAK Momokos after the ones they auctioned a couple of weeks ago went for such high prices.

I got my Doll Coordinate Recipe Book last week and looked through the FLC designs. Yup they are makeable even though I don't read Japanese. However I have to get my PDW design finished by the weekend and another Halloween challenge has to be done by the weekend too. So FLC designs will have to wait.

Besides that, the weather is just too nice to be in the sewing dungeon!!!

Reading Blogs

I just finished reading some of the blogs that are written by friends. I am so amazed at the talented writers out there. Wow, they write a blog everyday and it is so interesting and fun, makes me want more, more, more from them. At the left you can see two of my favs, check them out verrrrry interesting reading.

But on the dolly scene....

I had resisted the charms of the Dynamite Girls, but my resolve is beginning to slip. Well let's just say it slipped big time at IFDC this summer. I was not sure about the first DGs, sorry David, but I liked their style and clothing, but they seemed a bit too anime for me. I know this sounds bad coming from a person with hundreds of Jennys and Liccas in her collection, but something didn't click for me. However, when I saw the first FR dolls AND the first Misakis, none of them forced me to rush out and buy them either. For Misaki it was the Patent Please, Sassy Stripes and Get Graphic girls that hollered my name, and in the case of Patent and Graphic they are still hollering, only Sassy has found her way here. In the case of the FR dolls, I thought they all looked like they were have a fainting spell and their eyes were rolling back in their heads. But when the wigged dolls came out, the FR girls seemed to have had some eye surgery. This time I LOVED them and had some catching up to do.

So it was with the Dynamite Girls. When I saw that cute Rufus Blue at IFDC this summer and then Spooky Sooki, I gave up and surrendered to them. So then I went back and looked at the first girls. My daughter had bought one and I realized that she was very cute, not at all anime like she had looked in the pics. So once again catching up with the DGs.

The latest editions, Eltin and Jolly Jett are absolutely stunning.

PDW Day 4

Well here we are into the fourth day of the challenge. I think I know what I am doing and my design is done. Now to draft the patterns. Sorry that's all I can say for now, hehehehe!!!

Project Dollway At Home

For those of you that don't know.....there is a challenge group called Project Dollway. It is the Project Runway of dolly designers. This idea all began about a year ago with Ted Menten hosting the first PDW. There were a number of designers and it worked the same way as PR with eliminations each week. The winner Andrea Jacques is going to have her collection produced. Running at the same time, the people who were watching at home and were brave enough, could do the same challenges as the designers. I actually did two of them. That's one of them to the left. It was the FR challenge and our keyword was moonlight.

Well after PDW finished, we were out there in no man's land........then tada!!! Gabby to the rescue. PDAH is all about home designers. There are 31 designers. There are no eliminations(thank heavens or I would be out the door the first day!!!).

So spurred on by my outfit winning second place(my daughter won first, sheesh) at IFDC this year and the positive comments of many people who saw the outfit, I entered PDAH.

It will be hectic and I don't know if I will get to document all the ups and downs, but I'll start. There will be twelve challenges, all one word. When we got our first clue...VINTAGE...I really didn't know what to think. I read all the posts on the group list and I still didn't know what to think. I have been thinking and thinking and I have kind of an idea forming, but we only have two weeks to complete the design and sew it into existence. Well I'll give it a try because it sounds like fun and fun is what this challenge is all about according to our fearless leader Gabby!!!

So as to not give away anything, I think we are supposed to post our thoughts on the challenge after the due date for each challenge..........I'd better get a pen and paper, well maybe I don't want to remember some of these thoughts!!! LOL!!!

Here we go..............

Well then I forgot to mention Licca too......

When I first started collecting Jenny, I thought that Licca was her little sister, a la Barbie and Skipper. Not so. Licca is a personality unto herself although she is made by the same company as Jenny. http://www.larraine.ca/index.htm

Licca came into exsitence in the 1960s. She is 11 years old. The list of dolls in Licca's family include her parents, twin sisters Miki and Maki, triplet siblings, Gen, Kako and Miku, and her long lost older sister, Rie(who is an airline stewardess). There are also Licca's grandparent and several cousins. Licca also has a large number of friends, boyfriends, maids, her music teacher and her doctor.

Now as I said above, Licca is definitely a different personality from Jenny's family. In fact Licca's life story has been written more fully than Jenny's and can be viewed here: http://www.larraine.ca/liccalife.htm

On Licca's 30th Anniversary, three very unique sets were made, http://www.larraine.ca/anniversary.htm . These sets depicted Licca at different stages of her life. The Stages were 1967, Licca's birth;

1970 Kindergarten Licca/Birthday Party Licca/Licca's first kimono;

1981 Licca enters High School and is the High School Tennis Champ/Goes to her first dance;

1988 Licca at College/Graduate party/ Diplomatic core;

1992 Marriage;

1997 Licca is a Mother.

The Sets came in three versions, Blue, Pink and Yellow(yellow was the hardest to find).

