Black Doll Collecting: March 2022

Thursday, March 31, 2022

Her Ethnicity is Unknown

Latina woman doll made of felt

Sold to me as a Jamaican doll, this circa 1940s-1950s felt doll with a painted mask face is 12 inches tall. I did not pay close attention to the clothing until the doll arrived.

The eBay seller's description of Jamaican as the doll's nationality is incorrect. The gypsy-style clothing (peasant-style blouse and flared skirt), straight long black mohair wig, and thumbs and fingers that are stitched to the wide skirt (as though she is going to lift the sides of the skirt to dance) makes me think of a Latina woman. If she represented a Jamaican woman, the hair would not be straight or long. The head possibly would be wrapped with fabric and a basket of fruit attached to the head. The clothing is not traditional Jamaican clothing.

Perhaps she represents a Brazilian, was my first thought. A Colombian woman was my next thought, or perhaps Puerto Rican. She's entered in my Excel spreadsheet as a Latina woman.

Red and white felt flowers are attached to both sides of the face. She wears one earring, possibly originally wore two.

During the time this doll was made, doll makers rarely went through the extra measures to distinguish non-white dolls by skin tone. Shades of brown were used for African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, Native Alaskans, and all other dolls not considered Caucasian.

The doll has straight, waist-length black hair.

The spreadsheet description column reads:

12-inch stuffed felt doll with a mask face and wired arms and legs appears to represent a dark-skinned Latina; has a black straight mohair wig that extends to the waist. The wig is accented with red and white felt flowers on both sides of the face; painted-brown side-glancing eyes, a dimple in one cheek, painted red lips; wears a white peasant blouse and a red and beige polka dot three-tiered skirt, red belt, white half-slip with beige lace trim, organdy pantaloons with off-white eyelet trim; black sewn-on shoes have red felt soles. Wears one beaded earring (the other earring -- if it was ever there -- is missing), black string-beaded necklace and bracelet; a gold-tone ring made from a sequin is sewn to the right ring finger. Has separately sewn fingers; the thumb and the index fingers are stitched to the sides of the skirt for the doll to hold the skirt up (while dancing).

A gold-tone sequin represents a ring. The thumb and index fingers are stitched to the three-tiered skirt.

Without any other distinct identifiers, it is difficult to pinpoint the ethnicity or nationality this doll represents. What ethnicity do you think she represents?

Who do I represent?

dbg

There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.
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Thank you for reading. Comments that are not spam are appreciated. Spam comments will not be published, so don't waste your time. To contact me directly regarding dolls or any of my posts, please use the contact form on the right of the home page, which is visible in "web view." A link to web viewing should be visible at the bottom of this page.

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Check out what I am selling here.
Check out my eBay listings here.
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Tuesday, March 29, 2022

You Can Be Anything Doctor Barbie

Because I love this head sculpt, the complexion, and the perfect lip-color combinations, I purchased You Can Be Anything Doctor Barbie from Amazon. She has the same head sculpt as Barbie Loves the Ocean. The doctor has a curvy body. The ocean lover is on a slender body.

She wears a floral-print dress (made of fabric—not that shiny paper-looking material), a white twill coat, and pink flat shoes.

She has long, auburn-streaked black hair. Her lip color is darker than Barbie Loves the Beach. Her only accessory is her light blue stethoscope.

Side-by-side photo of Barbie Loves the Ocean and Doctor Barbie

After the purchase from Amazon, I saw Doctor Barbie discounted to $3.99 at Target. Such is life. No regrets.

See more photos of Barbie Loves the Ocean here.

dbg

There are countless items to collect and write about. Black dolls chose me.
__________
Thank you for reading. Comments that are not spam are appreciated. Spam comments will not be published, so don't waste your time. To contact me directly regarding dolls or any of my posts, please use the contact form on the right of the home page, which is visible in "web view." A link to web viewing should be visible at the bottom of this page.

If you're not already a subscriber, visit, "like" and follow the Black Doll Collecting Facebook page or bookmark the Black Doll Collecting home page and visit on Tuesdays and Thursdays when typically new posts are published.

Check out what I am selling here.
Check out my eBay listings here.
Please follow my sister blog Ebony-Essence of Dolls in Black.
*New*Visit/Follow DeeBeeGee's Virtual Black Doll Museum
Donate here to support this blog. Thank you!

