Display issues and fixes - vintage Barbie!

Vintage Barbie shelf, a photo by alington on Flickr.

I thought I'd share a photo of my doll display today, featuring my vintage Barbies. I use the Billy bookcase system from IKEA.

A fellow doll collector, Mario, suggested I use more of the space of the shelf with a riser of some sort, and I think his suggestion was fantastic. (I have to confess, I want all their stands to match now.)

I had my dear hubby cut a few of the extra shelves in half lengthwise (to half the depth of the shelf), and then use extra pieces to make 4" blocks for the new shelf to stand on. They match perfectly, since you can use the outside of the shelf.

Of course, a spice rack or wood block would work, too. And you might consider draping it in fabric or covering it with decorative paper, or just paint for some pizazz.

Now, my vintage girls have much more elbow room. For the curious, here's who is in this display. In the top row:

• 1965 blonde Swirl in #1660 Evening Gala
• 1694 Miss Barbie in Red Flare #939 and Silken Flame #977
• 1963 Fashion Queen in #987 Orange Blossom
• 1963 Bubble Cut in #947 Bride's Dream
• 1965 American Girl (blonde) in #1647 Golden Glamour
• 1966 Lemon Color Magic in #1635 Fashion Editor
• Walking Jamie (Sears exclusive)
• 1963 Midge in #983 Enchanted Evening

In the front row:

• #3 blond ponytail in #969 Suburban Shopper
• #4 blond ponytail in #1646 Magnificence
• #5 brunette ponytail in #1667 Benefit Performance
• 1968 Talking Julia in #1649 Lunch on the Terrace
• 1969 Marlo Flip TNT Barbie in #1456 Dreamy Blues
• 1970 Standard Barbie Ash blonde in #3404 Glowin' Out
• 1968 Talking PJ in her original outfit
• 1968 Talking Barbie in #1864 Close Ups

My endeavor with Vanessa...

Indulgences continued, a photo by alington on Flickr.

They are going quite well, as you might imagine from this quite lame cell phone photo. I rearranged by displays on Wednesday, so I could make a shelf just for them. From the left:

• Pale Fire
• Color Therapy
• True Royalty
• Shirred Not Shaken
• Metal Maven
• In Bloom
• Temptation

Eeek! I'm having a lot of fun with them so far. I'd forgotten how much fun Fashion Royalty dolls can be. Who do you think I am missing--any must-have Vanessa Perrin that would make my collection more complete?

Before and after: personalizing a doll display case

Before: gold lining and all.

I inherited this glass display case from my friend, Alison (aka Alington) several months ago, probably because she switched over to 6-foot-tall IKEA bookcases to house her ever-growing doll collection. Luckily, I'm a little sister and I learned early in life the beauty of hand-me-downs!

Steffie of the Day - Vintage Repro Black Barbie

Repro Black Barbie, originally uploaded by alington.

One of my favorite Steffie-faced dolls is the original Black Barbie doll from 1980, but I haven't been fortunate enough to add her to my collection yet.

I do, however, have the lovely reproduction. And she, too, is adorable. I have her dressed in a fun Fashion Fever outfit from 1998 or 1999. She is just smashing in yellow.

See another full-length photo of her on Flickr, in my display.

Tea cup display

Tea cup display, originally uploaded by alington.

How do you display your dolls?

I was looking at my display yesterday, and feeling a little bit overwhelmed. Personally, I like to be able to see all of my dolls--if I can't see them, and get to the easily, I feel like I have too many.

I like to display with themes, so currently, I have my Alice dolls together--well, most of them anyway. I have the IFDC dolls on another shelf, simply because they won't fit. I love how my display looks, however--I just wish I could display them all like this.

The not-fitting problem... well, that has caused me to do a little calculating. I looked at my pre-order list for the entire year, and I realized that I've overdone it--again. I have too many dolls coming for my display space, so I'll have to move some dolls in a major way. Ack!