There was also a separate Pregnant Licca set, with Licca and baby, sold.

Did I forget to mention Jenny???

Well, it started with Barbie and then moved to Jenny. Yes, I at one time collected Jenny dolls too. She was my first venture away from Barbie into the world of Asian fashion dolls. I was fascinated by this cute little doll with her cool clothes and for me, sometimes the most intriguing part of the collection, all those wonderful friends. I soon became a member of Biscuit's Club and couldn't find enough Jenny and friends. Now you have to remember that this was back in the dark ages of doll collecting.......NO EBAY!!! So though a publication called Collector's United, I found a lady in Japan who had a monthly auction of Japanese dolls......in particular--Jenny!!!

I bought many dolls from this lady and then suddenly the auctions just stopped. It was a Jenny desert for a couple of years before eBay took up the slack. Around that time Helene was bringing her wonderful Jenny site to a close. I just couldn't imagine letting all that information go offline, so I asked if I could move it over to my barbigirl site. Helene very graciously agreed and here is sits today: http://www.barbigirl.com/jennyhome.htm

Since the discovery of Momoko, Susie and Misaki, Jenny has fallen into decline. I haven't kept up with her as much as I would have liked. I think I owe it to her to get my rear in gear and update her section of the website.

For those of you who don't know her, Jenny is a 17-year-old high school student from Los Angeles (born on August 1st under the sign of the Leo). Her father is a film producer and her mother is a designer. She's a cheerleader at school, but she also has modelling experience and has made her debut as an actress in musicals. Jenny is good at all kinds of sports and especially likes horse-riding, scuba-diving, and aquatics.

Jenny began her career in 1981 under the name Barbie. It seems that at that time, for some reason, Mattel's Barbie was very popular in almost every country in the world, except Japan (maybe she looked too grown-up and glamorous?). That's why Mattel decided to collaborate with a Japanese company to develop a special Barbie, adapted to Japanese children's taste, exclusively for the Japanese market. The first result of their efforts was the doll known as Takara Barbie, and when Mattel withdrew their license in 1986, Takara changed her name to Jenny.

Today I have over 100 Jennys, hmmm, maybe more.

More Website work and some knitting and other dolly stuff

I think I am going to overhaul this whole darned website top to bottom. Now I am re-vamping Susie's pages. Oh well I always said it was a work in progress.

Speaking of which, I am now knitting sweaters in 11.5 and 16 inch scales. I got this pattern for this very cute Christmas tree ornament which is a little sweater. However when I knit it up, it is 1/6 th scale, but the needles they called for were so big, that the stitches are very large, so now I am in the process of re-working the pattern and trying to figure out how to use smaller needles and get the proper size. This is no mean feat as I have actually no idea what I am doing. This will be an interesting project...hehehehe!!!

I got an email from the Sekuguchi website yesterday and the meanings are mostly lost in the translations, but it appears that there is going to be yet another exhibition of Momokos. Looks like this time they are about the history of the kimono and how modern girls are updating the Yukata, Kimono dress and bringing it into the 21st Century. I would love to see that as I do really like Japanese traditional clothing. Really I love all traditional clothing, and I did like the Barbie Dolls of the World that were issued from 1980 to 2000 and now being issued again. I collected all of them and just picked up the two that were issued this year Spain and Indonesia. R&D Fashion dolls put out several beautiful dolls in traditional Thai costumes a couple of years ago with their Legend of Thai series: http://www.barbigirl.com/legendthai.htm

I really am a sucker for dolls in historic or traditional costumes. The picture is Sukothai Muse from R&D's Legend of Thai series.

Juku Couture

A friend emailed a few weeks ago to say he had found the cutest little dolls at his local Target store. They were called Juku Couture and there were four of them. Of course I scanned the "net" and yup there they were. Cute as a button with very cool clothes, they are reminiscent of the J-Dolls. So I ordered all four of them. (back row Jun(l) and Kana; front row Audrina(l) and Hayley)
They finally arrived this week. They are made by Jakks Pacific. They are about 10" tall, about the size of my re-bodied Mamemomokos on the Volks mini body. They are fully articulated, however the joints are a bit loose, but even that doesn't stop them from standing on their own. The biggest thing I have against them are those eyes. They have the "deer in the headlights" stare. If the eyes could be toned down these gals would be really cute. Note the pic of Audrina close up. However they are the right size for the Rement house too and can join the rebodied Mames as roomies.
At approx $20.00 a doll, not a bad price either. The four dolls are Audrina from Los Angeles, Hayley from Sweden, Jun from South Korea and Kana from New York. They are all in their first year of High School. Here is their page: http://www.barbigirl.com/othersmall.htm#juku

Knitting for dolls

I love to knit and I just found the coolest shop that stocks tiny needles and sock wool. Sock wool is the best scale for knitting for dolls, especially 11.5 and 16 inch dolls.