Friday, March 25, 2022

Target's Christmas Sweater Ornaments

Christmas sweater ornaments from Target

Note: I just discovered this post from November 2021 was never published. So, I am publishing it now. Let it serve as a reminder to check out Target's website or stores in November for this year's Christmas sweater ornaments

***

I have too many of these already and vowed not to buy any this year, but while purchasing some ornaments from Target online, I saw these two and caved in. One has a wreath design. The other has a Santa design. My plan at the time of purchase was to paint Santa brown.

The Santa Christmas sweater ornament before painting is shown here.

I used nutmeg brown acrylic paint for Santa's face.

I had to also touch up some of Santa's mustache to cover red blushing that was inadvertently placed on the mustache instead of the face (a production flaw). I used a gray marker to outline the mustache afterward.

This is the first year that I have used Christmas sweater ornaments for their intended purpose (as ornaments). In the past, as many other Barbie and other 12-inch fashion doll collectors have done, I've used them as sweaters for my dolls as seen here, here, here, and here.

The two ornaments from Target and others purchased in previous years hang from an ornament wreath.

The ornament wreath has six ornament hangers. In the past, I have used it to hang doll ornaments. As seen here.

******

While I was in repainting mode, I also painted two ceramic Santas at my daughter's request. They are seen in before and after photos next.

Ceramic Santas (before)

Santas close-up (before)

Ceramic Santas after painting

The Santas are seen in a close-up photo in this final photo.

My daughter was pleased.

***

2021 seems so long ago.

Thursday, March 24, 2022

Rainbow High Pacific Coast Harper Dune

Rainbow High Harper Dune

It was Harper Dune's Burberry-inspired fashion that brought her here. This 11-inch articulated vinyl doll wears a cap, a sleeveless crop top, and panties made of Burberry print with off-white shorts that have a gold-tone RH belt-loop charm. She also has painted-on beige briefs and wears gold strappy sandals. This doll is my first Rainbow High purchase. The other dolls that preceded Harper Dune's arrival were gifts.

Articulation: Harper Dune has the usual five points of articulation. Additionally, the elbows, wrists, upper thighs, and knees are articulated.

A close-up in-the-box photo of Harper Dune illustrates her alluring eyes... it's something about those huge brown eyes that are enticing.

Harper Dune is seen on the back of the box with the other dolls in this series.

Once out of the box, I photographed the accessories first.

Sunglasses, a vinyl tote bag, and a beach towel were separately boxed on the right side of the box.

Care instructions, a registration card, an extra pair of legs, a three-piece doll stand, and a comb were also in the extra box.

The doll's hair was gelled, hard, unruly, with uneven ends.

Why MGA Entertainment feels the need to apply heavy gel to Rainbow High dolls' hair is a mystery to me. Even they know, based on the care instructions on how to remove it, that the gel is undesirable.

The care instructions for the hair read, "The doll has a light coating of gel in the hair. [Nah, Harper's gel was heavy.] If you would like to style the doll's hair, ask an adult or under adult supervision follow the steps below to remove the gel. Please note that the doll's hair will not appear the same after washing." (Insert eye roll here.) Their suggested instructions on how to remove the gel followed this statement.

Harper Dune tries to relax on her beach towel, but her heavily gelled hair was annoying to her, too.

I let her know I would remove the gel as soon as the initial out-of-the-box photos were taken. So, she cooperated with the next photos.

Harper poses on the doll stand wearing her sunglasses.

Removing the gel

Using cold water, the gel was rinsed out of Harper's hair.

Except for her sandals, Harper was undressed. The hair was rinsed with cold water and lightly shampooed with liquid hand soap. After the hand soap was thoroughly rinsed out and all the gel removed, the hair was combed to remove all loose hairs, snarls, and tangles. According to the care instructions, optionally, I could have added conditioner, but I opted to skip this step at this time.

Being modest, Harper wrapped herself in her beach towel and prepared to get her hair braided.

Four braids were added to Harper's hair while it was damp.

Harper's pierced ears.

The Rainbow High dolls, at least the ones I own, have significant-sized holes in their ears for earrings; however, earrings were not included with my dolls.

The next photos were taken after the hair dried and the braids were taken down.

The braids created a wavy look, but the ends still felt firm.

I added conditioner to the ends of the hair and allowed that to dry for a couple of hours.

The conditioner loosened up the waves some and softened up the ends, but they were still uneven. I trimmed the ends for this final look.

Harper Dune posed with her friends, Phaedra Westward and Daria Roselyn.

