ABC Wednesday: "K" Is For...

KAYLA!!!

I've written before about my doll collecting mania, and also about my travel doll. Kayla is a member of the Barbie family and as she's a rather tiny doll (about 3 inches tall), she fits nicely inside a purse or a pocket or a suitcase – so she's perfect for taking along on excursions. She never changes outfits, so she acquires a sort of "Where's Waldo" effect in all her photos. But she's game for just about anything. She's been to the beach and the mountains, and to big cities like New York and Chicago. Since she came to live with me, she's never been out of the USA; although I suspect she originated in China or Japan. Generally, she lives in a display case in our dining room, but she does love an occasional outdoor romp. Here she is at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants, enjoying some chips and salsa on a sidewalk table.

(Click on photos to enlarge.)

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Cross-posted @ Joysweb.

Dolls of the Week: Storybook Dolls

A few vintage Storybook Dolls, with some old storybooks.

(Click on photo to enlarge.)

Each doll is about five-and-a-half inches tall. I love collecting tiny dolls, and these are three from my collection. The lass on the right is a Valentine's doll. And I believe the one on the far left (in the short skirt) is a Jill from a Jack-and-Jill pair. Not sure who the girl in the middle is meant to represent; guess I need to do some research.

Doll of the Week

Make that Dolls, plural. And these aren't dolls from my personal collection. At least, not yet. But I've really got to have them.


These are the new "Mad Men" Barbies and Kens. From the left, the characters are Joan Holloway, Roger Sterling, Don Draper and Betty Draper. It's interesting (and a little disorienting) that both Joan and Betty have the same measurements. Shouldn't Joan be a little more generously endowed?

The show and Barbie seem like a perfect match. After all, Barbie was introduced in March 1959, and the show's first episode is set in March 1960. And many pundits have pointed out Betty Draper's similarity to the B doll. Apparently, the choice of characters to represent created a bit of controversy, though. The Times article said:

That two dolls [Joan and Roger] represent a relationship outside wedlock, and Don Draper’s propensity for adultery, may be firsts for the Barbie world since the brand’s introduction five decades ago. But for the sake of the Barbie image, her immersion in the “Mad Men” era will go only so far: The dolls come with period accessories like hats, overcoats, pearls and padded undergarments, but no cigarettes, ashtrays, martini glasses or cocktail shakers.

Darn! I would have loved a teensy martini set. But I'm really interested in those padded undergarments, too!

This photo is from the New York Times article about the dolls. As I said, I don't have my own dolls yet. They don't go on sale until June or July, and they're listed at seventy-five bucks each. A little expensive, I guess, but I'm definitely putting them on my wish list.

Cross-posted on Joysweb.

Ready for the Winter Games

In honor of the Winter Olympics going on in Vancouver this week, here are a couple of my dolls, all set for the those ski trails. (Click on photos to enlarge.)

All suited up and ready for the slopes. With a dandy pair of 1950s-era wooden skis. The other ski pole is around here somewhere, I think.


Ready to ski, too - but we've only got the one set of skis! So she's going to do a little sledding while waiting her turn at the lifts. But I'm not sure those shoes are going to hold up so well in the snow.


Both of these are Ginny dolls, 8 inches tall, and made by the Vogue Doll Company back in the 1950s. The Ginny dolls were my favorite playthings when I was a tiny tot - and although neither of these girls is actually one of my own childhood toys, I still love to play with them.



Originally posted for Blue Monday, on Joysweb.