For those of you who don't knit, but can sew, a really cool tutorial was just posted on a list I'm on about sewing sweaters from socks. Even though I can knit, I thought I might just like to try this out.

Here it is: http://tinyurl.com/3f82uv

FLC dolls

The FLC auctions on Yahoo are done and my friend lost the doll. Sheesh, I don't even have the priveledge of saying: "I know someone who owns one of those dolls". Three of the dolls ended over $5,000.00. Now where did I put the FLC pattern book.................

The Momoko Section of my site has been revamped

Well, the main page was getting longer and longer and I know some folks were waiting forever for that page to load, so I decided it was time for a little work. Well it took a week, but the Momoko section has a faster sleeker look. It now includes all the Momokomono(clothing) as well from each year. The dolls are now grouped by year as well. Take a look: http://www.barbigirl.com/momoko.htm
I am still working on the OOAK page, that will take some work and I might have to shed a few tears over the FLC dolls I couldn't buy. Oh well, at least someone I know has a really good chance of getting one. He is top bidder with 8 hours to go. She's not his first choice, but what the heck, she's an FLC.
And I got some positive feedback when I suggested I just might start making FLC outfits myself to some friends, they all said they'd buy them. Well I got that cool material today...............

Yahoo...13 hours to go

I just check on the FLC doll that I really, really wanted and yeah, not going to happen.......she is at 501,000 yen, which is approximately $5,000!!!!!!!!! OMG, this person must be made of money. Either that or this is the first doll they have bought and they are spending all their life savings on it.......go figure. I'm off to find the Doll Coordinate recipe book. Got some really cool remnants at the fabric shop today. Design time!!!

Two new Wake Up Girls

Yesterday I got an email from Sekiguchi announcing their two new Wake Up Momoko dolls, numbers 003 and 004. I didn't get 1 and 2 because they just didn't appeal to me. They were kind of boring, but with most Momoko dolls, even the boring tend to grow on you and you find yourself looking back and thinking, why didn't I buy those girls. Well that happened the other day when I was looking at an auction for the WUD clothing and I thought, you know these ARE really cute. So I guess I will have to go and find 1 and 2 and put my order in for 3 and 4. They are actually cuter than 1 and 2, but don't tell Momoko!!!

I would imagine that a new set of outfits for these two new girls will be produced too. After all there are only three WUD outfits and now 4 girls to wear them. Haven't heard anything about them though.

These gals too, are lower in price(approx. $60 as opposed to $135 for the regular dolls) and just might make perfect candidates for those FLC OOAKs I talked about in an earlier post...........I'm getting that hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm feeling again!!!

FLC Auction over, second set up

Well, I watched and watched and the price soared on my FLC fav from round 1. She went for 280000 yen, which is approximately $2500!!! OK that's a little too much when I only paid that for BOTH DHEXl and DHEXs. So now I am watching and watching the second set of FLC on Yahoo Japan and my fav(that's her pic up there) this time is already up to 81000 yen(about $800) and this is only the first day. The one I like the least is at 31000, so I just might bid on a doll I don't care for just to say I got and FLC........hmmmmm. My daughter is really good at repaints and re-roots and I can sew really well and have the fourth Doll Coordinate Recipe book, so maybe I will just have to make an FLC of my own!!!

Auction is over...but another is still running

Well Auction #5 is over and I sold lots of stuff, but not enough to cover what I would love to bid on now. Four Leaf Clover(Japanese designer) is auctioning off their Reality clothes on OOAK Momokos. There are 10 dolls, 5 are being auctioned now and I am sorely tempted to bid on one this time. Yes that is her picture. But her bid is $600 already and with 19 hours to go. What a conundrum!!! Do I bid on this gal or wait for my other favourite to come up and hope that all the rich bidders dropped their cash in the first round. I would just love to have a OOAK Momoko and FLC has some really cool clothes going on with these gals.

Red Rabbit

OK I swiped these photos from Toms Toys and Goods, but just had to post this gal, she is stunning.

Back to Dolls..........Misaki or FR Nippon

In 2006 a spinoff line of the Fashion Royalty line began. Originally intended to be W Cosmetics models in Japan, Misaki made her debut in three versions: Puppy Love, Casual Affair, and Harajuku Honey. While cute, Misaki did not apeal to me at first. As I said, she was cute and that's where it ended. There was no appeal to these first girls, for me. To date I still do not have these dolls.

