Steffies of the 1980s

OK, I admit I might be having too much fun with videos. You can watch my latest Steffie fetish with Steffies of the 1980s.

Subscribe to my YouTube channel (truly, words I thought I'd never type) for the latest releases, and leave a comment if you like!

Steffie of the Day: Style Magic Whitney

Style Magic Whitney, a photo by alington on Flickr.

A fun pink box Barbie from 1989, this is Style Magic Whitney. Whitney is one of my favorite Steffie-face characters.

She features a new style of Quick Curl hair called WondraCurl--it holds the style with tiny wired hair rooted in her original style. It's softer than the original Quick Curl, but it can also get a little messy.

I have a few more photos on Flickr.

Steffie of the Day: Jewel Secrets Whitney

Jewel Secrets Whitney, a photo by alington on Flickr.

Yesterday was Steffie day at my house. In classic 1980s style, this is Jewel Secrets Whitney.

Part of my New Year's resolution was to go through my Steffie shelf and start sorting--I'm working on Volume II of Steffie: Out of the Box, and I'd like to fund it with Steffies from Volume I. It's well underway now, especially after yesterday, but man, it's hard to give up some of these lovely ladies!

I figure they will each deserve a fond farewell photoshoot before they depart.

Jewel Secrets has a lovely face, and gorgeous long hair, even if her super eighties outfit with padded shoulders is a little over the top!

You can see additional photos on Flickr.

Steffie of the Day: Feeling' Groovy

I've been wanting to add this gorgeous raven-haired beauty to my collection forever, and thanks to Stella, one of our table mates, I have!

She's pristine NRFB, which poses a small problem for me, who enjoys deboxed dolls. Designed by Billy Boy, she's from 1986. She includes a pink minidress, long pink skirt, long fingerless gloves, sparking fur trimmed coat, black necklace, sunglasses, bag, earrings (studs and drops), panties, glittering pumps, travel case with luggage, brush, hair dryer, camera, hanger, and various paper products.

The Spectra Craze

Halloween doll meet, a photo by alington on Flickr.

One of our fellow doll collectors came across this Mattel doll, AstraGold, at a thrift store for $1 and shared her bargain find at our last meet. As a child of the 1980s, I recognized this doll immediately, and it caused me to delve into research about my long-lost love of these dolls from Mattel's Spectra collection.

The original line was released in 1987, and was designed to compete with Jem (by Hasbro). Unfortunately, this line didn't sell as well as expected, and was discontinued less than a year after production.

It's theme: Lacy... Spacy... Out of this world!

The dolls have cleverly jointed bodies, if a little extreme, in addition to colorful (yellow, pink, green, purple and blue) hair and colorful facial screening. Their bodies are metallic hard plastic with soft vinyl heads.

Separate fashions were also available, along with several other accessories, including a body buffing station.

Because of the limited production numbers, the dolls are surprising difficult to find (especially in mint or NRFB condition). They can range from $40-55 for the more common dolls, and upwards of $315 for sets including the dog, Spark.

Finally, searching for Spectra dolls online has become more difficult in recent months, because of the addition of Spectra Vondergeist to Monster High's collection, also by Mattel.

Fashion Doll Review's latest doll auctions

Come check out our latest auction listings. I've listed two hard-to-find Fashion Play Barbies (both hispanic version with the Steffie face), Dream Date Barbie and Ken, plus a displayed Tea Party Crasher (the tiny Alice in Wonderland doll from Tonner Doll Company!)

Additionally, you have the chance to pick up a signed edition of my book for just $25!

Shopping with us supports this website and blog. Thanks!

Teresa, Dynamite Girls Sooki and Neve

I know I haven't posted in a while, and now I am happy to post again. I was just waiting for some interesting dolls to come, if you know what I mean. This time it is a 1980s Teresa and some Dynamite Girls, Neve and Sooki. Neve is not wearing her Chill Factor outfit in these photos, so you may not recognize her.

Teresa is wearing a leopard print dress that I made (I just took a piece of random fabric and pinned it. She didn't have any clothes!) and I forgot to put her shoes on. She has very long golden brown hair which is braided but at some point I will show you what she looks like with her hair down.


Sooki is a Vintage Vinyl dolls. She is not wearing her violet satin dress but she is wearing a Barbie clothing item. You may have seen pictures of her in past posts.


Neve is a Chill Factor doll. She is one of the new Dynamite Girls. I've forgotten her name once or twice and I kept thinking that she was Jett.

Now hopefully I will be posting more often because I will have some new things to share!

Happy fourth of July!

Dynamite Girls: Downtown Darling Jett

Thanks to my one of my doll club meets on Sunday, I got to see Carolyn's brand new Dynamite Girl, Downtown Darling Jett, from the Plastic Inevitable collection yesterday. I took a few photos of her, and you can check out the rest (and larger sizes) on Flickr.

I have this doll on order--I think mine is on its way via UPS ground--and I'm really excited. I pre-ordered her because I adore her overall look. She looks like a 1980s era Madonna wanna-be. In fact, the entire Plastic Inevitable collection looks 80s-inspired to me.

I know there was a little fuss about the price increase of the Dynamite Girls line--okay, a lot of fuss about the price increases of the entire Integrity Toys collection, if I'm going to be precise. I'm sure some of the increase was due to the performance of the dollar, the overseas production costs, and marketing strategy. But I'm going to go out on a limb and say that, in the case of the Dynamite Girls at least, I'm willing to pay it.

Compared to the 2010 collection--the basic dolls (Vintage Vinyl) were $40 and the limited edition (Chill Factor) $54.99 retail--this year the dolls have increased by $5 each: basics (Check Mate) retail at $44.99 and Plastic Inevitable are $59.99.

After seeing Downtown Darling in person, her quality is very good. She includes a multi-stand necklace and hoop earrings, a distressed denim skirt, hose, bustier, and jacket. Jett's facial screening, usually quite cartoony, is much more detailed than in past editions. This is fun and gorgeous doll--high quality, yet playable and still affordable.

I would pay an extra $5 just for the stand included with Jett. It's a new style with two holes, so you can display two dolls on a single stand if you wish. You have the option of a saddle style or a waist gripper, which screws onto the metal stand, which fits onto the base. It's sturdier. Plus, being able to display two dolls on a single stand is really going to de-clutter my display. I can't wait!

Compared to what else is on the market in the $45-60 range, I don't think you'll find many other 11-12" doll with this much articulation, this quality of clothing and accessories, and this type of versatility. They appeal to box-collectors and redressers (they are so easy to dress!) alike, and they are definitely affordable.

My one problem with this line is the edition size. Each doll was made in an edition of 300. Especially for the premier of boys to the Dynamite Girls line, 300 is not enough. In fact, I did a search on eBay this morning, and I saw three Auden dolls listed for between $450 and $550. That is simply crazy. And OMG--they are actually selling with an average price of $370. Congratulations to those of you making that kind of return on your purchases!