Those antique mall finds from two weeks ago

The ones I meant to post about last Sunday, but then didn’t because of life interfering.  (Life is so nosy sometimes!)

But, actually, before I get to those finds, I want to share something exciting.  So, April A-to-Z just ended, right?  And on this blog, writing the posts was pretty easy.  But on my main blog, it started getting really hard, because the task was so much more complex, and I was having to do a lot of research for each post (despite that I should have been doing class work).  By the time I hit “X”, I was literally having so much trouble that I almost wanted to throw my hands up in despair and walk away.

So I promised myself a new doll if I managed to finish it.

Not just any doll, but something YO-SD sized, as I’ve been wanting one of those for a while.  (And seeing Olive’s Janus Gato made me want one even more!)

So, I was looking at the Junky Spot’s offerings, and I liked that there was a sale on the new MYOU dolls (when did they start selling those?), but none of the dolls was quite saying “buy me” enough to make me want to shell out their cost.  The price was more “right” on the Hujoo offerings, but I didn’t want the Janus Gato, and all the others were in the same “Apricot” color as Suve, who looks decidedly an unhealthy shade of yellow.  But none of the professional photos ever show the dolls looking that color.  And there was a video review of one of the Hujoo YO-SD dolls linked to from the page, and I clicked on it, and the doll didn’t look jaundiced, and none of the comments below it said anything about the skin color, so I was staring to think that maybe my Suve was from a defective batch of plastic that came out the wrong color.  So I was thinking “well, maybe I can take the risk…”

But then I remembered I’d been directed recently to another BJD site that was far more extensive than the Junky Spot, and that I’d only given it a cursory glance before.  So I was going through it page by page, looking at everything, to see what they had, in case anything affordable caught my eye.  (A lot of things caught my eye that I couldn’t afford, needless to say!)

There were a lot of really great dolls in YO-SD size, including an elephant centaur(!) and several satyrs that were very cute.  But most of them were at least a hair more than I wanted to pay, especially considering the state of this house, and how I don’t feel like I deserve a really expensive doll right now.  (I really need to get the place cleaned up before my fairies arrive in November!)

But then I found one whose cute face really called out to me, and who was on sale.  Now, I should have made my Etsy purchases my “reward for getting through April A-to-Z” and used the doll as my “reward for actually getting that final paper written” but…there was an April sale that included a free pair of eyes (specifically, one you pick yourself, rather than a random pair) and I didn’t want to miss out on that, so…as soon as I finished pre-writing that final A-to-Z post, I went ahead and ordered this cutie:

Only Doll Qian Yu. Photo from Alice’s Collections. Click for source.

Isn’t he adorable?  I’ve decided to name him Gen (though that could change).  I did not, however, spring for that fancy outfit he’s wearing in the pictures.  (All the dolls from this line have the most amazing outfits!  I so want to get one with the fullset someday…)  Thanks to the sale event, I get a free face-up, which is good, because the results if I tried doing it myself would be horrifying.

It’s a pity that it wasn’t a girl doll that screamed out “buy me,” though; it’s hard to find many boy clothes.  I looked around on Etsy and found some, but not many.  In fact, I ended up going ahead and ordering him clothes and shoes and a wig at the same time as he himself, since there was a cute outfit I liked and shoes and wigs were cheaper from the store.  (In fact, considering they’d have refunded me the face-up cost of $30, it wouldn’t have been much more expensive to get the fullset option…but if I had that fancy outfit for him, I might not ever put him in anything else, and I have so many dolls who remain eternally stock already…)

So, there’s my exciting news, though I don’t know yet when he’ll be shipped to me.  They have to give him his face-up first, after all, and they said that usually took about 30 days above and beyond the usual time.  (Also, it looks like a more complicated situation than with the Junky Spot…so it may be quite some time before I actually get my hands on him.)

All right, so now I’ll actually get on with the subject of the post! 😛

Right, so it was two weeks ago, and I was hitting an antique mall on the way home from work, and I was seeing some things that I might want, but might not.  You know, the “I’ll think about it and come back later, when I know if I’m buying anything else” type of things.

Then, hidden away in the back of of a booth selling mostly porcelain knickknacks and professional baseball memorabilia, I noticed a lone fashion doll.  Fetching her out, I ended up seeing the tag before I could see her face, and the tag read “Vintage 1970s Barbie”.  Then I turned her around to look at her face…

Seriously, who in the world would look at that face and think “Barbie”?!  I mean, I showed it to my brother, and he knew that was no Barbie!  Anyway, seeing that she was mislabeled, I was like “okay, so who are you really?” and started looking for her maker’s mark.  And there it was on the back of her head:  “Ideal Toy Corp”.  That was when I was like “yup, I’m getting this one.”  (Though I probably would have done anyway:  she has a sweet face, and she was inexpensive.)  I have no idea to what year she actually dates — her copyright date says 1965, but that doesn’t mean much:  Mattel kept releasing Barbies with 1966 printed on their backs until, what, the early 2000s?  I haven’t had a chance yet to research her, but she’s an interesting doll.  In any case, I think the state and style of her hair probably suggests an earlier rather than a later date for her — closer to the copyright date than to the 1970s date on the label.