Rainbow High dolls are cute with well-made clothing. Will I buy more? It is highly doubtful, but if you want Harper Dune, the buy link is included next.

Tuesday, March 22, 2022

LOL Surprise O.M.G. Queens Sways

Part of the Queens line of LOL Surprise O.M.G. dolls, Sways recently arrived as an early birthday gift from a dear doll friend. In this blog post, an unboxing video is shared first followed by a written description of the doll. The post ends with additional photos and captions.

Unboxing Video:

Description: Sways is a 9-inch vinyl doll with dark pink, yellow, and green rooted braids styled in three Bantu knots on the top accented with a gold-tone hair ring in the front of the center Bantu knot. The hair is worn loose in the back.

Sways has the signature oversized head and eyes and curvy figure of the LOL Surprise O.M.G dolls. Pink diamond-shaped painted accents are above the eyebrows. Yellow diamond-shapes accent the lower eyelashes.

Sways wears a pink, green, yellow, and black-striped mesh jersey-style dress, which has two deep side slits. OMG in white letters is on the bodice. The dress has a knee-length hemline in the front and a full-length hemline in the back.

Underneath the dress, Sways wears a black bra that has a black and pink geometrical print on one side. The bra has gold-tone straps. Black shorts are black on one side and black and green on the other. Underneath the shorts are paint-on fuchsia undies. Black thigh-high tights are trimmed with pink, yellow, and green horizontal stripes. She wears pink and black boots.

Other accessories, some of which were in the surprise packages, include a pink and gold choker, a fused yellow/gold/pink bangle bracelet, a waist purse, sunglasses, a doll stand, and a garment bag with a hanger that held a black faux fur jacket. Visible in the box were a party invitation and a Sways paper photo.

Articulation: Sways has the usual five points of articulation at the neck and at the arm and leg sockets. Additionally, the elbows and wrists are articulated. For ease of dressing, the hands are removable (but they must be removed slowly to avoid breaking the stem.) Sways has stiletto fingernails painted dark pink on one hand and bright green on the other.

Photos:

Additional in-the-box photos

Three Bantu knots are accented with gold thread. A gold-tone hoop is attached to the front of the center Bantu knot.

The doll's name is on a side panel of the box.

An in-the-box angled view prevents the flash from the camera.

A close-up and still in-the-box photo illustrates the white OMG letters on the bodice of the dress.

A Tween OMG doll is illustrated on the opposite side panel with a bubble caption that reads, "Hey Sis!"

Sways is depicted in a headshot illustration on the back of the box with a description of the Queens line written in English and several other languages. "Queens embrace who they are, strut fierce, style, and celebrate differences." (Alright-now Queens!)

Out-of-the-box Photos

In this close-up, sways wears her sunglasses.

Sunglasses, choker, fused bangle, waist purse, and her boots were all part of the packaged surprises.

The faux black fur jacket was another surprise enclosed in a garment bag on a hanger.

Sways has stiletto fingernails painted pink on one hand and bright green on the other.

The colorful braids hang loose in the back.

Underneath the jersey-style mesh dress, Sways wears a black bra and shorts, both of which are accented with gold-tone zippers. The bra straps are gold-tone chains that extend across the neck.

The pink, gold, and yellow bangle consists of three fused shapes.

A party invitation and a paper photo card of Sways are illustrated here.

The inside of the invitation is shown along with the back of the photo card, which reads, "Queens straighten each other's crowns & support their BFFs."

In the final photo, Sways is shown with her one and only BFF (a prior gift from the same dear doll friend.)

LOL Surprise O.M.G. Sways and Miss Glam—Sways is from the Queens series and Miss Glam is from the Party Surprise series.

MGA Entertainment, the makers of the LOL Surprise O.M.G. dolls is giving Mattel a run for their money where collectors of playline dolls (adults and children) are concerned. These dolls offer much more than the Pink Label Barbies. The quality of the dolls, clothing, accessories, and extra surprises* far exceed what Mattel offers in their playline dolls. MGA Entertainment's LOL Surprise O.M.G. dolls cost three times the price of a Pink Label Barbie, but as they say, "you get what you pay for."

*The 20 surprises advertised on the box only amounted to the seven surprises as shown in the video. Those seven items plus the two-piece doll stand, hair brush, garment bag, and everything Sways wears including her hair ring total 20 items.

Buy LOL Surpise Sways below:

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