You take the good, you take the bad

There's going to be trouble...

Mego has released an 8 inch Tootie Ramsey from The Facts Of Life doll.

Here she is released from her packaging.

This doll is an official limited addition action figure with 14 points of articulation. Below, she holds her composition book.

This doll does not resemble the television character to me. I asked my husband if he sees a resemblance, and he thinks that the doll resembles a young Kim Fields slightly. He said "She has that cute little overbite".

I do not normally collect Mego figures because I collect 1/6 scale figures, so Tootie is undersized compared to the dolls that I normally collect. I knew that at 8 inches, Tootie would be smaller than the tweens in my collection. It would have been preferable to have a figure a little bit taller that could accurately represent a 12 year old. Even if the Tootie doll had skates like the TV character did the first year of the TV series, she would still be shorter than the other tween dolls pictured below.

I took the chance that Tootie would make a good 1/6 scale child because another one of my Mego figures works perfectly as a child in my collection, and that's Buckwheat. 

I was hoping that with this Tootie doll's youthful appearance, she would work well as a 1/6 scale child. Tootie is about the height of Mattel's Janet, Todd, and friends.

Tootie's school uniform is fairly well made. She has on a white shirt, a skirt and matching vest, black shoes, and a blue tie. Her blue socks are painted on, as well as her panties.

Tootie does not really work well as a 1/6 scale child doll because she has a mature body. Here's a look at her articulation below. She has articulation at the wrists, elbows, knees, ankles, and torso.

I thought about rebodying the Tootie head on one of my tween dolls' bodies. Tootie is a skin tone match for Juku Couture Kana. The Juku Couture body is able to wear Tootie's uniform, including the shoes. Tootie's head is a bit small for that body, though. I'm going to keep Tootie as she is.

Tootie's hair is cute. It is parted down the middle and styled in 2 ponytails. I won't ever be able to restyle the hair however, because the head is not rooted in the areas underneath the ponytails.

Here she is seated. Her legs do not stay closed when she sits.  

 She poses fairly well.

Tootie has a special visitor in her classroom - GI Jane Vietnam Nurse. Perhaps it's career day.

My overall impression is that this is a decent doll. I was excited to add a Tootie doll to my collection because I loved the TV series The Facts Of Life growing up, and loved the character Tootie as portrayed by Kim Fields. I could tell by the advertisements that the doll would not look much like the Tootie that I know and love, but wanted this representation anyway. I am pleased with the articulation at the elbows, knees, ankles, and torso. I am disappointed with the painted-on socks and sparsely rooted hair. For folks who like to leave dolls in their packaging, I think that they will love this collectible doll. She displays well in her packaging. Mine is going to have plenty of playtime, though.

Obitsu Harry

My girl dolls have been in an uproar.  The number of girls here exceeds the number of boys, and they have been demanding that I add more boys to my collection to make things right.  I am sympathetic to their plight.  I went to my Bin of Forgotten Dolls and retrieved a Mattel Harry Potter head that had been languishing there for years.  This head came to me in a box of other dolls from a fellow collector.  I decided that it's time to give Harry a body and have him officially join the collection.

I decided to order an Obitsu body for young Harry.  I had been hearing about these bodies for years, but never had an occasion to purchase one since they do not make brown bodies.  I purchased a 21cm body in flesh tone (my only choices were white and flesh).

 The body came with 3 extra sets of hands, and 4 different neck connectors of various sizes.  With 28 points of articulation, this figure is extremely pose-able and is by far my most articulated child figure.

I needed to change the neck connector in order to get Harry's head onto the body.  This was not a problem.  The neck connectors are attached with a small screw.

I removed the screw, detached a larger neck connector, and attached that neck connector to the body with the screw.

With the larger neck connector in place, I was able to easily attach Harry's head to the body.

Here he is with head attached and fully dressed.  He is wearing his original shirt and pants.  The pants are a little too short for him now.

I was trying to get him to change clothes, but all he wanted to do was hang out with his new friends.

Here is a height comparison.  Pictured below from left to right are:  SIS Julian, Mego Our Gang Buckwheat, Mattel Todd, Harry, and Dave Cub Scout. 

I think that I should have purchased a taller body for Harry.  He has a very boyish face, but his head is kind of on the large side, so I think that he could pass as a teen.  I thought about giving this body to my White Todd doll and purchasing a taller one for Harry, but the Obitsu body is too pale for Todd.  I will keep Harry on this body for now, but he may grow a few centimeters in the future.

As happy as my girls were about the new arrival, I think that my boys were even happier.  I have so few boys that some of my short men stand in for boys every now and then.

*Shaking my head*  Boys!  They will not be satisfied until someone breaks a limb.

My overall impression of the Obitsu body is that it is a good purchase for the money.  The body is flexible and sturdy, and it is easy to swap out the neck connectors and hands. I wish that this company (or another company like this) would make brown bodies.  I am so impressed with this body that I wanted to purchase more for some of my other White dolls (male and female), but this "flesh" color is too pale for all of them.  So this will be my only Obitsu for a while.