Then came the first exclusives for the Dollystyle Convention. Two Tokyo Here We go dolls debuted. The blonde in the black dress was stunning and is still my Holy Grail of Misaki. The redhead in the white dress for me was so, so, but I wouldn't turn her down if I could get her.

So now I was hooked on Misaki. I eagerly awaited the new line and it was all I dreamed of. In my opinion it still is the best line of Misaki. My first Misaki was from this line, Sassy Stripes. I never managed to get the other two gals from this line, Get Graphic or Patent Please. These Misakis are what she is all about to me. I love their look, makeup, fashion, everything about them. I would still love to find them, reasonably priced somewhere, but they are running way to high right now...even nude would do!!!

Misaki has proved to be a bit of a conundrum for me. She is very difficult to get(as all the Nippon dolls are proving to be) and she is very pricey. So I have been picky about Misaki and only purchased those dolls that were VHTF or just plain appealed to me. Also all these dolls so far were produced in 2006, so many dolls not enough dollars!!!

Next came the Haute Doll Exclusive Metallic Moment, followed by Autumn Champagne, Best in Brocade, and Perfect in Paris. My next purchase of Misaki didn't come until Anti-Social Girl. I didn't purchase Dreadfully Cute, black, blue or pink. I did purchase Ciao Japan which was an exclusive to the DollyStyle Convention.

In 2007, the Misaki line brought out the beach girls, clad in bikini outfits. To me their outfits were a disappointment. I love Misaki's cool, edgy style and this was tantamount to Barbie in the early days. Yes I understand that it is good to have a Misaki that you don't mind taking off her outfit and redressing, but I didn't buy any of these gals. I redress my dressed Misakis already, I wanted clothes, not bathing suits. I must admit that I did find Summer Storm very applealing, but once again, very unattainbale.

My next purchase was Pretty Sweet Misaki and I must say she is pretty sweet. Lovely face and hair and cool outfit. She was followed by the Destination Line: On the go Paris, On the go New York, On the Go Milan, On the Go London and On the Go Tokyo. For me this was not my favourite line. I found the wild hair colours and the even louder colours of the clothing not to my liking at all. I did buy On the Go Tokyo as she was a Japan exclusive. The others just didn't appeal to me.

In 2008, the second Misaki in the "Pretty" line debuted. This was Pretty Party and a very pretty doll she was indeed. I didn't purchase her as she was pricey and I am saving my pennies for those mod gals. Then Misaki blew the lid off of things again and brought out a line that I thought was the second coolest yet...A Girl's Life: Trendy, Posh and Crazy(of course in two version). I surprised even myself when Trendy and Crazy(and NOT the exclusive edition) caught my attention and came to live with their sisters. They are secretly conspiring right now to get Posh back. You see she came to live here too, but was kidnapped by my doll collecting daughter.

Then this fall, Misaki got it right again....darn I hate that, LOL. Another terrific line debuted, the Gothic Dreams line. Wow is all I can say......well maybe a bit more. Five Misakis and a Misaki friend make up the line. Misaki: The Outsider, Witchie, Witch(she's begging for a re-dress, but those boots are incredible), and Pure Evil(my least favourite, too white, too blonde, LOL). Misaki's new friend is called Amelie and what a sweetie she is. I love everything about her. Finally there are two exclusive Misakis: Paranormal Willow, love the face, but not the open mouth so much and leaving the best until last...........RED RABBIT. In my opinion, the very best Misaki of this latest line.

A Wild and Crazy Weekend!!!

Wow after a busy weekend, Doll Club meeting and Tupperware party......it's time to run Auction Fever #5. Well if you are tired of eBay and who isn't these days, then join us at: http://www.dolls4sale.net/index.htm

There are over 100 doll related items for sale on the site this time. Dolls ranging from FR, Momoko, Misaki, Yuri, Kumi, Jenny, Lost Angels and more. There is clothing and accessories as well.

Just a Pet Peeve

Ah, Friday night........sushi for dinner, Starbucks afterwards and reading my emails for a little relaxation before I start posting the auctions. What's this........grrrrr, why do people have to write their email addresses like they are talking to complete idiots. Email has been around for a while, how stupid do they think we are. This is what I mean: On a list a person writes, if you are interested please contact me at: blahblahblah at hotmail dot com(no spaces and "at" is @ and "dot" is the period). OMG, wouldn't it just be easier to write blahblahblha@hotmail.com
And voila, the email turns that into a clickable link. Hmmmmm do you think I should write to the person and tell them.........some people!!!

Over the Rainbow with Momoko

Lucky can't describe what it means to own these beauties. For Momoko 7 event Petworks and Sekiguchi(again PW head, Seki body) collaborated on this incredible set of rainbow coloured Momokos. I managed to secure myself one of these sets through my fabulously lucky "Man in Tokyo". There are only 10 sets worldwide of these dolls. I'm still taking pics of them to add to my site.