Maybe it's just been an overwhelming week for me, but I have to find a better way to get my collection back to a manageable size. I didn't take my narrowing-down project into consideration when I was in the pre-ordering mood. So now I'm in for a real treat!

Words of wisdom for the day: Don't pre-order dolls when you're "in the mood"!

Display anxieties and blah, blah, blah

Alice Display, originally uploaded by alington.

Talking about Alice has gotten me thinking about display issues. See how poor Um of Umbridge is squashed in her display case? She's totally outgrown her display space! I'm currently working on two projects of late that has be dealing with some display problems. Plus, my collecting is in a morphing phase again. Let me explain:

Project #1 - There is no time like the present to announce I am in the editing phase of my first book, dear readers. It's all about how to choose your first ball-jointed doll. I'm writing it as a coffee-table style book, filled with full color photos, hoping it will be beautiful to read. It will be filled with information on BJDs, how to budget for them, how to decide your aesthetic style, how to order them, basic tutorials, and how to get connected to the online and real-life community of BJDs--all in a warm, friendly, conversational way. I hope you like it. I'd love to have it finished by June 1, but we shall see.

Display issue: I have received permission from Peak's Woods to use my photos of their dolls in this book. And I currently have a lot of large 58 cm (23") dolls in my display case. My cats seem overly friendly toward these dolls (much unlike Mr. Winky), so I keep them in a glass case.

Project #2 - I have started on another project involving Steffie-faced dolls. I haven't quite decided all the details of this project yet, but I have been quietly accruing a few Steffie faces of late. Well, if you read my blog, I haven't been all that quiet about it. But since I haven't decided on the project details yet, I won't go into it yet.

Display issue: I've never in my life owned this many Barbies before. And never this many Barbies about whom I've felt quite so sentimental. My goodness! I think I may need to add another display shelf. I can't stand the idea of putting the dolls away in a box. I need organizational help here! Or maybe just a valium.

Collection morphing: I was recently able to acquire a grail doll of mine, Pink Splendor, at an extremely affordable price. She was a very low Buy-It-Now because of her torn box. But she is complete, and I adore her. Now, she has me looking for a few other dolls I thought I'd never be able to attain--just because I thought she'd be too hard to find.

Display issue: Need I mention it? The dress sizes. What am I going to do with these huge gowns? I'm already starting some sales on dolls--and I have to list the others I have for sale. But setting prices and the like is the hard part. What to do?

My theory is to not ever have so many dolls that I can't display them all at once. I know a few of my girls will be hitting the road after some of these projects move forward. In the meantime, I have to get off my butt and start selling. More importantly, maybe if I didn't feel so much anxiety about the dolls, I'd work on my project(s) a little more quickly.

I just wish I felt more like a collector sometimes. Is this normal?

In doing a little more research... I found this post from three years ago. I was a much more confident collector then, it seems. Check it out. There's lots of display ideas in there.

Dollhouse miniatures - Mini treasures wiki / 1to6

Dollhouse miniatures - Mini treasures wiki / 1to6

For those of you who are diorama enthusiasts, make sure you check out this amazing Wiki, called Mini treasures. It's really fantastic. A lot of the articles are written for smaller scale--true miniatures, but I was able to come across this page on 1/6 scale (playscale) items.

Why don't you join and add your expertise? Do you sell playscale miniatures? Even better! Add your 2 cents, and then add a link to your store!

How to negotiate your doll collection

Dolls up to the ceiling on my doll display cabinet. Eeek!

Does your family complain about your dolls cluttering up the living room? Are boxes overflowing from the closet into the hallway? Has your spouse had it “up to here” with your collection?

From my experience, the best way to negotiate your collection is to show your spouse how much worse it could be.

For example, if you spouse thinks your display is cluttering up the living room, move your display throughout the rest of house: the bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, office, dining room -- at least on a temporary basis, until he stops griping. If this doesn’t cure the problem, make sure you’ve posed the dolls so they appear to be staring at you when you enter the room.



