Avon Rose Splendor Barbie

When I first saw online pictures of this doll, I thought she was gorgeous! In the picture, the doll looked dark - almost espresso color and I was excited! I love dolls with really dark complexions, so I immediately emailed my daughter at work. She has a coworker who is an Avon rep, and I wanted to make sure I got one! The doll was ordered and I received her last week.

I was a bit disappointed because the doll is not nearly as dark as I had hoped. I'm thinking the other photographer had the same issue I did - not wanting to debox the doll for the photo. She had a plastic covering (removable) that I removed for the photo, but because she was still essentially in a box, the light did not surround and project a true color representation. She does have the Mbili face sculpt which I love, and her dress is more peachy than pink (another good thing). Oh, and she does have the model muse body.

All in all, she is a pretty doll, but had I seen her in person, I doubt I would have paid $40 for her.

Fabulous Finds and Franken-dollies!

click on pics to enlarge

One of my favorite weekend pastimes is going to garage sales, estate sales, flea markets, and thrift shops. Not sure why, but the trash to treasure thing really ignites my creativity. Though it happens quite infrequently, I get giddy with joy whenever I find something wonderful for almost nothing. Such was the case when I went to an estate sale a few months ago. I purchased close to 3 dozen vintage dolls, a drum set, and an incredible cedar chest and spent just under $60!

Pictured above are a few older African American fashion dolls I purchased - aren't they lovely! I'm not sure, but I think the second doll on the left may be gymnast Barbie, but it really didn't matter - her hair was a frizzy mess, but she had jointed elbows and knees - woo-hoo! She would certainly be the subject of my next Franken-dolly project.




Here she is with another Franken-dolly ( So In Style Trichelle with a fashionista body). Her head is an Asha face - before the heads got big, and she has been redressed in a Barbie ourfit and Bfc "Converse" Chucks. She tells me that she can't walk in heels, so she will never be a model. However, this girl has some stories to tell..........

Not a good sign for SIS- So In Style dolls....

Today as I went about my errands, I browsed to doll aisles of Target. They had nothing new, but what caught my eye were the bright red stickers on the So In Style Rocawear dolls. They were marked down to $9.08 from $12.99. This did not appear to be part of a weekly sale event, but permanent mark downs. Given that this line is less than a year old, it seems to me a bad omen of things to come.



I confess to having issues with the dolls - mainly that the dolls did not live up to the pre-release promotional hype. We were promised a new line of AA dolls with new sculpts and the promo pics of the latest releases showed the dolls with articulated bodies. The actual dolls - although pretty, were not what many collectors hoped. Instead of new face sculpts, each of the 4 characters share the Mbili face mold. I love this particular sculpt, but it is by no means, "new". None of the dolls have the articulated bodies as we were led to believe - though some do have jointed elbows.


Being a frugalista as well as a doll collector, I really wanted to purchase some of the dolls at the sale price, but I was just not inspired to do so! I had already purchased several of the dolls early on at retail prices and was disappointed with each purchase. I kept looking for the "new" but all I saw was old familiar face sculpts with old familiar bodies dressed up in new fashions.

I am certain that Stacy McBride-Irby, the designer of this line, did the best she could with what she was allotted. The facial screenings and clothing designs are current and fresh and I love that the dolls represent a variety of skin tones. I just feel that Mattel did not truly commit to the project and decided to minimize production costs by using old and familiar instead of really doing something new.

The result is that the dolls are now being discounted. Mattel will probably use this as an excuse for not releasing new ethnic dolls in the future. They will say they just don't sell - yeah, right! The truth is, many collectors were almost salivating at the prospect of something new from Mattel. Many like myself, ran out and purchased the new dolls at retail price as soon as they hit store shelves. We wanted Mattel to know that such a project would be well supported. I am certain that many people really like the dolls. The story lines are great and provide a positive message for young girls. However for collectors, I think the dolls fell a bit short of the mark.

Generation of Dreams Barbie Mystery

Sometime in October of last year, I purchased this doll at Costco.


It was to be a Christmas gift for my daughter who is also a Barbie collector. The price was significantly less that the suggested retail, so I thought I was getting a pretty good deal.


Last Friday, I was shopping my local Big Lots and found this:



Holy smokes! Not only was she priced at less than half of the one purchased at Costco, but this one included bonus jewelry - a really nice cloisonne pendant with the same motif as the dress. Nowhere on the box does it say that this was any particular store's exclusive, and I can find no information online about the doll with the bonus. One of these dolls is destined to be deboxed and become one of my models (love the ebony skin tone and the model muse pose), but I am unsure which to debox. It would make sense to leave the least common NRFB, but I would love to wear that pendant! Can anyone out there solve this mystery?