New Year, New Faces

     

    Hey guys! Happy new year! Holy cow, how is 2023 over?? It didn’t necessarily fly by, but geez, I’m a little sad it’s over. 2023 was certainly the year of doll collecting for me, and I swear, no more crazy doll-buying! I got more dolls in 2023 than I’ve ever gotten in one year before. But I hope it’s a little justified by being 10 years since I got my first doll, and collecting all the historicals, and going to the benefit sale. There are a billion things I think I could say about 2023, but I think I’ll spare this post of the sappy sentimental stuff, otherwise we’ll be here forever, and who wants to hear me ramble about that? Trust me, my dolls listen to me talk to myself enough already. 

    To be short and to the point, Christmas = doll haul! This year, all my biggest presents were AG dolls, so I ended up with some new dolls that I thought I’d introduce on the blog. I know I hinted at one new doll, but I may have ended up with a few more dolls to introduce! Let’s be realistic, if I don’t introduce them now, I probably won’t introduce them ever. I’ve still yet to post about Elizabeth and I’ve had her since, like, July. All of these dolls came from various family members, who I am so grateful for. <3 And, I think you guys might find all of their stories slightly entertaining, so I'll explain each doll a little bit.

    We're starting with the first doll I opened. She was a gift from my aunt and uncle. I had found this doll on ShopGoodwill for what's honestly a great price for any American Girl Doll in this condition, but I was especially excited because this doll is on the rarer side. So I told my mom this doll was what I wanted for Christmas. 😅 However, the auction ended around the time that the AG X Barbie collector doll came out, and we ended up forgetting about her in the excitement. Or so I thought, because it turned out that my uncle had won the auction. So......

    Meet Carmen Odelia Gonzales! She's a Jly 43. I mentioned in my Q&A that Jly 43 is one that I've been eyeing. I think I started to take notice of her around the time of the benefit sale. They didn't have any 43s there, obviously, but one of the vendors had a 43 modeling an outfit, and oh my goodness, she was gorgeous. (Because YES, dolls with bangssss.) I picked out the name Carmen for her because it was one of my Latin vocab words a few weeks ago. I have Luna ("moon" in Latin) and Stella ("star" in Latin), and so basically I've started this thing of naming my dolls random Latin words. Carmen means "song" or "poem" in Latin, which I liked because I love writing poetry and Carmen is a thing you can get away with naming a person. As you can see, I've already done a photoshoot with her, and I plan to post it later this week! 

    The next doll I received from my grandparents. According to my mom, they asked what I wanted for Christmas and since the Amazon Black Friday deals were going on, she suggested this doll because she personally really liked her. 😂 I liked her, too, and she was definitely climbing on my list, but I wasn't fully sold on her. But holy cow, I am obsessed. 

    So this is Rowan Clarice McKinley! When I opened her and asked what I should name her, my cousin was dead-set on "Clarice," so that's her middle name now. 😅 112 is so pretty and underrated, you guys. I've been wanting a doll with hair kinda like this forever, which is why I was starting to want 112. I wasn't sure if I liked anything about her other than her hair texture, but I think 112 is one of the dolls that absolutely slays the painted lashes. She's just perfection. 💯 Unpopular opinion: I think I might like the newer version of the Sonali mold better? And I'm not joking, go get a 112 right now. 

    Technically, this next doll isn't a new doll, but he is a new character that you'll be seeing on my blog, so I'm introducing him. I've been wanting more boy dolls since Logan is terribly outnumbered, and so I decided to sacrifice my old custom doll, Dakota, to make a new boy doll. I got the wig to make him for Christmas. RIP Dakota, but I'm excited to have another boy doll. 

(I haven't done a photoshoot with him yet...) 

    This is Troy Seely Everhart! The name Troy is a reference to the Iliad and the whole Trojan war thing, because school has me unwillingly knowledgeable about Greek mythology. So of course, Troy is obsessed with Greek mythology. It's only natural. Also, I feel like he still kinda looks like a girl, so don't judge. The base doll has pierced ears, and the earrings are stuck, so I'm trying to make things work. 😅 Also idk how to style this wig. 😭

    And the final two dolls aren't dolls you're going to see around my blog much (probably). They're more of collector-display dolls, but I'm really excited about them and wanted to show you guys anyway. I mentioned in my Q&A that I wanted to focus on collecting the white body dolls as my next collection goal since I have all of the historicals, and I ended up getting not one, but two white body dolls for Christmas! I'm really excited about these two, and I can tell they're going to be extremely special to me for a very long time. 

