 |
| Steffi Love XL Family is a family of four dolls—Photograph courtesy of Stacy Bailey-Ndiaye of articulated pov on Instagram. |
Until last week, I was still looking for the Steffi Love XL family that is sold at Ollie's, possibly at Roses, and other stores that carry dolls by Simba. Ollie's is not within my driving range and there isn't a Roses here.
 |
| Stacy Bailey-Ndiaye deboxed her dolls and granted permission for me to share this photograph. |
Too few dolls that represent the nuclear Black family are manufactured. When they are made, fewer quantities often exist than the readily available white counterparts. Another factor that contributes to the scarcity is that black versions are not stocked in all stores that sell the white version, or the black dolls sell out first because of demand or low quantities. <Sigh>
A fellow collector offered to check her North Carolina Roses store where the XL family was not available, but the following two Steffi Love dolls were. She purchased these for me. Thank you, again, RJ.
.JPG) |
| This basic Steffi Love boxed doll has a brown curly Afro, painted-brown eyes, and a closed mouth with pale pink lip color. She wears a sleeveless purple and white striped dress and purple crossbody bag. |
.JPG) |
| A close-up of the basic doll's face better illustrates her curly-textured hair, light-brown complexion, and facial features. |
.JPG) |
| Steffi Love Sunshine Twins includes the 11-1/2-inch Steffi Love doll, two twins dressed in dark or light pink rompers, and a pink baby carriage. Also included are feeding accessories for the twins. |
.JPG) |
| The Steffi Love doll in the twins' set has the same hair color and hairstyle as the basic and XL Family dolls. The twins are bald. |
On Ollie's website, their store locator revealed two stores near my brother's residence. He lives in the next major city away from me. After agreeing to go to either store for me, he asked me to first call to see if either store had the black XL family in stock.
 |
| A cell phone photo taken at Ollie's shows one black Steffi Love XL Family and two white versions. |
After calling the stores, I shared with my brother that the store closer to him only had the white family in stock. The other store had both versions but only one black XL family. Because they would not hold it at the counter for me at my request*, my brother literally stopped what he was doing and rushed to the store. While there, he texted me the above cell phone photo to make sure this was the one I wanted. The Steffi in this set has straight brown hair. I wanted the one with a curly Afro, but because I now have two other Steffi Loves with an Afro hairstyle, the straight-haired doll fulfills my desire for the black XL Family. (The daughter in the set I'll receive also has straight hair. The daughter's hair is loosely curled in the other black XL Family set.)
I told my brother not to make a special trip to bring me the doll. ("I'm not," he said.) He'll bring it the next time he comes to my city, and I will update this post with better pictures.
*The Ollie's associate I spoke with said they could not hold items at the register because they are a deep discount store where items are sold on a first-come, first-served basis, which I understood. Thank goodness for brothers/family who understand your passion and will help you on your doll searches when asked.
Related Posts
Vintage Thrift Store Steffi Love
©Black Doll Collecting/
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!
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
Aw, they are all adorable! I would have loved the twin babies set when I was younger. I am not sure about her lipstick though, seems the wrong color for her. I like the one with the afro better, the little girl is just too cute. Glad your brother could help!
ReplyDeleteI don't normally like pink lipstick on dark-skinned dolls, but I believe it works with Steffi's lighter brown complexion. I'm glad my brother could help, too! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI always find when searching the stores for any black dolls that when they are available there seems to be more of the white version's here in northern Ireland , the black dolls do sell out quicker than the white version's but when im looking for the black dolls some times there variations on the black steffi love dolls they will be in the same packaging and they will ethier have the afro or straight hair when a friend of mine was helping me to sell dolls to local black families who have settled here and in northern Ireland we would spend hours curling some of the dolls hair and making pretty cardboard boxes to display them in ,and freshinup up other dolls that we had purchased at thrift storesmy titiana was a very fine seamstress she could rustle up an outfiit in no time and she didn't even need a pattern she became a social worker and she would donate some ofthe dolls to nursery schools of all ethnic representations we also noticed that most of local african wemen settlers bought the black fashion dolls for them selves it depended on the hairstyle and which doll looked mostly like them
ReplyDeleteMerchants usually stock based on demographics of their clientele. I'm sure this is the reason black dolls are scarce in Northern Ireland. Letting merchants know that black dolls are desired might increase their availability on store shelves.
DeleteI am sure the black families appreciated the efforts you and your friend took to restore and box box black dolls. I appreciate your efforts, too.
It is often surprising to non-collectors that adults (of all ethnicities) enjoy owning dolls. A person is never too old, in my opinion, to enjoy (love, play with, own) dolls.