Next to join the collection...FR

http://www.barbigirl.com/fashionroyalty.html









I really discovered the Fashion Royalty dolls when I attended my first IFDC in 2006. I had seen the dolls on eBay, but they looked to me as if they were going into a seizure with those eyes looking like they were rolling back in their heads. Plus they were not as articulated as Momoko and Susie. So I said no to FR.

When I got into the salesroom at IFDC, I saw the new line for 2006. Eyes were much more to my liking and articulations were just like Momoko and Susie. I was smitten and I bought one of each character that I could find. The clothing was fantastic when I actually saw it first hand. Such attention to detail and fabulously couture. Then my friend introduced me to his friend Jason Wu. Very quickly I realized that this young super talented young man was the artistic force driving these dolls. What a super nice person he is too.

Well my FR collection has grown too, but I have put limits on this collection like no other. Due to the fact that there is such a wonderful storyline and so many characters, I decided that one of each character would be the limit. It just didn't seem right to have 4 Veroniques, which one was the real one...would the real Veronique Perrin please stand up. No, just didn't seem right. This quickly became a problem because every year a newer and more beautiful Vero would arrive. So, if I like the newer one, it's out with the old and in with the new, just like a person growing and changing, the dolls in the collection do too. To date the only doll to undergo a change is Isha. I bought the first convention one and then sold her to my daughter to buy the Rare Find Isha. Now I love the Purple Pose Isha, look out Rare Find!!!

So to date the W Cosmetics group includes: Veronique Perrin, her sister Vanessa Perrin, Adele Makeda, Isha Kalpana Narayanan, Agnes von Weiss, Eugenia Perrin Frost, Luchia Z.

Missima Cosmetics: Natalia Fatale, and the new face lifted Natalia Fatale(IFDC Convention doll), Kyori Sato.

Nu Face Agency: Lukas Maverick, Giselle Diefendorf, Erin Salston, Nadja R., Ayumi Nakamura, Colette Duranger.

Then there are the men, who knows where their loyalties lie, but I think Pierre Devries is for Vero; Darius Reid is smitten with Kyori and Francisco Leon...who knows about him!!! Well all three are a part of my collection now.

Finally, the Dollystyle exclusives that Jason Wu collaborated on with Momolita(Yuri) and Love Sound(Kumi). They are the Fantasy exclusives. Yuri is now part of my collection. She is Red Riding Hood. Her twin sister Kumi will be Wild Wolf Kumi. That's Yuri's stock pic at the top of the page.

So the page at the top is the beginnings of the FR section of my site. It needs to rain around here and make me stay inside and work on the site......alas the weather is beautiful and the pool is calling!!!

After a long break..........

Wow, what happened to the summer AND the fall for that matter. You would think I had actually returned to school, I go so bogged down. Well I did return to visit on the first Friday and bring the staff treats. They wanted to know if I was there to visit or gloat!!! It was fun to see everyone and to visit my students from last year in their new Grade 7 classes. Out of that visit spun off requests to have coffee, go to the gym, all of which kept me busy.

They we had the hassle of finding a new barn helper. Wow, that is an education in itself. Well, that left me doing barn work. But we did find one, however she is so fast, I don't think we have enough work to keep her happy. Only problem with this one, is that she is here early and leaves early and won't come back to feed lunch, which pretty well messes up my days as now I am on lunch duty every weekday.

This week I must set up the pages for our new auction on Auction Fever. Wow, whoever said retirement was lying around doing nothing, was NOT retired!!!

An Observation

I was doing my long overdue search for selling prices on eBay and Yahoo Japan this morning in order to update my very in need of an updating, Value Guide for Momoko. Much to my surprise I found many Momokos and very few bids. Out of 11 pages of listings there were only bids on 15 dolls. I hope it is the summer bidding doldrums that are still affecting the bidding market. Nothing seems to be selling. Is it summer or is it the fact that collectors are pricing themselves out of the market by asking such exhorbitant prices for Momokos. Personally I wouldn't pay the prices they are asking for the latest dolls and I'm wondering if everyone else is beginning to feel the "pinch" from these high prices. For example Tin Girl sold for 19000 Japan Yen(about $185.00US), she is on Yahoo Japan for upwards of 30000 Yen. Did these people just buy the dolls to flip them, hmmmm, well if they did, it isn't working out. Right now Dorothy seems to be the only doll in demand. There are three on YJ from 2100 to 30000 Yen, quite a price range.