    I'm actually going in order of when I received each doll, so I'm going to talk about the white body I'm probably more excited about first. This is my white body Kirsten. A while back, I was browsing through ShopGoodwill and came across a Kirsten doll. She hadn't been bid up very high and still had a few days left on her auction, but I felt like she looked like a white body doll. There was something about her face and maybe her hair that resembled a white body. I think my mom and I watched the auction for a few days and she didn't go up in price much at all. So, with my encouragement, my mom impulsively put in a bid for the doll. That's when I started to think that she probably wasn't a white body. There were no pictures of her body or neck stamp or anything that would give her away for sure, so I was really doubting that she actually was a white body and not a mid-90s Kirsten. I could tell she had round neck cords instead of the flat ones white bodies normally have, her eye color was a lot less turquoise than the normal WB color, and she was wearing an AGOT outfit from the 90s with a scooter from the 2000s. So, the odds were not in the WB favor. We won the auction, but I ended up mostly forgetting about the doll until Christmas. She wasn't even wrapped under the tree!

    But, sure enough, she really was a white body. I think my mom paid like $25 + tax and shipping for her, which is incredible, and I'm never going to be humble about my white body spotting skills. I've dated her to late 1989. She has tinsel hair, which I had never seen in its full glory before, so take my word for it, is literally strands of tinsel and is stunning when the light catches it. I'm also pretty sure she has an eye color that is exclusively seen on late 89s, which is almost more of a pale blue color, whereas most WB Kirstens have more of a turquoise (but there's a lot of variation), and in my opinion almost resembles the pale blue color that AG used in the 2000s. She's in no way a perfect doll, and she'll need some tlc. Her cloth body is dingy, she has a huge dye transfer stain on her leg, and her right arm is dangling out of its socket (restringing, anyone?). I've already washed and detangled her hair and cleaned her vinyl, but there's still a lot of work to do. Good thing I love a project. Funny story, when I first was holding and looking at WB Kirsten, my allergies started acting up. I was literally allergic to my WB doll. 😭 I have bad allergies, but that's never happened with a secondhand doll before. Her old owner must have had cats or something. Luckily, since I washed her hair, I haven't had any more problems with her. 

        And last but certainly not least, is my WB Molly! This doll came from an AG resale shop that I love. She was originally listed online for a good price for a WB doll, but there was a sale over the summer that made her really hard to pass up. I didn't even have all of the historicals yet, but I showed this doll to my mom. I was DEVASTATED when she was off the website a few hours later and my mom told me she hadn't gotten her. At first, I didn't really believe that my mom hadn't bought her, but over the span of several months, my mom would occasionally bring up how upset she was that she hadn't bought that WB Molly. But, guess what the very last present I opened on Christmas was? That very same White Body Molly that I thought had just slipped through my doll-collecting fingertips over the summer. 

(This was the only picture I had of her...)

    She came in really good condition because the AG resale place she came from fixes up all the dolls that they get. Her only issue is silvering in her right eye. Her outfit is pieced together from other dolls, but I don't mind that it's not all original to my doll because it looks good to display. She also came with her accessories, which are from the 1980s. I'm going to have a lot of fun displaying her in different outfits because I have A LOT of Molly outfits. I haven't been able to find as many resources for dating white body Molly dolls as I have for Kirsten, but I can tell WB Molly isn't an '86 or an '87 dreamer. She has flat neck strings, so I'm thinking she's potentially older than Kirsten, but definitely in the 1988-1990 range. 

    And that's my Christmas AG doll haul! I did get some Barbies and Monster High dolls as well, but since this is primarily an AG blog, I thought I'd cover my new AG's. Also, I'm currently writing like 5 posts right now, so there will likely be several more posts this week. I've done lots of photoshoots lately! We're starting 2024 off with a bang, clearly. Until then, have a great day and remember to eat your veggies! Bye!