If you suffer from overflowing boxes, get rid of the shippers. I used to keep them, thinking I might resell my dolls. But let’s be honest. You aren’t going to resell them anyway, and shippers just take up space. Now I keep only the boxes in the garage.

If you have too many dolls to display all at once, rotate your displays. This is called the “diplomatic approach” or “compromise.” I learned about this technique from a woman named Rosemary, who has a wonderful system of displaying her dolls each month by color. It’s both artful and lovely. Additionally, it gives you the opportunity to shop for more items for your dolls, if you’re short on a particular color.

Take your significant other to some estate sales. Preferably some really older estates that are dusty and really overwhelming. This kind of comparison makes your own house feel much larger and less cluttered. Well, usually. Just try not to buy too much.

I hope you found this article helpful. My blog’s aim is to simultaneously make your relationships run more smoothly and grow your doll collection. Ingenious, isn’t it? Let me know if it works for you. So far, I can't exactly say it's been working swimmingly for me, I have to admit.

My Play Scale Christmas Diorama

I recently purchased a GORM shelving system from IKEA. It was easy to put together and I love it! I already had BONDE bookcases from IKEA, but the interior dimensions of the shelving area made it a little hard to realistically display my dolls. With this GORM system, I'm able to have a larger space to display each "room" of my diorama.

On this level of the shelving, we enter the apartment of the play scale, or 1/6th scale, dolls. Guests enter the living room from a patio (not shown). Displayed is a silver tinsel Christmas tree from Michael's along with various miniature ornaments. Under the tree are wrapped Christmas presents from both Michael's and Walmart. From this angle we get a glimpse of what is to come.

Here we get a full view of the living room. Darius is seated in a side chair from Welcome Home by Maryann Roy. In fact, much of the furniture you see in this room is Welcome Home furniture.  The sofa, coffee table, floor lamp, room divider, and fireplace wall back drop were all created by Maryann Roy. I love her mid-century modern flair! The On Location model muse is wearing a Santa t-shirt that is actually a Jolee's Boutique scrap book embellishment.

After the living room, we pass into the dining room where the table is already set for the impending feast.  The table is from a Gloria dining room set that was refurbished by a friend to look more realistic. Seriously, does anyone out there have a pink dining table in human size? Once again, there are other pieces from Welcome Home. The gold buffet and the window seat back drop are fairly recent additions from Maryann. The chandelier is from Kikkerland. They were given out at the 2010 Barbie Convention, but I actually bought this from a room seller at the 2009 Barbie Convention. The clear is no longer available from the Kikkerland website, but you can still get the black or pink variant. And the best part? The chandelier really lights up! It's battery operated so no need for an outlet. The rugs in the two rooms are from eBay. They are woven cloth.

You can see a few more pictures on my Flickr page.

Sideshow Collectible's Mr. White: Trying Out Action Figures, Part II

Meet Mr. White, urm...Harv

I've really been enjoying taking Mr. White, also known as the actor Mr. Keitel or Harv as I like to call him, out for a spin. Since I've never owned an action figure, I really didn't know what to expect. Oh, I've read about the figures and I've seen promo photos of them before, but would real life mimic the articles and photos? Yes and no.

In case you missed my first post, I've provided a close up of Harv's face.  There is definitely a lot more detail that goes into sculpting an action figure's face. At first I thought the detail was due to the fact that Harve is a licensed likeness; but that can't be it because fashion doll companies have also gained licenses to create likenesses of celebrities. Maybe in the fashion doll world it's more about the essence of the person as opposed to an actual representation. Suffice it to say, Harv definitely looks like Harvey Keitel.

Sideshow Collectible's Mr. White: Trying Out Action Figures, Part I

This post is part one of a multi-part post. While writing this I realized that it was just going to be too long for one post. Exactly how many posts, though, I don't know.

