Since I started volunteering at our local Op Shop a lot of dolls have come my way. Dolls get donated to the shop from time to time but they never seem to stay there long. I donated some myself a year or so ago and they soon found new homes.

Occasionally one comes in looking scruffy with her hair standing on end and I always feel sorry for these. It goes against the grain for me to allow dolls to be sold looking like this so they come home with me for some beauty treatment. I have two here at present, one is waiting for a new outfit. There is a box of dolls clothes at the shop but now she’s cleaned up she’s a pretty doll and I’d like her to have something that fits.

The other one is a Hasbro Baby Alive who has been cleaned up but she still has marks on her face where a previous owner drew cats whiskers on her with a marker. I have cleaned the grime off her and fixed her hair but I would also like to find out if she still works.

I don’t have any Remove-Zit at present so will get some Oxy 10 from the chemist and see how that works. I can see myself doing this on a regular basis so it won’t be wasted. I have to get Remove Zit sent from the USA and while the product is not too expensive the postage is. I may need to keep Baby Alive for a few weeks to have any success in getting rid of the marks though.

The other dolls I have were given to me by a regular customer who knows I collect. In a previous post I wrote about three dolls that she gave me. On Thursday she brought me several more.

At first glance I thought that they were all modern dolls and I was not sure if I would keep them as I prefer older dolls. I really don’t have room for many more dolls at present and I have given away most of the ones I was less attached to already. All the dolls needed some work. A couple needed clothes, a couple more were grubby or had marker on them and all the ones with rooted hair needed it untangled so I have my work cut out. As I sorted them out I found that there were a few interesting dolls among them so I will clean them all up, put aside a few that I would like to keep and the rest will go back to the Op Shop to find new owners.  I have watched the Toy Story movies too many times to keep dolls I don’t love.

Over a couple of posts I’ll introduce you to the dolls and tell you who is going and who is staying.

I don’t have “Before” pictures of all the dolls but those of you who have bought dolls from Op Shops or garage sales can imagine the state of them without a picture I think.

In the group of dolls that have been cleaned and are just waiting to be redressed are a couple of hard plastic babies and a Bratz Big Baby  with molded plastic hair. I think this one is Yasmin and I’m sorry but I think she is really ugly so she’s up for adoption.

There is a  35 cm plastic baby marked” tinkers 141558 TR 16″on its head and “1473” and    “Made in China” on the back. I think this one has a cute face but I’m not sure if I will keep it as I really don’t have a lot of room.I think these dolls are still available at Big W stores in Australia so not that old or rare. I will make or find a nice outfit for it though.

There is a smaller hard plastic baby I’m still debating about. It is obviously an older doll and is marked very faintly Lorrie Dolls and on the back “Made in Taiwan”. He is a drink and wet doll and after a bit of research I found that he was made in 1971. So far I have not found out a lot about Lorrie Dolls but they seem to have made a lot of dolls during the sixties and seventies which were manufactured either in Taiwan or Hong Kong. I am saying “He” but this doll is not anatomically correct. It just seems more like a boy to me. I have a feeling this one may be staying. I have cleaned the grime off but his face seems rather pink, perhaps discolouration from age.

Last in this group is a Strawberry Shortcake with a cloth body and vinyl limbs. She has her original outfit but it was a bit grubby so it’s in the wash. Strawberry had a wash too so she’s drying in a sunny spot right now. She is marked Kenner and American Greetings Strawberry Shortcake 1982. She has quite a pretty face. I haven’t decided yet if I will keep her. She is cute but I don’t feel drawn to her. Here she is with her clean clothes on.

Next time I’ll tell you about the rest of the dolls who are waiting to be taken care of.

Further Reading:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strawberry_Shortcake