She’s certainly in need of something new to wear, though! 😛  Anyway, her construction is unusual:  she has hard plastic legs and torso, hollow but in a fairly thick and sturdy way, and hollow, flexible arms, so that her elbows (and every other part of her arm for that matter) can bend, though they go right back again as soon as you let go.  Her hands are really nicely sculpted.  (Darn, I should have gotten a photo of that…)  As you can see, her hair’s a mess, but she has minimal dirt:  there’s a bit on one pinky, and a bit on one breast.  Overall, I think her original owner must have either never played with her, or been very careful to take good care of her.  Once I figure out roughly when she hails from, I’ll put her in some era-appropriate Barbie clothes.  (Probably just vintage-like bought from Etsy, rather than trying to hunt down actual vintage clothes.  Those can get pricey, after all…)

Anyway, the next item I picked up was the best one, and I want to leave it for last, so we’ll skip over it to another vintage piece from the ’70s or possibly late ’60s:

I’m a sucker for doll furniture, and the set was half off.  There’s no marks on any of it, so I don’t know who made it or when.  (The style is probably the best indicator, and I’d say it suggests late ’60s to early/mid ’70s, but that’s just a guess.)  They’re a bit dirty, though. 😦  They seem to be rubber, which is unusual.

Her inability to bend her legs makes it a little awkward for her to sit in a chair. 😛  The chairs are a bit short, so dolls with longer legs (including Barbie, and probably Monster High, too) will probably be a bit awkward sitting in these chairs.  I bet they’ll be great for my Pure Neemo XS Cardcaptor Sakura hyrbids, though. 😀  (Also for Sidney the smirking Scot, my Obitsu boy. 😛 )  They might even work for Dal and Byul…if they have the strength to hold up those heads, which I suspect they won’t.  (And I get the feeling Blythe will be right out!)

I probably shouldn’t have gotten this one, as she’s actually from 2003, but I was in an ’80s nostalgia mood by the time I got to her, and Red was my favorite Fraggle.  Besides, she was cheap. 😉

So, now we get to the highlight of the day!  There was a booth that was mostly furniture and other more-or-less functional items, but up on a high shelf I spotted a Barbie case.  The shelf was so high that I had to approach a set of about four or five men who were there together, and ask if any of them were tall enough to reach it for me, ’cause I had no hope of reaching it (I’m only 5’3″), and I really didn’t want to have to go get someone who worked there to get it for me.  Fortunately, they were very friendly, and one of them gladly snagged the case for me.  I was thrilled to see that the price wasn’t too high, especially since the tag said there were Skipper and Barbie clothes inside! 😀

Hence the reason I was in an ’80s mood by the time I got to Red! 😀  (Also the radio had been playing a lot of 80s rock…)  Now, Golden Dream was a little before my time (as my mother forced me to wait until I was surprisingly old before she’d let me have any Barbies) but even so this was an outfit I knew and had fond nostalgia for…

…because Mattel had put out a miniature version, which I did own!  (Pay no attention to her head; it belongs to an entirely different doll by a different company (Hasbro, I think).  I’m not sure what happened to the other head and body…)  She had the skirty-capey thing originally, but it seems to have been lost at some point. 😦

Also, remember a while back I showed you the collector doll reproducing Dream Date Barbie, and said how it was the first in a line reproducing dolls from the Superstar era?  Guess what doll #2 in the line is?  Golden Dream!  (Now I totally have to get her, instead of just wanting to get her…)  And the very same day I found this case, I saw this post featuring (among other things) a OOAK doll donated by Mattel to a convention for a charity auction, a doll which was a Christie version of Golden Dream!  Have I mentioned lately how there are so many weird coincidences in my life?  (I know I mentioned it in today’s post on my main blog, come to think of it…)

So, anyway, I was quite pleased when I got out of the store with my haul, even though it had come to a little bit more than I was expecting (my math failed me in calculating the sale discount on the Ideal girl).  And then I got to the car and opened the case to see what kind of clothes were inside…

It hadn’t said Skipper and Barbie clothes, it said “Skipper, and Barbie clothes”!!

Look at her!  Isn’t she great?  This is what my childhood Skipper looked like, except I’m pretty sure she had bangs.  (Sadly, she no longer has her hair. 😦  Long story which I’ll get to some other time…)  Her face paint and hair are both in great shape, and she’s quite clean, too.

Ironically, one of the things I passed on was a vintage Skipper case. 😛  But it was a bit beat up on the inside, and I didn’t want to get two doll cases at the same time.  (That was more of a 60s vintage than an 80s vintage, anyway…)

This is what the clothes are, in case you’re wondering.  The little box filled with shoes is very nostalgic:  I did that with my Barbie shoes back in the day.  (What were those boxes for?  My mother probably provided mine.  I guess earrings and other small jewelry came in those boxes?)  None of the clothes are all that exciting, but who cares?  I got an nostalgic Skipper in great shape! 😀

So, I’ve now shared my big news, and finally gotten around to sharing my antique mall adventure of two weeks ago.

I don’t know how many posts there are going to be from now on.  My Dropbox is getting full, so I have to figure out something to do about my photos for the blog.  Plus I want to stop buying so much stuff, more from a space perspective than from a money perspective…though from the latter as well, of course.  Then again, there’s lots of stuff I’ve never photographed to show you, so stopping buying stuff wouldn’t stop posts.  That’s more the photo thing…which is trickier to deal with, unfortunately.

I think there are actually pictures for a few posts I’ve never written, though.  I should check on that — especially check to see if they’re actually on Dropbox — and write the posts to go with them if so.  😛