More from Susie

I should also mention here, seriously I was so tired on my last post......spent 12 hours at a horse show!!! I forgot to mention that even though Susie has been taking a holiday from travelling around the world and modelling, she has continued to produce fabulous designs for her adoring fans. Susie has a RTW wardrobe that meets all her needs. Here is a list of Susie's designs:
Spring Bouquet in lilac or green or mauve pink
Summer Crisp
Fall Fashion - a Burberry type coat, with jeans and matching top
Winter Fashion - knit mini dress, brown solid top with brown/white striped skirt
Denim Blues
Fur Finishings - black/white or brown/black
Midnight Sparkle
Sparkling White
Ying Yang Mei Mei - black or white
Berry Lolita Red
Berry Lolita Pink
Detroit Mod
Gray Matters
Austrian Tea Blue
Austrian Tea Red
A Touch of Pink
Spring Fleur - pale blue or dark blue or pink or purple

If You Knew Susie...

Somewhere in the Madness of Momoko, sometime in 2003 another lovely doll became available to collectors...Susie!!!
I remember my Mom singing a song that went: If you knew Susie like I know Susie, oh, oh, oh what a gal. There's none so classy as this fair lassie oh, oh, oh my goodness what a chassis. It was catchy, but I remember thinking what the heck was a chassie. Well turns out a chassis is a body. Well our Susie fit that song to a "T" and that is why my site devoted to her is called If you knew Susie... http://www.barbigirl.com/susie.htm

Well if you knew Susie like I know Susie, you would LOVE her too. She has a sophisticated innocence. She is lovely to look at, delightful to pose and her wardrobe is immpecable. Rudi and David, her creators made us a dream when they brought Susie into our world.

Susie came into being in 2003 and her first incarnation was China Girl Blonde, followed by China Girl Redhead and the very HTF China Girl Raven.

I knew Susie would be a doll I would want to add to my collection. I love the premise of this doll:

Susie is a 21-year old aspiring fashion designer who attends classes at the San Francisco School of Design and works as a fashion model in her spare time. In the current tradition of single name supermodels, Susie, divides her time between designing clothes and modeling them on the high style runways of New York, Paris, London, and Tokyo. Susie is a truly a multicultural girl. A San Francisco native, Susie is the daughter of a Spanish-American mother and a Chinese-American father, and has visited her parents’ homelands on several occasions.

Each Susie doll is made as if she were doing some special occasion or a photo shoot from fabulous locations round the world. To date Susie has visited: London, Paris, Milan, The Riviera, Provence, Ibiza, Madrid, Seville, Siberia, China, Beijing, Shanghai, Taipei, Hong Kong, Hanoi, Seoul, Tokyo, Kyoto, Sydney, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York. She has many more destinations listed on her to do map http://www.rnddolls.com/site/susie.htm but she seems to be taking a bit of a well deserved holiday right now and letting her other siblings, S Deluxe and the Angels take the limelight for a while. In each of the cities listed above Susie came with a fabulous, meticulously made outfit specific to the style of that city. Her clothing is amazing and I wish R&D made them in human size!!!
Special Susies were also available, such as the Legend of Thai series and the Egyptian Queen Susie, as well as the Fantasy Susies. There have also been a number of collaborations with repaint artists and one particularly gorgeous Susie done with Randal Craig for IFDC 2007.

I was fortunate enough to win a OOAK Susie repaint by Park. She is sensational.

Susie is a wonderful doll and hopefully she will soon come out of her semi-retirement and set the world of collecting on it's collective ear again with her knock out looks and her fabulous sense of style.

At the Horse Show

We have been back and forth to the horse show and I really haven't had much time to continue the saga of doll collecting a la me!!!

More Momokos

As production of the Sekiguchi Momokos got into full swing by the Fall of 2005, Petworks made another announcement. They were going to issue a new line of clothing for Momoko called Close Clipped Sheep. Then yet another even more astounding announcement, they were also going to do a Collaboration Momoko with the Sekiguchi company. Oh original Momoko collector's delight, a PW Momoko!!! This doll would have the original PW head on a Sekiguchi body. The first offering was 2005AW Victorian Nature, with either blonde or red hair. How cool we all thought......I wonder if Seki thought that too. For lo and behold in the Spring of 2006, PW announced two more dolls, 2006SS Hazy Wind with orange or platinum hair. When Autumn of 2006 rolled around and collectors were presented with two more dolls by PW, we began to see a trend forming here. This offering was 2006AW Odd Girl Out, brunette or redhead...I wonder if Sekuguchi saw this coming. Now we have Sekiguchi in competition with PW, but not in competition because they are collaborating, oh my, it was getting really confusing. Well if the Seki company was being taken for a ride by PW, I began to feel the same way. Once we had PW giving us Momokos two maybe three times a year. Now Seki and PW seemed to be in some kind of a contest to see who could throw the most Momokos at us. Into the bargain, PW Momokos started around $150.00. So on it went, one company or the next bringing out specials, collaborations, Doll Show dolls...Sekiguchi acting like the owners of Momoko and PW looking like they never sold her. Just for fun, PW rounded out 2006 with two kimono Momokos.
In January of 2007 PW announced Bonus Truck sets, I think I heard cheers from Momoko fans and collective groans from their pocketbooks!!!
During 2007(not counting specials)PW produced 13 Momokos and Sekiguchi produced 10. So far in 2008 PW has produced 18 Momokos and Sekiguchi 3...what's up???
Is this a trend, is PW taking back the production of Momoko? At any rate, there are far too many Momokos being produced and they are becoming far too expensive. Also what is the point of these variations. For example, the 2008 Yukatas, Rose Chocolate came in a variation and the only difference was the colour of her shoes, same with Petit Macarron. Oh and Petit Macarron came in a special variation haircolour for the Momoko 7 event. So why is PW putting on a Momoko 7 event, shouldn't Sekiguchi, the owners of Momoko be celebrating that. Oh boy I'm confused.
My take, I think Manabe Watanabe wants Momoko back and is slowly taking her back, with a Sekiguchi body(evil laugh), can SAJ bodies be in Momoko's future???

