I’m sorry for neglecting my blog but I hardly bought anything in the last months. Nevertheless I have two new girls that I want to show you. They are Benetton Barbie and Benetton Marina (no idea why a girl with Asian background is called Marina). Anyway I saw them when I was a child and suddenly I had the wish to have them in my collection. I found them accidentally within a short period of time. I like the bright colours of their clothes. So 90s like but also very cool and they remind me of my own childhood. I think they were available in Europe/Canada only in 1990/1991.
One of my latest OOAK-Projects
Here is my latest OOAK -Project. I reflocked another Ken. I didn’t take any pics of my first Ken but this time I took pics. The Ken was totally bold and had no flocking material on his head anymore. I think the original colour changed a bit and became darker within the decades since he was produced.
When I finished my reflocking process he looked like this…
and now they look like twins.
A bit late for Happy Holidays but here’s my first Happy Holidays from India
I know it’s a bit late for the Holidays and today is the first day of February. Nevertheless I’d like to show you my first Happy Holidays (HH) from India. I like Barbie dolls from India but they are hard to find. I’ve collected the Holidays series since 1996. I hoped to find the Indian issues too. I was lucky and found one. She has the box of the 1995 Happy Holidays and on the back you can see a pic of a 1995 Purple Passion Barbie from Toys ‘R’ Us. I have no idea if this was planned or not. The other Holiday dolls have pics of themselves on the back. The box of the 1995 Happy Holiday has a promo pic of a 1995 HH Barbie e.g..
One of the reasons to collect Barbie dolls from India is for me the painting in their faces. It’s very different from normal Western Barbie dolls, not so exorbitant.
I hope you can see what I mean.
What to do when the hair is sticky… problems with Superstar Barbie
Maybe some of you had the problem of sticky hairs. Barbie dolls from the 1980s often have this problem. Sometimes even when they are NRFB. The cause for the stickiness is the softener that is contained in every doll head. I have no idea why and I’m not good in Chemistry but I know that it (the softener) managed to get from the head into the hair. The good news is that you can get rid of the stickiness. It’s no problem. At first all you need is a bowl with lukewarm water, normal hair shampoo (the brand doesn’t matter) and conditioner. Dip the the head of the doll into the bowl. When the hair is wet put a mixture of shampoo and conditioner mixed together in one of you palms and massage it softly in her hair. Then put the hair in the bowl. The important thing is that the hair has to be in the bowl for at least twelve hours. For the next step you need a big cooking pot. Fill it with water, put it on the stove and switch it on. Wait until the water is cooking. Then put the hair and the head in there for 5 minutes. Insure yourself that the hair doesn’t touch the walls of your cooking pot. It’s going to melt when it does touch the walls of your cooking pot. After that you can remove the the head from your cooking pot. Use a guest towel for the drying process. Put the doll towel and wait until the hair is dry. Then the stickiness should be gone. If not, repeat the process for a second time. My doll needed the process two times.
Please consider that you should only do the process with dolls from the 1980s. When you do it with Fashionistas the result might be that your doll is bold. The method of how the hair is fixed inside has changed in the last decade.
Overview over my last finished projects
My first reflocked Ken
Another repaired Talking Barbie
I recently found the time to finish another repair. I think I got her two years ago but somehow I forgot that I had prepaired everything last summer. I only needed legs and I found them two months ago. So here she is… a nape curl Talking Barbie repaired to speak. This was my first repaired Talking Barbie doll. I already have repaired a Talking PJ and a Talking Truly.
Another finished project
In the last months I was lucky enough to find a body for one of my rerooted heads. I rerooted the head approx. 2 years ago. I know a long time…and I had almost forgotten my head. I did another reroot in the last months and then I found my project again. At first I was unsure what kind of body to use for my project. Finally I decided to use a Cool Colours Barbie body. Here’s the result. Hope you like.
My finished Ooak project
Today I finished my Ooak project. In March I got a Kira/Marina head with a haircut. Somehow she was cute and I decided to restore her. The first step was to remove the hair and give her new hair. I decided for black and pink because I wanted to do a reroot in two colours. I wanted to do a very elegant hair style for her long hair and decided to do the “Arwen”-hairstyle with 9 strands that was not shown in LOTR(Lord of the Rings). Then she needed a new body. Her body was broken. During her hairstyling I was looking for a new body and by the end of May I finally found one. When she had a new body I was able to restyle her bangs. You need a body when you want a short pony.
When her hairstyle was finally finished I started to repaint the eyebrows. 50% of the colour was gone. So I repainted the brows and had to wait several weeks for stains that appeared in the repainting process. I used a cream to bleach them. They were gone last Thursday.
Yesterday I started the final styling of her bangs and finished it today. Then she got her jewelry, earrings and a ring.
I wanted to make her look like a mixture from 80s and 90s so that she reminded me of my childhood with the giant bangs. Now she’s ready for her great entrance.
And this is a pic of the head before I started to work.
The right head also got new hair in the meantime but this will be another Ooak project. I’m still looking for a new body. I’m going to show you more in my next post.