And Then There Were 3

I have previously shared the story about how my husband acquired his first Barbie doll. Now I will share the story of how he got his second and third Barbies.

Last week, I had asked my husband to look for the cornrows Fashionistas Ken at Walmart for me. I even texted him a photo and everything. Walmart did not have the Ken that I was looking for. So, I ordered Ken online. He has not arrived yet.

This evening my husband came home, Walmart bag in hand, and said that if I don't want both items in the bag, he would take the one that I don't want. I saw a Barbie box peeking out of the bag, and started clapping. He took the dolls out of the bag, and he had purchased the cornrows Ken and Zig & Zag Barbie Fashionistas.

I told him that I had ordered the Ken online and that the doll was on the way, and that I already own Zig & Zag. He told me "Well, that means I get to keep both of them then." I agreed. He said "That means that they stay in the box." I agreed again. So now my husband has a collection of 3 Mattel dolls, in addition to his Ripcord action figure. His doll collection is becoming quite impressive indeed.

A couple of days ago, I made a slight modification to my Zig & Zag doll. I removed her pink lip color and gave her a more neutral lip color. 

I removed the pink lips with acetone, put lipstick on her, and used top coat nail polish on top of that.

While I had the acetone and clear polish out, I decide to tackle a couple of other small projects that I'd been meaning to get around to. 

The black frames of Calista's glasses had faded and chipped over time. I repainted them with black nail polish and painted over that with clear polish. They look better, but not satisfactory to me. One day (when I finally buy some acrylic paint), I will completely remove all of the nail polish and paint and do a proper repaint of her glasses.

For my Bessie Coleman doll, I did the same thing that I did for Zig & Zag to replace her lip color.

Here is what Bessie looked like before.

 I showed my husband my altered Zig & Zag doll. He was unimpressed. Maybe he prefers his own Zig & Zag doll. I do appreciate him bringing dolls home "for me" tonight, though. That brought a huge smile to my face.

Dolls For My Birthday

Today is my birthday! I've been blessed with another year of life, and I am extremely grateful to be here!

While I'm here, I'm going to celebrate!

I'm going to enjoy all of the gifts that this life has to offer!

And I'm going to treat myself to stuff that I want!

Well, I want a lot of things, but I'll stay on topic here and limit this post to dolls. I've ordered several, hoping that some would arrive on my special day, and they did, so I've had a good time opening my gifts from me to me. Here are my recent arrivals.

A couple of new guys arrived nude - a Ken and an action figure guy. I'll probably attempt my first Ken head swap soon.

American Teen Anthoney has arrived. I already have two American Teen dolls (Benjamin and Dominique), but I wanted Anthoney for his locs. 

American Teen Tara has also arrived.

 I never noticed until recently (or at least I didn't remember) that Tara has a darker skin tone than Dominique. I didn't purchase Anthoney and Tara years ago when I purchased the others because they are so similar, but now I've decided that there is enough of a difference to warrant adding them to my collection. 

 Here, Benjamin and a redressed Dominique pose with the new arrivals. Anthoney and Tara will stay in their boxes for now.

Hasbro and Disney Moanas have arrived. The gift bag is from my husband (it contains non doll related gifts). He didn't know I was getting Moana dolls, and I didn't know about this Moana gift bag, so this was quite a coincidence.

American Girl mini Gabriela has arrived.

Gone With The Wind Prissy has arrived. She will be receiving a new body (one of these days).

Some fashions also arrived. Thank you Black Doll Enthusiast for letting me know that Teen Trends fashions would probably fit Dasia and friends.

Monica loves the outfit, necklace, purse, and drink. Moana loves the shoes. I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to ever find any shoes for Moana, so I was relieved to see these cute big shoes in this fashion pack. Moana is wearing a Curvy Barbie fashion below. I don't think that any of my dolls can wear the earrings,

I saw these cute dresses that come with necklaces and purses (all handmade) while searching for Teen Trends fashions on eBay. The seller was having a Buy 2 Get 1 Free sale, so that's what I did. Winx Club Layla (in the middle) only had one dress, so I decided that she needed a new one.

You'll be seeing all of the new doll arrivals again soon...

Hip Hoodie Ken

Hip Hoodie Ken was my first doll purchase of 2017 (yes, others soon followed).

Here he is out of his packaging. He has a nice looking face and body, and a decent outfit.

Here's a close-up. I'm so happy to see a different AA face mold for Ken, and one that doesn't feature a broad grin.

His hoodie covers his tall hair. His hoodie and shirt are one piece.

Here's a view from the back. His hoodie top attaches with Velcro in the back, and there's a gap at the top. 

This guy can stand around looking handsome, but he can't do much else. His arms and legs can be moved back and forth. Below, I have his arms and legs spread to the side as far as they will go.

I've posed him below in some action figure undies to show a better view of his body. The sculpting of his hollow body is attractive, but it is fairly useless for me without articulation. I hope that Mattel makes more dolls with this sculpt, but with articulation. That would be nice.

Without the ability to bend his knees, it is difficult for him to sit down.

My overall impression is that I'm glad to see a new attractive Ken sculpt, however I'm disappointed in the body. The outfit and shoes are about standard for a Ken fashion. I will be looking for an articulated body for this guy.

In The Minority

My collection consists mostly of Black dolls. In a previous post, I highlighted my Hispanic/Latino dolls. In this post, I highlight my non-Black and non-Hispanic/Latino dolls.

40th Anniversary Ken	Babydoll knock-off on Phicen S02A	Mattel Becky
Talking Presidents William J. Clinton	Liv Daniela	Dollar Store Guy
Fun To Dress Barbie 1988 on DML Amy	Mattel Harry Potter on Obitsu	Happy Family Grandma
Takara Jenny R&B Calendar Girl	Justin Bieber	Mattel Kevin
Phicen PLLB2014-S08 Large Bust Tan	Flavas Liam	Dragon Linh
Momoko	My Scene Kennedy	High School Musical Sharpay
Sideshow Mandy	Star Trek Barbie	Star Trek Ken
Mattel Todd	Ken	Hairspray Tracy Turnblad

 Here is a group photo.

And here is the complete Star Trek set.

Having these dolls out reminded me of something that I've been meaning to do for a while.

I got Liv Daniela from the thrift store last year with one purpose in mind: to give one of my dolls an articulated body. Now Sharpay is posing much better!

Justin Bieber approves of Sharpay's transformation. I think that these two are going to be singing a lot of duets together.