Momoko: A New Era

So began the new Sekiguchi era of Momoko: http://www.barbigirl.com/sekiguchi.htm

At first I was very disappointed in the Seki Momoko. I didn't feel the quality that PW had put into the dolls was there anymore. Her face was not as cute and impish as it had been. But being a die-hard Momoko fan, I decided to continue. I perservered through Glitter Night and asked myself, why did I buy Go 4 Victory??? My interest in Momoko was flagging as each season the Sekiguchi company would flood us with more mediocre dolls. Oh yes there were really sweet ones like Snow White, Dash After School and Mama Told Me. But for the most part the dolls were not PW dolls. I didn't like the new body either. The joints seemed narrow and made Momoko look awkward. Momoko's complexion was often "off". She seemed gray or over-blushed. Then Seki began bringing out Specials and Collaborations. The Collaborations were usually OOAK and virtually impossible to get. The Specials were the same doll with perhaps a variation in colour of her hair or outfit. Also the price of the dolls began to climb higher and higher and what was supposed to be a more affordable doll began to be as expensive as the original Momoko had been. Momokoville was becoming a confusing and expensive venture!!!

A Momoko Footnote

Momoko not only brought the joy of collecting a fabulous doll, she also brought a connection to two people that would eventually become two of the very best friends a person could ever hope for. Somehow, and it escapes me now, but in my quest for Momoko I was magically lead to R&D Fashion Dolls. http://www.rnddolls.com/ There I "met" through the internet, Rudi and David, two of the nicest people I have ever had the pleasure to know. We corresponded and Rudi did his utmost to help me track down many of the very hardest to find Momokos. It is because of Rudi that my collection is so complete. I had the opportunity to meet Rudi and David when I first attended IFDC in 2006. We had so much fun with them and Rudi has continued to be my Momoko Man.......hmmm not to mention a few other dolls, LOL, but that is another post!!!

Momoko

Momoko was first produced by the Petworks company. The first two Momokos produced in 2000 were the DHEXl and DHEXs. I didn't discover Momoko until 2002 and it took me some time to catch up on the "older" dolls. But I have achieved my goal and today have all the Momokos produced by Petworks before they sold the rights to Momoko to the Sekiguchi company. My website at: http://www.barbigirl.com/momoko.htm will show you why I have earned the title: The Momoko Queen.

The first PW(read PetWorks) Momokos were truly delightful. Their faces were very appealing...cute, impish, innocent...Momo had it all. The body used was the Takara SAJ body and while not as flexible as the newer bodies, was far more appealing to me. Momoko's skin colour was always a pleasant natural colour and she was very well dressed in the latest Japan fashion.

Momoko soon became my passion and I eagerly awaited each new season of Momokos. Anywhere from 2 to 5 dolls were produced for Spring/Summer(SS) or Autumn/Winter(AW). At first the dolls were numbered as year and name so 02DD was a Daisy D made in 2002. Momoko became hugely popular and it was a challenge, because of small issue numbers to track down quite a few of the dolls. One edition 04RXb, http://www.barbigirl.com/momoko.htm#rxb was made in an edition of 10 dolls worldwide!!! Dolls introduced at Doll Shows were even more difficult to acquire. Yahoo Japan became my second home!!!

PW also produced a number of OOAK dolls in conjunction with various design studios. Then there were the Bonus Truck dolls and it is possible that even PW doesn't know the edition size of those dolls.