One of the members of our local doll club has some GI Joe type action figures and she uses them in displays with her fashion dolls. From a viewer's standpoint, the action figures seemed to have more poseablity than many fashion dolls and the possibility of striking more realistic poses was greater. Also, from pictures I've seen on the internet and elsewhere, action figures can come with some pretty awesome accessories. Both of these points could make for some really fun dioramas.

Action figures can be fairly inexpensive generic figures that represent some career or activity or they can be more expensive representations of characters from well known television shows or movies. Some of these representations will actually have the face done in the likeness of the actor or actress portraying the part. You want Sean Connery to attend your fashion doll's holiday party?  Just buy a James Bond from Dr. No action figure. So, how would I choose?

Since the world of action figures is new territory for me, I didn't want to make an expensive purchase that I might later regret. At the same time, I wanted a figure with a face sculpted in the likeness of an actor.  The rationale for this was two-fold.  I wanted the fun of having a recognizable face from the entertainment industry and I wanted to be able to judge, up close and in person, the quality of the likeness of the sculpt.

I had a $20 gift card from Sideshow Collectibles so I scoured their website for just the right purchase. I decided to purchase Sideshow's own Mr. White from the movie Reservoir Dogs. After using the gift card and adding in tax and shipping, my total came out to just under $60, which is on the lower end price-wise since some action figures can retail for close to $200. As for the facial recognition, Mr White's face is sculpted in the likeness of actor Harvey Keitel. So with this purchase I met my two criteria.

What were my impressions regarding the sculpt?  Does he pose well?  What are his accessories? Please check back for part two.

A Little Halloween Display

For quite a few years I've been meaning to set up a Halloween doll display. Each year I'd find new items to include, but I'd never quite manage to get it all together. That changed this year. As part of my goal to rein in my collecting, instead of buying more items this year, I hunted throughout my house for all the goodies I've been amassing over the years. Once I found everything, I put together the above display.

This display is dedicated to items in the playscale size, also known as 1:6 scale. Included are Halloween Barbies, Halloween Kellys and one Tommy, the Lucy and Ethel Martians from Lucy is Envious, and various Halloween decorations. While the first Halloween Barbie came out in 1997 as a Barbie and Kelly gift set, I didn't start collecting the Halloween Barbies until 2001. Every year since 2001 is represented in this display with the exception of 2005.  I'm not sure what happened that year to keep me from buying the Halloween Barbies, or maybe I did buy them and they're still lost in my house somewhere.  There's a truly scary thought!

OK, I have a confession.  I fibbed at the beginning of this post. I actually did buy something this year...the Kellys and the Tommy. While putting the display together, I realized I didn't have any of the costumed kid dolls. What is Halloween without the trick-or-treating kids? For these I resorted to eBay. I found some great deals on these dolls by buying the ones sold in groups. While some sellers will only list one doll in an auction, other sellers will group several together. Even after combining my bid price with shipping cost, I still paid less than original retail on each doll.

The props were a lot of fun to discover. The Mummy's Mansion sign in front of the Target Exlcusive "Halloween Fortune" came from Michael's. I don't remember the price on the sign, but I do remember it was on sale. That's one thing I love about Michael's; they'll put special occasion merchandise on sale even before the special occasion! The tiny skulls are from Target and came in packages of 30. I believe they retailed for around $5.00. The different headstones and gargoyles came from several different stores, Target, Michael's, or Big Lots, and each retailed for less than $2.00. If you look closely at the "Beware of the Black Widow" headstone you will notice a little spider sticker.  She's from a Halloween sticker set from Michael's.  I've scattered the other pieces from the set around the display. The two pumpkins came from a six pack I purchased for $2.99, also from Michael's. They're great because they are not decorated for Halloween. I'll be able to use them again in a Thanksgiving display. The tiny handled pumpkin in front of the little Genie Kelly is a cupcake topper from my childhood.

I'm really happy that I finally set up a special occasion display. As much as I enjoy discovering all these neat things in the stores each year, I think I might have had more fun arranging them and rearranging them until I had them just the way I wanted. Now to start thinking about my Thanksgiving display!