As Momoko collecting became a frantic search for the elusive dolls, PW made an astounding announcement:

On October 12, 2004, the Petworks company announced that their wildly popular Momoko doll would be made by the Sekiguchi company. It was the end of an era for Momoko collectors. Here is was Manabe Watanabe(Momoko's inventor) had to say:
Thank you everyone for your support after the end of Momoko production at the end of August 2004. Thank you also for your many ideas and opinions on how to “improve” Momoko. After many meetings with both doll companies we announce that Momoko will be sold again in the Spring of 2005. We will make a doll that will make all of our customers happy. We hope you will continue to give us your opinions and we can keep building together to make a most fortunate Momoko doll. Wishing you good luck in everything you do, Manabe.
News of the 1/6 scale real fashion doll Momoko. Petworks is very grateful to everyone for their patronage. We announce that Momoko will be selling in the Spring of 2005 and will be produced by the Sekiguchi Doll Company. Momoko will have new style but her name will still be 1/6 scale real fashion doll Momoko doll. She will by approximately 27 cm tall, will have a resin, jointed body. The estimated value of each doll will be 8,190 Yen including tax. Momoko will be dressed in up to date fashions.
The Momoko that will debut in Spring 2005 will appeal to a wider age range of customers. We hope that many new fans will come to Momoko, but we hope that her “old” fans will continue to support her.

So then I found...

Well along with the plethora of items on eBay, I also found Yahoo groups. I looked for groups about dolls and there was Biscuitsclub, a group about Jenny the Japanese answer to Barbie. Jenny was more anime looking than Barbie, but she was adorable. She had a cool boyfriend too called Jeff and dozens of friends. So began the Jenny section of my now huge Barbie/Dollhouse collection. http://www.barbigirl.com/jennyhome.htm

Well then I discovered Jenny had what I thought at first was a little sister Licca. Well it turns out that Licca is a different character all together and has a huge family and friend base herself. http://www.larraine.ca/index.htm

I collected both Jenny and Licca quite fervently in the nineties. I also added another couple of Japanese dolls. First I found the adorable BG You dolls. Wonderful renditions of Japanese school children. http://www.mallaby.ca/bgyou.htm I have the whole group but for one outfit. These dolls are extremely hard to find and even Yahoo Japan has had none listed for some time now.

Then in 2000, Biscuitsclub introduced me to a new gal on the market...Momoko. Wow, she took me by storm. I had to have her. Momoko is still my favourite doll...however Misaki is catching up.

It's raining...again

So here it is still supposed to be summer. It's cold and it's raining and my kitty is not feeling well. Make that two of my kitties.

When collector meets eBay

Yeah there it was.....eBay. It looked very interesting so I typed in Barbie......wow!!! There were two whole pages of Barbie dolls. So I tried another word.......dollhouse. Three dollhouses appeared and lo and behold one of them was my childhood house. OK that was it, I bid and I got it. So eBay started me off on another passion. As time went by, eBay became a collector's way of life. In the beginning there were no snipers, no scammers. It was just good old, buy it and sell it. The first things I ever bought on eBay was a Barbie called Soda Fountain Sweetheart. Now several thousand dolls and numerous dollhouses later, I still go to eBay to look for rarities, but I don't buy as much as I did in those beginning years. eBay has become a bit of a nightmare with all their rules and regulations and then there's the snipers and the scammers to contend with now. I'll admit it, I've had to become a sniper. If you really want something you have to snipe these days. I've even resorted to eSnipe as you can't snipe fast enough it seems and still I get outbid on a lot of items that I really, really want!!!
Recently I set up a site for people wanting to buy and sell dolls and doll related items without the eBay hassle. We are taking a break for the summer. Check it out, you might like it. http://www.dolls4sale.net/

All Dolled Up

All Dolled Up is the name of my site at http://www.barbigirl.com

Ever since I received my first Barbie way back in the Dark Ages, I have been a doll collector. At first it was OK to collect dolls because I was a kid. However when I turned thirteen my mother told me there would be no more dolls for Christmas or birthdays...I was too old for dolls. So I packed all of my dolls, Barbie included away in boxes and hid them in the basement. During my teens I tried to forget about dolls, but I still loved to see them in the toy store, when we shopped for younger siblings and relatives. After I was married and my girls were old enough for dolls, I thought I would give them my dolls. This however brought a resurgence of my repressed "doll collector" fever and I decided to buy the girls some Barbies of their own.

So my dolls made their way to a small closet in my study...I had become a closet collector. My family thought I was slightly crazy...an adult with dolls. About a week after I set up my dolls, my neighbour Anita came over for coffee. The cupboard door was open and she saw them. Anita literally screamed....OMG you have your Barbies......I have mine too. I'm taking them out and putting them on the shelf. And thus began Anita and my excellent adventure into doll collecting for real.

We managed to find a publication called Collectors' United, because we were still in the infancy of the Internet and eBay hadn't been born yet. Through snail mail we gathered together more Barbies and other fashion dolls. My dolls made their way out of the closet and into the rec room.

It was a slow process, but then one day something called eBay appeared on my computer screen.